Free Republic

President Obama's preferred method of implementing his leftist agenda is to rush emergency, must-sign-yesterday bills through Congress. Forget about reading the legislation. Just trust Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and Barney Frank with the details. The problem with this method is that when the details finally come out, it's too late for the people to do anything about it. President Obama's preferred method naturally fosters frustration and anger. Due to the economic "crisis," Obama and the far left element of the Democrat Party had to pass an emergency stimulus spending plan before anyone had time to read it. Afterwards, the public...

GEN. Colin Powell is wrong to say that the Republican Party must move to the center: Now is not the time to try for triangulation. This is a time for the party to stand firm on its principles until this nation again comes around to the GOP's way of thinking. This process will be driven by the consequences of President Obama's program. The challenge brought by Obama is no longer just theoretical: He means to pass the ultimate leftist agenda and has the votes to do so. As a result, our nation will be unrecognizable well before the 2010 elections....

"This is the beginning of a new day! In my household [Fidel] is known as the ultimate survivor." Fidel himself, in a letter in the state-run Granma newspaper, saluted "this legislative group. The aura of Martin Luther King is accompanying them." To others of us who honor King, there is a barely surviving black Cuban disciple of King (and Mohandas Gandhi) whom the caucus visitors did not meet because he has been in a Castro brothers' cage for many years and was off-limits to them. He is Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, and he is among those designated by Amnesty International...

Amidst the huge controversy surrounding the story on the so-called torture memos, the bedrock issues are being almost entirely ignored in favor of political theater. And the potential for harm is enormous. After promising not to indulge in revenge politics like some downscale banana republic after a change in leadership, President Obama suddenly decided to do exactly that, opening the way for prosecution of Bush Administration officials based on the release of some previously classified memos regarding what are referred to as 'enhanced interrogation techniques' like waterboarding. This is something new in American politics, something we haven't seen before. Even...

Right-Wind Extremism Report Issued Despite Objections Fox News WASHINGTON -- Civil liberties officials at the Homeland Security Department did not agree with some of the language in a controversial report on right-wing extremists, but the agency issued the report anyway. The intelligence assessment issued to law enforcement last week said some military veterans could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans' groups.-------------------------------------------- As history has repeatedly proven, once a nascent protest movement begins to succeed and achieve a certain level of public acceptance and validation, it...

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 27 (AScribe Newswire) -- A growing American interest in Iranian language and culture is sparking an expansion on U.S. campuses of full-fledged Persian Studies programs, led by the University of Maryland and the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. The new emphasis reaches beyond geopolitical concerns to focus on language acquisition, literature and other aspects of Persian culture. In response to this growing fascination among a diverse pool of students, Maryland's four year-old Center for Persian Studies - the first autonomous, interdisciplinary center in the field in the United States - will significantly expand its faculty, programs, research...

Wednesday May 16, 3:37 pm ET Institution Will Finance Energy-Saving Retrofits of Buildings in Major Cities NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citi today announced that it is committing $1 billion to the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), a project of the Clinton Foundation, to implement the new Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program in partnership with large city governments. Citi will provide expertise and financing for the first generation of projects in CCI's landmark program aimed at significantly reducing energy use in public and private buildings, which are responsible for between 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in most cities and over 70 percent in...

Four times during the school year in Campbell County, Wyo., the school sends report cards home. Anxious parents and worried students are provided with the typical grading categories -- academic performance, attendance and a work ethic score. But here in Gillette, there's an additional grade that has some families up in arms. It's called the body mass index, or BMI, a calculation based on height and weight that indicates whether your kid is too fat. The school chooses the word "overweight." If your child scores too high, it's the fitness equivalent of a bad grade. When Taylor Barbour came home...

'Disrobed': How Conservatives Can Take Back the Courts In Mark W. Smith's new book, Disrobed: The New Battle Plan to Break the Left's Stranglehold on the Courts, he advocates a radical new plan for conservatives to take back the courts. After working with Mark on the research for Disrobed, I spoke with him about the reaction the book has received from conservatives and whether they will embrace lawsuits as lawmaking and conservative judicial activism. You begin Disrobed with your reaction to the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. How did conservatives’ reaction to the nomination shape the premise...

