Free Republic

The U.S. military command is considering contracting a private firm to manage security on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan, even as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that the Pentagon intends to cut back on the use of private security contractors.

While everyone is distracted with the Pelosi Reid Obama artery–choking, cardiac arrest, Pork Barrel Spending Bill, congress is sneaking-ly trying to pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Left-wing environmentalists are behind this bill to purposely undercut current progress toward affordable domestic energy. Essentially they will be stealing 300 million barrels of proven oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from any future use.

Amazing. Yet another Obama appointee apparently has tax problems. Pardon me, usher, but I think I’ve seen this movie before. This time it’s White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. It appears that the former congressman found a handy way to save money. Most members of Congress find themselves having to support two households — one in their home district, and one in or around DC. Some members, in the past, have ended up sharing apartments or town houses. Emanuel took that one step further: he moved into the home of his colleague, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), staying there for five...

Momentum is building for a new program to boost economy.But Democrats and Republicans have very different ideas on how to do it. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The drumbeat for lawmakers to do more to boost the economy is growing louder. And the chances have increased that Congress could pass a second stimulus package during its lameduck session following the presidential election. Over the weekend, Ed Lazear, the president's chief economic adviser, said that at least "parts of the country" are already in recession. On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told House lawmakers that "consideration of a fiscal package by...

Nashville, TN. (Top40 Charts/ Aaron Tippin Official Website) - Like many Americans, platinum-selling recording artist, songwriter and producer Aaron Tippin is enduring the effects of high gas prices. Tippin's put his thoughts into music to pen "Drill Here, Drill Now," a song about how Americans truly feel and what we can do to help correct the problem. "I think we are all frustrated and I've seen how people are suffering," Tippin introduced. "It's severely hitting the blue collar, working class Americans-and those are the folks that have supported me throughout the years. It takes half a paycheck to cover the...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution With Washington swamped by the crisis on Wall Street, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic partner have pulled the plug on their bipartisan “Gang of Ten” energy bill until after the November elections. Chambliss phoned this evening with the news. But before the Senate adjourns next week, the Georgia senator said a revised version of the bill will be unveiled — one that will feature expanded territory for offshore oil drilling. Chambliss, a Republican up for re-election, had formed an alliance with Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) this summer. Support had grown from the original 10 senators...

WASHINGTON: Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives attacked a Democratic offshore drilling plan Friday for including a 50-mile coastal buffer that they said would leave untouched most of the 18 billion barrels of oil in waters now off-limits to energy companies. A Democratic drilling proposal expected to be taken up by the House next week would allow energy development access to waters 50 to 100 miles from shore along almost all the country's coastlines as long as a coastal state agrees to drilling off its shores. Waters off Florida's Gulf coast and a nationwide 50-mile coastal buffer would remain...

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., joined a group of senators Thursday in a letter asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to allow the Oct. 1, 2008, expiration of current bans on American energy exploration and production. The letter was authored by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. In addition to DeMint and Corker, the letter is signed by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and 36 other Republican senators. "We need a balanced approach that will allow us to produce more energy here at home and use less, with a strong emphasis on conservation as we move...

View This E-Mail As A Web Page Unless we take immediate action, some conservative legislators may cave in and give up when it comes to giving the American people a measure of energy independence and relief from high prices at the gas pump. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just played his trump card, which is the political equivalent of blackmail and extortion. Simply put, Reid is telling conservatives in Congress to give up on "drill here, drill now" ... agree to "sham" legislation that will increase your taxes and drive up your cost for gasoline at the pump ......

Senate Candidate Jim Gilmore Pushes Drilling and Clean CoalThe crowds are getting bigger folks and Jim told me that campaign contributions have really picked up with over 5,000 new donors to the campaign. I told him we are pushing for him. We can't afford to lose this seat to liberal Mark Warner. Please keep helping and if you live or know some one in Virginia strike up a conversation and make sure they know about Jim Gilmore. He cut taxes, signed into law some of the most Pro-Life legislation in the nation, brought the state through the 9-11 economic...

When Gilmore got into the race for U.S. Senate, he thought it was going to be about taxes. Instead, everywhere he goes, people talk to him about one issue: gas prices. "We're gonna drill here, drill now, and reduce these prices," said Gilmore. It's a line that pleases people who gather to hear him speak. Along with drilling, Gilmore wants to tap deep into Virginia's coal seams. "This is a national asset for us, and if we use clean coal technology and push that forward, you can use coal consistent with the environment," said Gilmore. The latest polls show Gilmore...

Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) support going ahead with offshore oil drilling, an issue that John McCain seized on in early June as a way to help lower gas prices and has since forced Barack Obama to at least partially agree with. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that over half (55%) agree with the Republican’s proposal to build more nuclear plants, although 32% disagree.

