Free Republic

One of U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s election opponents is seeking state and federal investigations into the growing controversy surrounding his residency in Florida. Former Broward Mayor Ben Graber will hold a press conference at noon at the Broward County Governmental Center. Graber, who is running against Wexler in November, wants investigations into whether Wexler violated Florida and Maryland tax and voter registration law as well as whether he has improperly used congressional housing benefits. Wexler is Florida's only member of Congress who does not own a home in his congressional district. The Democratic congressman has admitted the only house he...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court dealt a setback to California and environmental groups today in their battle with the Bush administration over the state's efforts to restrict vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states in January over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The court said the suit was premature because the EPA hadn't yet taken formal action to deny the...

If you believe as I do that the tax hikes proposed by Barack Obama and Democrats are bad for the country, then we are in good company. No less an authority than Nobel Prize winner and Columbia University economist Robert Mundell, a principal contributor to the creation of the euro, says that ending the Bush tax cuts — as proposed by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama — would cause "a big recession, a nosedive." In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mundell said, "the most important thing that could be done with respect to tax rates is to...

Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been rocked over the bad publicity Obama is getting over his perceived snub of wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.ABC News reports Obama staffers staged three separate briefings in just forty-five minutes on O-Force One as they flew from Berlin to Paris today.Yesterday, the Obama campaign put out two conflicting reasons for canceling the visit. One blamed the Pentagon, the other said Obama chose not to visit over concerns the stop would be seen as political.The Pentagon has responded to reporters queries saying that Obama was welcome to visit as a senator...

A hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child. The Beverly Hilton Hotel guard said he encountered a shaken and ashen-faced Edwards — whom he did not immediately recognize — in a hotel men's room early Tuesday morning in a literal tug-of-war with reporters on the other side of the door. "What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked. "His face just went totally...

After more than three decades in United States prisons — a term punctuated by a brief escape and recapture — a 62-year-old Croatian independence fighter was returned to his native country on Thursday, having served his time for a 1976 hijacking and a bombing that killed a police officer. The fighter, Zvonko Busic, led a group that planted a bomb at Grand Central Terminal that later exploded, killing a city police officer, Brian J. Murray. Mr. Busic left the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., boarded a plane in Chicago and touched down in Zagreb about 2:20 p.m. on...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's advice to reporters who don't get his energy agenda: Check your hearing. Reid, D-Nev., may look like a mild-mannered man, but when he's backed into a corner, this former boxer comes out swinging. On Thursday, the object of his ire was the Fourth Estate as he lashed at reporters quizzing him over stalled Democratic energy proposals. At a "pen and pad" — a more casual, off-camera chat with reporters — Reid attacked and scolded correspondents in attendance, telling them he's "really disappointed" in how they have been writing his energy plans, which include a bill...

Are reporters in the business of reporting facts or rumor? Andrea Mitchell, for one, has no problem sending along "scuttlebutt" that if true would be deeply damaging to John McCain. Barack Obama's cancellation of plans to visit injured military members at bases in Germany has drawn considerable attention and criticism. On today's Morning Joe, Mitchell passed along a rumor that McCain used his Pentagon connections to sabotage the Obama visit. View video here.

Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, handed a two-page letter riddled with typing errors - and mysteriously titled the "None Paper" - to diplomats from the world's six leading powers in Geneva last weekend. For the first time, America had sent the State Department's third highest-ranking official, William Burns, to join the talks. Mr Jalili had been expected to give Iran's formal response to last month's offer of technical and economic help if Tehran stopped enriching uranium. Instead, he only bemused his interlocutors. "His discourse was rambling. He had a lot to say about Iranian history...

LONDON (AFP) — The United States risks starting a new Cold War by proposing to build a missile shield in central and eastern Europe, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said in comments published here Wednesday. Washington claims that the anti-missile system for Poland and the Czech Republic is aimed exclusively at countering the threat from so-called "rogue states" like Iran, but Gorbachev said those assertions could not be trusted. Instead he said the military build-up -- plus the eastward expansion of NATO into Russia's traditional sphere of influence -- was aimed at containing a resurgent Russia, where Dmitry Medvedev is...

