Free Republic

Note: The following text is a quote: Former State Department Official and Wife Arrested for Serving as Illegal Agents of Cuba for Nearly 30 Years Couple Allegedly Conspired to Provide Classified Information to Cuban Government A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government. The arrests were announced today by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Joseph Persichini, Jr.,...

"Resolved, That Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, be a committee, to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America." – July 4, 1776, Journals of Continental Congress For the design team, Congress chose three of the five men who were on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Although these distinguished committee members were among the ablest minds in the new nation, they had little knowledge of heraldry. To help convey their vision, they chose the artist Pierre Eugène Du Simitière to work with them.

The late inspiration for this was a book I saw in the bookstore, "Ansel Adams in Color", linked above. Very good photography (as you might expect), but not as iconic like his black-and-white images. So for fun I'm posting a picture of Vernal Falls from Adams in black-and-white and another one from nearly the same vantage in color. Which do you like better? That doesn't mean that color or B&W is really better, it's just an artistic perception. Also included are a couple of aerial shots. I didn't realize how close these falls are to Half Dome; that's because I...

Joe says: Gorefan - My heritage includes the Adams of Massachusetts and the Herndons of Virginia. The Adams papers I am in possession of plainly state they looked to "Vattel's Law of Nations" for guidance in determining who might be qualified as a "natural born Citizen". (Yes, they capitalized "Citizen".) Do you actually believe there was no discussion of the topic by the Founding Fathers? Are you truly that ignorant of how well the Founding Fathers understood the law and its possible impact on future generations? It is very clear you haven't a clue how well educated and intelligent...

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

Lately I have been looking at the moon and wondering if it will someday kill me. If I live another 50 years (which is entirely possible) I assume I will eventually be a robot, having shed my old skin and bones body and uploaded a scanned and digitized version of my brain to a machine. My fellow robots and I will live among the meat people for eons until the moon's orbit degrades, either gradually or because a meteor gives it a nudge, and Earth is annihilated in the collision. You might say I worry too much. But I've successfully...

TO: UNC-Wilmington Students FR: Mike Adams Welcome back! I am so glad to start another semester here at UNC by the Sea. I just got back from teaching at Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, Colorado. I also had some time off last week, which I spent considering some new policies for the new semester. There will be several minor as well as two major changes this semester. The purpose of this email is to explain the first of the two major changes in class policy. On my day off last week, I pulled up a chair on the front porch...

A lawyer for the The New York Times has sent a cease and desist letter to the Republican Governors Association that takes issue with the layout, name and typefaces of a satirical RGA website, which the Times says is "clearly intended to be nearly identical to NYTimes.com." The letter claims the site's design is an infringement of the Times' rights under the Copyright Act of 1976 and that it violates the Lanham Act by falsely suggesting that the Times sponsored or is associated with the RGA's site. The RGA's Corzine Times site, which targets Democratic New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine,...

John Kasich is a good man. I appeared on his show Heartland several times when it aired on Fox News. He also interviewed me once when he was filling in for Bill on the O’Reilly Factor. But now that he is running for governor of Ohio he may have a far more serious job in the near future. If elected, he will have to root out terrorist activity that is taking hold in the Buckeye State – activity that is being funded by Ohio taxpayers. If Kasich is elected, his efforts to fight terror will get little assistance from the...

"Have you considered the meaning of that word 'worthy'? Weigh it well….I had rather you should be worthy possessors of one thousand pounds honestly acquired by your own labor and industry, than of tens of millions by banks and tricks….I had rather you should be worthy makers of brooms and baskets than unworthy presidents of the United States procured by intrigue, factious slander and corruption" - Letter of John Adams to his grandson "It is an idea of the Christian religion, and ever has been of all believers of the immortality of the soul, that the intellectual part of man...

It looks like Duke University has another rape case on its hands. This one may hurt the university nearly as much as the one that rocked its campus back in 2006. Unlike the previous case, this one appears to involve a credible confession of sexual abuse. Like the previous case, crucial facts are already being filtered through the prism of identity politics. Frank Lombard is the associate director of Duke’s Center for Health Policy. The university administrator was recently arrested by the FBI and charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old son for sex. I tried to contact Frank Lombard...

