Free Republic

Yesterday in the Huffington Post, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., taught us an important lesson: Health care can be free! For example, she wrote, “When President Obama announced that because of health care reform, birth control would soon be available for free in new insurance plans, you would have expected universal approval.” She also wrote, “Finally, (Obama’s) decision will help working families by giving them access to free birth control.”

KNOXVILLE (WATE) - A man was taken to the hospital Sunday afternoon after shooting himself in the hand at a gun show. Gun dealer Bill Adams, 64, of Kodak, was taking a concealed gun out to show a customer, when the gun discharged and shot him in the hand. Knoxville Police said the man removed the magazine from the .45 semiautomatic Kimber handgun, but a shell remained in the chamber.

Thousands have flocked to watch a fake presidential rally held by comedian Steve Colbert and one-time Republican presidential frontrunner Herman Cain in Charleston, South Carolina. And in an interesting twist, the crowd, comprised mostly of students, was far larger audience than any at an actual rally during this year's election cycle in the state. Herman Cain, whose presidential campaign was plagued - and finished - by a string of accusations of sexual misconduct, appeared alongside Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089657/Herman-Cain-Steve-Colbert-rally-South-Carolina-draws-bigger-crowds-real-presidential-candidates.html#ixzz1k7BcEwIC

Some bets just shouldn't be made. Just ask a 21-year-old Vallejo man who made a $100 bet with his friends that he could fit into a baby swing at a local park. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the unidentified man -– who should be thanking police for not releasing his name –- lubed himself up with liquid laundry detergent and jammed himself into the kiddie swing's leg holes about 9 p.m. Friday. But he got stuck, his legs swelled and he couldn't get out...

Herman Cain deserves credit for proposing a tax-reform plan that is specific, promotes economic growth, and has captured the imagination of conservatives nationwide. His 9-9-9 plan builds on the insight that one of the chief defects of the current tax code is its bias toward consumption over savings. But his plan’s peculiarities of design, substantive weaknesses, and political naïveté render it unworthy of conservative support. Cain’s ultimate objective is a 30 percent national sales tax, but his interim plan is to replace the current income, payroll, and corporate tax codes with three new taxes. A 9 percent income tax would...

Now that he has been handed an untimely resignation as CEO of al Qaeda whats next for this freshly minted free agent? Who said Achmed the Dead Terrorist couldn't have a second banana? :-)

Engineering researchers the University of Southern California have made a significant breakthrough in the use of nanotechnologies for the construction of a synthetic brain. They have built a carbon nanotube synapse circuit whose behavior in tests reproduces the function of a neuron, the building block of the brain. The team, which was led by Professor Alice Parker and Professor Chongwu Zhou in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, used an interdisciplinary approach combining circuit design with nanotechnology to address the complex problem of capturing brain function. In a paper published in the proceedings of...

A group of House Democrats has released a letter to Republican congressional leaders calling on them to announce which of their members will be forgoing their congressional benefit health insurance (which is subsidized by the government) in light of their party's opposition to health care reform overhaul legislation. "If your conference wants to deny millions of Americans affordable health care, your members should walk that walk," four Democrats write in the letter, which is addressed to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader John Boehner. "You cannot enroll in the very kind of coverage that you want for...

History certainly has examples of high inflation that resulted from dire fiscal situations. But there are also many examples of governments that fueled new spending programs by raising taxes or by cutting other spending. Our government may well raise taxes, cut military spending or cut spending on certain types of health care.

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...

A dummy act is missing its dummyHave you seen a dummy? No, you can stop looking at the guy picking lint out of his belly button on your couch or your boss. We're talking about a Pinocchio-like, wooden puppet, but missing the hand up its back that brings it to life. The Naples Police are searching for Clarence the dummy, which went missing from the trunk of a popular ventriloquist act's car earlier this month, according to the Naples News. The dummy hunt was on after Richard Parrott submitted a missing person's report for his wooden pal, Clarence. Creepy, right?...

I woke up this morning to the sound of my alarm clock, which is powered by electricity provided by the public power monopoly that is regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then proceeded to take a shower in clean, drinkable water from the Municipal Water Utility. After that, I watched on of the FCC regulated channels on my TV to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determinded the weather would be like by usinc satellites launced, maintained, designed and built by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while...

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson recently worried that it might be, according to a videotaped congressional hearing that is getting plenty of play online and over the airwaves. Johnson's comments came during a House Armed Services Committee meeting as he questioned Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, about the impact of U.S. troops on the little island. "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize," Johnson said, straight-faced and seemingly serious. The admiral seemed to take the question seriously, too. "We don't anticipate that," he said, proceeding...

