Free Republic

The other day I heard my mother call downstairs to my father, “Honey, there are a bunch of roosters out in the front yard.” Lest you think we live on a farm or out in rural America, let me set you straight. We live in suburban America where houses are stamped next to each other every hundred feet or so. We don’t get many roosters walking in our neighborhood, and if we did they would be cited for jaywalking. So it was no surprise that curiosity got the best of my father as he ran up the stairs to check...

AP photographer Rahmatullah Naikzad was a witness to a Taliban murder. The two women were alleged to have been prostitutes who served Western clientèle. Two unidentified Afghan Women chat with each other a few minutes before they were executed by Taliban in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, on late Saturday, July 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad) [original here] Local people watch two Afghan women shot and killed by Taliban in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, on Sunday, July 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad) (original here) This page from the AP seems to suggest that Rahmatullah Naikzad also took a snuff video of the two...

COLLEGE STATION — Maybe if they were pretty, the ubiquitous buzzards that soar over Texas and elsewhere before landing to dine on some carcass wouldn't be viewed with such repugnance or considered a nuisance. "Unquestionably, they're as ugly as sin," says Ian Tizard, a Texas A&M University professor of immunology and director of the school's Schubot Exotic Bird Center. The birds range over much of the United States, and their March return to Hinckley, Ohio, for instance, is welcomed annually as a sure sign of spring. But their proliferation as pests is making them unwelcome from high-rises in Florida to...

A nice-sounding bill called the "Global Poverty Act," sponsored by Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama, is up for a Senate vote on Thursday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States. The bill, which has the support of many liberal religious groups, makes levels of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations. Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has not endorsed either Senator Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. But on Thursday, February 14, he is trying to rush Obama's...

NEWBERRY COUNTY, SC (WIS) - "They're very rude," Alexis tells WIS News 10. "They stink," says Sonny. They've been called a lot of names by a lot of people, especially by the Harmons. "I would have to say they're ugly as anything," says Alexis. But one thing you won't find these two calling them, is nice. "They're big, mean, and black," says Alexis. We call them vultures, a name "Sonny" Harmon has grown to hate. "They've become a nuisance." They've started invading her yard "200 at a time," she says. "It's like something you'd see in a Stephen King movie,"...

When a French pensioner died of a brain haemorrhage during a walk in the Pyrenees this summer, vultures started circling low over the body. “His three friends were really frightened,” said a local resident. “They were convinced the vultures were going to attack. They shouted and waved their arms and, in the end, they managed to scare the birds away. But they were in a complete panic.” There have been reports from across the French Pyrenees this year of a radical change in the way the region’s vultures behave. A programme to incinerate animal carcasses in Spain has deprived “les...

HOPKINTON, R.I. - The house is for sale well below its assessed value, has four bedrooms and sits on more than a half acre of land. It's also got lots of vultures, and that's made it a tough sell. The trees around the Hopkinton house are a year-round nesting ground for turkey and black vultures. The previous owners blamed the birds for polluting their well, scaring their children and causing various illnesses. But real estate agent Patrick Murray said he's optimistic it could make a good home for the right buyer. It's listed at $189,900, below the assessed value of...

Today's Roll Call has a very disturbing quote from a Democrat operative in Wyoming on Monday’s passing of Senator Craig Thomas. [...] It is disgusting to think that Democrats see Senator Craig's death as a political opportunity for the Democrats, but sadly this seems to be just another reflection of how they view the entire world.

Park City, Jan 27: Last year`s big road-trip tale at the Sundance Film Festival was greeted with guffaws. This year`s has met with sobs. Both "Little Miss Sunshine" from last year and the current Sundance entry "Grace Is Gone" are highway heartbreakers, "Sunshine" showing a family that comes together through hilarious adversity, "Grace" depicting a family shattered by the cruelest of tragedies. Starring John Cusack, "Grace" tells the story of a stern, loving but emotionally distant father who learns his wife, an Army sergeant, has been killed in Iraq. Unable to tell his two young daughters, he takes them on...

LAFAYETTE - The display of crosses across from the Lafayette BART station is now more visible at night. Organizers added a neon sign with the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. The new electric-powered neon sign sits on the lower portion of the large white sign that carries a running count of fallen troops in black numbers. There has been some discussion over whether the neon sign is "tacky" and fits the memorial, said organizer Jeff Heaton. But organizers decided to install it in light of President Bush's stated intention to send more troops to Iraq. Heaton said he...