Cuba silent on Russian bomber report: Fidel Castro 24 Jul 2008 01:30:02 GMT Source: Reuters HAVANA, July 23 (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday said Cuba does not have to explain or "ask forgiveness" about a report out of Russia this week that Russia might use its Cold War ally Cuba as a refueling base for nuclear-capable bombers. He did not address whether the report was true or false, and Cuban officials have made no comment. "Raul did very well keeping a dignified silence," Castro wrote, referring to his brother, President Raul Castro, in a column...

MOSUL, IRAQ: The Battle for Mosul over the past several years has worked as a microcosm for the larger Iraqi conflict, with Coalition and Iraqi forces successfully imposing its will only after Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups held large parts of the city and region for long periods. Control over the city of 1.9 million people and the surrounding Ninewa province have been lost to Coalition and government forces twice since 2003. Only a successful security operation in May has brought attacks to their lowest recorded levels since the conflict began. Operation “Lion’s Roar” in May involved 5,000 Coalition...

As Barack Obama travels abroad, Americans seem to think most members of the media are in line with his message, according to the latest FOX News poll. Nearly 7/10 Americans (67%) say they believe most in the media want Obama to win the November election - while a scant 11 percent think the media are pulling for John McCain. ... When asked to rate the objectivity of media coverage of the campaigns, Americans feel Obama gets more of a positive spin by a better than 7-to-1 margin...

The Obama campaign has issued a new statement blaming the Pentagon for Obama's controversial decision to scrap visits to U.S. troops and Rammstein Landstuhl military bases in Germany on Friday.Der Spiegel initially reported this morning that Obama had cancelled the visits without reason. Then as word spread through the political world after the story was first posted at Free Republic, Obama's campaign issued a statement saying Obama thought it would be "inappropriate" to visit the troops while on a campaign trip.After the McCain campaign issued a statement upbraiding Obama for snubbing the troops saying that it is never inappropriate to...

Today the President to made remarks on the freedom agenda at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. He also met with the National and State Future Farmers of America officers at the White House. Pray for President Bush -- Day 2871 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended the 15th ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat meetings on Thursday July 24, 2008 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. She then flew to Perth Australia for a 2 day visit to that country.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, blasted the Bush administration today for conducting what Democrats described as harsh and punitive immigration raids, calling special attention to a raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa last May where nearly 400 illegal workers, mainly Guatemalans, were arrested in the largest worksite immigration raid in U.S. history. Lofgren, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee's immigration panel, said at a hearing on the raid that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounded up workers at the Agriprocessors meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa, and then they were "herded into a cattle arena and prodded down...

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Chicago’s gun laws have been challenged in federal court since the Supreme Court’s decision on the D.C. ban. But, City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges has told two City Council committees she’s confident Chicago’s law will stand. Georges tells Aldermen the Supreme Court’s decision on Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban shouldn’t apply to Chicago, because previous Supreme Court rulings have said Second Amendment "right to bear arms" doesn’t apply to local governments, like Cities. She says D.C. is a federal jurisdiction. And Georges is confident that, and other arguments, will prevail, at least in the lower courts. But, she...

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., had previously told Meet the Press that "the reason Obama didn't hold a hearing on NATO, I chair the committee. Every one of those committee hearings are held at full committee." But today Biden decided to take his defense of Obama one step further, writing to DeMint that there have been plenty of hearings on European Affairs, they've just been held at the "full committee level." ~snip But Biden's letter brought attention to the fact that Obama did not attend two of those three hearings -- and for the third, on March...

Out here in West Texas we love our guns, we support our troops, and we treasure our freedom. We are an independent bunch and -- pardon me, Senator Obama -- fiercely but not bitterly so. We are proud to have our own things to do with as we choose to, as free people of the freest nation in the history of the world. We also walk around on top of oil: yes it’s far beneath us, but it’s there. And all these aspects of West Texas come together to our astonishment and anger over the fact that our independence is...

