Free Republic

IBM is threatening to leave organizations that set standards for software interoperability because of concerns that their processes are not always fair. ... IBM was one of the most vocal opponents of a file format created by Microsoft and approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as an international standard earlier this year. ... Microsoft has long been accused of dominating the market for office productivity programs due to its use of closed file formats. Microsoft changed course, however, and submitted its OOXML format to become an international standard, which means other vendors could implement OOXML in their products....

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Microsoft may have won a year-long quest to make its OOXML (Office Open XML) document format an ISO-recognized international standard, but claims of foul play in the voting process may come back to haunt the software giant when the European Commission concludes its latest antitrust investigation of Microsoft's business practices. When the Commission, Europe's top antitrust authority, opened a probe into Microsoft's business practices in January, it said part of the investigation would examine whether OOXML, as the format is known, is "sufficiently interoperable with competitors' products." A month later ,the Commission sent a confidential request for information to all the national divisions...

SEATTLE (AP) — The format Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2007 programs use to save documents was approved as an international standard Tuesday, a step the company touted as proof it is willing to make once-proprietary technology work openly with competing programs. But the International Standards Organization vote didn't quiet some opponents, who argued that the Office Open XML standard still locks out competitors and gives Microsoft customers no choice but to keep buying its programs forever. The decision was made public on the Web site of a European standards organization, Ecma International, on Tuesday. ISO is expected to formally announce the...

Bomb threat empties state power-grid offices - Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, April 17, 2007 Authorities on Monday were investigating two suspicious incidents involving the California Independent System Operator that led to the evacuation of employees from their offices, officials said. A suspect had been identified but had not yet been arrested, ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle said Monday night, adding she could not say whether the suspect is an ISO employee. Power to several ISO computer systems was interrupted late Sunday, McCorkle said, but it did not affect the state's power grid, and all systems were restored by 6 a.m....

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh police are investigating a death threat against the school’s College Republicans chair. Nate Nelson received an e-mailed death threat last month, the day after attending a political rally on campus. The e-mail threatened both Nelson’s life and the life of his wife, Kelly. The threat came after Nelson had notified police that organizers of the rally were in violation of meeting codes established on campus. “My initial reaction [to the threat] was shock,” Nelson told The Badger Herald. “I didn’t think people would go that far.” According to Nelson, the threat said, “Quit with your political bullshit...

University of Wisconsin students gathered Wednesday night to discuss the United States’ longstanding relations with Israel and its implications on modern foreign policy. The discussion, titled “Axis of Empire: Why the U.S. Supports Israel’s Terror,” was hosted by the International Socialist Organization’s Madison branch. Generating debate about the U.S. motives for maintaining relations with Israel, the discussion peered into exactly what sparked the conflict between Israel and Lebanon this summer. UW graduate student and ISO member Elizabeth Wrigley-Field said Progressives in America should try to get the government to stop funding Israel and to “stop pursuing its own military adventurism”...

A new group, called "Middle East Solidarity" (AKA support the terrorists and worship Saint Pancake, Rachel Corrie), was created by the ultra left on my campus. The reason for formation of this group is that Stop the War had it's Student Org status revoked due to it's vandalism to the ROTC building (cutting the rope to the US flag) and constant harassment of recuiters at events. Also, I suspect a link to the International Solidarity movement, thus the Saint Pancake reference earlier. There is one catch however. The problem with the new group is that it is a contiuation of...

George W. Bush’s speech to the nation on May 15, 2006 highlighting deployment of the National Guard to the Mexican border represents an aggressive policy of racist, anti-immigrant demonization and hysteria. It was a demagogic attempt to mobilize the conservative base and appeal to fear in the lead-up to the November Election, and impact the current Senate debate. Bush’s call for ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ includes predominantly punitive, exploitative measures that belie the democratic traditions of our country. His proposals to maintain 6,000 National Guard troops at the border and increase facilities to imprison immigrants constitute the domestic side of...

APRIL SHOWERS bring summer power. That's the upside all of those gloomy, rainy days. Some of that water, collected as Sierra snow pack, will flow into rivers and generate hydropower. It's one of the factors responsible for this summer's adequate power outlook, state officials say. The positive outlook comes despite the possibility a pair of natural-gas-fired power plants in the East Bay may shut down soon. Last Thursday, Mirant Corp. gave 90 days notice to state regulators that it may have to shut down a unit at its Antioch plant and another one at its Pittsburg plant if the company...

