Free Republic

After pushing Congress for weeks to hurry up and pass the massive $787 billion stimulus bill, President Obama promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway. Obama arrived at his home in Chicago on Friday, and treated wife Michelle to a Valentine's Day dinner downtown last night. The couple was spotted leaving upscale Table Fifty-Two, which specializes in Southern cuisine, with the first lady toting what appeared to be a doggie bag.

The May 29 edition of Rolling Stone looks ahead to the summer concert season, and the rock-music mag is praising the Dave Matthews Band for their use of biodiesel for buses and "biodegradable goods for catering." But this exchange was interesting, about Al Gore's "Live Earth" concerts. ROLLING STONE: Some people argue that the live experience is sort of inherently "un-green."DAVE MATTHEWS: ThereÂ’s no doubt that it is. The whole joke of Live Earth was how wasteful it was. But the idea that touring will end is sad. IÂ’d like to think that the traveling minstrel is not a thing...

Sweden's international development agency, SIDA, relies on left-wing ideology rather than facts and logic, argues Nima Sanandaji, from the Captus think tank. ”Gender inequality is one of the main reasons for poverty in a world where 99 percent of the world’s total wealth is owned by men and where 90 percent of the total incomes globally are earned by men.” Where does the above quote come from? To begin with, it is of course as wrong as it can get. In a country such as the UK women own more wealth than men. And more than two percent of global...

Sen. Barack Obama has Oprah Winfrey, Sen. Hillary Clinton has Magic Johnson and Rep. Ron Paul, the online star of the primary race, has Sean Morley, aka Val Venis, the popular WWE pro wrestler who pretends to be an adult film star. And like many of the Paulites, the Texas congressman's loyal, Web-savvy supporters, Morley is blogging about Paul on his own site. "I can't really say what my support means. But, you know, I first heard about him two years ago, and I've studied his voting record and I'm convinced that more than any candidate, Republican or Democrat, he's...

Here is a photograph of the Ron Paul 2008 national office in Arlington, Virginia. We have the entire second floor; about 3,000 square feet. The photograph was taken around 6:00 o'clock this morning.

Commerce Secretary Gutierrez Urged to Comply With Federal Open Meetings Law During August 20 and 21 Security & Prosperity Partnership Meetings in Montebello, Quebec Highlighted Links WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - July 31, 2007) - Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today filed a notice with Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez that it is seeking access to the meetings and records of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) under the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) -- the federal open meetings law (5 U.S.C App. 2 §3(2)). Specifically, Judicial Watch seeks to attend and/or participate...

Okay, I am going to spend some of my mad money for a large screen HDTV. I want either a LCD or Plasma TV, no projection tv's. I want 1080p resolution. I'll have around $2000 to spend. What I need is advice on what is good, what sucks, what breaks, what keeps on working, plasma tv life expectancy, etc. Hit me!

TWO WEEKS AGO, U.S. drug agents launched raids on 11 medical-marijuana centers in Los Angeles County. The U.S. attorney's office says they violated the laws against cultivation and distribution of marijuana.Whatever happened to America's federal system, which recognized the states as "laboratories of democracy"?According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 11 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have eliminated the penalties for physician-approved possession of marijuana by seriously ill patients. In those states people with AIDS and other catastrophic diseases may either grow their own marijuana or get...

A New York hospital is taking steps to offer the nation's first uterus transplant, a radical experiment that might allow women whose wombs were removed or are defective to bear children. The wombs would come from dead donors, just as most other organs do, and would be removed after the recipient gives birth so she would not need anti-rejection drugs her whole life. The hospital's ethics board has conditionally approved the plans, although the hospital's president warned women not to get false hopes because a transplant is not expected "any time in the near future." Several experts cautioned that much...

Fatter drivers cause increase in gasoline consumption, says study Being overweight isn't just bad for your health. New research suggests that America's obesity epidemic is also feeding the growth in U.S. fuel consumption. Americans are pumping almost 940 million more gallons of gas into their vehicles than they did in 1960 because the average American is roughly two dozen pounds heavier. That amounts to $2.8 billion more spent on gas each year, if gas is selling for $3 a gallon. So says a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University. Researchers used...

Jill Tarter favors her flying-saucer/Martian salt-and-pepper set. But don't mistake her for one of those kookie types who live in desert trailers prepping for the aliens to arrive. Tarter, with a Ph.D. in astronomy, is director of the Center for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research, a northern California group of some 120 scientists and technicians who are listening for signs from outer space.

