Free Republic

Incumbent Senator and former Governor Ben Nelson has fallen behind in new polling in Nebraska. The Democrat reportedly has been considering retirement, which should not be surprising at all, considering the data. Nelson has been polling poorly for a while, now. It may be at the point that Nelson's campaign would not even be able to get off of the ground. Nelson was polled against three candidates, including Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. In two of the matchups, Nelson either led slightly or had a 6% lead. However, against Bruning, Nelson has quite the deficit. Considering that Bruning would have...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CBS Charlotte) – One man made sure a Charlotte motel was going to pay for him running out of toilet paper. Upset about the lack of toilet paper that was available in his room, a man destroyed $2,090 worth of hotel property on Monday, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report. The identity of the man remains unknown. The incident, which happened at the Charlottetown Manor, happened around 10 a.m. Monday. According to the report, the man grew irate after learning he didn’t have toilet paper and proceeded to walk upstairs to a vacant room that was being renovated....

Folks, there has been much misinformation published about energy subsidies. In fact gasoline is subsidized at around 3 times the rate of ethanol, but accurate information is hard to find. Most gasoline subsidies are permanent while ethanol subsidies have to be renewed annually. This is why ethanol subsidies gets all the ink while much larger gasoline subsidies are ignored Here is a PDF, published this year, that tells it like it is.

Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency issued another one of those announcements read exclusively by government bureaucrats and green policy wonks. The EPA decided to delay a decision to increase the concentration of ethanol legal in gasoline from 10% to 15%. So-called E15 fuel would have to wait for approval until November. It was a little-read regulatory decision that barely made a splash in the media. But it was also a rock thrown at Washington's hornets' nest of food and agricultural lobbyists. "We are disappointed," warned food giant Archer Daniels Midland. "We find this further delay unacceptable" and a...

The week of August 2 the U.S. Senate is scheduled to begin debate on a new comprehensive energy bill introduced by majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada). Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) have offered an amendment that is being strongly endorsed by corn growers and other ethanol supporters. The Harkin-Lugar amendment would: Mandate the production of flex fuel vehicles by requiring all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. be flex fuel, Require the installation of blender pumps nationwide to dispense mid- and high-level ethanol blends, Create a federal loan guarantee program for pipelines to carry ethanol...

A new report says Minnesota's ethanol industry generated more than $2.5 billion in economic activity in 2009 and supported more than 6,800 jobs. The annual report from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture says ethanol production in the state increased to 862 million gallons in 2009 from 550 million gallons five years ago. It estimates production will increase to 1.1 billion gallons this year with an economic impact of $3.1 billion and around 1,500 additional jobs.

Elaine Benes sits in a bathroom stall, pleading with a stingy toilet-paper hoarder to "spare a square.""Excuse me. I'm sorry. This is, a, kind-of embarrassing but there's no toilet paper over here.""Are you talking to me?" the stranger asks."Yeah, I just forgot to check. So, if you could spare some."Nope.More awkward banter."Three squares? You can't spare three squares?" Benes shouts.The woman leaves after saying: "No I don't have a square to spare. I can't spare a square." That famous scene from Seinfeld soon may be playing out thousands of times in dorm bathrooms across the Texas A&M campus.It's come to...

Coolio either thinks he's the top of the friggin' cocks, as in peacocks, or he's got a thing for black yarn sticking out of his hats. Maybe he just wanted something on his hat to match his hair. Who calls them self "Coolio," anyway? You know what it makes me think of? "I AM CORNHOLIO! I need TP for my bung hole. My bung hole will eat now!"

There’s also this to add to Victoria Toensing’s persuasive response to David Corn’s tortured logic: Corn does indeed begin his now notorious piece with a question: Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security—and break the law—in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others? It sure looks that way … But he doesn’t end the piece with a question. He ends it with an accusaiton and a slander:: The Wilson smear was a thuggish act. Bush and his crew abused and...

NEW YORK David Corn, co-author with Michael Isikoff of the new book "Hubris" that has made so much news lately, today heatedly denied what he called an old and false charge in the Wall Street Journal that he -- not Robert Novak -- outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. In the Journal on Friday, Victoria Toensing, the attorney, wrote in a column, "The first journalist to reveal Ms. Plame was 'covert' was David Corn, on July 16, 2003, two days after Mr. Novak's column. The latter never wrote, because he did not know and it was not so, that...

