Free Republic

Casey Anthony. The name and the trial spark emotion. But there is a far deeper issue lurking beneath, a monster of much greater importance. Recent years have borne witness to the rampant rise of prosecutorial zeal in the courts. While no responsible citizen wants crime unpunished, prosecutors, in all their forms, have been growing in power and influence. When prosecutorial power teams up with political ambition or a high-reaching career path, we must watch carefully the potential threat to individual liberty.

Lockdown, pay up January 17, 2011 Here's something to digest with your big new Illinois income tax increase: You would assume that the Menard Correctional Center is a dangerous place to work. It does, after all, hold violent prisoners. You probably wouldn't assume that the biggest injury risk for the guards is locking and unlocking the doors. Or that this is costing you a lot of money. Illinois has paid out at least $10 million over the last three years in workers' compensation claims to employees at the southern Illinois prison. Much of the money has gone to corrections officers...

(kreuz.net) "As the Priest Network was in Rome for the Priestly Year this Summer and we have been in contact with various dicasteries, we were shaken by the powerlessness and helplessness of the Roman authorities in the face of Germany's plight." Hendrick Jolie (46) said this in an interview in the most recent edition of the Catholic monthly magazine 'Kirchliche Umschau'. Fr. Jolie is a Pastor in the Diocese of Mainz and member of the Spokesman Committee of the 'Network of Catholic Priests' [Netzwerks Katholischer Priester].

Liturgical Abuses: A Photo is Worth a Thousand Words Italy. From Friday to Sunday there will be a "Ratznger Schülerkreis" over the supposed "fruitfulness and success of the Second Vatican Council". As the primary speaker, the new President of Christian Unity, Archbishop Kurt Koch, will speak. He is speaking under the title: "The Second Vatican Council between Tradition and Innovation". In a second essay he will mention the Liturgical Constitution of the Second Vatican Council and the devastating post-Conciliar liturgical reform. Link goes to photos:

Nuaf Atar spoke about the use of Gazan schools to shoot rockets at Israel. Zabhi Atar revealed that Hamas used food coupons to entice Palestinians to join its ranks and Hamad Zalah said Hamas took control of UNRWA food supplies transferred to Gaza and refused to distribute them to people affiliated with Fatah. More than 100 Palestinians were captured during the three-week operation but most were released and only a few dozen - members of Hamas and other terrorist factions - are still being held by Israel, officials said. Some of them may be used as bargaining chips in negotiations...

The Denver Post ran a column by Al Lewis that questioned the need to enact a Right to Work law in Colorado and the reaction has been visceral. Dozens of citizens have taken it upon themselves to teach Mr. Lewis a thing or two about the unfairness of forced unionism. A sample of the reaction: * . . . I am 72 years old and had been in the work force for 50 years prior to my employment with the City of Boulder and this is the FIRST time that I have ever been in a union. $10.00 a month...

We've boycotted Olympic games before-usually for human rights abuses. Considering what's happening in Tibet-AND-the levels of pollution in Beijing- it's time to do it again!!

It's often said that the abortion industry is under-regulated. Former abortion clinic employees have described some appalling and filthy conditions inside the centers. Their reports to the outside world describe abortion centers that are anything but clean and sanitary. Last summer, the State of New Jersey forced an abortion clinic to close down for violation of numerous regulations. The Alternatives abortion clinic, located in Atlantic City, was closed after an inspection by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services' Division of Health Care Quality and Oversight. Stemming from an anonymous complaint, the investigation resulted in a 104-page summary...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly approved a draft resolution Tuesday expressing "deep concern" at the systematic human rights violations in Iran, including torture, flogging, amputations, stoning and public executions. The 192-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 73-53 with 55 abstentions. The resolution is not legally binding but carries moral weight and reflects the majority view of world opinion. The resolution was introduced by Canada and backed by the United States and Western nations. It was opposed by many countries whose human rights records have been criticized and who object to the General Assembly targeting...