In the wake of strong news for former Governor Jerry Brown’s campaign for state attorney general in the Field Poll and in fundraising figures, the campaign of his trailing Republican challenger, Fresno state Senator Chuck Poochigian, sent out a volcanic missive. Poochigian chief strategist Ken Khachigian, a former Reagan speechwriter, attacked the Field Poll as pro-Democrat and promised a campaign to expose Brown’s “exceptionally erratic conduct of public affairs” and “bizarre political views.” In a Poochigian campaign statement entitled, “Poll's Snapshot Blurs Brown's Fringe Extremism,” Khachigian claimed “evidence that the Field Poll today is once again skewed in favor of...

An exhaustive two-week search of a Michigan horse farm for the body of influential union boss Jimmy Hoffa has ended without result, the FBI says. Agents tore down a barn and dug up several sites on Hidden Dreams Farm 32km (20 miles) from the restaurant where he was last seen in 1975. They had acted on a tip-off from a convict who lived there at the time. The former leader of the powerful Teamsters union apparently disappeared after meeting a mafia boss. Rumours have persisted that Hoffa was murdered by the mafia to prevent him regaining control of the union....

Sinking land ultimately reduces effectiveness of levee protection: The Army Corps of Engineers discovered a $4 billion surprise by underestimating the cost of repairing the levees because south Louisiana is sinking. One geologist has said the sinking will continue, especially in New Orleans East, because that part of town rests on a fault line. Bad roadways have become a common complaint over the years for some New Orleans residents, but to LSU Geologist Dr. Roy Dokka, they’re scientific evidence which demonstrate that the ultimate problem goes much deeper. Dokka suggests that Louisiana is not only sinking, but was sliding out...

The year 2010 will mark the 50th anniversary of humanity's strangest scientific quest: the use of giant radiotelescope dishes to listen for radio messages from alien beings in space. So far, the search has been a complete bust. The radioastronomers keep listening, but the stars aren't talking to us -- not yet, anyway. Oddly, the failure of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, has been largely ignored by the general public, journalists and Hollywood filmmakers. They continue to be enchanted by (and, in Hollywood's case, to commercially exploit) the hope that intelligent life is sprinkled across the galaxy like...

For the first time since 1972, the United States is planning to fly to the moon, but instead of a quick, Apollo-like visit, astronauts intend to build a permanent base and live there while they prepare what may be the most ambitious undertaking in history -- putting human beings on Mars. President Bush in 2004 announced to great fanfare plans to build a new spaceship, get back to the moon by 2020 and travel on to Mars after that. But, with NASA focused on designing a new spaceship and spending about 40 percent of its budget on the troubled space...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Campaign committees battling over the eight propositions on last November's special election ballot spent a record $303.9 million, according to campaign reports filed this week. All eight of the initiatives, including four promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, went down to defeat despite, or perhaps because of, the spending barrage. "It shows that if you have enough money you certainly can have your issue presented to voters," said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based campaign think tank. "But it also shows if you have enough money you can defeat almost any issue."...

For her 17th wedding anniversary, Jeanette Yarborough wanted to do something special for her husband. In addition to planning a hotel getaway for the weekend, Ms. Yarborough paid a surgeon $5,000 to reattach her hymen, making her appear to be a virgin again. "It's the ultimate gift for the man who has everything," says Ms. Yarborough, 40 years old, a medical assistant from San Antonio. Hymenoplasty, a controversial medical procedure known mostly for its prevalence in the Middle East and Latin America, is becoming popular in the U.S.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Gov. Bill Richardson found a surefire way to bypass traffic while heading to a bill-signing ceremony in Albuquerque last spring: Instead of driving the 60 miles south, he hopped aboard a speedy state police helicopter. The New Mexico governor has taken 40 trips on the sleek state-of-the-art chopper since December 2003, when the state bought it for $3.8 million to make search-and-rescue missions easier. There's nothing illegal about the governor's flights -- which take place, according to his administration, only if the aircraft is not needed by police. But some Republicans accused Richardson, who is...

If civilizations exist in our galaxy with levels of technology at least equal to our own, we might be able to detect some of them using radio telescopes. And if civilizations exist with technologies far in advance of our own, we might expect them to have colonized millions of habitable worlds in the Milky Way, and even to have visited our own planet. Yet there is no evidence in the astronomical, geological, archaeological, or historical records that extraterrestrial civilizations exist or that visitors from other worlds have ever been to Earth. Does that mean, as some have concluded, that ours...

