Free Republic

Obama not invited when Rep. Frank marries longtime partnerBy Alicia M. Cohn - 05/18/12 05:04 PM ET Although Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) earlier this month said he is “pleased” with President Obama’s decision to publicly support same-sex marriage, in a new interview the congressman revealed the president will not be on the guest list when Frank marries his longtime partner this summer. “If he and Michelle wanted to come, I would be delighted and honored to have him, but he will bring the Secret Service,” Frank said in an interview that will air Sunday as part of C-SPAN’s “Newsmaker” series....

April 19, a female scooter rider killed a man by squeezing his testicles for the packing dispute, in Haikou City, Hainan Province. It was learned, the woman, 41 years old, rode on her scooter to an elementary school in Meilan District, Haikou City to pick up her child that day. When she wanted to pack her scooter in front of a shop, she was rejected by the shop owner, a 42-year-old male. The two parties soon fell into a quarrel, and then the physical confrontation. The furious woman called up her husband and brother to come help her, which resulted...

Imagine you're a 12-year-old girl[or POTUS]. Ponies and clothes are your favourite things. You've just been shopping and you're wearing your new cowboy boots, new jeans, a blue checked shirt and a real cowboy hat. You've had breakfast – blueberry pancakes with crispy bacon, just the way you like them – and now you're walking across a sunlit meadow, filled with gently grazing ponies. You're feeling pretty good. A tall cowboy with a slow drawl asks if you'd care to help him round up the ponies into the corral so you say yes, as casually as you can. The...

People fear, loathe, and ignore change. The term “Brontosaurus” lost its official status to the correct “Apatosaurus” over a hundred years ago, but try telling that to a dino-loving kid. Those of us raised to believe Pluto is a planet will be sticking up for that demoted little rock till we’re buried. Recently, the Scrabble world went into a code-4 uproar when it seemed that the rules might be changed to allow proper names. (Don’t worry, folks, the change only applied to a new game called Scrabble Trickster.) When it comes to the meaning of words themselves, change is even...

Gay GOP group GOProud chairman Chris Barron tweeted on Wednesday that his husband thinks MSBNC host Rachel Maddow looks like a “dude.”[ snip ] The comment comes 6 months after Barron said he isn't accept by gay people because of his politics. “I can tell you right now, I have an easier time being openly gay with the conservatives than I do being a conservative with other gay people,” he told guest host Cenk Uygur during an appearance on MSNBC's The Ed Show. [[ For the record - the Ed Show's Ed has been suspended for calling Laura Ingraham a...

"Protest Madison Wisconsin: Stripper cop, Deer suit, drum circle"

Yesterday Dana Perino suggested that President Obama’s scheduled interview with Ryan Seacrest was just the White House giving him something to keep him occupied on election day. Considering Obama opened the interview by thanking Seacrest for “taking the time” one wonders if she wasn’t making a good point. In the friendly nine minute interview Obama touched on the usual talking points, reiterating a number of times how important it is for young people to vote, that immigration reform is still a top priority for him, and that despite everything he remains optimistic about the country.

Barack Obama became president by brilliantly telling his own story. To stay president, he will need to show he can understand our story. At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a “West Wing” episode. But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on “West Wing,” gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour. Hey, dude, you’re a politician. Act like one.

http://news.discovery.com/space/hubble-spots-ghostly-space-spiral.html

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge says it's not a worker's fault he got mauled by a grizzly bear at a tourist attraction, even if he smoked marijuana before trying to feed the animal. Brock Hopkins acknowledged smoking pot before arriving to work at Great Bear Adventures on Nov. 2, 2007. When he entered the bear's pen, he was attacked and had to be hospitalized. The owner of the attraction near Glacier National Park says Hopkins was a volunteer and that his use of marijuana caused the accident. But Judge James Jeremiah Shea of the state Workers' Compensation Court...

The use of the drug LSD, or commonly referred to as “acid,” appears to be increasing especially among young adults in Arcata, according to an Arcata Police Department press release issued yesterday. On April 18, officers responded to a residence to assist the Arcata Mad River Ambulance with a 31-year-old male subject who had just castrated himself. Medical personnel and officers were unable to locate the subject’s testicles. He later told officers that he flushed them down the toilet as he feared they contained “monsters.”

