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The Democratic National Committee is asking America to weigh in on its party platform, and this week kicks off more than 1,300 meetings to hear from voters across the country on the big question: What should Democrats stand for - and against? If the idea sounds politically challenging, or even risky - think Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads weighing in - San Francisco attorney Michael Yaki, who heads the party's platform committee, says not to worry. In fact, he's even invited Limbaugh and his dittoheads to come on down and take part in the meetings that will happen around the...

When you're being grilled by a bunch of useless congressional representatives over the "high price of coffee," it's only natural to wonder how one might fix this collection of useless windbags. Check out the newest "Geeks On Caffeine" toon which ponders this very dilemma! NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit the sight and refrain from pasting the comic within the thread. THANKS!

I wish you all the best. I have tried to post tributes to the Army, info on Obama's horrendous run for office and McCain's slightly less horrible attempt. I wish you all the best but FR is just as likely to exclude people from the deabte as anyone else. They have that right, freedom to cleave to whoever you like is a right I agree with but I am guessing I am not one Jim wants associate with. I wish you all the best but I am bowing out of this forum. Have a great life. God bless u all!

Now that my furnace is fixed (and I seem to have another of those blasted ear infections) today is the mental health day I tried to take yesteday. I leave you the gem of the day, Vanderleun taking off from the famous “Salsa/Selter/Show-about-nothing” episode from Seinfeld (clip below) and runs with it, brilliantly. The only trouble is…remember, America loved the “show about nothing.” Obama: You know it must be impossible for a Spanish person to order seltzer and not get salsa. (Angry) “I wanted seltzer, not salsa.”Hillary: “Don’t you know the difference between seltzer and salsa?? You have the seltzer...

They call him Dr. No -- no big government, no big spending, no flouting the Constitution. And no interest in slick political image. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) sticks to serious principles and says what he thinks. Someone is listening he raised millions in one day on the Internet. No more Department of Education. No more Federal Reserve Bank. No more Medicare or Medicaid. No more membership in the United Nations or NATO. No more federal drug laws. And, no more U.S. troops in Iraq -- or anywhere else on foreign soil. The Internal Revenue Service would be history in...

Thursday Marked By Donor Controversy & Laughs With Letterman (CBS) NEW YORK -- One day in the life of Hillary Clinton shows two very different sides of the New York senator and presidential candidate. First, she was talking about a campaign donor controversy that has dogged her in recent days. A few hours later, she was looking for a few laughs. On Thursday, Clinton finally broke her silence, about a campaign donor who is a fugitive from California. "We were all surprised by this news, and we have a procedure that we follow, and upon verifying it, we returned the...

I listed my qualms about him a few days ago. Right now I would consider McCain and Rudy above Fred, but not Brownback. This solely rests upon the fact that other than voting correctly and saying good things on Paul Harvey, I am very skeptical of Thompson’s ability to, 1. Formulate good policy (detail work) 2. Negotiate with the other side and foreign governments 3. Run a organization (whether a campaign or an administration) 4. Something that shows those lazy accusations are not true (i.e. some where he has put forth good effort.) I know that a lot of people...

BISBEE — The State Department on Wednesday confirmed receipt of a diplomatic note from the Mexican government protesting the shooting death of an illegal border crosser near Naco, but said it was withholding response pending the outcome of an investigation. “It’s something that I understand the FBI is conducting an investigation into and obviously, we’d leave it to them and to the Border Patrol to determine what, if any, response is appropriate based on that investigation,” Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said after being asked about the note at a daily press briefing. The note, presented by the Mexican Embassy in...

--crickets--

The New York Times May 29, 2006 METROPOLITAN DIARY Dear Diary: The Everything bagel has always made me smile. It combines seasonings from sesame, garlic, poppyseed, onion and salt bagels -- and it's really delicious. In New York City, it makes perfect sense to order "Everything with nothing" -- an Everything bagel, plain, without butter or cream cheese. One morning this month, a mother and her boy were placing a breakfast order at the Market Cafe in Citigroup Center. The store was busy and ready to get busier, with fresh sandwiches, pizzas, fruit, rolls and salads stocked behind the counter....

A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they're suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from "state-sponsored religion." The behavior of the Indian River School District board's behavior suggests the families' fears are hardly groundless. The district spreads over a considerable portion of southeast Delaware. The families' complaint, filed in federal court in...

NOGALES, Mexico - Mexicans say it will take more than three layers of fence and 6,000 National Guard troops to keep them out of the United States. As President Bush visited the stretch of Arizona desert Thursday that serves as a cactus-studded freeway for thousands of undocumented migrants, those preparing to make the perilous trip said they will find a way around almost any obstacle. "We'll go under it, we'll go over it, we'll go through the air, the sea or the earth, but they're never going to stop us from crossing," said Jesus Santana, a Tijuana truck driver who...

