Free Republic

The Sun Times today gave a major clue that Barack Obama will indeed go down with Tony Rezko, sooner rather than later. It looks as though Rezko is about to turn on Alexi Giannoulias, the 30-year old State Treasurer of Illinois (who was elected only because Obama backed him). Here’s where all the clues are…and then we’ll walk you through the local Chicago politics on how today’s hint by the Sun Times has us convinced, for the first time ever, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could indeed send Barack Obama to jail. We need to repeat that: we never believed, until...

 Facing the Giants

"New Mexico and Sedona"POSTED BY MEGHAN AND PHOTOS BY HEATHER Earlier this week, we traveled to Las Cruces, New Mexico where Dad held a very lively town hall on the campus of New Mexico State University.  From there we flew to Sedona where everyone was able to chill out a bit and Dad grilled dinner for everyone.  More from Sedona soon!  Song of the Day: "Red House" by Jimi Hendrix   Duprey and his summer bumper stickers. Frank is ready for the day. Dad catches up on his reading material. Dad's opening remarks at the town hall. Waiting in the...

RUSH: Have you heard about this? Folks, I'm thinking, and I haven't finalized details. We've been working on the operational plans all morning here at the EIB Network. But it may be time to implement a Phase II of Operation Chaos. Donald Sutherland, who is the father, as you know, of Kiefer Sutherland, who stars in "24," posted something on the Huffington Post, and this is what he wrote. "The Democrat National Committee's Terry McAuliffe mind-set ruined the campaigns of Algore, John Kerry, and Senator Clinton, and now the legions of McAuliffe-ites who have surrounded Barack Obama are doing their...

...I, too, think Wright is digging center stage. But I also suspect he specifically wants to tank Obama's candidacy. I mean, this is a man who has spent a fair portion of his career spreading the message that blacks cannot get a fair shake in this country; that America was, is, and always will be fundamentally racist; that the U.S. government in particular has it in for blacks. So what happens to all that if suddenly a black man--and not just any black man, but one who has been counseled by Wright and so cannot be dismissed as some pathetic...

Craig Venter says success is near, but critics blast efforts to patent synthetic organisms First he succeeded in reading humanity's genetic code. Now gene pioneer J. Craig Venter believes he is within weeks or months of creating the world's first free-living artificial organism in his laboratory. It won't be much to look at—a tiny bacterium with only a few hundred genes. But if it's truly feasible, he says, "it will be one of the bright milestones in human history, changing our conceptual view of life."

Violence is never positive. Violence breeds more violence. Often people get confused about the meaning and use of this word and think they can be violent in order to defend right and so on. But this is not so.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2007 – The Army faces significant challenges in the years ahead, but it is still the world’s preeminent land power and has not been overly strained by the war on terror, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said here today. Casey, who has commanded in Iraq since July 2004, is President Bush’s pick to be the next Army chief of staff. Speaking at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee, Casey expressed confidence in U.S. soldiers. “I see in Iraq every day a splendid Army,” Casey said. “I know...

It turns out you only have to attend a White House Christmas party to find out where President Bush is headed on Iraq. One guest who shook hands with Bush in the receiving line told him, "Don't let the bastards get you down." Bush, slightly startled but cheerful, replied, "Don't worry. I'm not." The guest followed up: "I think we can win in Iraq." The president's reply was emphatic: "We're going to win." Another guest informed Bush he'd given some advice to the Iraq Study Group, and said its report should be ignored. The president chuckled and said he'd made...

RICHMOND -- Stephen Murmer is known to his students as a popular art teacher who is always quick to crack a joke. But another side to Mr. Murmer has agitated school officials and resulted in his suspension. A side that focuses, almost entirely, on his backside. Outside of class and under an alter ego, the self-proclaimed "butt-printing artist" creates floral and abstract art by plastering his posterior with paint and pressing it against canvas. His creations sell for up to $900. This has not gone over well with Chesterfield County school officials, who placed Mr. Murmer on administrative leave Friday...

This is on the same page as Rich's screed. Brooks tries to peer into the future by having the NYT outdo the Book of Revelations. "In fall 2007, the United States began to withdraw troops from Iraq, and so began the Second Thirty Years’ War. This war was a bewildering array of small and vast conflicts, which flared and receded and flared again across the entire Middle East, but which were joined by a common theme... The essence of all this disorder was that the Arab nation-states lost control. Subnational groups — like Hezbollah and the Mahdi Army — and...

