Free Republic

A group of libertarian-minded Republicans in Congress is blocking President Bush’s effort to strengthen domestic counterterrorism laws and reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, which the president has made one of his top domestic priorities this year. As a result of this opposition, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, was forced last week to cancel panel consideration of legislation that would have given law-enforcement officials more tools to pursue suspected terrorists. As other administration policy initiatives — such as a manned mission to Mars — have languished in Congress, Bush has emphasized the importance of renewing the...

<p>If Paul Revere rode today to warn of danger to California businesses and taxpayers, he might shout something such as, "The pension fund power-grabbers are coming." Actually, they're already here, and their attempts to inject special interest agendas into corporate boardrooms in the guise of shareholders' rights pose a threat to the state's recovery prospects and long-term economic health.</p>

<p>Legislation introduced yesterday by state Sens. Bob Smith (D- Middlesex) and Robert Martin (R- Morris) would virtually ban development on important watershed lands in the northern Highlands.</p> <p>The proposed law -- and an identical version sponsored by Assemblyman John McKeon (D- Essex) -- largely follows the recommendations of Gov. James E. McGreevey's Highlands Task Force.</p>

WASHINGTON - John Kerry (news - web sites) will play in the South. Winning is the hard part. With four Southern primary victories in hand — and four more expected Tuesday night — the left-leaning Massachusetts senator has hit his peak in Dixie. He'll be lucky to win one or two states below the Mason-Dixon line Nov. 2, and only then if President Bush (news - web sites) loses by an unexpected landslide. But the region is still critical to Kerry's election strategy: Just as the White House hopes to make him compete in Democratic-inclined California, Kerry must allow Bush...

Arabs push for Israel to disarm Egypt wants Israel to sign up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Arab states have responded to Libya's pledge to abandon its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes by demanding that Israel do the same. Egypt said Israel should eliminate all its weapons of mass destruction, while Iran said Israel should be forced to follow Libya's example. Israel has never confirmed that it has nuclear weapons, but is widely believed to possess dozens of nuclear warheads. Further details have been emerging of the secret negotiations with Libya. US officials have revealed that American and British...

The Jewish Ombudsman: Sippin' Geneva JuiceInside the surreal world of the Geneva Peace Accords, out-of-power politicians are leaders, their supporters carry weight, and the peace expert Tom Friedman gets violent. by Steven I. Weiss/Jewsweek.com December 11, 2003 The recent Geneva Peace Accord exists in some sort of alternate dimension: Representatives from two sides in a conflict hack out an agreement without actually representing either side, or coming to agreement on many of the more pressing issues; a document that will guarantee peace has no provisions for stopping violence. An event last Thursday featured the authors of the Accord; adding to...

New York Times Columnist Punches Man at Peace Symposium. According to the editor of an online magazine, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, assaulted a New York attorney at a recent event where he had spoken on the private Middle East discussions in Geneva. Here's the writer's account of what he saw Friedman do: Kick a little somethin' I run over to the stage to catch Tom Friedman for that question-and-answer he promised I'd get after his speech. Harvey Schwartz, a Manhattan lawyer, greets Friedman and with a smile on his face tells him he learned two things from...

With roughly 100,000 Chicagoans between 16 and 24 out of work or not in school, Rainbow Push was hoping to call to action disenfranchised young people, but a group of people disenchanted with Jesse Jackson led a spirited protest that sometimes drowned out the message of more jobs. Hundreds converged upon a frigid Federal Plaza today to hear politicians and political candidates talk passionately about creating more jobs. "Since this is a union working town the unions need to provide job training and set up a trade school in the city of Chicago," said Sen. James Meeks, 15th District. However...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Democrats on Saturday embraced a tricky two-step strategy to deal with the Oct. 7 recall election as Arnold Schwarzenegger exhorted Republicans to unite behind him, declaring himself the political heir of President Ronald Reagan (news - web sites). Reuters Photo   Hundreds of Democrats meeting in Los Angeles agreed unanimously to back Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) in the recall, calling on Californians to vote no on the question of whether he should be booted from office only 10 months into his second term. The Democrats also voted 85 percent to 14 percent...

