Free Republic

Lori Berenson's parents raged last night against a human rights court ruling that will keep their activist daughter in prison for the next 11 years. Mark and Rhoda Berenson, who live in Gramercy Park, said the ruling marked "a tragic day for human rights in the Western Hemisphere and in the world." They faulted the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Human Rights Court's decision to uphold a Peruvian court ruling that declared their activist daughter a Marxist terrorist who conspired in 1995 to overturn the Peruvian government. Berenson was originally tried by a tribunal of hooded judges. It was later found she...

As uncertainty lingers over whether or not there will be a vote in the state senate on a same sex marriage proposal, Bishop Matthew Clark discussed the issue for several minutes today. The leader of the Rochester Roman Catholic Diocese said he's not opposed to extending equal human rights to homosexuals but stressed his belief that redefining marriage is not the way to do that. "(Marriage) is an institution so deeply ingrained in the human spirit that to redefine it in such a short time frame under the very wonderful rubric of human rights, which I thoroughly support, the two...

Bishop Matthew Clark: As he prepares for retirement, he leads a Diocese vastly different from the one he came to. On a frigid January morning, Bishop Matthew Clark could be seen kneeling in prayer off in a corner of Sacred Heart Cathedral. Though he is a tall, slender man, he seemed small and vulnerable next to a large stained-glass window with its brilliant shades of red, blue, and purple. But Clark is hardly a small figure in the Rochester region. For more than 30 years, he has led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, through often controversial and difficult periods....

Retired General and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark said Sunday that a repeal of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy will happen and that wartime is an ideal moment to move ahead with repeal. Clark said on ABC's "This Week" that with the military focused on war, "this is the ideal time to do this, because we're talking about building teamwork around a common purpose." The former Democratic presidential hopeful said military leaders are ready to implement a repeal of the policy now, suggesting the prolonged political debate has become a distraction. Clark said the message from...

Singer James Blunt 'stopped World War 3' James Blunt James Blunt had worldwide hits after leaving the army. Singer James Blunt has told the BBC how he refused an order to attack Russian troops when he was a British soldier in Kosovo. Blunt said he was willing to risk a court martial by rejecting the order from a US General. But he was backed by British General Sir Mike Jackson, who told him "I'm not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War 3". Blunt was ordered to seize an airfield - but the Russians had got...

In 1997, one of Bill Clinton's Cabinet members suggested that Shelton order a US plane to fly low over Baghdad so Saddam would shoot it down and, ta da, give America instant justification for war. "I was so mad I was about to explode," recounts Shelton, thinking about the sacrificial pilot. “Why, of course we can,” he responded. "Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go.” The memoir doesn't name the Cabinet member, but Elliott notes that the way the passage...

Tarryl Clark appears to have run out of ideas in her race against Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th CD — and also reached the end of her vocabulary. In an effort to paint Bachmann as disconnected from her constituents, Clark runs through a variety of issues in which Bachmann’s vote actually seems closer to the consensus of the electorate, including on ObamaCare, to which Clark euphemistically refers as “reform.” At the end, though, Clark just skips the euphemisms altogether to use a bleeped-out scatalogical curse word (via Cubachi and Liberty Pundits):

Tarryl Clark: Michele Bachmann's not doing '@#%!' By: Andy Barr October 5, 2010 01:43 PM EDT So long, Minnesota Nice. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Democratic opponent is going off color with a new ad using an expletive to describe her service to the district. In a web-only 30-second video posted Monday, Democrat Tarryl Clark accused Bachman of being beholden to special interests in Washington and ignoring the central Minnesota district. “No one does more for special interests in Washington than Congresswoman Michele Bachmann,” the announcer for the ad begins. “She stood up for BP when no one else would. She has...

Famous Explorer's Relatives Deny Suicide Talk, Seek to Dig Up Body Meriwether Lewis conquered rivers, mountains and bears leading the Lewis and Clark Expedition across 8,000 miles of wilderness from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. Two centuries later, relatives of Mr. Lewis are having a tough time moving his remains down 80 miles of paved Tennessee highway from a national park to a forensic lab. Mr. Lewis's body rests beneath a 20-foot-high stone monument at milepost 385.9 of the Natchez Trace Parkway. A plaque next to the gravesite states that it was here, in 1809, three years...

