Free Republic

Fred Thompson, the former U.S. senator, Republican presidential candidate and actor (Law and Order, etc.), will be in Richmond next week to support an effort to ensure the presidency goes to the winner of the most overall popular votes in all 50 states. Thompson, along with former Illinois governor Jim Edgar (R) and former Iowa governor Chet Culver (D) are part of a bipartisan coalition that has endorsed the National Popular Vote that would go into effect if states representing 270 electoral votes pass legislation. The National Popular Vote bill has been signed into law in seven states — Maryland,...

AFP - NATO will offer Russia access to some US military satellite data in exchange for its participation in a missile shield project for continental Europe, a Moscow newspaper reported Friday. The offer will come as part of a broader deal to be extended to Russia at the NATO-Russia Council that immediately follows the 28-member Alliance's Nov. 19-20 summit in Lisbon, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper quoted a NATO source as saying. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accepted an invitation to attend the talks, which will also focus on NATO's activities in Afghanistan, in which Russia is also taking part.

The small Pacific island country of Samoa is suffering a case of national road rage over government plans to switch to driving on the left early next month. The nation of around 180,000 people is due to change from driving on the right-hand side on September 7, in what is believed to be the first switch since Nigeria, Ghana and Yemen shifted to the right in the 1970s and Sweden did so in 1967. Since the government announced the plan in 2007, huge protest marches have been held, more than a sixth of the population has signed a petition calling...

Little Rock Police think they've solved a string of burglaries across the city. All of them, detectives say committed by the same man, who as he was arrested, tried to poke out the eyes of a police dog. Limping his way out of the Little Rock Police Department, detectives say Russell Brewer, 39, of Greenbrier is responsible for over 40 business burglaries, including ten Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. Lieutenant Terry Hastings says it ended inside Cruse Uniforms at 1201 South Barrow where he fought with officers and police canine Xanthro. "Mr. Brewer decided he was going to try...

A new bill is being introduced called, Camera Phone Predator Alert Act, which would require any mobile phone containing a digital camera to sound a tone whenever a photograph is taken with the camera's phone. It would also prohibit such a phone from being equipped with a means of disabling or silencing the tone. While its a good gesture, I do not believe having such a law would deter criminals from hacking their camera phones to take pictures in inappropriate ways. Also, the real criminals would not even use a camera phone but would probably use other devices such as...

Construction of a tunnel linking Europe and Africa could begin within five years after Spain and Morocco agreed to a major engineering study of the Strait of Gibraltar. The tunnel could be dug between Punta Paloma in southern Spain and Punta Malabata near Tangier in Morocco. It would run for 38.5 kilometres and would pass beneath the strait for 27 kilometres at a depth of about 300 metres. The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow and turbulent stretch of water connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The shortest distance across is just 19 kilometres. But the seabed is...

Why do people hate Sarah Palin? America has become a nation of cynics. We have come to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human nature. Anyone who adheres to virtues, their religion or a sense of decency have their motives screwed on backwards. We have all become victims of sexism, ageism and racism. We have been victimized by our government in a senseless call to war. We have been victimized by the financial institutions that robbed us of our future. We feel betrayed. We have become frustrated and disillusioned. We are told that happiness can not be achieved through...

A key quote in this morning's Senate hearing about the Paulson bailout is worth repeating. This comes from Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat: "Like my colleagues, my phones have been ringing off the hook. The sentiment from Ohioans about this proposal is universally negative." Not "overwhelmingly negative." Not "deeply suspicious." Not "extremely upset." Universally negative. I'll state the obvious: Members of Congress aren't generally in the habit of passing historic and spectacularly unpopular legislation five weeks before election day. Republicans in Congress hate this bill, and I'm unconvinced the Democrats in Congress will take a bullet, figuratively, for the...

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina may or may not be on Arizona Sen. John McCain's short list for vice president, but she already is taking a crucial role in the Republican presidential hopeful's campaign. In March, Fiorina was picked by the Republican National Committee to chair a group directed to raise money and get out the vote for this year's elections. Shortly after that move was announced, Fiorina was interviewed by Business Week about her role. "My role is to be the primary advocate for John McCain and for the Republican Party," she said. "Certainly there are a lot of...

