Free Republic

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 7, 2009) — American society may be less religious than it was a few generations ago, but its religious diversity has greatly increased. That change has dramatically impacted the Army, which must now offer religious services not only for Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants but also for a wide variety of different Christian denominations and minority faiths. That’s far different from what Lt. Col. John Bjarnason, Fort Leonard Wood’s family life chaplain, saw when he joined the Army in 1969. “We have a wide range of all kinds of different choices for our trainees to...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 7, 2009) — Shortly before Army personnel nationwide conducted a moment of silence for the 13 soldiers and others killed by an Army psychiatrist Friday afternoon at Fort Hood in Texas, an Army chaplain assigned to family life issues at Fort Leonard Wood explained how the Army tries to help soldiers and families. “Our military is grieving now this great loss at Fort Hood,” said Lt. Col. John Bjarnason. “We feel very sad for the families that have lost a dear one there.” Bjarnason, 64, entered the Army during the Vietnam era, returned to active...

BUCKHORN, Mo. (Nov. 7, 2009) — A Halloween alternative party at Grace Covenant Church of Buckhorn, near Fort Leonard Wood, has raised $2,300 for bullet-resistant vests and other equipment in the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff J.B. King, who is a Southern Baptist, said he and his deputies greatly appreciate the help from the independent charismatic church. “It’s been a godsend,” King said. “During the past four years, this has amounted to a very healthy amount of money. We placed this donation into our equipment fund and it has helped us buy all kinds of equipment for our vehicles; for...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

During an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program with host John King, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) demonstrated that he just doesn’t understand what happened in New York’s 23rd Congressional District over the weekend.

An estimated 200 anti-socialism protesters carried signs and waved at passing motorists for more than two hours yesterday afternoon as they have almost every Saturday for six months at the intersection of Highways K and N in O’Fallon, Mo. Among those participating were three first-generation Americans who took time to share powerful messages every freedom-loving American should hear. Those messages appear in this video.

This column is in answer to the linked NAACP objection to my column(s.) I have linked to the column in question and the letter. Please read both before perusing my response. My initial reaction to this communiqué and that of my liberal-leaning friend, webmaster and former editor of the Rolla Daily News, Martin Schwartz, was: “You (Weinbaum) made an opinion in the op-ed section of the RDN. They (NAACP) disagreed with it. So the NAACP wants to stop this and other opinions like it from being published in the paper.” In other words, until Weinbaum conforms to NAACP opinion, he...

Contact: Dr. Gregory Thompson, Personhood Missouri, 417-894-5768, 417-754-8774; Keith Mason, Personhood USA, 202-595-3500 ext. 3 ST. LOUIS, MO, Oct. 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- Planned Parenthood sued the State of Missouri this week to challenge two pro-life ballot initiatives, in an apparent effort to stifle the people's constitutional right to the ballot process. One of the ballot initiatives, submitted by Personhood Missouri, states, "Section 35, Person defined. As used in sections 2, 10, and 14 of Article I of the state constitution, the term "person" shall apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being." The personhood...

Unemployment in the St. Louis region topped ten percent in September — the first time in over 26 years that joblessness in the area has reached into double figures.

