[Billie]

[Billie]

Good Morning, FRiends,
Welcome to Tuesday's Finest.

[BlessedAmerican]

From a lurker....Thank you dear ones for all the news, encouragement and inspiration you provide everyday. I am always blessed by dropping by. Have a wonderful day...

[bmwcyle]

I always look up at a DC Freep and she is there.

[RaceBannon]

I gotta have a rare pic of Exit 148 somewhere!!

[nicmarlo]

Good Morning, martin! Good Morning, all! : )

Congratulations, Exit148!

[Exit148]

HUO! (WOW!) (I couldn't fine the character, darn!)

I'm very impressed with the beautiful characters, and art. There are Mandarin ducks in each of the art pieces. After seeing them in China, I am soooo partial to these loving birds.

Thank you so much!

[Swede Girl]

What a beautiful profile this! Exit148, you are the best! You are such an asset to FR and it is always a special treat to see you at the various gatherings of Freepers. You have put in an incredible amount of time and effort for the cause, and it is wonderful to see that you are being highlighted today on the "Finest."

Billie, I have not had time to post much of late, but I want to thank you for the outstanding job you have done and are doing on this thread and others on FR. You are truly one of FR's Finest, also! Thank you for all that you do!

Ditto to you, FreeTheHostages......you are doing an incredible job and it is so appreciated!

[Aquamarine]

Good morning all!

Wanted to make a post before the next wave of thunder boomers moves through here and have to shut the computer down for a while.

Congratulations Exit148 on a very unique and interesting life.

Click on the flag

[jwfiv]

Good morning to our Hostesses...beautiful way you have with writing, FTH...thank you.

Beautiful way you have with design, Billie...very lovely.

Exit148, pleased to meet you...thanks for all your energy and presence at the DC Freeps...very cool that you did a sign in Chinese for our foreign visitors...betcha they still talk about that.

Such a miracle our Freedom must appear to them...we take it for granted so.

Blessings and Howdy to all FRiends here at the Finest.

[The Pheonix]

Thanks for a most wonderful, beautifully and tastefully done presentation, it made my day.

And inspired me to shout at the top of my voice:

"Long live the Friendships of the Peoples of the World"

God Bless you all

[The Thin Man]

Good one, Free! Convincing Billie to post these characters by telling her it means "crow." Hopefully she'll never find out the true meaning. Now I know you're on my side.

I bet you didn't know I was a Chinese expert. :)

[The Thin Man]

Why is "few" in the title not capitalized. Such carelessness. Pretty much spoils the whole thread. :-)

[Angelwood]

Outstanding presentation and essay about one of my favorite FReepers! Thank you both for your continuing efforts on the FR's Finest thread.

[Angelwood]

Congratulations, Exit148! You certainly deserve recognition for all you do and have done here at Free Republic, as a member in good standing of the DC Chapter and the Tri-State Chapter, and for all the other interesting things you manage to work into your schedule. Thanks for sharing.

Whether we are standing outside the tourists' exit gate on Pennsylvania Avenue, outside the Hilton for our annual WHCA dinner freep, on the corner welcoming Hillary's fundraiser guests, yelling "Get Out Of Cheney's House!", countering the anti-war and anti-American protests, off on a girls only outing in Tunica, MS, or just having a good time at the MRC Dishonors Awards, it has been a pleasure to know you and freep with you. I am happy that you have become a good friend and a treasured member of the DC Chapter and I look forward to many more years in your company.

Enjoy your day!

[Exit148]

I want to thank you for a perfect day! It was above and beyond what I expected. I was immersed in so many beautiful pictures and calligraphy, ----- and kind words not only from the Master, but from Freeper friends. Thank you so much! (I didn't talk/read politics all day! LOL!)

Wo Ai Nimen! Quandou shi tebiede ren! (You are all pretty special people. I love you all)

(my painstaking transfer of Chinese characters wouldn't transfer, so you all will just have to read the abc stuff.)

[grantswank]

MC CARTHY. . .CLASS CLOWN OR TROUBLE MAKER?


Joe was a bad boy masking as an angel. He posed as politically cleansing
the nation while all the while ruining others' lives. It must have given
him perverse glee to go to bed at night, knowing he had trounced on another
mortal's existence.

Senator Joseph McCarthy. What a hoot. Now his scribing is made public -
after 50 years of being secret.

McCarthy took people's reputations to twist them in the winds of the
American flag waving in a spring's breeze. He popped up a name and, bleep,
it was finished. One of them was Aaron Copland, composer. When Joe accused
him of subversive action, Aaron responded that he had no interest in
politics for he was given to musical creations. But when Joe brought up a
name, finis.

He claimed a ream of personages in government bureaucracies, the State
Department in particular, as well the Voice of America, the Government
Printing Office and Army Signal Corps, were Communists.

It was in an era when suspicion was fact. Communism was The Threat to
democracy. Therefore, anyone aligned with it had to be wiped out. McCarthy
was The Man to see the political cleansing through to its final chapter.

Raymond Kaplan, engineer for Voice of America, was accused of being a
Commie. He wasn't. Nevertheless, the pressure got so great that he told his
wife and son in a note that he could not take it any longer. He tossed
himself under a moving truck on March 5, 1953. It was outside the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Over and done - Mr. Kaplan. Blood on
McCarthy's hands. But did he care? No. He was seeing through the cleansing.

Kaplan scratched this on notepaper: "I have never done anything that I
consider wrong but I can't take the pressure upon my shoulders any more."
The End.

Margaret Chase Smith, Senator from Maine, wrote against McCarthy. She said:
"Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character
assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts,
ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism - the right to
criticize; the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the
right of independent thought.

"The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen
his reputation or his right to a livelihood, nor should he be in danger of
losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know
someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us doesn't? Otherwise none of
us could call our souls our own."