The personal and bank details of 25 million people - almost every child in the country as well as their parents and carers - have been lost by HM Revenue & Customs, the Government admitted today. Names, addresses, dates of birth, employment and bank details all went missing when two CDs containing the information were mislaid. Alistair Darling told the House of Commons that the discs containing the highly sensitive information failed to arrive after they were sent in the ordinary internal mail between government departments. MPs gasped as they heard the scale of the catastrophic breach of security guidelines....

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- A future Super Bowl champion may someday be crowned overseas in a game witnessed predominantly by a foreign audience, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. "There's a great deal of interest in holding a Super Bowl in London," Goodell told reporters Monday. "So we'll be looking at that." The commissioner said London's new Wembley Stadium would make a great candidate for pro football's biggest matchup, given the enthusiasm overseas for the game. The NFL has been expanding its overseas presence for years by televising games around the world. It's held preseason games in numerous countries in Europe, Asia,...

Dear Friends, Service Employees International Union, our healthcare partner, will march to the White House and hold a rally in Lafayette Park on Monday, October 1 to protest President Bush’s expected veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. We must say no to Bush's veto and yes to children's healthcare! We invite you to join the march at 10:00 a.m. in McPherson Square at 14th St. and K St. NW in Washington, DC on Monday, October 1. The march will proceed to the White House, where children from across the country will deliver red wagons carrying mail bags filled...

Cross-Posted At: THE MINORITY REPORTJohn Edwards seems worried about our nation’s collective physical health. I’m touched by his concern, but in no way appreciate his ideas to set me on the higher path to physical perfection. Edwards laid out the primary cornerstone of his universal healthcare proposal on Sunday, in Tipton, Iowa."It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years....

SACRAMENTO — Presumed Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani is seeking to broaden his fundraising base beyond Wall Street, aggressively prospecting in California with stops at a country club here and homes in Orange County and Del Mar in coming days. A review of donors to the former New York mayor's presidential exploratory committee and to a political action committee he controls shows that his main contributors have been blue-chip law firms, investment houses and financial services companies in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Those states account for three-fourths of the money he has raised. But in making his...

Rudy Giuliani will prevent a conservative crack-up. Today, after very little effort, Giuliani is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Dick Morris is predicting a Giuliani vs. Clinton race in 2008. Yet some conservatives are dubious of the man who cleaned up New York, returned it to a vigor unimaginable from the 1960s through the 1980s, and then led New York and the country heroically through 9/11. Well, one knows a politician by the company he keeps, and Giuliani has around him the financial people who created the libertarian-conservative Manhattan Institute. He relied heavily on the Institute's policies while governing...

Fox News eyes right-leaning satirical show By Paul J. Gough Mon Nov 20, 12:02 AM ET NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a "Daily Show"-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show. The half-hour show would take aim at what executive producer Joel Surnow, the co-creator of "24," calls "the sacred cows of the left" that don't get made as much fun of by other comedy shows. "It's a satirical news format that would play more to the...

THE MAIN benefactor of Proposition 90, wealthy New York real estate mogul Howie Rich, makes no secret of his desire to rein in the power of government. The 30-second TV spots portray the "Protect Our Homes" initiative as a constraint on eminent domain. It would prohibit cities from using their condemnation powers to transfer property from one owner to the other, such as was done in the Connecticut case that drew national outrage when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed it. It would also strengthen the negotiating hand of landowners whose property is being sought for schools, freeways or other public...

FLOWOOD, Miss. -- Flowood police are trying to figure out why a man mutilated himself in front of a local church. Police said John Castellano cut off his penis in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary at the St. Paul Catholic Church. Castellano then drove himself to the hospital police officer was sent to retrieve the penis at the church and took it to the hospital where it was reattached by surgeons. Psychiatrist Stanley Russell hasn't treated Castellano but said patients who injured themselves usually do so out of guilt. “It’s usually a matter of guilt-related … trying...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Provide free preschool for all California children, tax the rich to pay for it, and get a famous Hollywood director to sell it. A measure on Tuesday's ballot to create universal preschool in the nation's most populous state seemed like a can't-miss idea in heavily Democratic California. But the $2.4 billion-a-year plan has been a tough sell. The Preschool for All initiative's best-known supporter, "When Harry Met Sally" director Rob Reiner, ducked out of the campaign spotlight this spring after a state education commission he headed was accused of improperly using taxpayer money to run TV commercials...

