Free Republic

Foreign Affairs Minister says two-state solution only viable when 'nakba' stricken from Palestinian lexicon while Opposition leader Netanyahu warns Israel must learn from past, refuse to give up land with no return Ynet "With the establishment of a Palestinian state, we wish to see the end of the conflict. The Palestinians will be able to celebrate their independence if on that same day they also strike the word 'nakba' from their lexicon," Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni said on Thursday afternoon in her speech at the president's conference in Jerusalem. Livni addressed the events being held throughout the day by...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House vote to label the century-old deaths of Armenians as genocide was in jeopardy Tuesday after several Democrats withdrew their support and sounded alarms it could cripple U.S. relations with Turkey. The loss of support is a major setback to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, who have fiercely defended the resolution to Republicans and the Bush administration as a moral imperative in condemning the World War I-era killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. President Bush called Pelosi on Tuesday to ask her not to call for...

President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq .Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not. Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people's duty to back those leaders. Therefore, when the war broke...

Fred Thompson, running for President as the "plain-speaking consistent conservative," was asked about campaign finance reform by Laura Ingraham on her radio show the day after his Presidential announcement. She said, "One of the things that also happened in the Senate was McCain-Feingold and it was initially called McCain-Feingold-Thompson. Of course that's campaign finance reform. As you know, Senator Thompson, the Supreme Court has struck down part of that as unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds, you know, issue ads that you can't run before a general election or a primary contest, which for conservatives like me are just anathema to...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 29, 2007 Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The investigation has begun in the case of a botched abortion done on a woman carrying twins. One of the unborn children was healthy and the other was afflicted with Down syndrome and the target of the abortion. Now, the mother of the twins and the abortion practitioner are speaking out.The case is raising the ugly specter of abortions done to kill disabled people. Doctors told Italian media that the babies moved during the abortion procedure and changed position compared to their locations during a pre-abortion examination.The mother, who has...

Vatican Newspaper Calls Abortion Assassination By John-Henry Westen VATICAN CITY, August 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Commenting on the recent report of the abortion of twins in Italy one of whom was suspected to have Down's syndrome, the semi-official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano observed: "Two girls have died, assassinated as a consequence of selective abortion." The case sparked ire after it was reported that doctors were seeking to abort the unborn child with Down's syndrome and mistakenly aborted the other twin. After hearing of the error the mother had her remaining unborn child killed as well. The children were three months...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 27, 2007Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- Officials in Italy are investigating a botched abortion done on twin brothers where the healthy brother became the victim of the abortion and the twin, who has Down syndrome, lived. The disabled brother was the target of the abortion procedure and the case is raising the ugly specter of abortions done to kill disabled people.The abortion was done on a 38-year-old woman in June at a hospital in Milan, but news of the mistake only recently came to the public's attention.Doctors at the San Paolo hospital told Italian media that the...

Woman mauled by home-invading pit bulls 07:45 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 KING5.com Staff Animal control officers say the victim was covered in blood after the dogs attacked PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. - In what deputies describe as the worst mauling they've ever seen, two pit bulls entered a Wauna-area home via the pet door and attacked a woman in her bed. Pierce County Sheriff's Dept. spokesman Ed Troyer said a neighbor's Jack Russell terrier also entered the home in the 10600 block of 132nd St. Court NW through the dog door and the pit bulls attacked the terrier...

As governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson was the first border-state official to declare an illegal immigration ''state of emergency'' that demanded National Guard patrols. Now he is the first Democratic presidential candidate to oppose immigration reforms in Congress. The sole Hispanic to seek his party's nomination, Richardson has long been at the forefront of the immigration debate -- but far from the vanguard of the 2008 race. ''I am an insurgent, but I am moving up,'' he said in Boca Raton before a fundraiser Tuesday at a private home and another at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Richardson,...

WASHINGTON - President Bush is "squandering" American lives in Iraq and should sign legislation to begin pulling out U.S. troops on Oct. 1, retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom said yesterday. "I hope the President seizes this moment for a basic change in course and signs the bill Congress has sent him," Odom said, delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address. Odom, an outspoken critic of the war who served as the Army's top intelligence officer and headed the National Security Agency during the Ronald Reagan administration, delivered the address at the request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He said...