Radical organizations, including active communist and revolutionary socialist organizations, were the driving force organizing the immigration boycott rally at Union Square in New York City on Monday. WND attended the event and took over 350 photographs documenting the effort by the radical political left to deliver an anti-American, anti-imperialist message under the guise of an "immigration rights" rally. The "Immigrant Boycott Day" was intentionally scheduled for May 1, worldwide known as the communist and socialist "May Day" holiday celebrating the struggle of "exploited workers" internationally. This scheduling decision was downplayed by the mainstream media. Documenting how carefully the radical political...

We've got over 125 photos---along with some descriptions and commentary---from Monday's immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles. We will be adding more photos and videos throughout the day today (and possibly into tomorrow). It really is a pretty comprehensive photo essay---enjoy! PS - Feel free to download and use any of our pictures, but please include a link to our site (http://www.modernconservative.com/). Thx, CC

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should withhold federal funds from a California college given the failure of the college to ensure the safe presence of military recruiters on campus, the Secretary was advised by a public interest law firm in a letter released today. According to news reports, military recruiters were forced to flee yesterday from a University of California Santa Cruz job fair because of a raucous mob. Mountain States Legal Foundation advised Rumsfeld that the college’s actions violate the Solomon Amendment, which requires that colleges permit military recruiters on campus or lose all federal funds. UC Santa Cruz...

LOS ANGELES - In Los Angeles, Eun Sook Lee will march on behalf of Korean illegal immigrants, at least 50,000, living in southern California. On Boston Common, Punam Rogers will join other Indian émigrés, as well as business clients and students from China, Germany, and Britain. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Ivalier Duvra will take to the streets to draw attention to Haitian newcomers who he says need refugee status. Coming on the heels of demonstrations in several larger cities, a National Day of Action on Immigrant Rights Monday is expected to involve people in some 90 US municipalities, well above...

MONDAY, A DAY OF DISRUPTION Political Agitators Planning For Monday Disturbances, Including Area City School Walkouts, Leading Up To Rally Downtown San Antonio School kids have become political pawns in the rarely mentioned, but always present, socialist/communist agenda; and they apparently are so under or miss-educated that they have fallen for the "Che Guevara Look," simply because he has a cool picture with a snazzy beret. Most do not even know Che's Argentine origin, thinking, instead, that he was Mexican. Meanwhile, the communist/socialist spawn are reving up their Marxist engines to use our kids, public schools and the immigration debate,...

The third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was marked over the weekend by a wave of protests around the world. Most of the marches in America were spearheaded by United for Peace and Justice, the nation’s largest anti-war coalition. United for Peace and Justice is a large umbrella association of more than thirteen hundred local and national groups who have joined together to protest the immoral and disastrous Iraq War and oppose our government’s policy of permanent warfare and empire-building. The organization’s recent press release tells us of a massive effort planned for the week of March 15...

Eight days ago, this editorial board elected to publish one of the 12 Danish cartoons that have sparked deadly riots around the world. For those who have become interested in the topic but did not see our original publication, we encourage you to read the editorial that accompanied the cartoon in last Monday’s newspaper. It is available online in The Badger Herald’s digital archives. We went to great lengths to explain our rationale in that piece and it is an argument we continue to stand behind. Much of the claim we have made centers around a notion of free speech...

On Monday, the Badger Herald Editorial Board crossed a line they were already dangerously close to. It was bad seeing a Herald redrawing of what it called the “most offensive” of the Danish cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed with a bomb for a turban, but to now see an actual blown-up reprint has gone too far. Among the arguments the editors made justifying their reprint were “free speech,” “news-worthiness,” and a desire not to be “gatekeepers” guided by “prude censorship.” They simply don’t get it. Cartoonists may have a legal right to free expression. The problem exists in a newspaper not...

Muslim students are upset by the Badger Herald newspaper's decision to reprint one of the notorious cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.Muslim students at UW-Madison have met with campus officials, are planning a campus forum on Tuesday, and are considering whether to stage protests.The cartoons, originally published in a right-wing Danish newspaper in September, have sparked worldwide demonstrations, including violent clashes with police in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most American newspapers have decided against printing the cartoons. But after a University of Illinois newspaper was criticized for republishing the cartoons, the editorial board at the Badger Herald decided to...

