Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning” that he will not publicly urge Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign amid his bribery charges, opting instead for “serious discussions.” Co-anchor Tony Dokoupil said, “What would it take to move you toward a position of saying ‘You know what, Senator Menendez, please step away?' Schumer said, “Look, as I’ve said before, the Senate should have certain standards. And if you read the indictments, Senator Menendez has gone way, way below those standards.” Co-anchor Gayle King said, “So what is your hesitation of asking him to step down?”

Outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in a preview of her interview that will air Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the January 6 Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack was in discussions with former Vice President Mike Pence’s legal team over his potential testimony. ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl said, “One of the key figures here is Mike Pence. He said this week he is willing to testify if you ask. Are you going to ask him?”

I’m a college professor, which is one of those jobs that people outside the profession love to ask you about. For the better part of a decade, most of those conversations have been about one thing: free speech. Are universities, once sites of pure, open intellectual discourse, no longer so pure? What is the future of this endeavor I’ve dedicated my life to, if my peers and I are afraid to speak our minds? In one way, this interest makes sense. An enormous amount of high-profile media coverage has been dedicated to what is said, or not said, on certain...

So right now, United States is a representative democracy. People elect their congress to make, alter, abolish, or to do anything related to the bill. The problem for me is that, congress can make false promises, get pressured by small minority of people, simply vote for the wrong person, and so on. I propose that U.S. should have a semi-direct democracy system similar to Switzerland except the votes will be based on cities where ever the mayors have jurisdiction. If majority of people in that city votes for a law, then it would count as one vote for that city...

A DOTD project manager has informed a citizen committee that they must limit their discussion to DOTD's selected proposals for the Interstate 49 extension or resign from the committee. The order, issued in an Tuesday email to the Community Working Group, came from Toby Picard, the engineer who is project manager for the proposed connection of Interstate 49 with U.S. 90 south. There currently are 14 versions of the connection, all of which include at least a partially elevated highway through the heart of Lafayette. These are the only options that are acceptable for discussion by the committee, Picard's email...

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Feb. 7, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he was encouraged by his discussions on Afghanistan with NATO defense ministers during meetings here today. Gates is attending NATO’s informal defense ministerial conference. The meeting will help set the stage for NATO’s summit of heads of state in Bucharest, Romania, in April. The secretary said he emphasized to the defense ministers that the U.S. decision to send 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan is a one-time measure. The deployment is “intended to help prevent any surge of violence in the spring,” the secretary said. The move is in the...

OK, GUYS, LET'S S ROLL!! I thought Maybe a good way to begin tonight's discussions would be for us to share about some of the best pranks and jokes that we either played on someone,(or someone played on us) when we were younger(or nowadays, for that matter) Also, we could share about some of the crazy things we used to do, when we were younger(or perhaps still do) that were seen as fun at the time, but look foolhardy to us today. I'll start things off, and share about one thing I did about 20 years or so ago,...

Newsvine.com, a new type of news site created by four former Disney/ABCNEWs.com employees, is now up and running in beta. CyberJournalist.net has been invited to join the beta and is impressed with what it's seen so far. The site is a slick combination of some of the trendiest news-related tools online now, incorporating news aggregation, social networking, citizen journalism, blogging, user ratings and online discussions. Think of it as one-part Slashdot, one-part del.icio.us and one-part Google News, with a few other neat features thrown in. The site is built around four general actions: reading, discussing, writing and seeding the news....

BAGHDAD, Dec. 8, 2005 – The security situation in Iraq continues to dominate any discussion of the road ahead in the country, coalition military officials said on background here today. Terrorists and foreign fighters are a far greater problem than their numbers, officials said. While the number of foreign fighters is actually quite small, they cause a huge number of casualties. Officials said the foreign fighters are primarily suicide bombers whose mission is to disrupt upcoming elections and derail the democratic process. Embassy officials said the suicide bombers hope to sap the will of not only Iraqis, but of the...

While some ends may justify some means, in very extreme circumstances, it is still unavoidable that the means we choose will inevitably also transform, to some extent, the ends we achieve. So, personally, I normally overwhelmingly prefer civil means and civil discourse to their uncivil twins. For the United States, similarly, I believe civil means and civil discourse has served us most well in building a peaceful, prosperous union. I have faith that most of the American people feel likewise. A recent poll, from Democrat electoral consultants Democracy Corps, shows a stable attachment to Republicans since 2004 (43 percent), but...

It pays to take a look at the books George W. Bush hands out to his staffers. Last year Bush's book was Natan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, which argues that countries that do not protect individual rights cannot be reliable partners for peace. You could hear Sharansky's arguments in Bush's extraordinary second inaugural speech in which he promised to promote freedom and democracy in the Middle East and around the world. Bush's critics like to mock him as the sort of person who never read books. But he does, and...

Levin Undercuts Kerry Claim August 12, 2004 RUSH: Let's go back, August 1st, 2004, on This Week With David Brinkley, actually This Week Needed David Brinkley. Actually, George Stephanopoulos the host. John Kerry was on this program, Senator John Kerry. And Kerry is talking about his secret plan. Remember that? Kerry's got a secret plan for Iraq. Now, think of this timeline. He's got a secret plan for Iraq. That was August 1st. Here we are on August 12th, nearly two weeks later, and in the meantime between August 1st and August 12th Kerry's secret plan has become "I would...

June 12th, Covington Kentucky, Kenton County[tip top of KY across from Cincy]! Will be inviting State Representative Tom Kerr-(R). And there will be a former delegate there as well. Come and join us in discussion, and activism!

June 12th, Covington Kentucky, Kenton County[tip top of KY across from Cincy]! Will be inviting State Representative Tom Kerr-(R). And there will be a former delegate there as well. Come and join us in discussion, and activism!

Md. (AP) - The 21-year-old son of former Vice President Al Gore must complete substance abuse counseling as part of a pretrial diversion program to settle a marijuana possession charge. The agreement approved by a judge Monday calls for the misdemeanor charge to be dropped after a year if Albert Gore III submits to urine testing, community service and counseling, and steers clear of criminal convictions. The younger Gore, who attends Harvard University, had no comment after the brief hearing. He was accompanied by his mother, Tipper Gore, who did not comment other than saying the issue was a ``private...