Free Republic

DENVER- First there was President Obama the golfer. And now – President Obama the fisherman? Mr. Obama’s trip out West later this week — to promote his health care plan in states like this one and Montana — is going to include a few hours of trout fishing in Montana. Jim Messina, the president’s deputy chief of staff, who grew up in Montana and Idaho and is a wildlife enthusiast, will be taking him. Mr. Messina disclosed the president’s plan while talking at a conference of Western Democratic leaders here, discussing Democratic gains in the region over the past six...

A lawsuit has been filed against the Gahanna Police Department by a former police officer who says he was 'defamed and harassed' after his wife appeared in Playboy Magazine. According to the lawsuit former Det. Ronald Fithen claimed he was the target of a "invasive, non-criminal investigation" after his wife, Beth, appeared in a 2008 article in Playboy. The Fithen's are naming the City of Gahanna, its police department, its police chief and deputy police chief as defendants in the suit. According to the lawsuit, the chief and deputy chief of police, on numerous occasions, requested autographed copies of the...

I spent the better part of an hour earlier today scanning the various sites and blogs to try and understand what specifically the Fox-Pajamas tea parties are about. Having absorbed about as much of the literature as I can, I have to say I'm still befuddled. Option 1: It's a protest of the bank bailouts orchestrated by Bush and now Obama. But surely these tea-partiers understand what would happen if we didn't bail the banks out. Are they advocating letting major banks fail? Or are they advocating a Krugman-style government take-over? No idea. Option 2: It's a protest against tax...

LISTEN!! THE CONFICKER WORM IS A DISTRACTION! ITS JUST A HARMLESS WORM! THE REAL VIRUS HAS ALREADY BEEN PUT INTO THE MATRIX LAST WEEK!! YES!!! ITS A VIRUS CALLED MESSIAH!! ITS SET UP BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SO THAT BARACK OBAMA CAN TAKE OVER ALL OF OUR COMPUTERS AND READ OUR MINDS!!!! YES!!! IT CANT BE DETECTED! ITS TOO LATE TO REMOVE IT NOW!!! BARACK OBAMA IS GOING TO CONTROL ALL OF THE INTERNET AT 9:45 PST!! HES GOING TO BE WATCHING US ALL AND..... Hello! Im Barack Obama! I am Jesus Christ! Don't pay any attention what was said....

A Cape Coral man was injured after striking bullets with a hammer in his driveway.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Just back from Washington, D.C., South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham painted a very bleak picture of what he expects for the country if the bailout plan fails. Graham spoke in front of a foreclosed home on Avondale Drive in Greenville. He said if the plan doesn't pass soon, more banks will fold. Businesses will close and people will lose their jobs. As least twice he mentioned that the economy could be headed for a depression.

An individual's body motion and body type can offer subtle cues about their sexual orientation, but casual observers seem better able to read those cues in gay men than in lesbians, according to a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "We already know that men and women are built differently and walk differently from each other and that casual observers use this information as clues in making a range of social judgments," said lead author Kerri Johnson, UCLA assistant professor of communication studies. "Now we've found that casual observers can use gait and body shape to...

As a Texan living in Europe, I'm appalled by the state's execution Wednesday of Johnny Ray Conner. Capital punishment is wrong. In the 27 countries of the European Union and in Switzerland, where I live, capital punishment is rightly banned as cruel and inhumane, an offense against human dignity and an ineffective deterrent to violent crime. I applaud the European Union for urging Texas Gov. Rick Perry to spare Conner, who was the 400th person to be executed in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The European Union implored the governor to "exercise all powers vested...

Called the RNC today and told them I wanted the last two years of contributions back. They said they would send the money I sent them just for the last 12 months - $75. The first jerk hung up on me when I insisted I wanted at least two years $$ back so I had to call back. I don't know if they are getting the message or not.

Presidential hopeful John Edwards said Friday he will win much of the South and help the Democratic Party win more U.S. House and Senate seats in the Midwest as well if he is party's 2008 nominee. "You should think not only about who would be a presidential candidate, but who would also strengthen our ability to help us win congressional seats in some of the tough places in this country," Edwards said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire. "If we pick up 15, 20 seats in the House, some additional seats in the Senate because we have a presidential...

