Free Republic

Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot* Bond MeasureProposition 1 SB 1856 (Chapter 697, 2002). Costa. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.** **Note: The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century was originally scheduled to appear on the November 2, 2004, General Election ballot. Subsequently, Senate Bill 1169, Chapter 71, Statutes of 2004, provided that it appear on the November 7, 2006, General Election ballot. However, most recently, Assembly Bill 713, Chapter 44, Statutes of 2006, provides for the submission of this Act on the November...

(You can’t get much happier than a pig in muck, or so we are told. But when this little piggy arrived in the farmyard she showed a marked reluctance to get her trotters dirty. While her six brothers and sisters messed around in the mire, she stayed on the edge shaking. It is thought she might have mysophobia - a fear of dirt.) A pig, fearing dirt. That’s like a dog fearing social interaction, a cat fearing afternoon naps or Rosie O'Donnell fearing an all you can eat buffet. It’s unheard of. (Owners Debbie and Andrew Keeble were at a...

Woman pulled cop from wrecked car in 2002, but police said she stole service weapon A trained nurse, Rachelle Jackson immediately ran toward the sound of the crash. A Chicago police car had collided with another vehicle and was starting to smoke, two officers still inside. Fearing an explosion, she quickly pulled one officer from the passenger side.She never imagined her act of kindness nearly six years ago would land her in jail for more than 10 months on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer. Jackson filed a lawsuit, and on Thursday a federal jury found...

Long-term private investors are pulling their money out of the eurozone at the fastest rate since the creation of the single currency, according to a report by the French bank BNP Paribas. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in plant and factories has turned deeply negative, reaching minus €149bn (£117bn) over the past year. It dropped to minus €19bn in March alone as the soaring euro pushed labour costs in southern Europe to uncompetitive levels. The annual exodus of private funds from eurozone equities and bonds has reached almost $280bn. Taken together, the total outflows have topped €400bn in 12 months and...

I may surprise some people by saying what few presidential candidates would ever be willing to say out loud in farm country: I'd veto the farm bill—a bloated expansion in federal spending that will do more harm than good. When agricultural commodity prices and exports have reached record highs, we no longer need government-grown farms and mammoth government bureaucracies. As grocery bills soar, food banks go bare and food rationing occurs on a global scale, we must challenge the wisdom of this bill. We must question policies that divert more than 25 percent of corn out of the food supply...

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Muslim villagers in Mymensingh district eager to rid the area of the Christian work of a local pastor have gang-raped his 13-year-old daughter. Pastor Motilal Das of United Bethany Church said that at around 3 a.m. on Friday (May 2) the villagers sexually assaulted his daughter, Elina Das, and left her unconscious in front of his house in an attempt to drive him and his Christian ministry out of Laksmipur village in Fulbaria sub-district, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital. Local residents have long been angry with him for his ministry and evangelism, he said,...

Although the House and Senate have both defeated a moratorium on earmarks, the debate about direct congressional grants rages on. And generally absent is any mention of the pressing needs that these grants have helped so many of our nation's communities meet. Are programs to reduce gang violence a good use of taxpayer funds? How about keeping sewage out of local streams? Or fixing unsafe roads and bridges before another tragedy? By any reasonable standard, nearly all congressionally directed grants would be considered a good use of taxpayer funds.Local officials nationwide have a common goal: providing residents with public services...

Arriving in the Port of Oakland at 6 a.m. last Thursday, the grey-blue colossus auto carrier Century Highway No. 3 carries enough cars to fill all the parking lots surrounding the Giants stadium — a mere fraction of the average 368 million annual tons of autos, toys, and other goods moving through the 29 ports along America's Pacific coast. Could there be a force of man or nature powerful enough to interrupt this perpetual merchandise tsunami? Would you believe — San Francisco radical peaceniks? On May 1, the usually bustling ports along the West Coast will become still, as members...

Is pig-brain 'mist' linked to mystery ailment? 09 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service WORKERS at two pork-processing plants in the US have developed a mysterious nervous ailment after using compressed air to blast brain tissue from severed pig heads. The end product is a pink food paste that is canned and exported, but the process also generates an aerosol of brain matter that workers may inhale. Since 2006, 12 workers at a Minnesota slaughterhouse have developed symptoms ranging from weakness, tingling and numbness to acute paralysis, US health authorities reported on 31 January (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol 57,...

A story based on the Three Little Pigs fairy tale has been turned down by a government agency's awards panel as the subject matter could offend Muslims. The digital book, re-telling the classic story, was rejected by judges who warned that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". Becta, the government's educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual Bett Award for schools. The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders. The book's creative director, Anne Curtis, said the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was "like a slap...

