Free Republic

Yes we can elect Barack Obama president, but... No we can't mention his middle name. No we can't win the war in Iraq. No we can't expand oil exploration, drilling or refining. No we can't build nuclear power plants. No we can't convert coal to oil. No we can't extract oil from shale.

During the ABC telecast of today's Penn State football game, announcer Craig James called Joe Paterno an 'old fart,' while congratulating Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema on his game strategy. ABC/ESPN college football spokesman Josh Krulewitz confirmed to Patriot-News reporter David Jones that James did in fact refer to Joe Paterno as an old fart. Krulewitz, reached by phone in Connecticut, didn't have any comments on the derogatory term, but said, "I'm going to have to speak with some people first." - David Jones, The Patriot-News

Britain to US: we don't want Guantánamo nine back · Documents reveal secret talks in Washington· British residents have no right to return say officials Ian Cobain and Vikram Dodd Tuesday October 3, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The United States has offered to return nearly all British residents held at Guantánamo Bay after months of secret talks in Washington, the Guardian has learned. The British government has refused to accept the men, however, with senior officials saying they have no legal right to return. Documents obtained by the Guardian show US authorities are demanding that the detainees be kept under...

Browne admits 'we underestimated Taliban' By Toby Helm, Chief Political Correspondent (Filed: 19/09/2006) Britain and Nato seriously underestimated the resilience of the Taliban when sending troops into Afghanistan, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary has admitted. British troops are facing a hard fight in Afghanistan Addressing the Royal United Services Institute in London, he said the task had proved “harder than we expected”. But he urged Nato countries who are now resisting sending extra troops to think again. The Taliban’s tenacity in the face of massive losses has been more than we expected,” Mr Browne said. Referring to Nato’s attempts to...

Defense Department to Kick Off ‘Why We Serve’ TourBy Steven Donald SmithAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2006 -- Beginning next week, 13 servicemembers from across the force will fan out across the country to speak about their military experience. Thirteen servicemembers who served in Iraq or Afghanistan meet with Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England before they begin their speaking tour across the country. The Why We Serve speaking tour is a program created to respond to the requests of the American people who invite returning veterans to participate in community events and a variety of public affairs...

Dear friend: Do you want to see a Libertarian in Congress? Of course you do. And thanks to Tom DeLay, the Libertarian Party may have its best chance ever. A surprise opportunity has offered itself recently, and we need to exploit it. A federal judge has ruled that Tom DeLay’s name can not be replaced on November’s ballot with another Republican politician. Late last week, DeLay announced that he will withdraw his name, leaving only two candidates on the ballot: a liberal Democratic former congressman, and Libertarian Bob Smither. Bob is well known by the voters and media in this...

Losers, all. That’s what we Westerners are and the Islamic fundamentalists bent on our destruction know it. Even when the police nails a cell of 17 would-be terrorists, catching them red-handed with 3 tonnes of 34-0-0 fertilizer, which you can bet wasn’t acquired to fertilize their lawns, the media and government go to great lengths to assure everyone that the arrests have nothing to do with any "specific community or ethno-cultural group in Canada." At least that’s how CSIS spokesperson Luc Portelance categorized the arrests. The Toronto Sun’s resident Islamophile "foreign" correspondent, Eric Margolis, even went so far as to...

At Evergreen Cemetery American flags are lined up row upon row, marking the names of veterans. On this Memorial Day, hundreds came to Evergreen for a ceremony that paid tribute to all of the men and women who died fighting for this country. Veterans placed wreaths and fired a salute. Boy Scouts blew taps. Others released doves. And, as the birds soared, so did emotions. Mike Brewer, a Vietnam Veteran, says, "I've been roaming around with Buddy Poppies since I was 8 years old, so 50 years of emotions." Judy Baldwin says, "My father was in World War II....

Are We All Asians? Renegade anthropologists rethink where humans came from. By Susan Kruglinski DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 05 | May 2006 Courtesy of G. Tsibahashivili (National Museum of Georgia) One of the best-known theories about human evolution—that the ancestors of Homo sapiens originated in Africa before populating the rest of the world 2 million years ago—is coming under fire. In a challenge to conventional wisdom, Robin Dennell of the University of Sheffield in England and Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University in the Netherlands argue that the "out of Africa" interpretation is built on shaky evidence. Maybe, they say, it...