From the New York Times' stockholders meeting:   2006 Annual Meeting of StockholdersApril 18, 2006New York, New YorkArthur Sulzberger, Jr.Chairman, The New York Times CompanyPublisher, The New York TimesJanet L. RobinsonPresident and Chief Executive Officer,The New York Times CompanyArthur "Pinch" Sulzberger:Good morning. I am Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Chairman of The New York Times Company. Welcome to our annual meeting and thank you for your interest in our Company...<Much self-congratulatory back-patting snipped.>As Bill Keller told our newsroom yesterday as our Pulitzers were awarded: Prizes don't always say anything terribly important about the state of our business, but [t]his year's Pulitzers do,...

Welcome to the matriarchy Barbara Kay National Post Wednesday, June 14, 2006 TORONTO - If you live in Toronto, you may have noticed the Bathurst Street billboards sponsored by Jewish Women International Canada (JWIC). They all display the same emotive ad, featuring a shame-suffused, Jewish-looking woman, submissively tilting her face to offer a brutalized eye to the public gaze. The caption reads: "There is a Jewish woman you know being abused." Community response has so far been equivocal, but muted. Now imagine public reaction to an alternative billboard message: an anguished man staring down from a 12-story ledge, captioned...

          Copyright 2006 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. ABC News Transcripts SHOW: This Week 10:31 AM EST ABC May 28, 2006 Sunday HEADLINER; REPRESENTATIVE JOHN MURTHA GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (WASHINGTON, DC USA) GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (ABC NEWS) (Off-camera) Good morning, everyone. We begin with that investigation into possible war crimes by US Marines in Iraq. Two separate military panels are poised to conclude that on November 19th, 2005, after a roadside bomb hit a convoy of Marines in the town of Haditha, killing Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, several Marines went on a rampage, killing 24 Iraqis, all but one unarmed...

The Marquis de Sade: The Left’s Man of Diverse ‘Sexual Orientations’ Sunday, March 05, 2006 America is undergoing an extreme makeover and the wrecking crews are Leftists. They believe that everything about our civilization is an illusion—including our created condition as either man or woman. In other words, because they do not believe that God exists or the Bible is true, our civilization and condition are merely social constructs. To the wreckers we are but plastic figures that can be melted down and remolded. The wrecking crews conceal their insane ambitions behind deceptive code words such as diversity, multiculturalism, sensitivity,...

It was some six years ago, and my youngest boy, Reid, along with his best friend Mitchy, both 3, had browbeaten me into taking them to the matinee of the "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" movie. We had settled into our seats, they with their popcorn and soda, and I with the mission of an afternoon nap -- a goal I was well on my way to achieving when I was jolted awake by the dialogue in the preview of the upcoming "Rugrats" movie. Scene after scene concluded with a comedic punchline revolving around soiled diapers, flatulence, mucus and...

The judiciary has been characterized as what should be the weakest branch of government and for good cause. When a judge pronounces broad and sweeping judgments about what is or is not a "right" it bypasses democracy and establishes juristocracy. Such governments cannot be considered free. An enormous amount of trust is placed in judges. This can be seen in the Alito confirmation that is feared to "tilt the country to the right". This language largely means that the Democrats are afraid that Alito is not going to vote the Democrat party line in court cases. But that's not the...

POLICE questioned a retired couple for 80 minutes about their “homophobic” views after they asked their local council if they could display their Christian literature next to gay rights leaflets, it was reported last night. Joe and Helen Roberts said that police officers warned them that their actions “were close to a hate crime” after they complained to Wyre Borough Council about its gay rights policies. The couple claimed that the police told them they were “walking on eggshells”. Mr Roberts, from Fleetwood, Lancashire, said he had been offended because of the council’s distribution of the gay rights leaflets and...

