Free Republic

St. Louis woman dies in another fast-food dispute By Joel Currier ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 09/02/2008 ST. LOUIS — For the second time in a month, police say a fight over fast food has led to the killing of a St. Louis resident. Decora Jenkins, 18, was fatally shot early Monday in her home in St. Louis after arguing about a fast-food meal, police said. Jenkins died from a gunshot wound to the head shortly after 1 a.m. in her home in the 1600 block of McLaran Avenue in the city's North Pointe neighborhood, police said. Jenkins, her boyfriend, 20, and...

WASHINGTON — Bob Woodward, who wrote two books praising President Bush and then a third harshly criticizing him, is out with a fourth tome that renders a mixed verdict on Bush, lauding the president’s surge of troops into Iraq, but saying "too often he failed to lead." Woodward notes that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposed the surge, while GOP presidential candidate John McCain was “advocating more troops for years.” Woodward also quotes McCain expressing frustration with the Bush White House, clenching his fists in the West Wing and exclaiming to Woodward: “EVERYTHING IS F---ING SPIN.” Woodward also observed that...

Election '08: Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says that, if elected, an Obama administration might pursue criminal charges against the Bush White House. This is how he plans to unite the country?Barack Obama insists he's the one we've been waiting for to bring the country together. Yet, he and Biden are signaling their willingness — or is it their eagerness? — to criminalize political opposition. "We will not be stopped from pursuing any criminal offense that's occurred," Biden said Monday at a Florida campaign stop. "If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a...

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November. Biden's comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin. But his statements represent the Democrats' strongest vow so far this year to investigate alleged misdeeds committed during the Bush years. "If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued," Biden said during a campaign event...

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November. Biden's comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin. But his statements represent the Democrats' strongest vow so far this year to investigate alleged misdeeds committed during the Bush years. "If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued," Biden said during a campaign event...

The rapper Diddy completely loses it over Palin's selection. It's quite funny. His incoherent ramblings are quite representative of the logic people use to support Obama. See here

Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation. His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans. Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California....

From Comments: McCain does not have the judgment needed to be president anybody with half a brain knows it. The GOP once again is trying to bamboozle the American electorate with garbage...George W Bush was garbage and proved to be worse than garbage as the pretend president... Mwahahaha, I really enjoy seeing Putin stick the long and hard one up the collective keisters of Little Bush & co. (In a time when no one seems to be able to rein in the Washington criminals, not even the Democratic congress, you accept any help you can get.)...

Two news items that really ought to run together: August 13, Providence Journal: Ex-Sen. Chafee joins Republicans for Obama August 13, Gothamist: Actor Ed Asner, former Dallas Cowboy Mark Stepnoski, and formerly famous hip hop group Arrested Development are leading a petition drive to get a referendum on New York City’s November ballot that would establish a new 9/11 investigation. If the group, called 911 Truth, can collect 30,000 signatures before September 4th, the City Council will be required to consider the measure, which calls for an investigative panel with subpoena authority. Former Senator Mike Gravel (who would join the...

Bush Derangement Syndrome: Russia as a Strategic Partner The president must withdraw the U.S.-Russia civil nuclear-cooperation pact. By Andrew C. McCarthy It was a relief to see President Bush take some meaningful action in response to Russia’s aggression against Georgia on Wednesday — something beyond looking sternly into Vladimir Putin’s soul between beach volleyball serves in Beijing. Thursday’s announcement that U.S. missile batteries will be installed in Poland is also welcome. More telling, though, is the step the president hasn’t taken: a necessary step, but one tantamount to a concession that the administration’s Iran policy has been a farce. The...

“…you almost have to believe they are using a template of some sort.” They are– it’s a disease. Yeah, and Bush banned stem cell research (more .gov funding now than ever in history and no restrictions on private research) Bush advocates torture (never in the history of warfare have enemies been treated so well) botched the Iraq war (never in the history of warfare has an army taken a country and deposed its leadership in so short a time with so few casualties and so little collateral damage) screwed up the economy (its bigger today than any economy anywhere, ever)...