'Three Little Pigs CD' banned from Government-backed awards for offending Muslims and builders By SARAH HARRIS A story based on The Three Little Pigs has been rejected by a Government-backed awards event because it might offend Muslims... and builders. The digital book, retelling the classic children's tale, was criticised by judges who said "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". They also claimed the award-winning CD-rom, entitled The Three Little Cowboy Builders, might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)". The "virtual" book is designed for use on computers and interactive whiteboards and aimed at primary school children. Its publishers,...

A story based on the Three Little Pigs has been turned down from a government agency's annual awards because the subject matter could offend Muslims. The digital book, re-telling the classic fairy tale, was rejected by judges who warned that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". Becta, the government's educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual schools award. The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders. The book's creative director, Anne Curtis, said that the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was "like a slap in the...

Federal health officials are investigating if there's a link between illnesses reported by several workers at a pig slaughterhouse in Indiana and those seen recently in workers at a Minnesota pork plant. All the employees work in areas where pigs' heads have been processed using a technique in which compressed air is shot into their skulls until their brains spill out, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokeswoman Lola Russell said.

A 58-year-old Canadian pig farmer is facing life in prison after being convicted of murdering six women - a fraction of the total number he is thought to have killed. Robert "Willie" Pickton was given an automatic life sentence when a jury in British Columbia found him guilty of murder. He still faces murder charges for the deaths of 20 more women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood. If convicted on all those charges, he would become Canada's most prolific serial killer. Police are still investigating the cases of almost 40 other missing women....

ROME — Former Italian deputy Education Minister and far-right Northern League Party (LN) member Mariella Mazzetto has ignited a fireball of criticism after parading a pig on the site of a planned mosque in the northern city of Padua. "This sort of behavior is not worthy of Padua and I believe that many people here are ashamed," Padua Mayor Flavio Zanonato said in statements carried by local newspapers, cited Sunday, November 11, by Agence France-Presse (AFP). He said the parade was threatening the peaceful coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims in Padua. "At least 7,000 people from Muslim countries live here...

Die Meistersinger is, by Wagner’s standards, quite a cheerful opera. The action turns on comedy’s staple, the marriage plot: get the hero and the heroine safely and truly wed with at least a presumption of happiness ever after. There are cross-currents and undercurrents that make Meistersinger’s libretto subtle in ways that the librettos of operas usually aren’t. But for once Nietzsche is nowhere in sight and nobody dies; the territory is closer to The Barber of Seville than to The Ring. Yet, in the first scene of Act 3, the avuncular Hans Sachs, whose benevolent interventions smooth the lovers’ course,...

SUN CITY, Fla. -- Hillsborough County officials are looking for the people responsible for stabbing and stealing pigs from the Sun City Stables. The sheriff's office reports that a 400-pound pig was stabbed dozens of times sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Another pig at the petting zoo was also attacked and two others are missing. Authorities have dusted for fingerprints around the pig pen but they are still looking for suspects. Meanwhile, the pigs are being treated for their wounds.

For a squealin' good time at the fair, make sure to stop by the Hambone Express pig races. You can bet yer bacon they'll be sizzlin' around the track all 11 days of the fair - no tires needed. The squealers of Hambone Express are known to delight fairgoers as they go "whole hog" around the track, even putting it into "four-squeal drive" to come in first and receive an edible prize. The show consists of four races with four pigs in each race. The swinemaster assigns cheering sections, with one special cheerleader to lead each section. Then he introduces...

Ted Nugent Blames Hippies for Divorce, Abortion, Drugs and Crime 7/3/07, 2:22 pm EST It was only a matter of time before Ted Nugent decided to rain on the Summer of Love’s anniversary parade. In an article from today’s Wall Street Journal titled “The * Summer of Drugs,” the notoriously opinionated guitar god took some time off his busy hunting schedule to blame “stoned, dirty, stinky hippies” for “rising rates of divorce, high school drop-outs, drug use, abortion, sexual diseases and crime, not to mention the exponential expansion of government and taxes.” * Highlights (including some choice words for Jimi...

OK! Here's my question to liberals appeasers, so far I didn't get ANY answer on this (besides a lib/lip/sipn). Why did Islamic Al Qaeda plan to attack UK on 2001? Before the Iraq war... excuse http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1713557.stm Al-Qaeda note suggests 'attack on London' Sunday, 16 December, 2001 I saw yesterday Alan Colmes telling (on H&C) Oliver North that it's not radical Islam it's not "Islam¨". Hey, I like you as a person but not your opinions. Alan, 1) Do you know any better then the Muslims themselves, as to what Islam is & what it is not? 2) They do it...

