Free Republic

BRISTOL, Va. – A woman accused of skipping bond was handcuffed, sexually assaulted during a strip search and hauled off to jail Oct. 9. But the three who arrested her were only masquerading as drug task force agents. On top of that, police said, the fake agents nabbed the wrong woman and passed her to a bail bondsman in the hopes of receiving a reward. The bondsman then took the woman to the Bristol Virginia Jail, where she was immediately freed because jailers quickly discerned her true identity. “She clearly had identification to clearly show she wasn’t the person in...

The CBS "Early Show" ran a story about dogs and their intelligence, or lack thereof. In the story, they shared their list of the top 10 smartest and top 10 dumbest dog breeds. These were their picks.

A married man who planned to rendezvous with one of his handful of lovers at an eastern Wisconsin motel instead found himself bound, blindfolded and assaulted by a group of women out for revenge, according to court documents. Four women, including his wife, eventually showed up to humiliate the man, who ended up with his penis glued to his stomach in a bizarre plot to punish him for a lover's quadrangle gone bad, according to the documents filed in Calumet County

Criminals running an ATM card-skimming scam made a big mistake this week: They tried to hit the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas. As the conference was kicking off a few days ago, attendees noticed that an ATM placed in the Riviera Hotel, which plays host to the annual event, didn't quite look right, according to a senior conference organizer who identified himself only as Priest. "They looked at the screen where there would normally be a camera," he said. "It was a little bit too dark, so someone shined a flashlight in there and there was a PC." The...

Megan Fox looked like a Greek goddess at the Los Angeles premiere of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. The actress made a stunning appearance last night at Mann's Village Theatre, but the words that tumble out of her mouth aren't quite in the same league. The 23-year-old American has amazed fans with her ignorance as she travels the world promoting her movies with red-carpet comments and magazine interviews.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has not ruled out pumping more funds into the nation's anti-missile defense budget if North Korea threatens the United States. "If there were a launch from a rogue state such as North Korea, I have good confidence that we would be able to deal with it," Gates said Monday during a stopover in Alaska on his way home from a trip to Asia.

This is a lefty writer, at a lefty rag, interviewing lots of lefties who know Sotomayor, and who really want a lefty Justice on the High Court. And they think she is too dumb.

NAPLES — Unhappy about being asked to leave a local watering hole, Naples police say a 21-year-old man took revenge: He unzipped his pants and urinated at the bar. But if his mugshot is any indicator, the rest of his plan didn’t go so swell. Police say that on Wednesday night Graham Brunson, 2060 20th Ave. N.E., was causing a disturbance at the Bayfront Inn, 495 Goodlette-Frank Road, yelling obscenities and disturbing customers at the bar, according to an arrest report. When security asked him to leave, reports say Brunson unzipped his pants and urinated at the bar. When...

I am beginning to believe that the fly-over of NY City yesterday was probably to impress a few special people on board. Could it have been Michelle taking herself and friends on a midday jaunt? I bet if the passenger list is made public this story will get very interesting. Sorry for the vanity.

The Hamas regime acquired U.S.-origin air defense systems but was unable to use them in combat. ShareThis *snip*"Our gunners couldn't fire the weapon," the source recalled. "A notice came up on the display saying 'friendly aircraft.'"

Harrisburg, Pa. A retired police chief said he was robbed by "probably the dumbest criminal in Pennsylvania," at a police officers' convention on Friday morning. John Comparetto said as he came out of a stall in the men's room, a man pointed a gun in his face and demanded money. There were 300 narcotics officers from Pennsylvania and Ohio at the gathering. Comparetto gave up his money and cell phone. But when the man fled, Comparetto and some colleagues chased him. They arrested a 19-year-old man as he was trying to leave in a taxi.

Those who promote Smart Growth must think everyone reading their propaganda is dumb. How are we to explain the gross twisting of geographic data that continues to pour out of the Smart Growther's think tanks and blogs other than it is agenda-driven propaganda? Like the backwards political slogan "Ignorance is Strength" in George Orwell's novel 1984, the Smart Growthers want to you to believe that "Smart Growth is Environmentally Sustainable" and vice versa. To Smart Growthers environmental reality is often twisted to be the opposite of what they portray. Recent case in point is "How Smart Growth Protects Watersheds, and...

Most robbery investigations won’t be this easy. The first bank robbery to ever hit Ocean Shores ended 15 minutes after it began Friday when the suspect called 911 to confess. Ocean Shores Police have arrested a 39-year-old Copalis Beach woman on suspicion of first-degree robbery after tracing her call. Police said the woman walked into the Timberland Savings Bank along Damon Road at about 1:30 p.m. Friday. “Witnesses said that the female robber presented a demand note indicating that she had a gun and left with an undisclosed amount of money,” police said in a news release. The woman fled...