Fox News is reporting that at the recent Palestinian Solidarity Day held by the United Nations and hosted by Kofi Annan, , a resolution was adopted honoring suicide bombers and terrorist who kill Israelis in their attempt to "regain possession of Palestine." This is the ceremony that displayed a map of Israel labeled "Palestine." Not a word in Fox reports that calls to the UN and to Annan's office have remained unanswered.

A political parody of the ichthys, the Christian fish symbol, has put Washington state Democrats in some hot water and cast a spotlight upon a Mount Vernon activist who wants marijuana legalized.~snip~ The magnet comes on a piece of poster board with phrases meant to illustrate hypocrisy between Christian values and what some consider twisted morality of some of society’s Christian leaders, especially those with a hand in politics. The magnet was briefly for sale on the Washington state Democrats’ Web site before a talk radio show in Seattle asked about it last week, and the Democrats removed it.

The US economy does not have to suffer if there is an effort to use existing clean energy and energy conservation technologies in America, former US president Bill Clinton told the United Nations climate change conference in Montreal. Bill Clinton was invited to the final day of the Nov. 28 - Dec. 9 UN summit at the invitation of the Sierra Club of Canada. While a summit usually lasts a few days, the UN officials needed almost two weeks in the colorful Canadian city. And what better person than Bill Clinton to end a summit attended by a bunch of...

DULUTH - A large sign went up Monday in the storefront next to the U.S. Army recruiting station in downtown Duluth. What it says and how its message was received by the "Be-All-You-Can-Be" folks next door may well make it a sign of the times. "Iraq," it says. "Remember the Fallen Heroes." Below, in black numbers changed daily, is a tally of the dead and wounded U.S. soldiers and the number of days the conflict has gone on. It took only one day for Staff Sgt. Gary Capan from the recruiting office to walk over and politely ask Scott Cameron...

Montreal (CNSNews.com) - Environmental groups attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference have demanded that the U.S. and the other industrialized nations pay a "climate debt" to the poor nations for contributing to catastrophic, human-caused "global warming." "Let's face it, [the developing countries] are not responsible for the problem and yet they are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change," said Catherine Pearce, international climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth International (FOEI). Pearce spoke with Cybercast News Service at the 11th annual U.N. Climate Change Conference in Montreal. "It is total over-exploitation by the North[ern Hemisphere] and...

Rachel Carson, a driving force behind the modern environmental movement, grew up in a modest homestead in Springdale Borough near the Allegheny River. For the budding marine biologist, the river's waters were an early inspiration. Now, more than four decades after Ms. Carson's death, her presence may return to those waters. Allegheny County Council tomorrow will consider renaming the Ninth Street Bridge in her honor. If the resolution is approved, Ms. Carson would join Roberto Clemente and Andy Warhol as namesakes for the three Downtown "Sister Bridges" that cross the Allegheny. "This is long overdue," said Esther L. Barazzone, president...

A German Protestant youth group has put together a 2006 calendar with 12 staged photos depicting erotic scenes from the Bible, including a bare-breasted Delilah cutting Samson's hair and a nude Eve offering an apple. "There's a whole range of biblical scriptures simply bursting with eroticism," said Stefan Wiest, the 32-year-old photographer who took the titillating pictures. Anne Rohmer, 21, poses on a doorstep in garters and stockings as the prostitute Rahab, who is mentioned in both New and Old Testaments. "We wanted to represent the Bible in a different way and to interest young people," she told Reuters. "Anyway,...

Democrats flushed out of the closet with new poll.

Who's funding the insurgents in Iraq? The list of suspects is long: ex-Baathists, foreign jihadists, and angry Sunnis, to name a few. Now add to that roster hard-core Euroleftists.

