Free Republic

With budgets getting tighter every year, the U.S. Forest Service plans to raise up to $800 million in much-needed cash by selling off 200,000 acres of land across the country... The proposed land sale would be authorized under a Congressional amendment to the 2,000 Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. The law is intended to help rural communities that have seen National Forest logging-based revenue drop as timber cutting dwindled across the country. The list is based in part on land ownership adjustment analyses that designate lands suitable for disposal. Most of the lands to be sold are parcels...

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - A senior British diplomat has told Serbs that independence is the best solution for the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo in talks due within days, Serb negotiators said on Tuesday. "[John] Sawers told us the Contact Group had decided Kosovo should be independent. He said Kosovo would be multi-ethnic, but in the end independent," Goran Bogdanovic, a Kosovo Serb, told Belgrade radio B92, after meeting the political director of the British Foreign Office late on Monday. A second Serb negotiator in Belgrade, who attended a meeting between Sawers and the Serbian prime minister on...

he US yesterday made the case for offering Serbia incentives to reach agreement in negotiations over the final status of Kosovo, while setting out the possibility of independence for the province if the ethnic Albanian majority accepted compromises to accommodate its Serbian minority. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state, told a Senate hearing the US was neither championing independence nor autonomy for Kosovo. But diplomats said his testimony was a clear signal the US looked favourably on independence, under certain conditions. In what diplomats also called a significant policy statement, Mr Burns made clear the US had no objection to independence...

WASHINGTON D.C. - Dec. 23, 2005 Today the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA) commends President Bush and the White House Task Force on Puerto Rico for their report providing measures for full enfranchisement for the citizens of Puerto Rico. The RNHA salutes the President for his courage and leadership on this issue. “The White House report is a milestone for the people of Puerto Rico on their road to self-determination,” said Chairman Pedro Celis, Ph.D. “President Bush understands the importance of the 3.8 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico. Providing them with options to determine Puerto Rico’s legal status is...

[This] article written for the [Bosnian Institute] website argues that Western politicians have been mistaken in accepting the notion that Kosova is 'an integral part of Serbia', so that Belgrade must necessarily be involved in discussions about Kosova's statusAs negotiations between Serbia and Kosova about the latter’s status are about to begin under UN auspices, one is prompted to pose the obvious question: ‘Why is Serbia involved at all?’ Or, to put it in another way: ‘Why do Western governments assume that the wishes of Kosova’s inhabitants are insufficient grounds for recognising its independence, and that such a step requires also Belgrade’s acquiescence?’Answers to such questions refer...

Tuesday's special election marked the sixth time California voters have gone to the polls since the March 2002 primary election. That meant it was the sixth go-round of endless television commercials, campaign mailers — and trying to grasp the true meaning and impact of a plethora of ballot initiatives. Instead of patting themselves on the back for surviving such an onslaught, voters get to do it two more times next year. As much as they might like to, voters can't ignore the 2006 primary and general elections because important issues loom. There's a governor's race, as well as congressional and...

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident,...

On Easter Monday in Dublin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization of Irish nationalists led by Patrick Pearse, launches the so-called Easter Rebellion, an armed uprising against British rule. Assisted by militant Irish socialists under James Connolly, Pearse and his fellow Republicans rioted and attacked British provincial government headquarters across Dublin and seized the Irish capital's General Post Office. Following these successes, they proclaimed the independence of Ireland and by the next morning were in control of much of the city. Later that day, however, British authorities launched a counteroffensive, and by April 29 the uprising had been crushed....

While public officials, schools, and the ACLU worked overtime this year to ban every vestige of Christmas from the public square, the recently invented holiday known as Kwanzaa is gaining in popularity among black Americans. These occurrences are not unrelated. In an earlier time, blacks held a strong faith in God. But over the past 40 years, the black community has largely let God slip away. Sure the community has maintained the outer trappings of religion, but the solid morality at its core is nearly gone. Enter a God-hating black racist named Ron Karenga. Born Ron Everett on a poultry farm...

First Democratically-Elected Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai sworn in Ron PeacockKABUL, Afghanistan (PN) On December 7th, Afghanistan took another giant step toward the future and becoming a member in the community of free nations. With his hand upon the Holy Koran, Hamid Karzai announced, "I swear to obey and safeguard the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam, to observe the constitution and other laws of Afghanistan and supervise their implementation, and with the assistance of God and the support of the nation, to make great and sincere efforts for the happiness and progress of the people of Afghanistan." during his...