A busy section of highway was closed for seven hours Sunday after a truck tipped over and spilled pig ears, pig feet and grease. The greasy pig parts created slippery conditions and forced the closure of northbound lanes of the Edens Expressway. The lanes were reopened Sunday afternoon. A sudden shift in the truck's load caused it to tip onto its side near an entrance ramp in Skokie, according to Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey. The Edens Expressway connects downtown Chicago to its northern suburbs. No injuries were reported.

A PART-TIME Hong Kong butcher has become the third victim of the pig-borne disease Streptococcus suis in the territory in less than a month, the South China Morning Post has reported. The article said the 54-year-old man developed fever, headache and neck pain nearly two weeks ago, but was admitted to hospital only on Tuesday and was stable yesterday.

BEIJING (AFP) - A disease that has killed 18,000 pigs and helped send pork prices soaring in China is likely to get worse, the government said Tuesday, as it called for a vaccination drive to stem the epidemic. Over 45,000 pigs have been hit by the highly pathogenic "blue-ear disease" between January and May, even before the peak season of the summer and fall has started, the Ministry of Agriculture said on its websit

It’s no secret that Rep. Jack Murtha loves his pork-barrel projects. The burly Pennsylvania Democrat has for years played the role of broker for his own party and the GOP to get deals done in exchange for lucrative earmarks. But with Democrats now in control of Congress and Murtha gaining celebrity status among anti-war liberals in his party, the spotlight shines a bit brighter on the 33-year House veteran. So when Murtha faced Republican opposition for a $23-million earmark to fund the National Drug Intelligence Center, an operation in his hometown of Johnstown, Pa., he blew a gasket -- “unleashing...

HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications. The Chinese government — and particularly the government of Guangdong Province, which is adjacent to Hong Kong — was criticized in 2003 for concealing information...

May 8, 2007 China Tells Little About Illness That Kills Pigs, Officials Say By KEITH BRADSHER HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said Monday that the Chinese government was providing little information about it or the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused death and illness in pets in the United States. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potentially global implications. The Chinese government — and particularly the...

Hogs that ate tainted pet food to be destroyed By Mary Ann Fergus Tribune staff reporter Published April 26, 2007, 8:38 PM CDT Federal officials alerted authorities in seven states Thursday that swine fed tainted pet food will not be approved to enter the human food supply. Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration expect that approximately 6,000 hogs, now under quarantine, will be euthanized even as they announced that the likelihood of illness after eating pork from the animals is very low. The affected hogs are in California, North Carolina, South Carolina, New...

Federal officials confirmed Thursday they are investigating whether pork products intended for humans are contaminated with the same industrial chemical that prompted a massive pet food recall and sickened cats and dogs nationwide. Researchers also have identified three other contaminants in the urine and kidneys of animals sickened or killed after eating the recalled foods, including cyanuric acid, a chemical commonly used in pool chlorination, three researchers told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Cyanuric acid is what most likely sickened pets, one researcher said.

Norwegian anti-immigration politicians in Bergen have promised to chase off Muslims with pigs feet and squealing noises if Bergen's central square is used for prayers. The leader of the Demokratene, an extreme populist party formed by outcasts of the populist Progress Party, Vidar Kleppe, said Wednesday that he backed the remarks of city council representative Kenneth Rasmussen. Rasmussen reacted with threats of porcine tactics after Labour Party politician Jerad Abdelmajid said that the city's Muslims could take their Friday prayers in Torgallmenningen, Bergen's central square, when they will be without a mosque from March 31. Building of a new mosque...

In Qatar there is only one decent bookshop (that happens to be a Saudi chain) that has a few shelves of English books. Shopping there is hit or miss - you don't go there to look for a title. You go there in the hope of stumbling upon something interesting. The kids selection is not bad though. The other night we saw Disney's "My Very First Encyclopedia with Winnie the Pooh and friends". We grabbed it and thought it was exactly what we needed for our daughter - not only does she love Winnie the Pooh but she's also started...

A BRITISH Muslim school is teaching children that Jews are “repugnant apes” and Christians “pigs”, a former teacher claims. Colin Cook, 57, says when he raised his concerns to chiefs at the Saudi government-funded King Fahad Academy in West London he was told: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia.” Some of the 1,250 pupils at the faith school are alleged to have been heard idolising Osama bin Laden, praising 9/11 and saying they want to “kill Americans”. Mr Cook — himself a Muslim — warned yesterday: “The school could produce a dangerous harvest. “It is clearly racist and...

