Free Republic

ITHACA--Congressional leaders may be downplaying Charles Rangel's call to reinstate the draft but at least one newspaper in the Gannett chain thinks the Congressman has a point.An editorial in the November 24 Ithaca Journal picks on Rangel's arguments and asks the following:Would our leaders have made the same decisions based on the information they had to first invade and then stay in Iraq if it was their children on the ground fighting in the trenches? A draft would force all of us to consider the shared sacrifice required to wage war. That is a perspective that would weigh heavily on...

ITHACA NY--A Gannett-owned Ithaca newspaper will refuse to participate in a gubernatorial debate in that city, after the event's organizers rejected its questions including one that seemed to advance 9/11 conspiracy theories.According to the Ithaca Journal, the rejected questions for the debate included the following: Thousands of New Yorkers continue to suffer from the 2001 terror attacks in NYC. Families and surviving victims have sought additional investigations on the attack that were never addressed by the 9/11 Commission Report. Do you accept the findings of that Commission, or are there areas of that investigation that still leave you with unanswered...

ITHACA NY—According to Gannett news, there’s no question that recent presidents have appointed “radical right-wing judges” to the bench.In the Monday (June 19) issue of the Ithaca Journal, reporter Raymond Drumsta wrote that Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D) appeared at a local event and “railed about issues such as … radical right-wing judges appointed by recent presidents and America's prison population.”At no point in the article did Drumsta, or his editor,see fit to note that this was a matter of opinion. Instead, the story reported the characterization of the judges as if it were fact.In addition to his work for Gannett,...

by Mark Finkelstein November 24, 2005 - 07:29. Remember the good old MSM trope from the days when Newt was Speaker? The notion that slowing the runaway growth of any government program was actually a cut? Well, just in time for Thanksgiving, it's b-a-a-ack. My local paper, the Ithaca Journal, leads with this tear-jerker of a banner headline: "Budget Cuts Would Hit State's Poor Hard". Here's a link: http://www.ithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051124/NEWS01/511240324/1002 Reporter John Machacek talks of thousands of welfare recipients being "squeezed," of the poor being dealt a "blow" and the proposals "poking sizeable holes in New York's safety net." And of...

ITHACA--According to the Ithaca Journal (which cannot be reposted here thanks to the cretins at Gannett news), Ithaca teachers are leaving the school system due to the liberal administration's failure to discipline students who commit disruptive, or even violent, acts: ...teachers feel unsupported by the central and school administrations when it comes to meting out punishment to students who are disruptive, disrespectful, use profanity in class, or in some cases, physically assault an authority figure. "The discipline system needs to be more consistent," said Seifert, who teaches in the math department.One particular incident in September was especially traumatizing, Seifert said.In...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An old Arab proverb says tyranny is better than anarchy. A year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, Iraqis have scarcely had a day free of bedlam. That point was driven home Wednesday with the devastating bombing of a hotel in central Baghdad that killed dozens of people just two days before the war's one-year anniversary. Perhaps the worst day of violence was March 2, when suicide bombers attacked Shiite shrines in the holy city of Karbala and in Baghdad, killing more than 180 people. That attack, more than any other, has raised...

<p>ITHACA -- With the right attitude and a bit of magic, another world is possible, according to a Pagan author and activist.</p> <p>Starhawk spoke to more than 200 people Wednesday, encouraging them to take an active role in changing the world for the better. Citing Dion Fortune's definition of magic -- "the art of changing consciousness at will," Starhawk asked people to be aware of "broken things" in today's society, such as increased corporate control and global effects of American policies.</p>

<p>DeWayne Wickham echoed a concern of many in the anti-Bush media community when he presented events in US history as support for the suspicion that, all administration promises to the contrary, we really do intend to use post-war Iraq as a Mid-East foothold. Oh, he wasn't the raving maniac Maureen Dowd has been, Her Dowdiness tagging the "Bushies" with the word "imperialist" at least three times in her last column, bringing back 40-year-old memories of the commie phrase "imperialist dogs" that was spat at America in those days. The commies, of course, never expressed an imperialist ideology by conquering anyone...did they? Well, while DeWayne didn't use the word "imperialist", the inferrence was there. But at least he backed his theory with a little history, selective though it may have been.</p>