Free Republic

It’s 4 p.m. ET as I’m writing this. If you had that time plus “deeper complicity for Holder in the Rosen investigation” in the pool, congrats.We already knew that he signed the warrant for Rosen’s e-mails. Now we know for sure that it wasn’t pro forma. President Good Government announced yesterday that he’s ordered the Attorney General to review the DOJ’s guidelines for snooping on reporters. Imagine how dismayed Eric Holder will be when he finds out what Eric Holder’s done. The Justice Department said on Friday that officials up to Attorney General Eric Holder vetted a decision to search...

A Republican will once again represent Peabody on Beacon Hill. That's the shocking outcome of Tuesday's special election in the 12th Essex District. There were three candidates vying for the seat left open by the death of Joyce Spiliotis last year. Republican Leah Cole, who is new to politics and was a longshot candidate until recently, scored a major upset and garnered 35 percent of the vote over 34 percent that went to Democrat Beverley Griffin Dunne and 31 percent for unenrolled candidate Dave Gravel. According to the City Clerk's office, total voter turnout was 20 percent or 5,351 out...

Eagles defensive end Trent Cole, a major hunting enthusiast, is snubbing a Pennsylvania sports expo because it has banned sales of certain rifles variously described as "modern sporting rifles," "tactical rifles" or "assault weapons." Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show, scheduled for Feb. 2 to 10 in Harrisburg, bills itself as "THE Sportsman Show," and was expected to draw about 200,000 visitors and feature 1,200 exhibitors. Many sportsmen, however, seem to be upset that the show's organizers have failed to fully support the constitutional right to bear arms. "Hordes of hunting industry manufacturers and TV personalities are thumbing their noses at...

Republican Rep. Tom Cole urged colleagues in a private session Tuesday to vote to extend the Bush tax rates for all but the highest earners before the end of the year — and to battle over the rest later. The Oklahoma Republican said in an interview with POLITICO that he believes such a vote would not violate Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge and that he’s not alone within Republican circles. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/84306.html#ixzz2DTsuK9Fc

Lt. General Tom McInerney told Judge Jeanine tonight that the only reason the Obama administration ordered the FBI to investigate the Benghazi attack is to stall it through the election. He says this was an act of war against the United States and if this had been assigned to the military we would have known 2 days later what happened. He adds that we know who they are and where they are and that we should have already attacked those people. Former USS Cole Commander Kirk Lippold said that the parallels between this case and the attack on the USS...

(AP) SANAA, Yemen - U.S. airstrikes targeting leaders from Yemen's active al Qaeda branch killed four suspected militants, including a man suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, officials said Tuesday. Yemeni security and military officials said missiles struck a school and a car late Monday in the southern Abyan province, which has seen large swaths fall under the influence of al Qaeda as the militants seek to exploit the security vacuum since an uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began last year. Tribal officials in the area said the strike hit the militants late Monday...

Justice for USS ColeBut why did it take so long? Last Updated: 3:48 AM, September 30, 2011 Before 9/11, there was USS Cole. On Oct. 12, 2000 terrorists loaded a small boat with explosives and set it off next to the US Navy destroyer as it sat peacefully in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 more. The alleged mastermind of the attack, Saudi-born Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, was captured in 2002. Since 2006, he’s been sitting in Gitmo, untried and unpunished. Now, more than a decade after the crime, the families of the Cole...

A Pentagon legal official has approved charges that carry a possible death penalty for a Guantanamo prisoner accused of planning the attack on the Navy destroyer Cole, the U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday. Abd al-Nashiri would face charges that include murder in violation of the law of war for allegedly planning the attack that killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 while the ship was stopping in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. The United States must now bring him before a judge within 30 days for his arraignment before a military judge at the U.S. base in Cuba. This would be...

Now more than ever, Muslim and non-Muslim Islamic apologists are making broad-based and inaccurate attacks on my scholarship and integrity; but when it comes to backing up their claims in debate with me, they suddenly get cold feet. The list of Islamic "scholars" and non-Muslim "experts" who have refused to debate me keeps growing; it now includes Ahmed Afzaal; Akbar Ahmed; Karen Armstrong; Reza Aslan; Jamal Badawi; Robert Crane; Dinesh D'Souza (although I did best him in debate at CPAC in 2007, he refuses a return engagement, perhaps sensing the outcome would be the same); Carl Ernst; John Esposito; Mark...