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - An Albany motel owner was beaten and threatened by a man after refusing to hire him. Saturday afternoon Dollar Inn Owner Mukesh Patel told Police that a man named "A.K." came in and asked for a job. When Patel refused to hire him, he says the man hit him in the face twice and then threatened to kill him. Police are investigating but have made no arrests.

SEATTLE – State Rep. Ross Hunter says he has a plan to help pay for a Key Arena remodel, but the city of Seattle may not be happy about it. Hunter, the House Finance Committee Chair, says he's drafted a proposal which would send this issue back to the voters of Seattle. Hunter says the bill's language could call for a public vote on a property or business tax increase in order to pay $75 million of the Key renovation. Hunter now says, after crunching numbers, a city proposal will not work. Seattle's Mayor Greg Nickels had been backing an...

OK this is embarrasing. But I'll go ahead and ask - hoping perhaps some smart FReepers out there will know the answer to this?

Spell me embarassed. Embbarrassed? Embrassed. You and two thirds of the nation can't do it, prompting some to suggest we dumb down the language and spell um like we say um.

Was watching NatGeo channel this evening. Very interesting focus on Manchuria, was followed by what initally appeared to be an equally interesting show set in Barrow Alaska, on native Alaskans hunting whales. It was all downhill from there. What started as typically outstanding National Geographic cinematography - devolved within 10 minutes into a weather-channel mentality "expose" on ...

A month into the new year, and the American economy is reeling from the ongoing banking crisis, battered retirement accounts, and mounting unemployment. Who are the folks who might make things better, or even worse? Who are the people who will move markets this year, up or down? To help you keep track of these "market movers," U.S. News & World Report compiled a list of key CEOs, politicos, and even media stars to watch in 2009. So if things do improve, you'll know whom to credit. And if they don't, you'll know whom to blame.

Here at I Hate The Media, we’re pretty well known for our sensitivity. So we want to make sure we say this delicately, so as not to offend. Ah, the hell with it. Rachel Maddow is out of her mind. It snowed in Dubai this week and the queen of MSNBC blamed it on global warming. “Some big global warming news today...

08A524 LIGHTFOOT, GAIL, ET AL. V. BOWEN, CA SEC. OF STATE The application for stay addressed to The Chief Justice and referred to the Court is denied.

New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress suffered an accidental gunshot wound Friday night in a club, according to multiple sources. Details of the incident weren't immediately available, but according to a source the wound was not considered life-threatening. Fox Sports.com reported that Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg and spent the night in the hospital.

Two years ago, the federal government was spending money at Mach 8. That is, if every single dollar paid in taxes were laid out end to end, and you had to spend the entire lot in a year--the line would have to move at 8x the speed of sound. Now the rate is probably closer to Mach 10. We all hate the ides of April, but we seldom notice all of the taxes we pay each day. And some of them are ridiculous. Here are some taxes that you may not know you are paying which are still on the...

Election official: Marked sample ballots legal Comments 0 | Recommend 0 Friday, Oct 31 2008, 3:12 pm David Allen SHELBY - A man asked Victor Smith to see a sample ballot he was holding Thursday afternoon. "This is who you want me to vote for," the man said after looking it over. Smith, standing near a broken white line around the Cleveland County Board of Elections Office, responded, "This is who we'd like you to vote for, but you don't have to if you don't want to." The two exchanged pleasantries and went their separate ways. Within a few seconds,...

Suggesting Brian Williams and the producers of NBC Nightly News assume a significant portion of their viewership is pretty dumb, the newscast began a story about how, as Williams fretted, “number of rumors and myths and threats that might keep some people away from the polls this year,” by highlighting a flyer, riddled with glaring misspellings and non-words, which made a false announcement about the date to vote. Rehema Ellis, who asserted voter “anxiety is valid,” intoned: “In Virginia, an official-looking flier is on the Internet saying, 'Republicans vote on November 4th and Democrats on November 5th.'” Ellis then decided...

A week after his last money plea, Obama asks everyone for another $5 It seems like only a week ago that The Ticket was whining about Barack Obama whining that after raising $605 million through September to buy the presidency, he was asking all of us one last time for just $10 more for some reason. And we figured out that, October money aside, he'd have to spend $12.5 million a day just to unload September's haul by Nov. 4. The Democrat is already outspending the Republican by three and four-to-one, which if it was the other way around would...

The current "solution" to the crisis that the FED and the Bush Administration have come up with allows the corrupt gains to remain privatized while socializing the losses that Wall Street and the global bankers have created. Its all a great evil scam and we, the public, are too stupid, too scared, too blind, too wrapped up in television/etc. to be educated as to what is really going on. And most importantly, we are simply too lacking in good morality to have the strength, the moral strength, to fight it. We are being told by the same governmental "leaders" that...

