Free Republic

At least Ryan Lochte did not try to blame Colin Powell.

During the first hour, actor Gary Sinise talks about his Foundation dedicated to serving the U.S. by honoring its defenders, veterans, & first responders.

'That's how men talk,' GOP challenger West says as Democrat Rep. Klein slams his references to 'Gestapo,' 'butt-whoopin' * * * Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein says Republican challenger Allen West's campaign rhetoric is often "extreme" and "threatening" and "offensive." West says Klein needs to "man up." * * * . . . West recently called the taping "Gestapo-type intimidation tactics" by foes out to distort his positions. Klein said the reference to Hitler's secret police showed "appalling disrespect to Holocaust victims and survivors." Klein's campaign recently posted footage from March in which West calls Islam "a totalitarian theocratic political...

4th DCA kills cane cutters’ appeal over wages Sugar cane cutters’ 21-year effort to sue for back wages hit another roadblock Wednesday when the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld a decision requiring each worker to post a $100 bond to sue in small claims court. A split three-judge panel ruled a Palm Beach Circuit appellate panel acted within its discretion when workers challenged a section of the 1838 state Constitution requiring nonresidents to post the bond when filing lawsuits. The decision is just the latest setback for farmworkers trying to sue for back wages since 1989. About 1,500 workers,...

Bracing BrewBring on the Tea Parties! By MYRON MAGNET From City Journal The Tea Party movement is a healthy reminder that the United States began as a tax revolt. From the 1765 Stamp Act Congress, when the American colonists first called their representatives together to declare their "undoubted right . . . that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent," to the Boston Tea Party eight years later . . . (Excerpt) Read more at: the Wall Street Journal. The article includes a quote from our leader: Summing up a universal Tea Party sentiment, Freerepublic.com founder...

HERE'S THE STORY IN PRINT FORM: Allegations of inappropriate e-mails; Kevin King By: Mike Deeson St. Petersburg, Florida – Some Florida Democrats called Kevin King a rising star amongst the ranks of Democrats, but others, like the head of the Pinellas Democratic Party, Ed Helm, had doubts. King was arrested in 2001. A judge ordered the St. Petersburg Police Department to seal all records regarding the arrest. King admits that the arrest stems from when he was a substitute teacher. He was arrested for computer solicitation to commit a lewd and lascivious act and two counts of contributing to the...

SENTINEL SPECIAL REPORT Tax-funded sports chief's pay tops $230,000 A veteran Central Florida lawmaker has built his day job running a nonprofit agency into a publicly subsidized post that has paid him more than $230,000 a year. State Rep. Randy Johnson, R-Celebration, a candidate for the position of chief financial officer in the state Cabinet, has been president of the Central Florida Sports Commission since 1995. The commission was created two years earlier to recruit everything from rural bass-fishing tourneys to bicycle races to the region. An Orlando Sentinel review of 13 years of commission finances shows that by 2003,...

Tabloid's Deal With Woman Shielded Schwarzenegger By Peter Nicholas and Carla Hall, Times Staff Writers SACRAMENTO — Days after Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor and girded for questions about his past, a tabloid publisher wooing him for a business deal promised to pay a woman $20,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement about an alleged affair with the candidate. American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, signed a friend of the woman to a similar contract about the alleged relationship for $1,000. American Media's contract with Gigi Goyette of Malibu is dated Aug. 8, 2003, two days...

This is excerpted from posted comments by North Korean refugees learning English in Seoul. The teacher who passed on their comments from his students is an Australian, Brendan Brown. "9) What do North Koreans think of the U.S. government? The American people? Perhaps the most surprising responses here. While taught from kindergarten to hate everything about the U.S. and its people, while in North Korea there is no deviating from that position. Class did make a difference in people's perceptions though. Mrs. C., a journalist from Pyongyang before being sent to a rural area explained that those privileged few with...

British military thinking, Lt Col Bathurst conceded, had changed in Iraq, moving closer to the American concept of overwhelming force. Orthodox peacekeeping would, he said, "fail from the outset. Strength is respected here. If anything, we've shifted more than the Americans."

CONFABULATION Written By Michael Kopelman, Professor of Neuropsychiatry, Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’s School of Medicine, King’s College, University of London. Confabulation is the phenomenon whereby patients with memory disorders may produce false memories. For example, the patient may tell you in graphic detail how his or her parents visited last night, and later you discover that the mother died four years ago and the father died twenty years ago! The person is not aware that they are producing false memories. Confabulation is sometimes sub-divided into two types. 'Spontaneous confabulation' refers to confabulation in which the patient tells you spontaneously...