Free Republic

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has urged EU countries to spend more on defense despite the economic crisis or risk losing US solidarity. He said in a foreword to the alliance’s report on 2012, out on Thursday (31 January), that: “If current defense spending trends were to continue, that would limit the practical ability of NATO’s European nations to work together with their North American allies. But it would also risk weakening the political support for our alliance in the United States.” He added NATO is still “the most important military power in the world.” But he also warned: “The...

You might enjoy how a reporter handles a drunk *itch from San Francisco who is interrupting her TV report.

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Fourteen employees of the USS Midway Museum engineering department have been fired after officials discovered metals from the "historic" aircraft carrier were being sold off “..big time in the recycling but only a portion of the money was returned said the nonprofit to its "volunteers." This involves hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years... it had been going on for some time.” Museum officials informed 150 employees.

For the first time in 14 years, the CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA), will testify on Capitol Hill. Wayne LaPierre’s appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee underscores how seriously the nation’s largest gun-owners organization takes the latest assault on the Second Amendment.Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, invited former Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s husband, Mark Kelly, among others, to testify for the other side. In his prepared remarks, Mr. LaPierre will say, “When it comes to the issue of background checks, let’s be honest: Background checks will never be ‘universal’ because criminals will never submit to them.”(This...

It's just breaking, so I don't know any details, other than this... On January 25th, 2013 , Mr. Lyndon Larouche, a well respected journalist and political activist received word from his sources within the United States government that President Barack Hussein Obama has been indicted by a Federal Court. Details of the indictment has been omitted by Larouche but he characterized them as probably the greatest indictment he has ever seen placed upon a standing president throughout history. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_RECESS_APPOINTMENTS?SITE=AP&a...

Nathan Haddad, a decorated combat veteran with multiples deployments to Afghanistan, who has spent spent 12 years serving his Country in the United States Army, is now under Arrest!

Controversy has surrounded Shippensburg University, in Pennsylvania, ever since it decided to provide Plan B, commonly referred to as the “morning-after pill,” in a college campus vending machine along with condoms and other forms of birth control. The Food and Drug Administration said last week that it had looked into the validity of the machine and will take no action against it.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker flatly ruled out a run for the special Senate election, saying he doesn’t “really think of myself as a senator,”but he urged his former boss and former Gov. William Weld to jump into the fray should Scott Brown decide to stay out of the race. The Swampscott Republican has kept out of the media limelight since losing his 2010 bid for governor. Both U.S. representatives Edward J. Markey and Stephen F. Lynch have entered the race on the Democratic side, but so far Brown, who just lost to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren last fall,...

An Applebee's waitress who posted a receipt with a note from a pastor complaining about the automatic gratuity added to the bill on the Internet was fired on Wednesday after the pastor complained to her manager. Chelsea Welch, the waitress, wrote in an email to Yahoo News that the pastor (who has since been identified as Alois Bell) told Welch's manager at the St. Louis-area Applebee's that the ensuing firestorm had "ruined" her reputation."I give God 10%," Bell wrote on the receipt, scratching out the automatic tip and scribbling in an emphatic "0" where the additional tip would be. "Why...

“For at least 25 years, she has been living a major lie,” said former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones, who was falsely accused of raping Brawley in 1987 and finally tracked her down, thanks to The Post. “To me, this has always been about responsibility and accountability,’’ added the former ADA, who won the $190,000 defamation lawsuit against Brawley, 40, now a nurse in Virginia, more than a decade ago.

DENVER — In the brewing battle over guns and gun laws, even the lobbyists are fair game. Dudley Brown, who directs Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Colorado’s most strident defenders of gun rights, opposes any and all efforts to expand background checks or ban weapons. And, in a Facebook post published on the group’s site Wednesday, Brown is calling one of the Capitol lobbyists spearheading the charge for gun control a “hypocrite”. Adam Eichberg, who along with Headwaters Strategies partner Will Coyne has signed a contract to represent “Mayors Against Illegal Guns”, the group led by New York City Mayor Michael...

When I come by my friends house they are always there. They are polite to me but act like I'm interfering. Anyone here associated with them or been to their church? Thanks.

Officials: Agents Raided Office of Menendez Friend After Document Shredding Truck Spotted FBI agents and other law enforcement officials investigate the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen who has possible ties to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on January 30, 2013 in West Palm Beach, Fla. By RHONDA SCHWARTZ Jan. 31, 2013 Federal agents raided the West Palm Beach eye clinic of a longtime friend and political supporter of Sen. Robert Menendez earlier this week after a document shredding truck was observed at the building, following attempts by FBI agents to question Dr. Salomon Melgen about his relationship with the...

What would you tell seven astronauts if you knew their space shuttle was crippled on orbit? It was a question that faced NASA's Mission Control considered after initial suspicions that something might be wrong with the shuttle Columbia as it was making its doomed reentry in 2003. Wayne Hale, who later became space shuttle program manager, struggled with this question after the deaths of the Columbia crew 10 years ago. Recently he wrote about the debate in his blog, recalling a meeting to discuss the dilemma: "After one of the MMTs (Mission Management Team) when possible damage to the orbiter...

California's Hispanic Population Projected To Outnumber White In 2014 By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's Hispanic population will equal that of whites this year before becoming the state's largest demographic group in 2014 for the first time since statehood in 1850, a government report showed on Thursday. That change in the most populous U.S. state will make it the third where whites do not comprise a plurality of the population, after New Mexico and Hawaii. The shift is occurring alongside nationwide growth in the Hispanic population, which grew to 16.7 percent of the total in 2011 from 12.5...

Lee Rodgers, Rest in Peace Written by Melanie Morgan I really don't want to write about this, I don't want to think about this, and I don't want it to be true. Lee Rodgers, friend and mentor, is dead. I owe everything that I have in my professional life to Lee Rodgers, who took me under his wing back in 1988 in the halycon days of KGO Radio. Lee was a nighttime talk show host, a former rock and roll DJ, hired by my husband Jack Swanson. He hired him twice, in fact. "Lee Rodgers was a real radio guy....

The Return of the King Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Men fails When we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship But it is not this day An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Man comes crashing down But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth I bid you stand, Men of the West!

Ten years ago Friday, the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed and its seven astronauts killed during the final minutes of its flight. NASA will mark the 10th anniversary of the accident at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, and take part in an observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where three of the astronauts are buried. Other commemorations Friday include events at a 2-year-old Columbia museum in Hemphill, Texas, where shuttle debris fell. PBS is also airing a new documentary about Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut on Columbia. The wife of the shuttle's commander, Evelyn Husband Thompson, said she has seen...

Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee begins its consideration of the nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. The former Republican Senator from Nebraska is a combat veteran, but has little other experience in America's national security infrastructure. His nomination faces strong resistance, due largely to past positions he has taken with respect to Israel and Iran. In response to this criticism, the Pentagon has undertaken an unprecedented lobbying campaign in support of Hagel.