Free Republic

- In Sweden that is. All the same, if various experts are right, the Nordic countries are not only the richest part of the world, but also global leaders in the domain of QUALITY of life. Therefore, living in this part of Stockholm is probably as good as life gets, or? The article: "The Stockholm suburb of Danderyd is the best municipality in which to live, according to a new ranking by the magazine Fokus. Lund and nearby Lomma in southern Sweden follow closely behind. Ljusnarsberg municipality in the Bergslagen region of central Sweden ended up in last place. The...

Big Brown looks like a Tripe Crown cinch. He wasn't even challenged today. This horse is a monster. Visions of Secretariat.

Judging by his agile performance at Tuesday's Iraq hearings, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) now is opting for the famous George Aiken formula from Vietnam days: Declare victory and get out. Or, rather, as an update on the late Vermont Republican's 1966 idea, Obama would declare the situation in Iraq "manageable" and drastically reduce American forces -- possibly, he suggested, to just 30,000. Of the three presidential candidates displaying their intellectual wares in questioning Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, Obama surely was the most subtle and shrewd. He also gave a bit of a hint of...

Vladimir Putin's chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev is set for a landslide victory in Russia's presidential election, according to an exit poll and early results. First official results from the Central Election Commission showed Mr Medvedev was leading with more than 64% of the votes after ballots from 16% of polling stations had been counted. Sky's Moscow correspondent Alex Rossi said: "As election dramas go, this was never going to be nail-biting - it was not going to be a cliff-hanger. "We all knew Dmitry Medvedev would romp home to victory against the three non-competitors he's been lined up against. Essentially...

After completing two tours in Iraq, Sgt. Wayne Leyde won $1 million from a scratch-and-win lotto ticket on Tuesday. Now that he's won, Leyde, a 26-year-old member of the Washington National Guard, says he's still going to volunteer to go back to Iraq for a third tour and won't spend any of the money in the meantime. Leyde was driving near his home in Mead, Washington when he stopped at a store on the side of the road and bought a ticket. "I decided to walk into a local Zip Trip. I got a Coke and beef jerky and walked...

No, seriously, we really are.By Christopher Cook We Republicans and conservatives have been nervous of late, and rightly so. First, we had the prospect of Hillary Rodham Clinton, which was unnerving enough. But then, something worse came along: Barack Obama. Barack Obama is as much of a leftist as HRC, if not more of one. He's as much of a statist as she is.*But he's more personable, more popular, more friendly, more affable. At least with HRC, we could run against her baggage as well as her positions. We could count on the American people seeing her generally distasteful persona...

Most people who run for president, by definition, lose. And most of those unsuccessful candidates depart the presidential contest with their reputations and their influence diminished. Republican Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor — whose chances of winning his party's nomination are closer to none than to slim — will be a conspicuous exception. He will leave the race more popular and more influential than he entered it and with the real potential of becoming the most important evangelical leader in American political life. Religious and cultural conservatives have been both the foundation and the foot soldiers in recent national...

**EXCERPT** Super Tuesday's over and there were no absolute winners - until Mitt Romney dropped out of the race. Nonetheless, even before Romney withdrew and McCain, in effect, became his party's nominee, we might as well have canceled the rest of the primaries and caucuses, since the media had already decided that this year's standard bearers would be John McCain and Barack Obama. Yes, somewhere along the line, the role of the media has changed from reporting on the primaries to deciding the primaries. They pick their favorites, they give them preferential treatment, they tear down their opponents, and they...

(NOTE: From FRC action E-MAIL; link is to their home page. I've broken it into paragraphs, and added emphasis): Washington is reeling from last night's Iowa caucuses. A loud and clear message was delivered, but whether it will be heard is yet to be seen. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee's huge victory can be attributed to two primary reasons. First, he is real and his style reflects it. He is engaging and he talks with people, not at them. He is a great campaigner; he is the communicator in this presidential election cycle. Second, evangelicals, dispirited by Republican indifference...

