Free Republic

Hillsborough County just floated a ballot referendum last election to lump teachers into the "first responder" category to allow them to share a proposed additional homestead exemption, in an effort to keep talented employees from "leaving for greener pastures". How about that? Stupid voters passed it.

Over the last two weeks, 10 teams ranked in the top 15 have lost, including seven in the top 10.The last time the No. 1 team in the country lost to an unranked team was 2008. The last time Alabama lost to an unranked team was 2007. Texas A&M snapped both those streaks and brought true chaos to this college football season. The Aggies dragged a two-game losing streak into Kyle Field on Saturday night, looking like one of the most disappointing teams in the country. Then Texas A&M beat the mighty Crimson Tide, scoring almost as many points in...

Well, he seems... happy.Okay, Chewbacca Mom was hilarious. But THIS guy takes the prize, bigtime.

Minneapolis — Target cut its profit and comparable-store sales outlook amid stiffer competition and its own stumbles in areas like grocery sales. The discounter’s second-quarter net income fell nearly 10%, though that was better than what most had expected. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.1%, reversing seven straight quarters of gains. Target shares were down more than 6% in mid-morning trading Wednesday. The quarter underscores challenges that Target and other retailers face from Amazon.com and shoppers who remain cautious about spending.

A hacker known as “The Jester” claims to have revealed the identity of a LulzSec member who may be the group’s leader. Thirty-year-old Xavier Kaotico, also known as Xavier de Leon or “sabu,” has been outed as the hacker prankster group’s leader, though his role and involvement with LulzSec has not been confirmed. The man allegedly lives or has recently lived in New York City, and is an independant IT consultant specializing in Python programming, Linux development, network security and exploit development. LulzSec, a small group of hackers that has become the focus of the international technology media over...

CNN) -- They've breached or busted the websites of the CIA, PBS and the U.S. Senate, and launched at least part of an extended attack on Sony, whose PlayStation Network was brought to a grinding halt for the better part of a month. And, to hear them tell it, it's all for a laugh. Meet Lulz Security, or LulzSec, the gleeful and secretive band of hackers who appear to be responsible for a string of high-profile and sometimes embarrassing Internet attacks. Their most recent strike, and arguably the most ambitious, was a distributed denial-of-service attack Wednesday that shut down the...

Now that disaffected Americans in all 50 states have petitioned the Obama administration for the right to secede from the United States, the door is open for far more important petitions — like a request to have a catered pizza party once Missouri strikes out on its own. (RELATED: White House ‘secede’ petitions reach 675,000 signatures, 50-state participation) Is it funnier that real people actually submitted these ten proposals to the White House, or that the administration has only removed two of them fr0m public view? You tell us. And if you actually sign any of these, you have no...

The hacker group Anonymous has issued a statement today denying they were ever harassed by Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain. In a statement released on an online news forum a spokeperson for the group threatened attacks on Politico, MSNBC, Huffington Post and a myriad of other political punditry sites for continuing to spread "this vicious, totally unfounded lie."On Sunday Politico ran a thinly sourced story accusing Herman Cain of a pattern of sexual harrassment against women all referred to as "Anonymous." The story has ignited a firestorm of controversy on television and print news, as well as online. Herman Cain's...

The word “troll” no longer conjures up a dumpy little plastic figure with brightly coloured hair: nor a monster from The Lord of the Rings. If you live even a part of your life online, you’ll know that trolls today are better known as the angry and usually anonymous commenters on web forums, whose aim is to shock, offend, annoy or upset fellow users. Trolling made headlines this week when Sean Duffy, a young man from Reading, was given 18 weeks’ imprisonment for defacing Facebook tributes to four dead teenagers whom he had never met. The abuse was vile: on...

While Sabu and Topiary are firmly on the inside, the likes of The Jester and LulzSec Exposed are most certainly notInside Sabu Apparent founder and leader of LulzSec, he is a long-time hacktivist associated with senior Anonymous members. Decides who can join the group and who should be targeted. Attempts by rivals to uncover details about his real-life identity suggest he is a 30-year-old IT consultant skilled in the Python programming language who has lived in New York. The timing of some his tweets – tweeting "goodnight all" at 0700 BST, or 0200 New York time – implies he is...

Uh oh....looks like some Navy squids took a picture of bin Laden being buried at sea!

The world is approching the ultimate crunch. The selfcentered mind made world created by human nature cannot survive the divine spirits of love truth and life. Self active human nature is filled with the spirits of hate, lies and death. These ill spirits are clearly displayed by the Islamo-Marxist-Chicago Gangster occupying the White House. The vessels dedicated to serving these ill spirits must pass away. We are in the third year after the inaugeration of Obama. This correlates to the third horse in the book of Revelation. In Revelation the black horse reveals famine and rationing. We see this before...

Anonislamichan — April 21, 2010 — With your constant threats directed at popular public figures the extent of your anger has been made clear to us, the evilness of your intent breaks through your guise as a religion of peace. Anonymous has therefore decided that your religion should be attacked in the same way that you feel compelled to attack others, for the safety of the accused individuals, for the good of mankind, for the lulz. We shall expel your presence from the Internet and systematically dismantle what remains. We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared...

On Monday it will be fifteen years, we must never forget the cost of violence. She would be learning to drive right now...

Free Republic used to be the most up to date web site where you could go for the latest news. Now it's been overrun with so many personal blogs and opinions that it's a chore to wade through all the personal stuff to find the real headline news. Even religous post like the daily rants of Joel Osteen, (whom I detest because he's a fake getting rich off gullible Americans)is allowed to be posted on a regular basis but you're not allowed to refute anything he says. Why is he not being put in religion where he belongs? The categories...

Pittsburgh, PA. The Super Bowl XLIII Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the only team to win six titles, will soon be losing half of those trophies. After a meeting between NFL Commissioner Rodger Gadel and President Barack Obama, Obama decided to redistribute half of their Steelers Super Bowl victories and trophies to less fortunate teams in the league. “We live everyday in the country that invented the Super Bowl.” said Obama “We are not about to lose this Great American tradition in the wake of these difficult times.” Obama’s plan calls for the Steelers, who are a successful NFL team, to give...