U.S. fatalities in war equal those from Sept. 11 - Military deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan reach 2,973 WASHINGTON - Now the death toll is 9/11 times two. U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now match those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next. Add casualties from chasing terrorists elsewhere in the world, and the total has passed the Sept. 11 figure. The latest milestone for a country at war comes without commemoration. It also may well come without the precision of knowing who is the 2,973rd man or woman of arms...

SEATTLE (AP) — The Association of Trial Lawyers of America voted during its convention this week to change its name to the American Association for Justice. Spokeswoman Chris Mather said there was overwhelming support for the change, and that the new name "reflects whose side we're on in the fight for justice." The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, a critic of the trial lawyers group, called it "an astounding admission of the unpopularity of trial lawyers in America." The 60-year-old association has 65,000 members.

Ad Showing Troop Coffins Causes Clash of the Parties By ANNE E. KORNBLUT, The New York Times WASHINGTON, July 13 — In an echo of the last election cycle, political operatives are at odds over a Democratic advertisement featuring coffins coming home from war. The advertisement, a short film posted on the Web site of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is being attacked by Republicans as tasteless and disrespectful of American troops in Iraq. In 2004, President Bush’s campaign released an advertisement showing a flag-draped body being removed from the site of the World Trade Center after the terrorist attack...

WASHINGTON (ap) _ Republicans are howling over a Democratic political Web site ad that displays flag-draped coffins and a fake police mug shot of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, arguing that the ad politicizes war casualties and is an insult to the families of the troops killed in Iraq. The 75-second ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee begins with a somber musical score and images of war, high gas prices, the coffins, pollution, breached levees, followed by pictures of Texas Republican DeLay, disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "Washington Republicans have sold...

(MONONGAHELA, July 12) – Washington County Commissioner and Pennsylvania 12th district Republican Congressional nominee Diana Irey – responding to a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraising video using images of caskets of fallen American soldiers – today released the following statement: “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this week sent out a fundraising video using images of caskets of fallen American soldiers. Raising campaign cash off the deaths of our honored dead is revolting. Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel should be ashamed of themselves – and so should any Democrat who stands for this. “Consequently, I have a new question for Jack...

http://www.dccc.org/multimedia/archives/new_directions/

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — When a vulture had the misfortune to glide over the rocketing space shuttle Discovery during its launch last year, there was no doubt about who would win. But the bird became more than a splat on a fuel tank: It kick-started an entire movement. Although the vulture didn't damage the shuttle, NASA officials are worried enough about another big-bird incident that they are trying several unorthodox schemes to keep the carrion-eaters from the launch pad during Saturday's scheduled liftoff. Methods like removing dead animals from the area. And luring dozens of vultures into a cage. Officials...

<p>I have uploaded the video I made of this event on Google Video, and you can view it HERE. It's twenty minutes long. For the twelve Freepers and lurkers still using dial-up, here's a recap of the events...</p> <p>I got word (from an anonymous source) a week ago that Code Pink was going to have another Moonbat parade in DC on Flag Day (June 14th for those of you in Rio Linda), to celebrate the 2500th US military death in Iraq. It didn't matter to Gael Murphy when she announced the parade that the death toll might not be at 2500; she must have been really bummed by Zarqawi's untimely demise on June 7th (HOOAH! and AirPower!) and needed to do something to lift her out of the funk she was in. And a blood dance was just the ticket, apparently.</p>

This morning's newspaper informs us that we have lost 2,493 of our best and bravest young men and women serving this United States in Iraq. I asked a member of my staff to check when we lost 2,000 soldiers, and the date was October 25 of last year. It appears that in a very short period of time, we will pass the 2,500 mark. At the time that we recorded the 2,000th military death in Iraq, I asked, along with other Senators, for a moment of silence on the floor of the U.S. Senate to acknowledge their great contribution to...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more than three years into a conflict that finds U.S.-led forces locked in a struggle with a resilient Sunni Arab insurgency. The news came after a senior Iraqi official in Baghdad said his country's security forces had seized al Qaeda in Iraq documents giving key information about the militant group's network and the whereabouts of its leaders. "We believe this is the beginning of the end of al Qaeda in Iraq," national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told a televised news...