Note: The following articles contains material that about the Duke University child exploitation case. It is not suitable for all readers. The main stream media is finally discussing the sexual preferences of Frank Lombard - the Duke University administrator accused of molesting and offering his five-year-old adopted son for sex, via the internet. Naturally, the newspapers are focusing on threats to the gay adoption movement not threats to those who are adopted by gay parents. I’d like to bring the conversation back to Frank Lombard for a moment. His potential as a child molester should have been detected by social...

About two months ago, I heard from an old friend with whom I had lost touch. Most of what he had to say revolved around his relationship with a man with whom he is now living. (snip) He said he and his boyfriend needed a church that is more tolerant. I’m going to recommend that he give The Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Carrboro, North Carolina a try. Until a couple of days ago, the Advocate website (www.ouradvocate.org) had a list of the members of its vestry, which included Frank Lombard. But after Lombard was arrested for allegedly trying...

A 26-year-old man has been sentenced to 70 years to life in prison for carjacking former state Senate leader Don Perata and firing a shot that left a young boy paralyzed. ... During that robbery, Adams fired a shot that went through the wall of a nearby building. The bullet struck then 10-year-old Christopher Rodriguez while he was taking a piano lesson and paralyzed him.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland Mayor Sam Adams could lose two homes in north Portland after falling behind on his mortgage payments. The homes in question sit side-by-side on North McClellan Street in the Kenton neighborhood and both are now in pre-foreclosure. KATU obtained a copy of two notices of default against the properties, showing the mayor has not paid a mortgage payment on either home for five months. With late fees, that adds up to over $10,000 in back payments. Adams said Tuesday his financial problems stemmed from the fact that he had to pay up front for legal bills...

Kendall Myers, 72, who appeared in federal court in Washington on Wednesday charged with spying for Havana for nearly 30 years, had a fascination with Northern Ireland. The Daily Telegraph has established that as well as seeking the envoy's post, which carried the rank of ambassador, Mr Myers travelled to the British Isles and met British and Irish officials, senior Northern Ireland politicians and intelligence officers. .... "Anything this guy could have found from his European responsibilities he might have funnelled to the Cubans for them to sell off," said John Bolton, a former top State Department official in the...

June 14, 2009Obama's Other Controversial ChurchBy Andrew Walden "This is a guy (former Weatherman terror-bomber Bill Ayers) who lives in my neighborhood ... the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago - when I was 8 years old - somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense." -- Barack Obama on the Campaign trail, 2008 As President Obama prepared to commemorate D-Day, the Associated Press dug up old details and photos to write a warm fuzzy story about the WW2 service record of Obama's maternal grandfather...

For the past few years, I’ve been arguing that those who like to be called “liberals” should instead be called statists. You know these people. They are the ones who, full of righteous indignation, speak incessantly of injustice and oppression in America. They also speak, in sentences full of smug self-assurance, as if they and only they possess the empathy and intellectual fortitude necessary to provide “solutions” to a host of social “problems” thrust upon a good people by a bad “society.” Edmund Burke was talking about these statists when he said “by (their) unprincipled facility of changing the state...

For the past few years, I’ve been arguing that those who like to be called “liberals” should instead be called statists. You know these people. They are the ones who, full of righteous indignation, speak incessantly of injustice and oppression in America. They also speak, in sentences full of smug self-assurance, as if they and only they possess the empathy and intellectual fortitude necessary to provide “solutions” to a host of social “problems” thrust upon a good people by a bad “society.”(snip) The American conservative today finds himself in a position of fighting a form of progressivism, which seems to...

Good afternoon, Perez. I’m sorry I haven’t yet taken the time to write you in response to your little flap with Miss California. I’ve been down in South Carolina spending the last few days with a beautiful woman who is opposed to gay marriage. I hope that doesn’t offend you. In Hollywood, that’s called bigotry. In South Carolina, it’s called “normal.” I’m sorry that I was recently complimented by an older gentleman for simply opening the car door for the aforementioned beautiful woman. I’m sorry because opening a door for a lady should be commonplace. It should not be so...

I once had a dog named Jake that I liked very much. He was a well-behaved dog. When I asked him to sit, he would sit. When I asked him to shake, he would shake. When I asked him to stay, he would stay. Because he was so eager for praise and approval, it was easy to control his behavior. That old dog was a lot like the liberals who read my columns. (snip)Those who read yesterday’s column read my spoof apology for an email I claimed I had sent to the Department of Sociology and Criminology at UNC-Wilmington. The...

