Free Republic

Famed chimp 'Moe' escapes into forest As of Monday, there was still no sign of Moe in the San Bernardino National Forest, but there were plenty of rumors about the missing chimp. Water was running and peanuts were missing at the Gem Ranch on Cajon Boulevard, and a dead chicken was found in the same area where Moe disappeared. Someone even called from Rancho Cucamonga saying there had been a possible Moe sighting in the caller's yard. Amidst the mayhem and the media circus at the scene, animal control officers and those close to Moe continued their search for the...

A 30-YEAR chapter in federal politics ends today when the Australian Democrats make their official exit from the Senate. Leader Lyn Allison, Natasha Stott Despoja, Andrew Bartlett and Andrew Murray will take their seats in the Senate for one last time before bowing out when parliament breaks for the winter recess this evening. The Democrats are leaving the parliament with a warning that their departure will leave the nation's democracy weaker. Senators Stott Despoja, Bartlett and Allison delivered their valedictory speeches in the Senate yesterday, while Senator Murray gave his on Tuesday. The new Senate will be the first without...

A shop owner awaits his customers at his fruit stand on 60th Street in the east side of Baghdad's Rashid district, Feb. 19. More than 50 shops have opened on 60th Street since the beginning of December. Photo by Spc. Ben Washburn, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. — During the past few months, Iraqis and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers have been working hard to make sure the economic resurgence thrives throughout Baghdad. The Soldiers of 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., have been working with the...

Residents of Zambraniyah move through a Coalition checkpoint as they return to their homes, after fleeing al-Qaida in Iraq clashes with Coalition forces. Photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Paredes. ZAMBRANIYAH — Nearly 1,000 residents returned to Zambraniyah throughout the last week of January after learning the area had been secured by Coalition and Iraqi forces. When heavy fighting in the Zambraniyah area broke out in early January, Coalition Forces advised families to evacuate the area to stay out of danger. As residents fled, blending in was difficult for al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) members, enabling Soldiers to identify and target them....

The Bush administration is no longer influenced by neocons. Instead, it's governing the way its predecessors have.Maybe 2008 will be the year when we will finally be rid of that vacuous belief that "the neocons" are in control of the Bush administration's foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. Habits are hard to break, particularly lazy ones, but if anyone bothered to look more closely, they would see that the United States has not really engaged in what we might call a neoconservative approach to the region since at least 2004, when the situation in Iraq took a sudden...

Unless a dramatic and historical flurry of activity occurs in the next 9 weeks, 2007 will rank as a historically inactive TC year for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. During the past 30 years, only 1977, 1981, and 1983 have had less activity to date (January-TODAY, Accumulated Cyclone Energy). For the period of June 1 - TODAY, only 1977 has experienced LESS tropical cyclone activity than 2007.

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Two Florida women have sued "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis and his film company, alleging a sexually explicit video was released without their consent. In the federal lawsuit filed Monday in Panama City, Brooke Pastolic and Christina Brose said they were enticed to board a "Girls Gone Wild" tour bus with the promise of free clothing. Once onboard, they allegedly were given alcoholic drinks even though both were younger than 21. According to the lawsuit, the cameramen then coerced the women into exposing themselves and engaging in sexual activities, but repeatedly stated they would not...

Mars is a very windy place--so windy, in fact, that bright, oxidized martian soil is being scoured away by martian winds and dust devils to reveal darker, sub-surface soil with the end result of making the whole planet warmer. Mars is experiencing its own brand of climate change. Is this related to planet earth's greenhouse gas driven climate change? No. Is understanding the process important for our understanding of how planets evolve and change over time? Absolutely. In early April of this year, a young Carl Sagan Center Principal Investigator named Lori Fenton, together with her colleagues at NASA Ames...

Since it now seems very imminent, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start this up. Links to information and pictures (if we get them) can be posted here.

<p>Lillington — A Harnett County woman faces felony charges after police say she castrated her husband.</p> <p>Rebecca Ann Dawson, 34, of Stockyard Road in Lillington, was arrested Sunday after the alleged attack on her husband, Kevin Russ, during some type of domestic situation.</p>

Just heard on FoxNews that Howard Dean may step down.

I don't think this will shock anybody. I spoke with an old pal today who works on the Hill. My pal informed me that the majority of Congress critters, their Chiefs of Staff (the person who really calls the shots in the Congressional office), and other staffers on the Republican side have already written off keeping the majority in the House. My pal mentioned that many staffers were told as far back as last January that it was highly likely that Republicans would lose the majority. HOW PATHETIC IS THAT???? Word from the Hill is that as of Friday, the...

