Free Republic

Both the US and Israel believe Iran has the technical capacity to build one nuclear bomb within a year if it decides to do so, but both countries also believe the chances that Teheran will indeed make that decision are slim, according to assessments made known to The Jerusalem Post. According to these Israeli assessments, there is not much difference now between the US and Israel regarding a timeline for a "worst case scenario" on Iran's development of a bomb. At the same time, both Jerusalem and Washington currently believe that "worst case scenario is not likely to materialize." The...

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...

Barack Obama has been elected President. We were told there was an absolute need that we elect him. That more than his race, more than the historical significance of electing a black (and white) man as President of the United States, it was most important to elect Obama President for what it would mean to the rest of the world. Right now the rest of the world absolutely loves Barack Obama. They see him as not only America's savior but also the worlds. Now that the "one we've been waiting for" is here, it might be a good time to...

Fact: 54% of voters in the 2004 election were women and that’s good news for Hillary Clinton (D-NY). According to various news reports, Clinton employs six full-time staffers specifically for women’s outreach -- more than any other candidate -- to reel in the female vote. For now, Clinton leads Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the Democratic race by a 42-23% (according to the latest RCP poll) margin and will likely take the nomination for 2008. She knows how critical that female vote is, which is why she participated in a Women in Public Policy (WIPP) event yesterday. Clinton used the...

Immigration deal is near, says Specter By Elana Schor May 09, 2007 The Senate’s bipartisan immigration talks yesterday yielded the first stirrings of a “grand bargain,” but the fate of the compromise remained uncertain amid political pressure from interest groups and a potential filibuster. Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican and leader of recent negotiations on immigration reform, took the floor to announce the progress and ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for more time before the next week’s floor deadline. “We have come to an agreement on what we have called a ‘grand bargain,’...

On July 6, as 8-year-old Jessie Arbogast waded in about 2 feet of water along Florida's Gulf Islands National Seashore, a 7-foot-long bull shark ambushed him, tearing off his right arm and a chunk of his right leg. The attack came so near to shore that Jessie's uncle and another beachgoer were able to grab the shark and drag it onto land where park rangers shot it, pried its mouth open, and retrieved the severed arm. The boy almost bled to death and lapsed into a coma. Surgeons reattached the limb, and though Jessie is showing signs of coming to,...

Yesterday's election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI is astonishing on both political and religious grounds. As head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office formerly known as the Inquisition, Cardinal Ratzinger was responsible for defending Catholic teaching and punishing doctrinal dissidents. Essentially he was the Vatican's top cop. His selection signals that church leaders want a disciplinarian to clean up some messes in the Roman Catholic Church.

Talon News BOSTON (Talon News) -- FBI alerts issued Wednesday and Thursday of last week seeking 13 Chinese nationals, 2 Iraqis, and a Hispanic man for questioning in a possible dirty bomb plot initially had the American public on edge. Now the threat seems not quite so worrisome. The FBI had reportedly received an anonymous tip that the group had illegally entered the country through Mexico, and had plans to detonate a dirty bomb, presumably in Boston. Immediately following the alert, officials promptly pointed out that the tip came from an anonymous source, and that the information could not be...

Hillary Clinton is ambitious, audacious, and fully capable of creating devious, multi-step strategies. Blindsiding her fervent opponents, she may yet shock the world and realize her longstanding ambition to win election as President -- in the year 2004. Doing so would only require her to use tactics which she and her husband have already perfected. Small signs already indicate she and her husband are laying the foundations for a fascinating gambit which could land her in the Oval Office next year. Step one requires her to obtain the nomination as Vice President on a John Kerry ticket. No less an...

As I posted on a thread a couple of weeks ago, Kerry's group the VVAW had discussing the assassination of pro-war US Senators. Kerry's Group The VVAW Discussed Assassinating Seven Pro-War Senators In December 1971 The following is an excerpt from a book, "Winter Soldiers," by Richard Staciewicz, pp 294-295:In the fall of 1971, tensions over the direction in which the organization was heading, as it spread out into various community activities and took on a more consciously anti-imperialist position, were becoming more evident. In November, an emergency meeting of the steering committee was held in Kansas City. This meeting...

#1 - FJB #2 - Children in Hospital #3 - She Throws Coffee in Marine's Face #4 - Dissing Health Care Execs Who Offered Solution #5 - Hillary, the Commies, and the Black Panthers #6 - Defiling the White House Christmas Tree #7 - Hillary Calls the Police Murderers #8 - How Did She Get Her Name? #9 - Sister Frigidaire #10 - Troopers and Secret Service as Servants #11 - Beep, Beep, Get Out of My #$%&@&$ Way #12 - Hillary Lied to Zeifman, Rigged Nixon Impeachment Protocols NOTE: the survival of our Republic is threatened by two...