Robert M. Gates was unanimously approved by a Senate committee yesterday to become President Bush's new defense secretary, after a day-long confirmation hearing in which he bluntly stated that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq. Gates also told the panel that "it's too soon to tell" whether the Bush administration made the right decision in launching the invasion in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

November 3, 2006 -- SO, we are told, all is lost in Iraq. My colleague Ralph Peters has thrown in the towel, declared the war a failure, and has laid the blame at the feet of the Iraqis for refusing to save themselves from anarchy and tribalism. My friend David Brooks says this was all written into Iraq's DNA - that the amalgamation of Sunnis, Shia and Kurds into a nation by the British in 1920 has ensured there can and will never be anything remotely resembling a civil society there. If Peters and Brooks are right, then the common...

Breast milk 'does not boost IQ' Breastfed babies tend to be brighter Breastfed babies are smarter because their mothers are clever in the first place, not because of any advantage of breastfeeding itself, a study suggests. Researchers found breastfeeding mothers tend to be more intelligent, more highly educated, and likely to provide a more stimulating home environment.However, they stressed that there were still many advantages to breastfeeding. The British Medical Journal study was carried out by the Medical Research Council and University of Edinburgh. Lead researcher Geoff Der said: "This question has been debated ever since a link between the...

The world is recoiling from the recent Israeli display of brutality and militarism in Lebanon and Palestine. It is such behavior on the part of Israel that has destroyed all hopes for peace in the region. Now the nations and organizations of the world are standing up to stop this spiraling madness. The UN was able to force Israel to end its hostilities in Lebanon despite American and British support. There were reports that several European states denied Israeli aircraft the use of their airports. Capt. Etai Regev, chairman of El Al’s union of pilots, said the refusals came from...

LONDON - London's Metropolitan Police pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from the death of a Brazilian man who was shot last year after officers mistook him for a suicide bomber. Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head by Scotland Yard anti-terror officers as he sat aboard a train at a subway station in south London on July 22, 2005. Two weeks earlier, four suicide bombers had attacked London's transit system, killing 52 people. The day before de Menezes was shot, four other men attempted similar attacks that were thwarted. No individual officer was...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2006 – Army leaders are committed to ensuring soldiers have the best force-protection capability possible, but also want to avoid giving soldiers a false sense of security, service officials said here today. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey A, Sorenson, the Army’s deputy for acquisition and systems management, took exception to an NBC News report that said the Army is not buying an Israeli system, called Trophy, that could protect soldiers and their vehicles from rocket-propelled grenades. The report alleges the Army manipulated information in favor of a competing Raytheon system, called Quick Kill. Both the Israeli and Raytheon systems...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2006 – Despite a recent increase in violence in Baghdad, Iraq is not on a path toward civil war, the commander of U.S. Central Command said yesterday. Army Gen. John Abizaid recently visited Baghdad and talked with Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the highest-ranking military commander in Iraq, as well as Iraqi government officials. He also had the opportunity see the situation in Baghdad firsthand while moving around the city with coalition forces. Abizaid said he left confident that progress is being made on the Baghdad security plan. “It’s still too soon to say how the...

Breast milk may not be enough Janet Raloff A new study finds a high incidence of vitamin D deficiency in breast-fed babies, mostly during winter. Such a deficiency limits the body's use of calcium, which is essential for healthy bones and teeth. As part of a trial of iron supplementation, Ekhard E. Ziegler of the University of Iowa in Iowa City and his colleagues regularly took blood samples over 2 years from 84 newborns who were initially breastfed exclusively. The researchers noticed that few infants were getting supplemental vitamin D. The scientists evaluated vitamin D in the infants' blood. They...

...From the first day of his presidency, Truman invoked the Almighty. He believed that America had been called to foster peace in the world, and that it had dodged that responsibility after World War I. He often explained that this duty now extended from U.S. participation in the United Nations to combating the onslaught of communismworldwide. Only in the context of freedom, he believed, could humankind exercise the free will necessary to achieving peace and happiness. Here is the conclusion of his inaugural address in 1949: “But I say to all men, what we have achieved in liberty, we will...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2006 – Iraq is experiencing some localized sectarian strife, but it’s not embroiled in a full-blown civil war as reported by some news media, a senior coalition officer said here today. “In my judgment, we are not in a situation of civil war,” said British Royal Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Fry, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq and the senior British military representative in Iraq. He spoke to Pentagon reporters via a satellite connection from his Baghdad headquarters. Fry acknowledged a “very intense sectarian conflict” in Iraq and said violence is mostly occurring in an area that...

