Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — It looks like President Donald Trump is getting the military parade he wants in Washington — though he may get no tanks for the effort.A Pentagon planning memo issued Thursday and released Friday says the parade being planned for Nov. 11, Veterans Day, will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks — consideration must be given to minimize damage to local infrastructure.” Big, heavy tanks could tear up District of Columbia streets.But the event will “include a heavy air component at the end of the parade,” meaning lots of airplane flyovers. Older aircraft will be included as available.

On June 2, the Palestinians announced a new unity government, which included Hamas, an organization designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group. American aid to the Palestinians since the mid-1990s, according to a Congressional Research Service report, has exceeded $5 billion. In recent years it has averaged $500 million per year. The report notes three major U.S. objectives of these funds: preventing terrorism against Israel from Hamas; fostering “stability, prosperity, and self-governance on the West Bank”; humanitarian aid. When Hamas joined the Palestinian government on June 2, the United States recognized the new government and there...

The healthy growth of mankind depends on continuously decreasing the cost of water and energy everywhere.Nice thought. Why mention it?Its a mission statement.For who?Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett — and through them America’s billionaires. Why Bill Gates? Why Warren Buffett?As to Bill Gates, his passion; According to a recent interview Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied. What I’m doing now involves understanding maths, risk-taking. The first half of my life was good preparation for the second half.’ Now in the context of the interview he was...

Barack Obama To Travel to Indonesia With Family US President Barack Obama and his family will retrace his childhood steps, travelling to Indonesia next month in a nostalgic return to the country where he lived with his late mother and Indonesian stepfather in the 1960s. 02 Feb 2010 The trip, in the second half of March, has been greatly anticipated in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country since Mr Obama's inauguration, which was welcomed in Indonesia as the start of a new era in US diplomacy. Dino Patti Djalal, a spokesman for Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the visit...

FEARS are emerging that vulnerable children might be groomed for religious extremism or even terrorism at taxpayers’ expense. Muslim pupils are being taken out of classes and sent to study at Islamic schools, or madrassas. A pilot scheme, the Open Madrasah Network, has received a £550,000 government grant to pay for under-achievers to attend lessons in Arabic, Urdu and religion. The classes, described as booster lessons for primary and GCSE age pupils, are already running at four madrassas in Bradford, West Yorkshire. If pupils show improvement, the scheme is likely to be rolled out nationally. But critics say it will...

An administration official confirms that a $4 billion bridge loan and $3.2 billion in bankruptcy financing won't be paid back by Chrysler following bankruptcy. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Chrysler LLC will not repay U.S. taxpayers more than $7 billion in bailout money it received earlier this year and as part of its bankruptcy filing. This revelation was buried within Chrysler's bankruptcy filings last week and confirmed by the Obama administration Tuesday. The filings included a list of business assumptions from one of the company's key financial advisors in the bankruptcy case. Some of the main assumptions listed by Robert Manzo...

Federal Spending Was on ‘Starvation Diet’ During Bush Years, Says Democratic Senator Monday, February 09, 2009 By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Claire McCaskill (D.-Mo.) said yesterday that some of the spending in the $819-billion stimulus passed by the House of Representatives last week represented important federal spending priorities needed to “make-up for a starvation diet under the Bush Administration.” McCaskill indicated that the question wasn’t whether all the money approved in the House bill should be spent but whether it should be included in the stimulus bill that Congress is rushing through this month in an effort...

In today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, there is a front-page story on the release of a 500-page report by a grand jury investigation looking into sexual abuse charges that have taken place over the last few decades by priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  Catholic League president William Donohue addressed this issue today: “Philadelphia D.A. Lynn M. Abraham has managed to abuse her office in two ways simultaneously: a) she launched a witch-hunt against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia three years ago and b) she ripped off the taxpayers in Philadelphia by having them pay for her wild-goose chase.  Now the final tally...

 "Al's $100K payback" Al Sharpton political cartoon.  May 15, 2004...The Federal Election Committee has determined the $100,00 in matching funds given to Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton needs to be returned to the American taxpayers. Reason? Massive irregularities in Sharpton's campaign financing.The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) had filed formal complaints against Sharpton's campaign  with the FEC. NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm stated, "We are delighted that the FEC has acted to deny taxpayer money for Sharpton's presidential campaign. As we have documented, there exist massive irregularities in the financing of his campaign." Boehm added, "Al Sharpton is notorious...

<p>WASHINGTON - Just a few years after facing extinction, the National Endowment for the Arts got a healthy $18 million increase in President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2005, with an assist from first lady Laura Bush.</p> <p>The arts agency, once the scourge of Republican lawmakers for funding controversial art projects, got a spike in funding to $139.4 million in the budget released this week, the largest increase since 1984.</p>

EATONTON, GA (AP) -- After months of unorthodox tactics and protests by followers dressed as Egyptian pharaohs, mummies and birds, Nuwaubian cult leader Malachi York's child molestation case finally heads to trial Monday. And officials are doing all they can to keep the courtroom from turning into a circus. "It's like living in bizarro world," said Frank Ford, an attorney who has argued with the Nuwaubians in court. "They cannot stand being told no, and they cannot stand being ignored." York, who moved the quasi-religious United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors from New York to a central Georgia farm in 1993,...

Prostitutes 'very, very good,' viewers are told "If what you're after is fun, sun and an overload of hedonistic pleasure, you've got to get yourself to Pattaya, Thailand," advises D. Garnet Harding, the host of a show about sex tourism in that country. CREDIT: Outdoor Life Network The episode, which included the above scene, and which received a tax credit from the Canadian government, has outraged child advocates because Thailand has a huge child prostitution problem. CREDIT: Outdoor Life Network Taxpayers have helped fund a TV series on the Outdoor Life Network that enthusiastically promotes sex tourism to the bars...

Aurora Mayoral Candidate Filed For Bankruptcy Three Times AURORA, Colo. -- Aurora mayoral candidate Debra Vickrey has admitted she filed for bankruptcy three times in the past 22 years. ........ She's the chairwoman of the Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners and has served as a member of the Aurora Planning Commission and the Aurora City Council.