Son, 15, accused of killing mother Convicted pedophile also charged in caseBy LOU MICHEL News Staff Reporter 9/11/2005 The 15-year-old son of a West Side woman whose dismembered body was found in the Black Rock Channel last month was arrested Saturday along with a 50-year-old convicted pedophile who police say assisted the teenager in the killing. Angel Rosa is accused of giving his mother, Madeline Irene, narcotic pills, and when she became incapacitated, strangling her with a cord in their Fargo Avenue home, according to Buffalo homicide investigators. A possible motive for the killing, police say, involves a friend of...

Dr. Johnnetta Cole, a woman whose radical views forced the Clinton administration to withdraw her name from consideration for Education Secretary, will be one of three keynote speakers at the Girl Scouts USA national convention in Atlanta from October 7-10. Another speaker is Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, which, among other things, promotes abortion and feminism. The third speaker is Ann Curry, news anchor for NBC’s Today Show. The choice of the first two speakers indicates that the Girl Scouts show no sign of slowing their plunge into hard-core feminism and political advocacy, at...

I just caught an interview on CNN of Aaron Broussard, a Democrat who is the President of Jefferson Parish, Lousiana. The essence of his rant was that the federal government in general and FEMA in particular are "covering their butts" by concealing the number of dead. At one point Broussard said, verbatim, that FEMA was trying to hide the fact that they had "murdered" thousands of people through their bureaucratic incompetence. This is how the Democrats will try to exploit this tragedy. A couple sidenotes: given his claim that there was an astronomical number of dead, the CNN interviewer asked...

Left pounces THE controversial MP George Galloway, who is to tour America this month accompanied by Jane Fonda, the Hollywood star, will be sharpening his critique of the Iraq war in the light of President George W Bush’s difficulties in coping with the effects of hurricane Katrina. As Denise Bollinger, a tourist stranded in New Orleans said, “It’s downtown Baghdad.” The anti-war left has been quick to suggest that American troops, including members of the Louisiana National Guard — many of whom are deployed in Iraq — would prefer to be helping their own citizens rather than facing Islamic insurgents....

Under an "Impeach Bush" banner on a wall of the Minnesota State Capitol, anti-war speakers tried Saturday to link the Iraq war to a slow response to Hurricane Katrina. It was part of the "Bring Them Home Now" national bus tour initiated by Cindy Sheehan, the mother who camped near President Bush's Texas ranch to demand that he talk with her about the death of her soldier son. Sheehan was in the South on another bus Saturday, but about 350 people showed up in St. Paul to hear out-of-state speakers, along with local legislators, candidates and clergy members decry the...

  AIR AMERICA'S FINEST [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Ned Rice alerts: If anyone cares, at 3:46 PM p.s.t. this afternoon on Air America Radio Randi Rhodes repeatedly urged listeners in hurricane ravaged areas to go right out and loot, arguing that poor people should be allowed to do so at will. She even advised her listeners to avoid discount centers like Wal-Mart and concentrate their looting on some of the higher-end stores so as to have access to higher quality stuff. I'm not sure if Randi was joking or serious (although with her it's always hard to be sure), but...

The Left contributes nothing to the intellectual marketplace when it has but a single, paranoid notion -- that the United States can do nothing but evil. Sheehan, the Left's latest hero, expresses that view in multiple, delusional ways: "Since we first stepped on this continent," she barks, "we have been responsible for death and destruction" ... And my favorite: America's greatest talent is "killing people." All of which sum to the sentiment at the core of Left-thought everywhere: "This country is not worth dying for." But such single-minded hate and paranoia is worse than just thoughtless and anti-American. It pointedly...

(Man is accused of releasing mink in state) An animal rights activist accused of freeing thousands of mink around the Midwest and dodging authorities for years has struck a deal with federal and state prosecutors to serve two years in prison. Peter Daniel Young plans to plead guilty to two federal counts of animal enterprise terrorism on Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Anderson said. Each count is punishable by up to a year in prison and Anderson said he'll ask a judge to sentence Young to the maximum two years. Young also faces three state felony counts in Virginia in...

