Free Republic

One normally expects to see paeans to one-party rule and dictatorships in fringe publications sponsored by International ANSWER or World Can’t Wait. Usually, the New York Times offers those sentiments in more subtle terms than it does in today’s Thomas Friedman column. Friedman extols the Chinese form of government while deriding the fact that political opposition keeps Obama from imposing the policies Friedman likes:

April 03, 2009, 2:00 p.m. Imperial Judiciary Goes GlobalBy the Editors In 2004, the Supreme Court sowed the seeds for a national-security upheaval when it ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that war prisoners held outside the United States had a right to challenge their detentions in federal court. Last year, in Boumediene v. Bush, the justices continued the seismic shift, holding that the right they had invented in Rasul — a right extended to aliens whose only connection to the United States is in waging war against it — was somehow rooted in our Constitution. Thursday, the inevitable earthquake...

China has filled all four of its state-owned emergency oil reserve tanks to the brim and should now invest in oil tankers to add more to inventories while oil prices are low, a senior industry executive said on Monday in a rare acknowledgement of Beijing's secretive oil inventories. Coupled with data last week showing a one-third rise in commercial crude oil stockpiles last year, the admission suggests that a large share of of China's oil import growth last year was pumped directly into storage, and could be relied upon quickly to soften any demand recovery or if prices should rise....

“I think closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent, would be something that would be permitted under Heller,” Holder said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling in Washington, D.C. v. Heller, which asserted the Second Amendment as an individual’s right to own a weapon.

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today. "As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters.

Nobody can sell any ammunition after June 30, 2009 It has already started.... Ammunition Accountability Legislation Remember how Obama said that he wasn't going to take your guns? Well, it seems that his allies in the anti-gun world have no problem with taking your ammo! The bill 20 that is being pushed in 18 states (including Illinois and Indiana ) requires all ammunition to be encoded by the manufacture a data base of all ammunition sales. So they will know how much you buy and what calibers. Nobody can sell any ammunition after June 30, 2009 unless the ammunition is...

A western Kentucky man convicted of raping and murdering an honor student had his death sentence overturned by a federal judge who said Tuesday that justice demands a new hearing even though there's no doubt about the brutality of the crime. U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell sent 34-year-old Robert Keith Woodall's case back to state court for re-sentencing. Russell found that the state judge improperly instructed the jury before sentencing and denied Woodall a chance to object to a black juror being dismissed. "The crimes Woodall admitted to committing are revolting and despicable," Russell wrote in a 92-page ruling....

Oil demand has plummeted along with home prices and stock market indexes, but discerning where energy demand could go in 2009 isn’t easy. That’s why, as oil markets attempt to calibrate in the face of this recession, some traders, refiners, big oil companies and other interests have been buying cheap oil in recent weeks and squirreling it away in storage tanks and ships with plans to unload it months from now when prices are higher. It’s difficult to quantify exactly how much oil is being stored in ships, but Frontline LTD, which runs one of the largest crude supertanker fleets,...

Anthony Lewis's free-speech credentials are impeccable: among other things, the former New York Times columnist is James Madison Visiting Professor of First Amendment Issues at Columbia University's journalism school; was fêted by the National Coalition Against Censorship this past fall; and chronicles the First Amendment's history in his most recent book, Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment (Basic Books). Recently, though, Lewis has been reassessing the legal standard for how far threatening speech should be allowed to go. The key precedent here is 1969's Brandenburg v. Ohio, in which the Supreme Court ruled...

What would America look like after four years of an Obama administration? "Hardship," "persecution" and "suffering" are among the prospects in a hypothetical letter from a "Christian from 2012" released today by evangelical leader James Dobson's political activist group Focus on the Family Action. Titled "Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America," the piece clearly targets the many evangelical Christians seeking "change," particularly the young, who could tip the election in favor of the Illinois Democrat . At the end of the letter, the fictional Christian laments that these people "simply did not realize Obama's far-left agenda would take away many...

No, Barack, Medical Care is Not a 'Right'by Dr. Lee Hieb (more by this author) Posted 10/08/2008 ET Updated 10/08/2008 ET At last night’s presidential debate, Barack Obama led the charge for government run health care by declaring in no uncertain terms that health care is a “right”. I suppose he thinks Tom and the boys accidentally left that one out of the Constitution. Or maybe it is an extension (in his mind) of the right to life. But let’s think about this a minute. When our American form of government was created to form “a more perfect union” by...

