Free Republic

How does FasTrak™ work?As your vehicle enters the toll lane, the transponder (1) that is mounted on your vehicle's windshield is read by the antennae (2). As your vehicle passes through, your FasTrak™ account is charged the proper amount. Feedback is provided to you on an electronic display (3). If your vehicle does not have a transponder, the system classifies you as a violator and cameras take photos of your vehicle and your license plate for processing. There are eight bridges in the Bay Area which collect tolls. What percentage of the tolls goes to the employment of the...

Tancredo's "off-cuff" talk off the wall By Diane Carman Denver Post Columnist Colorado U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo was just talking "off-cuff." It was "an extremely hypothetical situation." Everybody knows he's the kind of guy who "thinks out loud." I was positively dizzy from the spin. It was as if press secretary Will Adams was channeling Scott McClellan. "You're talking about bombing Mecca," the WFLA-AM talk-show host in Florida said to Tancredo on Friday. "Yeah," said the Littleton Republican, who's never been accused of sensitivity. Adams tried to equivocate: There's a "widespread misconception about what he said. Congressman Tancredo is not...

Broken 'Jukebox'Former Fisherman's Wharf musical icon only lives in street now Before he disappeared, he was the Automatic Human Jukebox, that famous Fisherman's Wharf street performer from the 1970s and '80s who once compared his popularity to that of the Golden Gate Bridge. His wacky act, where he popped out of a phone booth-sized cardboard box and played the trumpet, was featured in San Francisco guidebooks and mentioned in Penthouse magazine and the Wall Street Journal. He also appeared on "The Mike Douglas Show," "Charles Kuralt on the Road" and "To Tell the Truth." Now, after years of anonymity, the...

PHILIP MELLMAN 1922. A life-long Wobbly, Phil Mellman fell victim to the Criminal Syndicalism Law passed in many states during World War I to contain the Industrial Workers of the World. I joined the IWW in '22. I joined in California and was arrested in Sacramento that year when police raided one of our meetings. All present were tried under the California Criminal Syndicalism Act. There were no specific charges, just that we were members of the IWW - that's all. I was my own lawyer because the verdict was a foregone conclusion. At the end, the judge said, "any...

Mosaic inspired image of England's favourite saintBy Norman Hammond, Archaeology CorrespondentTHE earliest known template for the image of St George slaying the dragon has been found in Syria, archaeologists believe. A mosaic floor dating from approximately AD260 depicting the figure who became the patron saint of England has been found in the city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. Experts say that the portrait is one of the finest classical mosaics yet uncovered and may even be the source of the St George legend. George was reputedly a Roman soldier, martyred in Palestine some 1,700 years ago. The mosaic shows...

Battlefield 2 There will be doubters and naysayers who will claim that Battlefield 2 is just an incremental upgrade from its famous predecessors, or that it only offers a marginal improvement over the popular Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942. Ignore them, because they couldn't be more wrong. EA and Digital Illusions' cutting-edge and highly awaited sequel is everything that it's supposed to be and more. Battlefield 2 is a thrilling testament to how great PC gaming can be. It packs unmatched gameplay, impressive visuals, and endless replayability in one exquisite package. And it's, by far, the most fun that...

George Felos: Acid Head and Death Lawyer IN SOME WAYS I REGRET being so obsessed with the Death-Shyster of Florida, but the more I read of the excerpts from his book, the weirder he becomes. In this choice morsel we have to consider that much of his work has been an acid flashback: Felos writes that although he experienced his "initial spiritual awakening in my early twenties, I had spent the last few years of my mid-thirties backsliding." (47) Described as "a superconscious experience," Felos writes, "I was drunk with God" resulting in the inability to walk on his own...

Pepper-sprayed Humboldt activists awarded $1 each by jury By JUSTIN M. NORTON, Associated Press Writer Thursday, April 28, 2005 Humboldt County and Eureka law enforcement officers were found liable Thursday of using excessive force when they swabbed pepper spray on the eyes of nonviolent logging protesters during a 1997 protest. The jury only awarded the eight plaintiffs $1 each in the case. The was the third trial after the first two ended in deadlocked juries in 1998 and 2004. The plaintiffs laughed and hugged in the courthouse hallways after the verdicts were read and applauded when jurors left their chambers....

Turn on, tune in, log on The PC and the Internet sprang from pot-smoking, acid-dropping California dreamers Reviewed by Ian Garrick MasonSunday, April 24, 2005 What the Dormouse Said How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry By John Markoff VIKING; 310 PAGES; $25.95 In the world of high technology, a visionary is a person whose obsessively held hunch happens to come true. For everyone else, fate holds either obscurity, or, for an unlucky few, habitual derision, as with Digital Equipment Corp. founder Ken Olsen, who has been unfairly held up as an example of technological cluelessness ever since...