VIDEO:Obama Orders:Launched Fast and Furious

According to a release from Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has scheduled new hearings into the on going Operation Fast and Furious scandal — this time they’ll be talking to ATF agents based in Mexico: “Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border” will examine accounts of agents based in Mexico Washington DC– On Tuesday, July 26th, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will convene a hearing as part of the ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious, a tragically flawed effort that is connected to...

Operation Fast and Furious (F&F) – a program run by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that allowed thousands of lethal weapons to cross the Mexican border – was apparently no secret among high-level political authorities at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Among those in the know? Newly-confirmed Deputy Attorney General James Cole. Information is now seeping out about the political whiplash that secured a confirmation vote for Cole in exchange for the DOJ’s release of documents to Congress. In a supremely ironic twist, the documents ransomed by Cole’s confirmation strongly suggest that Cole himself was...

Border: A 2-year-old video shows a high Justice official saying "the president has directed us," including the attorney general, to speed up Project Gunrunner and the offshoot that got a border agent killed. This tape has no 18-minute gap, and while it does not feature the president himself, the March 24, 2009, video may rival the tape that turned a "third-rate burglary" into a presidential resignation. No one died at Watergate. Agent Brian Terry lost his life in the administration's obsessive pursuit of gun control. In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was also killed in...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) denounced President Obama for refusing to comment on a controversial gun-tracking program that is under investigation. Issa, who is the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Obama did not express the necessary “urgency” that is called for in investigating who approved of the “Fast and Furious” operation, which may have contributed to the death of at least one federal agent. At a press conference Wednesday, Obama reiterated that Attorney General Eric Holder did not order the gun-tracking program, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and...

We pay tribute to the fallen this Memorial Day on Freedom Radio as we welcome retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, former commander of the USS Cole and senior military fellow at Military Families United. Lippold is running for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District seat. Learn more about the Commander here. Freedom Radio is also proud to welcome Joe Kaufman, who is the Chairman of Americans Against Hate and the founder of "CAIR Watch". He was responsible for the closure of at least one terror-related charity and convincing a number of government officials to shun the Hamas front group, CAIR. In...

The list is lengthy. From the highly sensual Ursula Andress as Honey Rider to the electric Halle Berry as Jinx, every James Bond film is known as much for one gorgeous female character as it is for its high tech action and suave sophistication. But when it comes to the most recent selection, the casting folks hope they have broken the vault with Caterina Murino. The exotic beauty plays Solange in the latest Bond endeavor, Casino Royale, the first of Ian Fleming's wondrous Bond books. Somehow, the beautiful Murino managed only a fourth place finish in the 1996 Miss Italy...

Senate Republicans blocked a nomination by President Obama for the first time this year on Monday, when they successfully filibustered the confirmation of the White House’s pick for the No. 2 official at the Justice Department. Democrats had argued that acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole, whom Mr. Obama wanted named to the post permanently, needed full congressional backing if intelligence from terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s killing is to be fully put to use. But Republicans objected to Mr. Cole, largely over concerns about his suggestions that terrorist suspects should be tried in civilian criminal courts, not military tribunals....

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Monday blocked President Barack Obama's choice for the No. 2 job in the Justice Department and dampened talk that Osama bin Laden's death might usher in bipartisan cooperation on terrorism matters. The 50-40 vote, short of the Senate's required 60-vote threshold, sidelined Obama's monthslong drive to make official James M. Cole's position as deputy attorney general. ((snip)) Some saw the vote Monday, which Senate Democrats kept open for about 40 extra minutes, as an early sign of whether Republicans might give Obama the national security team he seeks. Only Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., crossed...

With a key test vote in the Senate on Monday, Democrats are playing the national security card in their push to get the No. 2 man at the Justice Department confirmed. Democrats argue that acting Deputy Attorney General James Cole, whom President Obama wants named to the post permanently, needs full congressional backing if the treasure trove of intelligence from Osama bin Laden’s killing can be fully put to use. “There’s a heightened need for him now, given all the new work that’s going to come forward,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said during a SenateJudiciary Committee hearing...

