Free Republic

Ozark, Ala. native, Lt. Col. Eric Schwegler, commander of 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, speaks to Siham Nadeem, a leader of a nongovernmental organization for widows in Taji, during a holiday social on Camp Taji, Dec. 15. Photo by Pfc. Adam Halleck, 1st Cavalry Division. CAMP TAJI — American military and civilian leaders here returned a favor by inviting their Iraqi counterparts from the area to a holiday social and celebration on the Camp, Dec. 15. "The local leaders have been more than hospitable toward us when it comes to celebrating and...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Facebook users... I was wanting to befriend all facebook users here. I would love to have networking outside of freerepublic.com so we can share comments and interests outside of this site. PM me your page and I would love to network with you. I can't wait until I see most of the freeper comments on this. Consider this enjoyment for today!!!

A 53-year-old Helena man was shot multiple times in the leg during an altercation at a home in the Skelly Gulch area off of Austin Road Thursday night. The man, whose name has not been released, was transported to St. Peter’s Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition Friday evening, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said. A 72-year-old man called 911 at 6:18 p.m. to report he had shot someone in his home, Dutton said.

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Staff Sgt. Omar Jackson, 82nd Airborne Division, patrols a small market in al-Ma'mel in southeastern Baghdad, Aug. 18. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. BAGHDAD – Recently, U.S paratroopers were attacked by an improvised explosive device here outside of Joint Security Station Cleary. According to 1st Lt. Steven Kelly, a platoon leader in the unit attacked, it was the first time anything like this happened to them in more than nine months in Iraq. On Aug. 18, the paratroopers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment and their Iraqi Army (IA) counterparts donned their...

A thread with this title was posted about 10 years ago. The top choices were JohnHuang2 and kattracks (who sadly died of cancer a couple of years ago). My current favorites are governsleastgovernsbest for posting his great commentaries from newsbusters here (this is NOT an ad). I also like RobinMasters, he finds great articles to post. Also, kudos to Cindy for her relentless research. And of course, Jim Robinson who makes this all possible. This thread is dedicated to kattracks, a true friend of FR. May she rest in peace.

No more than five or six minutes elapsed from the time the police were alerted to the possibility of a break-in at a home in a quiet residential neighborhood and the awful clamping of handcuffs on the wrists of the distinguished Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. If Professor Gates ranted and raved at the cop who entered his home uninvited with a badge, a gun and an attitude, he didn’t rant and rave for long. The 911 call came in at about 12:45 on the afternoon of July 16 and, as The Times has reported, Mr. Gates was arrested,...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

President Obama swept to office on the promise of a new kind of politics, but then how do you explain last week's dismissal of federal Inspector General Gerald Walpin for the crime of trying to protect taxpayer dollars? This is a case that smells of political favoritism and Chicago rules. A George W. Bush appointee, Mr. Walpin has since 2007 been the inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that oversees such subsidized volunteer programs as AmeriCorps. In April 2008 the Corporation asked Mr. Walpin to investigate reports of irregularities at St. HOPE, a...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Their loyal nature, their eagerness to please, are the very qualities that make pit bulls easy prey for dog fighters. And now, Best Friends Animal Society and other animal welfare groups have joined forces to help future canine victims of this organized crime. On April 8, representatives from Best Friends, Bad Rap, ASPCA, National Animal Control Association, Maddie’s Fund, Nevada Humane Society, Spartanburg Humane Society and the Humane Society of the United States met in Las Vegas to address the matter of dogs seized as a result of cruelty investigations into animal fighting rings. The meeting was in response to...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan , March 4, 2009 – Task Force Spartan soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, have been working closely with the local populace and security forces in Afghanistan’s Vardak province since their deployment to Regional Command East two months ago. The “Catamount” battalion has had recent success with the Afghan security forces in the province’s Jalrez and Sayed Abad districts. This partnership signifies a commitment to helping the Afghan government become better connected with outlying provinces, officials said. Team Comanche, whose area of operations extends into eastern Vardak, conducts daily patrols over rugged...

