Free Republic

A former commander with the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group has claimed asylum in Norway after deserting from the mercenary outfit. Andrey Medvedev, 26, crossed the border into Norway last Friday, where he was detained by border guards. He is currently being held in the Oslo area where he faces charges of illegal entry to Norway, his lawyer Brynjulf Risnes told the BBC. Mr Risnes said his client left Wagner after witnessing war crimes in Ukraine. The Norwegian Border Guard confirmed to the BBC that a Russian man had been detained after crossing the country's 198km (123miles) long border with Russia,...

Health Canada, the department of the Government of Canada responsible for national health policy has added Bell’s Palsy as a warning to Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine labels.Cases of Bell’s Palsy have been reported in a number of people in Canada and internationally.So far in Canada, “there has been a total of 206 reports of Bell’s Palsy following a Pfizer vaccination,” the health agency told Global News in an email Friday.Symptoms after vaccination may include temporary weakness or paralysis on one side of the face, according to an advisory issued by the department.Other symptoms include, “uncoordinated movement of the muscles that control...

Ravenna, Ohio — An Ohio woman was arrested Monday morning after assaulting employees at a Ravenna McDonald’s restaurant when they refused to mix three slushie flavors together for her. 44-year-old Cherysse Cleveland is facing two counts of misdemeanor assault following the incident at the McDonald’s restaurant located at 418 W. Main Street in Ravenna, Ohio.(snip) “I heard her ask for a slushie with all three flavors mixed into one,” witness Brian Allen told Cleveland-area news outlet WOIO. “Whereupon the manager informed her that they could not do that, and she became increasingly irritated and combative and decided that she would...

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would “certainly not give up” the possibility of running as a third-party candidate if he is not treated “fairly” by the GOP.

Four Words: Fuzzy Logic all around The Wons’ grueling campaign schedule continued… Three fund raising events for Big Guy, plus the Air Force Academy commencement speech, yesterday. And one for Lady M in Cleveland where she greeted the little people who worked diligently last time around to make sure that everyone had a chance to vote, at least once. And then they ran this iconic photo of the adorable little boy, rubbing Big Guy’s head to see if it felt like his own nappy (can I say that?) hair, or, maybe, just for “good luck”: Fuzzy Like Me

Last Monday, a high school student in North Carolina engaged his social studies teacher in a heated debate about politics and the two leading presidential candidates. During the exchange, the teacher (an obvious Obama supporter) got very angry with the student and accused him of disrespecting the president. She even went so far as to tell the boy that he could be jailed for speaking ill of Obama.

In a recent post, I slammed black pastors for failing to stand up for their Christian faith in the face of attack by Nation of Islam supreme leader Louis Farrakhan. So, in fairness, I must applaud members of the black clergy who have put Biblical principle above racial hegemony in their public criticism of President Obama for his ungodly support of homosexual marriage. “I love the president,” said Rev. Emmitt Burns, pastor of Rising Sun Baptist Church in Baltimore, “but I cannot support what he has done.” He told CNN that the president’s failure to defend traditional marriage between one...

The defense attorney who wore a traditional Islamic outfit during the rowdy arraignment of the accused Sept. 11 terrorists is defending her courtroom appeal that other women in the room wear more "appropriate" clothing to the proceedings -- out of respect for her client's Muslim beliefs. Cheryl Bormann, counsel for defendant Walid bin Attash, attended the arraignment Saturday dressed in a hijab, apparently because her client insisted on it. She further requested that the court order other women to follow that example so that the defendants do not have to avert their eyes "for fear of committing a sin under...

While the American media provide cover for the Constitutionally ineligible Barack Hussein Obama, Vladimir Putin and the nation of Russia are reaping a treasure trove of defense secrets and missile technology by threatening to reveal the true history of the Manchurian Candidate. Obama has spent millions to prevent his personal story being revealed to the American public. Records have been destroyed, information hidden, false claims advanced, potential whistleblowers threatened and official documents forged. Enabled by a complicit media and the craven cowardice of political opponents, the most egregious felonies in the nation’s history have served to make the American people...

This past February, a federal District Court judge in San Francisco declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Not a peep was heard from President Obama. The same month, a federal judge in the Middle District of Louisiana struck down a Bayou State law barring convicted sex offenders from using Facebook and other social media. There was nary a discouraging word from the president. Then, also in February, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Oklahoma cannot enforce an amendment to its state constitution prohibiting state judges from basing decisions on Koranic or international law. POTUS was mute....

Israeli officials say they won't warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill. Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the U.S. would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel's potential attack. The U.S. has been...

As Ben Domenech notes in his Transom, Mitt Romney’s advisors have now advised him to support “a $2 gas tax, a VAT, and open Taliban talks.” Add to that list not repealing Obamacare. Norm Coleman, an advisor to Romney, went on record saying We’re not going to do repeal. You’re not going to repeal Obamacare… It’s not a total repeal… You will not repeal the act in its entirety, but you will see major changes, particularly if there is a Republican president… You can’t whole-cloth throw it out.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/reid-we-need-people-america-rise-amnesty

In a conference call with reporters, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill just disclosed that she failed to pay $287,000 in property taxes related to her co-ownership of a private aircraft. This scandal comes quickly on the heels of recent revelations that McCaskill improperly billed taxpayers for use of the same private aircraft, for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury $88,000:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is too white and too male at the top and needs to change recruiting and promotion policies and lift its ban on women in combat, an independent report for Congress said Monday. Seventy-seven percent of senior officers in the active-duty military are white, while only 8 percent are black, 5 percent are Hispanic and 16 percent are women, the report by an independent panel said, quoting data from September 2008. One barrier that keeps women from the highest ranks is their inability to serve in combat units. Promotion and job opportunities have favored those with...

Low-flow toilets cause a stink in SF Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross Monday, February 28, 2011 San Francisco's big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink. Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months. The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem. Now officials are...

Link to article. San Fransisco's sewer system having trouble with less water throughput; harmful chemicals used to "solve" the problem: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/28/BAVP1HUSUD.DTL&tsp=1

Via Philip Klein, I can’t decide whether she’s serious or whether this is part of the Democrats’ new kitchen-sink approach to “messaging” about ObamaCare. She might be calculating that even an argument as inane as this one is worth making in order to counter the GOP’s claims that O-Care is unconstitutional. If you’re battling over public opinion, why not frame the other side’s actions as being as illegitimate as your own? So on the one hand, maybe she doesn’t really buy this and is simply engaged in a shrewd bit of PR. On the other hand — dude. Thus do...

couple puts abortion up to vote

In the gerrymander-gone-awry California 11th congressional district, sprawling across four counties from Gilroy to Lodi, incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney is ahead 121 votes to GOP challenger David Harmer: McNerney 82,124 votes, 47.5% Harmer 82,003 votes 47.4% A third party spoiler, Tracy's David Christensen of the conservative American Independent Party, has 8,809 or 5.1% That's with all precincts reporting as of 5:41 a.m. It would appear that Harmer would have won had Christensen not been in the race.