<p>After weeks of pressure to drop out of the recall race, state Sen. Tom McClintock is about to feel the pinch in an unlikely place: a gathering of faithful Republicans who agree with him about issues and revere him as one of the party's truest members.</p>

I recently ran across this article on Free Republic. Naturally like any good Freeper chills ran down my spine. If Hillary decides to jump into this race we have to be ready to work over our communities. We have to be ready to contact every powerful news organization with specific complaints. You think gas is expensive now...you just wait until we get a Hillary Clinton in office. We can't let it happen! Many say she is unelectable, but thats what they said when she ran for the New York Senate seat! We have to fight as if our freedom hangs...

<p>When word leaked out in late July that Nascar (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) has stopped donating to Mr. Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition, certain optimistic observers saw yet another sign that the Jackson juggernaut is running low on gas.</p>

NASCAR PUSHes BackBy Dave ShiflettWall Street Journal | August 22, 2003 Has Jesse Jackson hit the wall? When word leaked out in late July that Nascar (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) has stopped donating to Mr. Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition, certain optimistic observers saw yet another sign that the Jackson juggernaut is running low on gas. His shot at the membership policies of the Augusta National Golf Club had flown straight into a water hazard. His complaints about the jokes in the movie "Barbershop" were dismissed as raving. And it wasn't so long ago that he was outed...

<p>SACRAMENTO - The battle to win passage of a state budget moved Monday to the Assembly, where Gov. Gray Davis and legislative leaders lobbied lawmakers to end a standoff that has endured four weeks into the new fiscal year.</p> <p>Key legislators said they expected the Assembly to vote on a Senate proposal late Monday night, but it was unclear if leaders had locked up the support needed to pass the budget.</p>

<p>With Californians increasingly disgusted over lawmakers' inability to solve the state's record-setting budget crisis, a million-dollar campaign was launched Thursday to place before voters a measure to make it easier for the Legislature to pass a budget -- and raise taxes.</p>

<p>SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Wearing purple T-shirts emblazoned with a squeegee-bearing fist, about two dozen janitors gathered Monday to cheer the Rev. Jesse Jackson and to urge Silicon Valley companies to maintain their health care benefits.</p> <p>Jackson, who was in San Jose hosting a two-day trade fair designed to promote ethnic diversity in the technology industry, attended a rally the janitor's union organized outside the headquarters of software maker Adobe Systems Inc.</p>

Combat phase is over, says Powell as final push begins By Terry Kirby 14 April 2003 A week, to paraphrase the old adage about politics, is a long time in war. Or at least the kind of war we experience now. Last Sunday, the Iraqi regime was largely intact, its apparatchiks still maintaining the war was theirs for the winning. Outside Baghdad, the Americans drew close to a final confrontation with the Republican Guard and the British advanced into Basra. The conflict was still in the balance: protracted street fighting, a siege of Baghdad or a chemical-weapons attack by a...

THE OTHER JESSE. . .AND IT'S NOT JJ J. Grant Swank, Jr. POB l984, Windham ME 04062 Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham ME Jesse Jackson is getting older and more and more irrelevant. His days were “once,” but not now. In his gut, he knows it. (But there are those within his following who champion Jackson The Man when it comes to social, religious and particularly political insight.) Sad, but such happens from time to time to those who enjoy applause for a season but then at some point are prodded by circumstance and reason gracefully to lay down the...

(CNSNews.com) - One of America's wealthiest African-Americans, asked by Jesse Jackson to assist with Jackson's "Wall Street Project," says the tactics used by the civil rights leader amounted to "racketeering." A prominent black broadcast executive says he's been the victim of intimidation at the hands of Jackson and is fighting the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to block the sale of his television stations. A black entrepreneur seeking aid from one of Jackson's groups describes it as "a boys club to me, an inner circle," that he cannot penetrate. Officials with Jackson's various interests largely refused to comment on these ...

Senate Republicans are planning to move aggressively on judicial nominations at the start of the 108th Congress, hoping to hold three voting sessions in January to install new judges on the federal bench. Leading Senate Republicans emerged from a meeting with White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales last week with a framework for how they will push for nominees previously held up by the outgoing Democratic majority. While final dates have not been set, some GOPleaders are pushing to hold votes on judges in the Judiciary Committee as early as Jan. 10, 2003, just three days after the new Congress convenes....