‘Brokeback' an Oscar? What about Ray Nagin? If you're like me, you've had it with all the hype about “Brokeback Mountain.” Practically every major media enterprise in the nation has proclaimed it the front-runner to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards program on March 5. Not that we needed them to tell us. It was loudly proclaimed - even before the film's release to theaters - that this picture, about two sheepherders who give new meaning to the phrase “on the back forty,” would take all the major Oscars. Even my editor - no cowboy himself, although some days...

We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy. That wasn't the vision of the founders. They saw democracy as another form of tyranny. If we've become a democracy, I guarantee you that the founders would be deeply disappointed by our betrayal of their vision. The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules, for our nation to be a republic.

'We will cut them until Iran asks for mercy' By Massoud Ansari (Filed: 15/01/2006) Deep in the lawless triangle connecting Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, eight terrified Iranian soldiers are being held hostage by a Sunni group that is vowing to "slaughter" them if Teheran does not bow to its demands. "We will chop their heads once our deadline is over," Abdul Hameed Reeki, chief spokesman of the Jundallah or Brigade of God group, told the Sunday Telegraph, slowly drawing an index finger across his neck to demonstrate the seriousness of his intent. The deadline for the men is tomorrow. The...

What secrets did Japan's ancient emperors take to the grave? And will we ever know? 01/05/2006 By HIROSHI MATSUBARA, Staff Writer This is the fourth in a series on issues and topics facing Japan's imperial family. A new challenge is being mounted that may eventually put the Imperial Household Agency in something of a tight corner. Academics have long called on the agency to open imperial tombs to full inspection to resolve riddles of Japan's ancient past and put to rest lingering doubts about the authenticity of some of the final resting places of emperors. All this time, the agency,...

In God We Trust By William John Hagan Canada Free Press Wednesday, November 30, 2005 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Do these words sound familiar to you? They are, of course, found in the Declaration of Independence and were used as a justification under Natural Law for the separation of the American Colonies from the Crown. In our modern age it is often forgotten that the United States was founded...

'We hate France and France hates us' Jon Henley in Sevran Wednesday November 9, 2005 The Guardian (UK) They are gathered, as every night, on the edge of the car park at the foot of the block. Far enough into the shadows not to be easily seen; close enough to the stairwell to leg it inside if the police come near. Sylla, Sossa, Karim, Rachid, Mounir and Samir are the names they give. The oldest is 21, the youngest 15. One is an apprentice plumber; another is on work experience as a cook at a cafe in nearby Aulnay-sous-Bois; one...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2005 – The United States, Great Britain and the United Nations remain steadfast in seeing democracy established in Iraq despite continued insurgent violence, Britain's senior defense official said here today. "The litmus test of leadership is not when things are easy or fashionable, but when times are difficult and we have to come through them towards the objective in the end," British Secretary of State for Defense John Reid told reporters at a Pentagon news briefing. Resolution 1546, adopted by the U.N. Security Council on June 8, 2004, demonstrates that the mission to establish a democratic Iraqi...

INDICTMENT THE HISTORY: ANALYSIS Backstory: The push for war Faulty intelligence in the run-up to invation BY CRAIG GORDON WASHINGTON BUREAU October 29, 2005 WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's administration did all it could Friday to close the book on I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Don't have any contact with Libby about his indictment, staffers were warned. His security clearance - gone. And no goodbye meeting with the president. Libby "has left the White House, and I do not expect him to return," spokesman Scott McClellan said. If only it were that easy. Far from a clean end to the...

We will use force, Blair warns Iranians By Anton La Guardia, Toby Helm and David Rennie (Filed: 28/10/2005) Tony Blair delivered his strongest warning to Iran last night, saying Teheran would not be allowed to become a "threat to our world security". He hinted that the West might have to resort to force. The Prime Minister said western allies would meet in the next few days to decide how to react after President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". Tony Blair felt a 'real sense of revulsion' at the remarks While the initial response is...