CITY PRAYER POLICY UPHELD Fredericksburg Free Lance - Star Fredericksburg Virginia http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/072008/07242008/397448 Date published: 7/24/2008 BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE Fredericksburg City Council can keep Jesus Christ out of its prayers. The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the city's right to start its meetings with nonsectarian prayers. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sat on the three-judge panel hearing the case and wrote the opinion. "She didn't feel my rights were being violated, but my rights are definitely being violated," said City Councilman Hashmel Turner, who filed the case. "It removed an opportunity for me to pray...

John McCain is winning a paltry 23 percent of the Hispanic vote compared with 66 percent for Barack Obama, according to a large poll released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center. While Obama’s lead among Hispanics is not drastically ahead of where Democratic nominee John Kerry stood in the summer of 2004, McCain trails President Bush’s standing at this point four years ago. At that time, Pew found that Hispanics broke 62 percent for Kerry and 32 percent for Bush. Exit polls later found that Bush earned the support of about four in 10 Latino voters. That difference — from...

Iran has signalled it will no longer co-operate with International Atomic Energy Agency experts investigating for signs of nuclear weapons programmes, confirming that the probe - launched a year ago with great expectations - was at a dead end. Coming from Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the announcement compounded international scepticism about denting Tehran's nuclear defiance just five days after Tehran stonewalled demands from six world powers to suspend activities that can produce the fissile core of warheads. Besides demanding a stop to uranium enrichment - which can create both fuel and the nuclear missile payloads - the international...

SAN FRANCISCO — The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday called on Mayor Gavin Newsom to allow the federal agency full access to information about local inmates, saying the city should rescind its policy that prohibits ICE agents from reviewing jail logs and records. A letter sent to Newsom from ICE director Julie Myers urging more access to inmate records was the latest flare-up following accusations that a San Francisco policy to shield undocumented immigrants also caused the city to shelter felons charged with serious crimes. Eileen Hirst, chief of staff for San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey,...

House rejects bill to sell oil from reserve Thu Jul 24, 2008 3:09pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected legislation on Thursday to sell 70 million of barrels of light, sweet crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and replace it with heavy, sour crude. The bill would have required the sale of 10 percent of the emergency stockpile's holdings, or 70 million barrels, on the open market over six months. Proceeds from the sales would have been used to buy an equivalent amount of heavy crude, which is cheaper. The White House had threatened to veto...

With less than six months to go before he would be sworn in as the nation’s 44th president, Sen. Barack Obama has directed his aides to begin planning for the transition. "Barack is well aware of the complexity and the organizational challenge involved in the transition process and he has tasked s small group to begin thinking through the process,” a senior campaign adviser said. “Barack has made his expectations clear about what he wants from such a process, how he wants it to move forward, and the establishment and execution of his timeline is proceeding apace.” Last month, the...

Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House. Analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission, rejecting inflated Defense Department voting claims, estimated overseas and absentee military voting for the 2006 midterm elections at a disgracefully low 5.5 percent. The...

Russia will supply to Iran advanced anti-aircraft systems by the end of 2008 or early 2009, Reuters reported with reference to a source with Israel's Ministry of Defense. According to the source, Russia will supply advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Iran. The delivery of first consignment has been slated for September, but deploying and making the systems operable will take from six to 12 months...

Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed. “We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of...

Russia said on Thursday it opposed any artificial deadlines being issued to Iran to force it to respond to incentives from world powers on suspending its nuclear activities. But it also warned Tehran against dragging out the process. Western powers suspect Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs. The Islamic Republic says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas.

Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-PicayuneWorkers along the Mississippi River try to contain the hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil from a barge and ship collision on Wednesday. The river is now closed to the Gulf of Mexico. The massive oil spill that remains a major threat to the area's fragile delta ecosystem now stretches from New Orleans to the mouth of the Mississippi River -- a distance of 100 miles, Coast Guard officials said early Thursday.