Origin of the Celts - Caucasian, not European The Celts are Circaesir from Circaesya, who lived on the Sea of Grass in what is now west Kazakhstan until late in the second millennium B.C. They were by their own definition a linguistic group, but now they are a culture. Contrary to popular belief, they had nothing to do with European inhabitants known to archaeologists as the 'Beaker folk' and 'Battle Axe people'. The 'Urnfield people' farther east were Circaesir, and obviously related to the Celts. Their descendants integrated with Celts in central Europe. Tradition suggests that the Celts left the...

Tucson Police are trying to track down two men of Middle Eastern descent who, reportedly, bought a number of cell phones within a 36-hour period over the weekend at a Tucson Sam's Club. The incident comes on the heels of other similar incidents across the country. The incidents have prompted terror investigations because, authorities say, those cell phones can be untraceable and used as detonators. Tucson Police issued a news Release Tuesday afternoon regarding the incident that occurred three days ago. Tucson Police were called to Tucson's Sam's Club on Friday just before noon on a 'suspicious activity" call. Apparently,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2006 – The ongoing effort to secure Baghdad is an evolution, and solutions must be long-term, the spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq told reporters in Baghdad today. “Abating the extremists in the capital will neither be easy nor rapid,” Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said of progress in Operation Together Forward. “Challenges will ensue, but efforts will march forward block by block.” A variety of activities are occurring in Baghdad, with Iraqi and coalition forces working together to help quell violence and build stability, Caldwell said. Caldwell cited some of the statistics that reflect Operation Together Forward’s...

AS Parisians crowd to the beaches in August, tourists are descending on the City of Light in droves, undeterred by a recent survey highlighting complaints that visitors get the cold shoulder from locals. The most visited country in the world, France received 76 million tourists last year, with Asians making up a growing proportion of those who came from non-European countries and 50,000 visitors jetting over every month from China alone. All this despite stereotyped images of rude waiters, bored shop assistants and impatient Parisians all too ready to give nervous tourists the brush off in rapid French. "French hospitality...

Heat Waves Follow Hottest Six Months on Record With record-breaking heat around the country, fish--and the people that love to catch them--are suffering. Not only is the fun of sitting out in the summer sun on a boat, on the shore or standing in a river beginning to lose some of its appeal, but these high temperatures are also stressing out fish, prompting midday fishing bans (in Montana), bass that won't bite (in Florida), and potentially later and smaller salmon runs (in Oregon and Washington). This summer's heat is coming on the heels of an announcement in July from the...

We're not stopping now, say defiant Israelis By Isambard Wilkinson in Jerusalem and Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 24/07/2006) Israel brushed aside mounting calls yesterday for a ceasefire in Lebanon. Its army made clear that it planned to keep up its assault for at least a week and had not ruled out a ground invasion. Buoyed by support from Washington for rooting out Hizbollah rockets from southern Lebanon, the army treated parts of the border area as a free-fire zone. It hit at least two cars with rockets as they sought the relative safety of the city of Tyre. Israeli...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2006 – U.S. and Iraqi security forces will go after any rogue band or group that preys on innocent Iraqi citizens, a senior U.S. officer said in Baghdad today. "That is something that we're not going to tolerate," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, told reporters in Iraq's capital city. Caldwell was responding to a reporter's question about news reports that said rogue gunmen operating in southeastern Baghdad yesterday had used illegal roadblocks to stop and murder innocent Iraqis. The gunmen detained and killed several Iraqi citizens at those checkpoints, according...

June 7, 2006 — A federal judge ordered two attorneys to settle their dispute by using the children's playground game "rock, paper, scissors." The ruling yesterday by Judge Gregory Presnell of the U.S. District Court in Orlando, Fla., stated that he was so dissatisfied with the case's "latest in a series of Gordian knots" that he is fashioning "a new form of alternative dispute resolution." In the dispute at hand, the two attorneys could not agree about where to take the sworn statement of a witness in a case concerning payment of insurance claims. The judge's order states that the...

Evolving genes may not size up brain Bruce Bower Two gene variants previously proposed as contributors to the evolution of human brain size exert no influence on brain volume in people today, a new report indicates. If these particular genes indeed spread quickly by natural selection, that process might have been spurred by the genes' effects on reproductive organs or other tissue outside the brain, say neurologist Roger P. Woods of the University of California, Los Angeles and his colleagues. Prior research had indicated that a now-common variant of a gene called microcephalin originated 37,000 years ago and that a...