In November 1979, the US Embassy in Iran was seized by militant students representing the new Muslim fundamentalist Iranian regime headed by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Under President Jimmy Carter’s continuing and hopeless lack of leadership, the Iranian hostage crisis lasted until the day President Ronald Reagan took his first Oath of Office on 20 January 1981. On that day, nd only a few minutes after President Reagan was sworn in as President of the United States, Iran announced its formal release of the US hostages. Prior to his election, President Reagan had vowed to gain the release of the still...

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2007 ? An early withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would be a catastrophic mistake, Iraq?s Ambassador to the United States said here today. ?If we set out a date now for a complete withdrawal [of U.S. forces from Iraq}, you can bet your bottom dollar that the terrorists will be waiting for that date and attacking and launching their biggest attacks? on Iraqi civilians and government institutions, Samir Sumaidaie told CNN Late Edition television news show host Wolf Blitzer today. The Defense Department?s emergency fiscal 2007 supplemental requests includes $93.4 billion to help fund U.S....

HERZLIYA, Israel – A highly esteemed supporter of Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip now calls it a "mistaken" policy that has damaged the country's security. Meir Amit, former director of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, publicly supported the Gaza evacuation prior to its implementation in August 2005. "Israel had good intentions at the time," Amit told WND in an interview. "It was our way of fighting terrorism and tackling the Palestinian issue." But looking back, he said, the withdrawal "proved to be a mistake." Amit cited rockets regularly fired from the northern Gaza Strip at nearby Jewish communities, hundreds of...

Edwards: Lack of Iran Talks a Mistake Sunday February 18, 2007 11:46 PM By TODD DVORAK Associated Press Writer DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards criticized the Bush administration on Sunday for failing to engage directly with Iran to resolve problems with the Iraq war and Iran's effort to develop nuclear weapons. ``It's a huge strategic mistake not to be dealing directly with Iran,'' Edwards told the Associated Press in an interview before a campaign event in Dubuque. ``What we should be doing with Iran, both on the Iraq issue and the nuclear issue, is being much...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2006 -- An early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq or Afghanistan would aid terrorists and cause more instability in those countries, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told military and civilian employees at the Pentagon today. The United States has invested much during anti-terrorist operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Rumsfeld said at a town hall meeting. And both of those countries have made great strides in governing themselves, he said, since U.S. and coalition military forces toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and deposed Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Afghanistan and Iraq, however, still face severe challenges from...

ISLAMABAD: A BBC correspondent who went missing on Monday was released by his kidnappers on Tuesday. Dilawar Khan told Daily Times that he was kidnapped by some unidentified men near the police lines in H-11 Sector. “I was waiting for a cab when a car stopped near me. Some men got out and shoved me into the car after blindfolding and beating me,” he said, adding that he was taken to an unidentified location, and was asked questions about his profession. He said the kidnappers released him after warning him not to tell anybody about the incident. staff report

With a very special column, America's Youngest Political Commentator, C-F Nadd, sends an open letter to Senator John Kerry regarding his remarks from Monday, October 30, 2006. Very worth reading here!

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2006 – Amid national debate about whether or not to stay the course in Iraq, President Bush today firmly placed himself in the “stay” category. It’s imperative America continues to support the new Iraqi government in its struggle against an insurgency that seeks to divide and topple it, Bush told White House reporters here. “A failed Iraq would make America less secure,” Bush declared. The end of democracy in Iraq, he said, would provide a haven for terrorists and extremists in the heart of the Middle East. Bush acknowledged that some Americans are saying it’s time...

For Cindy Nooney's 3-year-old twin boys, playing with the Thomas the Train set at their local bookstore in Southern California is a major thrill. Jack and Sam push Thomas, Arthur and friends down the track, they run around the table, jump up and down — and, of course, they squeeeaal. Nooney expects as much in the children's section of the store. But on a recent afternoon, she was surprised by an employee who confronted her, calling her darling Jack a tyrant. "He was a little loud but this is a children's section," says Nooney. "They run a noisy, cavernous bookstore...

CHICAGO -- Lowe's has put its plans for two home-improvement centers in Chicago on hold in the wake of the city's new big-box minimum-wage ordinance, following similar steps taken by Wal-Mart and Target, a developer and alderman said. David Katz of Northbrook-based A&R Management Inc., which manages a shopping center where one of the Lowe's stores was to open, confirmed on Tuesday that officials at the Mooresville, N.C.-based company have postponed signing a lease.