Join us Wednesday, October 28th at 7:30 p.m. as Southeast Missouri State University and KMOX welcome Newt Gingrich and Governor Howard Dean for a discussion about health care today. Tickets are on sale now and are $8 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased at the Show Me Center Box Office and Ticketmaster outlets. Click here to purchase tickets online at Ticketmaster.com. Admission is free for university students, staff and faculty with Redhawks ID. NEWT GINGRICH is well-known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to a majority in the U.S. House for...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 27, 2009) — Teamed with several military organizations, the 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team from Fort Leonard Wood participated in confined space training on Oct. 20 and 21 as part of Operation Joint Eagle in Camp Gruber, Okla. The exercise was conducted by Response International Group, an organization composed of several of the firefighters who responded to the Oklahoma City bombing. The unit worked with the Illinois National Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package. “Working side by side with the CERFP helped each team understand its roles...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 16, 2009) — The Missouri National Guard’s 35th Engineer Brigade welcomed its new top non-commissioned officer, Command Sgt. Maj. Will Pierce, of Camdenton, in a recent change of responsibility ceremony. Pierce took over from Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Harding, of Saint Robert, who is retiring this month after 37 years in the Guard. “Command Sgt. Maj. Pierce has several qualities that will make him an excellent command sergeant major,” said Brig. Gen. David Irwin, brigade commander. “He has deployed multiple times with both an engineer battalion and the engineer brigade. He knows what it feels...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 16, 2009) — While training with civilian agencies in Columbia to clean up a mock terrorist lab producing chlorine gas, the Missouri National Guard’s 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team had to handle serious injuries sustained by one of its members. The injuries were only simulated but weren’t expected by those participating in the training of the Fort Leonard Wood unit with Columbia-area civilian firefighters, police, members of HAZMAT and SWAT teams, and FBI and bomb squad members. “There were a couple of hiccups, but that’s to be expected when you get that...

After claiming for more than a year that it could not do so, the Missouri Department of Social Services finally has obeyed a state law and published a list of employers whose workers get government-funded Medicaid health care coverage. Yet compliance with the Medicaid reporting law may be only an experiment. Although the list is supposed to be published quarterly, the department says there's no telling when it will produce the report again. As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., debate a national health-care overhaul, Missouri's experience shows how slow and difficult it can be for bureaucracies to implement even incremental changes...

A Cape Girardeau man was arrested for flag desecration Friday, a case that was dismissed within hours because of a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said that he was unaware of the case, Texas v. Johnson, that invalidated the laws of 48 states, when he filed misdemeanor charges against Frank L. Snider III. Missouri's law was passed in 1980. When asked whether the state law could be enforced, Swingle said he needed to research the issue. After reviewing the court's opinion, he...

Juvenile authorities said Saturday that a 15-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder for the killing of a 9-year-old central Missouri girl found in the woods two days after she went missing. Police did not disclose the teen’s gender or name and provided few other details about the person suspected of killing Elizabeth Olten. Cole County Sheriff Greg White has said the teenage suspect is not related to Elizabeth but was acquainted with her and is from the same area just west of Jefferson City. Several hundred people braved soaking rain and cold weather to search a heavily wooded area...

Bond Speaks Out Against Cap-and-Trade Senator Bond continues to fight against cap-and-trade legislation that threatens Missouri families and farmers with higher energy prices and job losses. The bill proposed by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) sets even stricter emissions targets than the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill. The Senate bill also removes provisions that require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be fair to ethanol producers and to protect energy-intensive manufacturing jobs in the United States that are exposed to unfair competition in China, an unsettling fact as experts say that the Waxman-Markey bill alone will eliminate 2.4 million...

A parole absconder from St. Louis is believed to have shot another man in a Tuesday night robbery near downtown Jefferson City, then was shot by one of his victims who acted in self-defense. Patrick Evans, 37, who was released from prison two weeks ago, was found hiding in a small room in an upstairs apartment at 611 E. Capitol Ave. just after 7 a.m. Wednesday, more than 8 hours after the shooting incident downstairs at the same address, according to police reports. "Officers were ready to re-canvass the area as daylight broke when they found a new blood trail...

Felonious behavior is becoming more dangerous, if two recent incidents are any indication.During a home invasion on Oct. 5, one of the intruders was shot and killed by one of the occupants of the mobile home.And an armed assailant is recovering from wounds after he was shot Oct. 13 by one of the people he was attempting to herd into a building housing law offices on East Capitol Avenue.In the first case, the weapon was kept in the home, which always has been allowed to defend people and property.In the second incident, the assailant was shot by someone who qualifies...

College of the Ozarks news release: Tickets to attend the Sarah Palin Convocation at College of the Ozarks on December 2, are no longer available. The ticket line quickly filled, consuming all tickets available to the public. Due to limited seating, there was a cap on available tickets. “As a charismatic speaker and highly-interesting political figure, Sarah Palin attracts much public interest,” said Sue Head, Executive Director of The Keeter Center for Character Education. “Because of this, the College anticipated that tickets would go quickly.” Governor Palin is slated to speak at College of the Ozarks December 2, as part...

