Free Republic

Monday, February 13, 2006 You know your city is too small when... (The back of Heather Wilson's head, on the left, with the top of the computer screen I'm hiding behind visible as I take the photo as quietly as I can...) ...you go to Starbucks to write and the evil Congressman (yes, man) Heather Wilson walks in, dressed in a manly blazer and manlier pants. Just call her W's mini-me. I don't know what the hell she's doing here. She is sitting here in front of me as I write. I just happened to have my digital camera and...

12 Ways of Christmas Toy Reuses Science author reveals ways to turn broken or discarded toys into innovative devices LOS ANGELES, CA -- Science writer Cy Tymony reveals simple methods to reuse damaged or discarded Christmas toys. After Christmas tons of damaged toys and packaging materials inevitably find their way into our already overflowing waste dumps. It's tempting to discard seemingly useless items but if you do, you'll miss out on some great adaptation opportunities, as well as a chance to help the environment. How? Convert them into other useful items in a "sneaky" way. Cy Tymony, author of "Sneakier...

The headlines read: Iraq Body Count: Macabre Democratic Entertainment; NY Times Calls Army Corps of Engineers $2.7 Billion Flood Control A "Boondoggle"; Bush Faces Rising Complaints About Handling of Disaster; etc. The question on my mind is how many have died in this catastrophe, so far? Why can't our elected officials tell us how bad it really is? I hear newsfolks talk about bodies in the streets, in the water, inside attics, and nobody says how many. They either have no idea how bad it is, or they are deliberately keeping us from the truth. Why?

No Name Calling Week?     1/12/2005By Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it. “There is a special place in hell for people like you!” These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall....

If the U.S. embassy in Caracas began a campaign to flood a local Venezuelan newspaper critical of the USA with negative mail - openly using Venezuelans themselves as their agents - we'd never hear the end of it as a CIA 'covert' operation. And the deceptive concept is as distasteful as it is unthinkable. But that's what the activist hand of Hugo Chavez in the United States is doing now. The Venezuelan Information Office, which is financed by the government of Venezuela, yesterday announced the targeting of the Los Angeles Times because of its honest, eloquent "A Little Fidel In...

17.12.04 | The following question, written by Senator Iñaki Mirena Anasagasti Olabeaga, has been presented to Spain's Senate. I, IÑAKI MIRENA ANASAGASTI OLABEAGA, Senator for Bizkaia and member of the Parliamentary Group of Basque Nationalist Senators, under the rights established in the current Regulation of the Senate, present the following QUESTION for its written answer by the Government. In the Venezuelan press the following information has aired these days with respect to the ambassador of Spain to Venezuela, D. Raul Morodo: "Just arrived in Caracas as Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Raul Morodo Leoncio, gathered the personnel of the...

[note: old news - 1989 - shows Specter character] S-747, The DeConcini Gun Bill Passes The Senate Judiciary Committee Are you getting the feeling these days that in the future you may have fewer types of firearms to sell? Recent events in Washington seem to indicate you are correct--and that the number of guns on the prohibited list may continue to grow. On July 7, the Bush Administration ordered that the temporary import suspension on 50 semiautomatic firearms be made permanent on 43 of the guns. Then 13 days later, the Senate Judiciary Committee surprised even most of its members...

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & Selling the American Empire Outspoken 'Hijacking' calmly takes aim at Bush Release Date: 2004 Ebert Rating: Roger Ebert / Oct 14, 2004 I have here a commentary by John Eisenhower, son of the late president, who states in the Manchester Union-Leader that for the first time in 50 years he plans to vote for the Democratic candidate for president. "The fact is that today's 'Republican' Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar," he writes, citing its $440 billion budget deficit and unilateral foreign policy. The current administration, he says, "has confused confident leadership...

Well, the GOP convention looms on the horizon. The sKerry campaign has been focused on the Bush/Cheney ticket. This is the way it is supposed to be, One ticket looking at the other. Even now, the "opposition research" machine is churning out data that sKerry (the Scambodian) can use in his rather futile attempt to win the White House.All of this research is eating up his campaign $$. Good investigators aren't cheap. The reality is that until W stands up and accepts the nomination he really isn't the candidate. But, it is a given that Bush/Cheney is going to be...

6/7/04: AWB renewal now on Senate calendar. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has once again introduced legislation to renew the so-called "assault weapons" ban. S.2498 was introduced last week, and, by using a "nuclear option" referred to as Rule XIV, has gotten the bill placed on the Senate calendar. As a Senate educational article on the subject puts it, "Most bills are routinely referred to the committee with appropriate jurisdiction as soon as they are introduced. But if a Senator plans to introduce a bill and believes that the committee to which it would be referred will be unsympathetic, Rule XIV...