After listening to a week’s worth of “explanations” about why the financial system of the United States was in trouble, it occurred to me that, if we were China, a whole bunch of guys would have been hauled into stadiums in New York and Washington, D.C., and publicly executed. Fortunately for them at least, we are not China, but what emerged from the chatteratti was the conclusion that, since everyone was to blame, no one was to blame. Guess who gets to bail out those who made predictably greedy and really stupid decisions? Everybody. We are inclined to look back...

ENERGY POLICY: "If every American... would just inflate their tires... we wouldn't need any more drilling... and I wouldn't have to answer these dumb@ss questions..." SOCIAL SECURITY POLICY: "If every American... would just save $100 per week... we wouldn't need any more Social Security... and I wouldn't have to answer these dumb@ss questions..." LABOR POLICY: "If every American... would just join a union... and pay the d@mn dues... so I could plan on being re-elected in four years... I wouldn't have to answer these dumb@ss questions..." MEDICAL CARE FOR EVERY AMEREICAN POLICY: "If every American... would just eat healthy... and...

For some sailors on the USS North Carolina, Wilmington's red-carpet treatment stopped at the doors of downtown's bars. In April, crew members from the Navy's newest nuclear attack submarine visited Wilmington on a goodwill trip ahead of the vessel's historic commissioning at the state port. But when Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo talked with them about their stay, he winced at what he heard. Sailors told him they'd been turned away from downtown bars for being in the military. "It was upsetting to me," Saffo said. "I never knew we had that type of issue with military personnel." But a broader...

SEOUL, KOREA - SOUTH Korean teenagers see the United States as a greater threat to national security than North Korea, and a majority do not know that the North started the 1950-53 war, surveys published on Tuesday showed. The Ministry of Public Administration and Security surveyed 1,016 middle and high school students to mark Wednesday's 58th anniversary of the North's invasion, local newspapers reported. Fewer than half knew the war began in 1950 and just 48.7 per cent said the communist North started it. Others blamed Japan (13.5 per cent), the United States (13.4), Russia (11), China (3.4) and South...

Will our kids be dumb and broke? Publik Skools, welfare and Sosha Security? YES!

"OBAMA: On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in...in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong." "RUSH: Now, a lot of people say, "Rush, don't harp on this. He's just trying to be nice." Look, I wouldn't harp on it if this wasn't gaffe number one million. I don't think he knows what Memorial Day is. We honor the dead who have served the country; they can't possibly be anywhere where Obama sees them. (interruption) Yes! What do you mean...? Do...

A Dallas man died early Wednesday morning when he accidentally jumped to his death off an overpass following a traffic accident, police said. Chalk Hill Road and West Davis Street Richard Mauricio Jr., 19, crashed into another car at Chalk Hill Road and West Davis Street around 2:30 a.m., said Dallas police Senior Cpl. Jerry Monreal. The other driver told police that Mr. Mauricio then got out of the car and ran west on Davis Street. He jumped over a railing and plummeted to his death. Senior Cpl. Monreal said it’s hard to tell that there is such a drop...

MAY 21--Meet Alex Phillips. The Wisconsin teenager is facing felony child pornography charges for allegedly posting naked photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. When contacted by police about the two images, Phillips, 17, balked at removing the pictures of the girl. Warned that he could face jail for publishing images of the minor, Phillips told an investigator, "F#@! that, I am keeping them up," according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in Lacrosse County Circuit Court. Phillips, pictured in the below mug shot, told cops that he posted the photos last week "because he was venting." The...

Quote: "It is wonderful to be back in Oregon," Obama said. "Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."

McALLEN - A woman accused of robbing two banks this month gave investigators a vital clue to her identity Monday, when she passed a threatening note to a teller with her name and address on the back. Investigators believe Maria Garcia, 33, scrawled the hold-up message on the back of a completed food stamp application moments before entering the Capital One Bank branch in downtown McAllen and making off with an undisclosed amount of cash. Officers arrested her less than two hours later by tracking her to the address on the form. They also linked her to a similar robbery...

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Most students are excited to get their high school diploma, but a former student at Sissonville High is suing the Kanawha County School Board for letting him graduate. Now the state Supreme Court has decided to hear the case. Thomas Sturm's attorney says Sturm shouldn't have graduated because he still reads on a third grade level. The school board's attorneys say Sturm had an individualized education plan, and neither he nor his parents filed any complaints while he was in school. “IEPs are developed and formulated and put in place anytime the parent would have...

Ugly Chelsea? "I made a very unfortunate and insensitive remark. It was the wrong thing to do, and I have no excuse for it.'' -- Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, June 11, 1998 ___________________________________ McCain was apologizing for telling a Republican fund-raiser that Chelsea Clinton was "so ugly'' because "she's the child of Janet Reno and Hillary Clinton.'' According to "My Bad," he later sent a note to the Clintons.

