Free Republic

On the morning after the mid-term elections, a humbled President George W Bush called it "a thumping".But yesterday he described the disastrous result for the Republicans, when Congress turned from Republican red to Democrat blue, as a "great opportunity". His aides were briefing that he now had the chance to build a domestic policy legacy and use his final two years in the White House to prove that politicians could get things done in Washington. After a White House coffee meeting yesterday, Mr Bush chuckled as Senator Dick Durbin, part of the new Democratic leadership in the Senate, joked: "I...

The neighborhood already is predominantly Islamic. From Detroit News:The Islamic Center of North Detroit has a purchase agreement with the Archdiocese of Detroit for Our Lady Help of Christians' five buildings, which tentatively are planned to be used for an Islamic community center, larger worship space and possibly a school. The conversion of the Detroit buildings, on the Hamtramck border, from church to Muslim center underscores how much the community's makeup has changed. Long-entrenched Catholic churches have had to downsize as their congregations moved to the suburbs and other immigrant groups moved in. Hamtramck and nearby Detroit neighborhoods flourished...

Chuck Noe, NewsMax.com Thursday, Dec. 6, 2001 Bill Clinton ignored repeated opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist allies and is responsible for the spread of terrorism, one of the ex-president's own top aides charges. Mansoor Ijaz, who negotiated with Sudan on behalf of Clinton from 1996 to 1998, paints a portrait of a White House plagued by incompetence, focused on appearances rather than action, and heedless of profound threats to national security. Ijaz also claims Clinton passed on an opportunity to have Osama bin Laden arrested. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, hoping to have terrorism sanctions...

We've all known brave soldiers who fought courageously in multiple conflicts only to succumb to lingering and debilitating illnesses years later. Likewise, history tells us of nations that never lost a battle in combat only to die because they lost their sense of purpose, their will to survive. I think that's what is happening in Israel today. I think the Jewish state is terminally ill. Israel may have won three major wars in its 60-year history, but it will be lucky to survive another decade of morally bankrupt leadership. It's not just former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who is comatose....

Sat Aug 12, 9:55 AM ET CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush welcomed a U.N. resolution on Saturday aimed at stopping the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, saying the guerrilla group and its sponsors Iran and Syria had brought an "unwanted" war to the region. The fighting continued on Saturday, with the Israeli army saying it had started broadening its ground offensive in southern Lebanon. The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Friday calling for a "cessation of hostilities" in the war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah militia that has killed about 1,000 Lebanese and 123 Israelis and...

<p>President Bush welcomed a U.N. resolution on Saturday aimed at stopping the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, saying the guerrilla group and its sponsors Iran and Syria had brought an "unwanted" war to the region.</p> <p>The fighting continued on Saturday, with the Israeli army saying it had started broadening its ground offensive in southern Lebanon.</p>

People have very short memories. Most Israelis do not even recall the events that have led up to the rain of Katyushas and other missiles on Israeli civilians this past week. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon after a long wave of terror attacks on Israel. At first, the announced Israeli goal was to advance 40 kilometers inside Lebanon and drive all the rocket shooters from range of Israel. The operation, called "Peace for Galilee", enjoyed over 90% support from the Israeli public, including Israeli Arabs. The army actually advanced more than 40 kilometers. It eventually took most of Beirut and...

NEW YORK - Members of the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, which is meeting at the United Nations in New York, agreed Tuesday to back a "temporary international mechanism" to channel aid to the Palestinians for a trial period to ease the financial squeeze on the new government following the election of Hamas. The Quartet members - the European Union, United Nations, U.S. and Russia - reached a "silent agreement" to establish a trust fund that will pay the salaries of Palestinian civil servants through the office of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Advertisement The group issued a statement...

G8 Summit: Russia to Propose Europe a Capitulation Simon Araloff, AIA European section At the July G8 Summit the Kremlin is going to present its "particular initiative of energy security". It refers to a proposal to create a vast Russian-German-Italian gas corporate group which will help Moscow to establish a "new order" in Europe. On the other hand, Russia hopes to finally bury the Polish idea of creating an "Energy NATO". The US reaction to such a demarche can be a breakdown of the G8... According to the information simultaneously received from sources in Warsaw and Bucharest, Moscow plans to...

The New York Sun reports that Democrats blocked the adoption of a resolution denouncing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his anti-Semitic remaeks and Holocaust denial until a demand for an Iranian plebescite and self-determination free of the Guardian Council had been removed. The objection officially came from Senator Wyden (D-OR), who then told the Senate that, uh, he didn't have a problem with the resolutuion, but that his colleagues did -- who displayed their intestinal fortitude by hiding behind Wyden's skirts: When Mr. Santorum moved to introduce the resolution last Friday, Senator Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, registered an unusual...

