Free Republic

ABC News' Alice Gomstyn reports: Was it a bad omen or just a glitch? On the day that the government’s massive financial system rescue plan heads to the House, traders waiting for the New York Stock Exchange to open were greeted by silence –- the iconic opening bell failed to sound. A spokeswoman for the NYSE said that an “isolated electrical issue” was to blame and that the day’s closing bell should operate as usual. She said that, to her knowledge, the bell had never previously gone silent. If she’s right, that would be a mighty long streak. Trading bell...

A Queens judge on Friday acquitted three detectives charged in the shooting of Sean Bell, who died on his wedding day in a hail of 50 police bullets. He said that prosecutors had failed to prove their case and that wounded friends of the slain man had given testimony that he did not believe. The top-to-bottom acquittals of Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper were delivered by Justice Arthur J. Cooperman in an essay form bearing little resemblance to a standard jury verdict, and were met momentarily with silence in court as spectators looked at one another...

...ANTI-COP agitators and politicians are fond of claiming that the police are a threat to black lives. In fact, no single private or public agency has saved more minority lives than the NYPD. Had murders stayed at their early 1990s levels, before the NYPD got smart about policing, 13,000-plus more New Yorkers- the overwhelming majority of them black and Hispanic- would be dead today. ...[E]ven as the NYPD brought down homicide a remarkable 70 percent, it was driving down its own use of force. In 1973, there were 1.82 fatal police shootings per 1,000 New York officers; in 2006, there...

Cops Acquitted In Sean Bell Shooting Death Judge Clears Three NYPD Detectives Of All Charges In Nov. 2006 Incident NEW YORK (CBS) ― A judge has acquitted three NYPD detectives of all charges in the shooting death of 23-year-old Sean Bell on Friday. Bell was gunned down in a hail of 50 bullets outside a Queens strip club on what would have been his wedding day in November 2006. The highly anticipated verdict, which many see as holding far-reaching social ramifications for New York City and its police force, comes after seven weeks worth of testimony without a jury. Detectives...

A day after an appeals court rejected their attempt to move the trial out of Queens, the cops in the Sean Bell shooting case want to bypass a jury and leave their fate to a judge. NYPD Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper will appear Friday before Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman, with at least two of the detectives expected to sign a jury waiver, officials said Thursday. That will leave Cooperman to determine their guilt or innocence. "We just do not have a comfort level that we can guarantee a fair jury trial in Queens," said...

A new book claims to have definitive evidence of a long-suspected technological crime — that Alexander Graham Bell stole ideas for the telephone from a rival, Elisha Gray. In "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret," journalist Seth Shulman argues that Bell — aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner — got an improper peek at patent documents Gray had filed, and that Bell was erroneously credited with filing first. Shulman believes the smoking gun is Bell's lab notebook, which was restricted by Bell's family until 1976, then digitized and made widely available in 1999. The notebook...

Army's rocky road to RAH-66 replacement US Army efforts to put funding, freed by its cancellation of the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, to good use by purchasing off-the-shelf scout and utility helicopters have not gone entirely smoothly. Development and initial production costs of the Bell ARH-70A Arapaho have risen more than 50% as design changes have forced the armed reconnaissance helicopter further from its modest origins as a derivative of Bell's commercial Model 407. In March, the US Army ordered Bell to stop work on the programme, citing cost and schedule overruns. In May, the service accepted a recovery plan...

Bell Helicopter engineers have resolved a performance anomaly that test pilots had discovered when flying the hybrid aircraft in conventional flight mode, also known as the zero-degree position of the nacelles. The BA609 is a six- to nine-passenger corporate aviation tiltrotor, a product the companies expect to begin delivering in 2011. According to Roy Hopkins, Bell's chief test pilot for the BA609, both prototype aircraft had been exhibiting a differential torque between the two prop-rotors in flight tests, causing a left-turning tendency at cruise speeds. The companies are flight testing one aircraft at Bell in the USA and the other...

Art Bell is back tonight as he subs for George Noory. Will we hear about Area 51? Chupacabra? Ghosts? Alien abductions? Shadow people? Time travel? Global superstorms? The face on Mars? Life on other planets?

A Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor transport from the US Marine Corps' VMX-22 test squadron has made history by performing the type's first landing aboard a non-US vessel, touching down on the UK Royal Navy's strike carrier HMS Illustrious on 10 July.

