Free Republic

CHESTER — The pale fluorescent lights of the historic old Chester County Courthouse gleamed off the black barrel. The darkness of that barrel stood out, even in a courtroom packed with more than 90 people there to see what happens when guns with long black barrels are fired. What happened on this hunting trip is somebody died. This somebody, in October 2008, was a Hmong refugee from Rock Hill who worked in a warehouse. His name was Touna Xiong. Pronounced, simply, as “Tuna Song.” The song, clearly Tuesday in that courtroom for everybody involved, was a lament. The father of...

  "We Go About Our Business Almost as Zombies." "Leadership Does Not Want Us to Make Hard Decisions." "The Senate is absolutely dysfunctional; and it’s dysfunctional because neither side wants to engage in the tough decisions of the day." "The fact is that we are all sort of two-bit pawns in all of this by allowing our country to continue to spend money." I was beginning to wonder when this Senator Corker was going to resurface.  He seemed poised and ready to take up the debt ceiling fight months ago when talk of the looming debate began on the Hill - which...

Accusations of a Sopranos-style shakedown. Two men exchanging words, chest to chest, as others work to pull them apart. It sounds like a movie, but it was actually the action on the state Assembly floor this afternoon, after Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine angered his colleagues with comments about Italians. Here's what happened: Wagner was talking about a bill that would eliminate redevelopment agencies and replace them with an alternative program (the alternative would allow cities to retain the economic development program but only if they agreed to give a portion of their money to schools and other programs). After he...

Unless we measure success by how children perform, we'll have higher standards for pop stars than public schools. Over the past few years, I have often complained about a hidebound culture that prevents many newspapers from responding to the challenges of new technology. There is, however, another hidebound American institution that is also finding it difficult to respond to new challenges: our big-city schools. Today, for example, the United States is home to more than 2,000 dysfunctional high schools. They represent less than 15% of American high schools yet account for about half of our dropouts. When you break this...

SAN FRANCISCO – Chelsea King's parents reluctantly agreed to a sentence of life in prison for their daughter's rapist and killer, calling the death penalty in California "an empty promise." The Kings join a growing list of victims' families, law enforcement officials and other capital punishment proponents who have grown disillusioned with California's death penalty. The decision to forego capital punishment for registered sex offender John Gardner, who this month admitted killing Chelsea King and another teen girl, has once again thrust the gridlocked system into the spotlight. Five more inmates joined California's death row this year, pushing the population...

California voters are a surly bunch. They don't think an overhaul of state government is needed. They don't want to make it easier for the Legislature to approve a budget. And new taxes to patch a $20 billion shortfall? You can pretty much forget about it. This angry outlook comes from a disturbing Field Poll released this week. Disturbing because voters are dismissive and furious over the state's political and budgetary gridlock, and they're in no mood to help Sacramento solve the crisis. The results are also a failing report card for government reformers, who are going nowhere in their...

One dictionary defines schizophrenia as "a psychosis characterized by withdrawal from reality and by behavioral and intellectual disturbances." That's also a pretty good description of California's politics as it enters the second decade of the millennium, particularly the "withdrawal from reality" part. A notion in the minds of a few pundits, including yours truly, a couple of decades ago – that California was becoming functionally ungovernable, its politics severed from social and economic reality – has since become conventional wisdom. And it will dominate this election year in the nation's most populous and arguably most troubled state. California's economically distressed...

It's been a bumpy ride since Arnold Schwarzenegger took office in 2003. As he heads into his final year, here are some sentiments we would like to hear in his Jan. 6 State of the State address: "People of Cal-i-fornia, I've one year left as your governor to help set California on the right path. I am going to use every day to reach that goal. . . . "Everyone knows that Sacramento is a dysfunctional town. Democrats and Republicans don't work or play well together. In fact, we've gotten so used to the rancor that we've forgotten how the...

