Free Republic

I was inspired by Freeper RushIsMyTeddyBear to create the YouTube video here dramatizing President Obama's incredible callousness with regards to the metastasizing conflict in the Middle East, or "9-11-Plus-Eleven", as I term it.

Kansas City police are investigating a double shooting — apparently an attempted murder and suicide — this afternoon in the parking lot at Kauffman Stadium.

If there were still any doubts about the prowess of Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, he put them all to rest Wednesday in the biggest way possible. “King Felix” has become the first pitcher in Mariners history to throw a perfect game. Twenty-seven batters up, 27 batters down. No walks. No hits. No errors. No base-runners. Nothing. Perfect. Hernandez threw 12 strikeouts in his masterpiece on the mound. In just the 23rd perfect game in Major League Baseball history, Hernandez shut down the Tampa Bay Rays in a 1-0 victory at Safeco Field on Wednesday afternoon. It was the Mariners’ second...

NEW ORLEANS, March 29 (Reuters) - New Orleans officials unveiled a $1.06 billion plan on Thursday to rebuild their city, saying they could no longer wait for federal aid 19 months after Hurricane Katrina. The plan targets 17 "recovery zones" for commercial development, including hard hit areas such as the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East. They said the money would come from state funds and from the sale of bonds, and be spent on infrastructure repair and other projects with the hope of attracting private investment to spur new business. Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005, and caused...

A big week for Microsoft is winding down - the company's first new operating system in five years has made its debut without major hiccups. It was a launch as typical as it can get for Microsoft and very different than one of those Apple product announcements. Get the background launch story and how Apple's Vista reaction could look like.You have to admit the PC guy probably does more positive for Microsoft's image than anything Microsoft has done for the PC in a long time. But Microsoft has brought out Vista, the first really new operating system since Apple launched...

Mogadishu - Islamist gunmen shot in the air to disperse hundreds of angry Somalis on Saturday, protesting against moves by sharia courts in Mogadishu to stop them watching the World Cup. Tearing down telephone wires and hurling stones, about 300 protesters, mostly young Somalis, marched through the capital's streets in a demonstration organised by owners of the makeshift cinemas which have been airing the tournament. The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took control of Mogadishu earlier this month. It began pulling the power on television screens in public places during the France-Togo match in Mogadishu's Gubta area on Friday. "We will...

Stjepan Lizacic says he was a manly lumberjack until doctors saved his life and made him a laughing stock. The 56-year-old Croatian claims he started "enjoying housework and knitting" after doctors replaced his pickled and diseased kidney with a female kidney. Instead of enjoying a night of heavy drinking with his pals, Lizacic now prefers housework. "The kidney transplant saved my life, but they never warned me about the side effects,'' the lumberjack told his local paper. "I have developed a strange passion for female jobs like ironing, sewing, washing dishes, sorting clothes in wardrobes and even knitting." Lizacic, who...

MILWAUKEE, Wisc. (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry accused President Bush on Friday of jilting women with empty promises and said his Republican rival could learn something about hard work from their daily struggle. Courting the women's vote, the Massachusetts senator was introduced by Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the daughter of President John Kennedy, and the latest in a long line of high profile women -- including Sept. 11 widow Kristen Breitweiser and Dana Reeve, wife of the late actor Christopher Reeve -- who signed on for joint appearances. Kerry said his presidency would offer women "a fresh start" with good...

The Real Man By PAUL KRUGMAN To understand why questions about George Bush's time in the National Guard are legitimate, all you have to do is look at the federal budget published last week. No, not the lies, damned lies and statistics — the pictures.By my count, this year's budget contains 27 glossy photos of Mr. Bush. We see the president in front of a giant American flag, in front of the Washington Monument, comforting an elderly woman in a wheelchair, helping a small child with his reading assignment, building a trail through the wilderness and, of course, eating turkey...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday struck down Washington state's "blanket" primary system, saying it violates the right of political parties to have their own members choose candidates for office.

I couldn't make up this letter to the editor (below) if I tried:=== Hubert G. Locke's argument ("Even friends abroad decry America's arrogance," Sept. 27) that America is divided into two very different political cultures is easily illustrated by looking at the state-by-state results of the 2000 presidential election.Several months ago, I analyzed these numbers from the 13 states associated with the historical Confederacy (Kentucky and Missouri -- which, granted, did not secede but did send representatives to the Confederate Congress -- along with Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas) and contrasted...

Ellen Goodman continues her willful broadside against tax rebates in my hometown newspaper, the Boston Glob(e). Those of you with strong stomachs may attempt to view the entire article by clicking on the above link. Here are the lowlights: Ms. Goodman, in the best "blank-out" tradition of an Ayn Rand antagonist, manages to combine this piece of verborrhea: But some worried that funding their personal public policy would only please those counterrevolutionaries - dare we call them reactionaries? - who believe that individuals can replace government. (We won't ASK where she was in history class) with the following flabby rhetoric: ...