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What is Amnesty? Amnesties are all too common legislative efforts to forgive the breaking of immigration laws and to make it possible for illegal aliens to live permanently in the United States. Amnesties represent a system of federal rewards and assistance for illegal migrants, and they entice an even greater number of illegal migrants. Census 2000 results indicate that 700,000 to 800,000 illegal aliens settle in the U.S. each year, with an estimated 8-11 million illegal aliens currently living in the United States.

WASHINGTON — The American head of Amnesty International admits his group did not pick the best analogy when it compared detainee conditions at Guantanamo Bay (search) to the Soviet-era "gulag" forced-labor system. "There are only about 70,000 in U.S. detention facilities, and to the best of our knowledge, they are not in forced labor, they are not being denied food. But there are some analogies between the gulags and our detention facilities," William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in an interview with FOX News.

I was talking to a friend of mine about the McDonald's Hot Coffee lawsuit from a couple of a years ago. My friend is claiming that the woman that was scalded did not initiate the suit. All she did was file a claim with her insurance company to pay for medical costs. The insurance company was the one who initiated the suit in the woman's name against McDonalds. My friend further claims that the woman involved successfully sued her insurance company for defamation of character.

The Crisis I. THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it...

In the Kerry Edwards Dbunker page, there is a section devoted to Kerry's Vietnam protests. This page claims that it is right wing fiction that John Kerry lied about throwing his medals during a protest. Then, at the very end of the next paragraph, he admits that he never threw his medals. He only threw his ribbons. He also quotes Oliphant from the Boston Globe who was quite clear that about the fact that John Kerry never threw the medals. So, we get the situation where the Kerry campaign claims that it is a right wing lie that he never...

Take you beef to Kerry. >From what I can read into this the Swift Boat avengers will regret their two bit attack on a Vietnam vet. Pls no further como. Busy rpting the current war and don't have time to lament or distract from the Viet War in which my mind all that served there are heroes. Hack

Friend, you don't earn PHs. You got in the way. You have a fixed psn and I can't do anything about where you are coming from.. Cheers, Hack

All 3 of Kerry's PH were IAW Navy regs at the time... It is fair to atk Kerry's politics but not his awards which he received the hardway and IAW Navy regs. I am afraid you are not in a position to judge my honor and I standby strongly what I wrote in the USA piece. If you haven't walked the walk, you can't talk the talk. I have 8 PHs. None were signed off by my skipper. The reg read the award is triggered by a casualty rpt. Not by a CO. I will write more on Kerry down...

Col. Hackworth, Over the years, I have enjoyed very much your rather acerbic columns dedicated to rooting out corruption in the armed services. I was in the USN more years ago than I like to remember. On my first (and only) real sea duty, I was assigned to the U.S.S. Proteus (AS-19). I had the privilege of serving under two Captains there and the difference between the two was like night and day. One was a real leader and the other was a 'perfumed prince'. I cheered you on when you went after Admiral Boorda for wearing some awards he...

If school vouchers bettered the educational opportunities only of children who use the vouchers to attend private schools or schools in another district, many reformers would be left holding cups half empty. For the animating theory of school choice has always been that it will not only serve as an escape hatch from dysfunctional public schools but also will spark public schools to improve. Thus far this theory remains mostly untested. Through caps on enrollment, chronic underfunding, and legal attacks, voucher programs have been kept artificially small, restraining any influence they might have on local districts. The combined enrollment of...

BOSTON  — Al Sharpton (search) won the hearts of delegates to the Democratic National Convention (search) with a rousing and raucous speech Wednesday night, saying his failed quest for the White House was proof that kids can grow up poor and make it in America.

Progress on reducing the pollution flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, North America's largest estuary, has been "significantly overstated," The Washington Post hyperventilated in a front-page story this week

They all got more than they bargained for. The meeting didn’t last minutes, but half an hour. The president, relaxed and in control, drew Sen. Hillary Clinton into a warm, familial exchange. He treated Sen. Charles Schumer like a long-lost fraternity brother. As for their aid request, "I’m with ya," the president said eagerly — and it was approved by Congress the next day. The Virginians got promises of aid, too, and the warlike words all four senators yearned for. "When I take action," he said, "I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent...

JIM ANGLE, FOX ANCHOR: As we reported earlier, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards campaigned today in New Orleans. As he prepared to depart, Edwards sat down with Fox News chief news political correspondent Carl Cameron for a conversation covering everything from Iraq to gay marriage. Carl asked Edwards about his pre-war statement of February 2003 that the U.S. and its allies should go to war with Iraq even without the backing of the U.N. Edwards said he had a fundamental difference with President Bush on this issue. Click for the rest

For the record     Former Republican Congressman Jim Rogan, a onetime California judge who was appointed a House impeachment manager to prosecute Bill Clinton during his 1999 Senate trial — only to lose re-election in his largely Democratic district — telephoned Inside the Beltway yesterday after reading about Sydney Blumenthal's new book "The Clinton Wars."     We'd written yesterday that Washington public relations mogul Craig Shirley complained to Mr. Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton, after being quoted erroneously on page 333 of his book. Rest of article

  Identity crisis     New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, following up on a Sunday article in which he portrayed the Republican Party as increasingly confident, wrote yesterday that the Democrats appear to be in the midst "of another of their periodic painful identity crises." Rest of thread here

Matt Salmon won his primary with 130,000+ votes while Janet Napolitano won hers with 90,000+ votes.

Patrick McCarthy, president of New Jersey Citizens Against Paternity Fraud, the group sponsoring nine of these billboards across the state, says he's just trying to prevent the victimization of other men. Rest of article

I was speaking to a friend yesterday when he said that David Souter had made the claim that the authors of the Constitution didn't understand it.  Does anybody know if this is true?  And if so, what was the context?

      REDMOND, WA--In what CEO Bill Gates called "an unfortunate but necessary step to protect our intellectual property from theft and exploitation by competitors," the Microsoft Corporation patented the numbers one and zero Monday. Rest of article here