Free Republic

BAGHDADI, Iraq (April 12, 2006) -- As a 24-vehicle convoy rolls down the streets, a voice of a Baghdadi police officer can be heard over the intercom saying in Arabic, "It's a gift from God. The Marines are here to help us." The "gift from God" was the engineers of Marine Wing Support Squadron 274. They came to provide force protection to the Baghdadi police by setting up concrete barriers around their station. MWSS-274 functions under the umbrella of Marine Wing Support Group 37 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "The reason for the barriers was to provide protection and diversion,"...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Some Florida cities would like to throw a dog a bone _ or maybe a burger and some fries. Dogs would be able to sit with humans at outdoor restaurant tables in some communities under a measure advancing in the Florida Legislature. The bill, approved by a House committee Wednesday, would create a three-year test program to allow cities to grant restaurants that want to host dogs special permission to do so under certain conditions. Rep. Sheri McInvale, an Orlando Republican, filed the bill after some restaurant owners complained because they were threatened with fines for allowing...

There's no helping you. This site is now just a diversion -- like a train wreck. This site is inherently for and about raving egomaniacs, and Jim's site policies -- which amount to excluding reality and actual dialogue in favor of political/militaristic pornography -- is conducive to cognitive dissonance, which at the times your worldview is threatened leads you into psychotic breaks (on the political cognitive plane, that is, and just maybe in other realms too). Not to mention that your baseline politics is based in mythology about American demographics, science, economics, ethics etc. You spoonfeed each other in the...

SEVEN thousand furious Kilkenny people have penned letters to Waterford City Council warning it to keep its hands off their land. The letters, petitions and coupons from the Kilkenny People Newspaper and statements of anger were delivered to City Hall in Waterford yesterday by a delegation led by Kilkenny-based Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan and Fianna Fáil councillor Bobby Aylward. A further 600 submissions, the bulk of which oppose the extension, have been logged by City Hall officials. Under the extension proposal, 5,000 acres, 20 townlands and about 5,000 people would now find themselves living in a suburb of Waterford...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Islamic leaders condemned the London bombings, though many on Friday insisted the United States and Britain, with their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are ultimately to blame for fueling militant violence. Increasing voices, however, say the Arab world has to stop adding "but" to its denunciations of terrorism. Thursday's attack came as a double shock in the Middle East, occurring the same day that al-Qaida militants announced they had killed Egypt's top diplomat in Iraq after kidnapping him and judging him an "apostate" for his country's support of the United States. The bombings also targeted a...

I live in Fairfax California. I have been for most of my life. I am fed up with the economy, the blackouts the crime and all the liberals. I am thinking of moving and I was wondering if any of you know a good place for an average joe like myself to live in. In a couple weeks I'll have enough money and I can take the greyhound out of here and move out of this dump. Im looking for a place where I can get jobs, not have nasty taxes, some good public transportation in a city and to...

Members of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Black Caucus have become seemingly desensitized to racial slurs. The Caucus did not even blink when the extreme Left’s new champion, Howard Dean, made prejudiced statements right before their very eyes. From Dean’s comments, it seems he believes that a Black person’s place is to be cleaning toilets at a hotel in which whites stay. According to the Washington Times, On Feb. 11, the day before he was elected party chief, Mr. Dean asked, at a meeting of the DNC Black Caucus, "You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Businesses in Sweden, Ireland and Britain top the list when it comes to the use of information technology to improve their operations, according to a country-by-country survey. The United States, which was in the top three last year, slipped four places. The study by U.S. consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, uses its own "Sophistication Index" to determine how eagerly, and capably, countries have embraced information technology, including wireless access and Internet access. Commissioned by Britain's Department of Trade and Industry, the survey by the New York-based consulting firm was based on telephone interviews from April-July of nearly...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Garden's set to rock Final touches in place for one huge party BY MAGGIE HABERMAN DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU Madison Square Garden is ready for a Republican party. The star-spangled balloons are blown up and bagged; the cherry-red carpet is nailed in place; the blue delegate seats are nailed to the floor, and the confetti with pictures of GeorgeW. and Laura Bush is set to go. There's one stage for the speakers and a separate, hydraulic platform for the entertainers. Then there's a secret stage for the President himself that won't appear until Thursday night. That was the view...