"Direction of Focus""Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters ..., so our eyes look to the LORD our God..." Psalm 123:2 This verse is a description of total reliance on God. Just as the eyes of a servant are riveted on his master, our eyes should be directed to and focused on God. This is how knowledge of His countenance is gained and how God reveals Himself to us (see Isaiah 53:1). Our spiritual strength begins to be drained when we stop lifting our eyes to Him. Our stamina is sapped, not so much...

"Have You Ever Been Speechless With Sorrow?""When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich." Luke 18:23 The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus' words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God's Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain...

The recent brutalities perpetrated in the Darfur region of Sudan by Arab militias, supported by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, against the black population in the area have been termed "ethnic cleansing" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. That is exactly what it is. More than a million people have been expelled from their homes and thousands have been killed in one of the most brutal ethnic conflicts of our time, mostly unnoticed by the international media. While it is doubtful whether the UN will be more successful in stopping ethnic cleansing in Sudan than it had been in Bosnia...

Washington, DC.--(HISPANIC PR WIRE - U.S. Newswire)--March 8, 2004--Herbert W. Brown III, president of the Citizens' Educational Foundation-US today expressed his great appreciation for the action taken by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson in issuing a Proclamation, on Monday, March 1, 2004, supporting the four million U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico to exercise their right to self-determination. In his Proclamation, Gov. Richardson declared that: The government of New Mexico fully supports the call of the U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico for federal legislation that will define the non-territorial status options available to them, authorize a referendum in Puerto Rico that...

Internal ConstraintsJohn McWhorter, author of the controversial Losing the Race, on what's really holding African Americans back. Interviewed by Cathy Young and Michael W. Lynch Few nonfiction books have had as immediate an impact on public debate as John H. McWhorter's Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. Published last year by The Free Press, McWhorter's volume on race relations has won raves ("the importance of...Losing the Race is difficult to overstate" said the Weekly Standard) and attacks ("analytically weak...[and] irresponsible" said Harvard Law School's Randall L. Kennedy). Whatever one's opinion of it, Losing the Race has become one of...

Americans remember Benjamin Franklin as one of our founding fathers. And well they should, as he was not just our most famous citizen at our country's birth, he was a central part of that birth. As a member of the Second Continental Congress, Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence. As a member of the Constitutional Convention, he helped draft the Constitution. Both documents bear his signature. He also signed the Treaty of Alliance with France, bringing the colonies French aid against the British, and The Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War and recognized the independence of the...

It is refreshing to occasionally find a film that does not share the same interests and sensibilities of moviegoers in the 18- to 25-year-old demographic – you know, those who love car chases, fiery explosions, special effects, nudity, gratuitous sex and, above all, vulgar and profane discourse. If you are not in this group, and want to be enthralled and inspired for two hours, you will want to keep on the lookout in your TV listings for another showing of a truly worthwhile recent movie called "Door to Door." Based on a true story made into a TNT cable TV...

Indian Police Fire at Peaceful Sikh Protestors India Again Shows It Is Not a Democracy WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2002–The Times of India reported on August 1 that police in Malout fired on a crowd of peaceful protestors, injuring many of them. Several have been admitted to Civil Hospital, Malout. Eight protestors were arrested. The police used tear gas on the demonstrators. Two people suffered bullet wounds, according to the article. The demonstrators were protesting against a so-called religious function organized by the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan which was aimed at undermining the Sikh religion and slandering the Sikh gurus,...

The Terrorism of the Indian Government Tim Phares Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002 The South Asian subcontinent has been called the most dangerous place in the world, and events there over the past few months seem to confirm this description. While the danger of war seems to have passed for now, India and Pakistan remain on alert and both countries continue to point nuclear-capable missiles at each other. Unfortunately, tensions remain high as each side tries to gain an advantage over the other. Pakistan and minorities within India's borders charge that India is seeking hegemony in the South Asian subcontinent. Certainly...

Each July 4, we celebrate the founding of our nation, but how many Americans understand – much less respect – the founding principles? I fear that, for most Americans, July 4 is a celebration of a day off of work, an excuse for fireworks and feasting on barbecue but not a day to celebrate and enshrine the liberties the Founders sought for us. Some of this is the result of dumbed-down schooling, but a large part, I fear, is simple contempt for our founding principles. Let's look at a few founding documents to see what's your take on them. On...