Free Republic

A Fuzzy StrategeryAgree to DisagreeBy Rob FishmanNov 15 2006Yesterday, Sun Columnist Billy McMorris argued that, as students, we should take time away from partying and sleeping, and express our gratitude to the nearly 3,000 soldiers who have died so far in Iraq. Billy does what George Bush does: instead of defending the Iraq War, he points to the sacrifices of our soldiers. It’s a crafty strategy of misdirection, to channel our grief for dead soldiers into support for the ongoing war in Iraq.There was a time when such sacrifices might have been sensible. Maybe at first, we could justify soldiers’...

According to some who knew the man who set himself on fire along the Kennedy Expressway last Friday, it wasn't a suicide. They're calling it the act of a martyr. The man who doused himself with gasoline and lit himself near a 25-foot-tall sculpture titled "Flame of the Millennium" was Malachi Ritscher, 52, a local musician and anti-war activist. The medical examiner ID'd Ritscher on Wednesday through medical records. Friends were already convinced it was him. One admirer of Ritscher sent me an e-mail with the Subject Header: "It was Martrydom, Not Mental Illness." "Do you remember the Buddhist monks...

Seth Brigham holds a copy of the Daily Camera at the Boulder County Justice Center Friday, Aug. 18, 2006, in Boulder, Colo. Hours after John Mark Karr told reporters in Thailand he was with JonBenet when she died, questions arose about his claims _ including whether he sexually assaulted the 6-year-old beauty queen or was even in Colorado at the time of the slaying. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

A self-described peace activist responsible for the diversion of a London-to-Washington flight Wednesday acted bizarrely for hours, made references to al Qaeda and hijack training flights, and was restrained by two passengers after she urinated in the aisle. Catherine C. Mayo, 59, a Vermont woman who also lives part time in Pakistan, was charged yesterday in federal court with interfering with a flight crew. United Flight 923 was forced to make an emergency landing at Boston's Logan International Airport under escort by two military jets. "She's got some very serious mental health problems," said Page Kelley, Mrs. Mayo's attorney, who...

Onscreen king of kvetch Larry David just couldn't contain himself at a Martha's Vineyard parking lot last weekend when an errant shopping cart scratched his beloved BMW 530. According to Page Six, the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Seinfeld" creator and his wife were outside a Vineyard Haven supermarket when a runaway cart made what one eyewitness said was "a little dent" in David's $75,000 car. David proceeded to call the cops and started, says the witness, "in a golf shirt and shorts, flapping away with his arms. It was just like an episode on his show." Vineyard cops confimed that...

Helen Thomas' new book, Watchdogs of Democracy? -- her missive on the failings of the Washington press corps, especially on reporting surrounding the Iraq war -- may as well have saved the question mark in the title and just been named "Lapdogs." Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, and her latest book is a combination memoir, press critique, tutorial on various White House message management techniques and an assessment of assorted White House press secretaries. Here's a sample: "My criticism of the press secretaries in the Bush-2 administration is that they are robots parroting the party line,...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday made his first trip to a prison camp at Guantanamo Naval Base since his remarks last year criticizing U.S. soldiers there for allegedly bad treatment of prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan. Durbin, the Senate's second-highest-ranking Democrat, had said in recent weeks that he was eager to visit the U.S.-controlled base in Cuba but wanted assurances from the Pentagon that he would receive a complete tour of the facility. Virginia Sen. George Allen, who is running for re-election this year and is frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in...

During the 2004 Illinois Senate race, GOP nominee Alan Keyes, facing certain crushing defeat from rival Barack Obama, suggested that Jesus Christ would not back the Democratic contender. "And I think you remember my response, which was, I wanted to know who his pollster was," Obama joked to Fox News host Alan Colmes on Oct. 26, 2004. "Because if I have a chance to talk to Jesus, I'm going to be talking to him about eternal life and the meaning and purpose of my work here. I'm not going to be worrying about who he's voting for in the Senate...

[excerpted] ...."Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters," the Illinois Democrat said in remarks prepared for delivery to a conference of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty. "It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase `under God,"' he said. "Having voluntary student prayer groups using school property to meet should not be a threat, any more than its use by the High School Republicans should threaten Democrats." ..... Obama said millions of Christians, Muslims...

See for example this thread first. The Brokeback Mountain columnist (Sullivan) coined the term Christianist Although he's a queer he must have no fear: as he would if Mohammed he dissed.

