Free Republic

Has partisan politic hit an all-time low? On Monday, mega-star Oprah Winfrey uses her influence on her show to elicit support for Senate bill 1738 [S. 1738] - a bill designed to help tackle the horrors of child pornography and exploitation. Yet, the full story on S. 1738, known as The Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007, was not provided to the public. Whether it was politically motivated or a case of being under-informed, Oprah is criticized, by at least one Republican, for not giving the full story on Senate bill 1738.

IN A MATTER of seconds, protest chants fell silent and cops' stone-faced glares faded. Suddenly, it wasn't about power and activism or who was right or wrong outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center yesterday afternoon. It was about one man, a cop of 19 years, who crumpled to the street and died apparently of a heart attack after a standoff between a blue line of cops and a corps of drum-banging idealists fighting the biotech industry came to a head. Paris Williams, 52, who worked in the Civil Affairs Unit, lay motionless on asphalt as cops bent over him on Arch...

Flowers and a melancholy note from grieving family members wilted in the rain on a telephone poll at the corner of Nesper Street and Ryan Avenue in Mayfair yesterday, just a few yards from where a young mother was fatally injured last month. Sarah McGinley, 18, was pinned by an out-of-control car on her fiance's front lawn on April 17, just seconds after she tossed her 1-year-old daughter to safety. She died from her injuries a few hours later. Yesterday morning, the District Attorney's Office announced it was filing charges against the driver, Megan Miller, 15, and her father, Richard...

D.C. debut set for April 3 charity game against Mets President George W. Bush has accepted the Nationals' invitation to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the regular-season home opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 14 at RFK Stadium, club president Tony Tavares confirmed on Thursday. President Bush, an avid baseball fan and former co-owner of the Rangers, will become the first president to throw out the first pitch in Washington, D.C., since Richard Nixon. "The president has told me he will [throw out the first pitch]," Tavares said. "It's outstanding. I've seen [presidents] throw the first pitch...

Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said irrespective of the outcome of US presidential elections, his country will remain a friend of the United States and appreciate its support, in an interview published on Wednesday. "Whoever wins will be our friend," Allawi said in reference to the contest between US President George W Bush and Democrat challenger Senator John Kerry. "The United States have freed us from a dictator, from a very long period of war and agony," he said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica. "We will always be grateful to America for what it has...

By JONDI GUMZ and CATHY REDFERN Sentinel staff writers Scotts Valley police say they have no suspects in a case of campaign vandalism at the county’s Republican headquarters. A chunk of concrete was tossed through the glass door at 5610 Scotts Valley Drive, knocking down a life-size cardboard poster of President Bush, some time after volunteers locked up at 8 p.m. Friday. When workers returned at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, they found the door frame broken and two windows smashed. "Emotionally it’s a blow," said Jane Armstrong of the Santa Cruz County Republican Central Committee. "I like to believe this is...

CHICAGO - The City of Chicago Hired Truck scandal got one step closer to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley today. One the biggest guns in the 11th Ward the home turf of the Daley clan for two generations, was the sixth man to be arrested. Donald Tomczak, former first deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Water Management Department, was arrested today on charges of mail fraud and bribery charges stemming from the ongoing public corruption investigation of the city’s Hired Truck Program. Two weeks ago, Tomczak, 69, was identified only as retired “Official A” in the complaint against Gerald Wesolowski, who was arrested...

TULSA, Okla. -- Six puppies were killed, apparently by fireworks placed in their mouths, shortly after teenage boys were seen carrying Roman candles in a north Tulsa neighborhood. Animal control officers said they were following leads Tuesday but had no suspects in Sunday night's attacks, during which one person told police they heard a puppy yelp. An older dog, a 4.5-month-old black Labrador mix, suffered burns on her muzzle and hindquarters from apparently being used as a moving target for fireworks. The Tulsa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was caring for the injured dog and for the...

42 Problems with the Video and Official Story 1] Berg had connections to al Qaeda terrorists strong enough to be questioned by the FBI. His email was used by accused terrorist Zacharias Moussaoui. 2] The United States and the Iraqi police detained Berg for 13 days, not releasing him until his father filed suit. He was detained as a suspected Israeli spy. The US now denies it had anything to do with the detention despite correspondence to the contrary. The Iraqi police also deny any involvement in his detention. They are playing hot potato with it. 3] When Berg was...

URBANA, Ill. - A University of Illinois research team is working on turning pig manure into a form of crude oil that could be refined to heat homes or generate electricity. Years of research and fine-tuning are ahead before the idea could be commercially viable, but results so far indicate there might be big benefits for farmers and consumers, lead researcher Yanhui Zhang said. "This is making more sense in terms of alternative energy or renewable energy and strategically for reducing our dependency on foreign oil," said Zhang, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. "Definitely, there is potential...

