Free Republic

Six months ago, Free Republic was riding high, and I was proud to be a part of it. It was coming off having blown the cover off of Dan Rather’s use of forged memos against the President. The President was well on his way to winning re-election. It was a great time to be a Freeper. However, things have changed. It started with the justifiable removal of ALIPAC. I supported that move by Jim Robinson, but the ugliness directed towards Alberto Gonzales. He was accused of everything under the sun, and Senator Mel Martinez was viciously attacked for speaking Spanish...

First, this is NOT an April Fool's joke. I am leaving Free Republic. Over the past two years, civility and thoughtful discourse has vanished from this site, replaced with demands for ideological conformity that are straight out of Stalinist Russia or China's Great Cultural Revolution, and unrelenting uncivility if said conformance is not forthcoming. This trend began with the California recall election, where certain posters were allowed to flame the living beejezus out of those who didn't wholeheartedly support Tom McClintock, or thought that he wasn't running a campaign capable of winning. It extended into the Keyes campaign last year,...

If you, gentlemen, really want “to see US politics from another angle”, compare it with politics of present-day totalitarian regimes in Central Asia, for instance. And you’ll realize that there are practically no differences for our “democratic” state and e.g. authoritarian government in Turkmenistan. It’s common knowledge that Turkmen authorities abridge liberty of speech, freedom of the press, exercising control over mass and I-net. They bow down, imposing restrictions on freedom of association and assembly, in order to curtail political activity of non-governmental organizations, including groups of religious minorities. Nijazov does it with the aim of exercising control over latitude...

A member of the radical Islamic movement Hamas has been killed in a blast in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical sources and witnesses say the cause of the blast is not immediately known. Two other people were slightly wounded in the explosion near the home of the victim. An Israeli military spokesman says there was no army activity in the region at the time of the blast. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced at a summit with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas yesterday his armed forces would cease all military activity against all Palestinians.

I am all for whaling, but against killing the wolves. In Norway we have a very small population of wolves. More sheeps die from falling down cliffs and other natural things than being killed by wolves. Actually more sheeps are killed by another wild animal. Whales on the other hand there are many of in the sea.

LOS ANGELES — The Planned Parenthood Association says it's not too early to be thinking of that perfect Christmas gift idea. They will be offering the little beauties (pictured left) at their Los Angeles offices starting next month. It's all part of a new nationwide campaign to make condoms more fun. "They could even be used as finger puppets, as you can see," said a spokesman for Planned Parenthood. "We're trying to get people away from thinking of the condom as strictly a 'backdoor' business." The spokesman said that Jewish versions are still in the testing phase. "Both the Star...

In the constitution it says we have freedom to worship whatever we want, that doesn't hold true in Alabama. I support Judge Moore who shoudn't take the monument down. I want your oppinion

For most people, Moscow's underworld conjures up images of high-rolling gangsters driving around in expensive cars. For Vadim Mikhailov, Moscow's underworld is a tangible place of wonder and awe, a site of endless tunnels and labyrinths, clandestine streams and strange, unexplainable phenomena. "Moscow has the largest, deepest and most complicated network of underground channels of any city in the world," Mikhailov said. In 1990, Mikhailov founded Diggers of the Underground Planet, a loose confederacy of subterranean explorers. The group first formed in Moscow, but now it has members in major cities all over the world. Mikhailov's love affair with the...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Rocky Oldaker bought a wood box for $2 at a thrift store because it looked interesting. When he opened it, what he found inside was priceless to Linda Bigford: her mother's ashes. "I don't think that is what someone's life should boil down to ... $2 at a thrift store," said Oldaker, who bought the box along with a stuffed animal and a picture frame. When he unscrewed the box bottom at home, Oldaker discovered a plastic bag of ashes and a note identifying them as those of June Peltier of Marion, Mich. Peltier, 77, died...