Hollywood's conservative underground 'Friends of Abe' group meets quietly EXCLUSIVE: A group of politically conservative and centrist Hollywood figures organized by actor Gary Sinise and others has been meeting quietly in restaurants and private homes, forming a loose-knit network of entertainers who share common beliefs like supporting U.S. troops and traditional American values.

John McCain will step off the campaign trail tomorrow to sit down with the Dalai Lama. McCain will meet with the Tibetan spirtual leader and international icon in Aspen, Colorado, according to a McCain aide. The Dalai Lama is there as part of a three-day Aspen Institute conference billed as "A Celebration of Tibetan Culture." The Arizona senator was already scheduled to be in the state to speak to a military gathering in Denver. McCain has been outspoken about the Chinese crackdown in the Tibetan region, issuing a statement earlier this year praising the The Dalai Lama and urging the...

The National Rifle Association is putting the election-year squeeze on conservative Democrats, demanding that they buck their leadership to support a bill to erase more of the District of Columbia’s gun laws. Democratic gun rights supporters will risk losing their A-plus rating if they don’t sign a discharge petition to be filed Wednesday bringing the gun-rights bill directly to the floor. It will be the first time in more than 20 years that the NRA has “scored” a discharge petition in determining the grades it gives lawmakers before the November election, said spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. “We’re making this a priority....

Egypt Shuts Iranian TV Station Office in Cairo July 24, 2008 Reuters Cynthia Johnston CAIRO -- Egypt, irritated with Iran over a film on the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, shut down the Cairo offices of an Iranian television station that it said was not properly licensed, security sources said on Thursday. The sources said police closed the offices of Iran's state-owned Arabic Al-Alam television on Tuesday because it did not have a broadcasting licence, and confiscated computers and photo equipment. They gave no further explanation for the move. But the closure came weeks after Egypt summoned the head of...

Advanced S-300 on way to Iran July 24, 2008 The Jerusalem Post Yaakov Katz Iran is likely to begin receiving advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems by the end of the year, defense officials said Wednesday. The S-300 is one of the best multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world today and has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. Iran has already procured several S-300 systems to protect its nuclear facilities although reports have differed as to whether the systems have already been supplied by Russia. The systems will likely...

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/07/from-gi-in-afgh.html "FROM G.I. IN AFGHANISTAN - "WE GOT MORE THANKS FROM THE DALLAS COWBOY CHEERLEADERS" THAN FROM SENATOR OBAMA" This is from a USAF friend in Afghanistan: Hello everyone, As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to ' The War Zone ' . I wanted to share with you what happened. He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is...

Many McCain fans are no doubt bracing for the waves of European adulation that are about to break over Barack Obama. With polls showing Obama with a 50+ percentage-point lead across the Old Continent [the French leading the Obamaphile way at 64-4%], the Dem candidate is assured of ecstatic crowds wherever he goes. Euro-Obamamania begins in Berlin today, with a speech by the candidate at the "Victory Column" in Tiergarten park. But could all the adoration backfire? That emerging theme has found expression in two very different ways this morning. On the one hand, a scholarly exposition by Prof. Thomas...

The Israeli army chief of staff has said in Washington that all options must be prepared to counter Iran's controversial nuclear programme, in remarks relayed on Thursday. "We are all united over the understanding that Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon and that there is no doubt that diplomacy must be given priority," Major General Gabi Ashkenazi said on Israeli public radio. "But we all realise, both the Americans and us, that all options must be prepared," said the chief of staff, who is on his first visit to Washington since taking office last year.

MPs scrap France's 35-hour week Mr Sarkozy said the 35-hour week hampered France's competitiveness France's parliament has passed a law which effectively ends the country's compulsory 35-hour working week.The new law will allow companies to strike individual deals with unions on working hours and overtime. Since coming into office last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed the 35-hour week for damaging France's economic competitiveness. Introduced 10 years ago by the then Socialist government, polls show most French still support the 35-hour week. The new measures are expected to come into force at the end of August. "Companies will at...