THE HONORABLE HENRY C. "HANK" JOHNSON JR, D-GA: This is a, ah, island that, at its bridest [sic] level, is what? 12 miles from shore to shore? And at its smallest level, ah, ah, oh, smallest, ah, aaahhhhh, location it's, ah, 7 miles, ah, ah, between one shore and the other. Is zat correct?  ADMIRAL ROBERT WILLARD, USN: I don't have the exact, ah, dimensions, but, ah, to your point, sir, I think Guam is a small island.  JOHNSON JR, D-GA: Very small island, and about 24 miles, if I recall, long. So twenty, twenty-fo' miles long, about 7 miles...

Rhode Island Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy, the last member of his illustrious family currently serving in Congress, will announce on Friday that he is retiring, according to Democratic insiders. Kennedy, 42, was first elected to Congress in 1994. He did a stint as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the 1999-2000 cycle but has not served in the House Democratic leadership beyond that. His congressional tenure was marked by repeated substance abuse problems, including a drunk-driving incident in 2006. He entered a rehab facility at that time and again in 2009. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the congressman's father,...

Officials said members of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's football team -- who were practicing Monday for the upcoming Pig Bowl -- tackled a burglar. The football players were practicing at Foothill High School in Sacramento at the time. Sgt. Tim Curran said at least one burglar was captured and handcuffed by one of the football players, who's a deputy. That deputy got handcuffs from an officer who had arrived at the field, Curran said.

SANTA ANA – Deputy Coroners, meet "Manny the Mannequin." At about 80 pounds, this balding silicone dummy is the newest addition to the Orange County Sheriff Department's coroner division. With porous skin, varicose feet and human hair, the life-like mannequin was purchased by the sheriff's department with a grant to add a new dimension to their training, authorities said. In their Santa Ana headquarters, the sheriff's coroner division has used dummies in their training before, but none are as life-like as this newest addition. The dummy comes from a Burbank company that has spawned similar creations for recent television shows...

PLEASE READ ALL OF THIS DESCRIPTION --- Part One of Lucas Smith debunks WND s disinformation that was put forth on August 25, 2009 by Jerome Corsi, Drew Zahn and Joseph Farah at World Net Daily. Book: Annual Report on the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. Page # 60. By: Great Britain, Colonial Office. Published 1960. You'll find the hospitals name, COAST PROVINCE GENERAL HOSPITAL. This book was published one year before Barack Obamas birth. Book: East African Doctors: a history of the modern profession. Page # 108. By: JOHN ILIFFE. Published 2002. Youll find the name of a hospital...

President Obama says his choice of words unfortunately gave the impression that he was maligning against the Cambridge Police Department. Obama said, he hopes as a "consequence" that this event becomes a "teachable moment" where people spend more time "listening to each other" and to generally improve relationships between minorities and police officers. Obama said more unity is needed. Regarding this being a local issue, Obama said he felt like he needed to step in because race is still a "troubling" aspect in our society.

SALEM — Being in court can be stressful enough to give anyone what the old ads called an "Excedrin headache." But Joel Peralta's going to have to get his aspirin from the infirmary at Middleton Jail for a while, after allegedly stealing $75 worth of the painkiller — while on a break from a court appearance on earlier shoplifting charges. Peralta, 33, of Lynn, was in Salem District Court Thursday morning on charges stemming from the theft of $155 worth of baby formula from the Shaw's supermarket in Salem. As often happens with misdemeanors, he met directly with a prosecutor...

Raul Castro prompted widespread speculation last week that the U.S. and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw in nearly a half-century of chilly relations, when he said Cuban leaders would be willing to discuss "everything" with the U.S., (snip) Obama responded by saying Washington seeks a new beginning with Cuba but he also said that Cuba should release some political prisoners and reduce official taxes on remittances from the U.S. as a sign of goodwill. Fidel Castro wrote in an essay on Tuesday that Obama "without a doubt misinterpreted Raul's declarations."

It has been an interesting, to put it mildly, day for terrorism. First we have the credible, but unsubstantiated, threat for attacks against the NY City subway city over the holiday long weekend, then we have the attacks in India. I will refer you to Jay's post, rather then rewrite it all. He is on top of it big time. I've been out most of the afternoon. But, as I usually do, I checked some of the hard left sites, and found a more then very interesting post, where a few DUmmies try to explain the issue of Islamic terrorism...

I had a Dell Dimension 8200 computer (a full height tower CPU) that I bought new and owned for a number of years, then sold. I recently discovered two memory chips (or what I thought were memory chips) that as best I could recall, I removed when I upgraded the computer memory. The OEM memory of the computer was 512MB PC800 RDRAM (2x256). I posted the a description of two memory chips on ebay, along with a picture of the them, and sold and shipped them. I just got an email from the buyer claiming this: "What you sent is...

http://www.facebook.com/CharlesGibson Here is the link to Charles Gibson's Facebook page. Please leave a comment for ol Charlie. Mods, if this is out of line, sorry, and delete. The way he treated Governor Palin was wrong.