Guard arrested in man’s death Felon illegally working at Walgreens shot shoplifting suspect, police say By JOHN DIEDRICHjdiedrich@journalsentinel.com Posted: April 18, 2005 Alexander Mitchell: Shooting victim leaves behind four children A convicted felon with a long, violent history who was working illegally as a security guard at Walgreens shot and killed an unarmed man accused of stealing sunglasses Sunday night, prompting a state investigation.The 53-year-old guard - identified on a police arrest record as Sam Gwin Jr. - was carrying the gun illegally and concealed it from shoppers and employees at the store in the 3500 block of W. Wisconsin...

From socialism to sex shortages Bad news for Europe • April 19, 2005 | 2:19 AM ET I offended my co-blogger Eric Alterman a while back by linking to studies suggesting that Sweden's economic performance was pretty weak compared to that in America, and that it made a poor policy-model for those advocating higher taxes and more government programs. Well, there's more bad news for Sweden, and for Eric, as Bruce Bawer reported in The New York Times this weekend that the picture is grim not only for Sweden, but for all of Europe -- and it seems to be...

Posted on Fri, Mar. 18, 2005 Efforts to stop removal of woman's feeding tube failFLORIDA: After federal and state attempts to delay a judge's order, Terri Shiavo's life support is expected to be withdrawn today.BY ABBY GOODNOUGH AND CARL HULSENEW YORK TIMES MIAMI - Despite last-ditch efforts by Republicans in Washington and Tallahassee, Congress and the Florida Legislature failed to pass measures Thursday to halt the removal of a feeding tube from Terri Schiavo, a critically brain-damaged woman, this afternoon.Judge George Greer of Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court has ordered the tube removed at 1 p.m., potentially ending the seven-year legal...

Police dogs wired for action Monday, March 7, 2005 Posted: 1650 GMT (0050 HKT) (CNN) -- The police dogs in Northumbria, in the northeast of England, could be among the best-dressed and most tech-savvy canines in the world.Not only do they have their own protective footwear, they also wear miniature cameras during building searches, which send back images off site to police officers.The idea to give the dogs protective footwear was inspired by Fire Search and Rescue dogs in Britain, who also wear the boots to protect their feet from broken glass during fires.Made by Oregon-based company Ruff Wear, which...

Historical Context of the Bisbee Deportation "How it could have happened in a civilized country I'll never know. This is the only country it could have happened in. As far as we're concerned, we're still on strike!" - Fred Watson The Bisbee Deportation was still fresh in Fred Watson's mind when interviewed 60 years later. This is not surprising, because on July 12, 1917, Watson and 1,185 other men were herded into filthy boxcars by an armed vigilante force in Bisbee, Arizona, and abandoned across the New Mexico border. The Bisbee Deportation of 1917 was not only a pivotal...

Dear Friend, President Bush is committed to keeping the promise of Social Security for today's seniors while strengthening Social Security for our children. In his State of the Union speech the President discussed his plan to save Social Security for younger workers by allowing them the choice to set aside portions of their salary in personal accounts so they can start creating their own nest egg for retirement. The Social Security benefits for those at or near retirement will not change. Unless we act now, Social Security will be bankrupt by the time our children retire. To help educate the...

LETTER FROM A FARM KID, NOW AT DIEGO MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT Dear Ma and Pa: I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before maybe all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6a.m., but am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed...

'The Crazy Frog sound? That's my fault.' By Giles Wilson BBC News Magazine The sight of a strange blue-grey frog with a helmet and goggles, revving up an imaginary motorbike while making an infuriating "ding ding dididing" noise, is familiar to much of the country. In fact to most of them it's too familiar... far, far too familiar. Adverts for the Crazy Frog mobile phone ringtone have played hundreds of times on certain TV channels over the past few weeks; it has earned an estimated £10m, and according to the company selling it, is the most successful ringtone in the...

Assembly settles sex complaint Ex-aide accepts $118,000 to end case alleging hostile environment. By Jim Sanders -- Bee Capitol BureauPublished 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 8, 2005 A former aide who complained that Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn created a hostile work environment, partly by discussing intimate details of her sex life, has been paid more than $118,000 by the California Assembly to resolve the matter. Erika Weaver-Taylor received more than $66,000 in salary for 10 months of paid administrative leave, which ended Dec. 31. The settlement includes nearly $52,000 for legal fees, health benefits, and severance and vacation pay, according to...

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Reinventing themselves is Democrats' next task WASHINGTON - No longer can Democrats console themselves with the 2000-vintage battle cries that the Supreme Court stole the election or their guy got more votes or millions of people were disenfranchised. This time, after an election in which President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry by 3.6 million votes and the Republicans expanded their majority in Congress, there is no sweet solace for Democratic leaders or activists. "The Democrats had no theme in this election," said Marshall Wittman, a former aide to Republican Sen. John McCain who is a fellow with the centrist Democratic...