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When John McCain closed out the Republican Convention this year with his rousing “fight with me” oratory, I wondered what I had to do in response.

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – The National Council of La Raza spends most of its time protecting and advancing the rights of Latinos through advocacy and community work. But as it wraps up its convention downtown, it has found itself defending its name. That's because activists who oppose illegal immigration are saying in e-mails, during street protests and through the media that “La Raza” means “The Race,” and have been calling the organization a hate group. The accusations have prompted soul-searching among NCLR supporters as to what the name actually means and stands for. Most say the situation is the result...

The Zionist Organization of America has “called upon Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to quit his racist, anti-American, anti-Israel church and repudiate his pastor, Jeremiah Wright.” Noting that the National Jewish Democratic Council condemned Mitt Romney for appearing at the museum of a long-dead EX-antisemite, we are confident that NJDC will support ZOA’s request. Henry Ford retracted and repudiated The International Jew, but Jeremiah Wright has never retracted, repudiated, or apologized for his own hate speech, his publication of a manifesto from a genuine Hamas terrorist, or his placement of quote marks around “state” of Israel, as if...

AMES, Iowa -- Doug Gross, the chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign in Iowa, said today it is focusing on turning out its supporters Thursday night, placing 22,000 phone calls just on Tuesday in an attempt to make sure the more than 50,000 Romney supporters they have identified show up. "This is all about a ground game," Gross told reporters. "And the bottom line is whoever does the best job at turning out is going to win this thing. And we think we have the best organization… We’ve been working the last year, year and a half, on organization, and we’re...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2007 – As individual Iraqi police and police stations develop throughout Iraq, the coalition is focusing more on developing infrastructure and organizational effectiveness needed to sustain the police force long-term, a U.S. officer involved in training Iraqi police said today. U.S. police transition teams have done a good job with the difficult task of taking fresh Iraqi police recruits, training them on police operations, getting them integrated as a group into a police station, and helping them become familiar with the community, U.S. Army Col. Mark Spindler, commander of 18th Military Police Brigade, told online journalists and...

(LONDON) - Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday. In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming. "We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not...

After three years of tax-exempt operation, Media Matters’ credibility as a media watchdog is questionable. Its leader, Brock, is a self-proclaimed liar who strong-armed sources that didn’t agree with him. While writing his mea culpa, “Blinded by the Right,” Brock was hospitalized in a mental facility where he spent time in a “quiet room” and “had delusions, he thought people were trying to kill him,” according to the Drudge Report. Media Matters stars, including Brock, Eric Alterman and Ryan Chiachiere, are hypocrites who have used the very sexist, bigoted and racist language for which they crucify others, including Imus. They...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2007 – The Military Officers Association of America announced it will present its highest award to an actor and a corporation for their strong support of military servicemembers. Gary Sinise and the DuPont Company, with headquarters in Wilmington, Del., will receive the MOAA Distinguished Service Award for 2007. MOAA looks for indicators of strong support for military employees when considering organizations for this award, retired Air Force Col. Steve Strobridge, MOAA’s director of government relations, said. “(That includes) making up the pay between military pay and their old salary, continuation of benefits, support for the families,...

A reputed Mexican drug lord who tops the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Most Wanted List has been captured in an offshore operation in the Pacific Ocean, federal law enforcement sources said. The DEA lists rewards of $5 million each for the capture of Javier Arellano-Felix and his brother, Eduardo, who allegedly head the cartel that bears their name

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2006 – Recognizing that children of servicemembers often face challenges that other children do not, the nonprofit child development organization "Zero To Three" launched a special project geared specifically toward military families. "Supporting military children is an essential element of supporting military families in general," Dorinda Williams, a Zero To Three training and consultation specialist, said in an interview. "Zero To Three recognizes that military parents often face extreme and emotionally draining circumstances, and we try to provide support through information and resources that translate into increased capacity to meet the emotional needs of babies and toddlers."...

TAMPA - The Democratic Party establishment in west Florida's largest county gathers under the yellowy light of a basement restaurant in Ybor City, chairs turned haphazardly toward the back of the room, opposite the cash bar. With about 60 members, there's barely a quorum. With less than $4,000 in the checking account, the Hillsborough Democratic Executive Committee hardly has enough money to be a player in the looming elections. They usually open with the Pledge of Allegiance, but the guy with the flag can't make it. Soon, they get down to the chief business at hand: An update on the...