3/2/2009 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- When the Australian servicemembers of Force Support Unit 1 at an air base in Southwest Asia passed a bucket around at their last barbecue to raise funds for the victims of the Victoria wildfires, they had hoped for some loose change from their Air Force guests. What they got surprised them. Between the Australians and the assembled guests, they managed to raise more than $1,600. "Through the generosity of those Australians at (the Joint Movement Coordination Centre, also known as 'Billabong Flats') and our coalition partners, just over $1,620 was collected towards the Victorian...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

The message that popped into Laurie Gale's Facebook inbox last month seemed harmless enough -- a friend had seen a video of Ms. Gale and had sent a link so Ms. Gale could view it. The link led to a video site that prompted her to update her video software, which she did. "Within seconds, everything started shutting itself down," says Ms. Gale, a 37-year-old lamp-works artist from Versailles, Ky. Ms. Gale's new Dell Inspiron laptop had been infected with malicious software, or malware, that has spread through social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. "I cried for an hour,"...

By Mike Farquhar Watching our President-elect attempt to put together a working cabinet, it finally dawned on me what he was struggling with. He’s got no peeps! Having sprung so suddenly and so successfully onto our national – even the world stage — he’s been abruptly confronted with success he for which he is woefully unprepared. So he went on vacation. In the course of a normal politician’s life, he or she would have come up through the ranks, serving at local and state level—perhaps even in the military or in law enforcemen— before seeking national office. Then that...

Thank You For Being A Friend ( Andrew Gold ) Thank you for being a friend Traveled down a road and back again Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant I'm not ashamed to say I hope it always will stay this way My hat is off, won't you stand up and take a bow And if you threw a party Invited everyone you knew You would see the biggest gift would be from me And the card attached would say Thank you for being a friend Thank you for being a friend If it's a car...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Barack 0bama's FriendsVideo of 0bomba's friendsHannity's America - Obama & Friends A History Of Radicalism

Here is a list of friends of Obama.....Penny Pritzker is Obama's Campaign FINANCE Manager.....do the research on her and Superior Bank....needs more exposure...pass it around ACORN... Obama gave them $800,000 this year? Alinsky, Saul.....Obama is a follower of Alinsky Auchi, Nadhmi... lent Obama over $3 million Ayers, William Weather Underground unrepentent terrorist Bean, Terrence ....raised 50-100K - once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America. Chandoo, Muhammad Hasa College roommate #1 from Pakistan Communist Party of USA ....ENDORSED Obama Davidson, Carl .....SDS Member, associated with Chicago’s “New Party” - felt Dem party was TOO centrist Davis, Frank Marshall......Mentor...

To be sure, the nation’s current financial mess is a bipartisan disaster -- but how curious it was to hear Barack Obama at the first debate claim that he sounded warnings two years ago. Perhaps he did, but some us of would like to hear more about the warnings and the letter he says he wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury urging a meeting of all “stakeholders.” After all, many of Sen. Obama’s friends, advisors and fellow Democrats have direct connections to the quasi-governmental agency at the center all this -- the Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

This animated footage is of a rabbit and cat that at days end fall to sleep. The instrumental of this footage is a shortened version of the hymn, “Sweet Hour of Prayer”. This footage of a tired rabbit and cat is a favorite of many and received multiple five star ratings around the world.

Below is a list of Barack Obama’s friends and roommates who knew him in high school and college. * Robert McCrary a former classmate at Occidental College. McCrary is now a general manager of a contract sewing company. He saw Obama as "cocky, sometimes arrogant...and not open to others." * Paul Carpenter Obama's freshman roommate at Occidental and now a Los Angeles lawyer. Carpenter recalls Obama being a "a good bodysurfer", "an athletic guy", and "superbright". * Margot Mifflin, a friend from Occidental who is now a journalism professor at New York's Lehman College. * Jon K. Mitchell a friend...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

After Nantucket house party, dog found dead in washing machine July 25, 2008 A Yorkshire Terrier was found dead in a washing machine Wednesday, the day after one of its owners hosted a party at a Nantucket home, police said.

Staff Sergeant Brian Doty (left), of Orange, Va. and Cpl. Sam Weaver, of Fayetteville, N.C., both with Company B, 13th Psychological Operations Battalion, are accompanied by local children while on a foot patrol in the city of Suwayrah in northern Wasit province. Photo by Sgt. David Turner. COMBAT OUTPOST SUMMERS — Walking down the busy streets of Suwayrah at sundown, the city’s residents met Soldiers with handshakes and friendly smiles. Children gathered everywhere the Soldiers stopped to talk to residents. As the patrol of Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment continued on its way, the...

Tony Snow and I traveled parallel paths through Washington. We are a year apart in age –Tony is a year younger at 53 –and both loved politics and debate. Our love of debate may have been due to the fact that we both studied philosophy in college (Tony went to Davidson, I went to Haverford). And before joining FOX News we both spent time as editorial writers. ..... We got together when he came to Washington to be the editorial page editor of The Washington Times. I was working as a White House correspondent, editorial writer and columnist for The...

