Free Republic

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a Dumpster, but since she didn't, I should "off" myself. Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down. Who says public discourse hasn't deteriorated? The fierce reaction to my column has been both bracing and enlightening. After 20 years of column writing, I'm familiar with angry mail. But the past few days have produced...

While the campaigns go about their business of calling each other lying bags of dog excrement, and the left wing media (who actually are lying bags of dog excrement) go about trying to smear Sarah Palin, her daughters, her husband, Alaska, mayors, small towns, bitter clingers, and anyone who disagrees with Barack Obama on principle; A word of caution. The voters are watching. Listen to the frustrated rage of this woman at McCain's townhall.

Switzerland: Ethnic Albanians keep a grip on heroin supplyEthnic Albanian criminal gangs continue to pose a serious security threat, dominating the transit and supply of heroin to Switzerland, warns a federal police expert. By Simon Bradley for swissinfo (27/08/08) Three members of the same Kosovo family are currently on trial in Switzerland accused of operating one of Europe's largest heroin wholesale operations. Prosecutors say the 69-year-old father and his two sons, aged 42 and 28, used their base in the southeast European country to import 1.5 tons of heroin from Turkey for sale elsewhere. "[The clan] has been one of...

The eruption of outrage, shock and fear that is flowing over Barack Obama’s campaign like hot lava because his pastor has preached some strident sermons tells us one thing for certain: Many white people don’t know black people at all. If they did, they would know that Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago is hardly the only black minister who uses the pulpit to rant against racial duplicity and injustice. The black church has always been the place for letting our hair down and speaking our peace -- a safe haven from the criminations outside. It’s how and why the black...

As media digest the recent John McCain sex scandal allegations by the New York Times, one side of the story seems destined to get ignored: one of the four co-authors took money from a liberal activist group to fund a hit piece about Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) in 2006. Before becoming an investigative reporter for the Times, Pulitzer Prize winner Marilyn W. Thompson was editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky... when she was editor of one of the leading newspapers in Kentucky, took money from a liberal activist group to hire a Democrat Congressional Fellow for a hit piece...

AUSTIN — The ability of the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee to raise national party money for the general election campaign in Texas may be hindered if Hillary Rodham Clinton is the party's presidential nominee, one-time senatorial candidate Mikal Watts said Tuesday. "If Hillary is the nominee, that will have an effect on whether the national Democrats will play in Texas," Watts said. "The prevailing thought is the Republicans don't have anybody who will motivate their base to get out. There are some who think Hillary will do that," he said. Watts said he has seen Texas polling that shows "right-wing...

“BLOWBACK” is an intelligence term for adverse, unintended consequences of secret operations. The CIA first used it in a report on the 1953 operation that overthrew the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. Some in the intelligence community have been working with liberal journalists and Democrats on Capitol Hill to embarrass President Bush and to stymie his foreign policy initiatives. The most successful of these covert operations was the Valerie Plame affair, in which White House officials were falsely blamed for “outing” a CIA undercover officer who was not in fact undercover. (It was then Deputy Secretary of State Richard...

The following is a conclusion of a long article by a philosopher Lee Harris where he is deconstructing a frequently heard lately charge of "blowback" to US actions in the world (i.e. that 9/11 was a "blowback" for the United States' foreign policy toward the Muslim world over the past half century or so, going back to the CIA engineered coup in 1953 that ousted Iranian leader Mossadegh, and that  "we had it coming" as a response to "American imperialism") ...This conclusion, however, poses a radical dilemma. A libertarian can plausibly argue that politicians should not interfere with domestic affairs,...

Vandalism at Westboro Baptist Church Friday November 2 2007 9:44 TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Topeka police are investigating vandalism at the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. Police said graffiti spray-painted on the church read, "God hates intolerance'' and "God hates the Phelps,'' an apparent reference to the church's belief that God is punishing the United States for its support of homosexuals. The vandalism was discovered on the day after a Baltimore jury awarded 11 million dollars to the father of a fallen Marine who sued the church over its protest...