Yesterday Glenn Reynolds cited the (Los Angeles Times's) latest report on Hillary's dirty money with the tag another (Hsu drops). The Times found pockets of financial support for Ms. Hillary in what appear to be unlikely places:"All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton." "Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring...

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 "IT IS THE HOLY FATHER WHO WILL DECIDE" - Ranjith [Courtesy, Inside the Vatican] All who are interested in the Church’s liturgy are wondering if the Pope will soon issue a motu proprio allowing the celebration of the "Old Mass," and (if he does), what it will say. One of the Vatican’s liturgists sheds light on the Pope’s plans ANTHONY VALLE: Your Excellency, you have been generous in giving several interviews to the international press regarding liturgy since becoming the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship. Some of your statements have been misinterpreted and aroused...

ENSAAF today released its report, Punjab Police: Fabricating Terrorism through Illegal Detention and Torture (June 2005 to August 2005) (http://www.ensaaf.org/ft-report.html). This report details human rights violations committed by Indian security forces in recent militancy-related arrests. From June 2005 to August 2005, Indian police claim to have arrested several dozen individuals intent on reviving or supporting militancy in Punjab. These arrests center around the apprehension of Jagtar Singh Hawara, the main accused in the 1995 assassination of Punjab’s chief minister. In August and September 2005, ENSAAF documented 28 cases of detention of Punjabis accused of militancy-related activities. Its study reveals that,...

"The Associated Press story included a candid quote from presidential counselor Doug Sosnik: "This is a guy that has never met an idea that he doesn't like, never met a person who's not interesting and never found a place in the world he wouldn't want to go." As the GAO study shows, he also never met a tab he didn't want the taxpayer to pick up."

Families and spokespersons for the victims of 9/11 have banded together to form “Take Back the Memorial,” a group working to prevent an addition at Ground Zero designed to show why our nation ”deserved” what happened on that infamous day in September. Plans for the International Freedom Center (IFC) at Ground Zero were revealed in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Debra Burlingame, a member of the board of directors for the WTC Memorial Foundation and sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, captain of American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. “Rather than a respectful tribute...

After speaking with soldiers, sailors, and civilians who collectively staff the Joint Task Force - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on my recent visit to that base, I left convinced that abuse definitely exists at the detention facilities. But not the slander and hyperbole about alleged mistreatment of the unlawful combatants confined there that we've all heard. There is far more serious abuse: the relentless, merciless attacks on American servicemen and women by these same terrorist thugs. Many of the orange jumpsuit-clad detainees fight their captors at every opportunity. They attack guards whenever the soldiers enter their cells, trying to reach up...

The prime minister of Vietnam was met by angry protests and sharp questions about human rights as he kicked off a historic week-long visit to America with a stop in Seattle yesterday. A contingent of about 300 Vietnamese emigres demonstrated outside a downtown hotel as the communist leader, Phan Van Khai, conducted a press conference inside, police said. A police spokeswoman, Christie-Lynne Bonner, described the demonstrators as "pro-democracy." Some critics of Mr. Khai carried banners denouncing the regime in Hanoi. The protesters shouted "Down with Communists" and some carried signs that read, "Khai Is Another Saddam Hussein," the Associated Press...

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai of Vietnam will meet with President Bush. Today, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, chairman of the Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations subcommittee, is holding a hearing on Vietnam's human-rights record. On Friday, Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said: "President Bush needs to send a clear message to Hanoi that progress on human rights will affect other aspects of Vietnam's evolving relationship with the United States." However, the State Department has declined to send a representative to Smith's congressional hearing. What message does this send? Human Rights Watch reports:...

As distrust of the press grows, news articles are relentlessly scrutinized for bias, but almost no one is focusing on stories that are simply ignored. For instance, a May 18 report in the Afghan newspaper Kabul Weekly said the riots that killed 17 people were not about disrespect for the Koran in American detainment camps--they were a show of force by the Taliban and another fundamentalist group, Hezb-e Eslami. "These demonstrations were organized by the Taliban and their supporters, and only some naive people joined the protesters," the newspaper said. The BBC picked up the story on May 22, but...