The Seattle School District has backtracked on a statement that racists are "whites" after "numerous concerns" were expressed over the description, according to the district's website. A cached webpage of the Seattle District's page regarding "Equity & Race," had defined racism as: "The systematic subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power in the United States (Blacks, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asians), by the members of the agent racial group who have relatively more social power (Whites). The subordination is supported by the actions of individuals, cultural norms and values, and the institutional structures and...

It’s been 43 years since student protester Mario Savi ignited the “free speech movement� at Berkeley with his famous address urging students “to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you’ve got to make it stop!� Today, liberals are still trying to stop “the machine,� but they’re not aiming at the government or university officials. The “machine� they are trying to stop is public opinion that disagrees with theirs. The American left has adopted a totalitarian mindset; they’re actively working to stamp out dissent. Did you know that...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Less than two weeks after Democrats took control of both houses of Congress, Accuracy in Media has exposed a plan by congressional liberals to use the federal government to silence conservative voices in the media. Reporting from a so-called National Conference on Media Reform, organized by "progressive" activists, AIM editor Cliff Kincaid has revealed, in an exclusive report now available on the AIM web site (http://www.aim.org), that liberals in the House and Senate intend to push legislation giving the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the authority to monitor and restrict what conservatives in the media say...

Shift in Harvard Curriculum Reflects Larger Trend Toward Global Law Leigh Jones The National Law Journal 10-24-2006 Harvard Law School's recent announcement that it is making the most sweeping changes to its first-year curriculum in 100 years heralded a major shift in legal education, including a new emphasis on global law. But some of its competitors say that they already have revamped their programs in similar ways. Harvard will begin requiring first-year students to take three new courses, including a class on legislation and regulation, another covering global legal systems and a third focusing on problems and theories. The school's...

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, CNN creator Ted Turner and former Sen. Sam Nunn pledged $50 million to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency Tuesday to create a uranium stockpile. The aim is to discourage countries from developing their own nuclear programs. The reserve would ensure supplies of low-grade fuel for nuclear power plants around the world. One example of a program they hope to discourage is in Iran, which critics fear is ultimately aimed at developing weapons. The Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative is hoping its financial pledge to the International Atomic Energy Agency will prod governments into action on creating the...

Iraqi Soldiers Stockpile Medical Logistics Skills Coalition advisors work to overcome the mindset of some Iraqi soldiers, who remember procedures under the old regime. By U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Rick Brown Multi-National Security Transition Command—Iraq TAJI, Iraq, June 8, 2006 — One of the biggest hurdles facing the Iraqi army is its requirement to logistically support itself. The Iraqi Army Services and Support Institute at Taji Military Training Base has acknowledged this need and, on May 25, finished another training cycle with the graduation of 22 Iraqi soldiers from the institute's Medical Logistics Course.The three-week module was designed...

I was watching C-SPAN at about 1845 CDT. First Rep. McDermott of Washington was speaking with his usual drivel. But then Rep. Dan Burton came up to the podium and said that "one of our special ops organizations" had found "800 canisters of chemical weapons like those used to kill the Kurds" in Iraq. Anyone else hear this or know anything about it?

Stockpile human bird flu vaccine now, say experts 22:00 03 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Debora MacKenzie Countries should stockpile vaccines against H5N1 flu even before any H5N1 pandemic begins, experts warn. A new modelling study shows that without such vaccines, and antiviral drugs, efforts such as school closures and travel restrictions will have almost no effect on the number of deaths a pandemic would cause in the US. Yet that is what the country currently relies on. In March, US Health Secretary Michael Leavitt told a Congressional panel that "in the first six months of a pandemic we are...

As of January 2006, the U.S. stockpile contains almost 10,000 nuclear warheads. This includes 5,735 active or operational warheads: 5,235 strategic and 500 nonstrategic warheads. Approximately 4,225 additional warheads are held in the reserve or inactive stockpiles, some of which will be dismantled. Under plans announced by the Energy Department in June 2004 (and possibly revised in spring 2005), some 4,365 warheads are scheduled to be retired for dismantlement by 2012 (see Nuclear Notebook, September/October 2004). This would leave approximately 5,945 warheads in the operational and reserve stockpiles in 2012, including the 1,700-2,200 "operationally deployed" strategic warheads specified in the...

