Free Republic

HE may be living in a Bracknell council house, but soon he could be dining with his brother at the White House. The Sun was the first newspaper to track down and speak to Bernard Obama, 37. And he said of Democrat candidate Barack: “I’m very proud of my big brother. “It’s quite a funny feeling that he might be the next President of the USA.”

An astrophysicist claims to know the true source of a strange grouping of lights that appeared in the Arizona night sky 11 years ago. Dr. James R. Bartzen said he has indisputable proof that the so-called "Phoenix Lights" were a product of secret man-made technology being shielded from the public. He works at the Russian-American Institute of Space Science. "There are no theories, there is only evidence," Bartzen told ABC15. "The government desires people to believe in space aliens so they don't have to reveal the technologies that both we and the Russians have."

Anyone fascinated by UFO sightings will be disappointed to learn that a leading expert has dismissed suggestions we have ever been visited by aliens from outer space. There may be life out there, apparently, but it is just too far to get to Earth by spaceship. Following reported sightings of UFOs there has been renewed speculation that aliens may be watching us. But Dr Christian Kaiser, of the University of Southampton, said it is unlikely any can have made it this far.

Now that they’ve taken down everyone from the Scientologists to Paris Hilton, have South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker run out of targets? (Hey, Rob Reiner: Watch your back!) Interview by Mickey Rapkin You did an episode about Paris Hilton, in which she opens up a retail store called Stupid Spoiled Whore. Why pick on Paris? Trey Parker: Okay, for me, she’s a whore. Whatever. She’s a dumb, ugly whore. But then I walked into a Guess? store, and she was all over the place. I’m like, Wait a minute, they’re treating her like a glamorous model now?...

A child porn suspect turned himself in to the police after mistaking an email generated by a prolific internet worm for an official notice he was under investigation. The unnamed 20-year-old German man mistook a message produced by the Sober-Z worm for an email from Germany's Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Crime Office) supposedly telling him his visits to illegal websites had been logged. He went to police in the city of Paderborn who charged the man after reportedly recovering images of child abuse from his computer. "It just goes to show that computer worms aren't always destructive," a police spokesman told Reuters....

The World Equestrian Games, an international event expected to draw up to 300,000 people over two weeks, will be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2010. The Federation Equestre Internationale, meeting in Bahrain, picked the Horse Park over the only other finalist, the Normandy region of France, the Herald-Leader learned from French newspaper, Ouest France. Associated Press confirmed the news minutes later. A team of five Kentuckians flew to Bahrain over the weekend to make their final presentation today to the FEI. The team was led by John Nicholson, Horse Park executive director, and John Long, CEO of the...

Is there any real-time chat place for FReepers-like Mirc or Yahoo or anything?

CONCORD — Former presidential candidate Howard Dean returned to New Hampshire Wednesday in his latest role as Democratic National Committee chairman. His message: It's time for Democrats to return to the White House. Dean greeted the party faithful at a fundraiser at the Common Man restaurant, shook hands and continued his 50-state strategy tour to energize Democrats by reaching out to the party base. With the next presidential election still three years away and no clear Democratic frontrunner, Dean stressed the importance of grassroots organization in an effort to remove Republicans from power in the nation's capital. "The burden of...

I imagine that Revenge of the Sith is very much the film Lucas's fans want to see, but are some of them ready for an anti-Bush diatribe? Though every Star Wars film until now has existed in an insular comic-book world, a lot has happened since 1999 and 2002 in the real world and Lucas dares, for the first time, to address how the hollow political conflict in his franchise correlates with the reality outside its panels. (It would have been stupid not to strike a parallel.) Revenge of the Sith's two greatest moments tap into the uncertainty of our...

WASHINGTON (AP) - An al-Qaida terror suspect detained in England was sent to the United States in early 2001 by the principal architect of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings to perform surveillance on economic targets in New York, according to U.S. officials and government interviews with other captured terror suspects. They said the suspect claimed he has associates in America, possibly in California. Abu Eisa al-Hindi was arrested in a roundup last week in Britain along with 11 others. The disclosure that al-Hindi also was known as Issa al-Britani provides tantalizing details that further link al-Hindi to recent Bush administration...

US Customs and US Commerce agents, assisted by Kentucky State police, raided two Lexington locations of Galls Incorporated Wednesday morning. Details are sketchy so far, but sources tell LEX 18 News that over 30 agents are involved in the investigations, which are taking place at two Galls locations - offices on Palumbo Drive and the factory/showroom on Russell Cave Road. Sources tell LEX 18 that employees at the Russell Cave Road location were told to leave the premises while leaving work areas as-is, and that employees at the Palumbo Road location have all been moved to a single room. According...