This all started when the House adjourned for its customary monthlong August break. A number of Republican members had hoped to deliver speeches arguing for more oil drilling to bring down gas prices. Instead, the Democrats shut everything down, turning off the cameras, the microphones, the lights. Frustrated Republicans simply kept talking. Normal House rules didn't apply. The members started bringing tourists and staff onto the floor. Things grew raucous on occasion, with people chanting, giving standing ovations or booing at the mention of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Republican leaders liked what they saw and called on more members...

WASHINGTON. D.C.— Sixth District Congressman Bob Goodlatte, and other House Republicans, took to the House floor Friday to demand that Speaker Nancy Pelosi reconvene the House of Representatives to consider the comprehensive American Energy Act. Last Friday, Speaker Pelosi adjourned the House for the next five weeks, without voting on legislation to lower gas prices. Immediately following the vote on the motion to adjourn the House of Representatives, which Goodlatte voted against, the Speaker had the lights, microphones and CSPAN cameras in the House chamber turned off.

Jim Gilmore’s Plan To Increase America’s Energy Resources 1. Drill for oil in ANWR. ANWR is 19 million acres, the size of South Carolina. The proposed drilling site is just one sixth the size of Dulles Airport. And yet ANWR can provide America with more oil than our nation would receive from Saudi Arabia in the next 30 years. This would mean more than one million barrels of oil per day – 27 million barrels of gasoline a day to help increase gasoline supplies and cut prices. 2. Drill for oil offshore. As a result of a 1981 ban by...

I’ll be on the Bill Wills morning radio program on Cleveland’s News Radio WTAM 1100 AM this coming Tuesday, December 4 talking about my favorite subject, BEER and my latest book, Beer & Food: An American History. WTAM is the home of the Cleveland Indians and the Cavs. As a news/talk format, it also carries the syndicated talk show hosted by Rush Limbaugh. It’s also Cleveland’s most powerful AM station and during the day, its signal can be heard throughout most of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! Stop by and have a listen. I’m...

The federal government has mapped out a few places that could be targets for a major terrorist attack. NORAD, in Colorado Springs, Colo., for one. The West Wing of the White House. Or another New York City landmark. But the director of an organization that analyzes the country's level of disaster response offers up one more — Tucson's elementary schools. In his new book "Americans at Risk," Irwin Redlener blasts what he calls a slow emergency response by the government to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and last year's Hurricane Katrina. He lists five worst-case scenarios to further illustrate...

How to tell Earthlings that Martian life is here 18:40 01 August 2006 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga The Spirit and Opportunity rovers that continue to explore Mars are not designed to search for life. But if a sample return mission is ever sent to Mars, scientists could test for it in the rocks brought back to Earth. In 1996, news of possible signs of life in a Martian meteorite called ALH84001 leaked out ahead of a press conference that had been scheduled by NASA. This was partly because a high-ranking White House official told a prostitute about the meteorite....

Power to the people: Joe Cain Day is here Sunday, February 26, 2006 By PENELOPE McCLENNY He's a modestly costumed Indian chief among royally outfitted kings and queens, but Chief Slacabamorinico is the heart of Mardi Gras in Mobile. Chief Slac will lead the Joe Cain Day procession today, a celebration that began in the mid-1800s. Since then, it has evolved as an authentic Mobile event -- copied in just one other U.S. city -- to honor the citizen who is credited with rejuvenating the Carnival season. In 1993, Nevada City, Calif., carried Cain's legacy outside of Mobile to help...

The ruins of the synagogue at Umm al-Umdan. (Alex Levac) The Hasmoneans were here - maybe By Ran Shapira In late 1995, not far from the city of Modi'in, whose construction had begun a short time earlier, several excavated burial caves were found. The find aroused tremendous excitement initially, mainly because on one of the ossuaries an engraved inscription was interpreted to read "Hasmonean." Had they found a burial plot belonging to the family of the Hasmoneans? When the discovery was announced, the archaeologist digging there, Shimon Riklin, explained that this was not the grave built by Simon the son...

INDICTMENT THE HISTORY: ANALYSIS Backstory: The push for war Faulty intelligence in the run-up to invation BY CRAIG GORDON WASHINGTON BUREAU October 29, 2005 WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's administration did all it could Friday to close the book on I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Don't have any contact with Libby about his indictment, staffers were warned. His security clearance - gone. And no goodbye meeting with the president. Libby "has left the White House, and I do not expect him to return," spokesman Scott McClellan said. If only it were that easy. Far from a clean end to the...

