Free Republic

An attempt to erect a 16-tonne ice pop in a New York square [Union Square] froze traffic and created a sticky situation for the company behind the stunt. The soft-drink maker Snapple tried to get into the Guinness World Records book by installing the 7½-metre confection in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday. As a construction crane began to haul it upright, a pink tide of kiwi-strawberry-flavoured fluid spread across Union Square. The slush forced pedestrians to flee for higher ground. Firefighters closed off several roads, fearing that vehicles and bicycles could slip. "What was unsettling was that the fluid just kept...

Illegal workers are renting legitimately obtained Social Security numbers from people who have returned to Mexico or others in the United States.The situation is further testament to our quarter-hearted immigration policies and the redoubtable capacity of cagey people to milk every drop out of the welfare state. (A welfare state's whole point is giving something for nothing; hence its philosophical foundation induces waste, inefficiency and fraud.)

Manure Lands Harvard Professor In A Mess Apr 6, 2005 10:44 am US/EasternROCKPORT, Mass.A Harvard economics professor has been accused of neglecting the standard market practice of paying for goods and services by trying to steal a truckload of manure from a horse farmer. Stable manager Phillip Casey says Martin Weitzman, Harvard University's Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Economics, has been stealing manure from Charlie Lane's Rockport farm for years. Police said said Casey found Weitzman on the property last Friday, so he blocked in Weitzman's pickup truck and called police. Weitzman got angry, Casey said, then offered to pay...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Gas costs so much. I cant afford it. Why want Bush do something? Don't say he can't. His daddy or his handlers could be on the phone in 2 minutes with the Rothchilds and by 1 week, oil prices would be under $20 and gas would be 1 dollar a gallon. You know it and I know it. Why want he? Do you know? Is there sombody we can call? Plaese advice.

was absolutely astounded yesterday when Florida Governor Jeb Bush held that press conference and talked about the State of Florida taking custody of Terri Schiavo. He presented to the media the opinion of a doctor that Terri Schiavo was not in a persistent vegetative state .. but rather just in some sort of a period of reduced consciousness. This doctor has never seen Terri Schiavo, except on videotape, and he's issuing findings that are completely at odds with doctors who have been personally examining Terri for many months. Think about this for a moment. Attending physicians conduct their examinations and...

Reality check on election contest rulings Gregoire & Dems lose most motions; New election still possible Bellevue, WA – Yesterday in Chelan County Superior Court, the Dino Rossi campaign won an overwhelming victory in Rossi’s election contest case. The judge rejected the Democratic Party’s efforts to throw the case out, allowing a trial to move forward, and although he specifically denied the Rossi campaign’s request for a revote, he left the path clear for nullifying the 2004 gubernatorial election. If the election is nullified, there will be a vacancy in the governor’s office and a new election must be held....

Aristotle warned some bravado boys during his age “not to make any threats just because you have to.” It is stupid, perhaps suicidal, to posture aggressively, threatening sleeping powers that mean no harm, just because of a thorn up one rich macho boy’s backside. The U.S. lawyers hired by Russian banking and finance group Menatep and former owners and managers of Yukos oil company, who have immeasurable assets in Western vaults, acting on behalf of the Russian bravado boy Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- now in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison on charges of fraud, forgery, tax evasion and worse -- are threatening...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Whoever wins the legal challenge to the governor's election, the citizens of Washington will pay. In fact, they're already paying. The state expects to spend about $200,000 of taxpayer money on private lawyers defending the Secretary of State's office. And every county auditor and prosecutor is spending thousands of taxpayer dollars in staff time to respond to the Republicans' lawsuit challenging the 129-vote victory of Gov. Christine Gregoire. Some say the lawsuit is bleeding resources from other areas of government. Republicans, convinced the election was irredeemably tainted, say the challenge is worth the cost. "We don't...

Former independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader blasted Democrats and Republicans alike as he spoke before a subdued crowd of roughly 300 at a Seattle Center conference room yesterday. Nader accused Democrats of abandoning their liberal ideals by failing to oppose the war or champion the causes of the working class and the poor, minorities and the environment. He also complained of Democratic efforts to keep him off ballots in various states. Democrats, he said, should have beat Bush by a landslide, but they failed by trying to capture conservative voters and abandoning their liberal base. Nader called on people to...