George Noorey talking with the author of The 100 Year Lie... ...Started with a discussion of harmful Chinese imports.

Dear xxxxxx, I wanted to remind you that there is an important primary election coming up tomorrow, Tuesday, June 12 in the 22nd Senate district -- where you live. There, due to the way the district is drawn, voters have the opportunity to decide on the representative for this district the Republican Primary. Since Virginia has open primaries, you are allowed to vote in this primary regardless of your political affiliation. Equality Virginia's bi-partisan PAC is supporting Senator Brandon Bell for re-election to the Virginia Senate. A key moderate in the Senate, in the 2007 General Assembly session Senator Bell...

Dr. Geoffrey Simmons will discuss evolution, and evidence that the complexity of human anatomy could not have developed by chance.

    I thought I'd report on an amusing article that began: "All in favor of some global warming, raise your frostbitten hands." Peter Bronson, of the Cincinnati Enquirer states that after taking his poll, the "ayes" have it, "In fact, it's the biggest landslide since Saddam was elected president of Iraq by 138 percent".     It should not be surprising that many Americans are convinced that  Producer Al Gore deserves to win an academy award for a non-fictional documentary, given the undue pressure of global warmests who are trying to silence nay-saying scientists. Take Timothy Ball for example. If anyone has...

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 24, 2006 – The game may have been all about football, but the overall event was a tribute to 1.2 million very special people – the men and women of the United States armed forces. Linda Dennis of America Supports You member Connect and Join shows one of several scrapbooks she has compiled from contributions from children nationwide. Connect and Join is a secure online communications and activities site that connects families around the world who are separated by deployment and serve in the military, or have family members living away from home due to...

I've got a buddy with a couple of friends on the NYPD. He sent them this article from the Post (following my comments) covering the shooting.

Alexander Graham Bell’s granddaughter dies at 101 The Chronicle Herald (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) October 31, 2006 By JOCELYN BETHUNE BADDECK — Mabel Grosvenor, a granddaughter of famed telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell and likely the last person who had personal memories of him, died Monday at Baddeck. She was 101. Born at Beinn Bhreagh, the Bells’ Cape Breton summer home, on July 28, 1905, she was the third child of Elsie Bell Grosvenor and Gilbert Grosvenor, longtime editor of National Geographic magazine. While her parents travelled, writing and photographing faraway places for the publication, Mabel spent many summers...

Dems have Kinky in the cross hairs Blitz depicting him as racist aims to rally base; his camp slams effort 09:42 AM CDT on Thursday, October 12, 2006 By GROMER JEFFERS Jr. / The Dallas Morning News Chris Bell hasn't been able to coax rival Kinky Friedman out of the race for governor, but his fellow Democrats are preparing a media and campaign offensive against the independent, planning in part to portray him as a racist. The blitz is aimed at not only stopping Mr. Friedman from poaching Mr. Bell's base voters but also at exciting Democrats who could determine...

Rick Perry (R) 34% Carole Keeton Strayhorn (I) 21% Chris Bell (D) 19% Kinky Friedman (I) 18% 500 Likely Voters Survey conducted October 9th

DALLAS, — Kinky Friedman on Friday said he would call for marshal law in border cities if he becomes Texas’ next governor during the only gubernatorial debate for this election. Each of the four candidates declared victory after the hour-long de-bate that included substantial discussion about the border and immi-gration. “Yeah, of course, whatever it takes,” Friedman said in response to a question from an Austin television reporter about whether he would declare marshal law, which would be required by law to make possi-ble his proposal to add 8,500 National Guard troops to the border. When asked in a lightning...

Perry and Strayhorn have regressed, Strayhorn by a considerable margin, while Bell (15 to 23) and Friedman (16 to 23) have moved up. Bell is finally consolidating Democratic support (from a pathetic 32 percent in April to 44% in July and 55% this time) and is getting more Independents (from 10% to 18%), while Friedman has picked up Republicans (from 10% to 23%) and more Indies (32% to 39%). Both Perry (65% to 56%) and Strayhorn (20% to 14%) have seen their GOP strength decline. Strayhorn has also seen her Democratic support wane, as she's dropped from 30% to 20%.