PHOENIX -- An Arizona man is betting that a chance at $1 million will bring more people to the polls. Dr. Mark Osterloh is a Tucson, Ariz., ophthalmologist and political activist who headed and bankrolled the campaign to get a proposal on the state's November ballot that would give one lucky voter $1 million. Under the proposal, anyone who actually casts a ballot would be eligible. Osterloh and other supporters submitted petitions Monday bearing what they said were more than 185,000 signatures of registered voters. That's well over the 122,000 required to put a proposed state law on the 2006...

"Today" 's Katie Couric .... I did not ask is she jumping ship and boarding CBS to anchor their leaky network news boat. So let's get that clear before I now mouth off: Is she walking? You bet your banana. She's done this early gig forever. It's exhausting. No opportunity for a life. A personal life. A romantic life. An any life. What happens is, you start to look at A) the mirror, B) the future, and wonder where your career will be five years down the line. This is a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of events. A news show without a...

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The United States, which has long provided Iceland with its only military force, has decided to withdraw most of its service members and all of its fighter jets and helicopters from the country later this year, the U.S. ambassador said Thursday. Iceland's government, which had recently offered to pay some of the cost of its defense to try to keep U.S. forces here, said it regretted the decision. In an interview with The Associated Press, U.S. Ambassador Carol van Voorst said she and Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under secretary of state, had told Prime Minister Haldor Asgrimsson...

Political argument in America is increasingly a dialogue of the deaf. The controversy over reparations for black slavery, in which opponents argue across a Grand Canyon of disagreement where no common ground seems possible is a case in point. A recent book by San Diego Law professor Roy L. Brooks -- Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations -- attempts to extricate the two sides from the impasse. His failure illustrates exactly how difficult the task is. Brooks’ argument begins by defining the reparations issue: “When a government commits an atrocity against an innocent people, it has, at...

The PA doesn't need to smuggle weapons underground to build a well-equipped army. Now, the PA can acquire additional rifles, bullets, and armored personnel carriers with IDF approval. The head of military intelligence, Maj.Gen. Aharon Ze’evi Farkash, told the government at a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israel’s military establishment will recommend enabling the Palestinian Authority to become equipped with armored personnel carriers (APC’s). American pressure is purportedly behind the IDF’s recommendation. The recommendation represents the first time Israel has allowed PA troops to use APC’s since the PA began fighting Israel with the onset of the Oslo War in...

WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to consider giving him powers to use the military to enforce quarantines in case of an avian influenza epidemic. He said the military, and perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to take such a role if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection. "If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?" Bush asked at a news conference. "It's one thing...

WASHINGTON - President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic, revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to enforce it. "The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins," he said during a wide-ranging Rose Garden news conference. The president was asked if his recent talk of giving the military the lead in responding to large natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and other catastrophes was...

President Bush's push to give the military a bigger role in responding to major disasters like Hurricane Katrina could lead to a loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U.S. soil. Pentagon officials are reviewing that possibility, and some in Congress agree it needs to be considered. Bush did not define the wider role he envisions for the military. But in his speech to the nation from New Orleans on Thursday, he alluded to the unmatched ability of federal troops to provide supplies, equipment, communications, transportation and other assets the military lumps under the label of...

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday urged Congress to examine whether the White House needs stronger powers to deal with catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina. Bush’s backing for the congressional inquiry raised the possibility that lawmakers might expand presidential authority to: Order mandatory civilian evacuations Dispatch U.S.-based armed forces for emergency search-and-rescue operations Grant wider leeway for active-duty U.S. military personnel to carry out law enforcement operations. “It’s really important that as we take a step back and learn lessons--that we are in a position to adequately answer the question: ‘Are we prepared for major catastrophes?”’ Bush said during a tour...

Eventually, the school district acknowledged it had no policy preventing a student from praying during free time, and allowed Yasmeen to use an empty classroom to unfurl her prayer rug, face Mecca and touch her head to the floor in a few moments of worship. Her case was part of a nationwide grass-roots effort by Muslim parents to make public schools more friendly and accommodating to Muslim students. The movement has gained strength since the September 11 terror attacks. "The reality for many Muslim students in public schools is very difficult," said Ingrid Mattson, vice president of the Islamic Society...

POLITICALLY MOTIVATED MAYOR WAITS TOO LATE TO DECLARE MANDATORY EVACUATIONS. THE FEDERAL GOVT NEEDS THE POWER TO OVERRIDE LOCAL POLITICS AND ORDER EVACUATIONS. The Mayor of New Orleans has blood on his hands. It took President Bush's pleas to finally influence the mayor to call for a mandatory evacuation. Meteorologists have been fairly certain since Thursday that New Orleans was going to be the target of Katrina, and furthermore that in all likelihood Katrina would grow into a Category 4 storm. Experts have warned that a Category 3 storm would ravage New Orleans with 20 foot floods which would require...