Waxman Denies Investigation of Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer October 10, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on Wednesday denied that he is conducting or ever planned to conduct a congressional investigation of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin and called on a conservative magazine to retract its report that he asked investigators to compile information on the popular conservative talk radio hosts. "The American Spectator report about a congressional investigation into talk radio is completely false," Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a statement to Cybercast News...

Huge mosque stirs protests in Cologne By Harry de Quetteville in Cologne Last Updated: 12:39am BST 25/06/2007 The construction of one of Europe's biggest mosques near to a globally famous Christian landmark has sparked a furious row in Germany. Immigration and integration are hugely sensitive questions in Germany, which is home to a Turkish community of several million. But almost within the shadow of Cologne Cathedral, political correctness has now been replaced by bitter confrontation as the city's Muslims begin to build a 2,000-capacity mosque with twin minarets that will reach 170ft. "Muslims have been here for 40 years, yet...

George W. Bush's 2004 campaign fund-raisers and contributors are being bombarded with appeals for money by Sen. John McCain's heavy-spending, money-short 2008 campaign. McCain is concentrating heavily on the rich target of lawyers and lobbyists in Washington, D.C. They have been invited to multiple McCain fund-raising events held in the nation's capital, currently a $1,000-a-ticket reception June 26 at the Capitol Hill Club with a potential "event co-chair" asked to raise $50,000. A large percentage of the Bush fund-raising team remains uncommitted, a signal that the Republican establishment is not satisfied with the present field seeking the party's nomination. McCain's...

Afghan Warlord Says He Helped Bin Laden Escape Tora Bora Thursday, January 11, 2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a television interview broadcast Thursday that his fighters helped Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden escape intense U.S. bombing in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001. Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and leader of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group, told Pakistan's private Geo TV network that when the United States began its assault on the rugged Afghan mountains five years ago, some of his fighters moved bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and other associates to...

Jon Stewart, the sage of Comedy Central, is one of the few to be honest about it. "What if Bush ... has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may ... implode." Daniel Schorr, another critic of the Bush foreign policy, ventured, a bit more grudgingly, that Bush "may have had it right." Right on what? That America, using power harnessed to democratic ideals, could begin a transformation of the Arab world from endless tyranny and intolerance to decent governance and democratization. Two years ago, shortly before the invasion...

AS THE SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SPIDERWEB OF LIES SPUN BY former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV unravels, the media has gone out of its way to question the credibility of…Karl Rove. Despite Rove’s demonstrable non-leak of Valerie Plame’s non-secret identity, the dogs continue to gather, hungry for a second term scandal, while the Wilsons’ blatant self-promotion erodes whatever basis they had for a story in the first place. Perhaps Joe Wilson’s two biggest whoppers were his claim to have spoken out because of his deep, non-partisan commitment to “truth,” and his inconsolable remorse that his wife’s closely guarded anonymity had become...

AS THE SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SPIDERWEB OF LIES SPUN BY former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV unravels, the media has gone out of its way to question the credibility of…Karl Rove. Despite Rove’s demonstrable non-leak of Valerie Plame’s non-secret identity, the dogs continue to gather, hungry for a second term scandal, while the Wilsons’ blatant self-promotion erodes whatever basis they had for a story in the first place. Perhaps Joe Wilson’s two biggest whoppers were his claim to have spoken out because of his deep, non-partisan commitment to “truth,” and his inconsolable remorse that his wife’s closely guarded anonymity had become...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., revealed Friday that two years ago he discussed the blown cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame with then CIA director George Tenet and that Tenet "was furious." Tenet promptly called the Justice Department to demand an investigation into who in the Bush administration leaked Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak, Schumer said at a hearing held by House and Senate Democrats. Novak revealed Plame's identity in July 2003 in a column in which he said she played a key role in having her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, sent to Niger to investigate...

I am thinking about writing a letter to my local fish wrap because editor was crying about the Rove nonsense and the fact that Judith Miller was a hero to all for standing up for the press and their "First Amendment Rights" and protection of confidential sources. The jest of my letter is going to focus on why we shouldn't feel sorry for Ms. Miller and the rest of the press because they (the liberal press) are the first ones to applaud when the First Amendment protections to free speech during federal elections was attacked (McCain/Feingold) and when a court...

