Free Republic

Oscar-winning film director Sam Mendes claims American viewers don't understand his new movie Jarhead as well as Europeans - because they expect war films to be one-sided. The movie based on the novel Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles by Anthony Swofford, and focuses on the frivolousness of war, rather than the glory - something Mendes feels Americans don't grasp. Mendes says, "I feel they've understood in Europe. In America, it's like talking about a different movie. "Fundamentally, Jarhead disobeys all the laws of American movies, and not just the political laws of American movies...

Miss Kitty is heading for a new home in Canada. Following the untimely death last week of her owner, Bill Harris, the “miracle cat” that he credited with helping to save him from drowning during Hurricane Katrina is going to be leaving Louisiana soon for points far north with Donna Wackerbauer, an animal rescue volunteer who was instrumental in reuniting Harris and Miss Kitty after the storm.

50 Cent and Kanye West are the only ones selected to be GQ's "Men of the Year" who have no false modesty about it — both of the hip-hop stars justify their big egos in the mag's pages. But they also have more on their minds than just themselves. Like George W. Bush, for one. 50 thinks the president is "incredible ... a gangsta." "I wanna meet George Bush, just shake his hand and tell him how much of me I see in him," 50 told GQ. If the rapper's felony conviction didn't prevent him from voting, 50 said he...

Bill Harris, a soft-spoken Slidell, La., man who gave credit for his harrowing survival during Hurricane Katrina to God and his “miracle cat” — Miss Kitty — has died. He was 63. Harris, whose separation from his beloved tabby cat and subsequent reunion touched MSNBC.com readers when it was reported in the immediate aftermath of the storm, died Monday from gastro-intestinal bleeding after being admitted to a Slidell hospital for the second time in a week, said Donna Wackerbauer, a volunteer with the animal rescue organization Noah’s Wish. Shelly Rodriguez, a social worker at the Trinity Neurologic Rehabilitation Center in...

Cactus and Bitterness Grow Where American Chopper Was Downed Posted by Kevin Sites on Sun Sep 25, 7:22 PM ET She lived here once, in a house behind this pitted dirt alleyway. But now, Maria Osman cannot bear to raise her head as she walks past. This is, after all, the place where her already difficult life slipped the last few notches into misery, the place where pain can last a dozen years without pause. The place, she says, where an American Black Hawk helicopter fell from the sky and crushed her three-year-old daughter. "There was not enough of her...

When Delta Flight 1880 landed late Saturday at Logan International Airport, the pilot went on the intercom to make a request of the passengers preparing to grab their carry-on bags: Sit for a moment and honor a fallen soldier. ''The pilot said, 'We have a hero on this flight and sadly, he isn't with us, but his mother is escorting his remains,' " said Barbara Bell, sister of Sergeant Pierre A. Raymond, 28, an Army reservist from Lawrence who died Tuesday in Germany after being wounded in Iraq. The normal bustle of an emptying airplane immediately ceased, she said. ''He...

About 1,800 people who were depressed or had muscle strains avoided work requirements in the state's welfare program last year because Massachusetts considered them disabled, even though their maladies may have been easily treated, according to state statistics and interviews with specialists. The fate of disabled welfare recipients is a key element in an ongoing debate on Beacon Hill, as Governor Mitt Romney urges state lawmakers to adopt tougher federal disability standards that would force thousands of people considered disabled under current state standards to go to work. Some disability advocates say Romney is on the right track in forcing...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal disaster grants to state and local governments should be conditioned on how they accommodate pets in their evacuation plans, say lawmakers disturbed that some Hurricane Katrina victims refused to leave home because they couldn't take their animals with them. "I cannot help but wonder how many more people could have been saved had they been able to take their pets," Rep. Tom Lantos, D-California, said Thursday.

Breaking news on homepage. No details yet, but Inpsector General of U.S. is Harold Damelin. http://www.ustreas.gov/organization/bios/damelin-e.html

Amid the heart-wrenching moments of devastation from deadly hurricane Katrina, there is at least one bright spot. Snowball, a small white dog taken by police from a sobbing little boy as he and his family were boarding a bus at the Superdome, has been located, USA Today reported Thursday. Snowball is now at the Louisiana SPCA in Gonzalez and will be reunited with his owner, U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian Terry Conger told the newspaper. The Humane Society of the United States and the Louisiana SPCA rescued 43 dogs and 16 cats from the Superdome and delivered them to a...