PINEVILLE, Mo. — A 39-year-old man, who reportedly shot and killed another man in self-defense Sunday night in Anderson, has been turned over to U.S. marshals in anticipation of a federal weapon charge. McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson said Matthew D. Robertson, 32, died of a single shotgun blast during an altercation with Michael J. Smith at the Wallain Court apartment complex in Anderson, where both men lived in separate units. Authorities received a call at 8:30 p.m. reporting the shooting at the apartments and found Robertson dead, the sheriff said. Evenson said deputies determined that Robertson was in the...

Dressed in blue jeans and wearing a large parka, ski cap and sun glasses, I spent almost 20 minutes early this afternoon mingling among approximately two-dozen people being paid, according to a union source not at the rally, $11 an hour by St. Louis-area union bosses to wave pre-printed signs in support of President Barack Obama’s so-called “health care reform plan.”

In the wake of the news that radio host Rush Limbaugh was hoping to buy a chunk of the St. Louis Rams, Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote a column containing the now-infamous quote, supposedly from Limbaugh, regarding the notion that slavery "had its merits." We first became aware of the quote not from perusing the copy of the Post-Dispatch that arrives in our mailbox every morning in West Virginia, but because Limbaugh mentioned the issue during the Monday broadcast of his radio show. (Indeed, if Limbaugh had never talked about the quotes on his radio show, we...

Eastern Jackson County, MO —      Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders says his $1.03 billion commuter rail proposal is a uniquely Kansas City solution for Kansas City’s unique situation. “It has the potential to transform the greater Kansas City area in the span of two years,” he says. Our fair metro is often described as the second busiest rail hub in the country. That means we have lots of trains using lots of tracks – but there are also many miles of unused or underused tracks.      Jim Terry, who worked for the Union Pacific for 32 years and has...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 15, 2009) — While Waynesville and Saint Robert officials said Wednesday they expect annexing Fort Leonard Wood’s on-post housing areas will help attract new development by substantially boosting their Census 2010 population statistics, post officials aren’t yet able to give solid estimates of how many more people would actually be added to the two cities by the proposed annexation. However, it’s very unlikely that even the highest estimates of increased population would bring the populations of either Waynesville or St. Robert up to the level of Lebanon or Rolla, the closest cities on the I-44...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 16, 2009) — City officials in Saint Robert and Waynesville believe annexing the housing areas of Fort Leonard Wood would help the cities attract new businesses while not requiring military personnel to pay more taxes or requiring the cities to provide more services to their new on-post residents. However, calculating precisely how many people would actually be brought into the new city limits isn’t easy. Fort Leonard Wood officials released estimates Friday morning of how many housing units are available in three main categories of on-post housing with a total of 21,250 available bedrooms in...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 15, 2009) — In a bid to increase Census 2010 population statistics for Waynesville and Saint Robert, officials from those two cities announced Wednesday that they plan to seek voluntary annexation of housing areas on Fort Leonard Wood so both cities will have a larger population and be more attractive to potential developers. “A while back, I kind of alluded to something that was in the works,” said St. Robert City Administrator Alan Clark at Wednesday’s monthly lunch meeting of the Waynesville-St. Robert Chamber of Commerce. “I pray to God this thing comes to fruition...

Maybe Dave Checketts really doesn't want to buy the St. Louis Rams. Why else would he have included both Rush Limbaugh and, reportedly, George Soros in the group cobbling together the money to make the purchase? If, after all, Limbaugh is not eligible to become part owner of a team due to polarizing and divisive comments, Soros' comparison of the Bush administration to the Nazi regime arguably merits that same outcome. But, per Bloomberg.com, Soros is part of the Checketts group, too. Bottom line? Checketts should have done more homework before piecing together his investment group. All he needed to...