Emotions ran high for an army soldier's funeral in Martinsville Sunday. Sgt. Jeremy Doyle's sacrifice, brought many out to honor him but also sparked a standoff on a city street. People arriving to say goodbye to a hometown hero, met an altogether different scene in Martinsville. Demonstrators dragging American flags on the ground and holding signs opposing U. S. troops. "The thing that got us here is that Sgt. Doyle died for us to give us our freedom and then you have people like this to come and it's ridiculous. It's absurd," one funeral attendee told News 8. Tension grew...

Portside Assault On The USS Iowa By Lisa Fabrizio August 30, 2005 For years, those on the far left have repeatedly maintained that they support the U.S. military while, in reality, they oppose nearly every incidence of its deployment. Now it seems their animosity is not just reserved for our most recent forays, but apparently the Iraq War has soured them retrospectively on earlier battles for freedom. No greater proof of this is there than the recent debacle involving the Board of Governors of liberal bastion San Francisco and its rejection (web site) of the retired WWII battleship, USS Iowa....

Democrats Should Regroup, Reach Out to Voters August 30th, 2005 John Baer Remember the Democratic Party? No? How about the 2004 presidential election, where their candidate met a decisive loss against the incumbent President Bush? Ring a bell? It’s no real surprise that their current run of bad luck seems to have caused this formerly-reputable party to all but fall off the map. After news networks and talking heads decided to streamline presidential election coverage down to color-coordination, the branding of “blue-state” (Virginia not being one of these, FYI) on those that turned their electoral votes to the democratic side...

A Georgia county is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union over its pre-meeting prayers. The suit claims one prayer at a recent Cobb County Commissioners' meeting ended "in the name of Jesus our Savior," which phrase, according to the ACLU, puts the invocation in violation of the Constitution of the United States. However, attorney Steve Crampton of the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, protests that the Cobb County officials' prayers are entirely legal, and the commission members have the right to open meetings with prayers acknowledging Jesus if they so choose. But unfortunately, the pro-family...

Here’s a touching scene, featuring Cindy Sheehan and the Reverend Al Sharpton, in front of crosses, looking solemn and sad.Now let’s zoom out and see the media swarming around this manufactured event: (Hat tip: Bill P.) UPDATE at 8/28/05 5:36:04 pm: More pictures of this moving tableau at Getty Images. Co-starring “Army Mom.”UPDATE at 8/28/05 5:42:51 pm: Several LGF readers point out the Jewish star at lower right of the second photograph. Somebody tell CODEPINK not to let the Nazis know.

Every time I turn around, another anti-war person is saying how much he or she "supports" the troops. No matter how vicious the attack on the policy in Iraq or the Afghanistan situation or the proactive strategy to confront worldwide terror, it always seems there's a "support the troops" caveat at the end of the blistering dissent. OK, fine, opposing the Iraq war doesn't mean disrespect for the military, that's true. But the benefit of the doubt only goes so far. Now there's a litmus test, a way to expose the folks who really don't support the troops no matter...

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. - The image on the brown T-shirt is simple, a colorful outline of the Southwest's craggy hills. The message under the picture — "New Mexico, Cleaner than Regular Mexico" — has galvanized thousands of Latinos, who are taking their protests from the streets to cyberspace. "I was born in Mexico, so when people make comments about Mexico I take it personally," said Carime Hernandez, 24, of West Palm Beach, Fla. Hernandez took action. She logged on to BlueLatinos.org and fired off an e-mail message demanding the chairman of Urban Outfitters, the retail chain that sells the tops,...

One Clinton jets to Alaska and Iraq with Republicans, and enthusiastically sponsors legislation with GOP lawmakers who impeached her husband. The other plays golf with former President George Bush and accepts assignments from the current one. All of this bipartisan snuggling by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton has some Democrats and Republicans questioning their motives. Is this calculated politics designed to get the former first lady ready for a presidential bid in 2008?