Mon July 24, 2006 Mr. Monday: To stay in Seattle, Sonics must win Mr. Monday once parked his caboose in the Pacific Northwest. Just south of Canada, the state of Washington is now sitting on the front porch of Oklahoma's collective sports brain. Those coffee-drinking, dot-commers have the Sonics. For now. Mr. Monday figures the team in the green and gold is on its way east in the next year. Mr. Monday knows these people. Here's their M.O. -- The Left Coasters are the bandwagoniest bandwagoners who ever bandwagoned. They'll only pull their attention away from their plate of smoked...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face. It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.

FORT BLISS, Texas (Army News Service, June 5, 2006) – The first-ever Afghan soldier to attend the Sergeants Major Academy has graduated as a member of SMA Class 56, at Fort Bliss, Texas, May 19. Sgt. Maj. Roshan Safi was selected to attend the U.S. SMA on recommendations from his commanders and U.S. Army mentors in Afghanistan because of his consistent leadership potential as a career-soldier, which began with the post-Taliban controlled Afghan military. “We have officer and enlisted training in Afghanistan,” says Safi. “But in the future we want to establish more non commissioned officer enlisted and officer schools.”...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - American troops will probably be gone from Iraq by mid-2008 as the Iraqi forces they are training take over from them, Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said on Friday. He said he expected the roughly 133,000 U.S. troops to be cut to less than 100,000 by year's end and an "overwhelming majority" of them to have left by the end of 2007 under a U.S.-Iraqi plan for progressively handing over security. "We have a roadmap, a condition-based agreement where, by the end of this year, the number of coalition forces will probably be less than 100,000,"...

Just as they have for 60 years, baby boomers are throwing their weight around again. This time, though, it's not a matter of how to educate, house and employ the mass of 78 million Americans in that generation, but rather how to replace their skills and knowledge in the workplace as they begin to retire. The oldest of the baby boomers turn 60 this year, on the verge of traditional retirement age. The percentage of workers older than 65 will increase from 14.4 percent of the work force in 2004 to 19.7 percent by 2014, meaning the fastest-growing part of...

The former publisher of a Pulitzer Prize-winning weekly newspaper was ordered to stay away from the new owner following an altercation over editorial direction, authorities said. David Mitchell, 62, whose 30-year tenure at the Point Reyes Light included a Pulitzer for public service in 1979, allegedly seized the throat of new publisher Robert Plotkin, 35, and tried to run him down with his car, according to Plotkin's Feb. 17 restraining order request. A Marin County court commissioner granted a temporary restraining order on March 2, ordering Mitchell to stay away from the newspaper's offices and keep 100 yards from Plotkin,...

ARIEL Sharon's departure from Israel's political scene was made official on Tuesday by the absence of his name from the list of candidates for the March parliamentary election unveiled by the party he founded. Sharon, incapacitated by a Jan. 4 stroke, cannot run in the ballot because he could not sign a form to confirm his candidacy for the centrist Kadima, a party spokeswoman said. It will be the first election in three decades in which Sharon, 77, has not run. "All our hearts are with him," Israel's Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has assumed Sharon's duties, told a...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Jan. 13, 2006) -- The Department of Defense authorized the retirement of Jaco, a military working dog for 10 years, and his adoption by former handler Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass, Jan. 8. Jaco was a member of one of seven military working dog teams stationed here as a first line of defense in the protection of depot personnel and resources through explosive and narcotic detection in support of the depot's anti-terrorism efforts. In correlation with the recent retirement of the explosives detecting canine, Jaco, and Hertha, a narcotics detecting military working dog, the K-9...

Pope John Paul II's death prompted a remarkable outpouring of grief and respect, not just from Roman Catholics but from admirers of all faiths. The throngs that brought parts of Rome to a standstill paid homage to a man who helped bring freedom to his native Poland, traveled tirelessly to more than 120 nations and inspired young people to maintain their faith. He was among the notable people who died in 2005. So, too, was Rosa Parks, whose history-making achievement played out one evening in 1955 on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., when she refused to give up her...

Katrina is gone -- and so are many kids Team pursues difficult search for more than 1,300 missing children TINA SUSMAN Newsday Posted on Sun, Dec. 11, 2005 Royce Osbourne, in a skeleton mask, marches in a protest for hurricane victims' rights in New Orleans December 10, 200. Protesters feared they would receive federal funds to rebuild their homes. REUTERS/Lee Celano NEW ORLEANS - Three months after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, the fate of more than 1,300 children remains unknown. Until a few days ago, Lil Joe and Kolenik Williams, brothers from New Orleans, were among the...