CHAPTER 6. THE LOUISIANA HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE AND DISASTER ACT These links refer back to the original Louisiana Legislature pages from which I compiled the body of the post. §721. Short title§722. Purpose§723. Definitions§724. Powers of the governor§725. State emergency and disaster agency; powers of adjutant general§726. Office of homeland security and emergency preparedness; authority and responsibilities§727. Powers of the parish president; penalties for violations§728. Parish homeland security and emergency preparedness agency§729. Parish homeland security and emergency preparedness agency authorities and responsibilities§730. Interjurisdictional homeland security and emergency preparedness agency§730.1. Interjurisdictional homeland security and emergency preparedness agency; providing assistance...

Here's a vast right-wing thing Sunday, Jun 26, 2005 By John Brummett First, why do I even write about this vicious, salacious and scandalously undocumented attack on Hillary Clinton? Its seediest allegations are so dubiously sourced they're not getting repeated in most of the reputable mainstream media, which is a wise lead I'll follow. The author apparently lies even in a caption on one of the book's photographs, asserting that Bill Clinton is getting a mouth-to-mouth kiss from a woman in a crowd. The photographer has come forward to say that what's happening in the shot is a standard and...

Members of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Black Caucus have become seemingly desensitized to racial slurs. The Caucus did not even blink when the extreme Left’s new champion, Howard Dean, made prejudiced statements right before their very eyes. From Dean’s comments, it seems he believes that a Black person’s place is to be cleaning toilets at a hotel in which whites stay. According to the Washington Times, On Feb. 11, the day before he was elected party chief, Mr. Dean asked, at a meeting of the DNC Black Caucus, "You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people...

PARIS (AFP) - Human activities, notably the building of coastal resorts and the destruction of natural protection, contributed to the enormous loss of life from killer tidal waves that hit the shores of the Indian Ocean after an earthquake, an environmental expert said. Jeff McNeely, chief scientist of the Swiss-based World Conservation Union (IUCN), who lived for several years in Indonesia and Thailand, two of the countries hit by Sunday's disaster, said it was "nothing new for nature" in a geologically active region. "What has made this a disaster is that people have started to occupy part of the landscape...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

'Why did you bring us? This is a slaughter' Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Kufa Friday August 27, 2004 The Guardian (UK) They came one wave after another: Shia demonstrators with banners and pictures of their ayatollahs and imams running towards the hidden line of men who were marked only by flying bullets. Beating their chests and shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is most great) at first they appeared not to realise the barrage they were confronting. When two or three men fell injured their colleagues picked them up and retreated. Only when the gunfire became heavy and bullets started whizzing overhead, peppering...

To All: First of all I posted something that appeared to be in favor of our President. As far as the validity of the story, well that has to be approved or disproved. I didn’t think that by posting this story would generate such negative feelings against me. As far as the one who called me a coward I beg the differ with you My posting some of my reply’s was not to hide my comments but to reply directly to the individual without getting everyone else involved that shared other than negative opinions .I did not deserve all the...

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...

Stones may hold key to why we are here ISABEL COCKAYNE January 28, 2004 10:06 They may not look like the greatest talkers, but these stones have a story to tell. Hundreds of thousands of years ago they were washed down to East Anglia with a vast river that cut through the middle of England. But what the experts are puzzling over today is where this river ran its course. If they can plot its course and date it accurately, they could prove there were humans living in Britain 500,000 years ago and fill a gap in our pre-historic knowledge....

Cornyn supports more checks at gun shows Kirk favors enforcing existing laws rather than making new ones 09/22/2002 By GROMER JEFFERS Jr. / The Dallas Morning News In the race to elect Texas' next senator, it's the moderate Democrat who says unlicensed sellers at gun shows don't need to run background checks on buyers, and the conservative Republican who says a law should be passed to give them more scrutiny. Republican John Cornyn supports more precautions for dealers at shows, and Democrat Ron Kirk opposes them. "I believe we need to enforce our current gun laws rather than create...

<p>Two Novembers ago, while politicos and pundits fought back and forth over whether Al Gore got robbed of a presidential election, I wasn't thinking about Gore.</p> <p>Oh, I wanted the fight to be fair. I wanted all the votes counted until the cows came home because, after all, that's what an election is for. But my first thought was: Wouldn't it have been nice to have Bill back? Wouldn't that have been fun?</p>

Train de-railment...nothing to see...move along

How could we have been so blind? That's the question everyone asks with regard to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Why weren't we prepared? Why didn't we get Osama bin Laden when we had the chance? Why weren't the American people warned about the threat of Islamic terrorism? Why weren't more precautions taken? For the first time, veteran FBI agents are describing a dramatic shift in emphasis at the agency directed by President Clinton. As WorldNetDaily Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry wrote in yesterday's exclusive report, the Clinton administration chose to focus its intelligence-gathering forces on white, "right-wing," Christian militia...