In journalism, the definition of “leak” suggests that it is applied to government officials who purposely give reporters secret or confidential information in order to publicize something they do not like so that it can be defeated before being voted upon. “Outing” a CIA agent is only a crime if the agent is under cover overseas or has been during the past five years. This law was created to prevent the assassinations of CIA agents on foreign shores as had been caused by Philip Agee in 1978 who listed CIA agents undercover in foreign cities, causing the murder of some....

The buzz is that all of the fun-loving Dims are having "Rovegate" parties to trash Karl Rove and GWB over the CIA outing controversy. We need to show we can have fun too......by having a Wilson-Plame Look-Alike Contest. Post here your choices for the look-alikes.

Was it really a secret that Joe Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA? It's the top story in the Washington Post this morning as well as in many other media outlets. Who leaked the fact that the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV worked for the CIA? What also might be worth asking: "Who didn't know?" I believe I was the first to publicly question the credibility of Mr. Wilson, a retired diplomat sent to Niger to look into reports that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium for his nuclear-weapons program. On July 6, Mr. Wilson wrote an...

Now I read that Matt Cooper’s (the journalist who received Rove’s so-called ‘leak’) wife is Mandy Grunwald; media consultant and campaign advisor to both Bill and Hillary Clinton......

David Corn responding to Clifford May's column in National Review. Blah, blah, blah. Unconvincing. Those of you following this closely will want to read it for clues, but I'm only going to post what (to me) was the big news: Here's another fact that may interest anyone who thinks May might have a point:Number of times I've been contacted by Patrick Fitzgerald, interviewed or contacted by his investigators, and called before the grand jury: 0. What the h*ll is this? David Corn published an article only two days after Novak's column that exposed Plame in far greater detail than Novak...

An interesting post by Cliff May: "This morning, I have a piece up elsewhere on NRO showing that The Nation’s David Corn--not syndicated columnist Bob Novak--was the first to reveal that Valerie Plame was an undercover operative. It further suggests that David did so based on information provided to him by none other than Joseph C. Wilson IV. While working on that piece, I had an exchange with David and, with his permission, I thought I’d share that with you. Dear David: I have a question--one you may not be willing to answer but I’m curious so let me try:...

Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's "cover" (even if she had not been a covert CIA agent at the time of the alleged "leaks")? It is distinctly possible, (though it may be unlikely that Joe Wilson himself directly was NY Times Judith Miller's source), since Joe Wilson himself evidently routinely bragged openly to strangers about her CIA employment, prior to such "cover" being "blown" in the press. Here's an example of Joe's apparently routine and open bragging about Valerie being a "CIA agent," which became known directly to me over a...

I have posted a few times before; my son is a Marine stationed at a primitive firebase in eastern Afghanistan. They conduct constant missions rooting out insurgents along the Pakistani border; he has been there for about 8 months, due to leave there mid-June for a break, then possibly to Iraq. Today I got a call from him at my work; never had him do that. Satellite phone, big time delay............."Just wanted to see how everyone is......." he says. Some more pleasantries, and then my son, who has never been too vocal about current events or politics, says that the...

May 3, 2005 Beijing Finds Anti-Japan Propaganda a 2-Edged Sword By JOSEPH KAHN Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press An anti-Japanese protest in Shanghai on April 16. Such sentiment is rife in China's urban middle class. Doug Kanter for The New York Times Li Bin, head of a chain of health clubs, say the Chinese government takes too soft a line against Japan's playing down of its wartime Doug Kanter for The New York Times Wang Liqun the founder of a paper company. EIJING, May 2 - Of all the customers his paper company has worldwide, Wang Liqun appreciates Japanese the most. Unfailingly...

One of the four vice chairs of the Iraqi national council is an avowed Communist.