On the Senate floor Smith said, "As a United States Senator, I am not proud
of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for
irresponsible sensationalism. Whether it be a criminal prosecution in court
or a character prosecution in the Senate, there is little practical
distinction when the life of a person has been ruined."

Eventually Joe was censured. His hold on America's democratic mind was
broken. In 1957 he died at age 47.

In the meantime, Joe cruelly laid to rest many innocent reputations. May
his ilk never rise again.

[grantswank]

KIDNAPPED BY U.S. LAW KEERERS?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

What would you do if you were driving your family through a state within the Union, only to have law enforcement officers scoop up your children, take them away from you, accusing you, the parent, of abuse?

Brian and Ruth Christine, college graduates, simple living folk, were driving the family through Oregon. They stopped along the way in Grants Pass. While there they visited the neighborhood library. And that’s when the nuthouse tragic turn exploded in front of their futures.

Ruth was from England, Brian from Indiana. They considered themselves a happy family. Brian, wanting to be the best husband and father possible, became involved in Promise Keepers, a Christian organization. He was also a long time Eagle Scout.

Being born again believers, they do not drink alcohol nor misuse drugs. They attempt to live a godly example before their children.

While in the library, two law officers approached Brian. They told him that they were having to examine the children. They had received an anonymous call that said their children were dehydrated. With that, the parents were taken back to their vehicle and thus began hell on earth.

Brian inquired about his civil rights. The officer took offense at that. Therefore, the children were taken away, the parents hauled into court, and one travesty after another leveled against this family on vacation in Oregon.
The start was in May 2000.

The children were taken away by a Services to Children and Families Agent who claimed the girls were dehydrated and malnourished. Further, Ruth was told that her unborn baby, when born, would have to be handed over to the agent as well.

The local newspaper splashed the situation across the pages with the horrific twist that Brian and Ruth were unfit parents. These two adults have no criminal records. They have never been accused of being psychologically unfit. They have always paid their bills on time. Yet now they are accused by the media and government as mother and father not capable of caring for their own.

Along this hellish journey, there has been nothing but the ‘good-ol-boy’ system set in place throughout the attorneys, doctors, clergy, KKK and others within the community. They stick together for they have discovered unfit parents and they are going to make them pay — big time.

Out of fear, Ruth fled the state to give birth. Brian stayed behind to fight for the return of his children.

To this date, Brian and Ruth are still victims of this injustice. Today, Brian and Ruth sit in prison, defended by an honorable lawyer, they are the victims of an ambitious character assassin, Atty. Rick Wesenberg, and the system that lets him run wild. Their lives have been ruined, their daughters taken away and little or no hope of ever being reunited with them in this life.
And this Happened in America...

Years ago, my teen son was in trouble. So he was seated in a police station. I stood in the room alongside him. When the police officer completed some of his paper work, I had some questions. I started to ask the officer my queries. He did not like me wanting answers to a few questions so he started yelling at me.

I stood my legal ground, asking why it was that I could not ask questions and get answers. With that, he moved into the hallway, continued to raise his voice at me, informing me that if I did not keep my mouth shut, he would arrest me for the weekend.

Other officers on duty gathered behind the screaming policeman and laughed heartily at me, a well-known pastor in town, being at the end of the officer’s mocking stick. I was shocked, humiliated and enraged. Yet I dared not speak one more word.

That night has haunted me for years. I cannot let go of it.

Even though I wrote a letter to the head of the department, complaining of the mistreatment leveled against me, the police corps banded together as one against me. I had not a chance. There was no other recourse but for me to live with the injustice.

I then thought of others who have endured far greater injustices. And now I come upon one of those situations in the lives of Brian and his wife and three daughters. So I relate to you the goings-on that continue to go on in one corner of our democracy or another. Because of what happened to me on a small scale, I can cry through the night on what is occurring to the Christine family.

I can fully believe it. I can fully understand. I can fully sympathize and weep.

____________________

Reprint from VIOdaily.com and MichNews.com

[WVNan]

Billie, I'm so glad you spotlighted Jo-Ann. I remember her first trip to D.C. for a freep. I don't know why I recall it so vividly unless it's because she or someone was reporting in from the road and that was the first time I realized how special Free Republic was and how powerful it would become. Imagine.....we could share our lives with each other from all over the world. Think, thousands of reporters giving us a front row seat on history around the world. I love the Chinese angle, because I am fascinated by things Chinese also. Don't think I could learn the language though. Hebrew was not so bad, but those Chinese characters look very difficult. I'm impressed that anyone could learn them. Good job sweetie.

[nutmeg]

I finally made it to your thread today! Better late than never, I guess.

Jo-Ann, you are truly one of THE Finest FReepers that we know of (and we know a lot!). Your tireless efforts in countering the left, the unwashed and the corrupt throughout the Mid-Atlantic East Coast have truly been an inspiration to us! Every time there's a major (or minor) rally in NYC or DC we just know you'll be there. We've had the pleasure of FReeping with you in both NYC and DC, and it has been an honor.

I especially admire the cool, calm and collected way you present the TRUTH to liberals who challenge you during FReeps. It'll take me the rest of my lifetime to hone that skill - you are multi-talented indeed!

Kudos also to you for the long hours you spent working for the wonderful Brett Schundler. I still believe 'his day will come'.

Congratulations on your "special day" here at FR and extra-congratulations on your two new grandchildren! :-)

nutmeg & zelig

[nutmeg]

Billie and FTH,

You two have outdone yourselves on Exit148's wonderful profile! This is by far one of the finest "Finest" threads I've seen, in design, layout, writing... and we even learned a few Chinese characters!

Well done! I'll be bookmarking this one for sure.

(Thanks for the ping, FTH!)