Free Republic

A matter of authority The Intelligencer PENNRIDGE SCHOOL DISTRICT officials did the pragmatic thing, if not the right thing, when they agreed to settle a federal lawsuit challenging the high school principal's right to review material prior to its distribution to students. The suit was brought by former student Joe Baker, who during his senior year attempted to distribute fliers in the school that questioned the district's teachings about the origins of life. Baker said the district failed to cover some theories, specifically creationism. Principal Tom Creeden, per district policy, insisted on approving the material before Baker started handing it...

Racist Leaflets Dropped At Lincoln Homes POSTED: 2:31 p.m. CDT August 19, 2003 UPDATED: 2:32 p.m. CDT August 19, 2003 LINCOLN, Neb. -- A white-supremacist group's recent attempts to entice supporters reached beyond Omaha Saturday. Bags containing anti-immigrant statements were found in driveways and lawns in Lincoln on the same day Omaha residents reported finding similar leaflets. The leaflets bear the name and message of the neo-Nazi group National Alliance and derided immigrants as criminals who come to the United States to collect welfare and take jobs. Jennifer Klein was shocked to find the literature in her northwest Lincoln...

Government Urges Colleges to Heed First Amendment Potentially Offensive Speech Must Be Allowed By REGINA CHEN Contributing Writer Friday, August 15, 2003 Responding to letters from across the nation about the state of free speech on college campuses, the U.S. Department of Education sent a strong reminder to universities that campus speech regulations should not infringe upon First Amendment rights. College campuses all maintain different speech policies targeting protests and political literature, intended to protect all students' rights—from those who may be expressing offensive speech to those who may be harassed by such ideas. The letter also clarified the...

The US army is hoping to stick up posters of Saddam Hussein's face superimposed on Hollywood heroines and other stars in an attempt to enrage his followers and draw them out. In one called 'Zsa Zsa Saddam', he has his head tossed back, his blonde locks flowing and a filter-tipped cigarette dangling coquettishly between his delicate fingers. 'Zsa Zsa Saddam' is the US army's latest ploy in the four-month hunt for the fugitive dictator. In a campaign starting this week, US forces plan to put up the posters around Saddam's home town of Tikrit. As well as Saddam dolled up...

First they tried to bomb him, then they tried the offer of a reward. They even released images of what he might look like with no hair. But now the US army would appear to be getting desperate with its latest ploy to catch Saddam Hussein: pictures of the elusive dictator as Hollywood sex goddess. In a scheme likely to raise as many laughs among Iraq's hardline Islamic clerics as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, troops of the 4th Infantry brigade in Tikrit are planning to put up pictures around the town of Saddam's face superimposed on the bodies of...

Student Punished for Posting a Constitutionally Protected Flier SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA — Audiotapes in the possession of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) show that a student at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) was unjustly punished for posting, in a public lounge, a flier that some students considered “offensive.” FIRE came to the defense of the embattled undergraduate student, Steve Hinkle, in April 2003. Despite FIRE’s efforts to resolve the case amicably and discreetly, Cal Poly persists in its injustice, its deceit, and its abandonment of its moral and constitutional obligations. “There are at least three...

The city of Oakland barred two employees from advertising an informal group that respects "the natural family, marriage and family values," contending the bulletin-board flyer was "homophobic." In a case that could set a precedent challenging anti-discrimination laws, Regina Rederford and Robin Christy filed suit yesterday in U.S. District Court in Oakland against two city supervisors who enforced a policy they insists is unconstitutional. "It's ridiculous – the flyer doesn't mention homosexuality whatsoever," said Rederford's attorney, Scott Lively. "It's a completely affirmative and positive statement about a Christian value system centered on the natural family," Lively told WorldNetDaily. "For the...

Iraqis Offering More Cooperation, But Still Fear Hussein By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, July 29, 2003 - Iraqis are providing more tips to U.S. and coalition forces searching for Saddam loyalists in Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz told a U.S. Senate committee here today. However, Wolfowitz, who'd taken a July 18-22 whirlwind trip to Iraq, also pointed out to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Iraqi populace continues to harbor a "pervasive" fear of the deposed Hussein regime. "This points to one of the most formidable challenges facing us (in Iraq)...

LITTLEROCK - A white Littlerock family is fearing for its safety after racially hateful fliers with their home address on them were found circulating in Palmdale, Lancaster and Littlerock. Sheriff's investigators say the family has nothing to do with producing or distributing the fliers, which target blacks, Jews, and Mexicans. "It appears that they are in fact the victims of a cruel joke or hoax," Sgt. Jerry Bluff said. The fliers, signed, "The KKK Club," invited anyone who wanted a fight to go to a Littlerock address, which turned out to be the home of 80-year-old Lionel Moss Sr. and...

Just when you think the politically correct clowns on the campus can't get any more ridiculous, they shoot another live white man out of a canon. Steve Hinkle is an undergraduate at California Polytechnic University. He has been found guilty in the campus kangaroo court of posting a flier on a student bulletin board offending the sensibilities of a small group of students so intellectually fragile they belong in a day-care center. The flier invited one and all to a speech by Mason Weaver, a black man, author of a book called "It's OK To Leave the Plantation," comparing black...

