Free Republic

Three military veterans in the Senate -- one a Vietnam POW, one a military lawyer, one a veteran of both World War II and Korea, and all Republicans in good standing -- want Congress to prohibit the "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of all people detained by the U.S. military, no matter what their status. The Bush administration has threatened to veto their effort. Here are 10 reasons the bill Sens. John McCain, John Warner and Lindsay Graham are championing deserves support, and why the White House is wrong to oppose it: • It is ludicrous on its face to...

Instant Poll: What does education need most? Star Tribune March 1, 2005 EDNEEDSPOLL More money Better teachers Responsible administrators Closer government oversight None of the above

Who proposes a new tax hoping to see not a penny in revenue? A Montana legislator who wants to change the way Wal-Mart pays its workers there. Sen. Ken Toole, D-Helena, is sponsoring a bill that all but names Wal-Mart as the object of the tax: A big retailer that doesn't pay an entry-level salary of at least $22,000 a year and that hires more than half part-timers will be charged a progressive tax of 1 to 2 percent on its gross receipts over $20 million a year. It's just the latest proposal by local governments to try to collect...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The Passion of the Christ Spider-man 2 Collateral Troy Other/don't know

Archbishop Harry Flynn, the spiritual leader of Twin Cities Catholics, and Bishop Peter Rogness, the head of St. Paul's Lutheran Synod, spent Wednesday afternoon with some of Minnesota's poorest citizens, touring a health-care clinic on St. Paul's west side, chatting with toddlers at a child-care center and serving a meal at Loaves and Fishes. It was a powerful statement by two of the state's most influential clerics, but it also sent a much-needed message at a time when Minnesota is retreating from its neediest citizens. As the Legislature begins grappling with the third state budget deficit in as many years,...

Francisco Serrano says he had nowhere to go when he arrived back in Minnesota with $200 in his pocket on Christmas Eve. So he took refuge in a place he knew well — Apple Valley High School. He posed as a student for three weeks, sitting in on classes, showering in the locker room, and sleeping in the theater. "Anywhere I could hide,'' Serrano said by phone from the Dakota County Jail in Hastings, where he remained Wednesday after his second arrest at the school. Serrano attended Apple Valley High as a 19-year-old sophomore during the 2002-03 school year and...

Earlier this month, in a speech that got less attention than it deserved, Bill Clinton gave a plain accounting of the swamp this nation is in for lack of a progressive policy -- or any real policy -- on how we produce, consume and conserve energy. U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases keep rising, warming the atmosphere and isolating us from a world community working concertedly to reverse this march toward catastrophe. U.S. oil imports are 50 percent higher than they were in the late 1980s, binding us politically to unstable or unsavory governments in the Middle East, and tying our...

Seven-year-old David Mota is a changed boy. Gone are his frantic trips to the emergency room with near-crippling pain. Gone, too, are his bouts of pneumonia. Indeed, his mom Mildred believes her son will outlive the average 42-year life span of children born with sickle cell disease, the most common genetic disorder in the United States. ''It's the drug,'' said Mota, a Miami Beach single mom. She was referring to a new medication -- hydroxyurea -- doctors are prescribing to help children avoid painful joint and tissue swelling. The drug is one of several recent developments -- a new clinic...

CYNTHIA McKINNEY IS AN AMERICAN HERO!My Opinion on the Way You are Handling the McKinney Case by Paul Walker I would appreciate it very much if you would cease the politically-motivated dirt-digging and attacks on Ms McKinney's character and instead do an objective jounalistic investigation into the claims that she has put forward. No matter what her motives may be, the facts are the facts. Fact: Carlyle Group directly benefits from an eternal Orwellian war against the "Evil Ones".Fact: The bin Ladins and the Bushes have been in bed finacially raking in hundreds of millions together on big oil,...