(To the reader)I admit that something just said “Enough already!” as I read Mark Hanson’s (Presiding Bishop of the ELCA) release regarding the Gaza strip. This came only days after news that the Tanzanian, Ethiopian and Chinese church leaders would be engaging in ongoing, private conversation with him regarding their concerns with the ELCA’s actions last August at the churchwide assembly. Bold public witness based on the Word of God and the historical, confessional Christian teachings were met with an invitation to continue to engage in deep conversation in private behind closed doors. Even if money on or under the...

The conflation and lies continue about the purpose of choosing April 19 for the gun rights rallies in Washington DC and Virginia. That a forum to do this would be given on HBO's "Real Time" with Bill Maher is hardly surprising. From Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters: This stupidity came seconds after guest Richard Clarke actually said that the gun rally in Virginia on April 19 was to commemorate the Oklahoma City bombing: Watch the exchange for yourself. This is what Clarke represents as the truth of the day: I'm from Virginia and there was a rally in Virginia on April...

Two college friends claim that they were pummeled by two plainclothes Chicago police officers outside of a Bucktown restaurant last month. In a federal lawsuit filed this week against the city, management consultant Matthew Clark and University of Chicago lecturer Gregory Malandrucco say they were brutally beaten in an unprovoked attack in the parking lot of Arturo's Tacos, 2001 N. Western Ave. at about 3 a.m. on Feb. 7. Clark, 37, of Chicago, works for a management consulting firm and has a doctorate in psychology, while Malandrucco, 32, is pursuing a doctorate in psychology as he works as a lecturer....

The retired lieutenant general is credited with helping to organize and supply the breakout that inspired 'The Great Escape.' Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. A.P. Clark, a World War II veteran who played a key role in the elaborate breakout from a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp that inspired the movie "The Great Escape," has died. He was 96. Clark, a former superintendent of the Air Force Academy, died March 8 in Colorado Springs, Colo., the military academy announced. The cause was not given. Albert Patton Clark was born in 1913 at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where his father was an...

NATO KOSOVO FORCEYes, we still have troops there and are still pouring $$$$$$$$ down that RAT-HOLE.Multiple stories at the referenced site.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2010 – Kosovo Force will transition from about 14,000 to 10,000 NATO forces by Jan. 31, due to improvements in security, said the commander of Multinational Task Force - East. Brig. Gen. Al Dohrmann told media in Kosovo last week that improvements in security have prompted the Kosovo Force to move its posture to a "deterrent presence." "KFOR will rely more heavily on reserve forces that are able to quickly and decisively respond whenever and wherever necessary in support of local structures as a third responder," Dohrmann said. Dohrmann, a member of the North Dakota National Guard,...

I noticed something buried in a book review on Free Republic sometime back. The review was of a biography of William P. Clark. That name instantly brought back memories from when I was a youngin' and a lowly campaign worker who was drawn in early to the campaign by people just a step or two from Reagan's inner circle. Bill Clark was perhaps the closest friend and advisor that Ronald Reagan ever had. He was the one responsible for "Let Reagan be Reagan". He was also an unshakable Catholic who lived his religion. Contrary to popular belief the Republican Party...

The Clark County Republican Party has never had an Audit! Why is it that the leadership of the Clark County Republican Party doesn’t feel the need to follow their own bylaws and have an audit? There has been a report of officers writing checks to themselves without providing receipts for these checks. There has been a report that checks were writing above to allowed amount without the Executive Boards approval. There has been missing tax documents, missing treasurer’s reports, missing executive board meeting minutes, missing computers that hold the financial reports, anything dealing with financial reports are missing, bylaws rules...

Iraq news wires here WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — Three retired four-star American generals said today that attacking Iraq without a United Nations resolution supporting military action could limit aid from allies, energize recruiting for Al Qaeda and undermine America's long-term diplomatic and economic interests. "We must continue to persuade the other members of the Security Council of the correctness of our position, and we must not be too quick to take no for an answer," Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The officers' testimony came on...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - As police charged a Yale animal lab technician with murdering a graduate student who worked in his building, a portrait began to emerge Thursday of an unpleasant stickler for the rules who often clashed with researchers and considered the mice cages his personal fiefdom.