Graham Williams, left, puts his arm around his new schoolmate Jameall Gatlin at a Houston elementary school Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005. Jameall's family evacuated New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina and now plan to make their home in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Pitcher Pays To Fly Family Of 9 To Boston, Provide Housing BOSTON -- Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and his wife, Shonda, have paid to fly a New Orleans family of nine to Boston and pledged to provide housing for the hurricane-stricken family for one year. The Fields family, with seven children between the ages of 5 and 12, fled New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina struck. They spent the past week at an Atlanta hotel with the help of a charitable organization. The Schillings, who have four children 10 and younger, decided to make a personal gesture rather than...

If Bush was a Dictator things would have gone smoother: - He wouldn't have had to ASK Gov. Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation, he would have done it himself. - He wouldn't have had to ASK Gov. Blanco to send in her National Guard, he would have done it himself. - He wouldn't have to ASK Gov. Blanco to let the feds come in and run the show. (below) If Bush was a dictator he could have FORCED residents to evacuate at gunpoint. He would be giving orders to the Governor, not requests. It may come as news to...

METHUEN, Mass. --Coaches on a Little League team here filed a protest with the league after an umpire ordered the players to stop speaking Spanish during a state tournament game this week. Coaches said the order demoralized the Methuen players and cost the team the game. "This never should have happened," head coach Chris Mosher told the Eagle-Tribune newspaper. "These are 14-year-old kids who should not have to deal with any of this, especially in Little League baseball." National Little League spokesman Lance Van Auken said there's no rule against players speaking Spanish or any other language on the field....

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 272 to 162 in April to abolish the estate tax. An editorial in last Friday’s Wall Street Journal said that President Bush needs eight Senate Democrats to cross the aisle so that total repeal becomes filibuster-proof in the upper chamber. Regardless of the Senate outcome, a big cut in the estate tax looms. Unhappy with this inevitability, estate-tax supporters have used the media to spread the false notion that repeal will save the rich from having to “give back.” An April article in USA Today described the belief among estate-tax supporters that “wealthy Americans...

Protesters To Disrupt Soldier's Funeral Radical Church Group Says U.S. Being Punished MARBLEHEAD, Mass. -- A Marblehead soldier who was killed in Afghanistan is scheduled to be laid to rest Monday, but a church group from Kansas is expected to try to disrupt the services and police are on alert for any problems. NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Staff Sgt. Christoper Piper, 43, served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and was awarded a bronze star for his combat service. The Green Beret died when his convoy was bombed June 3 in Afghanistan and a right-wing Protestant Christian church group...

TAMPA, Fla. -- A 13-year-old girl who was killed and dumped in a pond last month suffered years of abuse that included reports of beatings and witnessing violent fights between her parents, records show. More than 1,000 pages of files from the state Department of Children & Families were released Tuesday detailing the family of Sarah Michelle Lunde and the background of David Lee Onstott, the convicted sex offender accused of strangling her.

John Evander Couey White Male DOB: 09/19/1958 5'4", 125 lbs. Blue eyes, gray hair Goatee Tattoos on right arm Picture forthcoming. Website is down right now--too many hits, I guess. The POI has already been located and, I assume, is being questioned.

Fox News has announced that the identity of the person of interest in Jessica Lunsford's disappearance will be revealed today at 5:30 pm EST. I assume one can tune into Fox News at 5:30 for more, but I'm not sure what other channels will be carrying this.

Florida Missing girl Jessica Lunsford: Authorities have identified a person of interest and have the results of the lie detector test. Statement from the Citrus County Sheriff's Office: Homosassa Springs, Florida - Among many of the investigative tools used by detectives in the missing child case of Jessica Lunsford, polygraphs were administered to the three immediate family members who lived with the 9-year-old girl in the family's Sonata Avenue home. FBI polygraphers conducted the tests, and agency behavioral analysts reviewed the results. Sheriff's Office officials have refrained from saying if family members passed or failed. However, in the cases of...