Peterson has conceded to Republican Greg Ballard in Indianapolis! BIGGEST UPSET IN INDIANA POLITICAL HISTORY! Carrying down into a LARGE majority of Republicans on the City-County Council! THIS IS A BIG WIN! Democrats can probably kiss Julia Carson's Congressional seat G'bye next year because of it!

HERE WE WERE on Wednesday, a nation of political junkies gathered around our televisions to watch the candidates debate each other one last time, and we had as a moderator one Carolyn Washburn, the editor of the Des Moines Register. I don't mean to go all East-coast-elitist on you; I'm sure there are people in Iowa who could capably moderate a presidential debate. Unfortunately, and obviously, Carolyn Washburn is not one of them. The bulk of the post-debate analysis will probably focus on how maladroit Washburn was at the job. She did the impossible--she moderated the last Iowa debate between...

First, let me say that this was by far the worst debate yet. The questions were not only skewed to the left, not only almost entirely neglected foreign policy, but they were so broad as to allow the candidates to fall back on talking points. Also, there was no room for back and forth between the candidates. Absolutely awful. With that said, Fred Thompson was the only candidate who stood out. He was funny, charming, and peppy. Here was a guy who wasn't afraid to speak hard truths, and who displayed knowledge of the policy issues--especially on entitlements. But the...

Saying I hated this debate is like saying George Soros can spare some change. The retired brigadier general who was on Hillary’s gay and lesbian steering committee was bad. This one was… egregious. Appalling. Extraordinarily frustrating. Alternately an uncontrolled circus and a banal snore-fest. Some of the questions were extraordinarily stupid – “is it more important to have a nominee that is socially conservative or fiscally conservative? What New Year’s resolution would you recommend for one of your rivals?” And what was with the video snippets of each candidate? What, each guy is going to get too much time with...

He won’t win the nomination. He won’t win any primaries. But for Ron Paul’s quixotic bid for the White House, it’s “Mission Accomplished.” In the past few months, Ron Paul has dramatically raised the profile of libertarianism inside the Republican Party. My small-l libertarian friends seem more comfortable describing themselves as such, even though they’ll go out of their way to disassociate themselves from Ron Paul and the big-L kind. Libertarianism in the GOP took a big hit on 9/11, and it’s slowly coming back, with Ron Paul as the catalyst. Its underlying ideals still have appeal well beyond the...

Teen's essay earns top honors Staff Reports November 25, 2007 Carmen Mesbergen, a junior at Greeley West High School, recently took part in the National Youth Leadership Forum from Oct. 23-28 in Washington, D.C. She participated in an essay contest, and hers was one of the top four chosen out of 400 from students around the country. The prize for the top students was the opportunity to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery. Carmen is in the International Baccalaureate program at Greeley West, and she is the daughter of Gordon and Iris Mesbergen...

A robotic car named Junior, programmed by Stanford computer scientists, finished slightly ahead of Boss, the robo-vehicle from Carnegie Mellon University, as half a dozen driverless vehicles made history by completing a 60-mile race over a city-like environment. But the real winner of this third and most difficult in a series of robo-races is probably the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which sponsored the first of these events in 2004 to spur development of unmanned military vehicles. In all, 11 robotic vehicles set out on the race course Saturday morning, and while five scrubbed out for various reasons, the fact...

The Fox News Republican Presidential debate in Orlando Florida revealed that the GOP nomination is still up for grabs. According to Fox News Viewers text voting after the debate, Ron Paul won with 34%, Huckabee came in second with 27%, and Giuliani third with 11%. The Republican debate also revealed that the Republican contenders think America is going bankrupt if spending policies are not changed. Debate Highlights: Fred Thompson touted his “100% pro life voting record” and said “Our basic rights come from God not government”. Thompson tagged Rudy Giuliani for supporting “Sanctuary Cities” and “federal funding for abortion” and...