Television talk show host and actress Rosie O'Donnell will return to Broadway in September in a production of "Fiddler on the Roof," the show's producers said on Monday. O'Donnell will star opposite actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein in the musical running at the Minskoff Theater in Manhattan. Fierstein who is playing Tevye, a milkman, will be joined by O'Donnell as his wife Golde, according to a statement. "As a twenty year friend of Rosie's, I couldn't be happier that we will finally share a stage together," Fierstein said in the statement. A previous O'Donnell Broadway venture, "Taboo," which she produced,...

SCIENTISTS have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday criticized proposed legislation before the U.S. House of Representatives that would link reforms of the world body to payment of U.S. dues. Annan said he hoped the bill, introduced Tuesday by Illinois Republican Henry Hyde, won't become law. He repeated his oft-stated view that withholding dues from the United Nations would be "counterproductive." "We are going through reforms and the U.S. has a natural leadership role and I hope it will work with other Member States to reform and strengthen the Organization," Annan told reporters. "I don't think holding back...

George Bush, the president's father, would like to see another Bush in the White House someday, saying on Tuesday that he would want his son Jeb to run for president when the timing is right. Florida Governor Jeb Bush has repeatedly said he does not plan to run for president in 2008, trying to dampen speculation that another Bush could be on the next Republican ticket for the White House. In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," former President Bush said he would want Jeb to run for president "someday," but now was not the time. "The timing's wrong....

All options should be considered to prevent rampages like the Minnesota school shooting that took 10 lives -- including making guns available to teachers, a top National Rifle Association leader said Friday. "I'm not saying that that means every teacher should have a gun or not, but what I am saying is we need to look at all the options at what will truly protect the students," the NRA's first vice president, Sandra S. Froman, told The Associated Press. Gun-control restrictions would not have prevented Jeff Weise, 16, from killing nine people and himself Monday at Red Lake High School...

The carrot-chomping smart aleck is making a comeback - as a futuristic, slimmed-down superhero. The extreme makeover also revamps Bugs' buddies Daffy Duck, Road Runner, Tasmanian Devil and Wile E. Coyote in an attempt to charm young audiences with old favorites. But the changes have Looney Tunes fans hopping mad.

VANITY Well today it looks like the GOP will back SPECTER for Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Specter is to publicly announce (see related threads on FR) that he will not block a nomination based ona proposed Judge's stanc on abortion. No mention of Specter backing strict Constitutional Constructionists, not activists. IMHO, Specter will find another reason to Bork a proposed judge. Tom DeLay was given a pass by the GOP, today. (Check the news for specifics) The GOP is also in the process of knocking out the requirement to label foreign grown fruits, etc., as to country of...

Let's try this. That payhouse known as the DNC message board. Let's flood that place with our posts and put it out of it's misery. Just a propaganda place that's going to hurt our causes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush, seeking to mobilize religious conservatives for his reelection campaign, has asked church-going volunteers to turn over church membership directories, campaign officials said on Thursday. In a move sharply criticized both by religious leaders and civil libertarians, the Bush-Cheney campaign has issued a guide listing about two-dozen "duties" and a series of deadlines for organizing support among conservative church congregations. A copy of the guide obtained by Reuters directs religious volunteers to send church directories to state campaign committees, identify new churches that can be organized by the Bush campaign and talk to clergy members about...

<p>It is the stuff of science fiction and bioethical debates: The creation of artificial life. Up until now, it's largely been just that. But an important technical bridge towards the creation of such life was crossed Thursday when genomics pioneer Craig Venter announced that his research group created an artificial virus based on a real one in just two weeks' time.</p>

SEEKING to build on his new-found prominence on the world stage, Jacques Chirac is backing plans to create an international television news channel to boost French influence abroad. The French president — whose popularity at home has surged thanks to his opposition to war against Saddam Hussein — has long been an advocate of deploying a “CNN à la française” in what he calls “the battle of footage”. The scheme is now being brought forward in response to events in Iraq. The government has called for plans for a rival to channels such as the BBC, Sky and Al-Jazeera, the...