LONDON (AFP) - The British army joined in a gay pride march for the first time, an army spokesman said. Troops in uniform joined the annual Gay Pride festival in Manchester, northern England, on the march through the city centre, with thousands of supporters watching from the sidelines. The army was out to attract homosexual recruits and show it can be gay-friendly. Soldiers gave out sweets as their float travelled along the two-mile (three-kilometre) course, following a float of muscular men in pink Lycra shorts dancing to music and blowing whistles. "We don't really care what sexual orientation you are...

To parents concerned about public education leftist bias: here is the exact content of an email I just sent to my kid's freshman History teacher. I welcome any comments in case I receive a backlash from the principal, to whom I cc'ed in on the message, and possibly the teacher himself:Hello Mr. ____: I am ____ ____'s mom. He shared some things from your class presentation today that concerned his father and me. He said you stated, upon displaying an image on the overhead projector of a person crying, that the man was reacting to the assasination of a Kennedy...

A front-page story concerning Iran in Tuesday’s Washington Post was clearly intended to thwart American efforts preventing that country from obtaining nuclear weapons, as well as to embarrass the Bush administration with more implications of faulty intelligence. In an article entitled “No Proof Found of Iran Arms Program”, Dafna Linzer states: Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined. "The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the current home of hundreds of wounded veterans from the war in Iraq, has been the target of weekly anti-war demonstrations since March. The protesters hold signs that read "Maimed for Lies" and "Enlist here and die for Halliburton." The anti-war demonstrators, who obtain their protest permits from the Washington, D.C., police department, position themselves directly in front of the main entrance to the Army Medical Center, which is located in northwest D.C., about five miles from the White House. Among the props used by the protesters are...

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said the small intelligence unit, called "Able Danger," had identified Atta and three of the other future Sept. 11 hijackers as al-Qaida members by mid-2000. He said military lawyers stopped the unit from sharing the information with the FBI. The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks left the Able Danger claims out of its official report. In an interview with Fox News Channel and The New York Times, Shaffer said the panel was not given all the information his team had gathered. "I'm told confidently by the person who did move the material over that the...

Mom of fallen airman calls cross memorials insulting The mother of a Lompoc Air Force officer killed in Iraq is demanding that crosses bearing her son's name be removed from Santa Barbara's Arlington West memorial and from an impromptu display outside President Bush's Texas ranch, where the mother of another fallen soldier sits in vigil. Debbie Argel Bastian, who last week watched as Capt. Derek Argel's remains were buried along with four of his comrades at Arlington National Cemetery, says the other memorials are an insult to her son's memory. "They have erected crosses out there, and Derek is out...

A Chattanooga lobbyist has pleaded guilty on federal bribery charges saying he delivered kickbacks to two lawmakers. Charles Love is one of two lobbyists accused of delivering bribes from undercover agents to Senator Ward Crutchfield and Rep. Chris Newton in a sting coined "Tennessee Waltz". Both lawmakers are being charged with bribery and extortion. Prosecutors say Love took money to lawmakers on behalf of E-cycle, which was a fake company the F-B-I set up. Love is the second defendant to plead guilty in the case. Barry Myers told a judge he passed FBI bribes to Sen. Kathryn Bowers and Former...

On MSNBC'S Countdown, tonight, Cindy Sheehan pretty much confirmed the view that she was only staging her Crawford act for a publicity stunt. It would be of no shock to anyone that the liberal host of Countdown floated the idea to Ms.Sheehan that, if her intention was to protest the war and President Bush, then it would be better if she and the President did not meet. Obviously, what the liberal host had in mind was the idea of keeping the story alive. And it was at that point, that Cindy Sheehan showed her real intentions. She agreed, indicating that...

Casey Sheehan was a re-enlistee with the Army's 1st Cavalry. He knew he was going to fight. He understood that. He embraced it. He fought like a soldier. And like a soldier he died, killed in April of 2004, in Sadr City, Iraq. Casey's mom, Cindy, doesn't quite get it. She is a mother who has lost her son to a war. Convinced she knows more about the costs of war than other parents who've suffered similar loss, she has parked herself outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Full of judgment and hate, calling him "selected," not elected, blaming...