In the spring of 2002 Dick Cheney made one of his periodic trips to CIA headquarters. Officers and analysts were summoned to brief him on Iraq. Paramilitary specialists updated the Vice President on an extensive covert action program in motion that was designed to pave the way to a US invasion. Cheney questioned analysts about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. How could they be used against US troops? Which Iraqi units had chemical and biological weapons? He was not seeking information on whether Saddam posed a threat because he possessed such weapons. His queries, according to a CIA officer...

Arrest of American Islamist Highlights Homegrown Terrorist Threat By Chris Zambelis On June 6, British authorities arrested Syed "Fahad" Hashmi, a 26 year-old American citizen of Pakistani descent, in London's Heathrow Airport for his suspected role in aiding an al-Qaeda plot to attack targets in London and delivering military equipment and funds to radical Islamists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The apprehension marked the latest in a series of arrests of alleged radicals with ties to Islamist militants. British security officials apprehended Hashmi as he was preparing to board a plane for Pakistan carrying a large amount of cash (The News,...

So like Dude... I learned that the capitol of Texas is Cuba. That means that the capitol of Arizona is like, Brazil. WHOA DUDE! IT MUST BE! Uh Huh Huh Huh Huh Huh Huh...

When discussing economic policies it is important to not let rhetoric overpower reality. That happened in a recent, much-reprinted New York Times article that argued "endless fields of corn in the Midwest can be distilled into endless gallons of ethanol … that could end any worldwide oil shortage … and free the United States from dependence on foreign energy." The story went on to discuss how much energy goes into producing ethanol. But it failed to substantiate its lead assertion of "endless gallons of ethanol" that might "free the United States" from oil imports. The United States is an agricultural...

Marijuana Compound Spurs Brain Cell Growth In rat study, synthetic cannabinoid also boosted rodents' mood THURSDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) -- When it comes to the controversy surrounding medical marijuana, an international team of researchers is busy stirring the pot by releasing findings that suggest the drug helps promote brain cell growth while treating mood disorders. According to the study in rats, a super-potent synthetic version of the cannabinoid compound found in marijuana can reduce depression and anxiety when taken over an extended period of time. This mood boost seems to be the result of the drug's ability to promote...

ConAgra Foods is expected to plead guilty this week to violating the federal Clean Water Act for not reporting warm water discharges from its Hastings flour mill near the Vermillion River, a trophy trout stream. The Department of Justice this month accused the Omaha-based food producer of failing to report and maintain records about the temperature of water it discharged into the Vermillion, a tributary of the Mississippi River. Under a plea agreement reached earlier this month, ConAgra will pay a $138,513 fine and will donate an additional $110,000 to the National Park Foundation and the Friends of the Mississippi...

AS THE SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SPIDERWEB OF LIES SPUN BY former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV unravels, the media has gone out of its way to question the credibility of…Karl Rove. Despite Rove’s demonstrable non-leak of Valerie Plame’s non-secret identity, the dogs continue to gather, hungry for a second term scandal, while the Wilsons’ blatant self-promotion erodes whatever basis they had for a story in the first place. Perhaps Joe Wilson’s two biggest whoppers were his claim to have spoken out because of his deep, non-partisan commitment to “truth,” and his inconsolable remorse that his wife’s closely guarded anonymity had become...

AS THE SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SPIDERWEB OF LIES SPUN BY former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV unravels, the media has gone out of its way to question the credibility of…Karl Rove. Despite Rove’s demonstrable non-leak of Valerie Plame’s non-secret identity, the dogs continue to gather, hungry for a second term scandal, while the Wilsons’ blatant self-promotion erodes whatever basis they had for a story in the first place. Perhaps Joe Wilson’s two biggest whoppers were his claim to have spoken out because of his deep, non-partisan commitment to “truth,” and his inconsolable remorse that his wife’s closely guarded anonymity had become...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed Friday that two years ago he discussed the blown cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame with then CIA director George Tenet and that Tenet "was furious." Tenet promptly called the Justice Department to demand an investigation into who in the Bush administration leaked Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak, Schumer said at a hearing held by House and Senate Democrats. Novak revealed Plame's identity in July 2003 in a column in which he said she played a key role in having her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, sent to Niger to investigate...

