Free Republic

Senator Lindsey Graham often plays the contrarian, the conservative Republican willing to poke a stick in the eye of the White House. Mr. Graham advocates using the existing court-martial system as the basis for trying suspects, a position that has drawn fire from many other Republicans. Last year, against the wishes of the Bush administration, he was one of the key forces in helping pass a ban on torture. While some other Republicans argue that terrorists do not deserve legal or human rights, Mr. Graham has insisted that only a system grounded in the fundamental rights of the military code...

The Islamist Challenge to the U.S. Constitution by David Kennedy Houck First in Europe and now in the United States, Muslim groups have petitioned to establish enclaves in which they can uphold and enforce greater compliance to Islamic law. While the U.S. Constitution enshrines the right to religious freedom and the prohibition against a state religion, when it comes to the rights of religious enclaves to impose communal rules, the dividing line is more nebulous. Can U.S. enclaves, homeowner associations, and other groups enforce Islamic law? Such questions are no longer theoretical. While Muslim organizations first established enclaves in Europe,[1]...

OTTAWA -- Greeted at the airport by limousine drivers holding single-letter "B" signs, global luminaries such as Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands began arriving in Ottawa Thursday for the annual gathering of the ultra-secretive Bilderberg Group. Over the next three days, they and other prominent political and business leaders from North America and Europe are expected to discuss issues such as the security threat posed by Iran and the direction of oil markets. The group's discreet approach was evident as attendees arrived at the Ottawa International Airport. Outside the airport, a phalanx of limousines queued...

FORT TARIK, Iraq, May 7 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. general flew to Iraq's vast desert frontier with Iran on Sunday and vowed to stop what he said was the smuggling of bomb materials from Iran that is wreaking havoc among American troops. Landing by helicopter under the gun sights of Iranian border guards perched on a watchtower across the frontier, Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq, said U.S. and Iraqi forces securing the border will do "all we can" to stop roadside bombs. Known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the home-made bombs are...

UFO study finds no sign of aliens Mark Simpson BBC News The 400-page report was kept secret for six years Alleged UFO sightings A confidential Ministry of Defence report on Unidentified Flying Objects has concluded that there is no proof of alien life forms. In spite of the secrecy surrounding the UFO study, it seems citizens of planet Earth have little to worry about. The report, which was completed in 2000 and stamped "Secret: UK Eyes Only", has been made public for the first time. Only a small number of copies were produced and the identity of the man who...

Been nice knowin' ya, America By Dimitri Vassilaros TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, May 7, 2006 Will the next generation of U.S. citizens consider themselves Americans or post-Americans? Better still, why wouldn't they consider themselves post-Americans? Considering how quickly this republic is unraveling, is it too late to ask rhetorical questions?

he new Republican presidential candidate must be agile, quietly brilliant, intuitively political, a cross between Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan -- overwhelmingly charming and deceptive enough to achieve our national goals without anyone seeing his lips or his fingers move. Who's waiting in the Republican wings that fits that description? Few, if any. ... .....So how does one choose the right man? C. Northcote Parkinson of Parkinson's Law fame had the answer. For every impossible job -- as per Winston Churchill or FDR in World War II or Reagan in the Cold War -- there is only one person who...

<p>Seven miles north of Elberton, Georgia on Highway 77 stands an enigmatic monument known as "The Georgia Guidestones." A dedication written on each side of the capstone reads "Let these be Guidestones to an Age of Reason." This dedication is carved in four "dead" languages : Babylonian Cuneiform, Classical Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Sanskrit.</p>

He says many other notable things as well, including the idea that Turkey's admission into the EU is a step toward the inevitable Islamization of Europe. He also denounces the Jewish and Christian Scriptures as forgeries, in accord with mainstream Islamic thinking, and asserts that they teach hatred, in a nice bit of pot-calling-the-kettle-black activity. He recommends the Medieval Muslim forgery called "The Gospel of Barnabas" as a substitute. "Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: Europe and the U.S. Should Agree to Become Islamic or Declare War on the Muslims," from MEMRI TV, with thanks to WC: Following are excerpts from a...

We were informed by my child's principal that Senators Hillary Clinton and Blanch Lincoln would be at his school for a reading program presentation. The letter said that only students and faculty could attend -- no parents or friends would be admitted. Usually the school has a real open door policy for parents. The program will not be taped (for later viewing of parents) as Clinton's press secretary will not allow it. So I can't even review what was said or hold anyone accountable. Supposedly this event is not to be used for political purposes. So what is it for?