Perry (R) 35% Friedman (I) 23% Bell (D) 23% Strayhorn (I) 15% 536 Likely voters, +/- 4.3% MOE

Six years after American defence firms forayed into the Indian arms market after the lifting of US embargoes, a company is set to bag the first commercial deal for selling 197 light helicopters to the Army. After almost two years of evaluation, including trials at the world's highest battlefield on the Siachen glacier, the army has, according to highly placed sources, opted for Bell Helicopter's 407 Shen model in preference to EADS' Eurocopter. Though the army has given its technical evaluation to the defence ministry, the deal is yet to be cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence...

AUSTIN — Two polls released Monday found Gov. Rick Perry is vulnerable to defeat, but his campaign is questioning the surveys' accuracy. Conventional wisdom in the governor's race has been that none of the governor's four opponents would have a chance to beat him if he gets more than 35 percent of the vote on Nov. 7. There is no runoff in the general election, so the top vote-getter wins. Perry has hovered between 35 percent and 41 percent in public polls for months. But he has fallen into the defeatable zone in polls done by Rasmussen Reports and the...

AUSTIN — Two gubernatorial candidates received rare embraces from leaders of an organization that prides itself on its fierce nonpartisanship and rigid rules for politicians. Democrat Chris Bell got a warm embrace Saturday morning after pledging support for education and healthcare spending, training for livable wage jobs and comprehensive immigration reform all of which make up the "working families agenda" for the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation. Texas comptroller and independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn got a big hug on Friday from the Rev. John Bowie of True Light Baptist Church in Houston after Strayhorn offered passionate support for most...

On now....550 stations in the US, and XM165

US Navy helps finance Israeli "rotorless" helicopter The aircraft's developer, Urban Aeronautics, is on the brink of signing a collaboration agreement with US company Bell Helicopter. Amnon Barzilai 20 Jul 06 20:37 Lod-based Urban Aeronautics Ltd. is about to sign a cooperation agreement with Bell Helicopter for the delivery of helicopters to all branches of the US armed forces. At this stage, the company has obtained financing to develop its vertical-take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, a "rotorless" helicopter, for the US Navy. This week, the company unveiled a model of its helicopter at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK...

Flight Daily News journalist Paul Derby was among a small band of writers who, to the envy of thousands of show-goers, had the opportunity to take to the skies in the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey here at Farnborough. When you are asked the question: "Do you want to take a flight in the V-22?" it’s something of a no-brainer. And when during the pre-flight briefing the aircrew spend time explaining the precise location of the airsickness bags with a glint in their eyes, the feeling that this might be a special experience is inescapable. We are not to be disappointed....

New Delhi: US aerospace giant Bell claims it is just a whisker away from an Indian Army order for 197 multi-role helicopters in a deal that is valued at Rs.22 billion (about $500 million), and it has offered India assistance in developing a home grown attack helicopter. 'The Bell-407 is the only machine to have met or exceeded the requirements (laid down in its request for proposal - RFP - the army made in 2003),' said a confident Jay Ortiz, Campaign Director (International Military Sales) for the Fort Worth, Texas-based Bell Helicopter. This apart, Bell has offered state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics...

Iraq war fires up Minnesota's Senate race Democratic front-runner contends with anti-war maverick and GOP foe By Tom Curry National affairs writer ROCHESTER. Minn. - On a furnace-hot Memorial Day at the Soldiers’ Memorial Field in Rochester, Minn., Amy Klobuchar, the front-runner for the Democratic Senate nomination, offered an instructive case study in how to run as an anti-Iraq war candidate - without calling for a date for withdrawing U.S. soldiers and without calling for a cutoff of the war’s funding. “These guys told us that there were weapons of mass destruction - and there weren’t. They told us the...

Analysis: In an election for Texas Governor held today, 5/22/06, Republican incumbent Rick Perry defeats 3 challengers, according to a SurveyUSA election poll conducted for KEYE-TV Austin and WOAI-TV San Antonio. Perry leads Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is running as an Independent, 41% to 20%. Democrat Chris Bell gets 18% and Independent "Kinky" Friedman gets 16%. 1% prefer some other candidate. 3% are undecided. Since an identical SurveyUSA poll on 4/26/06, Perry has gained 2 points, Strayhorn has lost 5 points, Bell has gained 3 points, and Friedman is unchanged. There are 5 1/2 months until the 11/7/06...