Good morning delegates! I have a few questions for you this morning. Do you believe that in the Governor’s office, we have the wrong man with the wrong plan? Do you believe that we have to take this state back from the special interests? Do you believe that every student deserves a good education? That every person deserves affordable health care? That every Californian deserves clean air and clean water? Finally, do you believe it’s time for Arnold get to work on his next movie: the One Terminator? If we’re going to make that happen, we have to remember one...

Can openers, scissors and spiral-bound notebooks discriminate against lefties. Despite such challenges, 10 to 12 percent of the human population has historically preferred the left hand. Why doesn't the number ever waiver? Nobody knows for sure, but new research supports a body of evidence that suggests genetics have a hand in it all. In the meantime, the myth remains that lefties are more artistic. And the idea that left-handed fighters have an advantage persists on scant evidence, supported by Scottish lore and Rocky Balboa's heroics in the ring. Look, Mom: Both hands! Like many traits, handedness is probably determined by...

Her worldwide album sales may have topped the 50 million mark, but home for singer Linda Ronstadt is anything but flashy. During the school year, she and her two children reside in a four-bedroom, two-bathroom Craftsman-style San Francisco duplex she bought a couple years ago for its "good light, good architecture and nice view of the bay." The multi-Grammy-winner -- who comes to the Rosemont Theatre March 25 for a special performance with the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra -- says she gravitates toward anything that's from the past -- specifically, before 1906. She has furnished her home with "a funny mixture...

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) blasted the Bush Administration's proposed port management deal with the United Arab Emirates as a move that would "turn over our sovereignty to another country." The New York Democrat says she's still opposed to the deal and plans to introduce legislation that would block Dubai Ports World or any other company owned by a foreign government from operating US ports. As of today, we have almost 50 members of congress introducing bills to stop the UAE port deal. If only they would propose as much legislation to protect US borders. Clinton said critical infrastructures like seaports...

Hillary Clinton is most certainly not the scheming, bitter, partisan portrayed in Dick Morris and Eileen McGann's bestselling book "Condi vs Hillary," which the New York Times derides in a Sunday book review as "a Fox News fairy tale." Times Washington correspondent Robin Toner insists that the Morris-McGann tome is more parody than reality, dismissing their claims that Hillary is filled with "rage" at Republicans; along with the assertion that Clinton, "at her core . . . believes in income redistribution." So when Mrs. Clinton bellows - as she did at a Democratic fundraiser in 2003 - that she's "sick...

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has all the hallmarks of a clearcut favorite to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. She enjoys nearly universal name recognition, focuses on high-profile issues and, perhaps most importantly, has the ability to raise a lot of cash. But there is a massive amount of ground to cover before she can allow visions of settling back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to dance in her head. First up is her Senate reelection campaign. In a development that could spice up the 2006 race, two antiwar candidates have announced they will challenge Clinton for the Democratic...

The Air Force Reserve plans to discharge a lieutenant colonel accused of causing thousands of dollars in damage by defacing cars with pro-Bush bumper stickers, officials said Friday. Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau, a pilot with 500 combat hours in the first Persian Gulf war and the Balkans, is charged with felony criminal mischief. He is accused of using paint stripper to write "F--- Bush" in 18-inch-high letters on cars at Denver International Airport with bumper stickers supporting President Bush and conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. Jim Miller, a spokesman for the Air Force Reserve Command at Robins Air Force Base,...

Somebody is lying. That's not an accusation or a criticism, just a logical conclusion based on comparing statements by various administration officials. There is no way all of the people involved in the Valerie Plame case can be telling the truth, because they contradict each other, and sometimes themselves. Whether a law was broken when her identity as a CIA agent was revealed in the press back in the early summer of 2004, the more important issues of why she was exposed and the subsequent cover-up tell us more about the integrity of the Bush administration than any legal action...

In his latest editorial on his website Bob Beckel calls Tom Delay a punk with a big mouth. Of course Mr. Beckel offers no proof to back up the baseless allegations he makes against Delay. Here is the editorial in it’s entirety: Just another Bully A Column by BBP Editor Bob BeckelTom Delay reminds me of a bully in my hometown high school. He scared people, told them he carried a switchblade, and would use it. He was a thug. One day he said something about my sister. He lasted 15 seconds, until he started to cry for his momma....

Democrat presidents misled and troops wound up dead? That's what Sen. Barack Obama seemed to be saying in a wide ranging interview with the Chicago Tribune this week. Commenting on claims that President Bush used on bogus intelligence to take America into the Iraq war - he noted that more than one Democratic president has done the same thing. The revelation came as Sen. Obama recounted a recent town meeting where an audience member had asked him about the war, saying: "Shouldn't the president be impeached for lying?" The top black Democrat recalled answering: "Well, FDR, JFK, LBJ -- we...