Charges considered against Nuwaubians who were in Christmas parade The Associated Press - BRUNSWICK, Ga. Members of a religious sect who asked residents for opinions about their jailed leaders molestation case while marching in a city Christmas parade could face charges for lying on an application to participate in the event, a prosecutor says. United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors members who marched in Saturdays parade told the event organizer when they applied to participate that they were a Masons group, officials said. Authorities are considering whether to charge the group members with submitting false information to a government agency, which...

WASHINGTON - President Franklin D. Roosevelt used a body double to sneak away for a meeting with his British counterpart during World War II. President Johnson on the hush paid a visit to U.S. troops at Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. AP Photo   President Bush (news - web sites)'s covert trip to Iraq (news - web sites) on Thanksgiving, when Americans were told he was at his ranch eating turkey and watching football, caught many off guard — that prime mission, accomplished. Historically, the White House often has kept details close to the vest on risky travel by presidents...

Sen. Hillary Clinton talks to Queen Rania of Jordan. Clinton loyalists were startled yesterday to hear former President Bill Clinton suggest that his wife hasn't made up her mind yet about running for the White House. Asked in Monterey, Calif., on Tuesday about chatter that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) might join the crowded Democratic field, the former President hinted that it remained an open question. "That's really a decision for her to make," he said, according to The Californian newspaper. Clinton said his wife was being urged to run by supporters in spite of her commitment to serve out...

SALEM -- In a stunning ninth-inning rally, the Oregon Senate passed an amended version of the stadium financing bill Saturday night, renewing hope that major league baseball will come to Portland. "The ball's in the air, and it's about to clear the fence," Gov. Ted Kulongoski said after Senate Bill 5 passed by a 16-11 vote, a day after it appeared to have been killed in the same chamber. The bill goes Monday for a third vote in the House, where it has passed comfortably, and would then head to Kulongoski's desk for a signature -- one he again promised...

Goldberg's chorus keeps voters in pain - I almost missed the news about the recent fire in Gov. Gray Davis' office. Not to worry, the sprinklers put it out quickly, but you might not have heard about it because our old friend Jackie Goldberg released a new recording last week. You remember Jackie. She is the ex-president of the Los Angeles Unified School District board and ex-city councilwoman -- two organizations that inspire confidence -- who was elected to the state Assembly in 2000 on a platform of, and I quote from her Web site, "consensus-building, pragmatism and foresight." Now...

LANDSTUHL, Germany When combat finally came for three American soldiers wounded in southern Iraq, it erupted with bewildering swiftness and it wore a civilian's guise. The soldiers, a Marine corporal and two army sergeants, told harrowing stories of their experiences Thursday at a military hospital here, where they are being treated for bullet and shrapnel wounds. They are among 24 soldiers who have been flown here from field hospitals in and near Iraq. These men were injured during two ambushes last weekend by...

THE DONKEY IS OUT OF THE BARN The Democrats Hint At Secret Plan To Raise Taxes After The Election. No Budget Means Senate Democrats Can Spend Without Limits And Dream Of Higher Taxes!________________________________________________________________ DNC CHAIRMAN MCAULIFFE ALLUDED TO THE SECRET TAX HIKE PLAN ON CBS' "FACE THE NATION" HOST JOHN ROBERTS: "[I]f you're so critical of the President and his handling of the economy . . . why is there no great hue and cry among Democrats in Congress to repeal the tax cut?" DNC CHAIRMAN TERRY MCAULIFFE: "[W]hy do the Democrats want to get into the debate when the...

<p>About a month ago, I wrote a column criticizing politicians for giving the government more power over the accounting practices of private industry.</p> <p>That's because when it comes to "cooking the books," as they say, our elected leaders are regular Bobby Flays.</p>

A LOOK BACK AT THE PROSECUTION'S CASE(07-02-2002) - The prosecution began its case with emotional testimony from Brenda and Damon van Dam. "I asked that the room not be cleaned. So we put one of the dog gates up and put a 'do not enter' sign on the door," said Damon van Dam as he talked about Danielle's room. "Do you need a moment, or are you able to continue?" asked prosecutor Jeff Dusek on the second day of the trial. "I'll try. I'll try," replied Damon van Dam as he began to get choked up. Brenda van Dam then...