Free Republic

The ex-con busted for allegedly murdering a Long Island banker last month while impersonating a cop was nabbed by a Texas trooper in August for illegally carrying a 9 mm pistol while on another fake-cop mission — only to be sprung on a technicality, authorities said yesterday. Reginald Gousse, who was arraigned yesterday on charges of murdering HSBC bank manager James Gottlieb, was charged with firearm possession after a trooper in Amarillo, Texas, pulled over a rented Crown Victoria he was driving and found the weapon. Gousse, 31, of Queens, also was carrying stolen government license plates, prisoner transfer documents,...

(11/23/04) HAUPPAUGE - Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy intends to crack down on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, but he has changed his mind on how he would go about doing it. Levy says Suffolk police will not deputized to do the crackdown as he originally planned. That plan was met with opposition from immigration advocates who feared an "immigration police." Instead, Levy hopes to access federal immigration records to perform background checks on those caught breaking the law and achieve the same goal. Within 24 hours, local authorities would know whether the suspects are in the country legally...

At 6:15 there was already a line. The pole watchers were surprised at the turnout this early in the morning. Took a quick took at the roster and 75% of the people who had already voted were Republicans. I do, however, live in a conservative town, for New York.

Two months after County Executive Steve Levy announced massive sting operations against unlicensed contractors in Suffolk, advocates say they have cast a chill over the immigrant community because police conducting the raids will require contractors to show proof -- "I-9" forms -- that their employees have legal authorization to work. The move may prompt fearful landscaping, home improvement and construction contractors to stop hiring both undocumented and documented immigrants, preventing them from being able to support their families in Latin America, leaders of nonprofits that work with immigrants said. Levy responded that he is merely enforcing the law, and that...

September 11, 2004 -- Newsday slashed its circulation figures yet again yesterday, plunging the paper deeper into crisis and further damaging its credibility with advertisers. The paper expects to lower its circulation figures by almost 100,000 copies for daily and Sunday — roughly twice the drop announced by the company in June, when it first admitted pumping up its numbers.

Your new film, ''Vanity Fair,'' is based not on the magazine but on the great English novel. Reese Witherspoon plays Becky Sharp, one of the most conniving heroines in literature. As someone once said of Becky, she is not just a social climber; she's a mountaineer. Are you personally beset by a sense of ''Vanity Fair''-style striving? No. I only do what I want to do. But you pay taxes. I pay taxes. It offends me to pay taxes to support a war. As an Indian citizen living in New York, do you see the U.S. as a force for...

For those that missed it.

The television ad that aroused the wrath of John McCain and journalist supporters of John Kerry just begins deconstruction of the Democratic presidential candidate's war record. Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, a 214-page critique of his performance in Vietnam and the antiwar movement, is off the presses ahead of schedule. I have read the book and found it is neither the political propaganda nor the urban legend that its detractors claim. It is a passionate but meticulously researched account of how Kerry went to war, what he did in the war and how he...

Rashomon in the Skies: The Tangled Tale of Flight 327 By Clinton W. Taylor Published 8/5/2004 12:09:20 AM No one yet has the full story on the infamous June 29 Northwest Airlines Flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles, on which thirteen Syrian musicians acted so suspiciously that passenger and WomensWallStreet.com writer Annie Jacobsen feared she was about to be killed by terrorists. The identity of the band remained unknown for a while until I identified them as the backup band for Canaanite crooner Nour Mehana, whom I dubbed the "Syrian Wayne Newton." Regardless of the behavior of Nour Mehana's...

Hello! Today will be gruesome for those on the F911 side of the audience, alas. Those disinclined to endure a screed are advised to head over to this week’s addition: Laff mag from 1952, a worthy addition to the dank treasures of Stagworld. You’ve been warned. Still here? Okay. Believing in Bush’s perfidy gives some people the same comfort and emotional nourishment others get from believing in Jesus. It validates them, cements their view of the world – venal, conspiratorial, run by capering chimps who are somehow ten times less intelligent than Usenet posters but somehow able to yank strings...

'White Chicks' likely to lick 'Fahrenheit' Thu Jun 24, 6:07 PM ET Gabriel Snyder, STAFF This article was updated at 6:54 p.m. Will the flood of attention given to "Fahrenheit 9/11," which Lions Gate and IFC Films will bow in 868 venues, translate into boffo B.O.? While Michael Moore (news)'s pic has dominated headlines this week, it's not the top dog going into the weekend box office race. Continuing the summer's trend of midweek bows, Sony/Revolution's "White Chicks" opened on Wednesday, taking in $4.2 million from 2,412 locations. Opening day results put pic, which stars Marlon and Shawn Wayans (news)...

Notice how they bury Bush lead WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the first time since the start of the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans surveyed in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll say the United States made a mistake in sending troops to that country. Fifty-four percent of those polled said it was a mistake to send U.S. troops to Iraq, compared with 41 percent who expressed that sentiment in early June. Most poll respondents to the poll, 55 percent, also said they don't believe the war has made the United States safer from terrorism -- rejecting an argument that President...

When Maureen Reagan, an opponent of her father's pro-life policies, considered a run for the U.S. Senate in 1982, reporters asked Reagan: Is she serious? Reagan's reply: "I hope not." Reagan's brother, Neil, supported Maureen Reagan's opponent. The press used to revel in noting that the liberal Reagan children didn't understand, much less support, their father's conservative philosophical views. Now the press treats the children as an authority on his views and custodians of his ideological legacy. "Reaganite by Association? His Family Won't Allow it," headlines a New York Times story about the Reagans' rejection of George W. Bush as...

The phone rang promptly at 8 a.m. A colleague in Alexandria was on the line. The date was Monday, March 22. Thanks to the Web and drudgereport.com, I was about to begin my week-long career as an unwitting hit man for the right. At first, my friend's alarm seemed misplaced. So what, I thought. I've written lots of columns. The one he was referring to had focused on Richard Clarke, back in February 2003, more than a year ago. It had nothing to do with Clarke's new book, Against All Enemies, or his fresh testimony on Capitol Hill about the...