Remember these words Barack Obama apparently spoke today in Israel in THIS VIDEO. "I'll NEVER compromise on Israel's Security"

Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the county in April 2007, charging that a general plan update approved a month earlier would worsen global warming. The general plan, a blueprint for growth through 2030, projects more homes and increased traffic as the county's population continues to increase. It was the first time the state sued a public agency for not taking into account global warming. State and county officials hailed the greenhouse reduction plan that the county agreed to as groundbreaking. Julie Rynerson Rock, the county's director of land-use services, said the county's plan will be the most far-reaching in the...

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — It looks more Star Wars than Iraq War, an unmanned aerial killer ready to fly its first combat mission in Iraq. But the MQ-9 Reaper is more than just a stunning sight — it may represent the future of combat aviation. ... But the Reaper was built with offense in mind. It can carry four Hellfire missiles (the Predator carries only two), and it is equipped with a pair of 500-pound laser-guided bombs.

New intelligence continues to blast away like a sledgehammer at Iran’s rocklike insistence that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and not a nuclear weapons effort as many strongly believe. The latest evidence comes out of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which released a nine-page report that casts serious doubt on Iran’s purported pacifist power program. In a dramatic change, based on new, multi-source, multilateral intelligence received over time from its members, the IAEA has shifted its position from being unable to prove Iran has a nuclear weapons program to being unable...

John McCormack catches Wes Clark in a couple of egregious errors on the surge today on Morning Joe. The lesser mistake is Clark’s insistence that the surge didn’t involve Anbar at all, when as McCormack notes the Marines sent two extra battalions to the hotbed of terrorist activity as part of the increased deployment. Worse, though, Clark tries to tell Scarborough that the surge had nothing to do with the Marines, and everything to do with the Saudis paying off the Sunni tribes: This isn’t exactly a lost history. Actually, 4,000 extra Marines went to Anbar. The extra Marine battalions...

Earthquake Strikes Japan's Main Island, Injuring 76 People By VOA News 23 July 2008 A strong earthquake has struck northern Japan, injuring at least 76 people, nine of them seriously, in an area hit by a deadly tremor last month. The magnitude 6.8 quake shook the northern part of Japan's main Honshu island after midnight on Thursday (12:26am Japan time/15:26 UTC Wednesday) as most people were sleeping. Its epicenter was off the coast of Iwate prefecture at a depth of more than 100 kilometers. Japanese officials say many of the injured were hurt in falls or suffered cuts from...

Video. This one is a little unnerving. Either we’re missing something, or Obama needs medication and some quality time with a psychiatrist.

DRUDGE HEADLINE WITH PHOTO: "POLITICS HITS THE WALL: PRAYER FOR CHANGE"

(CNN) -- All six airmen aboard the B-52 bomber that crashed Monday off Guam's northwest coast were killed, Air Force officials confirmed Wednesday. Aboard Raider 21 were Maj. Christopher M. Cooper, 33; Maj. Brent D. Williams, 37; Capt. Michael K. Dodson, 31; 1st Lt. Joshua D. Shepherd, 26; 1st Lt. Robert D Gerren, 32; and Col. George Martin. The plane crashed about 30 miles northwest of Guam, the Air Force said in a statement. Air Force crews switched from a rescue operation to a recovery operation over the 7,000-square-mile crash site, said Air Force spokeswoman Sgt. Ashleigh Bryant.

n a rare move, one of al-Qaida's highest-ranking leaders has conducted an on-camera interview with a journalist and, in the process, called for the destruction of Pakistan's government. It was the first time since 2002 that any top al-Qaida official has taken the security risk of sitting down for an interview with a bonafide journalist.Abu Mustafa al-Yazid, an Egyptian whom U.S. intelligence officials have identified as the al-Qaeda's third highest-ranking official, sat for an interview with Najeeb Ahmad, a reporter for Geo TV. Geo TV is a private Pakistani television channel.  In the interview, Yazid, also known as Sheikh Saeed,...