Free Republic

It's starting to seem like a tradition in the Golden State: pay raises for the highest-paid elected officials in the country while their budgets go bare. This week, Sacramento's legislators got a boost to their paychecks. They were already the best-paid legislators in the country, but still they got a $3,111 a year raise, to $116,208 with only a few declining the increase. That's on top of their generous per diems, state cars, and large office staffs. And what have these pols done to earn this boost? Let's see: redistricting legislation? Nope. Health care reform? Nope. Solved the budget problems?...

I've read enough of the posts on this sight to know that most of you people are really dangerous. If someone disagrees with you, you would "Take them out" if you could. It's that "Ultra-conservative, All American Redneck, NASCAR, Pro-Wrestling, inbread country music fan" kind of politics that tries to shut down anyone who speaks their mind against your beliefs that bothers me. I am in favor of gun ownership and the right to bare arms, and it's people like you that I need to protect myself from. This probably won't get posted for the reasons listed above, but even...

As it happened, my youngest son, Rudy, was in New Orleans as the storm approached the Gulf Coast, so I was acutely focused on what actions were being taken to evacuate the city. On Aug. 27, with the hurricane gaining force in the Gulf, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for a voluntary evacuation of the city....

I am starting a grammar thread at the behest of Xenalyte and TheMom. Post your most irritating pet peeves of grammar or usage here.

While I was heartened to hear that USAF Senior Airman Ahmad Al Halabi, like Army Chaplain (Capt) James Yee before him, had been cleared of charges of espionage and treason, I am nevertheless still deeply disturbed by the lack of media attention given this case. Granted, the allegations made a huge splash when they first surfaced in the fall of 2003, fueled to a white hot frenzy by prosecutorial whisperings of possible death sentences. At that time, the government was happy to have us believe that the tentacled reach of Al Qaeda extended all the way to the ranks of...

ROCKLEDGE, Fla. - (KRT) - Scanning the roomful of women, Jamie Hooper couldn't help but snicker. Seated together were 10 women, most of them middle-aged and two who qualified as senior citizens. "Ladies," Hooper teased her fellow plaintiffs that day a month ago, "we don't need to be taking our tops off." Yet they are battling in federal court for the right to do just that, hoping to add to the small list of places where baring the female breast has been decriminalized. Meet the women who call themselves the Topfree 10, a group as diverse as the ordinances and...

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- This week's insert of Sports Illustrated on Campus has been left out of the Brigham Young University student newspaper because it contained pictures of bare-bottomed runners. BYU was among more than 70 college campuses selected by Sports Illustrated as test markets this fall for a new magazine aimed at college students. When it contacted BYU, officials of the school owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made it clear there would be no beer, no tobacco and no "racy presentations," said Jim Kelly, general manager of NewsNet, the school's combined student newspaper, Web...

Al Batt Hartland, Minn. (Freeborn County) At one time, during my youth, I worked at Uppita Lake. Uppita Lake offered a store, a dance hall, a bar and a bait shop. The Lake featured a campground as well as many year around residences. My job at Uppita Lake matched my abilities as a 16-year-old, requiring lots of physical labor and very little thought. I pushed a broom and sold bait. I would paint the boat and pontoon rentals an awful green color. The paint, obviously bought on sale, was a shade of green that could not be found anywhere else...

DESPITE the protests of some of its citizens, the US town of Des Moines in Iowa has won hosting rights for this year's Miss Nude World pageant. "I guess anything that has a potential to bring outside visitors to town is somewhat positive," said Greg Edwards, president of the Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau. The event will be held in October at a strip club by the name of the Lumber Yard and is expected to draw up to 75 professional exotic dancers from around the United States and several foreign countries. "In our industry, this is the biggest...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134642379_playboy27.html Playboy in search of willing bare-istas at Starbucks storesJust because its corporate logo is a topless mermaid, that doesn't mean Starbucks is thrilled about a Playboy callout for "Women of Starbucks." The Seattle-based coffee company was anything but abuzz following the venerable men's mag's announcement this week: "Calling all coffee-making cuties!" ... to pose nude in an upcoming issue. No one at Starbucks would comment on the matter apart from this rather terse written statement: "Starbucks Coffee Company is aware that Playboy Enterprises has issued a call for entries for a 'Women of Starbucks' section in a future...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - More than 700 women posed nude on Saturday to protest against Australia's likely involvement in a potential war against Iraq. Lying naked end to end on a grassy knoll in the Australian beach town of Byron Bay, they formed a heart around the words "No War" for an aerial photograph. Australia has sent troops and approved fighter jet deployments to join U.S. and British forces in the Gulf preparing for a possible war in Iraq, but has yet to publicly commit itself to joining any military action in Iraq, whether U.N.-approved or U.S.-led. The women, ranging...