Free Republic

HAROLD CAMPING SITE The earthquake is scheduled to begin in Australia later tonight and the destruction and devastation roll through the timezones. It's been nice knowing all of you. I guess the only good news is that it will be the end of the Obama Administration. And the Clintons, Arnold, the Palestinians, Villaraigosa, Nancy Pelosi, NOW, and Planned Parenthood. And Charlie Sheen and the rest of Hollywood.

Don Meredith, the Dallas Cowboys and SMU quarterback and Monday Night Football icon, died Sunday evening in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 72. Meredith died at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, a hospital spokesman confirmed this morning. The Meredith family's attorney, Lisa Fine Moses, said his wife, Susan, and daughter Mary were at his side. Meredith had battled emphysema in recent years and suffered a minor stroke in 2004.

State workers held noontime rallies around the state to protest a plan by Gov. David A. Paterson, expected to pass the State Legislature later this evening, to furlough 100,000 government workers one day a week beginning May 17. "We deserve what we have and we're not going to give any of it back," Mary Sullivan, executive vice president of the Civil Service Employees Association, told a couple thousand state workers who turned out in a park next to the state Capitol. Chanting "No furloughs!", about 250 angry union workers gathered at noon outside Ellicott Square — Western New York headquarters...

THE POLL: Pew Research Center, national presidential race among registered voters. THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 52 percent, John McCain 36 percent.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...

The June payroll jobs report did not receive much attention due to the July 4 holiday, but the depressing 21st century job performance of the U.S. economy continues unabated. Only 144,000 private sector jobs were created, each one of which was in domestic services. Fifty-six thousand jobs were created in professional and business services, about half of which are in administrative and waste services. Thirty-eight thousand jobs were created in education and health services, almost all of which are in health care and social assistance. Nineteen thousand jobs were created in leisure and hospitality, almost all of which are waitresses...

<p>Gray Davis came into the governorship of California with a well-deserved reputation for leaving nothing to chance, having survived his decades-long, rung-by-rung climb up the political ladder by capitalizing on, even exploiting, any opportunity to align himself with a popular political position.</p>

Kmart will close 54 stores in Texas 01/14/2003 By ANURADHA RAGHUNATHAN / The Dallas Morning News Kmart Corp., a Michigan-based discount retailer that's in the middle of a bankruptcy reorganization, said Tuesday that it will close three-quarters of its stores in Texas as it shutters 326 nationwide. The company also said it will lay off up to 35,000 workers, including 5,269 in Texas. Kmart said it will close 54 of its 73 Texas stores and a distribution center in Corsicana that employs 378. Among the store closures will be the only remaining Dallas location, on Walton Walker Boulevard. Also...

You've seen them. Maybe down the street. Maybe across the breakfast table behind the newspaper. Maybe hogging the remote control for your new high-definition TV. You know them. You might work with one. You might live next door to one. You might even sleep with one. Cowboys fans. Like humidity, traffic and fire ants, they're a fact of life around here. Truth is, like cell phones, Dr. Phil and those incredibly annoying commercials for "Clarinex," you can't get away from them. Can't live with 'em. Can't spray something on 'em. They show up in the places you think would be...