ON February 18, the Chinese world will usher in the new year of an animal, but its identity will be suppressed. A billion people will view China's - and the world's - most-watched annual television show, the Chinese New Year's Eve variety spectacular, but the viewers will be no wiser as to which animal is involved. The Chinese Government has decreed that the Year of the Pig will be celebrated with the least possible offence to the country's 21 million Muslims, for whom the porker is a dirty, offensive animal whose flesh must not be eaten. So this year, China...

ON February 18, the Chinese world will usher in the new year of an animal, but its identity will be suppressed. A billion people will view China's - and the world's - most-watched annual television show, the Chinese New Year's Eve variety spectacular, but the viewers will be no wiser as to which animal is involved. Left out ... pigs won't be mentioned in China's Year of the Pig celebrations to avoid offending the country's Muslim population / File

LEWISTON - No federal charges will be lodged against the city man who rolled a pig's head into a local mosque last year. "We're not going forward with our prosecution," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Halsey Frank said Friday. Brent Matthews, 33, said the frozen head slipped from his hands one night last summer and rolled through the open door of the Lisbon Street storefront that serves as a mosque for members of the Somali community. He was later arrested and charged with the misdemeanor of defacement and desecration of a place of worship. The Maine Attorney General's Office was successful...

The imam of the Taipei Grand Mosque complained to Taiwan's foreign minister for sending him a greeting card for the Chinese New Year showing four pigs, a newspaper said on Saturday. After receiving the New Year card, Imam Ma Hsiao-chi pointed out to the Foreign Ministry that the card was offensive to Muslims, the Liberty Times reported. Muslims do not eat pork and regard pigs as unclean animals. But the ministry defended Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang's sending out the greeting cards, which were printed because 2007 is the Year of Pig according to the Chinese lunar calendar. "Sending New Year...

It's just one more skirmish in the ongoing Mommy Wars. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was testifying before a Senate panel, doing what she does best: keeping to the official line. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was trying to get a rise out of the frighteningly unflappable Rice, so, in a rhetorical flourish, she asked, "Who pays the price [for the administration's deadly policy blunders in Iraq]?" Boxer continued, alluding to the fact that very few of the soldiers in harm's way happen to have senators or White House officials in their families, and said, "I'm not going to pay a...

SYDNEY'S most influential radical Muslim cleric has been caught on film calling Jews pigs and urging children to die for Allah. Sheikh Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, delivers the hateful rants on a collection of DVDs called the Death Series, sold in Australia and overseas, News Limited newspapers report. An Australian citizen born in Sydney, he has spent the past year living in Lebanon. Sheikh Feiz was exposed this week in the British documentary, Undercover Mosque. “Today many parents, they prevent their children from attending lessons,” he says in the video. “Why? They fear...

Islamic Forces Abandon Somali Stronghold Islamic Fighters Abandon Somali Stronghold; Last Seen Heading South Toward the Kenyan Border (AP Photo/Guy Calaf) Crew of the Ethiopian air force prepare their helicopter to transport Somali transitional government President Abdullahi Yusuf, to a meeting with other high ranking government officials, journalists and the local community in a suburb of southern Mogadishu, Somalia on Saturday Dec. 30 2006. Only a few days after the fall of the United Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government troops are patrolling the city and securing strategic locations. (AP Photo/Guy Calaf)By NASTEEX DAHIR FARAH KISMAYO, Somalia...

Baker and Fotouh both say their first meeting was initially cordial. Baker readily agreed to remove his cattle from the association's land. He also offered to donate granite fill for the group's new driveway. But Baker says that as their meeting wound up, Fotouh suggested that he move, in order to keep the place of worship separate from the business. Fotouh denies making such a request. "We would not go to a land owner and say 'We're moving in, you move out.' It does not make sense," he said. Baker insists that Fotouh asked him to leave, and has offered...

There's an awful lot of exciting news when you round the corner on Baker Road. One of two big yellow signs announces a new neighbor is coming soon. K.I.A., that's the Katy Islamic Association, plan to build a mosque here. "It's not an appropriate place to have a mosque or church," said resident Barbara Simpson. It isn't going over real well. "As a house of worship, they shouldn't be disturbing the peace and tranquility of 15 homes," said resident John Wetmore. Neighbors tell us they're concerned about traffic and drainage and a little fear of the unknown. Some of the...

