Free Republic

Workers this morning began installing the first of 600 banners sporting messages welcoming those attending the Republican National Convention to Minneapolis and St. Paul. The first of the banners went up at 9 a.m. today on Hennepin Avenue between 6th and 7th streets and in St. Paul on streets near the Xcel Energy Center where the conventions runs Sept. 1-4. Banners will be hung along Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis today. Banners along with floor decals will be placed throughout the baggage claim area at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport starting Monday.

Republican John McCain says President Bush should not be held responsible for the much-criticized "mission accomplished" banner five years ago, but he should be blamed for bungling the early months of the Iraq war. Thursday was the fifth anniversary of Bush's dramatic landing on an aircraft carrier where the banner hung. The certain GOP presidential nominee said he thought the banner was a mistake at the time.

N Ireland SAS hero looks back  The Falls Road then ... In the summer of 1969, a young soldier warily patrols the troubled area of Belfast - the start of the Army's 38-year operation     August 01, 2007       SAS hero Andy McNab learnt his Army trade on the streets of Northern Ireland. During the 1970s it was one of the most dangerous places in the world.Today British troops officially pull out of Northern Ireland after 38 years.Operation Banner was the longest-running continuous campaign in Army history, with 300,000 soldiers serving and 763 killed by paramilitary terrorists.Here, as...

Supreme Court Rules Against Student Who Displayed 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Banner. Just Breaking

On December 18 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree No 1422 "On Battle Banner of a military unit". This decree ends the service of the Soviet era red banners as battle banners of Russian military units, including those with which Soviet troops won their victories during WWII. Many military units still have WWII-era banners, often damaged in the heat of battle and carefully repaired afterwards. The old banners are to be kept now in the original military units or to be handed over to museums. The pattern for the new banners appears as follows:Front sideBack side Units of different...

- KGO - Members of a renowned choral group from Yale University were attacked outside a New Year's Eve party in San Francisco, sending several of them to the hospital. Now the police department is coming under fire for its handling of the case. This does not look good for the city. Yale sends its popular singing group, The Baker's Dozen, on a holiday concert tour. And San Francisco sends the young men away bloody, bruised, and several of them seriously injured. Laura Aziz sent her son, Sharyar, off on a concert tour with one of Yale University's singing groups...

A protest in London against the publication of a cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist incensed an Aberporth man, who painted an anti-Muslim slogan on a white sheet and draped it over his garden fence. The words in bold red paint stated: "Kill all Muslims who threaten us and our way of life. Enoch Powell was right." Father of two Gary John Mathewson, who was arrested for displaying the banner, told a court: "This won't stop until there is a Muslim president in the White House." continued... And referring to MP Jack Straw questioning whether Muslim women should...

America the Beautiful ...5:53 pm After playing Tony Bennett’s record, Rags To Riches, on his XM radio show, Bob Dylan said, “I heard a story once about Tony. They wanted him to sing the national anthem at the nineteen and sixty-one Preakness. He didn’t want to. He said, ‘I don’t know. Bombs burstin’ in air are just not my thing.’ Way to go, Tony.� That’s not exactly something that RWB would have chosen to say

"Highway blogs" come, go quickly It takes only a bedsheet and 18-gauge wire for Bruce Macdonald to stir road rage in some motorists. For eight months the Cambridge lawyer has been stringing homemade banners from highway overpasses, including those crossing Interstate 93 and Route 128. His neatly painted messages usually take short jabs at the Bush administration or the war in Iraq. Like noxious fumes and traffic snarls, a well-placed road sign can't be ignored by a driver, he said. Tens of thousands of cars can stream beneath an ``Impeach" or ``U.S. Out of Iraq" banner before it is ripped...

An Aberporth man has been charged with racial aggravation by displaying words that caused harassment. Gary John Mathewson is alleged to have draped a white bed sheet over his garden fence containing the words Death to all Muslims who threaten us. Enoch Powell was right." Mathewson, aged 35, of 79 Brynglas, Aberporth, was charged with causing racially aggravated harassment or alarm on February 7 this year, the charge brought under the Crime and Disorder Act. continued... The defendant, who was represented by Colin Taylor, was not in court when his case was called, and after an application by Crown prosecutor...

Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewater special prosecutor, will represent the city school board in appealing a court ruling that favored a high school student who displayed a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner during an Olympic torch relay. The school board wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. In April, an appeals court said school officials violated the student's free speech rights when they suspended him for 10 days. Starr, who is dean at Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, Calif., has agreed to take the case for free, said Phyllis Carlson, president of the school board. "Federal law requires...