SINGAPORE, June 3, 2006 – More nations are freer than ever before, yet freedom is increasingly under assault from violent extremists and rogue nations, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today told defense ministers of Asian and Pacific nations meeting here this weekend. "In the present security environment, cooperation among free nations is not simply desirable, it is critical," Rumsfeld said in a speech at the International Institute of Strategic Studies' Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue. Rumsfeld said this forum is valuable because it allows countries with like interests to meet and discuss transnational issues. "These gatherings...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is probing corruption in Congress, ABC News reported on Wednesday. ABC, citing high level Justice Department sources, said information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government. Part of the investigation involves a letter Hastert wrote three years ago, urging the Secretary of the Interior to block a casino on an Indian reservation that would have competed with those of other tribes. Hastert's Press Secretary told ABC in a statement: "We are not aware...

Nature, it should be pointed out, always bats last. This is true even in Florida, where, as novelist Carl Hiaasen makes clear, life is more than a little surreal, and where three people were recently attacked and killed by alligators in less than a week. Previously, 17 people had died from alligator attacks in Florida since 1948. There is no record in the United States of three fatal alligator attacks in one year, much less in one week in one state. So something clearly is going on in Florida. Yesterday, as if to emphasize Hiaasen's point, an alligator walked through...

FORT HUACHUCA — Described as a “big goofy, lovable animal” that appears to have a touch of the equine equivalent of attention deficit disorder Big Whiskey is going from training as a race horse to become a cavalry mount. That the thoroughbred is even alive to do something else is a miracle, Chris Zimmerman said. A few years ago, he was in a trailer that overturned and one of the major injuries the horse received was a piece of metal that went through one side of his neck and came out the other, he said. The previous owners decided he...

Minneapolis-St. Paul is a "cosmopolitan gem," according to a new ranking by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. Granted, "the winter weather isn't for wusses," Kiplinger's June issue reports, but the seven-county Twin Cities area has so many good things to brag about: cost of living and housing, quality health care, low crime rate, education, quality of life, cultural amenities, the economy and transportation. St. Paul doesn't get short shrift either in the write-up: The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra are mentioned, among other pluses. Minneapolis is described as "progressive and hip, with a Midwestern sensibility."...

Counting on victory in November, Democrats outline plansHomeland security, a boost to the minimum wage and White House investigations top legislative agenda By Jonathan Weisman WASHINGTON POST Posted on Sun, May. 07, 2006 WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said last week that a Democratic House...

5/1/2006 - NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFPN) -- In the wake of the attacks that took place on Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of Defense implemented new initiatives to thwart future attacks on U.S. soil. These measures were called “threat conditions.” It wasn’t until 2004 that the Defense Department revamped threatcon procedures into what are now known as Force Protection Conditions, or FPCONs. The old threat conditions were just not specific enough, said an anti-terrorism official. “We needed these new measures to not only prevent attacks from foreign terrorists, but domestic ones as well. “These might not be the...

Musharraf insists: I'm not George Bush's poodle · General says US air strikes infringe sovereignty· President denies running military dictatorship Declan Walsh and Simon Tisdall in Rawalpindi Friday April 28, 2006 The Guardian (UK) General Pervez Musharraf, facing a surge of anti-American sentiment, yesterday warned that covert US air strikes against al-Qaida inside Pakistan were an infringement of national sovereignty. Admitting that his popularity was waning, the Pakistani president insisted he was "not a poodle" of George Bush and rejected accusations he was running a military dictatorship. Speaking to the Guardian at Army House in Rawalpindi weeks after a tense...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday warned his government would blow up its own oil fields if the United States ever were to attack - the latest in a series of heating warnings against Washington. US officials have repeatedly denied any military plans against Chavez, but also have called him a threat to stability in the region. Speaking to other South American leaders, Chavez said his conflict with the US is rooted in Washington's thirst for oil. If the US were to attack, Chavez said Wednesday, "we'll do like the Iraqis. We won't have any other alternative - blow up...

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2006 – Recent criticism voiced by a half dozen retired generals over Iraq war planning does not reflect the mainstream views of the officer corps, a senior Defense Department official told Pentagon reporters today. "There are a handful of officers that have exercised their right to speak their mind, and certainly that's their right to do that," DoD spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Brushing aside a reporter's suggestion there's widespread disagreement among senior officers over Iraq war planning, Whitman said there are thousands of active duty, reserve component and retired general officers from all of the armed services....