If You ain't here after what I'm here after, You will likely be here after I'm gone! I signed up to be a Republican because I believe in a Republic! I signed up before a lot of You were born, I ain't likely to run from the Republican Party, as much as some of You are running away from Me!

You know, we complain a lot about the war in Iraq yet here we are just sitting here and complaining. Why don't we do something and go enlist, or go encourage like-minded family members to do so?

When Abraham Lincoln declared that government of the people, by the people, and for the people would not perish from the earth, he could not have anticipated the times we live in. A time when politicians would allow themselves to be corrupted by money from the rich and powerful, whose desire is to stomp all over the rights of we the people. We the people, the citizenry, once the most powerful in this nation, have become the least powerful, and now the despised. Money is the name of the game, and money means power, and we the people have increasingly...

A Great patriotic clip...

We must show our opposition to Islam, says Danish queen By Hannah Cleaver in Berlin (Filed: 15/04/2005) Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has called on the country "to show our opposition to Islam", regardless of the opprobium such a stance provokes abroad. Her comments further undermined the image of Denmark as a liberal haven for those seeking a new life in northern Europe. Queen Margrethe II The Danish government has already been accused of fuelling xenophobia by introducing measures which effectively closed the country to asylum seekers. But in overtly political passages from an official biography published yesterday Queen Margrethe...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,

In God We Trust Patriotic Flash Movie Finished and posted just in time for Washington's Birthday! (BTW, it's hard to swallow polls that find Washington ranked as America's 7th greatest president.) The presentation features quotes from Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Henry, Lincoln, Reagan, and more on the subject of God and morality in government. Many of these quotes were taken from their own speeches to the American people as elected officials (sorry ye Newdows and ACLUers of the world)! Enjoy and spread freely! I created two versions--one for high bandwidth (T1, DSL, Cable), and another for those trapped in dialupland....

This is very real: http://www.kelloggs.com/promotions/spongebobsquarepants/limitededitions.html I think somebody at keebler has a very very very dark sense of humor.

SAF Blasts Proposed San Francisco Handgun Ban: 'We Beat That In 1982' 12/16/2004 5:07:00 PM To: State Desk Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, 425-454-7012 BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Calling it an "ill-considered return visit of anti-gun bigotry," the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today blasted plans to put a handgun ban on the November 2005 ballot in San Francisco, Calif. reminding proponents of the measure that such a ban was declared illegal when first tried in 1982. "This issue was decided by the California courts more than 22 years ago, and the gun ban extremists...

Can't we all just get along? By DAVE BARRY I thought that, in today's column, I would heal the nation. The nation suffered a wound during the recent presidential election as a result of the rift between the red states -- defined as 'states where `foreign cuisine' pretty much means Pizza Hut'' -- and the blue states, defined as ``states that believe they are smarter than the red states, despite the fact that it takes the average blue-state resident 15 minutes to order a single cup of coffee.'' Some blue-state residents are so upset about the election that they're talking...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

To our Vietnam Veterans: We can never begin to express the pride and honor that we have for ALL of you, for protecting our country in the hour of need. You are THE difference in this election. YOU fought the battle and were victorious! HOLD YOUR HEADS HIGH!!! Because of YOU your comrades did not die in vain! WE LOVE YOU AND APPRECIATE YOU!!! Please accept this SALUTE on our behalf!

What did we do to deserve this? By Tom Parfitt in Beslan (Filed: 06/09/2004) They came in their hundreds to freshly dug graves on a meadow next to the main cemetery to bury the victims of the carnage. One funeral procession after another moved slowly through the crowds, the dead wrapped in white cloth and carried in open coffins. Weeping relatives witness Fatima Tetova's overwhelming grief at the burial of her children In the first grave, two young men were shovelling clods of earth on to their 50-year-old father, one of the oldest to die as three days of unimaginable...

'We know something will happen again - and soon' By Damien McElroy in Riyadh and David Wastell (Filed: 13/06/2004) The white saloon, its boot wide open, sits on a Riyadh highway in front of an American-owned hotel for two days. The hotel security staff gaze at it but take no action. The occupants of a police car drive by and ignore it. In a city where nerves are on edge, it is a frightening spectacle - a suspect vehicle that the security forces haven't towed away. It confirms the fear of expatriates that Saudi security remains too lax to cope...

