Free Republic

"I can wage a better war on terror than George Bush has." So speaks Senator Kerry in the U.S. presidential campaign's final days, again reminding voters that the key issue in this race remains as it was a year earlier - deciding which candidate will better protect Americans from terrorism.As with so many topics, the basic difference between Kerry and President Bush is one of character, with the challenger repeatedly changing his mind and the president sticking with one position.On occasion, Mr. Kerry adopts Bush-like terminology. For example, in September 2004 he talked about the war on terror being "as...

Nearly four years have elapsed since the Oslo process (1993-2000) between Israelis and Palestinians foundered in bloodshed. Over that period, two U.S. administrations have tried to forge policies that would reduce the violence and point toward a solution to the conflict.It has not been a single-minded pursuit. Since September 11, 2001, the prime focus of Washington has been the management of unprecedented U.S. military interventions in the region, which removed regimes from power in Afghanistan and Iraq. The notion of Israeli-Palestinian peace as the key to regional stability has been replaced by the war on terror and the insistence on...

Until modern times, there existed no form of legitimacy in the Middle East outside of Islam. Rulers ruled in the name of God; assassins struck them down in the name of God. The assassinations of the early caliphs and the struggle between the Sunni rulers and the Assassins in the Middle Ages took precisely this form: each side claimed to act in accord with divine will, revealed in divine texts. Religion played a crucial role in the rationale of assassination, but it also played a crucial role in the rationale of government, law, and warfare—indeed, of everything. This invocation of...

The vice presidential candidates' debate tonight between Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and Democrat Sen. John Edwards, touted by the mass media as a possible pivot point in the presidential election, is missing a vital component -- four other candidates for the same office. Because several candidates were excluded from the "official" debate, there will actually be two debates between vice presidential candidates tonight in Cleveland, Ohio. Libertarian Richard Campagna, Pat LaMarche of the Green Party, Ralph Nader's independent running mate Peter Camejo, and Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party all plan to take part in a debate for "third...

Many on the left, most visibly Presidential contender John Kerry, often claim that the "coalition of the willing" is weak and that participation from the international community has been minimal if anything. Opponents of President Bush use such claims in order to discredit the legitimacy of this noble endeavor for freedom. It may not be such a bad idea to look at the state of our coalition, not in an effort to attack President Bush, but rather to conduct a healthy reassessment and critique of the coalition and our allies. Several weeks ago, Michael Rubin returned from the Coalition Provisional...

SALEM, Ore. - Accusations of dirty tricks are rare in Oregon politics, but Ralph Nader (news - web sites)'s presidential campaign has sparked charges and countercharges between his campaign and backers of Democratic nominee John Kerry (news - web sites). Union officials who support Kerry accused Nader's backers this week of engaging in widespread fraud and forgery in gathering signatures to place Nader on the Nov. 2 ballot in this battleground state. Nader's supporters countered that Democrats and their union allies are resorting to "gangster" tactics by bullying and intimidating signature-gatherers in hopes of thwarting Nader's petition drive. Nader, a...

The Candidate With No Name By Andrew L. Jaffee, July 29, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms ”Defeat Bush – VOTE In 2004!” I’ve seen more bumper-stickers with this platitude than I’ve seen ones that simply state, “Kerry/Edwards 2004.” While my liberal friends rarely mention Kerry and Edwards, they constantly remind me of how much they hate President Bush. This year, the politics of hate rule. The Left doesn’t even have a candidate. They are galvanized mainly by visceral hatred -- a hatred which stands on shaky assumptions, like the lies that Michael Moore sells as truths. In Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore insinuates that...

BOSTON - In the fall of 1962, a crowd of Yale students — some toting signs such as "How about Less Profile and More Courage?" or "Why Not Free Cuba?" jeered President Kennedy when he stumped for Democratic congressional candidates on the New Haven Green. The taunts troubled a 17-year-old freshman named John Kerry (news - web sites), who had met his hero several times through mutual friends during the summer of 1962. He had joined Kennedy on a yachting trip in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and aboard a naval ship to watch the America's Cup sailing races there. Through...

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BASQUE AND AINU INTRODUCTION The language of the Ainu bear-worshippers of Northern Japan has generally been considered a language-isolate, supposedly being unlike any other language on earth. A few researchers noticed a relationship with languages in south-east Asia, others saw similarity with the Ostiak and Uralic languages of northern Siberia. The Ainu look like Caucasian people, they have white skin, their hair is wavy and thick, their heads are mesocephalic (round) and a few have grey or blue eyes. However, their blood types are more like the Mongolian people, possibly through many millennia of intermixing. The Ainu...

Earth is 'between Ice Ages at the moment' December 17 2003 at 07:15AM Paris - Earth and its companion planet, Mars, are both enjoying a period of warm climate between their respective Ice Ages, according to a study published on Thursday in Nature, the British science weekly. Pictures sent back by United States orbiters have shown that Mars has "dusty, water-ice-rich mantling deposits" in layers that are metres thick, it says. "These deposits were formed during a geologically recent Ice Age that occurred from about 2,1 million to 400 000 years ago," it suggests. "Mars is at present in an...

Springs Officer Believes AR-15 Fell Out Of Trunk The Colorado Springs Police Department is looking for help to find a semi-automatic weapon that fell out of the back of a police cruiser Tuesday evening. Police believe that the rifle, which was in a black case approximately 3.5 feet by 1 foot by 6 inches, fell out of the trunk of a patrol car when an officer was traveling between two locations. The trunk lid somehow became open when the officer was driving, police said. The route the officer took led him from 3680 Citadel Drive North, to Citadel Drive, to...

Tensions boil over between Kurds and Arabs in northBy Patrick Cockburn in Kirkuk 14 April 2003 At least eight people were killed in gun battles between Iraqi Kurds and Arab tribes south of Kirkuk yesterday as Arabs in northern Iraq become increasingly nervous of the Kurdish advance south. The fighting was around the town of Hawi Jah on the road between the Iraqi oil centre of Kirkuk and the city of Tikrit. "It has been chaos. The Kurds are here to steal, and have killed some of our people while trying to rob them on the road," said one leader...

The IDF built a small outpost today on Worshipers' Path between Kiryat Arba and Hevron. Situated on the site from which was removed the short-lived Hevron Heroes neighborhood last week, it will be permanently manned by a number of soldiers. Several dozen Peace Now protestors demonstrated against the Jewish construction in the area today. Twelve soldiers and civilian volunteers were killed nearby in a terrorist ambush last month, and two more soldiers were murderously gunned down in the same area last week ten days ago. A watchtower is already up, and bulldozers are currently preparing the ground for permanent structures....

By Derick SturkeOn my Rail Fan Politics board, an internet forum for us rail fans to discuss political issues, there are all stripes. Conservatives, Centrists, Idio... er, Liberals. It is frankly scary how some folks in this country think. I have established that liberals are very short sighted, and operate from an emotional level only. And one of great envy. After one round of extended semi debate (conservatives debated, liberals merely ranted on in hatred), I came up with the following concise description of the entire debate. I knew I hit the nail square on the head as I...