We review here the current political landscape and our own efforts to address the attempts to undermine science education in Wisconsin. To mount an effective response, expertise in evolutionary biology and in the history of the public controversy is useful but not essential. However, entering the fray requires a minimal tool kit of information. Here, we summarize some of the scientific and legal history of this issue and list a series of actions that scientists can take to help facilitate good science education and an improved atmosphere for the scientific enterprise nationally. Finally, we provide some model legislation that has...

Two years ago, Charleston's Billy Schachte was caught in the undertow of presidential campaign debates over the circumstances of John Kerry's first Purple Heart. He had commanded Kerry's first Vietnam combat mission and his recollection of the experience was very much different than Kerry's published account. Today, this tussle over truth and confusion simmers on just beneath the public's attention. That's likely to change soon. Television news veteran Marvin Kalb and his daughter are working through a Harvard-based grant to publish a book that will include commentary on the effectiveness and the credibility of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,...

Is the national ID card the next step toward the imposition of the biblical "mark of the beast" Christians believe will be required to buy and sell during the Last Days? That's the contention of a growing group of believers who are working to turn back the approval of the Real ID Act by Congress last year. Public Law 109-13 requires the national ID portion of the plan go into effect by May 2008. "There is a prophecy in the Bible that foretells a time when every person will be required to have a mark or a number, without which...

What's up with Walmart. I just came back from getting groceries there and when I got to up to the checkout area there was a large rack of caps on display and each one had a symbol of Mexico...flag, insignia, emblems etc... I was also entertained by a blaring PA system playing Tejano too, just like every Saturday morning that I go there to get groceries. I guess that Walmart wanted to sell out Americans to make money on Cinco De Mayo celebrations...the one that Mexicans celebrate here in America with more gusto than the 4th of July. I have...

For all those folks following the Good Book, we have some bad news. Turns out a lot of our modern Bible was tacked on, scratched out, and just plain garbled from the original Gospels as scribes over the millennia tried to present Christianity in what they thought was its truest light. In fact, many of our modern Bibles are based on the wrong originals, says Bart Ehrman in his best-selling book Misquoting Jesus: The Story behind who Changed the Bible and Why. Even our beloved King James version has several segments based on a 12th-century manuscript that scholars now say...

In 2002, Gary McKinnon was arrested by the UK's national high-tech crime unit, after being accused of hacking into Nasa and the US military computer networks. He says he spent two years looking for photographic evidence of alien spacecraft and advanced power technology. America now wants to put him on trial, and if tried there he could face 60 years behind bars. Banned from using the internet, Gary spoke to Click presenter Spencer Kelly to tell his side of the story, ahead of his extradition hearing on Wednesday, 10 May. You can read what he had to say here. Spencer...

The Set UP: Earlier this week, Boston area talk show host Michael Graham was interviewed by Imus on several issues, for example, Tony Snow, Bush and McCain. When asked about the "right wing" efforts to paint McCain as "crazy," Graham said that most of the time McCain sounds reasonable, but there is a fear that some mornings he wakes up and says to himself: "I think I'll limit the First Amendment today." Well, Imus asked him about that this morning, and McCain said that yeah, they're talking about the Campaign Finance Reform Law, and that given the choice between (paraphrasing...

A leading U.S. senator warned Russia and China on Friday of damage to their relationship with the United States if they refused to go along with sanctions against Iran. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona told a Brussels conference that Iran's nuclear program posed the greatest security threat to the world alongside terrorism. The U.N. Security Council should impose sanctions including an investment ban, a travel ban and asset freezes on government leaders and nuclear scientists, McCain said. Asked what consequences there would be if Moscow and Beijing blocked such a move, he told reporters: "Clearly it's going to affect...

Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned. The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed forces' joint chief of staff...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Iran lacks the capability to block the world's leading shipping route for crude oil exports. The Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Iranian Navy, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has failed to procure the platforms or weapons required to block the Straits of Hormuz, the passage for 60 percent of the world's oil trade. In a report, the Washington-based center said the United States could block any Iranian attempt to attack Gulf shipping, particularly from the sea. "Iran could not close the Strait of Hormuz, or halt tanker traffic, and its submarines and much...