A member of my forum posted this.... Not many talk like this anymore. Such beautiful words are all but common these days. Liberty will reign in America

PORTLAND, Ore. - New details are emerging every day as the pieces of the scandal surrounding Portland's embattled mayor continue to unfold and people come forward. A longtime friend of Beau Breedlove, who spoke with KATU News on condition of anonymity, has new light to shed on the scandal that has divided the city into two sides - those for and against Mayor Sam Adams. In this latest development, Breedlove's friend told KATU News that he heard from him almost four years ago that he was having sex with a Portland politician - at a time when Breedlove was 17...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mayor Sam Adams, who has admitted lying about a sexual relationship with a teenager, said Sunday that he would not resign. A city commissioner, Randy Leonard, told The Associated Press that Mr. Adams had left a phone message in the morning saying he had decided to remain in office. Two other commissioners told The Oregonian of Portland that Mr. Adams, the city’s first openly gay mayor, had told them the same thing. The fourth, Amanda Fritz, declined to comment. Efforts to reach Mr. Adams were unsuccessful. The Oregonian’s editorial page has called for his resignation, as...

One thing we seem to breed in Oregon are big political scandals, and the latest one is hitting Portland Mayor Sam Adams with gale force. Adams admitted to The Oregonian and Willamette Week Monday that he lied back in September of 2007 when he denied rumors that he had had a sexual relationship with a teenager who had been a legislative intern. Adams, who is openly gay, said that while he first met the intern, Beau Breedlove, when he was 17, the two did not have sex until after Breedlove turned 18. When rumors about the two first surfaced in...

Obama pick faces questions over bombers' clemencyBy PETE YOST Associated Press Writer Originally published Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 2:05 PM WASHINGTON — New York police detective Anthony S. Senft's life changed forever when a bomb set by Puerto Rican separatists exploded, blowing him 15 feet in the air and blinding him in one eye. Now, he's angry that Eric Holder, who played a key role in awarding clemency to the bombers, is in line to be attorney general. Holder, as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general, worked closely with the Justice Department's pardon attorney to raise the possibility of...

In light of the ongoing naval battles with Muslim pirates operating from Somalia.... America has been fighting Islamists for longer than many realize. Even before independence was declared, American ships were pirated, and their Christian crews enslaved, by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the “Dey of Algiers”—an Ottoman Islamist warlord ruling Algeria.... Lacking the ability to project U.S. naval force in the Mediterranean, America tried appeasement. In 1784, Congress agreed to fund tributes and ransoms in order to rescue U.S. ships and buy the freedom of enslaved American sailors....

What was the American Revolution? The American Revolution was one of the great turning points in the history of mankind. It marked the beginning of the end of slavery, led to the founding of the first large and stable republic in history, and inspired the establishment of governments based on the natural rights of man all over the world. In the minds of most Americans, the American War for Independence began on April 19, 1775, when shots were fired on Lexington Green. John Adams said, however, that our War for Independence was not the real American Revolution. That, he said,...

Philadelphia - A union staffer's 2002 court declaration asserted that current governor and former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell (D) encouraged Teamsters to pursue assault charges against a nonviolent protester, The Bulletin has learned. Testimony Mr. Rendell offered earlier that year differed markedly from the account. The differing versions emerge from the saga of assault victim Don Adams's arduous legal battles. After the Teamsters agreed in March to settle his almost decade-long civil action, Mr. Adams found the justice he received welcome, if incomplete. Mr. Adams, his sister Teri and about 40 others went to Center City to protest a visit...

Based on David McCullough's 2001 best-selling book, "John Adams," the HBO 7-part mini-series starring Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams is as important for the message that it sends as it is for the history it conveys. Beginning with young attorney Adams's defense of the British soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre (for whom he won an acquittal), the story follows the political career and personal life of Adams as he becomes a key member of the Continental Congress, editor/co-drafter of the Declaration of Independence, minister to France and England, vice president, then president....