A leader of the ruling Fatah Party in Nablus was shot dead today in violence related to upcoming elections for the Palestinian parliament. Despite the chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent months, violence related to tomorrow’s balloting has been relatively limited. Early this month, a Hamas supporter was killed in a firefight that erupted while rival factions were hanging election posters in Gaza City. Hamas blamed the ruling Fatah Party for the shooting. Nine gunmen, also affiliated with Fatah, pulled up in two cars to the house of 44-year-old Abu Ahmed Hassouna in the early hours...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2005 – Wounded servicemembers recuperating at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, look to doctors and nurses for their medical care. For creature comforts, they look to the skies. Terry Goforth is an American Airlines flight attendant who has been working troop transport flights - military chartered flights on commercial airlines into Kuwait since March 2003. Regular layovers in Frankfurt, Germany, allowed her to visit Landstuhl and learn of the needs of the wounded servicemembers there. Goforth said she asked volunteers at Landstuhl what the patients might like her to bring from the United States during her weekly...

A relative of mine, immediately after graduating from college, went to work for a bank. Even though he had a university degree, he was assigned the job of repossessing cars. We kidded him a lot about that. He eventually ended up a vice president, but his entry into the banking industry was about as low as you can get, and we never let him forget it. In similar fashion, the Enterprise car-rental firm goes to college campuses to recruit management trainees, but among the first jobs these trainees handle is washing and cleaning cars coming off rental. When I moved...

The word "reinvent" is a dumb term, having an overtone of redundancy. After all, when you have invented something, it exists. You can revise it or change it, but you can't "reinvent" it after you have already invented it. I never heard the term when I first entered the workforce. But somewhere in the 1970s or so, corporate executives-began using the word, and using it a lot. Then as now, the nation had its usual economic ups and downs, but suddenly after one downturn, our nation was heavily laden with companies that had reinvented themselves. What happened is that after...

HONOLULU, August 24, 2005 - Delegates to the nation’s largest wartime veterans organization meeting here during their 87th annual national convention forged their solidarity against legal abuse and secular cleansing of American family values and religious symbols by the ACLU and other organizations. Four thousand delegates representing 2.7 million members unanimously passed Resolution 139 that calls upon Congress to amend the practice of using taxpayer-funded attorney fees by claims under the Equal Access to Justice. “The 1976 Civil Rights Attorney’s Fee Awards Act was much needed legislation, but in recent years, certain groups have abused the congressional intent of this...

Is the NEA Really an NUT? Is the NEA really an NUT? By asking, I’m not casting aspersions on the National Education Association’s sanity, just on its choice of name. The NEA’s British counterpart really is an NUT: It is the National Union of Teachers. British educators unapologetically acknowledge that their union is a union, while their American peers cling to a name that belies their organization’s agenda — literally. Consider the first 10 agenda items from the NEA’s recent national meeting (brought to my attention courtesy of blogger Captain’s Quarters): 1) [No description] — defeated 2) Participate in a...

On July 20, Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Defense announced that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to arrive on July 25. Rumsfeld will discuss the future of the U.S.-led air base Manas with the new Kyrgyz leadership, in the wake of Moscow- and Beijing-inspired demands to set a deadline on the presence of U.S.-led coalition forces in Central Asia. Meanwhile, French Defense Minister Michèle Aliot-Marie is arriving in Tajikistan on July 22 hoping to firm up the arrangements for French use of the Dushanbe and possibly also Kulob airports. For its part, on July 20 Moscow again urged the Central...

WASHINGTON — Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens. Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco have been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use, but critics say they have not been able to do much more than complain. "These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of...

Drafted By: Dr. Michael A. Weinstein Overshadowed in the Western press by the G8 summit of leading industrialized nations and the complications to it caused by the London transit bombings, another summit -- the July 5 meetings in Astana, Kazakhstan of the heads of government of the six members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.) -- promised to have greater geostrategic significance than the more widely reported events. Created with its present membership of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001, the origins of the S.C.O. date back to 1996 when Beijing initiated the Shanghai Five, which included...

KIEV, June 14 (Itar-Tass) - Ivan Simonenko, Vladimir Pashkov and Oleg Lyutikov, respective leaders of the Russo-Ukrainian Union Party, Russian Bloc Party, and the Russian Movement of Ukraine, have approved a draft agreement on cooperation and interaction within the “Rus” coalition of political and public organisations, Itar-Tass was told at the Press Service of the Russian Movement. In the opinion of “Rus” coalition members, one of their main tasks is to win official status for the Russian language, to support the canonical Orthodox Church, to help switch Ukraine over to a policy of rapprochement with Russia and Belarus, and to...

