Free Republic

FRAMINGHAM - Five policemen responded to U.S. Rep. Ed Markey's open forum the Memorial Building yesterday after the politically charged crowd got rowdy, discussing impeachment and whether President George W. Bush helped orchestrate the 9/11 attacks. No arrests were made, but tempers boiled and ``Shut ups!'' were shouted inside the Blumer Community Room with its standing-room only crowd. The audience nearly got hostile when David Pierce of Arlington brought up the Sept. 11 commission and the whether the Twin Towers were taken down in attacks ``perpetuated by government.'' He called for an impartial independent criminal investigation into 9/11 as audience...

Check out this genius from the Floor of the House on the War Debate. Mr. Speaker, it is time to pull our troops out . . . . The longer we stay in . . . the more chance we have of being sucked into another Vietnam in that region. The longer we stay in . . . the less credibility we have with neighbors in the hemisphere that we are a nation of peace, not an invading force. Mr. Speaker, we can argue another day about how our troops got [there], but I do not think anyone wants them...

House Democrats in the first weeks of the new Congress plan to establish a dedicated fund to promote renewable energy and conservation, using money from oil companies. That's only one legislative hit the oil industry is expected to take next year as a Congress run by Democrats is likely to show little sympathy to the cash-rich, high-profile business. Whether the issue is rolling tax breaks - some approved by Congress only 18 months ago - pushing for more use of ethanol and other biofuels instead of gasoline, or investigations into shortfalls in royalty payments to the government, oil industry lobbyists...

Let me tell you why I like Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. It can be summed up in a conversation we had the evening following the 1994 funeral of House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill. That funeral mass - held at St. John the Evangelist in North Cambridge, the church where O'Neill had been baptized and, 53 years earlier, had married his beloved Millie - had been attended by Presidents Carter and Ford, and scores of senators and House members, and, more significantly, by nurses, waitresses, firefighters and cops.

Some Gitmo Prisoners Don't Want to Go Home By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Fearing militants or even their own governments, some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay from China, Saudi Arabia and other nations do not want to go home, according to transcripts of hearings at the U.S. prison in Cuba. Uzbekistan, Yemen, Algeria and Syria are also among the countries to which detainees do not want to return. The inmates have told military tribunals that they or their families could be tortured or killed if they are sent back. President Bush has said the United...

Congress plans ANWR hearing in KaktovikBy SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington BureauArticle Published: Thursday, March 27, 2003 - 3:06:27 AM AKST WASHINGTON--Congress will hold a hearing next month on Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil drilling issues in the closest place to the refuge with a roof and a microphone: the village of Kaktovik. Rep. Richard Pombo, the chairman of the House Resources Committee, plans to hold the hearing on April 5. The military will provide a jet to deliver members of Congress, according to Pombo's spokesman, Doug Heye. The committee will consider two pieces of legislation: Alaska Rep. Don Young's...

NBC is pulling back on its plan to air liquor advertising, the network said in a statement on Wednesday. For four months, the network had been running social-responsibility advertising related to drinking alcohol in preparation for accepting hard-liquor advertising, which it now says it won’t do. Some members of Congress had voiced their strong opposition to the idea-particularly Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) – but no hearings had been held and no legislation had been introduced that would have prevented NBC from running the ads. A week ago, however, key members of both the House and Senate...