There are some campus groups advertising trips on my campus to Venezuela, including a catholic group and the ISO. They want people to see what good things Chavez has done for his country. The advertisment talks about the good things the Cuban doctors have done. They are looney leftists, however The websites are: www.witnessforpeace.org www.calsmadison.org (CALS=Community action on Latin America)

The execution of Crips Gang founder and convicted murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams on December 12th generated an inordinate amount of hysteria from anti-death penalty forces, not to mention the mainstream media coverage, which, as always, skewed leftward. The vigil that took place outside San Quentin on the night of Williams’ execution was attended by such ubiquitous liberal celebrities as actor Mike Farrell, folksinger Joan Baez, and professional race-baiter Jesse Jackson. Brows were beaten, tears were shed, and Governor Schwarzenegger was lambasted for denying Williams clemency. Apparently, all it takes is writing (or more likely having ghost-written) several children’s books and...

Wearing a Communist Party Shirt Is Patriotic!

Speaking to up to 1,500 anti-war protesters and activists, Mr Benn condemned the conflict in Iraq as "illegal, immoral and unwinnable". The event at the Royal Horticultural Hall in central London was organised by the Stop the War Coalition. Convenor Lindsey German hopes to find ways to progress the peace movement. "This is a day of people coming together to talk about how we can take the troops out of Iraq and allow the Iraqi people to run their country," she said. 'Positive movement' The morning was dominated by Mr Benn's speech, in which he said the current peace movement...

The future of military recruiting at Harvard Law School hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in the high-profile Solomon Amendment case Tuesday morning. In case you’ve tuned out three years of protests and press conferences on campus, here’s the issue in a nutshell: the Solomon Amendment, first passed by Congress in 1994, blocks federal funding for universities that limit military recruitment. It poses a dilemma for Harvard Law School, which requires all on-campus recruiters to sign a pledge saying they won’t discriminate against gays and lesbians. The military, which bars gays and lesbians...

From the moonbats at the Campus Antiwar Network: ENDORSED BY: Cindy Sheehan, Pablo Paredes, war resister; Camilo Mejia, war resister; David Airhart, Iraq War vet and Kent State student facing expulsion for peaceful counter-recruitment; Tariq Khan, George Mason University student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; Charles Peterson, Holyoke Community College student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; Traprock Peace Center; Peninsula Raging Grannies; David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org; Anthony Arnove, editor, Iraq Under Siege and co-editor with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People's History of the United States * Say No to the Solomon Amendment! Campus Anti-War Network is calling for actions around...

Thousands of protesters staged rallies on Wednesday across the United States against the policies of President George W. Bush, including the war in Iraq and response to Hurricane Katrina. The World Can't Wait organization, a coalition of groups formed recently to stage the rallies, used the anniversary of Bush's re-election to call for his resignation in protests that took place in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago. In New York, students walked out of schools and colleges and joined other supporters as thousands rallied in Union Square before marching nearly 2 miles to Times Square...

"No free speech for fascists!" screamed two burly ruffians as they charged the stage where David Horowitz was attempting to speak. "I probably would have suffered some bodily harm," Horowitz later wrote on his blog. Luckily, he writes, about half a dozen supporters "sprang to my rescue and beat the living crap out of the two deserving reds, dragging them unceremoniously from the theater." (1)Mr. Horowitz was fortunate. But he remains a target. We now know that the October 21 attack at the Liberty Film Festival in Los Angeles was no random event. It is part of a wider effort, orchestrated...

Can't wait until January 2009 to see a change at the White House? Activists throughout the country are taking to the streets on Wednesday to spread the message that they'd like to see change before the next presidential election. Legally, of course. Organizers of "The World Can't Wait" hope to see more than 1,000 people march down State Street to mark the one-year anniversary of the 2004 election. They will gather at 12:30 p.m. at Library Mall, and walk to the Capitol. The Madison event will be one of dozens on campuses throughout the nation. "There is no exact blueprint...