The use of the drug LSD, or commonly referred to as “acid,” appears to be increasing especially among young adults in Arcata, according to an Arcata Police Department press release issued yesterday. On April 18, officers responded to a residence to assist the Arcata Mad River Ambulance with a 31-year-old male subject who had just castrated himself. Medical personnel and officers were unable to locate the subject’s testicles. He later told officers that he flushed them down the toilet as he feared they contained “monsters.” The victim, who police say had a Tennessee address, was with several friends when he...

America's experiment with banning alcohol created problems that persist to this day. BY THOMAS FLEMING On Dec. 5, 1933, Americans liberated themselves from a legal nightmare called Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Today most people think Prohibition was fueled by puritanical Protestants who believed drinking alcohol was a sin. But the vocal minority who made Prohibition law believed they were marching in the footsteps of the abolitionists who sponsored a civil war to end another moral evil—slavery. At least as important was the belief that Prohibition would produce health and wealth. Yale economist Irving Fisher, the...

A proposal to legalize and tax marijuana in California was approved by a key committee of the Assembly this morning, over the dire warnings of police chiefs and prosecutors. The Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 to approve AB 390 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who said the bill would provide tax revenue to the state and regulation of the drug. The new law includes a requirement that users be at least 21 years old. The measure next goes to the Health Committee, but proponents worried it would not be acted on by that panel by Friday's deadline, which would...

<p>“When you take over a failing company . . .”</p> <p>Don’t be a dumbass, Jim.</p> <p>Republicans and Conservatives did not lose a company nor an organization. FreeRepublicans were so stupid they chose Obama or chose to cast a vote which elected Obama.</p>

When Neil Young warbled about the needle and the damage done; when Steppenwolf begged for God to damn the pusher; the focus was on the drug, its harmful effects and the evil people who sold it on the street. Good people have tried to slow the scourge of mind-altering drugs, calling for everything from brutal enforcement ("... (I)f I were the president of this land ... I'd declare total war on The Pusher man/I'd cut him if he stands, and I'd shoot him if he'd run/Yes I'd kill him with my Bible and my razor and my gun," sang Steppenwolf...

One-time Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic filed Wednesday to run for county clerk in Wahkiakum County as a member of the “Grange Party” in a bid to bring attention to problems he sees in the Top Two primary election system. Wahkiakum County Auditor Diane Tischer confirmed this morning that Novoselic filed for the one-year unexpired term of county clerk. Tischer said Wahkiakum County Clerk Barb Blix retired last year. The county commissioners filled Blix’s seat by appointing Democrat Kay Holland in January, Tischer said. Holland also filed to retain the seat, Tischer said, setting up a challenge between Novoselic and Holland...

It has been said that director Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo (1959) as a reaction to two popular westerns which angered him - High Noon (1952) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). His comment on the former was, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him." Hawks also considered 3:10 to Yuma, which had outlaw Glenn Ford playing psychological games with lawman Van Heflin, "a lot of nonsense." So Rio Bravo was the director's take on heroism...

'Dumbest criminal' robs cop Saturday, March 28, 2009 BY MATTHEW KEMENY Of The Patriot-News Jerome Blanchett took a loaded handgun into the Holiday Inn-Harrisburg East on Friday, passing dozens of unmarked police cars in the parking lot and a sign at the hotel's entrance welcoming 300 officers to the Pennsylvania Narcotic Officers' Association conference, police said. Nevertheless, the 19-year-old Harrisburg man went into the men's room and waited to rob the next person who walked through the door, police said. Unfortunately for Blanchett, that person was John Comparetto, a retired New York City Police Department lieutenant. "He chose to rob...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it… I wonder how it is the “People” might alter or abolish their government without the tools necessary to do so. Liberals will...

It looks as though the USSC or for that matter any of our elected representatives are going to do anything to call into question Barrack Obama's foreign national status. So, it's up to us (American Citizens) to apply the pressure to get them to take notice. We can BOYCOTT any spending on luxury/non-essential items. This will get the governments attention. Pay your bills but don't spend your tax refund, don't spend your stimulus payment. Call in to local radio talk shows.......you know the drill. If it's good enough for Jesse Jackson, then it is certainly good enough for us in...