With current news items about mistakes in Iraq looming large in the media, I need to post what the real mistake was, because this has been annoying me for some time and I have yet to see the media make any analysis of this fact. And you sure won't be hearing this from the Left media who like to coddle the enemy in every way possible. One lesson that must be learned from Iraq is that in this modern era with all the technological advantages the US has, it is very possible that we win wars too fast and thus...

Revealed: The identity of the BBC's latest star 13/05/06 A computer expert has described his astonishment at seeing the BBC's 24-hour news channel interview supposed taxi driver Guy Goma in the mistaken belief it was him. Guy Kewney - a white, bearded technology expert - was astonished to see himself appear on screen as a black man with an apparent French accent. He was even more shocked to see himself unable to answer basic questions about the legal battle between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer over the use of an apple symbol. Mr Kewney, an IT journalist, watched...

NEW YORK For the second time in less than a week, The New York Times today admitted to a serious error in a story. On Saturday it said it had misidentified a man featured in the iconic "hooded inmate" photograph from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Today it discloses that a woman it profiled on March 8 is not, in fact, a victim of Hurricane Katrina--and was arrested for fraud and grand larceny yesterday. As it did in the Abu Ghraib mistake, the Times ran an editors' note on page 2 of its front section, along with a lengthy news...

CLUMSY typing cost a Japanese bank at least £128 million and staff their Christmas bonuses yesterday, after a trader mistakenly sold 600,000 more shares than he should have. The trader at Mizuho Securities, who has not been named, fell foul of what is known in financial circles as “fat finger syndrome” where a dealer types incorrect details into his computer. He wanted to sell one share in a new telecoms company called J Com, for 600,000 yen (about £3,000). Unfortunately, the order went through as a sale of 600,000 shares at 1 yen each. That error alone would have been...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2005 – The U.S. commander in chief today dismissed talk of any major withdrawal of American troops from Iraq before victory over insurgents there is achieved. "We've heard some people say pull them out right now. That's a huge mistake. It'd be a terrible mistake," President Bush told reporters during a visit to U.S. Border Patrol headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Bush said a precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq would damage military morale, encourage the enemy, and send a bad message to the Iraqis. "And I want our troops to come home, but I don't...

*Disclaimer: This is not what it seems. Some of you may think you know it all. Trust me you will be surprise. Below is taken from CNN, but I modified a bit to give you a suspense.. (sort of) ;) *I added the original source of the news. Read all of this and go to the original source later. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From the Oval Office, the president told the nation Wednesday evening why he ordered new military strikes against Iraq. The president said Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors presented a threat to the entire world. "Saddam...

Some Virginia anti-tax activists and others are so frustrated with Republican candidate Jerry W. Kilgore that they are vowing not to vote in the governor's race. These voters say Mr. Kilgore has alienated them and others in his conservative base because he is playing to centrist voters on taxes and social issues. Out of party loyalty, the voters say, they will vote for Republican candidates in the lieutenant governor and attorney general's races, but will not go as far as voting for Democrat Timothy M. Kaine for governor. John Taylor, president of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, agrees that...

Apparently, Martha Stewart just couldn't resist the call of a yoga class. The design guru, who was slated to take off her ankle bracelet for good next week, violated the terms of her sentence by attending a yoga studio near her estate, according to reports. Stewart must now serve an additional three weeks of home confinement as a result of attempting to dupe authorities. "Martha Stewart has agreed to an extension of the terms of her home confinement until Aug. 31.," her lawyer, Walter Dellinger, said in a statement released Wednesday. Although Dellinger did not say explicitly why Stewart's sentence...

In the midst of the media firestorm over Ed Klein's blockbuster book, "The Truth About Hillary," we can see the moral cowardice and equivocation that can destroy our nation from within. Yes, the very effective Clinton spin machine has worked with their allies in the so-called Mainstream Media to censor Klein and keep him off the TV airwaves. But that was to be expected. NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC and CNN are all predictable. They are all left-leaning - and they all succumbed to pro-Hillary pressure. Like all liberals they talk one game and live another. ‘Diversity' and ‘freedom of choice'...

Just over half of Americans, 53 percent, now say the war in Iraq was a mistake - the highest percentage to say that in AP-Ipsos polling since December 2003, when two-thirds said the war in Iraq was the right thing to do. The poll taken earlier this week also found that almost six in 10 disapprove of the Bush administration's conduct of the war, but about the same number say they would prefer keeping troops until the situation is stable instead of immediately withdrawing them from Iraq. Some other findings: -Who most favors the war: Suburban men, Republicans. -Who is...