Several years ago the New York Times ran a Sunday Magazine profile of several young and successful TV sitcom writers. They spoke of their therapy sessions, their shoes and their families. "You can't write for television" said one comedy writer, "if you didn't grow up in a dysfunctional family." Okay, I admit it. I love oddball families. There were the Dowds, the extended family of Harvey the six foot rabbit. In You Can't Take it With You the Sycamores took in every misfit in town, even the wealthy son of the bigshot banker who was trying to evict them. And...

FIRST Matt Damon, now Pamela Anderson has spoken out against Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin saying:"I can't stand her. She can suck it!" Anderson, 41, was recently in Toronto speaking out against the abuse of animals in Hollywood. When asked by E! News Weekend Canada about Palin, she has some choice words for the Republican hopeful. The reporter asked Pam if she saw a recent Newsweek article, which showed a gigantic bear hide in the office of Palin’s house. “I can’t stand her,” Pam blurted out. “She can suck it!”

My friend and former Spellings Commission colleague Charles Miller and I compete with one another over who can say the most times that the American system of financing student higher education is dysfunctional. We often talk about it in terms of its excessive complexity, the contradictions between various loan programs, the fact that the loan system gives schools carte blanche to raise prices, etc., etc. All true, all damning. But that is not the half of it. Let me repeat an example I used a few months ago, but illustrate it even more vividly. Let us take two kids who...

IMAM E-DATE FROM HELL By JANON FISHER January 27, 2008 -- A Wall Street stockbroker fears for her life after she rebuffed a Brooklyn imam she met on a Muslim dating Web site. In an explosive $50 million lawsuit that blows the lid off the wacky world of Muslim dating in New York, Cherine Allaithy alleges the religious leader promised he would make her one of four future wives and boasted of a cousin in al Qaeda. When she dumped him, he trashed her reputation in the Arab press. The imam, Tarek Youssoff Hassan Saleh, 42, says Allaithy is a...

Virgie Arthur, the mother of former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, has filed a libel lawsuit against a Houston TV station, CBS Studios Inc. and the late model's former companion, Howard K. Stern. The suit alleges that Stern arranged for Smith to appear in an Entertainment Tonight interview where the model stated that Arthur was complicit in Smith's childhood physical and sexual abuse. The lawsuit says the program aired on KPRC Channel 2 in Houston on Feb. 14, a week after Smith died at the age of 39. CBS Studios produces the program, which is broadcast locally on KPRC, an...

The recent Essjay brouhaha at Wikipedia has led a lot of denizens there to question whether the encyclopedia that "anyone can edit" is in reality more Second Life than Encyclopedia Britannica. For those of you in a coma during March 2007, Essjay was a long-time contributor to Wikipedia who was eventually promoted by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales to the illustrious arbitration committee -- Wiki's grand tribunal that is the last stop in the dispute resolution process. In other words, Essjay had the final say over what information was real and what information should be included into Wikipedia. Problem was,...

The chief justice of the California Supreme Court said the state's death penalty has become "dysfunctional" and blamed lawmakers for looking the other way as 650 condemned inmates idle on death row. Ronald George said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Legislature's inability to adequately fund capital punishment has led to a de facto moratorium on executions in California. "I think that there are many, many things in the eyes of legislators that have greater priority," said George, who marks his 10th anniversary as chief justice on Monday. "That's the problem. People want to have the death...

DEBUNKING CINDY SHEEHANHEAR ABE LINCOLN/JOHNNY CASH + PBS' NEIL CONANby Mia T, 8.31.05 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)   "You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East."--Cindy Sheehan "And if you think I won't say bulls**t to the President, I say move on, cause I'll say what's on my mind."--Cindy Sheehan   The trusty triad's half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies,...

