Free Republic

Since you can't get ahold of him in Washington, you might try his offices in Kentucky!

Regulation: No longer the stuff of science fiction, a little-noticed change in energy-efficiency requirements for appliances could lead to government controlling the power used in your home and how you set your thermostat. In a seemingly innocuous revision of its Energy Star efficiency requirements announced June 27, the Environmental Protection Agency included an "optional" requirement for a "smart-grid" connection for customers to electronically connect their refrigerators or freezers with a utility provider. The feature lets the utility provider regulate the appliances' power consumption, "including curtailing operations during more expensive peak-demand times." So far, manufacturers are not required to include the...

When people hear the name Salome, they immediately think of the infamous dancing girl of the Gospels... At her mother's urging, Salome asked for the head of Herod's most famous prisoner on a platter. Fearful of breaking his word before his guests, Herod granted Salome's request and ordered John the Baptist beheaded. In antiquity there was a considerably more famous Salome, however, who was revered for centuries. She was so admired that generations of mothers, Herodias apparently among them, named their daughters Salome in her honor. This Salome was the only woman ever to govern Judea as its sole ruler....

Ruling for Boeing union could chase away businesses. The National Labor Relations Board’s bid to prevent Boeing from moving to South Carolina could harm the very state it is trying to protect by discouraging businesses from setting up shop there, Republican lawmakers warn. A Washington state union has persuaded the NLRB to fight to bring work back from the plant that Boeing Co., the worlds largest aerospace manufacturer, has built here. But a victory for the labor board would create an unfriendly business environment and stifle economic growth in Washington state and across the country, Republicans say, and the uncertainty...

When interviewing for a job, we all want to put our best foot forward, but sometimes we end up putting it in our mouths instead. Even though you may feel comfortable chatting and making small talk with your interviewer, it’s best to leave some things unsaid. We checked in with experts to find seven things you should never say during an interview. 1.) Don't Compliment the Interviewer's Appearance in Any Way. Don’t say: “I love your skirt!”. 2.) Don’t Cry. Don’t say: “It was the hardest thing I ever went through, and I still break down just thinking about it.”...

Environmental groups agreed to not fight the project in exchange for funds that could buy up grazing permits. A new sagebrush rebellion has spread across the West from Wyoming to Oregon. But this time the target is a big energy company, not the federal government. El Paso Corp., the owner of the nation's largest natural gas pipeline system, angered ranchers and county officials this summer when it agreed with two environmental groups to set up the funds. Western Watersheds Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Association agreed not to challenge the pipeline in exchange for establishing two new nonprofit funds,...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an attempt by feminist lawyer Gloria Allred to get CBS to drop the pro-life Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow and his mother: Gloria Allred is no stranger to the subject of abortion, so it is not surprising that she wants to kill this pro-life ad. Her letter to Les Moonves of CBS, available at RadarOnline.com, wants the ad pulled because it is allegedly guilty of “misleading advertising.” Allred, who has not seen the ad, charges that when Tebow’s mother was being advised by doctors in the Philippines to consider an abortion (she...

Two Taliban ‘commanders’ among 20 killed SNIPPET: "MINGORA/KOHAT: Two Taliban ‘commanders’ were among 20 militants killed in clashes and air strikes in Swat and Orakzai Agency on Thursday. In Swat, 13 insurgents were killed in clashes with security forces on Thursday. According to Swat media centre, security personnel came under fire when they raided a Taliban hideout in Sigram area of Koza Bandai. During an exchange of fire, 10 militants and one soldier were killed. Detained militant commander Mohammad Naseem alias Abu Faraj was with the troops and he was also killed in the clash. Abu Faraj, a close aide...

Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers, a lightning rod of controversy during last year's presidential election, will visit the University of Colorado next month to speak in support of Ward Churchill just days before the fired professor's lawsuit against CU goes to trial. CU fired Churchill in 2007 after the university concluded he plagiarized and lied about historical facts in his writings. Churchill, however, claims he lost his job over a controversial essay about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He sued the university to get his job back; that lawsuit goes to trial in Denver on March 9. Ayers made...

The Jewish Board of Deputies is satisfied with South African Deputy Foreign Minister Fatima Hajaig's second apology, made after President Kgalema Motlan held "discussions" with her about them, it said over the weekend. "To the extent that my statement may have caused hurt and pain, I offer an unequivocal apology for the pain it may have caused to the people of our country, and the Jewish community in particular," Hajaig said in a statement. She said she regretted the "inference" made by some people that she was "anti-Jewish." "I do not believe that the cause of the Palestinians is served...