Is it possible that this time the October surprise was tried in August, and that the garbage issue of brave little Georgia struggling for its survival from the grasp of the Russian bear was stoked to influence the U.S. presidential election? Before you dismiss that possibility, consider the role of one Randy Scheunemann, for four years a paid lobbyist for the Georgian government, ending his official lobbying connection only in March, months after he became Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser. Previously, Scheunemann was best known as one of the neoconservatives who engineered the war in...

New York (AP) -- No criminal prosecutions are planned for former Justice Department officials accused of allowing politics to influence the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday. Mukasey used his sharpest words yet to criticize the senior leaders who took part in or failed to stop illegal hiring practices during the tenure of his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales. But, he told delegates to the American Bar Association annual meeting, "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only...

What will they do once Bush is gone? Who will they blame? In mere months Americans are going to need all of the Dr. Phils that they can find, as a disaster of epic proportions just ripe for ratings pickings is looming large on the horizon.

Ten years ago today, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, causing a devastating loss of life and signaling that the United States faced new and more serious terrorist threats abroad and potentially at home. That potential became a reality on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked, causing an even more devastating loss of life and sending an even clearer signal regarding the necessity of a smart and focused response to a challenge that could no longer be ignored. Unfortunately, President Bush did not get the message. He and his neoconservative advisers...

Hillary and her campaign continue to try to hold Obama and his campaign to a higher set of standards than they're willing to adhere to. Apparently Hillary and her people can mock and deride Obama all they want to. And what about Hillary's Machiavelian [sic] response to "60-Minutes" Steve Croft's question to her about whether or not she believed Obama was a Muslim? She knows very well he is a Christian. So she could have clearly and finally put an end to the untrue rumor with an unequivocol "No, there's no truth to that rumor". But she purposely chose...

Listening to National Public Radio on the way home from work, I found the interview -- at least at first -- fun enough. NPR's Terry Gross interviewed comedian/actor Will Ferrell, actor John C. Reilly and writer/director Adam McKay -- to promote a new film. All yukked about their careers, and then the interviewer asked Adam McKay how he and Ferrell began their collaboration years ago on "Saturday Night Live." "We had several writers writing a lot of the political stuff," said McKay. "But yeah, I had written a couple pretty big ones with Will. We actually wrote a sketch right...

Did you help put America's worst prez into power? Time to make amends - Sure, you could start with an open-palmed apology, a profoundly contrite on-your-knees sort of thing, maybe an open letter in your local paper or a heartfelt speech at your next dinner party whereby you stumble though some sort of "I don't know what the hell I was thinking" or "I must've been blind" or "Wow, that mescaline sure was potent" type of defense for your unfortunate and reprehensible choices. But the fact is, that's not really gonna cut it. Of course, you could do the obvious...

A map of President Bush's motorcade to Camp David was found last week in the possession of a teenager accused of stockpiling weapons and bomb-making materials, according to prosecutors. With the possibility that the motorcade was a target, federal authorities have joined police in investigating Collin Matthew McKenzie-Gude, 18, who allegedly was storing the weapons and materials just outside Washington, D.C., at the Bethesda, Md., home where he lives with his parents. MyFOXDC.com reports that Assistant State's Attorney Peter Feeney disclosed the discovery of the map of Camp David during a court hearing on Tuesday in Rockville, Md. The map...

I am the entertainer, and I know just where I stand - only I am a celebritard and I don't why I stand there. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19893326&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

Is it possible to fall out of love with your own country? For two years, I, like many Americans, have been focused intently on documenting, exposing, and alerting the nation to the Bush administration’s criminality and its assault on the Constitution and the rule of law — a story often marginalized at home. I was certain that when Americans knew what was being done in their name, they would react with horror and outrage.