The left is planning another "Troops out-Walk out" on Nov 2, and they are complaining how Bush stole the election and other left wing blather. The protest is sponsored by the Multiculteral Student center, Wunk Sheek, MeCha, Al-Awda, International Socialist Organization, MSA, World Can't Wait, Madison area Peace Coliation, Stop the War, Madison area Warming Center Campagin, and Student Labor Action Coliation.

From DC indymedia UPDATE: 3:23PM, The Associated Press has confirmed the 2000th death. The action will be at 6PM Wednesday at the Memorial Bridge. DAWN will be making last minute plans tonight (including the possibility of a march following the action). We will post more details. We ask that you help us spread the word. Cindy Sheehan vigil at WH 12-8pm daily

Well, at least we know where to find these guys.... From Chicago Indymedia.The Activist Student Union (ASU) of DePaul University is calling for all people concerned with defending Ward Churchill's views and with defending academic freedom, to rally at DePaul. Churchill was invited by DePaul's Cultural Center and the ASU to speak because of his political views and his history of standing up and fighting for human rights and dignity. Were it not for right-wing attacks that have included threatening letters to the staff at the Cultural Center and a letter from the Governor of Colorado urging DePaul to cancel...

One of the country’s most famous anti-war activists is now one of Berkeley’s newest residents. Cindy Sheehan, who gained the world’s attention with her protest outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, has moved into a Berkeley apartment following her separation from her husband. “I needed a place to stay, and some friends got me an apartment,” she said. Not that Berkeley will see much of the mother who lost her son Casey in the Iraq war in April 2004. “I spend most of my time traveling, and I’m home maybe seven to 10 days a month,” she...

Book Review of: Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left, By David Horowitz, Regnery Publishing, Inc. 2004. 296 pp. The nature of political doublespeak never changes and its agenda is always the same: Obliteration of historical memory in the service of power…. Only a restored memory can demolish totalitarian myths and make men free. (David Horowitz, in Big Lies, Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 2005) At first sight, a merger of the secular political left and the Islamist radical believers is an anomaly. But this book carefully dissects the secret of their partnership: their shared hatred of...

WASHINGTON - Organizers are planning what they say will be the largest anti-war demonstration in the nation's capital since the Iraq war began in March 2003. The ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice detailed their plans Thursday for the Sept. 24 protest. They plan to bus in people from across the country for a march past the White House. Other major protests are planned that day in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Cindy Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed last year in Iraq, is on a 25-state bus tour that will end at the...

In an introductory speech in Madison for antiwar British politician and author George Galloway, actress Jane Fonda is making her first public statement against the occupation of Iraq. Fonda is scheduled to give her 20-minute introduction to Galloway, a Member of Parliament, at the Wisconsin Union Theatre Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. She is also scheduled to speak the following night in Chicago as Galloway continues his national speaking tour. Chris Dols, the local organizer for Galloway's tour, said that these two speeches are the only that Fonda will give with Galloway, who was expelled from the Labor Party after...

SFSU Hosts a TerroristBy Lee KaplanFrontPageMagazine.com | May 2, 2005 Lynne Stewart “Why can’t we get anyone but criminals to come here to SFSU and speak?” Robert Journey, treasurer of San Francisco State University College Republicans asked rhetorically as five members of the campus club met to attend a lecture by Lynne Stewart. The terrorist lawyer, who billed herself as a “Civil Rights Lawyer and Political Prisoner,” was recently convicted of conspiracy and for passing along fatwas (Islamic religious edicts) from Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to his terrorist followers in Egypt’s Islamic Group. Rahman is the blind sheikh responsible for...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20050715/tc_cmp/165702500 UN Panel: No Single Nation Should Control Internet Addresses Aoife White Thu Jul 14, 9:38 PM ET BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

WASHINGTON — Megan Watson, leader of Mainstream Moms, is so angry at military recruiters for invading schools to sign up unwary youth for combat in Iraq that she and her group launched an online movement, “LeaveMyChildAlone.org.” “They offer these trinkets to lure our children to enlist,” Watson said in a phone interview from her home in Bolinas, Calif. “This is very aggressive, demographic targeting to have conversations with our kids that should not be happening.” All branches of the military are falling short of recruiting goals as parents say, in effect, “Hell no! My kids won’t go!” Watson blasted the...

