Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama told fellow Democrats on Saturday this is no time to "lick our wounds and try to hang on" and vowed instead to press ahead with financial regulatory and healthcare reforms. ... Obama came out swinging at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee, accusing Republicans of caring more about "scoring political points" than solving the country's pressing problems like high unemployment. But Obama presented no new ideas on how the Democrats could overcome obstacles that have stalled his domestic priorities. The political climate in Washington has become more fractured as lawmakers adjust to a...

A Polish man who had his tongue removed has had a new one made using tissue taken from his buttocks. Jarislav Ernst, 23, from Gliwice, now has a functioning tongue made from his backside after surgery at the Oncology Clinic in Gliwice's General Hospital. Head doctor Stanislaw Poltorek said: "The new tongue is alive and well-supplied with blood, and the patient is doing well." Mr Ernst's tongue was removed after it was diagnosed with cancer. Dr Poltorek added: "We removed the tumour-filled tongue, checking that there were no remaining cancerous cells around the patient's mouth, then collected skin, fat and...

(Note: Some images are graphic. Click 'More photos' to view a slideshow.) A Socastee resident is spreading a safety message after her dog lost part of his tongue in a paper-shredder accident. Sandy Clarke's boxer Cross lost "three or four chunks" of his tongue in late February when he stuck it into a shredder in her home office. "The dog was screaming," said Clarke, who ran out and yelled for her husband after Cross became entangled. "I woke my daughter up screaming. It was very traumatic." The incident lasted 10 to 15 minutes, with Cross finally being freed once the...

AN American high school football coach has been reprimanded for licking the bleeding wounds of student athletes. The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission placed Scott Reed, 34, on two years probation and ordered the coach, who is also a science teacher, to attend a class on the risks of blood-borne pathogens. Last year, Reed gave students at Central Linn High School near Eugene, Oregon, a pep talk about a coach who had licked and healed players' wounds so that they could rejoin the game. After the talk, he bent down and licked a cut on a track athlete's knee,...

According to an article Rush just read, Jamie Gorelick was quietly asked by Commission Chairman Thomas Kean to resign from the 9/11 commission due to conflict of interest. According to an unnamed staffer, she refused. Should we start a poll on how long she lasts?

WASHINGTON - Two Republicans on the Sept. 11 commission have given money to President George W. Bush's re-election campaign while serving on the panel, and a Democrat has donated to three of her party's presidential candidates. In total, half of the 10 commission members have made contributions to federal candidates or organizations since their appointment in late 2002. snip Jamie Gorelick, a Democrat and former deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton, has given more than any commission member - $13,250 in the last 16 months, including $2,000 last spring to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. She also gave to...

In her first year as Deputy U.S. Attorney General in the Clinton administration, Sept. 11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick was warned that lax U.S. immigration policies made the U.S. a tempting target for terrorists, former FBI Director Louis Freeh revealed on Monday, suggesting that Gorelick did little to remedy the situation. "Protecting our homeland from attacks by foreign terrorists had long been the FBI's priority," said Freeh, in a lengthy Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. "Back in September 1994, I recommended to Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick that the DoJ strengthen investigative powers against suspected 'undesirable aliens,' accelerating deportation appeal...

I just watched Chris Mathews' interview of 9-11 Commission member Jamie S. Gorelick. Gorelick was deputy attorney general of the United States, a position she assumed in March 1994. From May 1993 until she joined the Justice Department, Gorelick served as general counsel of the Department of Defense. After Gorelick finished saying that the contents of the August 6th memo were sufficient that it should have triggerred the highest level of security in the US Government, Mathews said the following: "We'll be right back with 9-11 Commission member Jaime Gorelick, the former deputy attorney general of the United States. Maybe...

<p>Twelve-year-old Sophie Flores thought her dog would love the Sears rubber basketball she bought at a yard sale near her Pollock Pines, Calif., home. When Sophie and her mom got back home, the dog was drooling to get his mouth all over the ball, reports the Sacramento Bee. Then her dad noticed something. "There was writing on it," John Flores told the newspaper. "I told Sophie, 'Wait a minute. Let me see that.'"</p>