The Detroit News...and another Detroit daily newspaper, the Free Press, are expected to announce next week that they will halt home delivery of the two papers most days of the week... The move comes in the wake of a 22 percent circulation decline at the News and 15 percent at the Free Press over the last five years. Staff cuts are also likely.... The Free Press is owned by Gannett Co., Inc In the face of the worst business climate for daily newspapers in decades, with steep declines in advertising and rising business costs, other U.S. dailies have examined steps...

Did anyone else see Hardball today when Chris Matthews got so worked up over the war that he said we aren't going to get into a contest with Iran over who the biggest S*** in the Middle East is and both his guests sort of went white and Matthews just sat there for a few seconds and pretended nothing happened and then tried to blame the Scooter Libby trial for his loss of control?

'A second shot rang out. Both men were dead. Now I could never be known as Frank Sinatra's daughter' By Douglas Thompson (Filed: 23/07/2006)Page 1 of 9In February 1947, Frank Sinatra, cooler than his eyes were blue, flew into Havana to perform for an audience not only tougher than his usual crowd, but far deadlier. The engagement would change Sinatra's life, and do much to shape, in the years that followed, the world's idea of who he was. The Cuban interlude, a darkly Runyonesque affair, rich in sex and menace, would have an equally lasting effect on a woman who,...

S Korea suspends North food aid Pyongyang tested seven missiles South Korea is to suspend food aid to the North because of its controversial missile tests, reports said. Shipments of rice and fertiliser would be shelved until the missile "problem" was resolved, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a top official as saying. The move came as Japan presented the UN Security Council with a binding draft resolution calling for sanctions against North Korea. Pyongyang has threatened more launches if it is subjected to foreign pressure. The resolution, which urges North Korea to immediately stop developing, deploying and testing ballistic...

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job...

The state of texas in a whole are a bunch of redneck habitual civil rights violators. I've had several encounters with the powers that be mostly in the city of san antonio. They keep the city downtown clean and nice for tourists by locking people up in the bexar county jail. They receive money for each head in there, so you know it is overcrowded. The gaurds are abusive and feel as thought they will never get in trouble. The jail has been under investigation but to no avail thanks to the good ole' boys in the rest of the...

NAPLES, Italy (NNS) -- As part of a larger U.S. interagency effort towards greater stability in Africa, approximately 1,400 Sailors and Marines aboard USS Emory S. Land (ESL) (AS 39) are deploying to the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) region in late February 2006. Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, Vice Adm. J. Boomer Stufflebeem says the deployment is part of a comprehensive theater security cooperation strategy benefiting all involved. “U. S. European Command and CNE-C6F (Commander, Naval Forces Europe-Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet) efforts in Africa, and specifically in the Gulf of Guinea, focus on strengthening partnerships and improving overall maritime security. By...

For Lillie Epps, one of the few African-American leaders in the anti-abortion movement, it was a telling moment. Epps was among top anti-abortion advocates who had gathered in the Oval Office of the White House last year to watch President George W. Bush sign into law a bill banning so-called "partial-birth" abortions. "When he signed the bill, there were some other African-Americans in the room," recalled Epps, 52. But when it came time for publicity photographs, some were ushered out, including all of the black leaders. "That sends a message that it's really not an African-American issue," said Epps, of...

Judge Samuel Alito Jr., whose entire history suggests that he holds extreme views about the expansive powers of the presidency and the limited role of Congress, will almost certainly be a Supreme Court justice soon. His elevation will come courtesy of a president whose grandiose vision of his own powers threatens to undermine the nation's basic philosophy of government — and a Senate that seems eager to cooperate by rolling over and playing dead. It is hard to imagine a moment when it would be more appropriate for senators to fight for a principle. Even a losing battle would draw...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - The Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. were supposed to be about the judge, but on Tuesday it sometimes seemed as though somebody forgot to tell the senators on the Judiciary Committee. The lure of 50 cameras and the captive audience in the Senate Hart Office Building appeared too much of a temptation for some of Capitol Hill's windiest lions, who began by promising not to run a marathon session of questions, then did so anyway. At one point Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was even granted two extra minutes...