Free Republic

BELMONT, Maine — Mack Page was sound asleep in his bed at 11 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3, when he was startled awake by the frantic barking of his black Labrador. “What have I got now?” the 63-year-old commander of the Maine Militia remembers wondering. “A raccoon? A coyote?” But it was none of those things. Instead, Page’s dark residence on a quiet Belmont road suddenly was lit up by men outside his windows carrying flashlights. He lives alone, he’s not in the best of health and he was scared. “They called, ‘State police! Come out with your hands up!’”...

OFFICIALS in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reports. The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said. Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.

Nearly 10,000 of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and causes across the country will probably receive a foreboding “warning” letter in the mail next week. The letter is an opening shot across the bow from an unusual new outside political group on the left that is poised to engage in hardball tactics to prevent similar groups on the right from getting off the ground this fall. Led by Tom Matzzie, a liberal political operative who has been involved with some prominent left-wing efforts in recent years, the newly formed nonprofit group, Accountable America, is planning to confront donors to...

Good morning! First full week in June, and rumors swirl around a possiblity: video of Michelle Obama giving a racist speech.For further info, check out Townhall's blog.

It was a stunning night for David Cameron and his party with a majority of 7,860 and a swing of 17.6 per cent, well in excess of what the Tory leader's team expected. For Gordon Brown, a miserable morning will be followed by a rearguard operation this weekend aimed at preventing gloomy MPs going beyond their usual navel-gazing and slipping into full-blown rebellion and regicide. The Tories appear slightly stunned, a demeanor they should persist with as voters will sniff the first whiff of Tory triumphalism and hate it. The party has no real frame of reference for a by-election...

Greeley businessman apologized Wednesday after a joke about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama fell flat during the National Western Stock Show's annual Citizen of the West banquet. William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this year's award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "I have a telegram from the White House."

Pilot locked out of cockpit during flight 1 hour, 54 minutes ago OTTAWA (Reuters) - The pilot of a Canadian airliner who went to the washroom during a flight found himself locked out of the cockpit, forcing the crew to remove the door from its hinges to let him back in, the airline said on Wednesday. The incident occurred aboard a flight from Ottawa to Winnipeg on Saturday. The regional jet, capable of carrying 50 people, was operated by Air Canada's Jazz subsidiary. Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stewart said that with 30 minutes of the flight to go, the pilot went...

Big Brother watches Free Republic. I was reading the post DIESEL BLUES I had PerrGuardian 2 running; and what do I see being blocked U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 72.240.241.61:1395. (Source), 134.67.99.207:80 (destination), and U.S. Department of Energy 72.240.241.61:1415 (source), 205.254.143.167:80 (destination). Maybe now I should wait for the knock on the door, but I don’t think they will knock first. They will probably just take my harddrive to see what other NEWS I am reading.

WASHINGTON -- The House rejected a liberal Democrat's bid to undercut a recent Supreme Court decision permitting evidence obtained in violation of the "knock and announce" rule to be used at trial. The vote came two weeks after the court ruled that evidence seized by police with a warrant who barge into homes even if they don't knock can be used in court. By a 310-109 vote, the House rejected an amendment by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., blocking the Justice Department from obtaining evidence in violation of the knock and announce rule. The vote came as the House debated a...

Leo [Laporte] and I [Steve Gibson] carefully examine the operation of the recently patched Windows MetaFile vulnerability. I describe exactly how it works in an effort to explain why it doesn't have the feeling of another Microsoft "coding error". It has the feeling of something that Microsoft deliberately designed into Windows. Given the nature of what it is, this would make it a remote code execution "backdoor". We will likely never know if this was the case, but the forensic evidence appears to be quite compelling.

MIDI - SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER (brief intro) Hello, Saddam, we are almost there You will be able to hide nowhere See you in September We will visit you again There you are…we hear that you're in a bunker That's where you'll hunker…with all your girly men Tell those virgins to get ready You will see them…somewhat sooner than you planned So bend over…kiss it goodbye We'll make glass of your desert sand Hello, Saddam, we are almost there You will be able to hide nowhere Tell those virgins to get ready You will see them…somewhat sooner than you...