We are now a client state Britain has lost its sovereignty to the United States David Leigh and Richard Norton-Taylor Thursday July 17, 2003 The Guardian Britain has by now lost its sovereignty to the United States and has become a client state. As Tony Blair flies in to Washington today to be patted on the head by the US Congress, this is the sad truth behind his visit. No surprise, therefore, that the planned award to him of a congressional medal of honour for backing the US invasion of Iraq has been postponed. To be openly patronised in that...

A west Houston man preparing to leave on a fishing trip was wounded in a gunfight that killed an unidentified assailant, police said. Marco Antonio Carillo, 21, was in good condition at Ben Taub Hospital on Wednesday after he was shot behind his home in the 5100 block of Eigel near Reinerman about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday. "He stepped outside to put some equipment in his truck and noticed a suspicious vehicle circling the neighborhood," said homicide Detective Kevin Carr. An man dressed in black, who may have been riding in the suspicious Jeep Cherokee, attacked Carillo as he was about...

Scarborough Country has spoken, and MCI had listened. It’s time for The Real Deal. Watch Joe Scarborough on “Scarborough Country,” 10 p.m. ET, weeknights on MSNBC TV. Repeats 1am and 4am SEVERAL WEEKS AGO, our Scarborough Country staff began investigating the extreme views of Hollywood movie star Danny Glover. Mr. Glover, who is know primarily for his “Lethal Weapon” films, has a history of making divisive political comments. He called the president of the United States a racist, he blamed American policy for the murderous acts of September 11th, and he signed a petition comparing American soldiers in the Gulf...

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?....... March 3, 2003: Have you forgotten? ..... CLICK HERE FOR MORE

France to open its first Islamic high school By Paul Michaud, Special to Arab NewsPublished on 12 December 2002 PARIS, 12 December 2002 — Although France has had an important Islamic population (a lie or Muslim fantasy, you decide) that goes back to the start of its own history, the French Muslim community will be getting its own Islamic high school — the Ecole Averroes — only next year. Indeed, inscriptions will be taken as of January, and the school will start offering courses come September, at the same time as traditional governmentally-operated French schools.Named for the celebrated philosopher...

Sources on the Second Amendment and Rights to Keep and Bear Arms in State Constitutions Prof. Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School   I..................... .................... Text of the Second Amendment and Related Contemporaneous ProvisionsII..................... .................... Calls for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms from State Ratification ConventionsIII..................... .................... "The Right of the People" in Other Bill of Rights ProvisionsIV..................... .................... Some Other Contemporaneous Constitutional Provisions With a Similar Grammatical StructureV..................... .................... 18th- and 19th-Century Commentary .................... A..................... .................... William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765) .................... B..................... .................... St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries (1803) .................... C..................... .................... Joseph Story, Commentaries...

How we really loved the Romans New research explodes myth that Scots were untameable barbarians By Juliette Garside The enduring myth that the Romans left the 'barbarians' of Scotland untouched during their conquest of the rest of the British Isles has been shattered by a new archaeological find. Not only did they settle in Scotland for around 15 years in the first century AD ... they even got our ancestors to swap their beer and lard for wine and olive oil. For hundreds of years, historians who based their theories on the classical writer Tacitus have always assumed the first...

(Columbia-AP) July 22, 2002 - The latest license plate issued by the state will have the motto "In God We Trust." Division of Motor Vehicles officials say production of the plates will start next year. They cost $24. The motto is written across the top of the tag. American and South Carolina flags are in the center. Spartanburg Representative Lanny Littlejohn says the idea for the tag after seeing the surge of patriotism following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Cannabis poses a greater threat to health than tobacco, lung experts have warned. The warning comes on the day that Home Secretary David Blunkett is due to make a Commons statement about the future of government drug policy. Many young people are simply not aware that smoking cannabis may put them at increased risk of respiratory cancers and infections . Dame Helena Shovelton: The Home Affairs Select Committee has recommended that cannabis is downgraded from a class B drug to class C. This would mean that possession would lead to a caution, rather than arrest. The British Lung Foundation is...