Anyone interested in the Bell Witch of Tennessee, might be interested in seeing this film. It opens May 5th. Not sure how accurate it is, it is after all a Hollywierd production. There was a team of locals in Nashville that did a home made version of the story, they did an excellent job of presenting the story of the Bell Witch. Let's hope this one turns out to be as good.

Here Are The Results of SurveyUSA Election Poll #9043 Geography Surveyed: Texas Data Collected: 04/23/2006 - 04/25/2006 Release Date: 04/26/2006 11:00 AM ET Sponsoring News Organizations: KEYE-TV Austin, WOAI-TV San Antonio Analysis: In an election for Texas Governor held today, 4/26/06, Republican incumbent Rick Perry defeats 3 challengers, according to a SurveyUSA election poll conducted for KEYE-TV Austin and WOAI-TV San Antonio. Perry leads Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is running as an Independent, 39% to 25%. Independent "Kinky" Friedman gets 16% and Democrat Chris Bell gets 15%. 3% prefer some other candidate. 3% are undecided. Perry leads among...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- AT&T Inc. announced Sunday that it will buy regional-phone company BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in stock, consummating a long-rumored deal that would create a gigantic communications provider with tentacles extending deep into the phone, wireless, Internet and even pay-TV markets. The acquisition would also give AT&T sole control of Cingular Wireless, the biggest U.S. wireless operator with more than 54 million customers. AT&T owns 60%, with BellSouth controlling the rest. Under the agreement, AT&T (T : AT&T Inc. News , chart, profile, more Last: 27.99-0.29-1.03%4:00pm 03/03/2006Add to portfolioAnalyst Create alert InsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by: T27.99, -0.29,...

NEW RASMUSSEN POLL SHOWS PERRY AT 40%, STRAYHORN AT 21% Hutchison's favorables 64% to Radnofsky's 25% The Governor's race results The Senate race results

Texas governor's race shaping up to be big show next year ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN (AP) - For the first time since Republicans claimed all statewide offices in 1998, the party faces the possibility of a big-name GOP primary showdown next year. The March 7 primary for Texas governor will likely pit Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a self-described "tough grandma," against her longtime foil and incumbent Rick Perry. "I've never been the darling of the insiders. I run with the people," Strayhorn said. "Right after the new year, buckle your seat belt and hang on." This month Strayhorn denied speculation she...

Assistant: Call to wife of Democrat not made on Strayhorn's behalf A top aide to Republican gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn called Democratic candidate Chris Bell's wife last week and suggested that Bell drop out of the governor's race and instead run for comptroller. Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said he told Alison Bell that "there would be support for him" if Chris Bell ran to succeed Strayhorn as comptroller. Sanders said that he and Alison Bell have known each other since they worked on a campaign together 15 years ago and that he wanted to advise his longtime friends that...

So, what do you think? I think we need more business/ market threads around here. My intention is that Freepers NOT loose their shirts. I'll say no more than I must.

There is outrage in the Muslim community over an ad for Bell Helicopter's CV-22 Osprey. The ad, which appeared in the National Journal, depicts troops dropping down from a hovering tilt-rotor aircraft onto a mosque. Bell Helicopter said the ad should have never gone to print in the first place. But critics said the company's apology is too little, too late. They said the image of troops being dropped onto a mosque in combat has already done its harm. The image is black-and-white. The message about the CV-22 Osprey , in a stenciled font, is just as stark: "It descends...

Seize this moment for reform An opportunity for a new covenant By CHRIS BELL THE political frenzy swirling around Tom DeLay's criminal indictment is about so much more than Republicans and Democrats; it's about more than Tom DeLay and Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. This all-too-common analysis being advanced by politicos and pundits alike misses the real point. During the past year, many have wanted to turn the ethics complaint I filed against DeLay into some sort of personal battle between DeLay and me, but that was never what the complaint was about. What has been missed, then and...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said this afternoon that Boeing Co., Bell Helicopter Textron and National Journal magazine have apologized for a print advertisement depicting U.S. troops attacking a mosque. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it had received a statement of apology from Boeing, which sponsored the ad along with Bell. Boeing wrote: "The CV-22 advertisement that appeared in the National Journal is clearly offensive, and did not proceed through the normal channels within Boeing before production. "'We consider the ad offensive, regret its publication and apologize to...

