Free Republic

SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON: A US official identified as Michael Furlong organised a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the purpose of finding and killing suspected militants, The New York Times reported Monday. Citing unnamed military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States, the newspaper said Furlong, who works for the Defence Department, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces members. These people gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, the report said. After that, the information was sent to military units and intelligence...

I hear that the White House... ...is actually blaming Fox News for the ills of the country not caused by Bush. Apparently Fox News and the republicans are far too much of a force to reckon with for the President and his congressional majorities. Do you think THAT is the message the White House is trying to send? I doubt it. I think that, like my ex-husband and his insane 2nd wife who have been harassing me for over twenty years, the President feels he can only hold the Administration together by identifying a common enemy. Obama and his staff...

Millions of human beings around the world are forcibly detained, their liberties removed by governmental authorities. Anyone who takes seriously the immediate potential for replacing capitalism with a world of real abundance and freedom knows already that the great majority of crimes are either crimes against property or involve the illegal trafficking of property — or are the likely direct result of living the restricted and stressful life of a wage-slave. While there are those who justify the existence of laws on moral and ideological grounds, the defenders of the status-quo must always argue their case referring to a swashbuckler’s...

Leading Democrat Warned Kerry on Intelligence Cuts Writing on his blog, Citizen Smash brings to light the transcript of a 1994 Senate floor speech by Hawaii Democrat Daniel Inouye, a forty-year member of the Senate and World War II veteran. Senator Inouye offers pointed criticism of an amendment to slash funding for defense and intelligence programs -- an amendment authored by John Kerry: Madam President, if I may, I would like to say a few words about amendment No. 1452, an amendment submitted by the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Kerry]. The amendment offered by Senator Kerry would reduce the...

So I was back in San Francisco on business a few weeks ago and headed to the Montgomery Street BART station to catch a train to take me away from the grime and madness of The City to the relatively more palatable grime and madness of the East Bay. Which is when I spotted them -- a couple of young men standing in front of the train station staircase. They were waving sings and carrying on and generally making a nuisance of themselves by trying to stand in front of rapidly fleeing passersby. They also were singing -- at the...

<p>For the longest time, as right-wing pundits mercilessly mocked lefties and Ann Coulter demonized liberals as "traitors," it seemed that a cowed left had lost its voice and its spirit. Michael Moore ranted, Gore Vidal issued a pair of scathing anti-Bush pamphlets, but it wasn't until Al Franken came along that the left regained some of the breath that got knocked out of it by the Florida election of 2000.</p>

Al Franken is literally breathless. He's talking a mile a minute and sounding like a kid who's just arrived home victorious after a schoolyard brawl. And in a way, he has. Franken's just learned that his book, the controversial, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, has unseated Bill O'Reilly's tome atop the best-seller list of The New York Times. "We're very, very happy here today. I was No. 1 for the first five weeks and then he had it last week - for that one bright, shining moment of Camelot,"...

TALK ABOUT A CREDIBILITY GAP . . .Kerry’s Proposals To Slash Intel Funding And His Naïve Statements Are At Odds With Campaign Rhetoric About Making America Safer _____________________________________________________________________________________ SENATOR KERRY FOUGHT TO SLASH INTELLIGENCE FUNDING BY AT LEAST $2.5 BILLION 1995: Proposed Bill Cutting $1.5 Billion From Intelligence Budget. Kerry introduced a bill that would “reduce the Intelligence budget by $300 million in each of fiscal years 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000.” There were no cosponsors of Kerry’s bill, which never made it to the floor for a vote. (S. 1290, Introduced 9/29/95) 1995: Voted To Slash FBI...

What seemed to be an odd assortment of people joined forces in Pretoria on Wednesday to express strong opposition to the United States President George Bush's visit to South Africa. About a thousand people gathered under the banner of the Anti-War Coalition to march on the US embassy around lunchtime. Hippies, men and women in traditional Muslim dress, militant toyi-toying youngsters and even some Americans turned up for the event. "Go away, we've got enough Bushes in Africa," read a poster held up by one middle-aged man. The group chanted "Who let the bombs drop - Bush, Blair, Sharon", to...

<p>Wherever Administration Moderator went, he was greeted by huge, enthusiastic crowds of cheering people – people as far as the eye could see - reaching out to Administration Moderator and he reaching back at every opportunity. Administration Moderator has got the right stuff, he loved being with the FReepers and the FReepers loved being with Administration Moderator. There is a genuine connection between the Moderator and his message and the FReepers. Administration Moderator could capture the presidency in 2004!</p>

Right-wing control leaves no reason for rejoicing YOUR TURN by B.J. Paschal, professor emeritus of psychology May 29, 2003 Some of my Taliban Republican critics take great pride in telling me that Benjamin Franklin urged the delegates of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to open their sessions with morning prayers.But they fail to mention that the records show that the delegates refused to even debate the issue.I usually ask them if they have read Franklin's statement about the proposed Constitution (which was adopted). Of course, he prophesied that this effort would fail: "There is no form of government but...