IS REUTERS SENDING A MESSAGE ABOUT A COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF HILLARY? by Mia T, 2.01.06 Reuters - Tue Jan 31, 11:07 PM ET Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) greets people as she arrives for U.S. President George W. Bush's the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington January 31, 2006. REUTERS/Jason Reed Is this what Reuters is really saying? Reuters - Tue Jan 31, 11:07 PM ET Check her out in real time, people. A Commander-in-Chief hillary is a very scary idea. REUTERS/Jason Reed euters and Gallup are hardly right-wing tools. Reuters on the heels of Gallup can...

Because of your efforts, NBC cancels 'Book of Daniel' Dear (just received this through e-mail), NBC's anti-Christian program The Book of Daniel has been cancelled! Your efforts, combined with those of hundreds of thousands of other AFA Online supporters, had an impact. NBC's decision to pull The Book of Daniel shows the power of the pocketbook. NBC didn't want to eat their economic losses. Had NBC not had to eat millions of dollars each time it aired, NBC would have kept The Book of Daniel on the air. Because of your efforts, the sponsors dropped the program. NBC then decided...

When Isaac Farris, nephew of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., announced plans in late December to sell the King Center to the National Park Service, it seemed the King heirs had finally embraced reality: They don't have the resources — or the inclination, it seems — to maintain the center properly. And, since the property is a monument to King's legacy, it ought to belong to the public anyway. But that burst of reasonableness from the King family was short-lived. Last week, two King siblings — Martin L. King III and his sister, Bernice — announced that they would...

Arnold Schwarzenegger, having squandered a unique opportunity to restore effective governance to a fast-growing, fast-changing state desperately in need of engaged and responsive policymaking, surrendered to the status quo Thursday. Emerging from a meeting with legislative leaders, Schwarzenegger ate humble pie for this week's special election in which all four of his "year of reform" ballot measures were rejected by voters. "If I would do another 'Terminator' movie, I would have Terminator travel back in time to tell Arnold not to have a special election," Schwarzenegger told reporters. The Republican governor has every reason to be contrite - not because...

Fourteen-year-old James Watkins says he was just trying to be funny. And, he says, plenty of other kids and passers-by thought it was funny, too. Steilacoom school officials didn’t. They suspended the teen for three days for what Watkins considered a hilarious practical joke: wearing an inflatable penis costume on school grounds. James, a Pioneer Middle School eighth-grader, donned the outfit and showed it off to teens at a Saturday night homecoming dance at Steilacoom High School on Oct. 8. He and a friend, clad in regular clothes, didn’t go into the dance, but walked near the school entrance and...

N.O. Mayor: Brown's Testimony 'Unbelievable' POSTED: 7:59 am EDT September 27, 2005 UPDATED: 5:27 pm EDT September 27, 2005 WASHINGTON -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says it's "unbelievable" to hear the outgoing head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency try to deflect the blame. He also said he doesn't know what Michael Brown meant when Brown described Louisiana as dysfunctional during Hurricane Katrina. Brown, testifying to a House panel Tuesday, said state and local officials bear much of the blame for government failures in responding to the storm. Brown said he made "specific mistakes" in the first response to...

WASHINGTON - Former FEMA director Michael Brown aggressively defended his role in responding to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday and put much of the blame for coordination failures on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. "My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," two days before the storm hit, Brown told a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe. The storm slammed into the Gulf Coast on Monday, Aug. 29. Brown's defense drew a scathing response from Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La. "I find...

Most people don’t actually know what goes on in the California State Legislature. In fact, most stories about what actually happens “under the dome” in Sacramento are met with incredulity. No way could that happen, I am told. I must be exaggerating to embarrass the Democrats. This week saw the beginning of hearings on legislation in Sacramento. Of course, we have been in session for two months, but we are just now actually beginning to consider new ideas for laws from our elected officials. I wish we would be in session for six months before we did anything, because you...

Okay. I'm crying uncle. The pressure is just too great. But I'm going to do this once and once only: I'm going to write about the Michael Jackson pedophile case. I'm going to write a column that will hopefully contribute to the discussion by informing the reader of facts not being discussed by the mainstream media. But first, I have a question for the members of news media: where are the experts on pedophiles and child sex abuse who are paraded out whenever there's a high-profile case such as the pedophile Catholic priests story? Where are the FBI profilers? The...