Kennebunkport, Maine, residents say that when the Bushes are golfing security makes getting around a hassle. (AP file photo) People in the Bush family's summer haven of Kennebunkport, Maine, have a message for locals in Gov. Mitt Romney's vacation spot, Wolfeboro, N.H.: Things are only going to get worse. Romney and his posse have already been deemed an unwanted distraction by some in the Lake Winnipesaukee town, but Kennebunkport locals say the Granite Staters are in for a major shock if the governor's 2008 presidential bid takes off.

Gallup Poll: Public Trust In Media At All Time Low June 13, 2005 2:25 p.m. EST Douglas Maher - All Headline News Staff Reporter New York, NY (AHN) - A new Gallup poll released today shows statistics that many in America have been claiming for the last ten years "credibility is vanishing from news". Between the CBS Texas Air National Guard story with President Bush,to Newsweek's mishandling of the Quran story,people polled with questions relating to credibility in the news whether it be in paper or on TV proved to be shockingly low. The poll stated people who have a...

<p>Were on to your shenannagans. When ever a progressive posts a a very smart posts of you,re warped conservativeism, you bravely delete his arguments.</p> <p>However, when some body of the right wing mind set but some what flawed posted a less than brilliant screed, you leave that up and make fun of it just becausee it is typical of the intellect of progressives.</p>

What's the deal with all the dead scientists?

Bumper Stickers for a Red-State Nation Bush: Selected and Elected! I'm a Republican. I feel your pain! Kerry and Edwards: Hair today. Gone tomorrow. What happened? He had a PLAN. De Plan, Boss! De Plan! America won, you lost! Visualize: 60 million Bush fans. "There is NO Bush in the White House." -Iraqi Information Minister Liberals lost--but at least they'll be SAFER. If you're seeing RED, you must be feeling BLUE. John Kerry is STILL in Vietnam! Lurch lost. You can move on now. Howard Dean: He could have been a contender! Blue state. Blue dress stain. Blue all over....

A Petition to Republican Senators Opposing the Election of Senator Arlen Specter As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee ----------------------------------------------------- I agree, Senator Specter should not serve as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sign Here! Please fill out the form below and click the submit button.

On Friday (April 4, 2003), troops at a training facility in the western Iraqi desert came across a bottle labeled "tabun" -- a nerve gas and chemical weapon Iraq is banned from possessing. Closer to Baghdad, troops at Iraq's largest military industrial complex found nerve agent antidotes, documents describing chemical warfare and a white powder that appeared to be used for explosives. U.N. weapons inspectors went repeatedly to the vast al Qa Qaa complex -- most recently on March 8 (2003) -- but found nothing during spot visits to some of the 1,100 buildings at the site 25 miles south...

If one goes to the http://www.senate.gov site, and looks at the Roll Call votes in the Senate, it is very difficult to: 1. Find when both Kerry and Edwards both voted on the same thing (not necessarily the same way). 2. Find when Kerry last voted. 3. Find when Edwards last voted. The Senate and House both had special sessions on the weekend, but if one goes further back, I really can not tell if it is 30 votes ago, 40 votes ago, or even 50 votes ago, in terms of answers to the (1), (2), and (3). VP Cheney...

In Greensboro, Gorbachev critiques U.S. war with Iraq Justin Catanoso The Business Journal 3:42 PM EDT Thursday Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, in his first-ever visit to North Carolina, decried the lack of world leadership in general and specifically criticized the United States' war with and occupation of Iraq. "Implanting models from the West has never worked; you must take into account the uniqueness of other cultures," said Gorbachev, who while president moved to extricate his country from a losing cause in Afghanistan in the mid-1980s. Gorbachev, 73, met with local journalists Wednesday evening at the Greensboro Coliseum complex...

Putin: Ally or Terrorist? by William F. Jasper Counting Vladimir Putin as an ally against terrorism ignores his career in the murderous KGB/FSB and his ongoing support for terrorist regimes and organizations. ‘‘Lena Goncharuk, aged 38, said that she was the only one to survive out of a group of six who were ordered out of the cellar where they had been hiding and shot at point blank range. Resting in her hospital bed, her voice barely rising above a whisper, she said she had survived only by pretending to be dead." So reported Paul Wood from the Chechen border...