Mob sets fire to mosque in Nepal Wednesday, 01 September , 2004, 10:08 Kathmandu: A mob set fire to Kathmandu's biggest mosque on Wednesday after Islamic militants in Iraq killed 12 Nepalese hostages, witnesses said. The protestors also destroyed furniture and electrical equipment in the Jama Masjid mosque, they said. Riot police used batons to try to control the angry protestors, the police said. Discuss: Barbarism! All for money, little for cause. Meanwhile, hundreds of angry youth even attacked private employment agencies in Kathmandu, blaming them for sending the 12 Nepalese jobseekers to Iraq. They also smashed the windows of...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-06-02-white-usat_x.htm

By MIKE SULLIVAN SECURITY bosses fear al-Qaeda are plotting to attack the BBC. An alert was sparked when a Moroccan posing as a newspaper photographer was seen taking pictures of the TV Centre in White City, West London. When he was challenged, he gave false details — and fled in a car driven by another Arabic looking man. Security has been stepped up at all BBC buildings since the incident on Sunday. On the same day, two more Arabs asked reception staff at the TV Centre for a tour of the premises — and for details about the building’s lay-out....

Last Updated: 12/17/2003 15:31:25 Middle East GREECE DEEMS THREAT FROM BOSNIAN ARABS ATHENS [MENL] -- Greece has determined that its national security interests are being threatened by Al Qaida-aligned Arab agents in Bosnia. The Cabinet of Prime Minister Costas Simitis has convened to discuss what officials termed the threat from an estimated 2,000 Bosnian Arabs to the Olympic Games in August 2004. Officials said Western intelligence agencies have assessed that some of those Arab nationals could be training to carry out attacks on Israeli, U.S. or other targets during the Olympics in Athens. Officials said the threat of an Al...

Enemies Foreign and Domestic: An Interview with the Author By Lady Liberty Matthew Bracken is the author of a book entitled Enemies Foreign and Domestic. After reading the book (see the book review at http://www.ladylibrty.com/book_review.html), I wanted to hear more about the book and its plausibility directly from the author himself. Mr. Bracken kindly agreed to answer some questions for publication. Those questions and his answers follow. Lady Liberty: What originally served as the inspiration for the plot of Enemies Foreign and Domestic? Matthew Bracken: I kept reading various Free Republic (http://www.freerepublic.com) Second Amendment and Right to Keep and...

The killer came through the pipes. Hong Kong's largest cluster of a deadly flu-like illness was spread through leaky drains in an apartment building visited by a man infected with the disease, health officials said yesterday. The puzzling outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, at the Amoy Gardens apartment complex was traced to a mainland Chinese man suffering from diarrhea who visited his brother there in March, the besieged city's health secretary said. Faulty seals between a sewage drain and water pipes enabled the ill man to spread the virus when he used the bathroom - eventually infecting...

... Sewerage 7. Each block has eight vertical soil stacks each collecting effluent from the same unit of all floors. The soil stack is connected with the water closets, the basins, the bathtubs and the bathroom floor drains. Each of these sanitary fixtures is fitted with a U-shaped water trap (U-trap) to prevent foul smell and insects in the soil stack from entering the toilets. For details, please see Annex. For this preventive mechanism to function properly, the water traps must be sufficiently filled with water. 8. Interviews with Amoy Gardens residents revealed frequent complaints about foul smell in toilets,...

A plague on our planet... for ever (Filed: 07/05/2003) The Sars epidemic is just the first of many health scares waiting for us in a highly mobile, densely populated 21st century, say scientists. It is vital that we learn all we can about managing such outbreaks as well as fighting them with technology. Roger Highfield reports Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is only the beginning. We are set to see many more epidemics sweep across the planet in the coming decades, turning the 21st century into the era of the quarantine and face mask. At risk: one reason deadly pathogens will...

United Press International 24 February 2001 Israel gave major to aid to Hamas By Richard Sale, Terrorism Correspondent New York -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas recently described it as "the deadliest terrorist group that we have ever had to face." Active in Gaza and the West Bank Hamas wants to liberate all of Palestine and establish a radical Islamic state in place of Israel. It has gained notoriety with its assassinations, car bombs and other acts of terrorism. But Sharon had left something out. Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in...