For those awaiting the HBO John Adams, HBO is now playing over the next few days a 30 minute description of how the movie was made with particular emphasis on the technical aspects. It is well worth watching particularly if you can find one of the HD broadcasts. Now I begin to understand why movies are so expensive and how much artistic technology is involved. The link to an HBO schedule for this technical preview is at http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=664475. The schedule for the actual HBO series is at http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_SEARCH=GO&KEY=TITLE&VALUE=adams.Enjoy

When Hollywood's movie-makers and docu-dramatists get their hands on American history, accuracy, reality and truth often are tortured beyond recognition. But starting at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 16, HBO Films will be delivering the seven-part, nine-hour mini-series "John Adams." ... it is by all accounts a high-quality, historically accurate and meticulously faithful adaptation of super-historian David McCullough's blockbuster 2001 book of the same name. I talked to McCullough about the making of the HBO series Tuesday by phone from his home in West Tisbury, Mass.

Founder’s Quotes – Jefferson and Hamilton on Citizens Duty to be Armed “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.” Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Cartwright, 1824) ”If the representatives of the people betray...

COMMITTEE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE P.O. Box 306, Cheltenham, PA 19012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 10, 2007 Contact: Don Adams, ###.###.#### Teamster Beating Victims Appeal Judge’s Order To Pay Union $15 Grand Philadelphia – Two Clinton protesters, viciously beaten up by a group of pro-Clinton teamsters outside Philadelphia’s City Hall during a presidential visit nine years ago, last week appealed a federal judge’s order to pay two teamster unions $15,000.00 in legal costs stemming from an October, 2000 Federal Civil Rights suit. Five members of Teamsters Local 115 eventually pled guilty to criminal assault, conspiracy, and various other charges in the...

WILMINGTON -- An associate professor is suing the University of North Carolina Wilmington, claiming he was denied a promotion because of his conservative religious and political beliefs. Mike Adams is a national columnist who has taught at the university since 1993. The Board of Trustees turned down his application for full professorship last fall. Adams is seeking monetary damages and legal fees, but he says the fight is really about his reputation. "From the time I was an atheist and a democrat and after the time I became a Christian, and an outspoken conservative as well, I think some of...

Yesterday afternoon, I logged on to the "Global War" blog (global-war.bloghi.com) of Associate Professor Julio Pino – a Muslim convert who teaches at Kent State University. The heading for the site used to read "The Worldwide Web of Jihad: Daily News from the Most Dangerous Muslim in America." Now it reads "Are You Prepared for Jihad?" IN THE NAME OF OBL. 2007: THE YEAR OF ISLAMIC VICTORY!" Hardly able to believe what I was reading, I called Pino at his office in Ohio around 4 p.m. According to his secretary, he had not been at work that day (he only...

Good morning (name deleted): I want to take a few minutes to discuss a problem that I think will impair your ability to pass my class this semester. I also think it will impair your ability to be taken seriously as an adult in whatever profession you may choose. I am talking, of course, about your persistent inability to refrain from blurting out your thoughts while other people are trying to speak - your fellow students and, especially, your professors.

Hello students! Welcome back to UNC-Wilmington for another semester. My name is Dr. Adams and I’ll be your professor until May. I’ve prepared a handout for you explaining your one (and only) out-of-class assignment for the spring semester. During the course of the semester, you will be asked to make at least three trips down to 4th and Princess, which is the home of our local county courthouse. Of course, given the tendency of UNC-Wilmington students to drink and drive, several of you will be making more than your share of trips to the county courthouse. But let’s not deal...

Professor John Lewis Gaddis’ recent provocative analysis of the origins of “unilateralism” in American foreign policy highlights the pivotal role of John Quincy Adams. With candor and humility, Gaddis further reveals that his own contemporary assessment, “…is not a new interpretation. If you go back and read the famous Samuel Flagg Bemis, the very distinguished Yale diplomatic historian from half a century ago, Bemis was certainly making this argument about the importance of John Quincy Adams. But I think this has been lost somewhat in intervening years. So, to an extent, I am trying to rediscover John Quincy Adams, in...

Two Republican terror groups opposed to the Good Friday Agreement have denied they are involved in any plot to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. The Irish National Liberation Army and the Continuity IRA said this weekend there are no plans to assassinate Sinn Fein leaders. They also condemned any threats to the two Sinn Fein MPs even though they were political enemies. The INLA and its political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, described claims by Adams that he and Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly were under threat as 'nonsense'. An INLA spokesman told The Observer that the allegation...