DETROIT, Mo., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Nobel Prize-winning novelist Tony Morrison and composer Richard Danielpour have been asked to collaborate on an opera based on the life of a fugitive Kentucky slave who killed her infant daughter and tried to kill herself when faced with the prospect of returning to slavery. The Michigan Opera Theatre's estimated $1.5 million production of "Margaret Garner" is expected to premiere in May 2005 at the Detroit Opera House and feature mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. After the Detroit premiere, the show is expected to be put on by the Cincinnati Opera and the Opera Company of...

A small parish in Vancouver is poised to make history and hasten schism in the worldwide Church by holding Anglicanism's first officially sanctioned blessing of a homosexual "marriage". The Canadian diocese's liberal bishop will authorise a special rite early in the New Year and St Paul's, in the city's gay district, heads the queue to stage a same-sex wedding ceremony, complete with rings and confetti. The event, a radical departure from traditional Christian teaching, will push the Rev Neil Gray, the parish's English rector, into the media spotlight. It will also put the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams,...

RUSSIA has suffered a blow to its lucrative economic relations with Iraq as Baghdad cancelled a multibillion-pound deal to develop the West Qurna oilfield, one of the country’s largest. Lukoil, Russia’s largest oil company, confirmed yesterday that Vagit Alekperov, its president, had been told that the £2.5 billion deal had been ended. Russia has kept close ties with Iraq throughout the past decade of that country’s international isolation, winning extensive oil contracts. Energy Intelligence Briefing, the newsletter that reported the decision, said Iraq had been angered by reports that Mr Alekperov had sought assurances that Lukoil’s deal would be guaranteed...

Neither the European Union nor the ex-communist states of Eastern Europe are remotely ready for a vast political, economic, military and judicial union stretching to the borders of Russia. Nonetheless, Tony Blair and his fellow prime ministers are determined to go ahead with the historic gamble at the Copenhagen summit starting today. Once the haggling over dairy quotas and suckling cows is finally over, probably in the small hours of Saturday, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovenia, as well as the islands of Malta and Cyprus, will be told that they can join the EU...

DURING the campaign for the September general election that returned Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to power, he was asked in a television interview about the parlous state of the German economy. Schröder had spent the summer concentrating on themes calculated to work in his favour, such as his popular opposition to war in Iraq and his purposeful handling of the floods that devastated the east of the country. Unwilling to be diverted into less comfortable territory, he gave his interviewer a categoric answer. “Tax rises in the present economic situation are economically senseless,” he assured millions of viewers. The promise —...

WHEN the two top-performing policemen in the small conservative mining town of Klerksdorp became the first gay officers in South Africa to marry, some of their colleagues thought it was a joke. At Klerksdorp police station in North West Province this weekend, there was still an air of disbelief among the robustly heterosexual males at the front desk. The duty officer gave a wry look and a snort, while his colleague, all guns and beer belly, muttered in Afrikaans about “moffies”, a local pejorative term similar to “poofter”. Sias Strydom, 26, and Brent Browning, 27, wave this aside. “In the...

The European Union could be renamed the United States of Europe or even United Europe, according to a controversial proposal from the head of a forum charged with reforming the community. The idea, floated by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president, in a first draft report by the Convention on the Future of Europe was immediately dismissed by British diplomats. We rejected it the last time this idea was floated. You know, 1939. - Ivan "There is not a cat in hell's chance of it being called the United States of Europe," said one British official who insisted that...

MEMPHIS (AP) -- Scientists will be creating artificial earthquakes Monday night by detonating explosives in the New Madrid Seismic Zone near Memphis. Scientists for the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis and the U.S. Geological Survey will study the artificial waves. They're trying to discover how the ground shakes during an earthquake. Officials say the information gathered will produce a "shake" map that will show where the most vulnerable areas of the fault are for emergency personnel. The experiment is scheduled between 10:00 p.m. (Central) and 3:00 a.m. at Marked Tree, Arkansas, about 35...

MOVES by Brussels to sideline Nato and create a powerful Euro army were blasted last night. EU commissioner Michel Barnier wants to torpedo defence links with America. He proposes a European version of Nato’s Article 5 allowing countries under attack to call on other member states’ armed forces. Mr Barnier hailed it as “a new defence initiative” to unite Europe. But since European governments tend to spend so little on defence, it would result in an army of 3 Boy Scouts armed with a slingshot, even if they were carrying the Euro flag. - Ivan He said: “The hour of...