County sued over court Bible display Alabama case sparks local call for removal By ALLAN TURNERCopyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Citing concern over what she perceives as growing religious fundamentalism, a Houston woman filed suit Monday in federal court against Harris County, demanding it remove a King James Bible from a monument near the Fannin Street entrance of the civil courthouse. The Bible, tattered and waterstained, has occupied the lighted display case since 1995, when an employee of then-state District Judge John Devine's court undertook an effort to refurbish the neglected monument. The 4-foot-tall pedestal was erected in 1956 to honor...

Israel Snatches Palestinian Gunmen From Hospital Beds in Dawn RaidBy Mohammed Daraghmeh Associated Press WriterPublished: Aug 26, 2003 NABLUS, West Bank (AP) - Israeli undercover forces snatched two wounded Palestinian gunmen from their West Bank hospital beds in a pre-dawn raid Tuesday, the latest Israeli military operation in the wake of a deadly bus bombing a week ago. Also Tuesday, Muslim-Jewish friction intensified at a disputed holy site in Jerusalem. Police arrested three Islamic officials after Muslim worshippers scuffled with police officers escorting Jewish visitors. In September 2000, deadly riots erupted at the shrine following a visit by then-opposition leader...

<p>Cable News Network reported that of 400 initial tanks in the Iraq army at the outbreak of war, only an estimated 12 remain.</p>

United States military units have reached the outskirts of Baghdad.Officals said the first United States Army and Marine Corps Units reached the southern edge of the capital late Sunday/(Early Monday) They said the units were conducting probing missions to determine the extent of the Iraqi defense around the city.The United States forces are also meant to ambush Republican Guard divisions that are withdrawing fron their current positions toward Baghdad, officials said.

Gaza- Dr. Abdul Aziz Ranteesi, renowned Hamas Movement leader in the Gaza Strip, has predicted that the American-British coalition against Iraq would be defeated in the end. Ranteesi said that the USA was on the brink of defeat, noting that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and “the other terrorists were in a state of confusion and collapse”.He opined that what was happening in Iraq was a Zionist war launched by colonialists on behalf of their “Zionist masters in a bid to actualize Torah prophecies on the establishment of a Jewish state from the Nile to the Euphrates”.Ranteesi said he was not surprised...

MORE BOMBS OVER BAGHDAD(Col. writ. 2/24/01)Copyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamal"What a country calls its vital economic interestsare not the things which enable its citizens to live,but the things which enable it to make war."-- Simone Weil (1909-1943), French Philosopher Once again, after almost a decade has passed, the fiendish roar of American and British jets echoedin the suburbs of Baghdad, Iraq, and a deadly rainof bombs once again hits one of the oldest cities onearth. Immediately, the corporate media rushed to theairwaves to promote the bombings, and BushAdministration officials announced that the aerialattacks on the Iraqi capital were acts of"pre...

Pentagon totally unreliable as news source The consistent lies by the Pentagon regarding the development of this illegal terrorist attack on the sovereign state of Iraq makes this the source of deception and denial, not news. Arab news sources like Al Jazeera are more credible as indeed is the Iraqi Information Ministry. The Pentagon continues to insist at 18.36 MSK that there are no coalition aircraft missing, despite claims by the RAF that an aircraft has not reported back. It is not yet clear whether this aircraft was the one shot down by a US Patriot missile (a Tornado) or...

Has anyone noticed how little Drudge has updated today? He hasn't even picked up the terror grenade attack on the 101st yet.

A regular army division, considered one of the good ones, has laid down its arms.

Fox subtite just announces that the "Shock and Awe" has begun!

Almost all of the first British "human shields" to go to Iraq were on their way home last night after deciding that their much-heralded task was now too dangerous. Two red double-decker buses, which symbolised the hopes of anti-war activists when they arrived to a fanfare of publicity a fortnight ago, slipped quietly out of Baghdad on the long journey back to Britain. Nine of the original 11 activists decided to pull out after being given an ultimatum by Iraqi officials to station themselves at targets likely to be bombed in a war or leave the country. Among those departing...