In the late 1970s I was working for Crocker National Bank in California, which at the time was the eleventh-largest bank in the country. A friend of mine worked for one of its offices along the U.S.-Mexico border in California's Imperial Valley. At the time, the president of Mexico announced to the public that his country was considering a monetary devaluation of its currency. He told his fellow countrymen that it was imperative that Mexicans everywhere not move their currency out of Mexico (and into the U.S.). As an operations supervisor at the time, I was keenly aware of the...

On a weekend when we praise those who serve in our military, you might want to know how that military is being criticized. Last week, Amnesty International issued its annual report. In it, the United States was criticized for: Thumbing "its nose at the rule of law and human rights." Abuse and mistreatment of prisoners. Not acting quickly enough on legal challenges from detainees. Attempting to "redefine" torture. Making a "mockery of justice." And, in the wallop sentence that Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan knew would make headlines, Guantanamo Bay was called "the gulag of our times." We don't see...

"Gulag" is the Russian acronym made famous by Alexander Solzhenitsyn to describe the vast network of Soviet slave labor camps in which millions died. It is thus one more sign of the moral degradation of Amnesty International that the pressure group is now calling the U.S. detention facility for Taliban and al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time." At a press conference Wednesday releasing its annual human rights report, William Schultz, the executive director of Amnesty's U.S. branch, called the U.S. a "leading purveyor and practitioner" of torture. He urged foreign governments to investigate and arrest...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The head of the secret police under Gen. Augusto Pinochet said in a court document that the former dictator was responsible for the abuses committed by the feared security service, his lawyer said Friday. Retired Gen. Manuel Contreras also submitted a document to the Supreme Court disclosing the fate of more than 500 dissidents who disappeared after being arrested by his force, said Juan Carlos Manns, Contreras' lawyer. The report confirmed that many of the victims were thrown into the sea after being killed - a disclosure that had already been made last year by a...

The United Nations has chosen a group of nations which will decide the agenda for its next Human Rights Commission meeting. The only problem is that three of those nations are human rights abusers themselves. The U.N. has chosen Cuba, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia to join the “Working Group on Situations,” which will plan the course for effectively dealing with human rights violations. The panel also includes Hungary and the Netherlands. The U.S. State Department has denounced the choices of Cuba and Zimbabwe, which Secretary Condoleeza Rice called “outposts of tyranny” in her confirmation hearings. “The United States believes that...

Tilting at Liturgical Abuses by Peter W. Miller Statue of Don Quixote "Our liturgies are completely faithful to the reforms of Vatican II," was one of the more concise responses from my pastor years ago. It was only some time later that I would realize how right he was. Initially, his brevity was somewhat disappointing given the work put into the case I presented to him. For I had become a self-taught scholar of "liturgical abuse" and arming myself with Inaestimabile Donum, other documents from the Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW) and selected Q&A responses from some of the more...

In yet another example of why journalists are held in such low esteem by most Americans, the Associated Press finds itself under legal challenge from six Navy SEALs and two of their wives over a series of photographs that the news agency published this month. The pictures, taken from a public Web site that was located by an AP reporter using a Google search, seemed to show the SEALs mistreating prisoners. Because the photos carried a date stamp of May 2003, the AP story said, they might have constituted the earliest photographic evidence of prisoner abuse in Iraq. The problem,...

How did the abuses get started? Selected quotes from the past on specific problems raised in Redemptionis Sacramentum Redemptionis Sacramentum §25 exhorts bishops to look into the working and membership of diocesan worship commissions, who should "be chosen from among those whose soundness in the Catholic faith and knowledge of theological and cultural matters are evident". A survey of books and articles on the Liturgy reveals that many practices condemned as abuses began as recommendations from influential liturgical experts. (Most experts quoted are members of liturgical organizations and/or are academics who have shaped liturgical practice since the Second Vatican Council.)