Have been watching previews for "Gran Torino", and have to admit actually I might be hooked. Except every time I decide to go spend money on a movie, I end up hacked off at sending money to liberals, for yet another preachy bit of pc bull. Anyone know if Gran Torino is just more liberal propaganda?... if it is, I'm not supporting it.

Massachusetts officially decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana yesterday, but many police departments across the state were essentially ignoring the voter-passed law, saying they would not even bother to ticket people they see smoking marijuana. "We're just basically not enforcing it right now," said Mark R. Laverdure, chief of police in Clinton...

FREMONT, N.H. - The swirl of controversy around Alaskan First Dude Todd Palin vanished in a puff of snowmobile exhaust yesterday as the vice presidential candidate’s husband was greeted as a hero at a festival in a cow pasture here yesterday morning. “I’ve been a fan for a long time,” said Erik Frigon, 35, of South Portland, Maine, at the New Hampshire Snowmobile Association’s annual Grass Drags and Water Crossing event. Like most attendees, he “talked sleds,” not politics with Palin, a champion snowmobiler who has won Alaska’s 2,000-mile Tesoro Iron Dog race four times. Palin appeared under a bright...

For a man well seasoned in dealing with the Alaskan back country, Todd Palin is still adjusting to the wilderness of Washington and the searing national spotlight that was thrust on him and his family when his wife, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was tapped to be the first ever female Republican vice presidential nominee.

The suspect, who led police on a multi-state chase, was identified as 27-year-old Grayson Lee Clevenger. Burnsville police said Clevenger answered his cell phone at one point during the chase, telling a detective he couldn't talk because he was being chase by the police.(edit)Detectives followed the vehicle until marked patrol cars could meet up and attempt a stop. In an attempt to end the pursuit peacefully, detectives called the suspect on his cell phone. Clevenger answered the phone, saying, "Dude, I can't talk, I'm being chased by the police" and hung up. (edit)Clevenger eluded police and remains at-large

Today FR mysteriously disappeared from the internet. When it came back numerous posts were missing. In other words, it experienced "missing time", a classic symptom of Alien Abduction.

An Illinois-based animal-rights organization is claiming that horses at this year’s Fiesta de Los Vaqueros were treated with unnecessary cruelty. An agency called SHARK, or Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, has filed a complaint Monday morning with the animal services division in Arizona’s Department of Agriculture because horses were shocked during the rodeo, said Janet Enoch, a SHARK investigator. Steve Hindi, SHARK’s president and founder, said he took video footage of horses being shocked with a prod that can deliver what he described as much 6,000 volts of painful electricity. In a video posted on the video sharing Web site...

Durham police have arrested a 93-year-old man on cocaine-trafficking and related charges. William C. Tinnen was arrested Thursday during a raid at 204 Teel St., police said in a news release issued today. Police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said she assumed police had a tip that drug activity was taking place there. In addition to trafficking, Tinnen is charged with possession of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a dwelling for the sale of drugs. Officers also confiscated three firearms from the house. Tinnen's bond was set at $200,000.

Last week, Deputy Gil Flores of the Twin Peaks Sheriff Department discovered 150 marijuana plants after he investigated a suspicious circumstances call in Cedarpines Park. Kurt Norlander placed the call after his chocolate Labrador, Maple, had eaten a large quantity of marijuana. “We had a new neighbor move in a couple of weeks ago,� explained Norlander. “He was unloading things at night and seemed kind of suspicious. Maple kind of befriended the guy and went over there sometimes. “We believe the man fed him, and Maple grabbed some marijuana off a table and ran off with it,� Norlander continued. “He...

I was looking at the Republican's running for President in '08 none really get me excited other than Gov. Jim Gilmore, but not sure he has the name id nationally to win. I think for Conservatives their is only one clear choice we should urge VP Dan Quayle to run for President in '08. He is a solid conservative, hasn't changed his opinons like Gov. Romney, nor has he sold out like John McCain, as for Rudy he was a great mayor, but he is wrong on the family values issues, I am not too sure we would get Supream...