Had anyone suggested six weeks ago that the GOP would emerge from the Petraeus hearings on the political front-foot, they'd have been laughed at all the way to Anbar. There's a lesson here for Republicans, in particular those most worried about how Iraq will play in next year's elections: Good military policy is good politics. That wisdom was a hard sell this spring, when the news out of Iraq was glum, the war supplemental debate raged, and dozens of Republicans were threatening to call it quits. The White House instead made an impassioned plea that the party hold tight through...

Nastia Liukin couldn't watch, for she knew she might be the one who had let another world title slip away. Meanwhile, Alicia Sacramone couldn't wait. She wanted to get out on the floor, show 'em what she had, and see if it was good enough to save the day. Sacramone did it, coming through with a floor routine full of attitude and glitz, one good enough to rally the Americans to a world championship Wednesday and prove that winning gold medals in gymnastics is more about determination than perfection

Will we look back in months on the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate from South Carolina and see it as a turning point in the race? Doubtful. While the novel use of the YouTube video gave the debate some flavor it wouldn't have had if it had used the traditional journalistic panel pitching the questions, the debate was another encounter of the candidates that didn't scramble the Democratic race's dynamics. Sen. Hillary Clinton did nothing to hurt herself and indeed put in another strong performance. She was smooth, informed, unflappable and with a touch of humor. Anytime the leader in the polls...

Here is a spreadsheet detailing the votes on the immigration bill and its amendments. Excel 2003: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ou6kwa Excel 2007: http://www.sendspace.com/file/21i5ps It contains some statistics as well as contact information for each senator - please call or fax to let them know how you feel! The statistics at the right and bottom provide some add'l analysis to help focus your letters, emails, calls, etc.

Anyone who thinks soccer is boring, missed a great match today. It's always great to beat Mexico at their game.

The bird flu winners and losers Ian Lyall, Daily Mail 6 February 2007 At an estimated cost of £45bn, we could be facing devastation on a massive scale. Thousands dead, millions more sick. Businesses on their knees and commerce in crisis - that is, if Britain succumbs to pandemic flu. TINY VIRUS, HUGE COST: The H5N1 bug, magnified 100,000 times, could cause worldwide devastation Not that you would ever know this reading the Financial Services Authority's latest risk report. Blink and you might miss the short section devoted to such a worrying threat. But make no mistake, as thousands of...

...Sen. Clinton's psychological quest is just too obvious and determinative for most us. What exactly drives her we cannot know, which itself is frustrating. Is it redemption? Or resurrection? Would being leader of the free world erase the public indignities she suffered due to her husband? Does she have a messianic thing going on? Did she ever have a desire to completely escape public scrutiny and dissection altogether? I'm agnostic on these therapeutic queries. But the sense people have that Sen. Clinton's drive is overly determined by her emotional issues is, I suggest, fatal. This is not sexist. Al Gore...

Thursday, November 9, 2006 I notice that the newspaper and broadcast pundits are telling us who the winners and losers are in Tuesday's startling elections. Well ... I might as well get in the game here with everyone else. The envelope please. And the winners in this year's midterm elections are: Islamic Fascists (Accepting the award for the Islamic Fascists will be Osama bin Laden) The focal point of the war against Islamic fascism was Iraq. The jihadists were sending their fighters to Iraq, there to be killed in gratifying numbers by American and coalition troops. What was once American...

I have witnessed over the past 2 weeks the early voting of several areas here in tennessee and I have to believe that turnout will be almost as high as 2004. This, to me, bodes well for Corker at least and if I may, I would offer for your consideration that polls are going to be shown to be way off the mark this year. I have not met many depressed republicans nor have i met many energized democrats. My prediction is that the mainstream media has badly miscalculated this year's potential for democrats.

WASHINGTON - The Republican Party will begin airing a hard-hitting ad this weekend that warns of more cataclysmic terror attacks against the U.S. homeland. The ad portrays Osama bin Laden and quotes his threats against America dating to February 1998. "These are the stakes," the ad concludes. "Vote November 7." Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said the ad would run on national cable beginning Sunday, but he declined to discuss specifics of the buy. The commercial tracks with Republican Party strategy to make the war on terrorism a central theme of this election. It will air...