"...imagine that Ann Coulter is seated in Smith's place. Anything to say to her?"...... Edwards, his right fist curled, feigned a punch and said: "No, there's absolutely nothing. Grow up." AUSTIN -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards feigned a punch Thursday when asked what he'd like to say to Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator who seemingly characterized his sexual orientation in remarks at a political confab last week. Edwards, appearing on Texas Monthly Talks, was asked by host Evan Smith to momentarily imagine that Coulter was seated in Smith's place. Anything to say to her? Edwards, his right fist curled,...

LOS ANGELES —  Mike Buday isn't married to his last name. In fact, he and his fiancee decided before they wed that he would take hers. But Buday was stunned to learn that he couldn't simply become Mike Bijon when they married in 2005.

Why West Michigan should de-emphasize sports West Michigan Business Beat By Ben Rudolph, Professor of Marketing Grand Valley State University rudolphb@gvsu.edu “I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.” — H. L. Mencken As anyone who has lived here for long knows, West Michigan is sports crazy. That is pretty much all people want to talk about. If you tell local people that you are not interested in sports they assume you are some type of strange subversive or malcontent. I freely admit that I detest sports. I could not think of anything...

WASHINGTON – The significance of Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi's election as the first female Speaker of the House was not lost on the newest member of North Carolina's congressional delegation, Rep. Heath Shuler. "It was a milestone, and to be able to tell my daughter that she was there is quite significant," said Shuler, D-11th, as he walked back to his office, navigating the underground tunnels of the Capitol. Shuler's vote on Pelosi's bid to become speaker was watched by many yesterday because he repeatedly deflected questions about whether he would support Pelosi when he was campaigning against Rep. Charles...

I am tired of listening to Shep Smith from fox news in describing the fighting in Beirut. I have watched intently and am disgusted with him. It is quite apparent Shep is a liberal and has an agenda. He will make small comments in his reporting taking cheap shots at Israel, yet making Hezbollah look strong. I just watched him interview some young Israel soldiers and the ones he put in his report were anything but seasoned soldiers. Shep would ask them questions like "Are you scared?", "are Hezbollah fierce fighters?", etc. It was sickening. Heh Shep, while don't you...

The left has found its newest sex symbol. His name is Markos Moulitsas, and he's the founder of the eponymous Daily Kos, a popular radical liberal blog garnering thousands of visitors each day. The lonely Blanche DuBois of The New York Times editorial page, Maureen Dowd, describes Moulitsas as the "fast-talking former Army artillery scout with the boyish demeanor and dark brown buggy eyes," and calls him an "Internet messiah." Ana Marie Cox, the Internet potty-mouth turned Time magazine reporter, breathes shallowly and does her lipstick: "Compact and wiry, Moulitsas, 34, exudes quivering intensity. He speaks in staccato paragraphs, punctuated...

When all the fanatical Christians disappear, will traffic finally improve? Wait, did I miss it? Did it happen three days ago, on 6-6-06, a.k.a. Tea Time with the Beast, a.k.a. the Great Day of Reckoning, a.k.a. the National Day of Slayer, all the world crashing down in a heap of hissing steam and belching smoke and balmy gusty breezes sometime around noon just after lunch but not before rush hour and hitting right around siesta? I might have been napping. Did the Apocalypse finally hit? Did the deep wish of roughly a half-billion zealous believers come to pass and were...

No wait, not six. To hell with that. Make it 10. Ten bucks a gallon, no matter what the going rate for a barrel of light sweet crude. That would so completely, violently, brilliantly do it. Revolutionize the country. Firebomb our pungent stasis. Change everything. Don't you agree? Here's what we could do: Give gas discounts to cab drivers (at least initially) and metro transit systems and low-income folks, those who have to drive their busted-up '78 Honda Civics to their jobs scrubbing restaurant toilets and flipping burgers and vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV...

Think sex and drugs destroy America? Try naive chastity. Oh, and "Purity Balls" There are these things. These unholy events called "Purity Balls" and you should probably fall to your knees right this minute and thank a merciful and lubricious and happily polyamorous God that you do not know what they are and that you have access right this minute to vast quantities of wine to deflect their nasty karmic arrows because, you know, oh my God. But hey, free country. Purity Balls. No, not some sort of newfangled spherical chastity device to be inserted using vacuum tubes and pulleys,...