Free Republic

After being elected twice as a Republican to the position of county attorney in Anderson County, Kan., Fred Campbell decided following the Nov. 2 elections to drop his Republican Party affiliation in favor of the Libertarian Party, saying the GOP has abandoned the idea of minimal government. Campbell was re-elected in November with no opposition. He has been a Republican for years, primarily because he's "always been in favor of less government rather than more," he said. "I've always thought that the Republican Party was the major party that went along with that philosophy," Campbell explained. "But in the last...

Six Navy SEALs filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press and one of its reporters yesterday, saying the news organization revealed their identities, compromised their security and invaded their privacy by publishing personal photographs in a Dec. 4 story.     The complaint says AP reporter Seth Hettena used about 40 images from the personal photo-storage Web site of a Navy SEAL wife. [snip] The images were picked up by the Arab press, including Al Jazeera, and have made their way onto a billboard outside U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where detainees from the war on terror are being kept. The...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

EditorialSecond Thoughts By: William W. Lawrence 11/04/2003Aage Bjerre, the Danish pizzeria owner who refused to serve French and German tourists because of their governments' opposition to our war against Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime, sent me the following letter. The envelope also contained a picture of a parchment copy of our Declaration of Independence that I had sent him.Mr. Bjerre had it framed and had it hanging in what I believe is his pizzeria.He was fined 5,000 kroner (U.S. $780) for refusing to sell pizzas to German and French tourists, calling them "anti-American."I made a few minor edits to his letter,...

Apology to Muslims and censure of Boykin: Resolution H. Res. 419, introduced by Rep. John Conyers Please write your congressional representative about Resolution H. Res. 419, introduced by Representative John Conyers (D-MI). Click here for the Congress.org link. The language concerning “religiously intolerant remarks” amounts to censorship of Christian, as well as other beliefs. The resolution is a knee-jerk reaction to Lieutenant General William “Jerry” Boykin’s exercise of Free Speech and Freedom of Religion in his own church. Proposing such a bill is the worst kid of appeasement to a group that is aggressively intolerant to non-Muslims around the...

<p>The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror? Is DoD changing fast enough to deal with the new 21st century security environment? Can a big institution change fast enough? Is the USG changing fast enough?</p>

We are in a cabin deep down below decks on a Navy ship jam-packed with troops that’s pitching and creaking its way across the Atlantic in a winter gale. There is a man in every bunk. There’s a man wedged into every corner. There’s a man in every chair. The air is dense with cigarette smoke and with the staleness of packed troops and sour wool. “Don’t think I’m sticking up for the Germans,” puts in the lanky young captain in the upper berth, “but…” “To hell with the Germans,” says the broad-shouldered dark lieutenant. “It’s what our boys have...

In his last dispatch as Washington Bureau Chief, Toby Harnden examines the state of the unionDriving across America last month, an exhilarating and enthralling three-week trip covering 26 states and 7,896 miles to California and back, I was struck by how a country can be so misunderstood when so much about it is known.Before setting off, I re-read the diary of my last coast-to-coast trip, on Greyhound buses, as a student in 1989. Another president called Bush had just taken office, though my attitudes had been shaped by endless chatter in Britain about an ignorant, cowboy president - sound familiar?...

Across the nation, public officials will strike somber poses and shed television-friendly tears and bow their blow-dried heads in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. They'll hold hands, light candles and pass around a plateful of platitudes: "Never forget," they'll intone. "Let's roll," they'll thunder. "God bless America," they'll warble in perfect harmony. They'll assure us that they are committed to fighting terror and securing our borders and doing whatever it takes to protect the homeland from another horrific mass murder at the hands of freedom-hating fanatics. And then? And then, from Washington state to...

Proud to Have Liberated Iraq Barry FarberWednesday, September 3, 2003The nice lady in the synagogue, knowing I was in the opinion business, politely asked me how I felt about the situation in Iraq. Sizing up the landscape – the bombing of the U.N. Headquarters, the bombing of the mosque in Najaf, the unending loss of American and Iraqi life, and the fact that the overwhelming majority of the members of my synagogue are liberals – I figured she didn't want my REAL opinion, but I'm afraid I let her have it anyhow. I couldn't help myself. I over-responded. "I have...