As a company truck driver, I have opinions, but I am limited in how to express them. I can't put any stickers on the truck or trailer I am with, for example. One way company drivers get around this, is to write in the dust on the back side of the trailer. Here are a few things I have written, so far, (perhaps you have seen a few of them) and some other slogans that I haven't yet, or I think would go good on some signs or bumper stickers: QUITTERS NEVER WIN (implications on the war) LIBERAL = WHINER...

MONTEBELLO, N.Y., Sept. 23, 2005 – Montebello Civic Association (MCA) and the Village of Montebello recently joined together to honor a couple of local Marines during a community celebration known as Montebello Day 2005. The Associations presented the parents of Cpl. Thomas Greeley and Lance Cpl. Daniel Greeley, two Iraqi war veterans, with a banner signed by the children of Montebello. The children created the banner to honor the Marines as part of National Citizenship Day, under the coordination of Alice DiSanto, a member of Montebello’s Civic Association. “It was a simple idea, really. Whenever you have children gathered, it’s...

There’s probably no single piece of writing in this country that’s as controversial or as likely to lead to fist fights as the U.S. Constitution. It’s difficult to decide which portion of the document gets people riled up the most. At times, it almost seems to change on a daily basis. On Monday, it could be gun ownership, with folks like Michael Moore frothing at the mouth at the mere thought that a law-abiding citizen might own a weapon. You’d think Moore was planning to burgle your home the way he frets over the possibility you might actually be armed....

LAS VEGAS (Billboard) - With a No. 1 debut for its current album "American Idiot," and now Tuesday's news of six Grammy nominations, Green Day has found itself back in the spotlight. But if the punk-rock trio has its way, its Reprise album may yet fuel a crossover into an entirely new medium. "We're definitely working on a film based on the album," bassist Mike Dirnt told Billboard.com ahead of the group's performance on Wednesday's Billboard Music Awards. "I mean, the story is already there. But to some degree, it will depend on who ends up doing the writing...

Elections encourage political high jinks. Neighbors gently torment neighbors with political proselytizing, and teens goad one another into minor vandalism. And it's not unheard of in an election season for political signs to go missing. But when a 4- by 8-foot "Veterans for Kerry-Edwards" sign was stolen from its place of honor in front of Joe Broderick's hardware store on State Route 3, the Lake of the Woods Democratic Women's Club didn't think it was funny. It was a major theft, and the club members decided that it wouldn't happen a second time. While club chairwoman Angela Turvey went searching...

Someone asked me the other day... how much would it cost for them to place an "Ad" on the KMC Blog. Since I haven't accepted money for any advertising on my site I didn't know exactly what to tell them. Blogging is supposed to be fun - and for me that fun is nearly reward enough. Nearly, because I want to get better and better at it. So while I don't think I would be accepting money for advertising any time soon on the site - I would like to help others out with the exposure that my weblog can...

Wed Feb 11, 3:13 PM ET By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer GUADALAJARA, Mexico - The boos nearly drowned out "The Star-Spangled Banner," and a few dozen fans chanted "Osama! Osama!" as the United States was eliminated by Mexico in Olympic men's soccer qualifying.  

One of the most intriguing mysteries of Georgia politics began on a dark evening in January, when a little red car turned off a road in rural Pike County and eased up the driveway of Mitch and Bonnie Mordas. The visitor was ushered into a basement office. Preparations were examined and approved. The driver of the red car handed over several thousand dollars in cash, payment in advance.The customer left with a receipt made out to "Cash."A week or so later, on the day of Gov. Sonny Perdue's inauguration, three planes owned by the Mordases circled downtown Atlanta for 11...

Gov. Roy Barnes said Tuesday that he knows why he lost his re-election. He says it all comes down to the old Georgia flag. "There's no question in my mind about it," he told Channel 2 in an exclusive interview. "And I realize now and I realized it at the time (the flag was changed). I was hoping that we had moved past it."Although he had a $19 million campaign war chest to present his political agenda, he said it was not enough to overcome the flag issue."When you have an issue like that, advertising may not be able to...

   Tue 24 Sep 2002 ONE of the fastest-growing white supremacist groups in the United States has hijacked the Saltire to symbolise its struggle for a political system run by Celtic "kith and kin". Scottish tourists visiting Florida and the southern states on holiday have been warned that displaying Scotland’s national flag on their clothes now runs the risk of association with the extremist followers of the League of the South. The league, founded in Alabama in 1994, has nearly 10,000 members who claim Celtic roots and campaign for the "revitalisation of a general European cultural hegemony". It has...