Free Republic

Right now, there are 2,308 parties planned. On the evening of December 7th, 2003, thousands of people around the country will gather to watch and discuss the new documentary Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War. Together, we'll strengthen the MoveOn community, get the truth out, and raise some money to make sure that people in key battleground states know the real story about how we went to war.

If NASA is forced to abandon the international space station temporarily because of deteriorating health conditions for the crew on board, there is a high risk of losing the $30 billion orbital laboratory, NASA officials and astronauts said yesterday. "We've done some analysis, and it shows that we have a fairly high probability that if we have the wrong components fail, and there's not a crew on board to change it out, we could have [the] station in a degrading manner," space station program manager William H. Gerstenmaier told reporters in a teleconference yesterday from Russia. He was there to...

The Associated Press CONCORDIA -- Twenty years ago a group of Roman Catholic nuns risked jail, community outrage and the wrath of their own government by declaring their home a sanctuary for those fleeing Guatemala's civil war. Over two years, the Sisters of St. Joseph housed about 40 people -- mostly poor Mayan Indians -- at Manna House of Prayer in Concordia. The people eventually moved on, one family going to Chicago, others to Salina and some eventually went back to Guatemala. One elderly woman died and is buried in a nearby cemetery. The towns of Concordia and Salina...

Click HERE^ to see Iraqi weapons site.

War with Iraq -- Going it alone Going it alonePresident Bush has determined to go it alone against Iraq. At this point, we can only hope and pray that he is doing the right thing. By The Capital-Journal editorial board President Bush has declared that diplomacy has come to an end, so war with Iraq is just days, maybe even hours, away. As he promised, Bush has decided that the United States will go it alone, without U.N. approval, which obviously was not going to happen. Only Great Britain and Spain support the U.S. mission.Anyone who has listened to...

'Win Without War' Releases New Talking Points (2003-02-25) -- Win Without War, the coalition of organizations planning a "virtual march" on Washington, D.C., this week released a new list of talking points to guide people who call the capitol to protest disarming Iraq through threat-of-force. The group encourages callers to use their own "heartfelt" words instead of compelling, thought-out reasons. Here is an excerpt from the talking points list: We can disarm Saddam Hussein without invading Iraq. Despite 12 years of failing to do so, I just feel that we can.A U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would be the greatest terrorist...

For the next two years, a former parochial school teacher in Wichita will have the government watching his every move on the Internet, as part of a plea agreement in a rare federal obscenity case against him. Jeffrey Klazura, 30, was sentenced for possessing two pictures of adult women posing nude on his home computer.He was ordered to provide passwords to the government. And federal probation officers can check his computer at any time, or attach software to let them watch his online activity. If he goes to the wrong site, he could be sentenced to prison."I'm not familiar with...

REPORT: LIBERAL MONEY DONORS DESIRE TALKRADIO NETWORK; UPSTART MAY FEATURE AL FRANKEN... DEVELOPING...

Opinion A lot has happened since my Right to Defend column in SecurityFocus Onlinr last July, and the subsequent presentation I made at the Blackhat Security Briefings in Las Vegas. The idea has withstood a lot of criticism. To refresh, I believe you should have the right to neutralize a worm process running on someone else's infected system, if it's relentlessly attacking your network. I've even written code to demonstrate the process. Though the initial news coverage of the concept was grossly inaccurate in conveying my ideas, it has stirred up a constructive dialog. I knew my idea was...

According to a report published November 12 by Aberdeen Group^, "Security advisories for open source and Linux software accounted for 16 out of the 29 security advisories - about one of every two advisories - published for the first 10 months of 2002 by Cert (www.cert.org^, Computer Emergency Response Team)." Aberdeen says Microsoft products have had no new virus or trojan horse advisories in the first 10 months of 2002, while Unix, Linux, and Open Source software went from one in 2001 to two in the first 10 months of 2002, that in the same 2002 time period "networking...

The Associated Press Westar Energy Inc.'s top executive and the president of a Topeka bank were indicted by a federal grand jury on fraud charges, U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren announced today. David Wittig, Western's chairman, president and chief executive officer, faces four counts of submitting false entries, books, reports or statements to a federally insured bank; one count of conspiracy and one count of money laundering. The indictment also alleges in a separate count that the government is owed $1.5 million because of the alleged actions.There was no indication that the indictment involved Westar's business matters. Westar is the...

