Free Republic

** EXCERPT ** Sarah Palin yesterday made an unscheduled tour of a visitors center at Ground Zero dedicated to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 terror attacks. The Republican vice-presidential nominee nodded her head several times and said, "Oh, my goodness," while a retired firefighter showed her pictures of the burning World Trade Center and exhibits that highlighted the moments the hijacked planes struck each tower. Her tour guide was Lee Ielpi, whose son Jonathan, a firefighter, died at the World Trade Center. Palin told Ielpi, "My parents came after the cleanup," and Ielpi replied, "The whole country...

The remains of a burnt beetle found in a grain of wheat about 3,500 years old provided a group of researchers from Bar-Ilan University with a key to a question the Bible left without a definite answer: How did Joseph the Dreamer, who became the viceroy to the king of Egypt, succeed in preserving the grain during the seven lean years and prevent Egypt's population from starving? According to the description in the book of Genesis, during the seven years of plenty in Egypt, Joseph had all the wheat collected in silos. "And he gathered up all the food of...

FORT WORTH -- Kujo perched on a tree branch in downtown's Burnett Plaza, warily watching for prey.No grackles or starlings were in sight.Instead, a man raised his arm.Kujo, a 2-year-old Harris's hawk, quickly flew low and fast through the chilly morning air to reach the outstretched arm of Roger Crandall, his handler.Rewarded with pieces of mouse meat, he knew that next time, his bounty could be bigger.Kujo and his working mate, Blackjack, could be the newest tools in the city's efforts to drive out grackles -- long known as "downtown's feathered menace."Recent changes in federal law, prompted by local falconers...

MASON -- Several hours before dusk, the Mexican free-tailed bats begin stirring inside the Eckert James River Cave outside of Mason.As dusk approaches, the bats explode from the cave's mouth, creating a tornado-like vortex that allows the colony to soar higher and higher in the night sky.During the last decade, scientists have learned these nightly feedings offer far greater benefits than providing entertainment for tourists.Scientists gathered at the cave about 100 miles northwest of Austin are heralding them as nature's pesticide.The research shows that some of the bats' favorite delicacies are insects like the corn earworm (also known as the...

http://www.vidilife.com/index.cfm?f=media.play&vchrMediaProgramIDCryp=B23444FC-D864-4117-AD77-F Click the link or paste it into your URL. There's a warning message in red letters you have to click past telling you it's not appropriate viewing for children. Click past it and you'll get the video. No, this isn't porn. It's just something to think about as we spend the next few weeks remembering 9-11 and seething about what these bastards did to us.

April 28, 2006 Release A060428f Al-Qaida terrorist leader of Samarra killed BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces killed the al-Qaida “Emir” of Samarra, Hamadi ‘Abd al-Tahki al-Nissani, April 28. Based on intelligence reports, they tracked the wanted terrorist and two others to a location approximately 15 kilometers north of Samarra. As the troops assaulted the house where the three men were known to be hiding, Hamadi ‘Abd al-Tahki al-Nissani, who was armed, attempted to flee and was killed by the assault force. The ground troops also killed the other two armed terrorists inside the house. One of the terrorist, who had...

Residents in Australia's Northern Territory are staging a day of action to stop marauding cane toads. They are being encouraged to hunt and destroy these toxic pests, which have spread in plague-like numbers across tropical Australia. The cane toads were introduced from South America 70 years ago in a failed attempt to eradicate cane beetles. They are big, ugly creatures and their advance has taken them to the outskirts of Darwin. Residents are being urged to defend the front-line on "Not In My Backyard Day", which is sponsored by the Northern Territory government. 'Flog them' Federal MP Dave Tollner says...

Of all the inventions bequeathed to the world by Sir George Sitwell, the eccentric father of the poet Edith, perhaps the greatest was a tiny revolver for shooting wasps. Seated in the grounds of Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, the amateur landscape gardener would be found taking pot shots at passing wasps with limited success but enormous satisfaction. More than 60 years after his death, the spirit of Sir George lives on. According to a flurry of correspondence from readers of The Telegraph, the fine art of wasp shooting is alive and well. Which is more than can be said for...

QUSAYBAH, Iraq — The young Saudi drifted about the lawless Iraqi-Syrian border in the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, seeking a place where he could channel his urge for holy war. He made it to a training camp in the immense desert of western Iraq, U.S. officials say, before infiltrating the country's Sunni Muslim heartland. He was captured late last year, the sole survivor of a squad of three Arabs from outside Iraq who launched a virtual suicide attack on a U.S. checkpoint east of here. Military officials say Mohammed Kadir Hussen's odyssey from his hometown, Jidda,...

Just as the U.S. State Department approves wider contact with Iran and as members of Congress begin planning the first official trips in 25 years, Tehran is sponsoring a 10-day conference of major terrorist organization beginning next week. The purpose of the conference is to discuss anti-U.S. strategy. Among the groups headed to Iran to participate are: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaida allies Ansar Al Islam. The conference, dubbed "Ten Days of Dawn," is designed to mark the 25th anniversary of the return to Iran from exile of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the revolution that ousted...

Microscopic crablike creatures with a voracious appetite for swimming larvae may soon become the newest weapon in the war on mosquitoes. A University of Florida researcher believes the tiny crustaceans have big potential for helping control buzzing hordes that have become a serious health threat with the spread of West Nile virus, malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. ''They'll pretty much kill any mosquito larvae they see,'' said Jorge Rey, a professor at the University of Florida's Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach. Rey hopes the organisms called copepods, common in Florida waters, will bolster the growing arsenal of what scientists...

AUSTIN -- A Senate committee saw two new congressional redistricting maps Monday as Republicans struggled to find a plan that can win a majority vote in the 31-member Senate. With little hope of gathering any Democratic support to pass a plan in the current special legislative session, the Republicans are trying to agree among themselves on a plan that could pass the Senate quickly if Gov. Rick Perry calls a second special session. "This is dead this legislative session. It's dead, it's dead, it's dead, it's dead," Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said of redistricting in the current special session. "The...

MATTHEWS: Tom DeLay of Texas. Thanks for joining us. Right now, let me go over to one of our panelists who hasn’t had a chance yet. You yielded to Pat Caddell a moment ago. Let me ask you what you think. How does the president-I will go back to the main point of tonight’s discussion. How does president convince you and other people who think, of like mind, that this is going to be a good-a good war? In other words, a necessary war. I think they’re the same. How does he make that case to you? BRAZILE: I think...