How odd that President Bush, once a darling of conservatives, will come to be loathed by most of them. Bush's legacy, all but set in stone as his days in office dwindle, will not only be the crippling war in Iraq, which he will leave to his successor to end, but stunning changes in government. He just signed an astonishingly vast housing law, dismaying many conservatives. After threatening a veto, he privately, without the press to record the moment, signed a measure supposed to keep as many as 400,000 homeowners out of foreclosure (although more than 3 million are in...

The first trailer for Oliver Stone's upcoming movie, a controversial take on the life of George W. Bush, has been released. By News Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJh7Md5KuWc&fmt=18

Former Democratic candidate Mike Gravel says President George W. Bush should be taken to The Hague for war crimes rather than being impeached. In a Monday video conference with Press TV, the former Alaska senator said President Bush does not 'deserve' to be impeached for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, which has resulted in the loss of 'millions of lives'. "An Impeachment just means you would only take away his (Bush's) presidency. Well, he is almost done (with) his presidency. What really needs to happen is that these people have to be held accountable for the crimes they have committed," the...

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Call it the un-impeachment hearing. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Friday it insisted was not about removing President Bush from office. But critics of Bush's policies couldn't pass up the chance to charge the president with a long list of impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors." Leading the way was Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the former Democratic presidential candidate who has brought repeated impeachment resolutions on the House floor against Bush and Vice President Cheney. Kucinich got a rock star welcome of whistles, hoots and clapping as he walked into the hearing room, holding hands...

ANTIWAR HYPOCRITES NO MORE 'BRING THE TROOPS HOME' by Ralph Peters AM I the only one who's noticed the silence? Mere months ago, left-wing bloggers and demonstrators were wailing Support our troops, bring them home! seven days a week. Now their presidential candidate has announced that he won't bring all those troops home, but will simply transfer combat forces from Iraq to Afghanistan - expanding that war. (He's discussed possibly invading Pakistan, too.) And the left's quiet as a graveyard at midnight. Where are the outraged protests from MoveOn or the DailyKos? I thought the extreme left felt sorry for...

The crusty ol' Repub says he has no clue how to use a computer. Isn't that cute? Dear McCain presidential campaign: You know what's funny and cute and just a little bit sad? Wacky old pre-industrial war-hungry guys admitting they don't know a computer from a microwave oven, a hyperlink from a heart med, can't turn on one of those newfangled PC things if his life depended on it and/or he wanted to see what his weird tattooed bi-curious grandson is posting on his MySpace home docking station whateveryoucallit. Adorable! Cuter still is when said wisecrackin' curmudgeon admits he depends...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco voters, never thrilled with George W. Bush, may give the president a parting shot in November by naming a sewage plant after him. A ballot measure aimed at deriding the Republican president by renaming the city's newest sewage plant qualified on Thursday after organizers submitted 7,168 signatures to the local Department of Elections, officials said.

Bush lifts drilling ban, oil execs leer, nation cringes, Obama sighs I admit to bafflement. I admit to a bit of total confusion mixed with a certain level of stupefied awe and teeth-rattling frustration as to why anyone with the mental acuity of more than a housefly would think that stabbing more holes into Alaska and the eastern seaboard in the search for a few remaining precious drops of oil is a good idea, would solve anything at all, is anything more than the equivalent of hurling matches at the devil. Perhaps I'm missing something. Perhaps there's some dark, secret...

Hearing set on "imperial Bush presidency" Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:52pm EDT By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Impeachment is out for President George W. Bush, but a top U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday he wants to take a look at his "imperial presidency." House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers announced his panel would examine possible administration wrongdoing, which has included complaints that Bush misled the United States into the Iraq war in 2003. "Over the last seven plus years, there have been numerous credible allegations of serious misconduct by officials in the Bush administration," said Conyers, a Michigan Democrat....