<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) --A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a research satellite exploded seconds after blast-off, killing one person in a setback that could hit the international space station program, officials said on Wednesday.</p> <p>The 300-ton unmanned Soyuz-U rocket exploded 29 seconds after take-off from Russia's Arctic Plesetsk cosmodrome late on Tuesday, its blazing debris showering onto the launchpad, an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said.</p>

KRT) - Capt. Pat Gerlach is celebrating his 48th birthday in the wheelhouse of the towboat Lauren D. He is thrilled with a gift that has come his way. "The good Lord is looking out for me. He sent me a little water for my birthday," says Gerlach, pushing barges laden with fertilizer upriver to Kansas City.In fact, it was the Army Corps of Engineers that dispatched the extra water into the Missouri River after a monthlong standoff with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over protecting the nests of endangered birds.The episode was the latest example of threats...

Authorities are transporting a suspicious brown leather suitcase to a firing range today after it was discovered in the lobby of a Topeka post office. Employees notified the Topeka Police Department at 9:34 a.m. that an unattended suitcase had been left in the post office lobby, 424 S. Kansas Ave. Employees were evacuated from the building and traffic was prohibited on South Kansas Avenue from Fourth Street to Sixth Street. Workers also were evacuated from businesses facing the post office. At about 12:15 p.m., authorities began allowing traffic through the area, although employees hadn't been allowed to return to...

<p>McCALLEN, Texas — Seventy people are undergoing decontamination after being exposed to an unidentified substance that arrived in the mail.</p> <p>Authorities say two employees opened envelopes containing the substance at the offices of Hotels.com, next to a Sam's Club department store.</p>

NATIONAL Light, mobile weapons win over lumbering tanks By LANCE GAYScripps Howard News ServiceAugust 14, 2002WASHINGTON - The days of the Army's main battle tank are coming to an end. There is no longer a threat from the former Soviet Union to pour tanks into the plains of Western Europe through Germany's Fulda Gap, and there is no industrialized nation putting together a tank army that's a threat to the United States. U.S. Army Gen. Eric Shinseki last month signed off on the Army's latest battle plan for the future, dubbed "Objective Force," which will feature equipment that can be...

ISS Flyover Spectacular Tonight   This is flyover data for Topeka, Kansas. Your's will vary based on your frame of reference. Go to http://www.heavens-above.com and enter your coordinates for exact info for your area.   Event Time Altitude Azimuth Distance (km) Rises above horizon 20:48:27 0° 309° (NW ) 2,264 Reaches 10° altitude 20:50:31 10° 311° (NW ) 1,409 Maximum altitude 20:53:38 77° 33° (NNE) 396 Enters shadow 20:56:46 10° 125° (SE ) 1,395 Time vs. location data below.

Confederate raider William Quantrill burned Lawrence to the ground 139 years ago. But before he did, he and Bishop John Miege had a face-to-face confrontation. Kansas City artist Ernst Ulmer painted this depiction of Quantrill's raid. It is displayed in the lobby of Lawrence's downtown Eldridge Hotel. The Eldridge was burned to the ground by Quantrill's raiders. By Monte Mace Leaven Staff LAWRENCE - Confederate raider William Clarke Quantrill and his men sacked and burned much of this town 139 years ago.And its citizens still haven't forgotten. In fact, for the past seven years, the city has hosted a...

OLATHE -- Gov. Bill Graves has jumped into a controversy over a campaign ad attacking the attorney general candidate he has endorsed in the Republican primary. "This ad is dragging Kansas into the politics of personal destruction," Graves told reporters Monday. The ad by the Law Enforcement Alliance of America attacks Sen. David Adkins, of Leawood. It ties Wichita murder suspect Reginald Carr's case to a 2000 law that Adkins supported while a member of the Kansas House. Adkins is opposed in next Tuesday's primary by former state Rep. Phill Kline, of Shawnee, and Topeka attorney Charles McAtee. The winner...

Congress has been working on legislation to create a militia composed of 'technology experts' who will manage the telecommunications infrastructure in times of national emergency. The Senate bill passed last week emphasizes disaster response, not terror prevention, with such things as patching leaky government servers and databases, setting aside bandwidth and developing interoperable standards for emergency communications, and organizing local teams of geeks ready to lend a hand putting it all back together in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. All that sounds quite reasonable and the initial budget of $35 million refreshingly modest. But before we...