February 21, 2008 Dougherty County -- A Dougherty County woman is arrested for running over her cousin with a car-- twice. Investigators say 24-year-old Vondrameke Polk and Lazzora McCoy were fighting at a relative's house on Pinson Road. That's when McCoy chased Polk out of the house with a knife. Police say McCoy jumped on the hood of Polk's car and broke the windshield, and when she fell off, Polk ran over her leg. Then, she then backed up and ran over it again. Polk is charged with aggravated assaulted and aggravated battery. McCoy is in fair condition with a...

Two off-duty police officers, one from Duluth and the other from Fulton County, wounded each other during an exchange of gunfire Friday afternoon in a quiet north Gwinnett County suburb. Fulton officer Paul Phillips, 37, and Duluth officer Jay Daily, 42, were recovering from non-life-threatening injuries Friday evening at Gwinnett Medical Center, said Cpl. Illana Spellman, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Police Department. aily, a member of the Duluth force for five years, was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. "It's just baffling to us why it occurred," Duluth Police Chief Randy Belcher said. "It's an embarrassment...

LONDON (Reuters) - Question: What was Gandhi's first name? Contestant's answer: Goosey Goosey. Warning to all those know-alls who shout at the television screen when contestants offer dumb answers to blindingly obvious questions -- one day that could be you. From regional radio shows to "Who Wants To be a Millionaire?" and "University Challenge," people make fools of themselves -- as internet site www.jumpingjacksbar.com found in collating some of the worst howlers. Here are leading contenders for the "Dumb Down" gold medal: Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22,1963? Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then Presenter:...

A training manual for Canadian diplomats lists the United States and Israel as countries where prisoners are at risk of being tortured, citing U.S. interrogation techniques such as stripping prisoners, blindfolding and sleep deprivation. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department document, released Friday, singled out the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay -- where a Canadian citizen is held. Also on the list are Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Syria as places where inmates could face torture. The listing drew a sharp response from the United States, a key NATO ally and trading partner, which asked to removed...

KOKOMO, Ind. — Oh, shoot! A man accidentally shot himself in the groin as he was robbing a convenience store Tuesday, police said. A clerk told police a man carrying a semiautomatic handgun entered the Village Pantry demanding cash and a pack of cigarettes. The clerk put the cash in a bag and as she turned to get the cigarettes, she heard the gun discharge. Police say surveillance video shows the man shooting himself as he placed the gun in the waistband of his pants. The clerk wasn't injured. A short time later, police found 25-year-old Derrick Kosch at a...

Police in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, claim to have to caught the "dumbest criminal" this year. The man walked into a station to report that he had been held up at gunpoint by a gang who had stolen his mobile phone. But when the detective phoned the number of the phone reportedly stolen, it rang in the complainant's pocket. "The shock left him speechless for a few minutes," said police spokesman Eugene Opperman, adding that the man, 25, was then arrested for perjury. The police issued a statement entitled "Dumbest criminal?" with details of the weekend incident, South Africa's Star...

Dumb Quotes from the 2008 Democrat Presidential Candidates Hillary Clinton: "We are going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." "God bless the America we are trying to create." "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." Barack Obama: "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed." --on a Kansas tornado that killed 12 people Joe Biden: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a...

It is tempting to assert that adult Californians are, generally speaking, morons. Granted, that assertion, if it were to be made in this space, would come from an adult Californian who clearly has more than a casual relationship with moronity. But geez, people, you're not even trying. At least it looks that way from ... the latest survey by the folks over at the Public Policy Institute of California. The survey probed into Californians' knowledge of, and feelings about, state fiscal and governmental/political issues. What it found was a thick, hard layer of huh?: • Only three in 10 could...

I can't believe this got by everybody. What a travesty. I thought Republicans were the dumb ones!

Japan asks U.S. for more data on F-22 fighter WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma has asked U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates for more information about the F-22 fighter jet built by Lockheed Martin Corp. , a senior Japanese official said on Tuesday. U.S. law currently bans any exports of the F-22 Raptor, but some lawmakers and defense officials say there is growing interest in making it possible to export a modified version of the advanced fighter to close allies such as Japan. "If we make the F-22 a candidate, we need full information on this...

An owner of an exotic animal farm has died after being kicked and then sat on by a camel. Cathie Ake and the 4-year-old camel were being filmed by a local television station on Sunday when the camel kicked her and then sat down during a break in filming. The station was doing a story on Mini-Akers Exotic Animals, the 15-acre farm Ake owned with her husband. Cathie Ake's husband, Donnie Ake, said he would find a new home for Polo, the camel, The News Herald of Panama City reported Tuesday. He believes the 1,800-pound animal was agitated by mating...