Friday, September 4 Archb.Claudio Celli, Pres.,Pontifical Council for Social Communications; & William Patrick Clark, Jr., Senior Aide to President Ronald Reagan From Wikipedia: William Patrick Clark, Jr. (born October 23, 1931), American politician, served under President Ronald Reagan as the Deputy Secretary of State from 1981 to 1982, United States National Security Advisor from 1982 to 1983, and the Secretary of the Interior from 1983 until 1985. A devout Catholic, former seminary student, rancher, lawyer, and aide to Reagan in the California gubernatorial years, Clark served as a justice of the California Supreme Court prior to his Washington appointment,...

WASHINGTON – Walter Cronkite is dead at 92 – but most Americans, many of whom considered him "the most trusted man" in the country during his reign as CBS News anchor – still don't know what motivated him and how he secured such an influential and lofty position. He was like a grandfatherly institution in the early days of TV. People believed him. Uncle Walter wouldn't lie, America believed. Thus, when he gave his opinions, they had impact. One example was his report on the Tet offensive in Vietnam, which is credited with swinging the tide of opinion against the...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

MUTH'S TRUTHS L’IL NATE'S EXCELLENT BATHROOM ADVENTURE When not dispensing advice on what a woman needs to do to make her man happy - “rub her man’s feet at the end of the night” and watch NASCAR with him - you might find GOP gadfly Nathan Taylor sipping on Cosmopolitans with those pink umbrellas and cherries in them and getting tossed out of a bar for starting a fist-fight in a bathroom. I sh--….er, kid you not. Got this second-hand report yesterday on Li’l Nate’s election night adventures from last week: “Seems Nathan he got pretty drunk at a Stavros...

Veterans In Politics Talk Show Introduces CEO for CC Court Edward Friedland and Laura Jessee LIVE on www.AllTalkRadio.net June 6: Laura Jessee Lightyear Wireless Representative: Edward A. Friedland Clark County Court Executive Officer: "Veterans In Politics" is a weekly radio show produced by the Veterans In Politics International and hosted by Steve Sanson and co-hosted by Ronda Baldwin Kennedy. The "Veterans In Politics" show is live every Saturday 2:05 PM Pacific Time you can call in and speak to the guest or/and hosts at (702) 309-6690.

Lewis and Clark brought an airgun on the Voyage of Discovery. When this fact became widely known after World War II, while air rifle manufacturers were mass producing and marketing inexpensive models for boys throughout America, the revelation seemed profound. A pellet rifle? A BB gun on that famous expedition by Thomas Jefferson's Corps of Discovery? Well, not exactly. The airgun Lewis and Clark brought along was a powerful weapon, hardly a Daisy Red Ryder.

Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the offi cials said. More cuts are planned for later this year after a review that could lead to reductions in programs such as aircraft carriers and nuclear arms, the officials said.

PITTSBURGH -- Target 11 has learned a Cranberry company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks discovered what it said is a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama’s helicopter. Tiversa employees found engineering and communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran. Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, said, ”We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,which is the president's helicopter." The company was able to trace the file back to its original source. "What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of...

BBC Audio: Dyson and Clarke Will life spread out from Earth to flourish in the cosmos? Freeman Dyson has always supported the idea, and with great persuasiveness. BBC Four has created an archive of interviews on its Web site, among which is a clip of Dyson discussing life’s variety and the imperative of broadening its range. The theoretical physicist, who played an important role in the development of the ‘atomic spaceship’ concept called Project Orion, doesn’t believe man’s role is simply to send the occasional astronaut out in what he calls ‘a metal can’ to look out a window....

(IsraelNN.com) According to a report on Middle East Newsline, President-elect Barack Obama has dispatched his "senior foreign policy adviser", Robert Malley to Egypt and Syria to outline Obama's policy on the Middle East. Malley reportedly relayed a promise from Obama that the United States would seek to enhance relations with Cairo and reconcile differences with Damascus. "The tenor of the messages was that the Obama administration would take into greater account Egyptian and Syrian interests," an aide to Malley was quoted as saying. The aide said Obama plans to launch a U.S. diplomatic initiative toward Syria. Malley met both Egyptian...

