Free Republic

Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Romney Press Shop (857) 288-6390Today, In South Carolina, Governor Romney Discussed How He Will Strengthen America's Families By Strengthening Our Schools. Improving our schools is critical to the future of our country and our economy. Governor Romney also believes that closing the achievement gap in our schools is the civil rights issue of our time. - Governor Romney Believes Our Education System Works Best When We Have More Local Control Of Our Schools. While there is a proper role for the federal government to play in education, it is not in telling...

BOSTON, Aug. 22, 2007 – As the chief of the National Guard Bureau touted the achievements of today’s citizen-soldiers and -airmen to sports commentators at Fenway Park here earlier this month, a 91-year-old World War II veteran sitting in the stands below the broadcast booth made much the same claims on behalf of today’s Guard members. Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, meets with members of 1st Battalion, 158th Cavalry, of the Maryland Army National Guard and other National Guard troops who are about to deploy overseas, during a visit to Fort Dix,...

Immigration Dispute Roils Conservative Radio Matt Purple Correspondent- President Bush's immigration bill has created a rift between right-wing talk radio and Republican politicians that threatens to rupture the conservative coalition, according to a nationally syndicated radio host. "If [the bill] is jammed through before, ironically, Independence Day, I think we will have been witnesses ... to the end of the old conservative coalition," Laura Ingraham said on Monday. "I truly believe that it is over if this happens, and it's time to rebuild and restart." Conservative radio has been dominated by outrage over the immigration issue. The Project for Excellence...

Around the ESPN.com watercooler, it's a debate that sees more consternation than "Tastes great" versus "Less filling": Who is the more dominant performer, Tiger Woods or Roger Federer? Each stated his case with another stunning victory on Sunday, as Woods claimed the Buick Invitational for his seventh consecutive PGA Tour victory and Federer notched the Australian Open for his third straight Grand Slam title. If anything, the two players only added fuel to the fire with their most recent wins. Golf editor Jason Sobel and frequent tennis contributor Matt Wilansky debate which player is the most dominant athlete in this...

Consumers report that Wegmans is No 1. The regional supermarket chain, based in Rochester, sits atop the latest Consumer Reports magazine retail rankings of 54 U.S. chains that sell groceries. They include traditional supermarkets and warehouse clubs, limited-assortment discounters and boutique stores. Consumer Reports surveyed 24,000 readers and compiled 38,000 reports from April 2004 until June 2005. The results are published in the October issue of the magazine, which subscribers started receiving Wednesday in Central New York. It goes on sale in stores Tuesday. Joan Eve Quinn, speaking for Consumer Reports, said after the data is collected, it takes Consumer...

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...

FORT MEADE, Md. (Army News Service, May 5, 2006) – Army print and broadcast journalists were recognized for excellence in their crafts at the Defense Information School here today during Combined Focus 2006. “The quality of work being done by our Army journalists is outstanding. They can compete against the best of commercial media and come out on top,” said Col. Richard Breen, commander for Soldiers Media Center. “It’s inspiring to see the products being produced by our broadcasters and print journalists.” Presentations were given to winners of the Department of Defense’s Visual Information Awards Program and the Thomas Jefferson...

Of San Antonio's 17 school districts, three little-noticed ones consistently deliver superior results. Schools in those districts continue to rack up national and state recognitions for excellence. And their students — who graduate and go to college at higher-than-average rates — are regularly among the city's top performers in state, federal and college entrance exams. The Lackland, Randolph Field and Fort Sam Houston independent school districts are three of only seven military school districts in the nation. The three are "coterminous," or contained entirely within the boundaries of their namesake military bases. . . . Though they are entirely on...

The word "reinvent" is a dumb term, having an overtone of redundancy. After all, when you have invented something, it exists. You can revise it or change it, but you can't "reinvent" it after you have already invented it. I never heard the term when I first entered the workforce. But somewhere in the 1970s or so, corporate executives-began using the word, and using it a lot. Then as now, the nation had its usual economic ups and downs, but suddenly after one downturn, our nation was heavily laden with companies that had reinvented themselves. What happened is that after...

A Supreme Court nomination may not have been the ideal time for Laura Bush to start acting like "Buy One, Get One Free" Hillary Clinton. At least President Clinton only allowed his wife to choose the attorney general. (Remember the good old days when first ladies only got to pick the poet laureate and the White House china pattern?) Between cooking segments on the "Today" show this week, Laura rolled out the straw man – sorry, "straw person" – argument that the criticism of Miers was rooted in "sexism" (which is such a chick thing to say). I'm a gyno-American,...