The next wave in online dating has singles rating each other -- and one misstep can taint a reputation. When popularity trumps the search for a soulmate. It's no exaggeration to say that online dating has revolutionized the world of relationships since it took off a decade ago. Now, with growth slowing, sites are looking for new ways to stand out. One increasingly popular strategy: Letting users rate each other, either based on their profiles alone or on the experiences of a first date. Members of Engage.com3 can review people after one date for politeness and honesty. Consumating.com4 users give...

President George W. Bush congratulates members of the Columbus Northern Little League Team on winning the 2006 Little League Baseball World Series Championship at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006. White House photo by Eric Draper

Georgia wins world championship. GREAT

Best show on broadcast TV.

You've only had to run so far, so good But you will come to a place Where the only thing you feel Are loaded guns in your face And you'll have to deal with PRESSURE ...and you cannot handle PRESSURE. -- Billy Joel AT THE RISK OF SOUNDING like Jimmy Carter in a cardigan talking about sports instead of about a national energy crisis it must be said: By almost all available evidence, a vast malaise is infecting this nation's sports scene. What's worse is that it seems to mirror our inability to win what should be winnable wars --...

Tiger Woods won his third PGA Championship in fine fashion (-18) at Medinah Country Club in the western suburbs of Chicago. Tiger carded 69-68-65-68 = 270.The 30 year old Woods won his 51st Tour win putting him into a tie with Billy Casper and 7th on the all time winner list. Tiger has many years to go before he catches and passes Slammin' Sammy Snead who is number one in tour victories with 82. Tiger picked up the lead on the first hole Sunday with a birdie and never looked back. This is his second win since the death of...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Miss Puerto Rico, Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza, the youngest of the five finalists, was crowned Miss Universe on Sunday night. The first runner-up to Mendoza, 18, was Miss Japan, Kurara Chibana, 24.

PARIS - Floyd Landis won the Tour de France on Sunday, keeping cycling's most prestigious title in American hands for the eighth straight year. The 30-year-old Landis cruised to victory on the Champs-Elysees, a day after regaining the leader's yellow jersey and building an insurmountable lead in the final time trial. Landis picked up where another American left off last year, when Lance Armstrong completed his seventh and final Tour triumph. With the victory, Landis becomes the third American — joining Armstrong and three-time winner Greg LeMond — to win the Tour. Sunday's champagne and Landis' fifth yellow jersey of...

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush congratulated American cyclist Floyd Landis on Sunday on winning the Tour de France, saying he exhibited "amazing strength." "Everybody's proud of you. You showed amazing strength and character," Bush said in a telephone call, White House spokeswoman Eryn Witcher said. Bush, an avid mountain biker and sports fan, invited Landis and his family to tour the White House. Landis sealed his victory by finishing third in Saturday's time trial, extending the American dominance in the grueling race after Lance Armstrong took the title seven consecutive times.

Floyd Landis' victory Thursday was a miracle ride, the most exciting Tour stage — hell, the most amazing bike race — I’ve ever witnessed. Nothing like this has ever happened in the modern era. With up-to-the-second coverage on live television in the team directors’ cars, and radio communication with riders, big moves like this have never been allowed to develop. They're shut down the instant they’re threatening. But on Thursday, Floyd made the most amazing solo ride of the modern Tour, eclipsing even Greg LeMond’s incredible final time trial in 1989, when he eked out an eight-second lead over Laurent...

American Floyd Landis is all but assured of winning the Tour de France after regaining the overall lead Saturday. The individual time trial, won by Ukraine's Serhiy Honchar, shaped up as the decisive stage in one of the most topsy-turvy Tours in years. "I could not be happier," Landis said, adding he had been nervous before the stage. "It's one of the best days of my life." The Phonak team leader reclaimed the yellow jersey from Spain's Oscar Pereiro, who started Saturday's race against the clock with a thin 30-second lead over Landis. The 30-year-old Landis moved up from third...