Appeals panel upholds ACLU claim against Vegas downtown (Las Vegas-AP) -- A federal appeals court has ruled the city of Las Vegas and operators of the Fremont Street Experience can't ban people from distributing leaflets, collecting signatures and circulating petitions. The unanimous ruling by a panel of the Ninth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a lower court's ruling that the downtown pedestrian mall is a nonpublic forum and not subject to strict scrutiny over limits placed on First Amendment activities. First Amendment advocates are praising the decision, saying it sends a message to local governments...

The head of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), Ahmad Chalabi, said Thursday that he put US officials in contact with three Iraqi defectors who provided detailed information about Saddm Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction program. "We ... introduced them to three defectors on the weapons program," Chalabi said after a briefing here with about 30 US lawmakers on a range of postwar issues, including the pace of Iraqi reconstruction and the prospects finding Saddam. "One of them was an engineer," Chalabi said. "We believe that he had valuable information about sites. He did not have any operational information...

China accuses Falun Gong of disrupting SARS workAP AND AFPSaturday, Jun 07, 2003,Page 5 At least 180 Falun Gong members have been detained in a northern Chinese province on charges of sabotaging anti-SARS work by distributing pamphlets promoting the banned spiritual group, the main Communist Party newspaper said yesterday. The crackdown in Hebei Province, just outside Beijing, reportedly began in mid-April at about the time officials ordered tougher measures to control the spread of SARS. As of Wednesday, 180 followers had been rounded up, the People's Daily reported. It didn't give any details of their identities and officials in Hebei...

BASRA, Iraq, May 24 — Iraqi soldiers complained bitterly today of the allies' plans to disband the country's armed forces, with some threatening to take up arms against occupying American and British troops unless their salaries were continued. About 50 Iraqi soldiers marched to one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces here in this southern city to air their grievances. They were turned away without incident by heavily armed British soldiers at the front gate. Similar complaints were raised by soldiers in Baghdad."If they don't pay us, we'll start problems," said Lt. Col. Ahmed Muhammad, 41, a 25-year navy veteran based...

Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most Iraqis By MICHAEL R. GORDON AGHDAD, May 20 — Iraqi citizens will be required to turn over automatic weapons and heavy weapons under a proclamation that allied authorities plan to issue this week, allied officials said today. The aim of the proclamation is to help stabilize Iraq by confiscating the huge supply of AK-47's, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons that are used by criminal gangs, paramilitary groups and remnants of the Saddam Hussein government. Iraqis who refuse to comply with the edict will be subject to arrest. Only Iraqis authorized to...

CAPE CORAL, May 9, 2003- A Cape Coral man is trying to clear his name after bogus fliers were circulated in his neighborhood accusing him of being a child molester. For Michael Wheeler, it's a living nightmare. *** Imagine what it would feel like to find out your neighbors think you're a sex offender. Read the flier (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - free download) "The first thought that went through my head is how could I be accused of something I think is the worst crime anybody could commit," said Wheeler. Wheeler is living in a nightmare. "None of the...

Leaflets published in the Midlands urging Muslims to become suicide bombers have been found in Israel's occupied territories. The discovery fuels fears that Britain has become a haven for Islamic extremists. Now Israeli authorities have demanded that Britain launch an immediate investigation into al-Sunnah, the organisation based at Birmingham's Centre for Islamic Studies, which published the leaflets. One leaflet published just before the outbreak of war against Saddam Hussein urges Muslims to become martyrs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Supporters are asked to send donations to a NatWest bank account at its Digbeth branch in Birmingham. The al-Sunnah group is...

Last Update: 04/05/2003 11:52 Report: Leaflets published in UK urging suicide bombings found in territories By Amos Harel, Roni Singer, and Sharon Sadeh, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies Brochures printed in Great Britain urging Muslims to become suicide bombers have been found in the territories, according to a report in The Guardian. In response, Israel is demanding that Britain launch an immediate investigation into the publisher of the leaflets - al-Sunnah, the organization based at the Center for Islamic Studies in Birmingham. Two British citizens were involved in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv pub last week, in...

Kim Burger JDW Staff Reporter, Nick Cook JDW Aerospace Consultant, Andrew Koch JDW Washington Bureau Chief, Michael Sirak JDW Staff Reporter With the regime of Saddam Hussein soundly defeated by overwhelming military force, coalition leaders are analysing what initial lessons can be drawn from Operation 'Iraqi Freedom'. A high-level Pentagon team is already sifting through the data. The team-members will be aware that their conclusions will be leapt upon by proponents of two quite disparate camps: those who will use the war to bolster the process of the military's transformation from a Cold War-era fighting force to one that is...

<p>Chanting "Saddam no, Bush yes," some 200 Iraqi prisoners of war were let go Sunday at the coalition's main internment camp in the desert near the southern port of Umm Qasr.</p> <p>The men, many of them barefooted, shook hands with the American soldiers guarding the camp before boarding buses and trucks to be driven to nearby Basra, southern Iraq's largest city.</p>