Pursuant to the grant of authority in article II, section 2 of the Constitution of the United States, I have granted full and unconditional pardons to W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller. During their long careers, Mark Felt and Edward Miller served the Federal Bureau of Investigation and our nation with great distinction. To punish them further -- after 3 years of criminal prosecution proceedings -- would not serve the ends of justice. Their convictions in the U.S. District Court, on appeal at the time I signed the pardons, grew out of their good-faith belief that their actions were...

Hillary Clinton's ex-aide no criminal, attorney says By Laura Wides, Associated Press The former national finance director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton may have made a mistake underreporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for a Hollywood fundraiser, but he committed no crime, his attorneys told jurors in closing remarks Wednesday. But prosecutors said David Rosen "was no babe in the woods" and willfully deflated the cost of the fundraiser for Clinton's 2000 New York Senate campaign to skirt federal election laws so the campaign would have more money to spend. Prosecutors have said Clinton was unaware of any...

The gate guarding the home of Richard Attaway is where White and Prairie County Sheriff’s deputies were supposed to arrest him on federal and weapons charges. But instead of raiding 140 Alice Lane, they ended up about 400 feet off, at the home of Searcy police detective Anne Owens. "The initial address they gave us was not the correct address,” explains White County Lt. John Slater. He says the Prairie County Sheriff's Office asked them to assist in the arrest of Attaway. According to Slater, the Prairie County Sheriff's Office was given an address at the intersection of Georgia Ridge...

WASHINGTON - Ahead of a contentious confirmation hearing, Democrats on Sunday sharpened their criticism of President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, saying John Bolton has a poor record as a policy-maker and little regard for the world body. But the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind., said Bolton was the president's "instrument of reform" for the United Nations and his bluntness should not disqualify him from serving. Lugar said he would vote to confirm Bolton, but committee Democrats who appeared on the Sunday talk shows said...

SEATTLE – Mary McClinton spent the last days of her life suffering and in pain. She had been a healthy, robust 69-year-old woman who went to Virginia Mason hospital to have a brain aneurysm repaired, but never came out alive. Virginia Mason admitted it made a fatal mistake last November when a doctor accidentally injected McClinton with a highly toxic antiseptic instead of a saline solution or radiological dye. Both were clear liquids that got mixed up because they weren't labeled. "We can't apologize enough for this preventable tragedy," said Dr. Robert Caplan, Virginia Mason Hospital. "They all knew they...

Of all the factors contributing to California’s fiscal woes, one of the most fundamental and pervasive is the collapse of the constitutional process by which the state budget is developed in the first place. Ever since the Magna Carta, it has been a settled principle of governance that the authority that requests funds should not be the same one that approves them. This is the heart of our separation of powers, and the most important single mechanism to check the excesses and abuses that occur whenever mere mortals are spending other people’s money. Following this principle, California’s constitution sets forth...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran, responding to comments by senior U.S. officials, says Washington would be making a major strategic mistake if it attacked the Islamic state. U.S. President George W. Bush last week said military action had not been ruled out to deal with Iran's nuclear programme and Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran topped the list of world trouble spots and warned Israel could decide to bomb its nuclear facilities. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said: "We think the chance (of a U.S. military attack) is very low unless someone wants to make a major strategic mistake."...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Argentine warship hits Brazil ship From correspondents in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil December 1, 2004 AN Argentine warship inadvertently fired on a Brazilian frigate during joint naval exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, injuring five people, officials said. Four Brazilian sailors and an Argentine officer were hurt during live-fire training late on Monday night off the coast of Brazil near Cabo Frio, 125km north-east of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian Navy said. The accident happened when an Argentine warship fired a shot from one its canons, hitting the Brazilian frigate Rademaker. The five men were taken to a naval hospital in...

One more thing about the arrogant Rather and the ongoing spin that "it was all just an innocent mistake". This two-man SeeBS "investigation" of Documentgate or Memogate is most likely going to try to inform America that it was merely a "mistake", an "oversight", Rather and Mapes "didn't do their homework". I don't believe it for a second (they were working on the story for years). All the talking heads and old time-reporters (Bernard Kalb, etc.) have been dragged out and have telling us for weeks what a great, dedicated, truly involved hands-on editor Rather was, and that he never...

