Free Republic

Illogically high expectations about pinpoint accuracy and target discrimination in a fire-fight are the fantasy of armchair-academics and videogame players. Men on the ground know that war is sloppy and rough. Combat is not a noun or a place that you are “in,” but rather a verb, a thing that you “do” to other people. Principally, combat is imposing your will on the enemy by violence of action and the ugly truth is that the process kills all kinds of people: good ones, bad ones, and yes, even our own. When our expectations of success and precision are unrealistic it...

It’s an old story by now -- John McCain saying or doing something that thoroughly undercuts the image that first made him a national political star 10 years ago. His bizarre effort this week to deny that he's ever been a maverick is only the latest example. Believe it or not, though, McCain does -- sort of -- have a point: For all of his boasts over the last decade, he hasn't been a classic maverick nearly as much as he's been an opportunist -- and a bit of a sore loser. Just consider the origins of the maverick reputation....

Politics, religion, and atheism in North Carolina are coming to a head. Cecil Bothwell, atheist, is soon to be seated as a City Council member in North Carolina. However, there is a problem: Under North Carolina's constitution politicians who deny the existence of God are barred from holding office. Opponents of Cecil Bothwell are using that law to argue.... Federal courts have ruled religious tests for public office are unlawful under the U.S. Constitution. While Article 6, section 8 of the North Carolina state constitution says: "The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny...

Jan. 9, 2009 | If Al Franken were not a longtime public figure -- and thus severely handicapped by American jurisprudence -- he could file a powerful complaint for libel or slander against several of the most prominent wingnuts in the United States. From Rush Limbaugh to Bill O'Reilly to Richard Mellon Scaife, a chorus of familiar voices is loudly defaming the Democrat whose razor-thin win in the Minnesota Senate race will now be tested in that state's courts. Ever since Election Day, on radio and television, on the Internet and in print, they've screamed that Franken is stealing, rigging,...

Back in the days when a presidential candidate hired someone to write a campaign theme song, the result usually was a silly, innocuous ditty whose significance was far more historical than artistic. In our enlightened age, by contrast, a candidate is now more likely to pluck a familiar song from the public domain in order to turn on the multitudes. The result, regrettably, can be a silly, innocuous lawsuit the implications of which go well beyond elections. That brings us to one of the more intriguing political sidelights of 2008. This past August, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne sued Senator John McCain...

Al Franken's last resort...is an attack on the result based on the rejection of certain absentee ballots from the tabulation. Franken now anticipates losing the recount. And Franken stands ready to call on the Senate to reject the result he anticipates in the recount. We've noted the threat aimed by Franken at the heads of Minnesota authorities in the event his position on rejected absentee ballots is not adopted. Yesterday the head of Franken legal team reiterated it for the benefit of the press including The Hill:

OTTAWA - Stephane Dion couldn't hide his contempt for the CTV television network following his resounding election defeat Tuesday night. The Liberal leader was making his way to the podium at his campaign headquarters in Montreal when he was approached by a CTV camera crew. A frustrated Dion snapped at the reporter, telling him CTV is the last media outlet he would speak to. "The last one I want to speak first (to) is CTV - you understand that?" he said angrily. Last week, Dion botched a pre-recorded, English-language interview with a Halifax CTV affiliate. Dion, who looked confused, interrupted...

The Democrat running for Congress in Maryland's First District will receive the endorsement of the Republican incumbent he is hoping to replace. more at link

<p>Sore Loser By John H. Fund, 8/18/2008 10:11:19 AM The Barack Obama campaign apparently went outside the normal spin guardrails yesterday in trying to explain how John McCain did so well in Saturday's Saddleback Forum with Pastor Rick Warren. As NBC's Andrea Mitchell noted on Sunday's "Meet the Press," what the Obama campaign is "putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. . . . He seemed so well prepared."</p>

Mugabe regime ordered 77 tonnes of Chinese arms three days AFTER disputed electionsBy IAN EVANS and WILLIAM LOWTHER - More by this author » Last updated at 21:33pm on 18th April 2008  A huge cargo of Chinese guns and ammunition sits marooned aboard a ship off South Africa. It would have been used to arm the tyrant Robert Mugabe's thugs in Zimbabwe. But dockers in South African port of Durban won't unload the 77 tons of mortars, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons. Scroll down for more...Danger cargo: The ship is believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of...