MLK Rally marked by Bush, Ashcroft bashing & absence of US flags; Speaker Praises Mugabe The rally on the US Capitol today to mark the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech was broadcast live on C-SPAN. The event was attended by Democratic presidential contenders Howard Dean, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton. The following are my personal observations, facts hidden from you by puff-pieces appearing on the wire services. The most stunning aspect of this rally was the almost complete, seemingly choreographed absence of the Old Glory throughout the vast crowd, estimated by organizers...

<p>Referred to by her spy masters only as "Mrs. Galt," she is by day an unremarkable American housewife and mother. But after her two children go to bed, she plunges into a secret world of Internet chat rooms and Web sites populated by some of the most dangerous people on earth.</p>

<p>61-year-old Savin Hill man was dragged to his death Sunday night as he pleaded with the driver of the vehicle that struck him to stop. ''Oh, my God, please stop,'' a witness heard Richard A. Miller shout as he clung to the passenger side of the red pickup truck or SUV that dragged him for several hundred feet down Dorchester Avenue.</p>

Glad to live in a state where our soldiers and sailors are respected... What follows is a message from Vicki Pierce (a member of my church here in Highlands Ranch) about her nephew James' funeral (he was serving our country in Iraq): I'm back, it was certainly a quick trip, but I have to also say it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. There is a lot to be said for growing up in a small town in Texas. The service itself was impressive with wonderful flowers and sprays, a portrait of James, his uniform and...

Toogood Reports [Weekender, May 4, 2003; 12:01 a.m. EST]URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/ A Few Good Persons If you're goin' to fight for freedom, Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair, If you go to fight for freedom, April time will be a love-in there. Remember the song, "San Francisco"? As written by John Phillips and sung by Scott McKenzie, it was a big hit in 1967, a time when the city by the bay was famous for "flower children." "If you're going to San Francisco, Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair, If you're going to San Francisco,...

RECORDS of Osama Bin Laden’s calls from his satellite phone reveal Britain was at the heart of the terrorist’s planning for his worldwide campaign of murder and destruction. Bin Laden and his most senior lieutenants made more than 260 calls from their base in Afghanistan to 27 numbers in Britain. They included suspected terrorist agents, sympathisers and companies. Some were prearranged calls to contacts using public pay phones. The records, obtained by The Sunday Times, show that the terrorist leader made more calls to Britain than any other country in the two years that he used the phone. He stopped...

As you all know, as conservatives, we believe it is good sometimes to spank our kids and our wife (ahem), as well as make love to the wife and tickle the children. Why? Because emotions of pleasure and pain etc, have a tendency to hard wire a learned fact. It is called the law of effect, and it is the enemy's strategy that aims at bypassing reason. The left is crude because the left is in a long range process of rewiring what people were taught at birth. They do not go beyond that, yet the scary thing is they...

11 confirmed KIA, 14 confirmed MIA in IraqFrom the International DeskPublished 3/24/2003 9:42 PM WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- The Pentagon Monday released the names of 11 of its personnel killed in action and 14 missing in action in support of the war in Iraq. U.S. Central Command also acknowledged at least another 10 Marines killed in action near Nasiriyah Sunday. However, their identities were not released as the Defense Department was notifying the families. At least 14 U.S. personnel were missing in action, including two U.S. Army pilots whose Apache helicopter was downed in Iraq, and 12 soldiers in...

  United States Department of DefenseNews ReleaseOn the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2003/b03252003_bt150-03.html Media contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: public@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 428-0711   No. 150-03 IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 25, 2003 DOD IDENTIFIES MARINES KILLED IN ACTION The Department of Defense announced today the identities of seven Marines killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of An Nasiriyah, Iraq. Killed were: Sgt. Michael E. Bitz, 31, Ventura, Calif. He was assigned to the 2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Lance Cpl. David K. Fribley, 26, Lee, Fla. He was assigned to the 1st...

A few people have asked lately how I came to support the Iraq war. As a good Canadian, and generally peaceful person, I say I naturally had misgivings. I've marched in my share of peace demonstrations - in university, and after I joined the real world. And like many good people around the world, my gut initially questioned the U.S.-led drive to oust Saddam Hussein. Did all those clever cynics crowing about how it was really Bush's "Daddy's war" and "all about oil" have a point? Was there really a 9/11 connection or was Saddam just a stand-in for the...