Clark native Tim Lichardus hasn't had a place to call home for the last 12 years -- no apartment, no house, no timeshare. His job as a blimp crewman requires him to live out of a suitcase 11 months of the year. But the job is not without perks. There's no mortgage, no rent and no lawn. In addition, he's traveled to Jerusalem, Rio de Janeiro and China. But he isn't the one waving to worshippers, tourists and sports fans from a thousand feet in the air. He's on terra firma -- come rain, snow or heavy winds -- directing...

<p>A founding member of the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois met in New York City tonight with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.</p> <p>Jodie Evans, who co-hosted Obama's first major fundraiser in Hollywood in February 2007 just after Obama announced his candidacy and is a top fundraiser and donor to Obama's campaign, led a delegation of leftist anti-American groups that held a private meeting near the United Nations. The stated purpose of the meeting was to "serve as an opening for diplomatic resolution" to prevent war between Iran and the United States.</p>

A reader sends along photographs of Bishop Clark's "installation" Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes parish for his newly appointed pastoral administrator Sr. Joan Sobala, a vocal proponent of women's ordination who has been spotted wearing a crucifix with a female corpus. The "cluster" over which she presides includes St. Anne parish, hitherto an oasis of relative sanity. Do read the captions and commentary that accompany each photo. At this point it seems clear that Clark and his allies are pursuing a scorched earth policy for his remaining four years in the Diocese of Rochester. Keep Rome informed, Rochester...

There has been much in the news lately about politicians who claim to be devout and ardent Catholics even though they openly hold positions contrary to clear and consistent Church teaching. Many of us have hoped for some time that our Bishops would stand up for the faith and unequivocally hold these pols accountable. It is one thing for a politician Catholic politician to oppose the Church's teaching, entirely another when a Catholic priest, a pastor, does the same thing. Meet Father Dan Holland of St. Pius X in Rochester NY. Father writes to his parishioners in the weekly bulletin...

General Wesley Clark had one thing right during his tenure as a general in the U.S. military. He understood the portentous nature of the Russian's move to take control of the airport in Pristina, Kosovo at the end of the 1999 NATO engagement in Yugoslavia. He ordered NATO forces to gear up to prevent the Russians from taking the airport but was opposed by British Gen. Michael Jackson, at the time head of the Kosovo peacekeeping forces, who reportedly told Clark that he wouldn't help him start a third World War. I don't know if Clark fully realized what the...

For this I sadly tip my biretta to Ten Reasons  o{]:¬(I want you to read this in light of certain entries on this blog about the whole ghastly wymynpriest thing (except for what "that blonde" had to say, of course. Father Joan In June of this year, Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester appointed the notorious dissenter Sister Joan Sobala as pastoral administrator, i.e., de facto priestess, over the tradition-friendly St. Anne Church. The Women’s Ordination Conference calls her a person "key to the survival and success of the movement for women’s ordination." A now former parishioner shares her account of...

OAKLAND — Former employees and supporters of the defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery have scheduled a rally for Aug. 2 — the one-year anniversary of journalist Chauncey Bailey's killing — to call for an investigation into the business's demise. "This is the anniversary of the closing of the bakery and the event is about getting to the truth, getting to justice and making sure that whoever is guilty of any crime be brought before the bar of justice, because right now the truth is not being told," said rally organizer Henry Clark. The date was chosen to commemorate "police attacking...

So in addition to the Demos attempting to cram down our throats an unqualified and inexperienced candidate for President...we've got to deal with the Wesley Clark backing Noriega. In a letter distributed to Noriega-ites, Clark talks about Senator Jim Webb's victory in Virginia against a Republican incumbent with a large war chest in the bank...expecting us to believe that Noriega can take Cornyn based on what exactly? Hope? Wishful thinking? Clark mentions how he is friends with Noriega: "I know Rick personally, and I know he'll be a great Senator for Texas." Well that's great Wes! But Texas needs more...