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Remember when you were a kid and you were all excited about Christmas? Well, democrats were so giddy about the apparently impending indictments of Libby and Rove that they started saying, "Merry Fitzmas". Now, remember when you had your heart set on the one item you wanted for Christmas and you cast aside sweaters, scarves and the like as you seached for the coveted item under the tree? Well, my friends, it is Fitzmas morning and all the democrats got were socks! No charges pertaining to the outing of a CIA agent. No charges against Rove. The best they can...

Proposition 77 is better than nothing. And nothing is what Californians have been getting for years from politicians' empty promises. Californians should vote yes on Proposition 77, a political reform initiative on the Nov. 8 special election ballot. The initiative proposes to take the drawing of political boundary lines away from politicians and give it to a panel of three retired judges. Maybe your eyes have rolled back into your head. You ask: "Who cares?" You should care a lot. The system now: Every 10 years, a U.S. Census is conducted. Based on its population statistics, the boundary lines of...

"I've gotten a lot of email from over the weekend asking me who I think the Plame leaker was if I think it wasn't Rove. I'm sorry to say I can't say until I get a green light to say. But I'm working on it. And, it's not a just wild guess. I could be wrong but my confidence is high." jonahnro@aol.com

Just do nothing, EU officials told (but be sure to fill in form to say you've done it) By Justin Stares in Brussels (Filed: 03/07/2005) "If in doubt, do nothing" might seem like common sense to most people, but in Brussels it has just become official policy. But even doing nothing will entail some paperwork. Conscious of its reputation for unnecessary meddling, the European Commission has issued staff with guidelines advising them that the status quo could be the best option. Under a heading "To regulate or not to regulate, that is the question", commission bureaucrats are told that when...

Former Gov. Gray Davis now admits he was unprepared for the 2000-01 energy crisis that sent electricity bills soaring, brought rolling blackouts and ultimately helped bring an early end to his political career. Davis, recalled by voters in an unprecedented move, was replaced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October 2003, a year after Davis had won a second term. The former Democratic governor said he erred by buying power at inflated rates during the height of the crisis, but said he acted because he "wasn't willing to risk" sustained blackouts. "Did it turn out to be a mistake? Yes," Davis...

According to a survey of more than 2,000 adults, almost two-thirds of us admit to indulging in shallow chit-chat at the expense of weighty dialogue - even though we secretly long for more meaningful exchanges.

Poll: Most voters knew nothing of Clinton abortion speech ALBANY, N.Y. Most New York voters don't think it's possible to find common ground on the issue of abortion, despite Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's urging that they attempt to do. That's according to a new poll out today from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. The survey of some 12-hundred registered voters in New York state asked about Clinton's recent speech in Albany to fellow abortion rights supporters in which she called for all sides in the debate to find "common ground" in an effort to reduce the number of abortions. The...

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in New Jersey: An Islamic Murder of Coptic Christians?.Anyone following the investigation into the mid-January slaughter of the Armanious family (husband, wife, two young daughters), Copts living in Jersey City, N.J., knows who the presumptive suspects are: Islamists furious at a Christian Egyptian immigrant who dares engage in Internet polemics against Islam and who attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.The authorities, however, have blinded themselves to the extensive circumstantial evidence, insisting that "no facts at this point" substantiate a religious motive for the murders.Somehow, the prosecutor missed that all four members of this...

WASHINGTON (AP) - When House Democrats needed just one senator to sign a challenge to Ohio's electoral votes, they knew who to ask - California's Barbara Boxer, among the fieriest liberals in a state full of them. More than a decade after she led fellow congresswomen up the steps of the Senate to demand hearings into Anita Hill's sexual harassment claims against Clarence Thomas, Boxer staged her latest - and perhaps most dramatic - rebellion Thursday. By joining Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, in lodging a formal protest against how Ohio's electoral votes were tallied, Boxer provided the needed Senate...

This thread is for those who got diddly, nada, zilch, zip, zero Christmas Presents this year (or any other year). Come and commiserate. You're among friends here. And to those of you who offer the beautiful homily, "It's better to give than receive", please take the time to have a nice tall glass of shaddup.

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

(n.) Nothingness; nihility.(n.) The doctrine that nothing can be known; skepticism as to all knowledge and all reality.(n.) The theories and practices of the Nihilists....That aspect too often goes un-addressed among us. Even churches that are referenced in the New Testament reveal that many came not to believe from faith alone, but through their own works. When even an apostle preached the Word to them, they studied the written word to see if his words rang true. When they found that his teachings matched that of the prophets, they came to believe and were baptized. When you begin to work...