A.N.S .W.E.R.'s response to Bush:Hit the Streets September 24!Recognizing that the people of the United States have turned dramat ically against the war and occupation of Iraq, Bush went on national televi sion tonight to defend his imperial foreign policy. He repea tedly invoked September 11 as a pretext for the criminal and illegal war ag ainst Iraq. Bush took to the airwaves tonight because the antiwar m ovement is growing in strength. Our power poses a major poli tical obstacle to the continuation of the war and occupation. Now Bush has taken on the additional role of Recruiter-in-Chi ef, urging young people to sign up for military...

Boston communists say they want a revolution. Now they just have to agree on how to bring it about. A pimple-faced teen with Coke-bottle glasses and a self-satisfied smirk stands near the doorway of Harvard Square’s tiny Revolution Books. He’s skinny and draped in a large black T-shirt adorned with a full-color portrait of Joseph Stalin, the iron-fisted despot responsible, directly or indirectly, for the deaths of millions. "Stalin is my friend," the kid says, at once cockily and geekily, as he stares at the floor. "Yeah, yeah, but we can do better than Stalin," says the guy behind the...

At the culmination of a gathering of global 'antiwar' groups in Istanbul to hold court on the liberation of Iraq led by the United States and the United Kingdom, the jurors who heard testimony against the liberators issued their findings which included a declaration of support for the terrorists in Iraq who are killing American, British and coalition soldiers and Iraqis.The World Tribunal on Iraq is endorsed by leading leftwing organizations from around the world including American-based groups like Not in Our Name Project, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink and International ANSWER.The war on terror has reached a...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US anti-war group vowed to surround the White House in a sea of demonstrators during coordinated protests scheduled to take place in Washington, as well as Los Angeles and San Francisco on September 24. The ANSWER Coalition expects more than 100,000 people, from families of US soldiers to trade unions and diverse religious groups, to take part in the demonstrations against the war in Iraq.

I apologize for the delay in posting this thread. The actual event took place this past weekend, and I had intended on posting some of these pictures earlier in the week, but our (Protest Warrior, NY Chapter) unofficial photographer wasn't able to get in touch with me until recently. In any case, we did make our presence felt on the sidelines of the parade, where we were simultaneously able to enjoy the festivities and counterprotest the PLO-loving, terrorist-sympathizing, fifth columnist rabble that decided to use the day where we celebrate America's most steadfast ally in the Middle East as an...

Momentum Buildsfor Sept. 24 Mass Marchin Washington DCThe importance of the mass antiwar protests being organized on September 24 is driven home by two major new stories appearing today (M ay 19). A front-page article in the New York Times, headlined "Generals Offer a Sober Outlook on Iraqi War", is further confirmation of what has become crystal clear over the past month: The U.S. war strategy is in deep crisis and there is no more a "light" at the end of the tunnel in Iraq than there was in Vietnam. Pulling back from their rosy assessments of just a...

On Saturday afternoon, I drove to Rockville, Md., for a large "gathering to condemn the REAL ID Act." (The act will tighten driver's license standards to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining the IDs, close asylum loopholes, and provide funding to fix a huge gap in a border fence between California and Mexico.) Casa de Maryland, a government-funded open-borders group, organized the protest on the public school athletic field at Richard Montgomery High School. You can see the rally photos I took at my new Flickr site. Here's a sample: www.flickr.com Several hundred "documented" and "undocumented" workers attended, demanding driver's licenses...

We were seperated from the main body of leftists by police. The Anarchists and communists then charged the police line to try to beat us up. It did not work.

ON Apr 14th, the left plans to have students walk out of class and go rally on campus. I believe that they will rally outside of a military recruiter's office and do a die-in.

wasn't supposed to be here. I was supposed to be at a ball, a genuine inaugural ball with tuxedos and presidential-seal-emblazoned square napkins and succulent miniature crab cakes. Regrettably, we're a liberal magazine and, consequently, many of us are less than perfectly organized (although, at TNR, some of us prefer to think of ourselves as neo-disorganized)--and, well, I failed to honor certain press-credentialing deadlines. Now, instead, I would be covering "counter-inaugural events." As a result, last night I was sitting in a low-budget church on G Street in downtown Washington listening to speakers at an International Socialist Organization-sponsored gathering...