San Francisco voters will be asked to decide whether to name a city sewage plant in honor of President Bush, after a satiric measure qualified for the November ballot today. Backers of the measure, who for several months circulated a petition to place the measure on the ballot, turned in more than 12,000 signatures on July 7, said organizer Brian McConnell. The Department of Elections today informed those supporters, the self-proclaimed Presidential Memorial Commission, that they had enough valid signatures - a minimum of 7,168 registered San Francisco voters - to qualify for the November ballot, he said. McConnell, who...

A citizens group in San Francisco wants to pay an ironic tribute to President George W Bush when he leaves office - by naming a sewage plant after him. The group, calling itself the Presidential Memorial Committee of San Francisco, wants the issue voted on at this November's election. "It's important to remember our leaders in the right historical context," said petition organiser Brian McConnell. The Republican Party thinks the plan stinks, and it will fight the measure. Mr McConnell's group has submitted more than 12,000 signatures on a petition to the San Francisco Department of Elections. If at least...

Mr. Obama is an apostate, according to the pious headcutters who want to kill us. Even this fact doesn't convince the BDS sufferers that terrorism is a real threat. I was arguing with them over at the Washington Post. The subject was Guantanamo, and the the anti-Bush vitriol was at full froth. Although I think the president's terrorism strategy is open to legitimate criticism, I just can't understand the red-faced, diaper rash ranting Bush hatred. I also cannot understand how someone can mock the terrorist threat as an invention of Bush, Cheney, and those evil neocons. It was a dangerous...

Reading a Seymour Hersh article is a bit like panning for gold: You have to dig through a lot of dirt to find any nuggets of possible value. Relying almost exclusively on vaguely described anonymous sources, he makes sweeping claims about top-secret operations that can only be known to a small number of people inside the government with access to the relevant “sensitive compartmented information” and “special access programs,” and they aren’t allowed to comment one way or the other. And his “reporting” is always colored by a sixties-leftist, anti-American, conspiratorial worldview. In his latest New Yorker article, “Preparing the...

Cross posted from Radarsite Bush used phony patriotism to start war From the Chicago Sun Times http://www.suntimes.com/news/greeley/1034720,CST-EDT-greel02.articleANDREW GREELEY agreel@aol.comThe Russians call World War II "The Great Patriotic War." The current longest of our wars could well be called the same thing. It is a war that originated in the orgy of patriotism ("U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!") that followed the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and has been sustained by the patriotism of those who support it ("Our soldiers are defending American freedom") and false promises of some latter-day prophets ("We are winning the war in Iraq.") It is...

President Bush traveled to the home of Thomas Jefferson Friday to help swear in new U.S. citizens as part of Independence Day celebrations. "When you raise your hands and take the oath you will complete an incredible journey. This journey has taken you from many different countries and has now made you one people," Bush said at the naturalization ceremony at historic Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. "From this day forward, the history of the United States will be part of your heritage. The Fourth of July will be a part of your independence day and I will be honored to...

Protesters Interrupt Bush at Independence Day Ceremony for New Citizens Friday, July 04, 2008 Protesters made it hard to hear President Bush Friday as he welcomed new citizens and marked Independence Day at the home of Thomas Jefferson. As is the tradition each Fourth of July, a naturalization ceremony was held at Monticello in Charlottesville, Va. This year, 76 immigrants from 30 different countries came to take the oath of citizenship. But Bush repeatedly was interrupted as he welcomed the guests. "That man is a fascist!" one protester yelled. Another swore at him.

Obama adviser links gas prices to Bush war policies By Jordan Fabian Posted: 07/02/08 01:28 PM [ET] An informal foreign policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Wednesday linked high oil prices to threats the Bush administration has made against Iran. Rand Beers, an adviser to 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), said a one-day $11-per-barrel spike in the price of oil was a response to “potential military action threatened against Iran.” “Americans need to understand that what is happening in the Persian Gulf is significantly contributing to the rising price of oil,” said...

U.S. atrocities are unworthy of our heritage. Put the fireworks in storage. Cancel the parade. Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time. This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement. For we have sinned. We have failed to pay attention. We've settled for lame excuses. We've spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago. The America those men founded should never torture a prisoner. The America they founded should never imprison people for years without...