On the surface, when the Organization of American States convenes its General Assembly at the Broward County Convention Center on June 5, the product generated will be lots and lots of words. Picture 600 diplomats talking for three days about democracy. But there will be some dollars spent, too. Even a diplomat needs a bed, a ride and a bite to eat between speeches. Diplomats' spouses and families might want to shop. And if President Bush and his travel party show up to kick off the discussion, hotels could get a windfall of White House spending. The three-day event could...

During the 2004 Democratic primary, new online site Meetup.com gained media notoriety as it propelled the Howard Dean campaign to the forefront of the Democratic ticket. Thousands of liberals were meeting monthly to send Dean to the White House. The liberal media bias had spawned a liberal online virus. In response, Townhall.com decided to counter the liberal invasion and co-opt Meetup for its own purposes: to further the conservative agenda. Using Townhall’s resources, we promoted the Meetup groups to you - our valued Townhall.com readers. With great success, our Meetup force grew to over 25,000 people strong. Townhall enthusiasts all...

A new group of American Muslims has declared itself committed to moderation, patriotism, and peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims. It's called the Center for Islamic Pluralism, an organization made up of both American-born and immigrant Muslims, lifelong Muslims and converts. If this organization succeeds in being what it has set out to be, it will fill a vacuum many Americans have felt keenly since 9/11: it will be a real counterweight in the Islamic community to jihadist radicalism and fanaticism. In its inaugural press release the CIP declared its intention to "promote moderate Islam in the U.S. and globally; educate the...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said on Tuesday the World Trade Organization had ruled in its favor in a dispute with the United States over the EU's system for protecting food and drink denominations. "Rejecting the arguments of the United States and Australia, the WTO rules that the EU's system [that is, socialism] for protecting these names is essentially compatible with WTO rules," the European Commission said in a statement.

If you or any of your loved ones contracted H5N1 Avian Flu, would you trust a vaccine from self-avowed depopulationist Maurice Strong, or his protégé Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin? Through his blind trust Canada Steamship Lines’ subsidiary, Lansdowne Technologies Inc., Prime Minister Paul Martin is now in the vaccine development business. In fact, he’s been there since June 2003 when he was Canada’s Minister of Finance under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Health authorities are now using the word "inevitable" for what they say will be a coming H5N1Avian Flu pandemic. Senior officials at the Public Health Agency of Canada...

Christina, 34, is expecting her second child. Her husband, Tom, is one year older. Unlike many of the 353 formerly unchurched we interviewed, the couple has never faced a major crisis in their lives or marriage. They obviously love each other deeply.Christina and Tom had been Christians for only seven months at the time of our interview. When they moved to a mid-sized city in North Carolina, they decided to visit a Southern Baptist church. I asked them what prompted them to visit a church."I honestly don't know," Christina responded. "I can't even remember Tom and I having much discussion...

$17 million verdict has many concerned Worries arise about impact on churches fearful of liability By DERRICK NUNNALLY dnunnally@journalsentinel.com Posted: Feb. 23, 2005 Last week's jury verdict that said the Archdiocese of Milwaukee should pay $17 million to the 84-year-old victim of a car wreck caused by a parish group volunteer has some observers worried about the decision's impact on religious institutions fearful of liability issues. That one parishioner's accident could have such an economic consequence for an entire archdiocese alarmed Philip K. Howard, the New York-based chairman of Common Good, a group critical of what he has called "America's...

A look at the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam, blamed for attacks in Iraq and supported by a network of members in Europe, according to authorities. -HISTORY: Founded in late 2001 in Kurdish part of northern Iraq by Mullah Krekar, who has lived as refugee in Norway since 1991. Area was beyond Saddam Hussein's control thanks to Western-enforced no-fly zones. Supporters set up an enclave near the Iranian border ruled by strict Islamic law. Members trained in Afghanistan and provided safe haven to al-Qaida members fleeing after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. -SIZE: Ansar al-Islam fighters in Iraq, believed to...