Don’t let the biting sarcasm and all the talk about firearms fool you. There are times when I am wholly lacking in courage and simply afraid I have bitten off more than I can chew. In fact, I was feeling that way just last week when I arrived at the University of Minnesota- Morris to give a speech called “How to Win Friends and Irritate Feminists.” When I walked into the room - which initially had only 100 seats – they were bringing in extra chairs for the overflow crowd. That helped eventually squeeze 168 people into the room. With...

Until just recently, the UNCW administration was trying to deprive me of both a) my right to appeal their decision to deny my promotion to full professor and, b) my right to a written explanation of that decision. Now, the leader of our local communist dictatorship has given me a written explanation although I am told by university officials that I have no right to use it in an appeal. In fact, here at UNC-We Hate Due Process, I can’t appeal the decision with any documents at all. There is no appellate process whatsoever. Given that I have won several...

<p>PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A special three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals will convene tomorrow to hear arugments as to whether a federal civil rights suit may proceed against Governor Ed Rendell for his alleged role in the 1998 Teamster beating of two Clinton protesters outside Philadelphia's City Hall. The incident occurred during a presidential fundraising visit at the height of the Lewinsky scandal, when calls for Clinton's impeachement were at a fever pitch.</p>

Dear Students: First of all, I would like to thank each of you for signing up for my class this semester at UNC-Wilmington. Part of my job as your professor is to dispel certain myths you learn in your other classes, especially sociology. If you decide to question these myths in Sociology 101, your professor is likely to assign you to sensitivity training sessions. Because our university faculty is so overwhelmingly liberal, many of these myths constitute arrogant dismissals of conservative ideas – ideas that your professors would take more seriously if they had a little more experience interacting with...

 David McCullough was born in 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was educated there and at Yale University. Author of 1776, John Adams, Truman, Brave Companions, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, The Great Bridge and The Johnstown Flood, he has twice received the Pulitzer Prize and twice the National Book Award, as well as the Francis Parkman Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The following is adapted from a public lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on March 31, 2006, during Mr. McCullough's one-week residency at the College to teach a class on “Leadership and the History...

Well, it seems as if the rank and file elitist Country Club Republicans are flexing their muscles in the High Desert, not to mention down the hill, too, when it comes to who backs whom for the 59th assembly district race and why. When it comes to the two most likely frontrunners in the Victor Valley—encompassing Hesperia and Apple Valley—longtime GOP grass-roots crusader and people’s champion, Barry Hartz, versus government bureaucracy insider and recipient of Supervisor (San Bernardino County First District) Postmus’ back-scratching political favors, Anthony Adams, the battle lines have clearly been drawn and it’s easy to see, when...

April 10, 2006 issue - America's first fight was over faith. As the Founding Fathers gathered for the inaugural session of the Continental Congress on Tuesday, September 6, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Thomas Cushing, a lawyer from Boston, moved that the delegates begin with a prayer. Both John Jay of New York and John Rutledge, a rich lawyer-planter from South Carolina, objected. Their reasoning, John Adams wrote his wife, Abigail, was that "because we were so divided in religious sentiments"—the Congress included Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and others—"we could not join in the same act of worship." The objection...

America’s Earliest Terrorists: Lessons from America’s first war against Islamic terror. By Joshua E. London (author of "Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation," John Wiley & Sons, September 2005, http://www.victoryintripoli.com/ ) At the dawn of a new century, a newly elected United States president was forced to confront a grave threat to the nation — an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists. Worse still, these Islamic partisans operated under the protection and sponsorship of rogue Arab states ruled by ruthless and cunning dictators. Sluggish...

Experts Say IRA Has Criminal Empire By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer Thu Sep 29, 9:50 PM ET The Irish Republican Army may no longer want to fight the British, but detectives say it's still in business — as owners of pubs and clubs, smugglers of fuel and cigarettes, bank robbers by night and property investors by day. Throughout the past 35 years of conflict over this British territory, the IRA has built a sophisticated criminal empire throughout Ireland and beyond, laundering profits through legitimately owned businesses and properties worth more than $400 million, anti-racketeering experts say. Now that weapons...

Actor Don Adams Dies at 82 Monday, September 26, 2005 LOS ANGELES — Don Adams (search), the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s television spoof of James Bond (search) movies, "Get Smart," has died. He was 82. Adams died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (search), his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said Monday, adding the actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since.