Free Republic

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Environmental consultant Mike Pollen remembers standing on a pile of sewage sludge composting outside the Fairbanks treatment plant on a November day in 1997. The temperature was 40 degrees below zero but his feet were warm. Then sweaty. Then uncomfortably hot inside his insulated rubber boots. "They felt like they were going to melt," he said. He figures there was a 180-degree difference between the compost cooking at his feet and the frosty temperature freezing his head. Prevailing wisdom said sludge composting wouldn't work north of North Dakota. Pollen, the author of several wastewater system training manuals...

HIT, Iraq -- Lt. Col. Thomas Graves wasn't expecting trouble as his convoy rolled toward this embattled Euphrates River town at midday recently, on a mission to monitor Friday prayers at mosques. Local officials had assured Graves, the top U.S. commander in the area, that Hit was "going through a period of peace and quiet," he said shortly before leaving his camp. But just as Graves reached the edge of town, the road in front of his Humvee exploded in a cloud of dust and debris. An insurgent hiding in a nearby palm grove had detonated two buried artillery rounds,...

At a moment when his conservative coalition is already under strain over domestic policy, President Bush is facing a new and swiftly building backlash on the right over his handling of foreign affairs. Conservative intellectuals and commentators who once lauded Bush for what they saw as a willingness to aggressively confront threats and advance U.S. interests said in interviews that they perceive timidity and confusion about long-standing problems including Iran and North Korea, as well as urgent new ones such as the latest crisis between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Maryland legislative committee investigating the administration's termination of dozens of longtime state workers plans to hear from key witnesses today, including Public Service Commission Chairman Kenneth D. Schisler. Lawmakers had hoped the star witness of the day would be Joseph Steffen, the former Ehrlich political aide who called himself "the Prince of Darkness" and, according to testimony thus far, had compiled lists of people to fire. After months of staying in touch with Steffen, and a series of interviews, the legislature's chief investigator, Ward Coe, now says he can't locate Steffen. Last week, Coe hired a process server to...

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald is wrapping up his investigation into White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's role in the CIA leak case by weighing this central question: Did Rove, who was deeply involved in defending President Bush's use of prewar intelligence about Iraq, lie about a key conversation with a reporter that was aimed at rebutting a tough White House critic?

He called himself "Al Qaeda" and told an employee he was sent to the Maryland Public Service Commission to thin the regulatory agency's ranks and bring in friends of the governor's administration, the agency's former spokeswoman said yesterday. Craig Chesek, who became the PSC's chief of staff in 2003, helped create an agency better suited to represent utilities than consumers, Chrys Wilson told a special legislative committee investigating the hiring and firing practices of Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. --Snip-- The highlight of the probe was expected at the next meeting with the testimony of Joseph Steffen, the former...

The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, acknowledges the U.S. intelligence agencies' mistakes in concluding that Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction. But he said those misjudgments did...

Washington Post Editor-- As a military verteran, I am starting a grass-roots campaign that I plan to spread throughout the entire Washington DC metropolitan area: that is to have every single service member and veteran that currently receives the Post to UNSUBSCRIBE as a direct result of your callous, disrespectful decision to publish Mr. Toles' editorial cartoon on 29 January 2006. To place a wounded American soldier in the context of that cartoon was nothing less than a raging insult and a spit-in-the-face to every military member that has fought, is fighting or will fight for democracy. Can you even...

NEW YORK A Tom Toles editorial cartoon published in The Washington Post on Monday and on its Web site has drawn a very rare and very strong protest letter to the editors from all six members of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, E&P has learned. The letter, not yet published by the Post, charges that the six military leaders "believe you and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to your readers and your paper's reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defend this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds....

Mr. Philip Bennett Managing Editor, The Washington Post 1150 15th Street NW Washington, DC 20071 To The Editor of the Washington Post: We were extremely disappointed to see the editorial cartoon by Tom Toles on page B6 in the January 29 edition. Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon is beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues - and your paper is obviously free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of today's Armed Forces. However, we believe you...