Turkish workers a mistake, claims Schmidt By Hannah Cleaver in Berlin (Filed: 25/11/2004) Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, has inflamed the country's debate on immigration by saying that multiculturalism can only work under authoritarian regimes, and that bringing millions of Turkish guest workers to Germany was a mistake. "The concept of multiculturalism is difficult to make fit with a democratic society," he told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper. He added that it had been a mistake that during "the early 1960s we brought guest workers from foreign cultures into the country". Mr Schmidt, 85, who was the Social Democratic chancellor...

Now that President Bush has won re-election and the Republican Party controls everything in the country up to and including photosynthesis, some disgruntled Democrats are wondering if life might be better north of the border. So the working title for today's essay will be: Moving to Canada: Big Mistake or Bad Idea? The first thing I learned in my research is that Canada, as a country or colony or appendage or whatever the heck it is, is not exactly jumping up and down with glee at the prospect of 56 million glum Kerry supporters shuffling morosely across its border. (The...

Israel Radio reported Thursday that an IDF tank mistakenly fired on and killed three Egyptian soldiers near the Israeli-Egyptian border. The tank crew apparently believed the three to be terrorists and then opened fire, the radio said in an initial report. The incident is under investigation at the "most senior levels," both governmental and military, the radio said. Prior to the reported incident, the army, citing a surge in deadly operational mishaps, had scheduled a two-hour break in all training later on Thursday to discuss ways to prevent accidents and reduce negligence in soldiers' performance.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A woman who fumbled a few phrases of Mexico's national anthem while singing the song before a soccer game in Guadalajara has been fined $40 for the blunder.

KERRY speaks to run after BENLADEN. Is that all?Is this not hijacking?

The Myth of the Mistake-Free WarHas the Digital Revolution Led to Expectations of a Perfect World? Of course, we won. But D-Day, one of the most carefully planned military actions in history, was a mess, falling apart (as Ray appreciated more than anybody) almost from the moment it began. Even the rehearsal for Normandy was a debacle, drowning hundreds of men meaninglessly. Oct. 28, 2004 -- I knew a man, a friend of my father, who was the gentlest of souls. He spoke softly, usually about inconsequentialities, carried his wife's purse at the store, and spent the afternoons of his...

VAN BUREN, Mo. - Officials in one Missouri county are reprinting absentee ballots for the Nov. 2 general election after discovering that President Bush (news - web sites) and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) were left off. The ballots were mailed beginning Sept. 21, and Carter County Clerk Becky Gibbs said several voters noticed the oversight. "We are rectifying it," she said. "There was no intent to leave them off." Fewer than 500 of the erroneous ballots were sent out, and some have already been returned. Replacement ballots will be sent to everyone who requested an absentee...

The Boston Fog Report An ongoing examination of John Kerry’s “nuances and shades of gray in both foreign and domestic policy.” (Editorial, “A Primary Endorsement,” The New York Times, 2/26/04)for·a·gainst adverb. 1. To be both for and against something at the same time: e.g. “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” (Glen Johnson, “Kerry Blasts Bush On Protecting Troops,” The Boston Globe, 3/17/04) "John Kerry's troubling record of contradiction and vacillation spiraled into incoherence last night when he said the President 'made a mistake' in invading Iraq but denied our troops in Iraq...

Key points UK troops seized by Iranians Naval patrol vessels impounded Potential serious diplomatic incident brewing Key quote "The Ministry of Defence can confirm that eight Royal navy personnel from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq have been detained by the Iranian authorities while delivering a boat from Umm Qasr to Basrah." - MOD spokesman Story in full - BRITISH and Iranian diplomats were last night locked in intense negotiations after the Tehran government’s forces seized three Royal Navy vessels and eight crew members on the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway marking Iraq’s south eastern border. The...

The IDF apologized on Thursday for the death of Dr. Yasser Ahmed Laimun, a lecturer at al-Quds University in Jenin, who was shot dead last week during an IDF operation to arrest Hamas fugitives in Talluza, near Jenin. Details of the probe that was launched following his death were presented to OC Central Commander Mag.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky and Judea and Samaria Divisional Commander Brig.-Gen. Gadi Eizencott. According to details released for publication, Laimun got caught in crossfire during a gun-battle that erupted between armed Palestinians and IDF soldiers. At the time, IDF officials estimated that Laimun was one of the...