Rush Limbaugh won't be buying a piece of the St. Louis Rams after all. With criticism mounting, Dave Checketts, the sports businessman leading a group vying for the National Football League franchise, dumped the controversial conservative talk show host just days after Mr. Limbaugh disclosed his intent to buy a minority interest in the team.

Al Sharpton issued a statement this evening claiming a "moral victory for all Americans" on the dropping of Rush Limbaugh as part of a group of investors seeking to buy the NFL St. Louis Rams franchise.The AP reported Sharpton's statement and a follow up comment he made in an interview:"It is a moral victory for all Americans — especially the players that have been unfairly castigated by Rush Limbaugh," Sharpton said in a statement. "This decision will also uphold the unifying standards of major sports." Sharpton added in a telephone interview that major sports leagues shouldn't welcome owners who are...

Rush was dropped from the group of investors looking to purchase the St. Louis Rams. They said he became "a complication."

As Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan seeks a promotion to the US Senate, she has to expect a few questions about her past dealings with ACORN. After all, the Secretary of State ‘administers all statewide elections for both candidates and issues,’ as well as promulgates rules and guidelines, handles ballots and pollworkers, and generally oversees everything having to do with elections in the state. When a group like ACORN racks up more than a dozen convictions in the state, and submits tens of thousands of questionable or false voter registration forms, you have to expect that the Secretary of...

The president of a national labor union was arrested Tuesday for allegedly taking $20,000 in bribes from a St. Louis lawyer, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

One of the most damaging accusations you can level at opponent is call that individual a racist in one form or another. And that's the tactic MSNBC and others left-wing opponents of Rush Limbaugh are taking to thwart his bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams. During a segment on MSNBC on Oct. 13, former Pulitzer Prize winner Karen Hunter appeared to voice her opposition to the Limbaugh's NFL bid. She made one of the most outrageous - likening Limbaugh's ownership of an NFL team to being a plantation owner, a metaphor that invokes the image of antebellum South during...

Chris Mathews is becoming more and more unbelievable by the day! Come on … he’s joking right? Chris Matthews debating whether Rush Limbaugh should be allowed to purchase the St Louis Rams, complete with past Rush quotes that even Matthews points out were not racist. But the conversation veers way off course right after sports commentator Kevin Blackistone says the NFL is doing very well without Limbaugh (well not the Rams), and doesn’t need Limbaugh. Matthews follow up question is … ummm … Matthews. But talk show host Stephen Smith’s answer is priceless, followed by a tirade about black players...

Should Rush Limbaugh buy the St. Louis Rams? YES NO, NOT SURE (But felt compelled to vote anyway)

Sometimes a news story is so bad and filled with such dark clouds that there's no way to find much of a silver lining. That's the case with GateHouse Media, owner of many small-market newspapers in the United States. The staff of Editor & Publisher, one of the two main trade publications in journalism, write this about GateHouse Media: "The Street stopped believing the GateHouse Media story long ago, forcing it into the Pink Sheets as a penny stock. Now comes Moody’s Investors Service declaring Thursday its “over-leveraged capital structure to be unsustainable.” This is based on the decision by...

Is NFL Players Association Chief DeMaurice Smith being forthright when he contends he wants to protect the sport from "discrimination and hatred" as he has claims, or is he engaging in partisan hackery, with the benefit of having the ear of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell? ESPN's Chris Mortensen shared Smith's concerns on the network's Web site Oct. 11 based on an e-mail Smith had sent to Mortensen which said the following: "I've spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages," Smith wrote. "But sport in America is at its best...

Barack Obama Communism Billboard Surfaces in Missouri

Well a new sport has emerged, call the "playing the race card". Rush Limbaugh’s bid to buy the St Louis Rams has drawn fire from the NFL Players Association and actually I am not sure why. NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith (from ESPN): In an e-mail to the union’s executive committee on Saturday specifically addressing Limbaugh’s bid, Smith said, “I’ve spoken to the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] and I understand that this ownership consideration is in the early stages. But sport in America is at its best when it unifies, gives all of us reason to cheer, and when it...