July 20, 2005 Rove Scandal: Finally, a Real Distraction Is Karl Rove in so much trouble that the White House really did believe it was necessary to rush out the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court? Bloomberg News did report that the White House accelerated its schedule on the Roberts nomination to draw attention to another news story. At least, the Bush gang in this case relied on something real--a Supreme Court nomination--to distract and not the usual mis- or disinformation. (See postings below.) This will likely work for several days--longer if the Democrats and the progressive groups...

I am thinking about writing a letter to my local fish wrap because editor was crying about the Rove nonsense and the fact that Judith Miller was a hero to all for standing up for the press and their "First Amendment Rights" and protection of confidential sources. The jest of my letter is going to focus on why we shouldn't feel sorry for Ms. Miller and the rest of the press because they (the liberal press) are the first ones to applaud when the First Amendment protections to free speech during federal elections was attacked (McCain/Feingold) and when a court...

In journalism, the definition of “leak” suggests that it is applied to government officials who purposely give reporters secret or confidential information in order to publicize something they do not like so that it can be defeated before being voted upon. “Outing” a CIA agent is only a crime if the agent is under cover overseas or has been during the past five years. This law was created to prevent the assassinations of CIA agents on foreign shores as had been caused by Philip Agee in 1978 who listed CIA agents undercover in foreign cities, causing the murder of some....

The buzz is that all of the fun-loving Dims are having "Rovegate" parties to trash Karl Rove and GWB over the CIA outing controversy. We need to show we can have fun too......by having a Wilson-Plame Look-Alike Contest. Post here your choices for the look-alikes.

Was it really a secret that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA? It's the top story in the Washington Post this morning as well as in many other media outlets. Who leaked the fact that the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV worked for the CIA? What also might be worth asking: "Who didn't know?" I believe I was the first to publicly question the credibility of Mr. Wilson, a retired diplomat sent to Niger to look into reports that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium for his nuclear-weapons program. On July 6, Mr. Wilson wrote an...

Now I read that Matt Cooper’s (the journalist who received Rove’s so-called ‘leak’) wife is Mandy Grunwald; media consultant and campaign advisor to both Bill and Hillary Clinton......

Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's "cover" (even if she had not been a covert CIA agent at the time of the alleged "leaks")? It is distinctly possible, (though it may be unlikely that Joe Wilson himself directly was NY Times Judith Miller's source), since Joe Wilson himself evidently routinely bragged openly to strangers about her CIA employment, prior to such "cover" being "blown" in the press. Here's an example of Joe's apparently routine and open bragging about Valerie being a "CIA agent," which became known directly to me over a...

An interesting post by Cliff May: "This morning, I have a piece up elsewhere on NRO showing that The Nation’s David Corn--not syndicated columnist Bob Novak--was the first to reveal that Valerie Plame was an undercover operative. It further suggests that David did so based on information provided to him by none other than Joseph C. Wilson IV. While working on that piece, I had an exchange with David and, with his permission, I thought I’d share that with you. Dear David: I have a question--one you may not be willing to answer but I’m curious so let me try:...

David Corn responding to Clifford May's column in National Review. Blah, blah, blah. Unconvincing. Those of you following this closely will want to read it for clues, but I'm only going to post what (to me) was the big news: Here's another fact that may interest anyone who thinks May might have a point:Number of times I've been contacted by Patrick Fitzgerald, interviewed or contacted by his investigators, and called before the grand jury: 0. What the h*ll is this? David Corn published an article only two days after Novak's column that exposed Plame in far greater detail than Novak...

I have a friend of mine who loves political boards. He happens to be a liberal and I have noticed this site is fairly conservative from my month of posting on this board. Is it okay if he posts here?

CINCINNATI - The projectiles are lighter than horseshoes and safer than lawn darts, but the idea's the same: Players try to hit a target several paces away. The game is called cornhole, or corn toss, because players try to throw cloth bags filled with corn into a hole. It is an Ohio phenomenon that is catching on elsewhere around the Midwest and beyond. "It's easy to play, you don't have to dig a pit, drive stakes or tear up your lawn," said Mike Whitton, founder and president of the American Cornhole Association. You don't have to work up a sweat,...

You really have to appreciate the little things in life. Consider this: The average American uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day and more than 20,805 sheets a year. That's a lot of sheet. You really don't appreciate toilet paper until you don't have it. Then you think about the alternatives. Perhaps it's a commentary on American journalism that just a little more than 100 years ago, today's newspaper was tomorrow's toilet paper. And in a good part of the world, TP is still a luxury. Many people think British plumber Thomas Crapper invented the toilet. But the credit...