KATY — All snout and tail, the pink and brown pigs contentedly rooting in the wire pen behind Craig Baker's stone shop seem piggishly comic. They're racing pigs, after all, and that's got to be funny. But few in the sprawling subdivisions along Baker Road are laughing. These pigs are subtle weapons, here to show the new neighbors — the Katy Islamic Association — they aren't entirely welcome. Tension has been growing in this west Harris County community since September when the Muslim group announced it had purchased 11 acres south of Interstate 10 to build a mosque, school, community...

Residents use pig races to deter building of mosque Residents don't want group in their area  By Ted Oberg (11/29/06 - KTRK/KATY, TX) - There's an awful lot of exciting news when you round the corner on Baker Road. One of two big yellow signs announces a new neighbor is coming soon. Also on ABC13.com: Send news tips | RSS | ABC13 E-lert | Info mentioned on air | Search abc13.comK.I.A., that's the Katy Islamic Association, plan to build a mosque here. "It's not an appropriate place to have a mosque or church," said resident Barbara Simpson. It isn't...

(11/29/06 - KTRK/KATY, TX) - There's an awful lot of exciting news when you round the corner on Baker Road. One of two big yellow signs announces a new neighbor is coming soon. K.I.A., that's the Katy Islamic Association, plan to build a mosque here. "It's not an appropriate place to have a mosque or church," said resident Barbara Simpson. It isn't going over real well. "As a house of worship, they shouldn't be disturbing the peace and tranquility of 15 homes," said resident John Wetmore. Neighbors tell us they're concerned about traffic and drainage and a little fear of...

Three Democratic congressmen who are about to take important leadership posts said on Sunday they plan to pass popular legislation blocked by Republicans but would refrain from pushing some of the most controversial elements on the liberal agenda. The three, appearing on Fox News Sunday, are among the most liberal Democrats who will take over key committee chairmanships when Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives in January. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who will take over the U.S. House of Representatives committee that covers banking and other financial institutions, mentioned raising the minimum wage, providing cheaper drug coverage...

The southbound truck route on the Golden State (5) Freeway was reopened after frozen pig carcasses were spilled across lanes Monday night. A big rig collided with a box truck in the truck route from the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway just north of the Foothill (210) Freeway Monday night, scattering frozen pigs over 80 feet of the freeway, authorities said. The collision, in which one truck clipped another, occurred at 7:36 p.m., said California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter. The collision was at the end of the truck route, and Caltrans brought in a dump truck and loader to...

To be a "good" Muslim! Part I http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1726241/posts Part II http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1727912/posts Part III http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1728361/posts Dehumaize victims of Islamic terror, especially Israeli men, women & children as "tanks". Never apologize for the continuing exposed (Like Muhammad Aldura, Reuters "images", Jenin "numbers" & added bodies) long tradition of lying, faking, inventing hoaxes, faking images, etc. but rather be already busy with preparing the next one. Islamic violence and bloodshed is always ahead of West's "reprisal", in other words, Bin Laden, Muhammad Atta, etc. have massacred Americans on 9/11/2001 was because the US will eventually go into Afghanistan afterwards, Islamists almost succeeded with...

FLASH!!! Dixie Chicks Natalie Manes just now blamed the Free Republic for their downfall on "Hardball." She claims the FR had an organized effort to bring them down.

A nurse has spoken of her terror after she was attacked by a giant pig which charged the horse she was riding and then savaged her after she was thrown to the ground. Suffering from broken ribs from the fall, Carolyn Robinson feared for her life as the enraged pig hurtled at her. The ferocious beast, which she describes as "huge", mauled the 51 year old and snapped at her legs as she tried desperately to fight it off while lying prone in a quiet country lane. --snip-- Animal experts say the attack could have been deadly as pigs have...

They were sound asleep. Danny and Cindi Henshaw were awakened by a banging on the door at 5 a.m. on Sept. 12. It was the game warden. Danny was arrested for "operating a mammalian hunting enclosure without a permit" and hauled off to be booked. For 16 years, Danny and Cindi have operated the 152-acre Willis River Hunting Preserve near Gladstone, Va. It is a private, completely fenced, wild-boar hunting club. Danny has been among the nation's top 10 archers. He has been featured as a hunter on the "Wild and True" television program. His hunting preserve has hosted hunters...

Transplants of insulin-producing cells from pigs could provide a diabetes cure within a decade, scientists say. A US team has reversed the condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreases, a study in Nature Medicine reports. UK teams have cured type 1 diabetes by transplanting human pancreas cells - but donated organs are in short supply, hence the interest in the pig solution. The University of Minnesota hopes to start trials in humans by 2009. The university's researchers argue that animal-to-human transplants may be necessary to make islet transplantation a viable solution for the tens...