Complexity of war crimes case against ex-Yugoslav president convinced Iraqi prosecutors to condense Saddam charges THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Three years and eight months into the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, the courtroom still crackles with explosive outbursts. ...The prosecution of Mr. Milosevic and 125 other people by the 12-year-old tribunal is creating a body of law that many legal experts say will serve as a guide for future war crimes tribunals worldwide. Iraqi judges and officials from war crimes tribunals newly established in Africa and the Balkans have consulted court officials recently.

I am giving up CDs. Within the next several months, I expect most of my family's CDs will be converted for playing on our iPods and personal computers. The actual CDs will either be sold or given away. As more people connect their digital music players to their home stereos and car stereos, they realize they have no use for the racks of CDs taking up space in their homes. If you no longer play CDs, why keep them? That is the conclusion my wife and I reached, and that is why I am completing the arduous process of moving...

With the shuttle fleet grounded and the International Space Station staffed by a skeleton crew, NASA is set to unveil plans on Monday to take people and cargo to the moon.Even before the official announcement, there is criticism from Capitol Hill over the reported $100 billion cost of the lunar program, given U.S. government commitments to the Iraq war and the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. "This plan is coming out at a time when the nation is facing significant budgetary challenges," Rep. Bart Gordon, a Tennessee Democrat on the House Science Committee, said in a statement. "Getting agreement to move...

Subtitle: Operation's secrecy is a concern; Greeley's gangs are not the problem The heritage of open court proceedings and the belief that the accused do not disappear down a legal black hole never to be heard from again are important parts of our democratic culture. They allow the amorphous threat of terrorism to justify secrecy whenever it fits the government's needs is to forfeit much of what makes this country great. -- Harry Hammitt, editor, Access Reports Right here in little ol' Greeley, we never suspected we'd be writing about terrorism and its effect on secrecy in government. But today...

With barely a word about it, workers at the Justice Department Friday removed the blue drapes that have famously covered two scantily clad statues for the past 3 1/2 years. Spirit of Justice, with her one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male Majesty of Law basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall. The drapes, installed in 2002 at a cost of $8,000, allowed then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to speak in the Great Hall without fear of a breast showing up behind him in television or newspaper pictures. They also provoked jokes about...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Tom Wilson is faced with a problem many city administrators would envy. How to spend $1.5 million on a bus stop? When done, the bus stop next to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art will be like no other in the city, said Anchorage's director of public transportation.

As I watch my classmates graduate it seems many of them are less sure of their purpose then when they began college. College used to be where young adults went to find themselves and then pursue their passion. It was a luxury for the crem de la crem of society. It wasn't long ago that most children knew their place in society by adolescence and were resigned to that fate. Now with the plethora of choice, instead of college opening amazing new opportunities and fulfilling our wildest dreams, it has left us unprepared for the real world and paralyzed by...

This is a new section to the site that will allow you to take a little peak at your employees. Also known as Government employees. Our first offering: H.Res. 228 Observing the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Republic of Vietnam to the Communist forces of North Vietnam.

The gentleman who runs the above website had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for surveillance videos that have long been rumored to exist from a Citgo and Sheratan Hotel near the Pentagon. After the FBI initially responded that they couldn't locatate such material, an appeal was filed. The DOJ's response to the appeal says they have since searched harder, and found such material, but will not release them because the vids are protected by FOIA, specifically: -The release of which could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings- To be clear, personally I don't buy into any...

Artist hopes to boost peace by towing iceberg to Titanic birthplace Wed Feb 23, 2:40 PM ET BELFAST (AFP) - An artist said she hoped to jolt Northern Ireland into resurrecting its peace process and self-confidence by towing an iceberg to Belfast, the birthplace of the iceberg-doomed Titanic ocean liner. Artist Rita Duffy said the iceberg would be a symbol of regeneration for Belfast, cooling the simmering anger among Protestants and Catholics who are trying to put 30 years of sectarian violence behind them. "Technically, it is feasible," Duffy told AFP. "The plan is to take an iceberg from off...

We caught our first glimpse of the Gates from our taxi up Central Park West. Already I was drawn in and fascinated. At each opening into Central Park, Christo has extended his initial gates, already welcoming you in. On roads into the park, there are sometimes city police or other vehicles. But on the quieter paths, only a trail of orange draws you in. The orange, or saffron color, is wonderful: like the warm light of the beginning or end of the day, it glows in light or in dusk. It shimmers through the woods in the distance, winding around...

