Free Republic

And from the standpoint of Obama campaign figures, the material was gotten under false pretenses. One top Obama hand speaks of the campaign and candidate being blindsided. Fowler was a supporter, a contributor, an activist, a blogger, not a reporter. With the event closed to the press, Obama spoke with less care than he would have otherwise had he known a reporter, of any sort, was in attendance.

RICHMOND, Va. - It's up to Michael Vick now. His last two co-defendants pleaded guilty Friday and implicated Vick in bankrolling gambling on dogfights. One of them said the Atlanta Falcons quarterback helped drown or hang dogs that didn't do well. With his NFL career in jeopardy and a superseding indictment adding more charges in the works, that left Vick with a hard choice: Cutting his own deal to hold jail time under a year or go to trial and sit through detailed descriptions of the ghastly operation known as "Bad Newz Kennels."Quanis Phillips of Atlanta and Purnell Peace of...

Difficult to know whether to laugh or scream after the weekend of madness we've just been through. And it's not over yet, with the security level raised to 'critical' and another terrorist attack imminent. So let's get the laughter out of the way first, something which wouldn't have been possible had the bombers succeeded and hundreds of innocent people been killed or maimed. Mistake One as far as the jihadists were concerned was trying to set off car bombs in the West End of London. The chances of either vehicle staying put for long enough to detonate were always going...

On September 11, 2006 - two thousand nine hundred ninety six (2,996) volunteer bloggers will join together for a tribute to the victims of 9/11. Each person will pay tribute to a single victim. We will honor them by remembering their lives, and not by remembering their murderers. This thread concerns Special Agent Leonard William Hatton. The link is: Hatton biography and tribute. (If this link doesn't work, then please cut and paste into your browser.) This man was a hero that day and rescued many people before he lost his life when the South tower collapsed. I would like...

Going to church on Sunday can get your beaten or killed in some countries overseas. A number of parish priests have been slaughtered recently in Turkey for example. But who ever would expect danger from church going in Bible belt Jackson, Mississippi where the faithful flock to church every Sunday to hear the Gospel of Christ?

DIVORCE STUDY BREAKS NEW GROUND If you've been in the marriage debate for 20 years, you seldom hear something really new. But Elizabeth Marquardt (a former colleague of mine at the Institute for American Values) has just released a startlingly original study of children of divorce, "Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce" (Crown). Marquardt is a child of a good divorce herself, with parents who both continued to love, see and support her.Marquardt has two insights: The first is that suffering matters. The divorce debate has been obsessed with social science pathologies -- if you get...

Cows are also capable of feeling strong emotions such as pain, fear and even anxiety — they worry about the future. But if farmers provide the right conditions, they can also feel great happiness. The findings have emerged from studies of farm animals that have found similar traits in pigs, goats, chickens and other livestock. They suggest that such animals may be so emotionally similar to humans that welfare laws need to be rethought. Christine Nicol, professor of animal welfare at Bristol University, said even chickens may have to be treated as individuals with needs and problems. “Remarkable cognitive abilities...

Now, in our time of crisis, helpfully comes former president Jimmy Carter to pronounce that the current president -- this would be the president who actually has the job at the moment as opposed to the president who set a record for incompetence that will stand until the seas run dry when he did have the job and has been tediously nattering away at his infinitely superior successors ever since -- has erred. In the opinion of the man who presided over 400-plus days of "America Held Hostage," George W. Bush's description of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an ...

Advertise Newsletter Store Contact About Us Services Site Map Voter Services --> Judy Genshaft's Ordeal by David Tell 02/11/2002, Volume 007, Issue 21 COULD BE, back a year and a half ago, when Judy Genshaft was being recruited for the presidency of the University of South Florida, they simply forgot to mention it. You know: that Palestinian computer scientist fellow over in the College of Engineering. The one who had certain, oh, issues, let's call them. Issues that occasionally required the attention of campus, municipal, state, federal, and foreign law enforcement officers. Issues that, just maybe, involved mysterious international ...