Austin City Council Member Sheryl Cole wants visitors flocking downtown today and through the weekend for the Texas Relays and Urban Music Festival to know that the city welcomes them and their dollars. We do, too. More than 40,000 people are expected to be in town, generating more than $8 million for the city's economy. Special events have boosted Austin's tourism business, which generates $3 billion annually for the city's economy, according to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau. snip Cole also wants to get the word out that there are plenty of things to do in addition to the...

The Twittersphere went to war with Kenneth Cole Thursday after the clothing giant used the Egypt uprising to promote its new spring collection. "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo", the company's twitter account posted at 9:58 a.m. "Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available," the tweet continued, followed by a link to their latest designs. The message sparked uproar from throngs of Twitter followers who have been closely following events in Egypt using the hashtag #Cairo.

Orange Park native Kat Cole has been promoted to president of Cinnabon Inc., which has 770 locations worldwide. Cole, a 1996 graduate of Orange Park High School, joined Atlanta-based Cinnabon three months ago as chief operating officer. Previously she served as vice president of training and development for Hooters of America Inc., after starting with that company as a Hooters’ Girl, according to the firm’s website. She received her MBA from Georgia State University.

President Obama used a recess appointment Wednesday to name James Cole as deputy attorney general. The president also recess appointed five other officials, including four ambassadors. Cole's nomination to the second-ranking post at the Department of Justice had been held up over objections from Republicans, who raised concerns over his tenure as an independent monitor of insurance giant AIG between 2005 and 2009. The federal government bailed out the company in 2008. Republican senators also quibbled with a 2002 report that Cole wrote advocating civilian trials for terror suspects. Republicans have objected to trials in civilian courts for any of...

Cyn Bird grabbed a torn piece of notebook paper to scribble the secrets spilling from her mother's mouth as she neared death: The mysterious Miami doctor named Katherine Cole who delivered and supposedly sold babies to couples. The phone call on Jan. 12, 1962, that a baby girl with sky blue eyes was available. The $2,500 price tag. After 46 years, Bird had learned the stunning truth about her birth from her mother. Bird was adopted. Illegally. ``How do you wake up at my age and realize you have no idea who you really are?'' asks Bird, a New Jersey...

It’s a sleepy Friday in late August, the president is on another vacation, Congress is out of town, no one is paying much attention. What better time for the Obama administration to pull the plug, once again, on military commissions? This time, it has halted the case of top al-Qaeda operative Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was to be prosecuted by a military court for the Cole bombing. The Washington Post report is here, and Jen Rubin has thoughts at Contentions. None of this is terribly surprising. Prosecuting the Cole case by military commission sticks in the Left’s craw because it...

The Obama administration has shelved the planned prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the Oct. 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, according to a court filing. The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed system of military commissions. And it comes practically on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attack, which killed 17 sailors and wounded dozens when a boat packed with explosives ripped a hole in the side of the warship in the port of Aden.

Obama Justice Department outrages never cease. The politically charged gang led by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is more interested in helping felons vote than in helping the military to vote. Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, has put a legislative hold on the already troubled nomination of James M. Cole to be deputy attorney general until the attorney general ensures full protection for voting rights of our military (and associated civilian personnel) stationed abroad. The senator is right to raise a ruckus. Mr. Cornyn co-authored a 2009 law mandating that states mail absentee ballots to military voters at least...

(CNSNews.com) - Despite a resolution by Congress authorizing war against those responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Obama’s nominee to be the number two official at the Justice Department, James Cole, wrote an op-ed in 2002 likening the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to the domestic crimes of murder, rape and child abuse, while arguing that the attackers ought to be treated like domestic criminals. “But the attorney general is not a member of the military fighting a war--he is a prosecutor fighting crime,” Cole wrote in a Sept. 9, 2002 article in Legal Times that critiqued the...

Obama Nominee for Deputy Attorney General Says 9/11 Attacks Not Acts of War, Likens Them to Domestic Crimes of Murder, Rape Monday, June 14, 2010 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer (CNSNews.com) - Despite a resolution by Congress authorizing war against those responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Obama’s nominee to be the number two official at the Justice Department, James Cole, wrote an op-ed in 2002 likening the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to the domestic crimes of murder, rape and child abuse, while arguing that the attackers ought to be treated like domestic criminals....