In the video, "A Civics Lesson for Max", a retired physician offers a lesson in civics to Max, a public option supporter who took a stand for socialism early Saturday afternoon without really understanding what it is.

A southwest Missouri man was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, and investigators believe the homicide is connected to the slayings of her father and stepmother. Josh Reyes, 23, of Springfield, was being held without bond Sunday, said Laclede County Jailer Tracy Lawson. Reyes was charged Saturday with the first-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree burglary in the death of Zachary Bryan Porter, 25, of Elkland. Lawson said he didn't know whether Reyes had an attorney. Springfield television station KSPR reported that Reyes's ex-girlfriend and their two children watched as Porter was gunned...

A man shot during a robbery gone bad in Cole County has died and three people are in jail. Cole County Sheriff Greg White says Lamar Gardner, 19, of Kansas City died last night at University Hospital just after 8 p.m. He was one of a group of men who forced their way into a unit in the Frontier Trailer Court on Business Highway 50 in Apache Flats early yesterday morning. Two men, one from Kansas City and another from Cole County were arrested last night. A third man was arrested early this morning at 2 a.m. charges are pending...

WASHINGTON – Show me some civility, Republicans cried Friday after a Missouri congressman speaking on the House floor was caught on microphone apparently cussing out a fellow Missourian. Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., had just finished addressing his Republican colleague Todd Akin Thursday. Skelton then turned to the side and muttered "stick it up your (insert word that rhymes with mass)." The comment was just audible on the C-SPAN tape of the proceedings and was not included in the Congressional Record, the official record of speeches on the House and Senate floor.

Mathias Kiwanuka loves his former defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, but the Giants' defensive end says he will never play for Spagnuolo's Rams if Rush Limbaugh purchases the team. Kiwanuka and the Jets' Bart Scott made it clear Thursday that they would never play for the Rams or any team owned by the controversial conservative radio host. "All I know is from the last comment I heard, he said in (President) Obama's America, white kids are getting beat up on the bus while black kids are chanting 'right on,'" Kiwanuka told The Daily News. "I mean, I don't want anything to...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Oct. 8, 2009) — Most people probably don’t know Gregory Rhodes, but his story, which can be considered inspirational, is worth a look. It starts with humble beginnings, continues with a long battle through adversity, and culminates where it is today — with Rhodes as a happily married family man and a graduate of the Missouri National Guard’s officer candidate school. “I understand that everything I have overcome has led me to where I am today. I am a survivor,” Rhodes said. “Even before joining the Missouri Army National Guard, without realizing it, I have been...

Remember how the left was up in arms about the possibility that conservative talker Rush Limbaugh might purchase the St. Louis Rams, especially from the left-wing noise machine and the pundits that echo its message? Well, in a curious turn of events on MSNBC's Oct. 8 "Countdown," host Keith Olbermann told his viewers that those who are opposing Limbaugh's bid for the Rams were the third worst people in the world on this particular day. ...more (w/video)...

After ripping Rush Limbaugh yesterday, Morning Joe sports reporter Fred Roggin today announced he would henceforth be keeping his mouth shut on the subject--after getting an earful from his wife. As we noted, during his Morning Joe sports slot yesterday Roggin took a number of shots at Rush and his quest to purchase an interest in the NFL's St. Louis Rams. Among other barbs, Roggin falsely claimed that Rush had been "canned from ESPN for racist remarks about Eagle's quarterback Donovan McNabb." A chastened Roggin had this to say this morning . . . View video here.

Democrat Robin Carnahan and Republican Roy Blunt are dead even in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey of the hotly contested race for the U.S. Senate in Missouri.

Limbaugh is going to change the name of the team from the Rams to the Nappy-Headed Hos..Rush Limbaugh might one day own the St. Louis Rams. Hell, sometimes these column thingies write themselves. The only thing that could make this news even more fantastic is if in his first two acts as owner Limbaugh traded for Donovan McNabb and made Jesse Jackson the head coach. Followed by Ann Coulter's hiring as general manager. My head exploded after hearing this Limbaugh news. How exactly will Limbaugh address the team after he purchases them? "I just want to introduce myself and say...