According to an AP story at the French Yahoo website, Pope Benedict has been making fatally naïve, classically deluded, liberal-style comments about the meaning and “message” of the Muslim riots in France, namely that the riots express a “dissastisfaction” with society that society must do something about. Why can’t the Pope understand that the riots are not an expression of dissatisfaction with France, but an expression of emnity toward France, not a plea for better “integration” in France, but a scream in the face that no integration is possible? And when will Christians understand that unless the Church stands with...

If you assume, as I do, that the purpose of the political process is to persuade people to entrust you with power, the solution to the losses Governor Schwarzenegger faced in November is simple. It is also hard work. And it is the solution the Governor seems to be avoiding. If I have any complaint with many of my California Republican colleagues, it would be that they think they can outsmart, outwit, or outmaneuver the Democrats. They believe that if they can find just the right issue, or just the right tactic, they can slick their way into a majority...

In the wake of the voters’ stinging repudiation of all four ballot measures he backed in the costly and contentious Nov. 8 special election, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is working feverishly to regain his political footing. In a recent staff shake-up, the Governor’s chief of staff, Republican Pat Clarey, announced her resignation. But in choosing her successor, Governor Schwarzenegger has made one of the biggest mistakes of his political career. He has selected Susan Kennedy, a former top aide to recalled Governor Gray Davis and former executive director of the California Democratic Party and of the California Abortion Rights Action...

Yesterday’s overwhelming Senate vote to require detailed reporting to Congress on Iraq and make clear that the United States will not stay longer “than required” puts Iraq back on Congress’s agenda. There is now a strong bipartisan consensus that we need an exit strategy. But yet to emerge is the content of that strategy. We have two overriding objectives in Iraq: to facilitate a viable power-sharing agreement among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds and to turn over responsibility for security to the Iraqis on a steady basis. Any exit strategy must address both issues in order to leave post-Saddam Iraq in...

The Republican-controlled Senate will begin hearings Jan. 9 on Judge Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court, spurning President Bush's call for a final confirmation vote before year's end. "It simply wasn't possible to accommodate the schedule that the White House wanted," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said late Thursday. He outlined a schedule that envisions five days of hearings, followed by a vote in committee on Jan. 17 and the full Senate on Jan. 20. Bush nominated Alito on Monday to fill the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has often held the...

Palestinians Close to Deal on Disarming Hundreds of MilitantsBy Ali Daraghmeh Associated Press Writer Published: Jun 23, 2005 NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian officials said Thursday they reached a tentative agreement to absorb about 700 gunmen in this West Bank city into the Palestinian security services, pushing forward with a campaign aimed at disarming rogue militants. The program of offering government jobs to militants in exchange for giving up their weapons has been a centerpiece of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to impose law and order in the chaotic West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has said the tactic...

This is important. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) during the press conference: Some of you who are looking at the language may wonder what some of the clauses mean. The understanding is – and we don’t think this will happen – but if an individual senator believes in the future that a filibuster is taking place under something that’s not extraordinary circumstances, we of course reserve the right to do what we could have done tomorrow which is to cast a yes vote for the constitutional option.

TWO MEN are being put on trial by the military this week because they answered their consciences. Pablo Paredes and Kevin Benderman refused to accept the lies they were told about the U.S. war on Iraq. Refused to accept the racist dehumanization of the Iraqi people. Refused to participate in the violence of the most lethal military machine in the history of the world. Refused to go to war for oil and empire in Iraq. Paredes, a third class petty officer, refused to board his Navy ship bound for the Persian Gulf, bringing 3,000 Marines to the battlefield--to kill and...

GOVERNOR RENDELL TO UNVEIL MARKER HONORING THOSE WHO COMMIT ACTS OF SODOMY AT NATIONAL CELEBRATION April 28, 2005 Our Nation is in a downward spiral. Good is called evil and evil is called good. My eldest son Caleb and I have traveled to Philadelphia to speak up for righteousness during a celebration of sin hosted by Equality Forum. Please pray for the outreaches that will be taking place during this week and ask that the Father will draw the lost to Himself. Below are several excerpts from a recent press release from Equality Forum. This sinful nation is begging the...

A Comment on Campos from David Allen White Ph.D. Author of The Mouth of the Lion In the late 1980s, Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer of the diocese of Campos, Brazil, realized that his days with his flock were drawing to a close. Pope John Paul II had forced him into retirement when the Bishop had reached the age of 75, but he had remained a strong and guiding presence as Rome's newly appointed Bishop, Carlos Navarro, sought to stamp out the Tridentine Mass, and thus the Catholic Faith, in the diocese. Bishop de Castro Mayer made arrangements with Archbishop...