Surfer fights off shark attack near Florence jetty    VIDEO   FLORENCE, Ore. - A surfer says he will return to the ocean after he was attacked by a shark that bit his foot, requiring more than 30 stitches. Tom Larson was surfing Tuesday with a small group off the South Jetty when his buddy, Keenan Keeley, thought he saw a dorsal fin. "We were like, 'No, dude, that's a porpoise,"' the 23-year-old welder from Eugene said. "We'd seen some porpoises in the water earlier." Larson said conditions appeared safe - no wind, no ominous overcast skies, no sea...

Surf’s Up as Wounded Servicemembers Crest New WavesBy Mike DulevitzSpecial to American Forces Press Service PISMO BEACH, Aug. 25, 2006 -- For one wounded warrior, the thought of never being able to surf again haunted him after losing his left leg above the knee in Iraq to a vehicle-borne bomb. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Derek McGinnis hits the waves again in Pismo Beach, Calif. McGinnis and 12 other wounded warriors from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, took part in the six-day event Aug. 15 to 20. McGinnis hoped to surf again after losing his leg in...

• Q2 jumps by 67 percent year over year • Buyers done in by ‘creative mortgages’ according to figures released Monday by Foreclosures.com, a Central Valley-based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure property information. "Year over year at the end of the second quarter of 2006, foreclosure activity in California has increased more than 67 percent," says Alexis McGee, president of Fair Oaks-based ForeclosureS.com. The once hot housing markets in Las Vegas and Phoenix are cooling off rapidly and defaults there are on the rise as well, she says. "Both Las Vegas and Phoenix were impacted by...

Serious movement in D.C. – and if I hadn't been there, I would not have believed it. For several months Joan Wire and her daughter have been trying to secure an appointment with a highly effective government official we'll simply call Mr. Washington. Joan Wire is the stalwart wife of Mike Wire. Mike is the storied "man on the bridge," the single most critical eyewitness in the saga of TWA Flight 800, the 747 that was inexplicably blown out of the sky on the night of July 17, 1996. The CIA built its notorious zoom-climb animation around Mike's position on...

Perhaps it's time to recolonize the Middle East. If we get our NATO allies and Russia together with us on the same page and invade the entire Muslim Middle East and re-establish European run colonial governments, we could save a lot of money on oil and put an end to government sponsored terrorism. Together, this alliance would have 90% of the world's military might. Without the mother's milk of oil revenue, it will be far more difficult fot terrorists to obtain the financing for nuclear weapon development or purchase. Russia could administer Iran, France could administer Syria, Britain could administer...

Psilyclbin Mushrooms, Bags Of Marijuana Also In CarGREEN, Ore. -- Three California youths had their road trip interrupted when a bong fell from their car at the feet of a policeman during a traffic stop. An Oregon State trooper pulled the car over Thursday near the Douglas County town of Green. Police said the large drug pipe fell out as 18-year-old Benjamin Breiner of Berkeley, Calif., opened the car door. The trooper said he found a bag of psilycybin mushrooms and several bags of marijuana. One occupant, 19-year-old Michael Fox of Oakland, Calif., told the officer he had a California...

The CHEEBA Club's celebration of marijuana is 'part entertainment (free food and dodge ball), but it's also about social justice.' So, like, check this out. These dudes at Macalester College are throwing this righteous party Thursday. They're calling it CHEEBAdanza — "the Twin Cities premier marijuana festival." Says so right on the green flier. This isn't one of those mediocre pot fests — it's A-grade all the way. Excellent. First of all, OK, you have the date, right? Thursday, April 20. That's 4/20. And you know the party starts at 4:20 p.m. That's the legendary tokin' hour, my friends. So...

A surfer off the shore of Galveston, Texas, was arrested Friday for not adhering to evacuation orders and surfing the large waves created by an approaching Hurricane Rita, according to a Local 6 News report. The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody by police after coming out of the surf. Police said he was apparently not taking Rita seriously, attempting to surf off the shore of Galveston. Mandatory evacuations have been in effect along the Texas and Louisiana coast. Friday, Rita remained a Category 4 storm, aiming its 135-mph winds at the Beaumont and Port Arthur area...

dude... like these arab dudes are always blowing themselves up man.