I didn't know, sez gov's ex 2 hours, 43 minutes ago BY MAGGIE HABERMAN, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER The first wife of New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey said yesterday she didn't know her ex was gay until last week. "He told me just before he went on TV," Kari Schutz said in a phone interview from British Columbia. Schutz described the call from her ex-husband as "difficult," although she declined to give details. But asked if she had any idea of her husband's sexual identity during their marriage, she said, "I never knew." The governor's second wife, Dina Matos McGreevey,...

<p>Just saw this on New York channel 4. Woo Hoo! Impending lawsuit forcing him out. Something like that. details to follow.</p>

Catholics for a Free Choice Refine the Art of Blasphemy On July 2, 2004, the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute reported on the activities of “Catholics for a Free Choice” (CFFC) at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, then taking place in Puerto Rico. CFFC and its Latin American counterpart, “Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir,” stunned attendees at the economic meeting by handing out prayers-cards featuring an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, upon which was superimposed the words, “"The love of God and of Mary of Guadalupe is greater...For women's lives, safe and legal...

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow By ADAM NAGOURNEY Published: April 9, 2004 Even by the standards of the revolving door that is sometimes the John Kerry campaign, the arrival and departure of Howard Wolfson – the high-powered political consultant from New York – had to be a record. Mr. Wolfson arrived at Mr. Kerry’s campaign headquarters on Monday to work as a communications consultant. He was on a train back to New York on Friday to return to his post at a political consulting firm. Mr. Wolfson said that his sudden departure from the campaign should not be taken as any...

Tokyo (dpa) - Five school girls forced another female student to work as a prostitute so they could pay for a mobile phone bill, police said Thursday. The five grammar school girls between 14-16 years old were arrested after allegedly beating the 16-year-old fellow student while keeping her at an apartment for three days. They arranged sexual liaisons with three men through a personals service and the men paid the 16-year-old victim to have sex with them. The girls had said they needed pocket money and also needed to pay off a mobile telephone bill costing more than 450 dollars....

When an Elgin [IL] woman walked into her kitchen early Tuesday morning to make breakfast, she found a man wedged halfway into her window, hanging over her sink. Craig M. Petropoulos, 36, apparently was trying to climb into the window - perhaps to burglarize the Franklin Boulevard home - when he got stuck around his chest, police said. His legs dangled over the driveway. Police say he weighed about 250 pounds and had a large build. He was dead when the homeowner walked into the kitchen at 5 a.m. Kane County Coroner Chuck West said an autopsy indicated Petropoulos died...

In an unusual step, Hamas yesterday issued a call for help to the Arab world, citing Israel's assassination attempt on Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's life and the European Union's inclusion of Hamas on its list of terror groups as the reasons. The organization asked for assistance in its struggle against pressure exerted by Israel and by the West at large, as exemplified by the European Union's recent decision to place Hamas' political wing on its list of terror organizations. A Hamas circular distributed in the Gaza Strip and on the Internet declared that, "in light of the continuing acts of massacre...

The suicide-murder at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and the suicide-murder in Jerusalem that targeted a bus full of families and children on their way back from prayer occurred only about five hours apart. They claimed about 20 lives each and also injured about 100 people. We do not yet know who carried out the attack in Baghdad, but we know exactly who destroyed the families' bus in Jerusalem. He was Raed Abdel-Hamed Masq, from Hebron. He was not the usual brainwashed teenage suicide bomber. No. In fact, he was one of the brainwashers: a chief cleric, an imam, in...

May 11, 2003 More 'Can I Help You?' Jobs Migrate From U.S. to India By AMY WALDMAN BOMBAY — In the early morning hours of May 1, American welfare recipients reached for their phones, dialing toll-free to check on their next infusion of funds. On a steamy Indian late afternoon in her air-conditioned cubicle here, Manisha Martin was waiting for them. Without a break, the display panel on her phone lit up. Kansas calling. Arizona. Alabama. Tennessee. "Hi, this is Megan," she said to each caller. "How can I help you?" In mostly southern drawls she had once struggled to...

Near Kut, southeast of Capital (location of said division)Iraqi TV says top officials meeting right now

<p>VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - An arrest warrant was issued Monday for accused date-rapist Andrew Luster after the Max Factor heir disappeared over the weekend, officials said.</p> <p>Luster, the great grandson of cosmetics mogul Max Factor, last checked in with probation officials early Friday, said Patrick Neil, division manager of the Ventura County Probation Agency. He did not report in as required that evening and failed to appear in court Monday, Neil added.</p>