Bird flu: plea for vaccine stockpile Tough measures agreed to combat virus Leo Cendrowicz in Brussels, Helena Smith in Athens and John Aglionby in Jakarta Saturday October 15, 2005 The Guardian (UK) EU health officials last night demanded tough new measures to prevent the spread of deadly bird flu into Europe, including limits on public access to wetlands in high-risk areas and requirements that some poultry be kept inside. Veterinary experts agreed recommendations from the European commission that will require poultry farmers to be vaccinated against the human flu virus and to remain vigilant for tell-tale signs such as a...

The CIA's chief weapons inspector said he cannot rule out the possibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were secretly shipped to Syria before the March 2003 invasion, citing "sufficiently credible" evidence that WMDs may have been moved there. Inspector Charles Duelfer, who heads the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), made the findings in an addendum to his final report filed last year. He said the search for WMD in Iraq -- the main reason President Bush went to war to oust Saddam Hussein -- has been exhausted without finding such weapons. Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in...

Christian Group Charged With Hate Crime Prosecutors Say Group Tried To Incite Riot At Gay Gathering POSTED: 7:08 pm EST January 12, 2005 UPDATED: 8:06 pm EST January 12, 2005 PHILADELPHIA -- A group of activists have been hauled into court for an unusual reason -- they are charged with hate crimes because they protested at a gay and lesbian rally. Enough Said 2Members of the Christian group Repent America face up to 47 years in prison for what the city of Philadelphia calls hate crimes. Four defendants are charged with ethnic intimidation and rioting -- among other things --...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A mosque raided by security forces in southern Baghdad contained a workshop to rig suicide car bombs, with seven vehicles ready for terror attacks, an Iraqi Defense Ministry official said Sunday. National Guard forces raided the Sunni Muslim Al-Yassen Mosque in the Baghdad area of Abu Dshir on Saturday, said Gen. Saleh Sarhan. In addition to the seven cars, guardsmen found 30 rocket-propelled grenades, high-powered rifles, mortars and remote control detonators, Sarhan said. He said the mosque leader and 18 other people were detained. Anti-U.S. guerrillas used about 60 mosques in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, to stockpile...

Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 American lives, the top U.S. arms inspector reported Wednesday that he found no evidence that Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction after 1991. The report also says Saddam Hussein's weapons capability weakened during a dozen years of U.N. sanctions before the U.S. invasion last year.

August 31, 2004 China's stockpile of oil helps to bolster prices By Carl Mortished, International Business Editor EVIDENCE is mounting that China is buying more oil than it consumes, raising fears that oil hoarding may be supporting the current high price of crude. The signs of aggressive Chinese stockpiling emerge from research by Merrill Lynch, the investment bank, which suggests that China is importing crude and refined products at twice the rate of growth in actual demand. Rampant economic growth in the People’s Republic over the past two years has enabled China to overtake Japan this year as the world’s...

Five-hundred tons of yellowcake uranium ore stored at Saddam Hussein's al Tuwaitha nuclear weapons research laboratory near Baghdad could have been enriched to produce 142 nuclear weapons, a prominent British physicist has determined. Addressing the claim by British intelligence last year that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger, Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex, argued, "Iraq already had far more uranium than it needed for any conceivable nuclear weapons programme." In an op-ed piece for the London's Evening Standard, Professor Dombey explained that standard yellowcake ore consists of 99 percent Uranium 238 [U238], "which is...

Oil Prices Fuel Rise in Strategic Reserves Monday, May 17, 2004 12:07 AM ET With crude oil trading above $41 a barrel and terrorism fears helping to inflate the price, the U.S. has quietly continued to fill its emergency reserves to the highest level ever -- an amount experts say could be used to bring prices down, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported. To guard against shortages, the U.S. and other nations have a combined 1.4 billion barrels of oil stored away, as governments have been steadily adding to their stocks since the shock of Sept. 11, 2001. Experts say oil...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - A U.S. magistrate denied bail Tuesday for a Canadian man accused of stockpiling more than 2,300 unregistered warheads at his counter-terrorism firm in southern New Mexico. Judge Karen Molzen said the evidence presented convinced her David Hudak, president of High Energy Access Tools Corp. in Roswell, N.M., is a flight risk and a threat to the community. "I'm very concerned because he was here on a non-immigrant visa, the visa had expired and he was involved in the training of foreign nationals in explosives, as well as some small arms," Molzen said after a 3½-hour...

<p>Biological warfare is the subject of today's "Winds of Change" features. Lady Margaret Thatcher leads off in typically clear and inspirational style. The recently-passed Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2001 follows - it's a start, but large gaps remain. We look at the act and the gaps, and set out the 10-point plan for change. In-depth briefings on anthrax and smallpox round out today's features.</p>