Back to Story - Help High School Plans Class on Surfing 1 hour, 34 minutes ago An Australian high school hopes to stop beach-loving students from bailing out of class by making surfing an approved subject.Byron Bay High School will offer surfing as part of a recreation course that from next year will count toward a high school certificate in New South Wales state."You've got students who are at risk of dropping out of school and the school has developed this course as a way to provide a pathway for these students into future employment and keep them connected...

Patients arrive broke, busted or abandoned at our methadone clinic in a raw section of Northeast Washington. They are opiate addicts, primarily dependent on heroin, though some take vast doses of street-bought painkillers like OxyContin. Drinking the pink methadone solution every day prevents withdrawal sickness. About half of our patients have also spent years on crack or alcohol. Not all have stopped, but at least they have cut back. We see almost no methamphetamine users, but that is a simple accident of geography - the corrosive drug hasn't yet reached epidemic proportions in this part of the country. The personal...

There is a document on the website of the Superior Court of California County of Solano which describes Case ID: FFL087021 - SHEEHAN, PATRICK VS. CINDY, filed Friday, August 12th, 2005. The case is described as "D - Dissolution without kids". This appears to describe a divorce between Cindy Sheehan and Pat Sheehan. Pat is the Petitioner and his attorney is Glen Andrew Deronde. Cindy Sheehan is the respondent with no attorney listed. The judge in the case is Alberta Chew.

Blame Bush, not liberals -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My friend Joseph Farah is 100 percent right that the Supreme Court ruling against homeowners and their property is an outrage. But as I read on the WND website the usual accusations about "activist judges" and "liberals," I wonder if conservatives could just step back for a second and look at what has really happened. It seems to me this ruling is more an example of pandering to big business, rather than an example of liberal philosophy. Most liberals I know are quite opposed to the takeover of so much of our life by giant...

Many Freepers grew up in what they considered to be the golden age of Rock concerts. Of course, it may have had more to do with the fact that we were young and fanatical about the music in our youth. These days, ‘ol Pissant prefers the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Military Band music and Jazz, but I have some very fond memories of the craziness of my Rock concert yesteryears. I’m quite sure many of you have some concert stories that rival and surpass mine. So this thread is the place to share! Following are 2 concert experiences that left a...

In a recent Supreme Court decision, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, “If the peasants sow the fields poorly, they should be helped—and this particularly applies to the poor peasants—by means of collective cultivation of the large estates. There is no other way of helping the poor peasants.” Therefore, “The landed estates must be confiscated immediately.” Actually, that was Vladimir Lenin writing in an issue of the communist publication Pravda on June 2, 1917. I’ve compiled a small list of quotes for use in this article, but at times it can be hard to remember who used which ones. It doesn’t...

Dale Velzy, surf pioneer who popularized the sport in California, dies at 77 Monday May 30, 2005 MISSION VIEJO, Calif. (AP) Master surfboard designer Dale Velzy, who helped popularize surfing along the California coast and at one time was the world's largest maker of surfboards, has died. He was 77.Velzy died Thursday of lung cancer at the Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, hospital administrative supervisor Brian Noakes said Monday.``Velzy's lasting legacy is the billion-dollar surf industry,'' said Sam George, global editor for Surfer Magazine. ``He created the archetype and everyone has followed it: Get the hottest guys...

I remember reading several months ago about some drug they developed from a tree or plant in africa. When people take it they go through this introspective journey and meet with some sort of spiritual being that sets them straight...? No I dont buy it but a "friend" wanted to read it. Thanks

dude... corporations have like, money.

Cops: Man Tries to Pay for Pizza With Pot N.D. Man Allegedly Assaults Pizza Delivery Driver Who Refused to Take Marijuana As Payment The Associated Press FARGO, N.D. May 1, 2005 — Police arrested a 21-year-old man early Saturday after he allegedly assaulted a pizza delivery driver who refused to take marijuana as payment for a pie, police said. The man, charged with robbery, was released from the Cass County Jail after posting $5,000 bond. Pizza Patrol driver Atif Yasin thought the man was asleep when he arrived to deliver a medium pizza and 20-ounce soda. After knocking a few times and...