Will the Real Dummy Please Stand Up?! PART III Los Angeles Police lucked out with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words, "Give me all your money or I'll shoot," the man shouted, "That's not what I said!" A bank robber in Virginia Beach got a nasty surprise when a dye pack designed to mark stolen money exploded in his Fruit- of-the-Looms. The robber apparently stuffed the loot down the front of his pants as he was running out the door. "He was seen ...

Bush Counselor Balances Work; Life Saturday, 14-Apr-2001 9:40AM      Story from AP / SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press (via ClariNet) WASHINGTON (AP) -- Karen Hughes grits her teeth at the old feminist slogan about ``having it all.'' But, arguably, she does: the ear of the president, an all-access pass into the Oval Office and that most elusive of prizes in workaholic Washington -- family time. As counselor to President Bush, Hughes, 44, is the most senior female aide to any modern American president and, in a White House where strategy centers on image ...

CONGRESS SANCTIONS "LETHAL FORCE" IN ROAD RAGE CASES The US Congress cleared the way for states to approve motorists' use of "lethal force" in dealing with idiot drivers. Irate driver Ray Owens of Columbus, Ohio, heralded the action by Congress. "This is truly a great day in our country. I predict a kinder, gentler, and far more productive country as soon as I blow away that idiot who's in the right turn only lane with left turn signal on." Actions that are now covered by the lethal force sanction include: ** Stopping for a yellow light. ** Driving at speeds ...

Atheist O'Hair Buried Without Prayer in Texas AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The remains of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair (news - web sites) and two of her adult children, all killed in a 1995 extortion plot, were buried last week with no religious ceremony in an unmarked Texas grave, newspapers reported Tuesday. O'Hair, 76 when she died, became the country's best known atheist when a case filed on behalf of her son William led to a 1963 Supreme Court decision banning prayer in public schools. In accordance with O'Hair's long-standing wishes, no one prayed at her burial at an undisclosed ...

SGT COLE PAGE SERGEANT DARRELL SAMUEL COLE, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE (DECEASED) On August 25 ,1941, Cole enlisted in the Marine Corps for the duration of the National Emergency, and following a boot training at Parris Island, South Carolina, he was appointed to the Field Music School for training as a Marine Corps Field Music, the equivalent of a bugler. Completing instruction, he was transferred to the First Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, and on August 7, 1942, reached the shores of Guadalcanal for the first American offensive of World War II. Not too happy in his role ...

Justice Dept: Elian Case Handled OK By Pete Yost Associated Press Writer Monday, April 24, 2000; 7:30 p.m. EDT WASHINGTON –– Trying to keep a federal court decision intact that would return Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, the Justice Department said Monday that U.S. officials have properly weighed the wishes of the 6-year-old boy's father against the asylum request from family relatives in Miami. "It would be a substantial intrusion into the realm of parental authority for a distant relative to be able to trigger government procedures concerning the parent's 6-year-old son that could seriously disrupt the parent-child relationship and ...

STRATFOR.COM Global Intelligence Update 23 March 2000 The Consequences of Russia's Looming Food Shortage Summary In the coming weeks, the Russian government will likely take extreme measures to head off the prospects of a significant food shortage for its 146 million people. Across the spectrum there are signs that Russia will not produce enough grain and meat to feed the country in the coming year. Unwilling to allow hunger, the government in Moscow will most likely tap into its currency reserves to import food from abroad. The looming food shortage will, in turn, destabilize the Russian economy and make it ...

The fix may (or may not) be in. All of you who are familiar with things like the Bilderbergers, and the rumors which swirl around this group, will remember that Bill Clinton attended the 1991 Bilderbergers conference. Then in 1992, shaazam, he's the President. The two events may be totally unrelated - who will ever know or tell - but it's something to keep in mind when pondering the actions of these people.The 1999 conference was held last summer in Sintra, Portugal. According to minutes (real or not - this stuff is really tough to verify) posted on the SchNews ...