BOSTON (AP) - As thousands of delegates, journalists and dignitaries stream into the FleetCenter, protesters for the next few days will be enclosed in a shadowy, closed-off piece of urban streetscape just over a block away. The maze of overhead netting, chain link fencing and razor wire couldn't be further in comfort from the high-tech confines of the arena stage where John Kerry is to accept the Democratic nomination for president during the four-day convention that kicks off Monday. Abandoned, elevated rail lines and green girders loom over most of the official demonstration zone that slopes down to a subway...

'I heard that Britain is the best place for us to go now. It doesn't treat refugees like animals' (Filed: 15/02/2004) Passions are running high in Holland as it prepares to expel 26,000 immigrants. But should the UK be following its example? David Harrison and Damien McElroy report. "It is our shame," said William Van Bekkam, a retired headmaster standing outside Amsterdam's Beinkorf Department Store, surveying the rough sleepers in the city's main square. "We gave these people false hope but now they don't have a future here," he said. "We offered our hospitality but didn't think about what the...

'Ghostly' image on tape at Henry's palace A ghostly image has been caught on CCTV at historic Hampton Court Palace. It was formerly the home of Henry VIII and has long reported to be haunted. The 16th Century palace in south-west London is well known for alleged supernatural activity, but nothing suspicious has been caught on film before. However, in October this year, this curious image was caught on the palace's CCTV footage. On several occasions security guards were alerted to an open fire door in an exhibition area of the palace. After securing the door each time, they returned...

One in six still feels a woman's place is at home By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 09/12/2003) One in six people still believes a woman's place is in the home, according to an authoritative survey of social attitudes funded by the Government. The figure represents a dramatic fall since 1983, when 25 per cent thought women should be full-time mothers, but it represents a "sizeable minority", says the National Centre for Social Research. Most of those who held traditional views were grandparents struggling to look after grandchildren while their daughters went out to work. The survey's findings come...

<p>I and a number of other wealthy Americans are contributing millions of dollars to grass-roots organizations engaged in the 2004 presidential election. We are deeply concerned with the direction in which the Bush administration is taking the United States and the world.</p>

The murder of a skydiver who plunged to his death after his parachute was sabotaged may have been a "random act", the policeman leading the probe into his death has said. Detective Superintendent Colin Andrews said the victim, Stephen Hilder, 20, was "a popular, intelligent man with a bright future" and that the motive for his murder remains a "mystery". He added: "One thing we have to consider is that this was a random act and Stephen was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Mr Hilder, a 20-year-old Army cadet, plummeted 13,000ft to his death at Hibaldstow Airfield,...

Chemical Ali's palace 'wrecked by looters' By Vanessa Allen, PA News, near Basra 03 April 2003 It was a potent symbol of the fall of a corrupt regime – the play palace of Chemical Ali, looted by the people he was sent to govern. A smashed photograph lay in the entrance hall, the faces ripped out but clearly showing Saddam Hussein and one of his generals, perhaps his cousin, the man dubbed Chemical Ali for his atrocities against the Kurds. At the bottom of his once opulent swimming pool lay the proof that this was the general's house – a...

Coldest place in the universe unveiled Astronomers have released the first photograph of what is believed to be the coldest place in the universe. The Boomerang Nebula, 5,000 light years from Earth, was discovered in 1979 and named in 1980 because ground-based telescopes could only detect a crooked elongated shape. Its temperature is minus 272 C, about one degree above absolute cold, minus 273.15 degrees. The Hubble Telescope took the picture for the European Space Agency and Nasa, who both control the satellite. An ESA official said: "Even the minus 270 degrees C background glow from the Big Bang is...

Monks fight on roof of holiest place By Alan Philps in Jerusalem (Filed: 30/07/2002) Eleven monks were treated in hospital after a fight broke out for control of the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion, burial and resurrection. An Ethiopian monk nurses his bruises after the clash The fracas involved monks from the Ethiopian Orthodox church and the Coptic church of Egypt, who have been vying for control of the rooftop for centuries. It is not the first time monks have come to blows at Christendom's most holy place, but...