Bird flu threat not so grave, CDC chief says M. ALEXANDER OTTO; The News Tribune Published: April 15th, 2006 01:00 AM Federal health officials at a meeting Friday in Tacoma downplayed the risk bird flu poses to humans, contrasting earlier warnings from the federal government. “There is no evidence it will be the next pandemic,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said of avian flu. There is “no evidence it is evolving in a direction that is becoming more transmissible to people.” Gerberding spoke at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center...

Neanderthals were not stupid, just a bit anti-social IAN JOHNSTON SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT "CRUDE, boorish and slow- witted" - even dictionaries give Neanderthals a hard time. But our prehistoric cousins were in reality just as smart as we are and did not die out as a result of a lack of brain power, according to a new archaeological study. Until now, the leading theory of why the Neanderthals disappeared has been that a lack of intelligence meant they were less efficient hunters. But a team of US archaeologists believe they met their evolutionary end because of a failure to maintain social...

On Feb. 21, Doubleday will publish the book that cost me my job: "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." The germination began when I heard about the extraordinary efforts made by the White House to ram the Medicare drug benefit through the House of Representatives during the night. Until that point, I had given President Bush the benefit of the doubt—even on things with which I was uncomfortable. For example, I had reluctantly concluded the Iraq War was justified on the basis of what I knew at the time it began. I don't normally...

BAGHDAD, April 3, 2006 — In the midst of everything going on in Baghdad last week came the welcomed news that Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll had been released. By the time this article is published, Carroll will be in Boston for a well deserved repatriation with family and friends. It is unclear at this time why the group holding Carroll released her after more than 80 days in captivity. According to her kidnappers, it was because of the release earlier this year of some female detainees. That is an unlikely answer. Every month the coalition routinely releases suspects...

McDermott: Taping Dispute Not Personal By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer Last update: April 01, 2006 – 4:28 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Jim McDermott says his eight-year dispute with House Majority Leader John Boehner over an intercepted telephone call is not personal, but involves a crucial right of voters to know what their leaders are doing. "Unfortunately, it's portrayed in the paper as Boehner v. McDermott. It really is the government versus the people,'' McDermott, D-Wash., said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. McDermott commented three days after a federal appeals court ruling against him in the...

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2006 – The United States will leave Iraq, "but we will not retreat from Iraq," President Bush said today during a speech at Freedom House here. The president stressed that freedom is for all nations, not just a few fortunate ones, and that the march of freedom is the best guarantor of peace. He said freedom is on the march in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan and Liberia, and that "the courageous people of Iraq have gone to the polls not once, not twice, but three times, choosing a transitional government, a democratic constitution, and a new government under...

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2006 – Three years after the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, now's the time for resolve, not retreat, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote today in an editorial in The Washington Post. Rumsfeld called turning a back on postwar Iraq today "the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis." "It would be as great a disgrace as if we had asked the liberated nations of Eastern Europe to return to Soviet domination because it was too hard or too tough or we didn't have the patience to work with them as they built free countries,"...

WASHINGTON, March 17, 2006 – More than a half million U.S. and coalition forces are now engaged in the fight against global terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, a senior U.S. general said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday. "There's well over 600,000 people under arms fighting against common foes and dealing with common problems, all designed to defeat extremism in the region," Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said. "Clearly, the struggle against extremism is not one that we fight alone," Abizaid said. Today, less than 200,000 U.S. servicemembers...

WINSTED, Conn. - Having marijuana in your house is illegal, but having marijuana images on your house is not, according to town officials. Five months after Christopher Seekins was arrested and charged with cultivating marijuana in his home, neighbors have complained about the giant marijuana leaves he has spray-painted on the outside of his home on High Street. "There's no reason anybody should have a problem with it," Seekins said Wednesday. Town officials said the marijuana paintings apparently do not conflict with local laws. "There's nothing in the property maintenance code that deals with writing on your house," Joe Beadle,...

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2006 – Iraq is not on the verge of a civil war, and sectarian issues in the country are controllable, the commander of U.S. Central Command told the House Armed Services Committee here today. Army Gen. John Abizaid testified about CENTCOM's posture. He told the representatives he believes a government of national unity will emerge in Iraq and that the Iraqi security forces will continue to improve. Abizaid said he was concerned about sectarian violence in Iraq since the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra on Feb. 22. He said he believes fugitive Jordanian terrorist Abu...