Below are some of interviews from radio station WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut. The talk show host's name is Jim Vicevich, and his show runs from 10 AM until Rush limbaugh. These are from 2 separate interviews.

Kosovo war commander and decorated Vietnam vet Wesley Clark was never shot down during war. Maybe that's why the retired general, ex-NATO war leader and former presidential candidate chose this aspect of John McCain's war record to carp about last Sunday, when he said, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." Yet McCain wasn't just shot down. He also was brutalized and tortured during five years of North Vietnamese captivity, a period during which McCain gallantly refused the early release his captors offered because he was an admiral's son....

FLASHBACK: Wesley Clark, Then and Now. Plus, dodging missiles. [videos]

One of the dumbest things about the Clark kerfuffle is that because there are so many elements of military service that people respect, the narrow critique he’s offering against McCain seems almost beside the point. I see service mainly as a testament to character and fortitude; others see it as evidence of good judgment, and others as an important lesson for a C-in-C to have (i.e. “experience”) before committing other men to war. So far as I know, McCain has never staked his own wartime ordeal to any one of these, preferring to let voters draw whatever they find most...

Why was Wesley Clark shuffled off?

Dole weighs in on Clark McCain said he'd rather focus on issues facing Americans, but of course he's on much better turf discussing biography and questions about his Vietnam service. And his campaign pours it on, sending over a Bob Dole statement with some trademark zingers. "The attack by General Wesley Clark on Senator John McCain’s war record and qualifications for the presidency is beyond comprehension. Clark’s absurd remarks signal further erosion in our nation’s political discourse. He should have stayed in bed Sunday morning. It’s unfortunate that a former General who ran for the presidency on his own war...

ABC News' Bret Hovell Reports: John McCain, taking questions from reporters aboard his Straight Talk Express: The Airplane Edition, said it was time for the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama to cut retired Gen. Wesley Clark loose. "I think it's up to Sen. Obama now to not only repudiate him, but to cut him loose," McCain said to a small group of reporters somewhere between Indianapolis, IN, and Cartagena, Colombia. For two days, the Obama campaign has been off message, forced to manage the fallout surrounding comments Clark made about McCain's war service in a broadcast interview Sunday. The highly...

Ollie North calls Wes Clark "petty and small"

Wesley Clark exploits his fellow Vietnam veteran’s bad combat luck to disparage his service record Sent to http://securingamerica.com/feedback Dear General Clark, I am copying you on this piece, which I am posting to several blogs to which I write, because I don’t need to say behind someone’s back what I won’t say to his face. Furthermore, I added the word “sickening” in the subject line for those blogs. Per “Clark hits McCain’s military credentials” at http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080629/pl_politico/11425, you said “I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and...

Has the Obama campaign and their surrogates switched strategies from Hypnosis to outright Brainwashing? Are we so ignorant as Americans that we would give credibility to the spin coming out of the Obama campaign? Two Obama surrogates put a new spin on their rhetoric this weekend that have taken political lunacy to a new level...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Retired US General Wesley Clark on Sunday said Republican White House hopeful John McCain lacked executive experience to be president, in rare criticism of the Vietnam veteran's military service. Clark told CBS television that McCain was a hero for enduring years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam "but he hasn't held executive responsibility. "That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded -- that wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall." Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander, said McCain's combat experience as a fighter pilot did not make him...

Retired General Wesley Clark, one of Sen. Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters, has sent a letter to his own supporters from his 2004 presidential bid. In his letter, Clark urges his people to get behind Sen. Barack Obama to help him win the White House in November. Could it be a signal of what's to come Saturday afternoon when Clinton holds a rally at the National Building Museum? Calling it a "critical mission," Clark asked voters to do everything they can to help elect Obama. "Hillary Clinton ran an amazing race. She inspired millions. Our party is a better party...

“If you don’t think John McCain is just as dangerous in the White House as George W. Bush, think again.” That’s how retired four-star General Wesley Clark begins a fundraising e-mail sent on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Clark, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2004 race, writes in his e-mail: “McCain will not reverse the foreign policy mistakes of George Bush. He is content to leave us in Iraq, saying it’d be ‘fine by me’ if we were in Iraq for another 100 years. He is rash on using military force with Iran. He overplays...