It turns out your real estate agent was right. In determining the historic reasons why societies thrived and conquered, while others stayed backward, the answer is: location, location, location. At least that's the persuasive theory advanced by Jared Diamond, a UCLA professor, MacArthur "genius" grant winner and author of the best-selling book "Guns, Germs, and Steel." Now, Diamond's book has been adapted into a three-part television series by National Geographic that begins tonight at 10 on Maryland Public Television (Channel 22) and tomorrow at 9 p.m. on WETA (Channel 26). The shows strive for an epic feel, hopscotching the continents...

IRVING, Texas - The moment was packed with the kind of tension usually seen only at a major. In the locker room at the Byron Nelson Championship, players huddled around the television as Tiger Woods stood over a 15-foot putt. Upstairs in the family dining area, about 60 people set down their silverware and stopped their chatter to watch. On the course, the 1,500 fans surrounding the 18th green went stone silent. They witnessed something that had not happened on the PGA Tour in seven years and 142 tournaments. Woods missed the cut. "Every guy in the locker room was...

Why doesn't F.Lee Levin sub for Rush next week while El Rushbo visits the troops in Afghanistan? Roger Hedgecock is okay but "The Great One" is on his own plain.

Here's an interesting dichotomy: There's a story about me and Babalu Blog on the front page of today's Miami Herald. I was interviewed a few weeks ago, a photographer came by the house and shot the pictures. I wasnt sure why anyone would want to run a story on me or my blogging. I mean, I just sit here in front of the computer and write about things and issues that are important to me. I write about family and politics and pig cooking. But, obviously and as most of you that come here regularly know, I write mostly about...

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Sixteen handoffs, one carry (for 2 yards and a fourth-quarter fourth-down conversion, thank you very much), one pass attempt (high and incomplete), and three knees taken to end the game. Not quite the way Brian St. Pierre envisioned the part he'd play in his first NFL victory. But it'll do.............. So many Steelers played a part in what was an improbable victory, even for a team that finished the regular season with 14 straight wins en route to become the first AFC team to go 15-1. That's because Jerome Bettis, Plaxico Burress, and Roethlisberger sat this...

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. - Maria Sharapova loves to shop, gossip with girlfriends, write and pore over photos in glossy fashion magazines. But that's where similarities with other 17-year-olds end. She emerged this year as one of the world's best tennis players, winning Wimbledon and carefully cultivating a lucrative endorsement portfolio whose worth puts a typical teenager's allowance to shame. "One day I can be with my friend talking about the girliest, weird things and the next day I'm in a meeting talking about a deal or sponsorship or doing a photo shoot that are run by all adults that want...

WIMBLEDON, England, July 4 - Maria Sharapova's coach, Robert Lansdorp, has been around tennis parents long enough to have some concerns that her remarkable victory at Wimbledon could start a trend. "Now everybody will go to Siberia and have their child born there," Lansdorp said, laughing. "You know how crazy some tennis people are." But according to Lansdorp, the secret to the success of Sharapova, his longtime pupil, does not lie in her Siberian birthplace or the hardships she experienced after her father, Yuri, decided to take her from Russia to the United States when she was 7. "I'm not...

WIMBLEDON, England -- Teenager Maria Sharapova stunned defending champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4 in the final Saturday to become the first Russian to win a Wimbledon singles title. Sharapova, 17, also became only the second Russian woman to win a Grand Slam title, less than a month after Anastasia Myskina became the first at Roland Garros. In the Open Era, only Martina Hingis was younger than Sharapova when she won the women's singles title here. The Swiss was 16 when she beat Jana Novotna in 1997. After Williams hit a forehand into the net to end the 73-minute match, Sharapova...

Make no mistake. Rush Limbaugh is “The Passion.” He is the passion of conservatism, the very pulse, bounding through the veins of the nation. He produces life with every heartbeat of his show as he scoffs at liberals and gives us his interpretation of conservative truth. His brand of ideology shakes the very foundations of liberalism.

OUR OPINION: Make excellence a 'black thing' Cynthia Tucker - Staff Sunday, November 2, 2003 If I were a high school student with lackluster SATs, I'd take no comfort from those who defend my mediocre academic work accomplishment as an unfortunate characteristic of my race. I'd be offended by the fact that the HOPE scholarship controversy has become another forum for repeating the ancient wisdom that black students simply don't perform well on standardized tests. I'd be embarrassed by black lawmakers who threaten to go to court to protect my right to receive HOPE, even though my scores don't measure...