Al Gore savaged the US government’s “obstructing” attitude and urged delegates at the UN conference on climate change to ignore Washington if necessary to pursue the “moral imperative” of a new global regime. “My country is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali,” the former US vice-president told 2,000 of the 12,000 people attending the conference on Thursday. “[But] over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now.” European Union nations said they might boycott a U.S.-led climate meeting next month unless Washington compromises to achieve a deal on Bali. ‘‘No...

This is one of the best short online videos I have seen in a long time.Go to the link above, or here:http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/detalle_multimedia.php?q=med/5947Let it load (be patient if not on good broadband), turn up your speakers, and get dig this totally ballistic Hugo Chavez supporter after losing an election in Venezuela recently.You won't be disappointed. This is right after the communist Reds in Venezuela under Chavez lost a vote to anti-Chavez forces.

Chafee quietly quits the GOP 01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 16, 2007 By Bruce Landis Journal Staff Writer PROVIDENCE — Lincoln D. Chafee, who lost his Senate seat in the wave of anti-Republican sentiment in last November’s election, said yesterday that he has left the party. Chafee said he disaffiliated with the party he had helped lead, and his father had led before him, because the national Republican Party has gone too far away from his stance on too many critical issues, from war to economics to the environment. “It’s not my party any more,” he said. Chafee’s departure...

Fox News Tears Apart Al Gore’s New Book ‘Assault on Reason’ Posted by Noel Sheppard on May 23, 2007 - 12:06. It goes without saying that one of the great things about being a beloved liberal is that when you write a new book, no one in the media will challenge any of the obvious falsehoods you present as facts. Such has certainly been the case as newspapers, magazines, and television programs have gushed over former Vice President Al Gore and his new book “Assault on Reason.” Fortunately, feeling that it doesn’t owe anyone such unwarranted sycophancy, Fox News “Special...

WE hear constantly now about “our commander in chief.” The word has become a synonym for “president.” It is said that we “elect a commander in chief.” It is asked whether this or that candidate is “worthy to be our commander in chief.” But the president is not our commander in chief. He certainly is not mine.

Democrat Christine Jennings was in Washington over the last two days renewing her call for a revote in her race against Rep.-elect Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), as government and independent reviews failed to support her case. Jennings said she would do everything she could to see the legal challenge through. She set up shop at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters and was to meet with lawmakers including Reps. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Rush Holt (D-N.J.). She was also asking for financial support and continuing to push her case to the news media. Jennings’s visit came as state officials...

Latin America: Ahead of what should be a majestic presidential inauguration, Mexico's losing leftists are turning Mexico's Congress into a fighting ring before the world. That shows how unfit they are for democracy. In case you haven't heard, these leftists still haven't accepted the July 2 verdict of Mexico's voters, who chose Felipe Calderon to represent them as their president. Instead, they've protested and camped out in central Mexico City, falsely crying fraud. Their weeks of street blockades deprived thousands of poor Mexicans of the right to go to work. They also blocked critical trade routes into Texas in a...

At this link: http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html Neil Boortz is quoted as saying: "So how did I actually vote when I got that provisional ballot in my hand. Straight Libertarian." Thank you Neil Boortz. Thanks to you and those who think like you, we now have the Democrats in control of Congress. I hope you and your ilk are very happy. Free Republic is allegedly a CONSERVATIVE web site. Will you libertarians please go somewhere like Lucianne.com, where you can laugh and smile about how you put the Republicans out of power, and leave Free Republic to the conservatives. Oh, and one more...

When commie country singer's name was not announced as Female Vocalist of the Year, she was backstage and screamed "What?" and stormed off out of camera range. Yeah, yeah, it was George Bush's fault.

"We're here to talk about education, but I want to say something before....Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.