Put the fireworks in storage. Cancel the parade. Tuck the soaring speeches in a drawer for another time. This year, America doesn't deserve to celebrate its birthday. This Fourth of July should be a day of quiet and atonement. For we have sinned. We have failed to pay attention. We've settled for lame excuses. We've spit on the memory of those who did that brave, brave thing in Philadelphia 232 years ago. The America those men founded should never torture a prisoner. The America they founded should never imprison people for years without charge or hearing. The America they founded...

Never forget: The brutal effects of the Bush regime will be felt for generations - Ah, so this is how it's gonna be. Like recurring cancer. No, more like a rogue rash, an STD, flaring up at unexpected times and in unexpected places and when it fades, you gently let yourself forget all about it until it suddenly erupts and hits hard and ruins your day, and then you can only sit back and moan softly, slather on ointment, shudder. Wait, one more: Maybe it's most like a nasty intestinal worm, a wicked parasite like those you suck down in...

The indictment of the Bush administration for its conduct of the war on terrorism is both familiar and increasingly insistent. In the aftermath of 9/11, it is charged, the White House responded in ways that not only traduced the U.S. legal system but radically transformed it, stripping American citizens of time-honored rights, trampling on the fundamental premises of our Constitution, and bringing shame on our country for extreme and illegal practices in the treatment of suspected adversaries. Across seven years, a vast journalistic and legal literature has catalogued the depredations allegedly visited on the American constitutional order. Numerous lawsuits challenging...

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, the minister who presided over the recent marriage of President Bush’s daughter Jenna, has launched a pro-Barack Obama Web site sharply critical of conservative stalwart James Dobson. Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched his “James Dobson Does Not Speak For Me” site a day after Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program aired a statement charging that Obama distorted the Bible to fit “his own confused theology.” The site urges readers to sign a statement declaring that Dobson does not represent them. The statement reads in part: “James Dobson doesn't speak for...

Being a truly advanced white person means being able to speak with authority about pretty much any field of conversation- especially politics. In order for white people to streamline the process of knowing everything, all human beings can be neatly filed into one of two categories: People I Agree With, and People Who are Just Like Adolf Hitler. Comparing people to Hitler is an easy way for white people to get a strong point across to the less enlightened, or the insufficiently white. Everyone knows who Adolf Hitler was. And everyone knows that Hitler was very, very bad. Therefore, if...

<p>A Democratic congressman who was accused of suggesting that Al Qaeda may want to harm a prominent White House official told FOX News he meant "no ill" by the comment.</p> <p>Massachusetts Rep. Bill Delahunt made the remark Thursday while questioning David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, during a House subcommittee hearing on interrogation policies.</p>

TOKYO — North Korea took a step on Thursday toward reintegration into the world community and rapprochement with the United States by submitting for outside inspection a long-delayed declaration of its nuclear program. The 60-page declaration from North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated and impoverished nations, was expected to describe in previously undisclosed detail its capabilities in nuclear power and nuclear weapons — meeting a major demand of the United States and other countries that consider the North a dangerous source of instability. “This can be a moment of opportunity for North Korea,” said President Bush, announcing the...

You've got to go check out this cartoon. Sums up BDS Syndrome perfectly

SAN FRANCISCO: Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital, and a state, too. But President George W. Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom. prize-winning water-treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant. Not surprisingly, those Republicans in a city that voted 83 percent Democratic in 2004 are not thrilled with the idea

Liberals Hit the Road on Bush 'Legacy Tour Bus' By Penny Starr CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer June 25, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - Americans United for Change (AUC) unveiled its "museum on wheels" on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. The group is giving tours of the 45-foot, 28-ton bus that is filled with exhibits intended to highlight the apparently failed policies of the Bush administration and its "conservative allies." The bus will be driven around the country this summer to share the exhibits with the American people, organizers said. "The Bush legacy is nothing less than a disaster that leaves behind an economy...