Hundreds of Michigan residents are getting a big surprise this tax season--hefty tax bills for cigarettes they bought online over the past four years. The state sent the bills to 553 residents last week after subpoenaing 13 online tobacco shops for names of Michigan customers and their order histories, a Michigan Treasury Department spokesman Caleb Buhs said on Friday. The tax bills are based on information from just one store, and the state expects to collect more names from the others. Collectively, the people receiving this first round of bills owe the state $1.4 million, an average of $2,500 per...

No. 16 in our series from NoIndoctrination.org. Parents need to read this before spending their money on what they believe is an education for their offspring. ========================================================= PREVIOUS ENEMIES -- 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ========================================================= Warning: Postings are only opinions. (See Terms of Service)Record for NoIndoctrination.org entry #195.   Cabrillo College Mar. 20, 2003     http://www.cabrillo.cc.ca.us CA     Course: Soc 2: Modern Social Problems   Course Catalog Description: Examines major modern social problems and alternative solutions. Problems considered may include race, sex, age discrimination, drug abuse, poverty, deviance, sexual behavior, crime and such...

Will we ever find a primer for decoding messages from extraterrestrials? Last month, anthropologists who gathered for a major conference in Atlanta, Georgia heard some news that will be sobering for SETI enthusiasts: it may be much more difficult to understand extraterrestrials than many scientists have thought before. Among the sessions held during December’s annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association was one called "Anthropology, Archaeology, and Interstellar Communication: Science and the Knowledge of Distant Worlds." The session included papers by scholars from such diverse fields as astronomy, archaeology, anthropology, and psychology. Is there a Cosmic Rosetta Stone, they asked,...

LONDON (Reuters) - Police called in a spotter plane, helicopter and video-equipped patrol car to help convict a woman who ate an apple while driving to work, newspapers have reported. After nine court hearings and a trial lasting more than two hours, nursery nurse Sarah McCaffery was fined 60 pounds on Monday when a court upheld a police decision to give her a penalty ticket. Police used the plane, helicopter and car to film road conditions on the route she took in Tyneside, northeast England, after officers pulled her over in December 2003. "It is a joke they put so...

WASHINGTON – The White House has eliminated funding for a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope from its 2006 budget request and directed NASA to focus solely on de-orbiting the popular spacecraft at the end of its life, according to government and industry sources. NASA is debating when and how to announce the change of plans. Sources told Space News that outgoing NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe likely will make the announcement Feb. 7 during the public presentation of the U.S. space agency’s 2006 budget request. That budget request, according to government and industry sources, will not include any money...

Feds hit brakes on rail moneyA federal agency questions the assumed benefits of commuter rail in the Triangle. The Federal Transit Administration has changed its rating of the Triangle's proposed commuter rail service from "recommended" to neutral, saying it cannot endorse the $695 million project until it resolves new doubts about its benefits. The Triangle Transit Authority, which hopes to start running commuter trains in 2008, is counting on federal funding to cover 61 percent of the system's cost. Without that money, the project is dead. Federal officials are not questioning how fast TTA trains will run or how many...

Article published Monday, December 20, 2004 Recount produces few changes in 3 Ohio counties WAUSEON — President Bush got one extra vote in Fulton County, and the President and Democratic challenger John Kerry got an extra vote in Henry County in recounts last week. There was no change in Williams County. The tabulation of recount results in Fulton County were 13,640 votes for Mr. Bush, 8,224 for Mr. Kerry, 45 for Michael Badnarik, 44 for Michael Peroutka, and 1 for David Cobb. Two Republicans, 2 Democrats, and 3 Green Party represenatives — including one who drove from Minneapolis for the...

Locals come looking for 'cool' Friday, December 10, 2004 By Sharon Emery Lansing Bureau LANSING -- More than 1,100 civic leaders and cultural entrepreneurs from across Michigan came to Lansing looking for the "sweet spot" that turns great ideas for urban renewal into projects that spark real change. The "Tipping to Cool" conference Thursday is part of the state's push to create "Cool Cities" by encouraging grass-roots efforts to draw people and economic development into urban areas. The conference, sponsored by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and other state agencies, focused on making good intentions a reality...