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama will appear at Carnegie Mellon University Thursday, hosting a round-table conversation on competitiveness and the world economy. The morning panel discussion, which will be closed to the public, includes speakers from industry, labor and the academic world.The participants are to include: Lael Brainard, vice president of the Brookings Institution; Eli Broad, founder of the Broad Foundation; Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone; Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution Health and former chairman and CEO of America Online; Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Federico Pe??a, former U.S....

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain called Monday for reductions in carbon emissions and criticized the Bush administration for failing to lead the fight against climate change. "We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. … We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great," the Arizona Republican said in a speech delivered at a wind-energy facility in Portland, Ore. "The most relevant question is whether our own government is equal to the challenge." McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, proposed...

“I heard from an Army Captain who was the head of a rifle platoon; supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq. As a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current Commander in Chief.” – Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill) (Washington DC) Vets for Freedom questions the recent comments by Senator Barack...

I relate to Barack Obama losing paper, and being disorganized, and sometimes losing things. He's human.But other campaign correspondents have noted how often Obama blames his staff, and throws them under the bus when mistakes are made.And then there's this story, which seems a little unnerving: Barack Obama angered fellow Democrats in the Illinois Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago's West Side. But Obama had a ready explanation: He goofed. "I was not aware that I had voted no," he said that day in June 2002, asking that the record...

RETAIL bosses may have to issue bizarre health warnings on its clothing mannequins - after a punter said he got his MANHOOD trapped in one. The man, 31, rang officials at an online firm to whinge that he got “part of himself” stuck in a 24mm hole on a female display bust. The unnamed customer from Doncaster, South Yorks, had ordered the display mannequin over the internet mistakenly thinking it was an adult sex toy. He had to use a pair of heavy duty scissors to cut the dummy and set himself free. Cheekily instead of feeling a right dummy,...

MADISON, N.J. — Public uproar that compared an image to a lynching has led a Madison family to remove a hanged dummy from its Halloween display. Cheryl and David Maines fear for their safety. The couple's 27-year-old son has decorated their home for seven Halloweens. The hanged dummy, which has a black hood, is usually partially hidden. But police started getting calls on Sunday, saying the display was racist. The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said it was offensive and insensitive.

Here is the transcript. The YouTube address is at the end. * Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad? A: No. Q: Why not? A: Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq. Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to...

A sperm donor who helped a lesbian couple conceive two children is liable for child support under a state appeals-court ruling that a legal expert believes might be the first of its kind. A Superior Court panel last week ordered a Dauphin County judge to establish how much Carl L. Frampton Jr. would have to pay to the birth mother of an 8-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl. "I'm unaware of any other state appellate court that has found that a child has, simultaneously, three adults who are financially obligated to the child's support and are also entitled to visitation," said...

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The suspected gunman in the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, Cho Seung-Hui, was a troubled 23-year-old senior from South Korea who investigators believe left an invective-filled note in his dorm room, sources say. The note included a rambling list of grievances and ended with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on the inside of one of his arms.

WATCH William Rivers Pitt wish a Merry Christmas to all FReepers.

Okay history fans, if Bush is to be compared to Lincoln then maybe he ought to do what the embattled Lincoln did to first War Secretary Simon Cameron in 1862 when his Congress was under fire: Accept Rumsfeld's resignation. Supposedly, the Don of the Pentagon offered it on two occasions, according to the source himself and it is apparent that a change in the tactics of fighting a losing war are now needed. Rumsfeld went against the advice of sound judgement from generals such as Shenseki and others who urged him to invade with at least as many boots on...

HAMPTON--U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis, a Republican, hasn't ever agreed with Sen. Hillary Clinton on anything. But she is siding with the New York Democrat in calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. "I've made no bones about it the last two years," the 1st District congresswoman told members of the Hampton Roads Chapter of the American Society of Military Comptrollers. "He's probably a nice guy, but I don't think he's a great secretary of defense." Davis said she based her determination in part on Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq. She pointed to his 2003 firing of Gen....

World's top maths genius jobless and living with mother By Nadejda Lobastova in St Petersburg and Michael Hirst (Filed: 20/08/2006) A maths genius who won fame last week for apparently spurning a million-dollar prize is living with his mother in a humble flat in St Petersburg, co-existing on her �’30-a-month pension, because he has been unemployed since December.   Grigory 'Grisha' Perelman The Sunday Telegraph tracked down the eccentric recluse who stunned the maths world when he solved a century-old puzzle known as the Poincare Conjecture. Grigory "Grisha" Perelman's predicament stems from an acrimonious split with a leading Russian mathematical...