15 Years After Being Deposed From Power, Former Leader Discusses Russia, U.S. Mikhail Gorbachev is generally regarded as the man who broke down the "iron curtain" that separated the communist world from the West and thawed the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Now, 15 years after a coup removed him from power and the Soviet Union dissolved, he has some stern words for the United States, whose relationship with Russia has soured lately. "We have made some mistakes," he said, referring to recent attacks on Russia's democracy. "So what? Please don't put even more obstacles...

Yippie!!!

Miami Heat defeats the Dallas Mavericks 4-2, for their first ever NBA Title! Bringing it home to Miami baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Many books will be written about the career of Bill Gates, but they can all be summarized in two words: He won. Early in his career, he won the battle against Apple to establish the PC as the platform for the personal computer over the Mac. He won the battle against IBM to establish Windows as the PC operating system against OS/2. He bested Lotus and Novell in the applications and LAN businesses. He slapped down Larry Ellison's half-baked notion of the NetPC. More recently, he won the battle against Netscape to establish Internet Explorer as...

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The Southern Baptist Convention elected Frank Page as its new president Tuesday, a pastor who had said that it would take a "miracle" for him to win and was seen as an outsider pick. Page was the choice of a group of pastors, many from a younger generation than the current SBC leadership, who have complained that the denomination suppresses disagreements over styles of worship and doctrinal details. Taking just over 50 percent of the vote on the first ballot, Page beat out Ronnie Floyd, a successful megachurch pastor from Springdale, Ark., and Jerry Sutton, pastor at...

This was one of the more politically significant weeks in recent history. A recap of the winners and losers: Click here

Powered by individual medalist Jonathan Moore's 12-under performance over the four-round tournament, the Oklahoma State Cowboys won the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship on Saturday afternoon. The tournament, held at Crosswater Club, was hosted by the University of Portland. The Cowboys entered the final round of the tournament in a three-way tie for second place, three strokes behind Washington. Oklahoma State overtook Washington early in the day and withstood a strong challenge from Florida to claim its first NCAA men's golf championship since 2000 and its tenth in school history. The Cowboys finished three strokes ahead of Florida...

THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT has witnessed a stunning turnaround over the past 10 years. A decade ago, on the heels of a 1992 election season dubbed "the year of the woman," the movement was deeply engaged in the fight on Capitol Hill to stop passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation that would have enshrined in law the "right" to abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy for any reason or no reason. With the pro-abortion Clintons in the White House appointing radical abortion-rights advocates to the Supreme Court and rolling back Reagan-Bush era executive orders limiting abortion, the...

NEW ORLEANS -- Twenty-two men and women are trying to be elected mayor of New Orleans on Saturday, but only two -- Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu -- are regarded as serious contenders in the city's first post-Hurricane Katrina election. The 20 other candidates are taking shots mostly at the mayor, but many New Orleanians think he will prevail, perhaps in a squeaker. The race has become mean and nasty; the moderator of a televised debate this week threatened to shut off the microphone of one candidate for intemperate remarks. The Rev. Tom Watson, a black...

Here Are Pulitzer Prize Winners, Announced Monday By Joe Strupp Published: April 17, 2006 3:05 PM ET NEW YORK The New York Times and The Washington Post were the top winners as this year’s Pulitzer Prizes for journalism were announced at Columbia University shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Monday afternoon. In an unusual event, there were two winners in two categories, including the coveted Public Service slot -- shared by the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. The Post won four prizes and the Times won three. The Times-Picayune had not been named one...

"Although the Southern Mountains contain merely 12 percent of the U.S. population, over 70 percent of the Medal of Honor recipients are from here."

SUGAR LAND, Texas (AP) -- Rep. Tom DeLay won the GOP nomination to the House on Tuesday, beating three challengers in his first election since he was indicted and forced to step aside as majority leader. With 14 percent of precincts reporting, DeLay had 10,005 votes, or 64 percent. His closest challenger, environmental attorney Tom Campbell, had 4,049 votes, or 26 percent. "I have always placed my faith in the voters, and today's vote shows they have placed their full faith in me," DeLay said in a statement. "Not only did they reject the politics of personal destruction, but they...