Cheryl Cole looks set to pursue her career in America after announcing her divorce from husband Ashley today. She confirmed she had lodged a petition against the England and Chelsea star in the High Court yesterday and is understood to be looking for a clean break. Mrs Cole, 26, is said to want a 'quickie' divorce and will not be asking for any of the £6m-a-year star's money. She will also let him have the £6m matrimonial home in Surrey, allowing her to move to the States when it suits. The London Evening Standard claimed today Simon Cowell is 'very...

Cole came to America with his family in 1818. With little formal training in the art of painting, Cole was recognized as a landscape artist by his mid-twenties. Beginning in about 1833, Cole maintained a studio in Catskill, New York, where he painted many landscapes of the Catskill Mountains and other areas of the Northern Appalachians. [Images of 10 Cole landscapes]

ANN ARBOR, MI – Jesse Nieto is one of those many unsung patriotic Americans. He served 25 years in the Marine Corps, including two combat tours in Vietnam.  His youngest son, Marc, and 16 of Marc’s shipmates were killed on October 12, 2000, by Islamic terrorists who bombed the USS Cole.  Nieto has worked as a civilian employee at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina since 1994. Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm J. Howard delivered good news to Mr. Nieto. He ruled that Camp Lejeune officials violated his free speech rights when they ordered him to remove...

There is a small but dedicated faction of collectors and aficionados which considers Philmore Graves to be among the best turners in the renowned group of masters of the North Carolina art pottery genre. I count myself among the Phil Graves fans, but perhaps I am biased, as I will explain.

Who made "Daison Ware?" Conventional wisdom holds that the pottery sold as Daison Ware in the 1930s and 1940s was made by various of the North Carolina Cole families, but that may not be so. Certainly, J. B. Cole's Pottery was a primary source, but there is insufficient evidence to attribute other potteries with this connection. Daison Manufacturing Corporation was a manufacturer/distributor of lamps and other housewares and was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Daison lamps were artistically-designed, quality products and occasionally turn up in estate collections. Photographs of two Daison lamps are currently available on the Smithsonian Institution's CollectionsSearchCenter. During...

Security: Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the attempted destruction of Flight 253 were released from Guantanamo two years ago. The case for indefinite detention has been made once again, and not in Illinois. Sometimes America's chickens do come home to roost. In a statement released Monday, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which counts among its leadership two former Guantanamo detainees, claimed responsibility for the attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the crotch bomber, told FBI agents he was trained for his Christmas Day mission in Yemen by top leaders of the group who provided...

Nat King Cole Christmas Music Videos. Christmas Song, O Tannenbaum, Little Town of Bethlehem, O Holy Night.

In early November, retired Senior Chief Jeffrey Sparenberg was the guest of honor at military heritage day in Delaware. Sparenberg spent 23 years in the Navy, including time on the destroyer Cole, and he was at Fort DuPont State Park that day to donate a flag that he said flew over the Cole shortly after it was attacked nine years ago. The flag, he hoped, would be put on view at the planned Delaware Military Museum. A photograph from the ceremony shows Sparenberg on the steps of a shuttered brick building. The left side of his chest is covered with...

War On Terror: Charges against the mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole are dismissed. He will be retried, but not by a military commission that would have given him the death penalty he deserves.Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell announced on Thursday that Susan Crawford, the convening authority for military tribunals at Guantanamo, has made the decision to withdraw charges against Abd al-Rahim Hussain Mohammed al-Nashiri. This is the Saudi man believed to be the architect of the bombing of the guided missile destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 American sailors, as it sat in the Yemeni port of Aden. The...

Three Republican lawmakers on Wednesday endorsed Doug Hoffman's third-party campaign for the special House election in New York -- a slap in the face to the party's leadership and the current top brass at the National Republican Congressional Committee. Endorsing Hoffman in the 23rd District contest were Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of California and Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who also served as NRCC chairman from 2006 to 2008. The party's preferred candidate is GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava. Hoffman's name will appear on the upstate ballots as the Conservative Party nominee. The nods from the three...