On April 23, in Peoria, Illinois, three peace activist groups, including Rachel Corrie's parents, intend to protest the manufacture of Caterpillar bulldozers that are bought by Israel. The details of the protest are in the below pro-palestinian propaganga: Event: Stop Cat demonstration at CAT headquarters in Peoria www.peacechicago.org Description: Buses from Chicago and the surrounding area are being organized, for tickets contact me at matt@stopcat.org Our plans for April 23rd are to meet at Bradley Park (1700 Park Ave) in Peoria at Noon for a short rally, then march to CAT headquarters and demand that James Owens, the current CEO,...

ST. LOUIS - Illinois and Missouri rank among the states with the most anti-business legal climates, according to a study by the nation's largest business organization. Missouri dropped to 41st from 33rd in 2003 in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranking announced Monday. Illinois fell to 44th from 38th, chamber president Thomas J. Donohue said during a news conference in Springfield, Ill. Dan Mehan, president and chief executive of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, blamed Missouri's tumbling ranking on, among other things, the lack of adequate tort reform, including caps on punitive damages. "Talk to Missouri employers as I do,...

Do an employer's property rights trump the constitutional right to bear arms when it comes to workers transferring guns between their vehicles in a publicly accessible parking lot? That question and others related to the September 2000 firing of three America Online Inc. employees in Ogden were taken under advisement by the Utah Supreme Court following oral arguments Monday. At issue is an appeal by former AOL employees Paul Carlson, Luke Hansen and Jason Melling to a 2nd District Court ruling that upheld their terminations for violating company policy against possession of firearms on AOL's property. The three had sued...

Four years after adopting a platform demanding a government crackdown on guns, Democratic presidential candidates this year are back peddling from a decade of party support for federal regulation of firearms. John Kerry, frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, repeatedly notes in his speeches that he is a hunter, and Wesley Clark says that he has "20-some odd guns in the house." Howard Dean suggests gun laws should be left to states to decide, and Joseph Lieberman has repudiated a 2000 campaign pledge by his running mate Al Gore to license anyone buying a gun. These views represent a shift...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A media watchdog group is accusing ABC News of biased coverage about abortion and the March for Life, where more than 100,000 people gathered to mourn the Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortion. While ABC on Thursday night gave a few seconds of air time to Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark's clarification of his position in favor of abortion, it blacked out any coverage of the March for Life. Instead, ABC's web site featured two articles with a decidedly pro-abortion viewpoint, notes Jessica Anderson of the Media Research Center. "'Christian Terrorists': Anti-Abortionist Calls for Violence, Says...

A Chicago-area homeowner who shot a burglar in his home - only to be charged with gun violations - has spurred gun groups and lawmakers into action. The Illinois State Rifle Association is backing legislation that would shield law-abiding citizens from prosecution under "politically motivated gun control laws." SB 2165, sponsored by Sen. Ed Petka (R-Plainfield), is intended to protect individuals who are charged with breaking municipal gun laws - if the individual used the gun in the act of defending himself or someone else. The bill was drafted in response to a controversial shooting in Wilmette, a Chicago suburb,...

The Left Says:"The 1980s were "a time of Reaganomics, burgeoning yuppies, and the Decade of Greed." Source: Source: Matt Lauer, NBC Today Show, December 30, 2003, as cited by the Media Research Center's CyberAlert of December 31, 2003. What Conservatives Think:Conservatives think it is odd that economic growth when a conservative is president is called "greed," while economic growth when a liberal is president is called "prosperity." Nonetheless, here are facts about the 1980s: From 1982 through 1989, the years President Reagan's economic policies were in effect, corporate contributions to charities grew an average of 10 percent per year, outstripping...

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt Jan. 6 — Searchers have located one of the "black box" flight data recorders from a crashed charter jet but it was too deep to be immediately retrieved, a French official said Tuesday. Rear Adm. Jacques Mazars told reporters at the popular resort that more advanced equipment was needed to retrieve the box, which was believed to be 1,970 to 2,620 feet below the sea's surface. "What is important for us is to retrieve one of the boxes," he said. A robot submarine sent by the French can operate no deeper than 1,320 feet. The seabed in...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says former Gov. Howard Dean and other Vermont officials violated federal law by releasing secret protection plans for its nuclear power plant in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The NRC's charge had Vermont officials scrambling to impoundtop-secret nuclear documents the Democratic presidential front-runner wrongly made public. Some of the documents regarding the Vermont Yankee nuke plant include so-called ``safeguards information,'' which is to be released under ``need to know requirements and . . . not publicly releasable,'' said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. The documents are included in files Dean made public - even...