No Name Calling Week?     1/12/2005By Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it. “There is a special place in hell for people like you!” These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall....

The Arab world is all one big happy family again. OK, dysfunctional, but happy. No, well, unhappy and as twisted as usual. While visiting Kuwait today, Palestinian presidential front-runner, Mahmoud Abbas, apologized for his people’s support of Saddam’s invasion of the Gulf emirate in 1990. Isn’t that special? (remember Dana Carvey as the “Church Lady” on SNL?). This happened just after Kuwait’s sultans (or whatever they’re called) forgave the Palestinian people for supporting Saddam’s invasion. Kuwait’s leadership went so far as to say they didn’t even expect a public apology for Palestinian support of the 1990 war. Now, isn’t that...

Kerry's sister, Edwards's daughter, and their disabled, gay, Native-American brothers and sisters.BostonDOZENS OF CAUCUSES met on Monday in the Boston Sheraton. Walking through the door was like walking into the worst possible combination of a family reunion and Kerry pep rally. Hundreds of delegates and activists milled around in the lobby and exchanged greetings uncomfortably, unable to remember each other's names. Everyone was relieved when the sessions got started and they were able to break off into smaller, more homogeneous groups.My first stop was the Native American caucus. Slipping in behind Charlie Rangel (D-NY) I try to remain unobtrusive....

The Beginning of the End of the Democratic Party June 25th, 2004 Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe believes that President George W. Bush sent American troops into battle in Afghanistan at the behest of the Unocal Oil Corporation, so that it would be able to build a pipeline there to carry oil from Caspian Sea wells drilled by Dick Cheney's Halliburton. Michael Moore told him so, in his new movie, Farenheit 9/11. We learn about McAuliffe's epiphany in Byron York’s June 24 article on National Review Online. McAuliffe tells York, “I believe it after seeing that.” Oh? If Moore...

'Killer Culture': A call to the churches Posted: January 26, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: Early in 2003, while preparing our February Whistleblower issue (titled "Taking America Back") on restoring the nation's political, cultural and spiritual heritage, our editors asked WorldNetDaily columnist, veteran talk-show host and media expert Bob Just to write on what role America's churches should play in taking America back. The issues he addressed in that story – centered around today's neo-pagan and highly sexualized youth culture – were so potent that we decided not to publish it in that edition, but instead to produce an...

I just heard a clip on the Bill Handel show from Michael Jackson's brother, Germaine. Yes, indeed, the race card has been played. This is all about the high tech lynching of his more famous brother. Germaine sounded animated and angry that people were going after his family. He claimed that they had a wonderful childhood. That claim flies in the face of family members' admissions of beatings by dad when they didn't rehearse enough. Yes, they have a wonderful, well-adjusted family. Germaine has a son who will probably be just as normal. Believe it or not, he name him...

Haas'GuidetoSmallArmsAmmunition USENET Responses to KABA's latest tripe Apparently KABA's "anti-NRA/send me money instead" schtick is getting old. Within a few minutes of KABA's latest pollution of the internet, their attack on Dave Kopel... > KOPEL CLUELESS: > Silveira Lawsuit Attacker is Shooting Blanks > by Roy Lucas > This is the rebuttal National Review Online's Editor repeatedly said > they would run, stringing us along for over a week, but now refuses > to run. This was ready to share over a week ago, but we waited based > on strong, clear assurances from NRO that they'd give us...

When a Florida aviation school received confirmation of student visa approvals for two Sept. 11 hijackers a few weeks ago - they had been dead for six months - the nation was stunned. But the news did not shock veteran observers of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, source of the confirmations. For one thing, the INS has long struggled to handle conflicting missions - welcoming foreign nationals who belong in this country and banishing those who don't. The INS acts as receptionist to the hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who arrive legally each year. And it tries to assist...