Intellectually grappling with a man of University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole’s knowledge base is an intimidating task, but an appearance he made on MSNBC on September 19 cannot go unchallenged. Cole, in remarkable fashion, downplayed the threat from Iran’s nuclear program and gave the regime a benefit of the doubt that he never gave the Bush administration and the dreaded neoconservatives. “I think American intelligence has a very good idea of what’s going on [in Iran],” he said. “It seems clear that they are not pursuing a nuclear weapon, but they are pursuing the capability to close the fuel...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A man on trial for the deaths of two Bellacino's pizzeria workers took the stand Thursday to defend his part in the deaths.

Link to the image since the port office pulled it from their website. Remember, the president had to approve this.

(CNSNews.com) - A terror suspect charged with the attempted murder of two U.S. soldiers -- before a judge ruled that his confession was coerced and inadmissible -- returned home to Afghanistan on Monday, the same day news broke of a policy change in interrogations. After many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers called the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation techniques such as playing loud music and waterboarding “torture,” President Barack Obama reassigned interrogation responsibilities from the CIA to the National Security Council – which is run out of the White House, the Washington Post first reported.

WASHINGTON -- The CIA's internal investigator found that interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, congressional officials said late Friday. The disclosure is contained in a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general, which has keep secret and is to be released next week, two officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been cleared for release. The report's findings were first reported by Newsweek on its Web site Friday night. In...

Aug. 3, 2009 | Is Sarah Palin America's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? The two differ in many key respects, of course, but it is remarkable how similar they are. There are uncanny parallels in their biographies, their domestic politics and the way they present themselves -- even in their rocky relationships with party elders. Both are former governors of a northwest frontier state with great natural beauty (in Ahmadinejad's case, Ardabil). Both are known for saying things that produce a classic Scooby-Doo double take in their audiences. Both appeal to a sort of wounded nationalism, speaking of the sacrifice of dedicated troops...

The Girls Aloud singer has been chosen by her co-presenter on the British hit show, Simon Cowell, to host the show, it is claimed. The revelation came as the Newcastle-raised star celebrated her 26th birthday with friends in an attention-grabbing Alexander McQueen dress with her husband, the footballer Ashley Cole, at her side.

Note: The following text is a quote: Wife of Gang Leader Pleads Guilty to Narcotics Charges On the day her trial was to begin in U.S. District Court in Lubbock, Texas, Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN) member Marie Chavez, aka "Shorty," the wife of an alleged ALKQN leader Jose Nava, aka "Chino," pleaded guilty to a superseding indictment charging her and 16 co-defendants with various offenses related to alleged narcotics and weapons trafficking and violent activities. Specifically, Chavez, 28, of Lubbock, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms...

Note: The following text is a quote: Eight Uzbekistan Nationals Among 12 Charged with Racketeering, Human Trafficking & Immigration Violations in Scheme to Employ Illegal Aliens in 14 States Twelve defendants, including eight Uzbekistan nationals, have been charged in a 45-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on May 6, 2009, on RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges related to labor racketeering, forced labor trafficking and immigration and other violations in 14 states. Abrorkhodja Askarkhodjaev, 30, Nodir Yunusov, 22, Rustamjon Shukurov, 21, citizens of Uzbekistan residing in Mission, Kan.; Ilkham Fazilov, 44, Nodirbek...

RICHMOND Nearly nine years after 17 sailors were killed in a terrorist attack on the USS Cole, a judge has ordered New York banks to release $13.4 million in frozen Sudanese accounts to family members of the victims. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood issued the order last week, ending a six-year quest by 59 spouses, parents and children of the victims to hold the Sudanese government accountable for the deaths. “I’m so excited,� said Lorrie Triplett of Suffolk, whose 31-year-old husband, Andrew, was killed in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack. “I just know Andrew was saying halleluiah for me and...

After Obama dropped the charges against the suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole, he asked the families of the victims in that tragedy to meet with him. One mother refused, and now says,"I voted for the wrong person." It's really sad when the President of the United States thinks it's ok to not prosecute someone who murdered our sailors. I generally try to be a good sport and see political differences as exactly that, but not on this one. Not when it comes to our troops, and avenging their deaths. A President who would do anything less than...