Clayton was talking to Rush yesterday about Barack Obama's ears. Clayton said "What do we gain by talking about his ears?" Rush explained that Maureen Dowd originally wrote a column about his ears and that Rush was responding to it. Clayton just kind of blew his answer off. Then again this morning Clayton again brings up the ears thing. "What does Rush gain by bringing up his ears?" BUT HE DIDN'T INCLUDE RUSH'S ANSWER! UGH! THAT'S SO ANNOYING! The other hosts didn't work the weekend so they didn't even know Rush had responded. Then he later called the Treasury Secretary...

BAGHDAD — As the sun baked the urban Iraqi streets to a soul-melting 120 degrees, Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers continued a mission that has occupied much of the past four months for them. Members of the Scout/Sniper Platoon from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, walk and drive the streets of the Sha’ab neighborhood in the Adhamiyah district of northern Baghdad to meet the people and to help deter extremists from conducting attacks there. But, these Soldiers aren’t the only ones on the front lines protecting the...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

6/16/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Twelve Airmen working together for the past nine months at the remote Iraqi Military Training Base of Kirkush, located in the Diyala Province just over 10 miles from the Iranian border, are hoping to work themselves out of a job. As the only Americans living among thousands of Iraqi Soldiers and trainees, their objective has been to work with the leadership at the base to improve operational and logistical processes. "We're here to train and advise the Iraqi Army. Our goal is to put ourselves out of a job," said Master Sgt....

IN THE AMERICAN hierarchy of relationships, friendship often seems distinctly second-class. We obsess about the "work-family balance," but the leisurely conversation with an old friend is a quick casualty when it conflicts with either one. Just in the last generation, the number of real confidants we have outside the family has dropped substantially, according to one 2006 study. more stories like thisNow, a number of scholars are seeking to shore up friendship in a surprising way: by granting it legal recognition. Some of the rights and privileges restricted to family, they argue, should be given to friends. These could be...

Barack Obama may have come up with a creative way to solve the housing recession: Let everyone buy property at a discount the way he did from Tony Rezko, and give everyone in America a discount mortgage the way Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide did for Fannie Mae's Jim Johnson. A former CEO of mortgage financing giant Fannie Mae, Mr. Johnson is now vetting Vice Presidential candidates for Mr. Obama. But he is also a textbook case for poor disclosure as regulators sifted through the wreckage of Fannie's $10 billion accounting scandal. Despite an exhaustive federal inquiry, Mr. Johnson managed to...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )

US aid to Palestinians to total $550 mln - official WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - The US government will provide $550 million in direct financial support to the Palestinian Territories in 2008

Israel's real friends are on the right Posted: May 05, 2008, 12:13 PM by Marni Soupcoff Theo Caldwell, IsraelAs the world watched former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, embrace terrorists from Hamas and lay a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat recently, it is worth considering which side of the ideological divide includes Israel's real friends. For more than a generation, even before Republican president Richard Nixon prevented the Soviets from entering the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel's allies and defenders have most commonly been found on the right, among the ranks of conservatives and Christians. On the...

My wife Mrs. Don-o is having gastric bypass surgery on Thursday, May 8. If all goes well, she should be discharged on Saturday. She is very confident in the surgeon, who has done over 1800 of these operations (four hour procedure). She is doing all the research possible on her own and expects do fabulously. The hope is for almost instant relief from diabetes and three or four related co-morbidities. The major post-op risk, statistically, is pulmonary embolism. In her case, this risk is mitigated by the fact that she's been walking and exercising a whole lot, but exacerbated by...

A comparison can be made between Obama’s popularity among blacks and the popular support – among blacks – of OJ’s Simpson. Despite all the evidence, both of these men are held up to be symbolic heroes and great hopes for their race. What’s going on here? Perhaps – maybe driven by our national racial divide, perhaps the cause for this similarity is the utter abandonment of reason – among blacks –for the hope of the gaining something for the race: one injustice served makes payment against the many judicial injustices served on blacks since the 17th century and the mere...

Welcome To.... 'Amy's Place' welcomes all poets and those who enjoy poetry.'Amy's Place' is more than just about poetry.Come in, relax, and share with fellow FReepersyour thoughts about any of the things on the *Menu*. Enjoy! :) Never Forget! Bad Penny Amy's personal guardian ~ the ever charming, lovable, huggable, LouieWolf Many thanks for stopping by. : )