Now is not the time for the United States to withdraw from Iraq. Stung by the damage done by revelations that American personnel abused detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Bush spoke on Arab television and was unequivocal: "People in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent." He pledged to punish the soldiers involved. Across the Middle East, officials condemned the United States. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, for example, said the incident was proof that the United States had a "systematic plan to torture Iraqis, to kill them, to rape them." Syria's official daily, Ath-Thawra, called...

The past few weeks we were all very astounded and disgusted by the pictures and tales of abuse coming out of Iraq with regard to our U.S. forces and the treatment of Iraqi prisoners. On Friday, May 7th, the Secretary of Defense and Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were hauled before two congressional committees to answer questions of accountability in this sordid scandal. On Tuesday, May 11th, General Antonio Taguba was testifying before congress regarding his report – the “15-6 Report” – and his findings. Now for the real bombshell; SFTT's website provided the conduit for the key...

WASHINGTON: India needs to rein in its troops responsible for widespread human rights violations in occupied Kashmir if it wants to improve its image in the world, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday. "This is the kind of message that needs to be sent (to India) ... that this type of abuses are not acceptable," said Michael G. Kozak, who heads the department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. Mr Kozak, while responding to an observation at a congressional hearing in Washington, said India "ought to clean that stuff up ... if it wants to improve its...

"The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure." This statement does not, as some might expect, refer to Iraqi detainees, but is commentary by Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, in Farmer v. Brennan, about the U.S. prison system. Those who draw a straight line of responsibility between...

Ion Mihai Pacepa: Vietnam-Era Anti-War Movement Got Its Spin From the Kremlin Richmond Times-Dispatch May 3, 2004 Part of Senator John Kerry's appeal to a certain segment of Americans is his Vietnam-veteran status coupled with his anti-war activism during that period. On April 12, 1971, Kerry told the U.S. Congress that American soldiers claimed to him that they had "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned on the power, cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan." The exact...

Homestead racked up thousands in travel 2-5-04 By Lex Alexander, Staff Writer News & Record Posted 7:30 a.m. GREENSBORO — More than a dozen cruises, with expenses topping $112,000, were paid for with credit cards belonging to nonprofit home builder Project Homestead between 1997 and 2001, city records show. The records, compiled during the city’s recent audit of Homestead and released this week, also document other non-cruise travel purchases for places such as St. Thomas and the Bahamas with corporate credit cards issued to senior employees of the nonprofit. Some of the travel paid for by Homestead involved people who...

Officials at a federal prison in New York hindered an investigation that determined that as many as 20 guards abused detainees who were picked up shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department reported Thursday. Investigators found hundreds of videotapes that officials at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn had said were destroyed or erased, according to a report by the department's internal watchdog, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. The tapes confirmed the detainees' allegations of abuses that were outlined in a June report by Fine, the follow-up inquiry said. Investigators said many of the 84 detainees were mistreated....

For a half-century now, Fidel Castro has been in power in Cuba, just 90 miles away from Florida. Unfortunately, not only could this have been prevented, but the United States today has the resources to finally give the Cuban people the freedom they deserve, with not a shot being fired. The mass opposition to Castro’s dying regime makes a unique opportunity to win a victory in the War on Terrorism, the struggle against proliferation, the War on Drugs, and ultimately, world peace. As I will explain below, the fact that we have such capability doesn’t mean we have the option...

Why is President Bush continuing policies that were initiated by President Clinton? The voters elected Bush to change obnoxious Clinton policies, and the voters don't understand why Bush is keeping the following seven in force. 1. One example is the Clinton administration's abolition of the U.S. Army's Risk Rule, which had exempted women in support units from areas that involve "inherent risk of capture." That policy change, ordered by the Clinton feminists, is the reason why a single mother of two young children was killed in the Iraq war and another single mother of a 2-year-old was taken prisoner. When...