School superintendent refuses to ask state for an audit

If you played a word-association game with "Alexander the Great," you'd probably come up with "conqueror," "king," "warrior," "legend," "despot," "wastrel" or "killer." Unfortunately, Oliver Stone has chosen to build his epic of the Macedonian military genius around a word highly unlikely to make the list: "crybaby." In Stone's view, this is a highly neurotic young man whose emotions, far from being repressed or disciplined as one would expect of a great soldier of the 4th century B.C., are worn on his sleeve, except, of course, that he doesn't have sleeves, the shirt still being two millennia down the road....

Ohio's 2004 Presidential vote will be challenged as soon as next week in the state's Supreme Court, a coalition of public interest lawyers announced Friday.The Lawyers have sworn testimony from hundereds of people in hearings in Columbus and Cincinnati, and will use excerpts as well as documents obtained from county election officials to make a case that thousands of votes were incorrectly counted or not counted on Election Day.Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has not yet certified the November 2nd vote. State election law says an election challenge must show that the wrong candidate has been declared the winner,...

http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/spacestoryN1104PREZSPACEE.htm "President Bush's re-election will jump-start his plan to send astronauts back to the moon, transforming a new vision for space exploration into serious marching orders, analysts said Wednesday. What's more, NASA will have until 2008 to get the new presidential initiative entrenched enough to make it difficult to undo." Ok, If your anti-NASA, this aint the thread for you. Please start one of your own. This news story and thread is a meant for celebration of Bush's victory and the continuation of the new space iniative. If your passion is space exploration as mine is, this election was critical...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. China made it to develop MAS-3 maglev train with its own intellectual property rights. The train, 2.63 meters long and 1.25 meters wide, can hold six people. The sample train will be showcased with those from Germany and Japan at the 18th international exhibition on maglev and linear drive in the coming October. As learned from related departments, with magnetic suspension technology as the core, maglev train is a brand-new means of transportation propped by magnetic force. That is to say, it is the interaction between magnetic bodies in the train...

A $135-million computerised security system, designed to track foreign visitors as they enter and leave the island, will be installed within the next few days, according to the Ministry of National Security."It is ready to go," the ministry's communication advisor, Donovan Nelson, told the Observer. "We only have to set a date for implementation."The multi-million-dollar system will be installed at the island's ports and will give local immigration officials real-time information on visitor's movements at the swipe of a passport.It is believed that the installation of the new system, said to be the latest in immigration technology, will give local...

<p>Educators call them teachable moments, opportunities beyond the textbooks and classrooms to convey a lesson using a real life experience.</p> <p>Taught right, they can be the most valuable and lasting nuggets a child learns. But when it comes to civil liberties, America's schools are failing miserably to exploit these life lessons to instill in students an appreciation for their democratic heritage.</p>

The familiar black and white speed limit signs in some rural parts of Burlington County aren't getting drivers to slow down. They're also not getting any laughs, but officials believe new signs going up on a few roads should do both. The brightly colored signs are scheduled to go up next week along county roads in Shamong and Medford Lakes. The signs include messages like "Free Speeding Tickets Ahead" and "Meet Our Judge -- Exceed 25 mph." Vincent Farias, a Burlington County freeholder, saw similar signs in Long Beach Township and thought they might work in Burlington County too. "Most...

<p>As tobacco has become less socially acceptable and home buyers are more aware of indoor air quality, houses that reek of cigarette smoke are becoming a harder sell, experts report.</p> <p>"It definitely is a major turnoff," said Michael Wilson, a real estate agent with Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors in Brandywine Hundred. "Buyers immediately think about what they'll have to do to eliminate the odor. It's a real drawback and a real negative."</p>

MOOSE, Wyo. (AP) - Researchers who spent five years lobbing urine-soaked snowballs at moose in the wilds of Alaska and Wyoming have noticed that moose in Grand Teton National Park do not react as dramatically as their Alaska kin to the scent of wolves and grizzly bears. Joel Berger and Sanjay Pyare, working for the Wildlife Conservation Society, suspect the reason is Wyoming moose encounter predators less frequently. Based on that result, Berger suspects wolf and grizzly populations have not fully recovered in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.Berger hopes the study will prompt more considerations than raw numbers when wolves and...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Bleary-eyed negotiators at the World Summit were upbeat after reaching deals on climate change and trade, and worked into the early hours today to hammer out the final details of an action plan before world leaders took the stage. Delegates say they have now agreed on more than 95 percent of the 70-odd page plan for dealing with world poverty and protecting the environment. The head of the U.S. delegation, Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, said she was "encouraged" by the progress made. "The process is not just about approving text. It's about working with developing...