Jerry Seinfeld's very successful television sitcom, its creators said, was a "show about nothing." Seinfeld, playing a fictional version of himself, and his friends would confront the vicissitudes of daily life and often place themselves in embarrassing social pickles. There was a dust-up Monday between Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Treasurer Phil Angelides that was the equivalent of a show about nothing. Schwarzenegger met with his newly appointed Council of Economic Advisors, most of whose members are supply-side economists out of the Milton Friedman school. Friedman, in fact, was one of the attendees, thus giving Schwarzenegger an opportunity to...

When the World Health Organization (WHO) released its proposed "global strategy on diet, physical activity and health" calling for "fat taxes," the Bush administration noticed something conspicuously missing from the report -- any notion of personal responsibility. Thankfully, the former Director of Communications for WHO's European Office, Franklin Apfel, provides insight into this obvious omission. He recently told a conference in Dublin (as reported in The Irish Times): [W]e are all influenced by 'hazard merchants' selling us a false view of things like tobacco, alcohol and high density foodstuffs -- we're given the impression that these things represent personal choice,...

<p>By increasing its minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.50, San Francisco has implemented its latest attempt to legislate help for the poor through price controls. Unfortunately, minimum wages hurt the poor and other disfavored groups rather than helping them.</p> <p>Support for a higher minimum wage comes from the idea that the poor will gain because it will make low-skilled workers more willing to work and increase their earnings. However, while a higher minimum wage increases how much workers are willing to work, it reduces how many workers employers are willing to hire. With fewer job openings, the increased willingness to seek work becomes irrelevant, and there are fewer workers rather than more workers hired. And those who lose their jobs because of a higher minimum wage have their incomes decimated, which is an unusual way to help them. That was clearly illustrated long ago when a South African minimum-wage law portrayed as intended to help blacks led to widespread increases in black unemployment as employers hired whites instead at the same wage. It is also why the other Pacific Rim states, with the three highest minimum wages in the nation, are all among the five worst in unemployment rates.</p>

<p>For those concerned about their final destination after they die, beware: There apparently isn't a lot of space available in heaven. But if you don't mind the utter lack of oceanfront housing, hell appears to have plenty of room.</p> <p>This we can discern from the results of a new poll of several hundred Americans on matters pertaining to the hereafter. Barna Research Group of Ventura, Calif., found that when it comes to the prospect of eternal damnation, only a fraction of folks seem remotely prepared for the possibility.</p>

Billing itself as "ultimate minimalism," a play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is charging theatre-goers to stare at an empty and silent stage for an hour. With no cast, no plot, no props and no script, the play has attracted wide media coverage in Britain but, alas, completes its emptiness by also attracting next to no audience. Appropriately called Sweet FA, the play's opening night attracted six journalists to the early morning performance at the 142-seat theatre inside Edinburgh's Crowne Plaza Hotel. On the second night, one journalist turned up but fell asleep in the lobby before the show began....

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) - More than 600 victims of the infamous Srebrenica massacre were finally laid to rest, almost eight years after Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, with many relatives making a painful trip back to the town. Over 10,000 people, including many of the bereaved as well as overseas officials, helped re-bury 600 Muslim men and boys, removed from mass graves, at a memorial cemetery in Potocari, just outside Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. More than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys are believed to have been slain in Srebrenica after Serbs overran the enclave on July 11,...

It was the kind of uranium that — if highly enriched — would, by some estimates, provide about half the material required for a crude nuclear device and more than enough for a so-called dirty bomb — a nightmare scenario for U.S. authorities. "I would say that the single largest, most urgent threat to Americans today is the threat of nuclear terrorism," said Graham Allison, an expert on nuclear terrorism. Allison is the director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a former assistant secretary of defense. This suitcase's journey was...

Train de-railment...nothing to see...move along

Scientists Conclude Neanderthals Were Stinky And DirtyBy Foss L. RekordBSNN.net Headline News  Above: An artist's rendering of a bunch of Dirty, Stinky, Dysfunctional Neanderthals.  VALLE de COPROLITES, FRANCE— A team of anthropologists and archaeologists, funded by a 5-year, twenty-million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation, released their findings in a paper entitled "Whatever Happened To All Those Neanderthals?"   Spokesman for the team, Dr. Dig  R. O'Dell, is very excited about the many new insights the study produced into the lifestyle of modern man's closest ancestor. "We were seeking to explain the decline of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis  vis-a-vis the rise of Homo sapiens, and...

GUEST OPINION It's your call Get government out of licensing or lose more freedom By BILL O'NEILL Charlton Heston, president of the NRA, lectures to college students: "I submit that you and your counterparts in colleges from coast to coast also appear to be the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord bridge. And so long as you shrug your shoulders and abide by it, then by the standards of your grandfathers, you are cultural cowards." It takes years of indoctrination to trick kids to sacrifice themselves to government. Public education, i.e., government training of children, always has...