LOS ANGELES A woman is suing the J.C. Penney Co. after an alleged run-in with a store mannequin that she says left her with a cracked tooth, a bloodied head and recurring shoulder pain. Diana Newton, 51, of Westminster sued the Texas-based retailer last month in Orange County Superior Court, claiming she was cracked in the head by a legless female dummy at its Westminster Mall store. Newton said the incident happened nearly a year ago in the women's department, as she was shopping for a blouse. The only one in her size was on the mannequin. As a salesclerk...

WASHINGTON: The Mumbai Police had it right all the time – talking on the cell phone, even with a hands-free device, is dangerous. In fact, a new University of Utah’s department of psychology study suggests it could as perilous as drunken driving. The study, published on Thursday in the summer issue of Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, is the final report by the university which had published preliminary results three years ago at a scientific meeting. Those findings, too, had drawn worldwide attention. Although talking on the cell phone while driving is banned in...

http://www.pfadvice.com/2006/06/21/creative-job-commute-helper/ Creative Job - Commute Helper Sometimes I’m amazed at the creativity of some people who earn a good living filling needs that anyone could do. I was at a gathering today when I struck up a conversation with a man who described his job as a “commute helper.” “OK, what exactly is a commute helper?” I asked “I help people have a smooth and quick commute,” he replied. “How do you do that?” I asked “I sit in their car, ” he said with a smile. This is what happened. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area,...

(AXcess News) New York - The title of this piece may seem a bit over-the-top, but it's true. Massachusetts' Junior Senator John F. Kerry admitted he is dumb in front of thousands of left-wing Democrats during the recent "Take Back America" jamboree. His pal, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), received a less than cordial reception by the crowd of antiwar, Bush-hating Dems, so perhaps Kerry felt it safer to admit his stupidity than face the heckling and boos accorded Clinton. And after all, it's not as if Kerry hasn't changed positions on issues in the past. He usually makes his rhetorical...

Rather than running away from the police, an alleged shoplifter ended up running into them — with grave results. Scott Everette Blake, 46, of Mounds View allegedly tried to steal more than $200 in men's accessories Saturday night from a Marshalls store near the Northtown shopping center in Blaine, said Anoka County Sheriff's Detective Jeff Rokeh. Store security guards watched as he removed watches, wallets and key chains from their packaging, bit off the security tags and stuffed the items in his pockets, Rokeh said. The guards called Blaine police and asked them to stand by as Blake prepared to...

A New School student apologized to Sen. John McCain for hijacking his commencement address, but said her controversial speech was "what my conscience called for." "I said, 'I'm really sorry I had to do that.' And he said, 'Oh, it's all right, I understand,'" Jean Sara Rohe told the Daily News yesterday. Rohe, 21, said she was unprepared for the angry response she got from McCain's camp after she spoke out against his support of the Iraq war and her fellow graduates heckled and booed him. The Republican senator from Arizona, who is widely expected to make a bid for...

What is this ... a hoax ... or is this guy telling the truth? http://www.youtube.com/results?search=jessie+macbeth&search_type=search_videos&search=Search Is Jessie Macbeth his real name?

Birmingham, Ala. -- Democratic Party leaders are wondering what to do about a candidate for attorney general who denies the Holocaust occurred and wants to "reawaken white racial awareness." Larry Darby, the founder of the Atheist Law Center, made an abortive bid for the AG job as a Libertarian in 2002, but only recently have his views on race and the Holocaust come to light. He has no money for campaign advertising and has made only a few campaign speeches, but garnered 12 percent support in the June 6 primary in a poll of 400 registered voters last month. The...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 4 — Striking back in the war of Internet images, the American military today released what they said were the captured outtakes of a video made by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that it hoped would make him look more like a bumbling paintball player than the ruthless jihadist he has portrayed himself as. A military spokesman also said that recent raids were giving American soldiers information that had them "zooming in" on Mr. Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which is believed responsible for most of the suicide bombings around the country. One such attack killed...

In this war freedom should come first not after! In New Hampshire the Motto is Live free or Die! I don't need Bush spying on law abiding americans and taking our freedoms. Anyone who surrenders a square inch of freedom to the government in the name of saftey is a traitor and should be treated like one! Let the Bush Fashists all drop dead! Filthy Commys! LET FREEDOM RING!

Philadelphia-Area Families Latest to Get Discounted Venezuelan Heating Oil The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA - Low-income families in the Philadelphia area will receive discounted Venezuelan heating oil in the latest deal bringing fuel to U.S. communities that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claims are neglected by Washington. Citgo, the Houston subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company, will ship 5 million gallons of heating oil marked down by 40 percent for distribution to low-income families next month in a deal brokered by Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah. Similar shipments have been made to New York City, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and American Indian...