Americans have had no lack of dramatic news this year. The Boston Red Sox finally broke the 86-year-old "curse of the Babe" and won a World Series.... But events that don't make headline news often are more important than those that do. That quiet backdrop is explored by Sir Harold Evans, a British journalist, in "They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine -- Two Centuries of Innovation," (Little Brown & Co.) In an interview in the winter issue of "Invention & Technology" magazine, he is quoted as saying that America became economically strong through the "adaptive...

Six Canadians, who contracted malaria in the Dominican Republic, became seriously ill after visiting resorts in Punta Cana since mid-October. In early December, Public Health Canada issued a travel advisory urging people planning to visit the Dominion Republic to take anti-malarial medication before going and to use DEET-based mosquito repellents. Malaria, spread by mosquito bites, continues to be a problem in many locations of the world. The people charged with the responsibility of malaria are still in the dark. Indeed, the legacy for the masses from environmental activists like former World Health Organization (WHO) head Gro Harlem Brundtland could be...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

The often-melodramatic World Health Organization (WHO) is ringing alarms that bird flu will trigger an international pandemic that could kill up to seven million people. One month before Christmas, WHO issued a press release saying that the influenza pandemic could occur anywhere from next week to the coming years. With a human vaccine for the bird flu virus not expected until March 2005 at the earliest, urgency is being placed on containment. According to WHO Pooh-Bahs, two to seven million people will die. "The number of people affected will go beyond billions because between 25 percent and 30 percent will...

Not having anything worthwhile to say for himself, John Kerry has his surrogates out starting nasty rumors about the Bush administration. Our liberal national media doesn't seem to mind when Kerry minions spout obvious mistruths. The large media news organizations never bother fact-checking and questioning Democrats about even the most blatant lies, so Democrats babble on with impunity. We, however, prefer to take notes and lie in wait until the actual candidate starts feeling confident the trial balloon sent up by minions is safe to follow. John Kerry, of course, is libel to say anything. So, it didn't take long...

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Islamist group in Iraq (news - web sites) has said it killed two female Italian hostages in a statement posted on an Internet site not often used by Iraqi militants. The group, calling itself the Jihad Organization, said it had killed the women after Italy did not heed its call to withdraw its forces from Iraq. A group with a similar name, the Islamic Jihad Organization, said on September 12 that it would kill the hostages in 24 hours if Italian troops did not leave Iraq.

When I first started on the web, (many moons ago) there was this great 'G' rated web site that linked to all sorts of interesting places called "The Big Eye,". It was recommended by teachers and educators because of it's wide ranging content. It has now become a huge anti-war web site. (Imagine, left-wing teachers sending our little 'skulls full of mush' to this site.) If you don't want to go there, here's a very interesting link for our Freepers to investigate, "The War Resisters.org,".

Peter Sprigg begins his new book on same-sex marriage, Outrage, with a paradox: Most Americans oppose it, "yet in terms of political action, the pro-family, pro-marriage majority has been strangely muted." Sprigg attributes this to a lack of intellectual ammunition and aims to remedy that deficiency with this book. He is certainly qualified to do so. Director of the Center for Marriage and Family Studies at the Family Research Council (FRC), Sprigg has also co-authored a more scholarly book published by FRC that assembles the scientific research on homosexuality. Some highlights of that research provide the factual foundation for...

Ok people. That's it. Last night I saw the piece that Bill O'Reilly ran on the ACLU and their fight to make Los Angeles take the little cross off of their seal. I cannot take it anymore. I cannot sit back and watch this group destroy America. They do not want to erase any other religion. They want to erase Christianity from America. They have messed with Christmas, they have messed with the 10 commandments, they have messed with the Pledge of Allegiance, and they have messed with a person's basic right to express their beliefs of religion freely. Everytime...

The Importance of a God Given Vision "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah 6:1,5). I'm not so sure that it would be a settling experience to have a vision of God. The scripture records a variety of divine...

Few figures in American politics seem more fixed in time and place than Ralph Reed. As the brash, boyish director of the Christian Coalition a decade ago, Reed personified the ascendant religious right: he was an articulate, media-savvy spokesman who put to rest the predominant stereotype of religious conservatives as fiery televangelists, and led them into the modern political era. An organizational genius, Reed transformed the remnants of Pat Robertson's failed 1988 presidential campaign into a potent political force, more than a million strong at its peak. The Christian Coalition was instrumental in shaping the Republican Party of the 1990s,...