Pope Issues Encyclical on Eucharist: It’s Deja vu all over again Thomas A. Droleskey PhD REMNANT COLUMNIST, New York One of the great sages of the past eight decades is a man who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1924. Christened Lawrence Peter Berra, his childhood friend, Joseph Garagiola, nicknamed him “Yogi” because his squat demeanor called to mind a Buddhist engaged in meditation. Yogi Berra became famous not only for his exploits as a Hall of Fame catcher with the New York Yankees (who would later manage both the Yankees and the New York Mets, taking both teams...

Why he’s writing on the Eucharist today In Ecclesia de Eucharistia, released on Holy Thursday, Pope John Paul II says he seeks to ‘help to banish the dark clouds of unacceptable doctrine and practice’ By Russell Shaw 5/4/2003 Before the publication of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia (on the Eucharist in its relationship to the Church), there was concern in Vatican circles whether it would be strong enough. As it turns out, it is a warm, faith-filled, sometimes moving document — and more than slightly tough. In undertaking to "help to banish the dark clouds of unacceptable...

Here is the list The year after the name is when membership is up. 1. Algeria 2003 2. Argentina 2005 3. Armenia 2004 4. Australia 2005 5. Austria 2004 6. Bahrain 2004 7. Belgium 2003 8. Brazil 2005 9. Burkina Faso 200510. Cameroon 2003 11. Canada 2003 12. Chile 2004 13. China 2005 14. Costa Rica 2003 15. Croatia 2004 16. Cuba 200317. Democratic Republic of the Congo 2003 18. France 2004 19. Gabon 2005 20. Germany 2005 21. Guatemala 2003 22. India 2003 23. Ireland 2005 24. Japan 2005 25. Kenya 2003 26. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 2003 27. Malaysia...

“I have concluded that this case was mismanaged if viewed from the perspective of the family and their philosophical views,” Puckett wrote in a prepared statement. “I find it increasingly frustrating, and for me unacceptable, that our society, and more specifically our government, goes out of its way to be inclusive of harmful and often deviant lifestyles, but stands rigid against those families who have a solid Christian lifestyle or are unwilling to accept dependency on the government for subsistence. I hope that in the future the director of Social Services will take a more active role in ensuring that...

Start Of Stratton Case Might Be The End By Allison Hart Mecklenburg commissioners aren’t the only ones who will be reviewing the Stratton case next week. On Monday, Feb. 17 the Strattons will go before the North Carolina Court of Appeals to contest the legality of one of their first court hearings. The Strattons claim their adjudication hearing, held on March 12, 2001, did not follow due process laws and that they were coerced into forfeiting their right to present evidence and witness testimony during the hearing. In juvenile court, the adjudication hearing determines if children brought into the custody...

WASHINGTON – Concerned Women for America (CWA) criticized Planned Parenthood’s abuse of Christmas by its hawking an offensive version of a Christmas card that reads “Choice on Earth,” instead of “Peace on Earth.” “Planned Parenthood, a giant organization that receives hundreds of millions of tax dollars, has chosen to profit from a day sacred to Christians by offending them. The group twists a well-known Scripture in which God offers peace on earth – not abortion – through the birth of His Son Jesus Christ. Planned Parenthood officials are too hardened by their mission of profiting from abortion to see that...

Why do human rights activists object to a dossier of human rights abuses?You can vaccinate key military personnel against smallpox. But you can’t inoculate the British Left against its own strain of wilful stupidity. The Government yesterday chose to highlight the grotesque campaign of torture and brutalisation which President Saddam Hussein has been inflicting on his own people. Drawing on the work of the United Nations and human rights organisations, the Foreign Office briefly sketched the scale of Saddam’s depravity. His regime beats detainees on the soles of their feet with metal cables until they lose consciousness, suspends individuals from...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department's inspector general is investigating the travels of Army Secretary Thomas White, under scrutiny for ties to his former employer Enron Corp. , a Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman said on Thursday. Spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to discuss details of the investigation except to say that it included a visit this month by White and his wife to Colorado in a government aircraft during which the couple sold a house for $6.5 million. "The IG's office is looking at Secretary White's travels," Whitman said. "We don't discuss details of such investigations." The inspector general's...