This week people have been doing more agonizing than laughing at newspaper cartoons. Not just Muslims, but now America’s military forces – and the rest of us who support our warriors – are disgusted by a cartoon. Specifically the cartoon drawn by Tom Toles and published in the Washington Post making light of an amputee recovering from battle wounds. Beyond being repulsed by cartoons, the two movements have nothing in common. Here is the statement sent by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Washington Post: We were extremely disappointed to see the Jan. 29 editorial cartoon by Tom Toles.

Page A20We were extremely disappointed to see the Jan. 29 editorial cartoon by Tom Toles. Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon was beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues, and The Post is obviously free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of the armed forces. However, The Post and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to readers and to The Post's reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who volunteered to defend this nation and,...

His last hours in the Coconino County Jail were taken up with writing letters to friends. Then, he put his last will and testament, written in jail a week earlier, into a manila envelope and scribbled a note to have it delivered to his attorney. The next day, Dec. 22, 2005, Prescott resident William C. Rodgers, 40, was found dead in his cell, suffocated with plastic bags. Investigators are convinced the death was a suicide. Why did he do it? He appears to have left no clue. Coconino County Sheriff's Office detectives seized Rodgers' letters and will for the investigation....

The operators of a conservative Web site yesterday released three e-mail addresses they said were connected to the anonymous site user who drew a former aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) into discussions of a smear campaign against a political rival -- and one of the addresses matched that of a former state Democratic Party official. A spokesman for the Free Republic Web site said the account MD4BUSH was originally created by someone with access to the e-mail address ryanrock2004@yahoo.com . The address of record was changed twice, first to rodoherty@mddems.org and later to brianwaverly@yahoo.com , said Web...

The tree of government has far to many branches and it is past time to prune the groove. As President Bush came out swinging to defend his administration’s policy on Iraq the real issue remains obscure to the voting public. Aside from the connivance of target to expand the capitalist theory of world peace through economic control, to these eyes the effort in Iraq was a chance for the Department of Defense to prove that it was capable of fighting two wars at the same time while selling the voting public on it being one war. The C.I.A. had been...

The man who has called himself Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s "political hit man" said he would sit down yesterday for an interview with the lawyer heading up the legislative probe into the governor's hiring and firing practices. The former aide to Ehrlich, Joseph Steffen, told Baltimore radio listeners yesterday that he had volunteered to meet with attorney Ward Coe to share his insider account of how the Republican governor set about to remake the state workforce after taking office in 2003. --Snip-- At the same time, Steffen has refuted one major contention made by several employees who lost their...

As many of you know, Kristinn will be holding a press conference outside the Washington Post building about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D) and the Washington Post's role in the MD4Bush saga at 9:30AM. At a minimum, local Baltimore news media are expected to attend. Please post any news about the press conference here.

Free Republic.com to Speak About MD4BUSH and the Washington Post at Press Conference Nov. 4 11/3/2005 9:56:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: City and Assignment desks, Daybook Editor, Political Correspondent Contact: Kristinn Taylor, 202-309-1589 or kristinn@verizon.net ; Web: http://www.FreeRepublic.com News Advisory: WHAT: Press Conference Free Republic to Speak About MD4BUSH and the Washington Post Newspaper Involved in Scandal that Goes Beyond Governors Race and Maryland Politics WHEN: Friday, Nov. 4, 9:30 A.M. WHERE: 1150 15TH ST., N.W., Washington, D.C., The Sidewalk in front of The Washington Post Bldg. DETAILS: FreeRepublic.com, an independent conservative news and activism Web site, will hold a press...

After months of sluggish progress, a legislative committee investigating Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's hiring and firing practices yesterday directed its outside counsel to begin interviewing state employees who say they were fired to make room for the governor's political allies. Baltimore attorney Ward B. Coe III's marching orders came amid a growing partisan divide over the direction of the investigation and as a former aide to the Republican governor has begun talking about his role in the firings --Snip-- [MD Senate Minority Leader (R)] Stoltzfus yesterday said he may ask the committee to subpoena records of the Web site where...