<p>For 25 years, a difficult-neighbor problem plagued Curtis and Elaine Colvin of Seattle. The neighbor's home and lawn resembled a junkyard. Finally, last spring, the elderly man was taken out of state by relatives.</p> <p>Konstantinos Apostolou bought the house — and sent in five men to clear the floor-to-ceiling junk. "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life," says his son, George Apostolou. There was nowhere to walk, except for a narrow "goat path" connecting the rooms. The men hauled out seven Dumpsters' worth of clothes, books, magazines, spoiled food, firewood, car parts, tires, bank statements and 50-year-old tax records. "I feel bad for the guy," says Apostolou. "I'm sure he was ill."</p>

A handful of the remaining members from the original Black Panther Party—in an effort to preserve their legacy—have retained a trademark lawyer to stop the use of their name by the New Black Panther Party. Bobby Seale, David Hilliard, Elaine Brown and Huey P. Newton’s widow, Fredrika, claim that the New Black Panther Party tarnishes their controversial legacy. They condemn the new group as a racist and anti-semetic nuisance. “They have hijacked our name and are hijacking our history,'' Seale told reporters. “We have to claim it back.” The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, includes the New...

Things that I think should be in the political campaigns are kind of floating around in outerspace. I read a "heated discussion" among various players on the Mel Martinez for Senate string that started because he/she had not searched for like strings and posted without links/research. I like the way DU is organized so that I can find interesting strings without searching for a particular topic. I also like that they have a breaking News section...

Not In Our Name and the World Wide Terrorism WebBy Michael TremoglieFrontPageMagazine.com | March 19, 2003 In the run-up to this war, Not In Our Name became one of the major “peace” organizers and coalitions in the United States. Not In Our Name has spared no cost purchasing ads in newspapers around the world to publish its anti-American Statement of Conscience.  Its signatories include scores of Hate America bigwigs, like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Gloria Steinem and Barbara Kingsolver.  Hollywood icons (and many more has-beens) like Danny Glover, Jessica Lange, Tyne Daly, Martin Sheen and Ed Harris have...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - If anyone deserves a quiet retirement it's Dolores Huerta, but the co-founder of the United Farm Workers, who raised 11 children even as she led marches and strikes that repeatedly put her in hospitals and jails, isn't slowing down. She re-learned how to walk in time to march on Sacramento last year after a near-fatal aneurism left her incapacitated. And now she's giving away a $100,000 award she recently received for her lifetime of service, to launch a new foundation in her name.

Kobe Bryant has been married for less than a year to, by anyone’s standards, a very attractive woman. Yet, he chose to betray his marriage vows, and his wife’s trust, with the understanding by some in the media and elsewhere that other than having to shell out a fortune for lavish gifts for his cuckold wife, he should be held without contempt or shame.

It's not the old town square, and it's not a town hall meeting. But maybe, just maybe, it's the modern equivalent. SW Florida Sound Off is a new Web site, www.cataction.com/forum, that its supporters say is meant to offer a forum for the open exchange of ideas and information and for political debate. The site has seen 230 postings since it was launched a few weeks ago, and has 45 registered members. The site was created by the Community Action Team, a loosely knit collection of civic activists that formed in the wake of government efforts to acquire land in...

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on Monday. "We welcome Israel's acceptance of the road map, but the reservations raise question marks," Arafat told reporters after the meeting. He added that the objections eviscerate the plan, rendering it unacceptable to the PA. Arafat called on the Quartet the US, EU, UN, and Russia to continue working toward implementing the road map quickly and without any changes. He welcomed a planned meeting between Abbas and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying Israel should stop its "policy of...

What does Dr Frist have to say about it? By David Ragsdale Friday, Apr 18, 2003,Page 8 `Apparently the international community objects to the notion of maintaining the health and well being of Taiwan's 23 million citizens.' "I see WHO's role as being the moral voice... in improving health of the people of the world. I see our purpose to be combating disease and ill-health... in all countries." -- Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General, World Health Organization. Imagine the following scenario. A chilling new disease, mysterious and deadly, originating from Syria, spreads across the Middle East. Israel, through a combination...

From their homepage: The veterans, citizens and businesses of South Florida (Monroe, Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties) and Tampa Bay (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk and Pasco counties) are grateful for the sacrifice our National Guardsmen and Reservists' families are making on behalf of America. MISSION To assist families of activated Florida National Guard and Reserve units South Florida ( Monroe, Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties) and Tampa Bay (Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk and Pasco counties). GOAL To provide $25 per month for each minor child of an activated service member during their call-up to active duty. THE PLAN Purchase $25...