Report says Taiwan is conducting talks to buy US choppers. NEW REQUIREMENTS: Taiwan is reportedly looking into upgrading its aging attack-helicopter fleet and has been talking to both Bell and Sikorsky. AFP , TAIPEIMonday, Aug 22, 2005,Page 3Taiwan is in talks with US companies to purchase dozens of attack and transport helicopters and upgrade the AH-1W Super Cobra attack fleet serving the army, Jane's Defence Weekly said. "Taiwan and Bell Helicopter-Textron have launched talks on co-manufacturing UH-1Y Huey light utility and AH-1Z King Cobra attack helicopters to fulfil Taipei's requirement for 35 and 30, respectively, of the aircraft," the London-based...

Plot Outline: The investigation into a kidnapping of the daughter of a President that has Bill and Hillary Clinton's MO... And that MO is 'tom catting around' for Bill and 'Never letting the law nor morals get in the way' of Hillary and her goals.

Eurocopter's AS 550 Fennec and Bell Textron's 407 will compete in their second and final round of summer trials for the Indian Army contract for 197 light helicopters to replace its aging fleet of Chetaks (Alouette II) and Cheetahs (Alouette III). India's Army Aviation Corps (AAC) proposes to buy 60 helicopters outright with the remaining 137 being built under license by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in a deal worth between $500-$600 million. AAC wants the new helicopter's to ferry loads of up to 75 kg to troops based at heights of 23,000 feet in Kashmir and on the Siachen Glacier....

Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., (NYSE: YUM), is seeking to purchase the Liberty Bell. If the sale goes through, the the historic artifact would be renamed the "Taco Liberty Bell", and displayed in front of their corporate headquarters. Taco Bell is the nation’s leading Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain serving tacos, burritos, signature Quesadillas, Border Bowls®, nachos and other specialty items. Taco Bell serves more than 35 million consumers each week in more than 6,500 restaurants in the U.S. In 2003, Taco Bell generated sales of $1.6 billion in company restaurants and $3.8 billion in franchise...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - news) said Charlie Bell, who stepped down as the fast-food chain's chief executive in November to focus on his battle with cancer, died on Monday in his hometown of Sydney, Australia.

"The morning air was bitter cold as I manned my red Salvation Army kettle in front of Columbia, South Carolina's Richland Mall. Though layered in three sweaters, an ear-warming skull-cap, and a bright red, Salvation Army apron over a heavy jacket, I found myself spending most of the pre-shopping hour huddled inside the mall's main entrance, sipping a cinnamon-flavored house blend from a local Starbucks and trying to stay warm."

Nov. 23, 2004, 7:49PM The Chronicle's Nov. 22 editorial, "Shooting the messenger / In slapping the hand of Congressman Bell, a House committee risks discouraging future ethics complaints," revealed once again the Chronicle's bias against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, which is costing the paper credibility with readers. No one believes the paper's position that the censure of lame duck Congressman Chris Bell will discourage honestly posed ethics complaints. Hopefully, it will discourage dishonest rhetoric, false accusations and mean-spirited, politically motivated charges made and timed to influence a political foe's campaign. If the Chronicle wants to write honest editorials,...

Salvation Army says no benefits for partners National panel overturns regional OKhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/11/14/MN143620.DTL Reagan's Daughter Sues Salvation Armyhttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=15258 Lawsuit Reveals Salvation Army's Neutral Position on Stem Cell ResearchThe ministry issued a statement to announce its political neutrality on stem cell research in response to allegations it rejected a speaker based on her stem cell research position http://www.christianpost.com/dbase/society/1098/section/1.htm Bush Plan Would Allow Gay Biashttp://speakout.com/activism/apstories/9932-1.html Bush Seeks to Undermine Gay Anti-Bias LawsWASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is reportedly in league with the Salvation Army, the nation's largest charitable organization, to make it easier for publicly-funded charities to ignore state and local laws that...

DeLay Statement on Unanimous Dismissal of Bell Complaint WASHINGTON- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today released the following statement: "The Ethics Committee has done the right thing in dismissing Mr. Bell's embellished allegations with bipartisan unanimity. While the allegations were dismissed, I accept the Committee's guidance. Mr. Bell displayed contempt for Congress by manipulating the ethics process in pursuit of his personal vendetta, and today's dismissal says more about Mr. Bell's conduct than it does about anything else. "The Committee was forced to complete its work in a highly divisive atmosphere fostered by politically motivated individuals and entities who...