It contains such off-putting phrases as "average growth and standard deviation" and "short-term elasticity," but a 20-page report issued Thursday by the Legislature's budget analyst is one of the most important documents ever to surface in the Capitol. The report, entitled "Revenue Volatility in California," provides statistical proof for what followers of state budgetary politics have known for years: California's state and local tax system is a mess and lies at the heart of its chronic budget crisis. A complex, intertwined set of political, economic and demographic factors has changed a once-stable system of taxation - personal and corporate income...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The assistant to Notre Dame's president shaved her head to protest Tyrone Willingham's firing as football coach, saying she will remain bald until the Irish win a national championship. "Because when we do, that will be justification for some people of why we fired Tyrone Willingham," Chandra Johnson said. "Not for me, but for some people." Johnson, 50, assistant to the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, Notre Dame's president, said she shaved her head last Saturday. Johnson, the school's highest-profile black administrator, told the South Bend Tribune she was shocked at the firing of Willingham _ the...

KIEV (AFP) - The political crisis in Ukraine deepened as opposition leaders refused to negotiate over a disputed presidential election amid a third day of mass street protests. Photo AFP Photo Reuters Photo Reuters Slideshow Slideshow: Ukraine Elections As the central election commission said it would announce the final results of Sunday's run-off poll later in the day, Ukraine's Defence Minister Olexander Kuzmuk appealed to the army to remain calm. The opposition claims the election was stolen by the state in favour of the country's pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich over the pro-Western opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Yanukovich was quoted...

Lie-N-Hype 9/11 - The Australian Connection!I love Australia, it is beautiful and there is no better friend of the United States in the world today! Knowing this fact and having heard and read about all of the bashing of our allies the Kerry Campaign has been doing lately and having heard for the past 4 years how the Republicans somehow messed up the vote in Democratic controlled areas of Florida - I realized that there is an answer the Kerry camp hasn't taken advantage of yet! Our secret ballots are, "Australian Ballots!" That is right - it is our friend...

A Sex Scandal in Trenton, and a Puzzle for Detectives By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI Published: August 22, 2004 TRENTON, Aug. 20 - As federal agents investigate Gov. James E. McGreevey's accusation that a former adviser tried to extort millions of dollars by threatening to disclose their extramarital affair publicly, the basic outlines of the case are not in dispute. Lawyers for Mr. McGreevey and his former aide, Golan Cipel, had dozens of telephone conversations to discuss Mr. Cipel's plan to pursue a sexual harassment and assault lawsuit against the governor and a possible financial agreement in the case before any papers...

MORE than 1,000 CCTV cameras and infra-red sights will relay round the clock live pictures from central Boston to FBI headquarters in Washington as part of the largest ever security operation for a political convention. With 35,000 Democrats preparing to descend on the city for a four-day anointment of John Kerry next week, authorities are mounting unprecedented restrictions costing $50 million for the first convention since the September 11 attacks. Forty miles of roads, including a commuter route which runs past the convention centre, will be closed for all or large parts of the day. The US Coast Guard will...

<p>Racial politics, remedial education, teacher training and K-12 school policies are all intertwined in the California State University (CSU) system, and the result is bad news for everyone - students, public schools and taxpayers alike.</p> <p>To understand this complex picture, some background is in order. A key point to start with is that Cal State colleges have both been affected by problems in state public schools and have been a cause of some of these problems. Here's how: Starting in the 1980s, colleges of education - including CSU's - aggressively promoted faddish education theories like "whole language learning" and "fuzzy math" that plunged California public school students almost to the bottom of the nation in reading and math.</p>

>b>CONVENTION-WEEK DETOURS EYED Author(s): Mac Daniel, and Anthony Flint, GLOBE STAFF Date: April 1, 2004 Page: A1 Section: Metro/Region The major alternative routes for traffic detoured from Interstate 93 during the Democratic National Convention will probably be Route 128 and the Ted Williams Tunnel, shifts that would pack tens of thousands of additional cars onto those roads. Secondary roads such as Routes 60, 99, and 1A north of the city are expected to be quickly overwhelmed, too, as motorists search for alternatives. "People should understand their evening commute will not be a smooth one and consider leaving their cars at...

A merry mess: Yorkshire claims Robin Hood Lizette Alvarez/NYT Tuesday, February 17, 2004 NOTTINGHAM, England Not since Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union has there been such a fuss over a man in tights. For centuries, Robin Hood, the dashing, chivalrous hero to the oppressed, has been the property of Nottinghamshire in the midlands - land of Sherwood Forest, Nottingham Castle and one nefarious sheriff. But now, in a brazen grab for bragging rights, Yorkshire, an adjacent county, is laying claim to the 800-year-old legend and demanding, by way of a parliamentary motion, immediate redress. In a country where...