Free Republic

Afghan Students Receive Donated Supplies Afghan Army soldiers distribute donated school supplies to nearly 250 students of the Professional and Learning Foundation School for the Disabled and Girls. By U.S. Army Sgt. Phillip Chang117th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 14, 2005 — A pack of pink drawing paper, a set of multi-colored pencils and a backpack was all it took to put a smile on one student's face in Afghanistan. "While the Taliban was in power, girls were not allowed to go to school. The school was founded to help the disabled and girls get their education....

Cecil Circuit Court Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. decried lawyers' arguments that a child custody hearing should be closed to the public Wednesday, saying such a move would be akin to creating atmospheres similar to historically totalitarian states. The heated exchange came at the start of a hearing in which the county's social services department attempted to retain custody of John Joseph Dougherty's three daughters. Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge after police found his brain-damaged wife dead on a mattress, surrounded by moldy food and her own excrement. "Maybe we should be more like Germany or Russia," the...

A grand jury has indicted an Elkton man on a murder charge, six weeks after police found his emaciated wife dead in a bedroom amidst squalid conditions. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge in the indictment, handed up last week after the grand jury heard new evidence against him. Dougherty already faced manslaughter and abuse charges in an indictment handed up March 17. The new indictment, unsealed yesterday, included those charges and added the murder charge. Dougherty is accused of causing his wife's death by keeping her locked in a bedroom for six years without access to...

An Elkton man accused of murdering his brain-damaged wife by keeping her locked in a bedroom regained custody of his three daughters Wednesday. Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. returned the children to John Joseph Dougherty, 53, after a hearing that lasted all afternoon in circuit court. The county's social services department took custody of the children Feb. 25, after police found their mother dead on a mattress amidst squalid conditions in their Chestnut Drive home.

ELKTON - New evidence against an Elkton man accused of locking up the mother of his children for six years until her death has prompted a Cecil County grand jury to increase the charges against him from manslaughter to second-degree murder. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, told authorities that he started keeping Mary Elizabeth Kilrain, 46, in a bedroom in 1999 after she suffered an aneurysm and became verbally aggressive toward their daughters, according to police. He told authorities that he wanted to keep her from wandering around the house. Kilrain did not have access to food, water and hygiene, prosecutors...

can we kill the school lunch programs? can we tell the Dims, when they launch into the accusations of Republicans starving the old, the poor, and the children, to effectively shove it? can we kill all of the aid shipped to starving nations? can we tell Sally Struthers to quit being such a right-wing extremist for denying Third Worlders their state of bliss? can we finally de-canonize the homeless? can Michael Moore finally bathe, and see his feet?

America is now a nation ruled by the amoral and fallible will of men. They are called lawyers. The warning has been coming for decades. The current case involving the litigated and legally mandated death sentence of Terri Schiavo has now confirmed our current fate. This should be no surprise. For at least fifty years we have been indoctrinated with the specious argument that a traditional, rational and common moral code of conduct is bourgeois and unsophisticated. This journey of cultural madness has culminated in massive societal confusion regarding whether right and wrong behavior even exists. This is unless a...

On March 31, 2005, thirty years after feminism’s hey-day in the 1970s, a woman died from dehydration, on the orders of her adulterous husband, who was supported by the courts in his quest to end his wife’s life. On February 25, 1990, Theresa Schindler Schiavo collapsed in her home and suffered significant brain damage. In 1992, Mrs. Schiavo’s husband Michael was awarded a $1,050,000 malpractice settlement, of which $300,000 was allocated for Mr. Schiavo’s loss of consortium and $750,000 for Mrs. Schiavo’s rehabilitative care. Mr. Schiavo subsequently refused to allow rehabilitative care for his wife. There are other reasons to...

Wartime, Adolf Hitler suggested, "was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill." Many Germans did not want to be reminded of individuals who did not measure up to their concept of a "master race." The physically and mentally handicapped were viewed as "useless" to society, a threat to Aryan genetic purity, and, ultimately, unworthy of life. At the beginning of World War II, individuals who were mentally retarded, physically handicapped, or mentally ill were targeted for murder in what the Nazis called the "T-4," or "euthanasia," program. The "euthanasia" program required the cooperation of many German...

Congressional and state lawmakers offered their condolences Thursday to the family of Terri Schiavo (search) and said the severely brain-damaged woman's death left many emotional issues to be dealt with. "Today, millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo," President Bush said just before commenting on a weapons of mass destruction report issued by a blue-ribbon commission on Thursday. Saying Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler (search), displayed "grace and dignity" throughout the long, emotional ordeal, Bush urged those grieving to "continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued...

Pinellas Park, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A leading Catholic priest who visited Terri Schiavo on two separate occasions in the hours before her death says Terri was in a weakened medical condition from 13 days of starvation but was responsive until her death. The disabled woman even prayed with her family. "Last night, I spent about two hours with her until past midnight, together with Bobby Schindler and Suzanne, and then again this morning for about an hour and a half, and then right up until about ten minutes before she died," Father Frank Pavone said. Pavone, the director of Priests...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - It seemed like Jeb Bush was in a no-win situation by taking up the cause of trying to keep Terri Schiavo alive. He was going against polls that showed two out of three people thought government shouldn't get involved. Then when courts stopped him from stepping in, some of his conservative Christian base criticized him for not doing more. But many people agree the Schiavo case was not a political issue for Bush and that the governor will not be hurt by it - especially since he doesn't have plans to run for office again any time...

URGENT ACTION USA (Georgia): Death penalty / Legal concern, Terry Mincey PUBLIC AI Index: AMR 51/150/2001 EXTRA 70/01 Death penalty / Legal concern 16 October 2001 USA (Georgia) Terry Mincey, white, aged 40 Terry Mincey is scheduled to be executed in Georgia on 25 October. He has spent more than 19 years - almost half his life - on death row. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Paulette Riggs in 1982. Paulette Riggs was shot dead on 12 April 1982 during a robbery of the store in Macon where she worked. A second person, Russell Peterman, was...

Kudos to Rush in his coverage of the Terri Schiavo national tragedy. He has never been so openly pro-life. He has been a voice of reason amidst the hysteria, pointing out the important issues and facts surrounding Terri's situation, including the conflicts-of-interest involved and the problem of our runaway judiciary. Rush has faced lots of criticism from his own fan base and has held firm. And he has held on to importance of maintaining the rule of law, even in a system obviously broken and in dire need of repair. (IMO, getting rid of a lot of judges is the...

In his strongest comments yet on the Terri Schiavo case, actor Mel Gibson calls her killing "nothing more than state sanctioned murder.” The actor and director spoke out Wednesday night in a telephone interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. "I heard their cry for help,” Gibson explained his public comments. Gibson insisted that Terri Schiavo is not in a vegetative state. Gibson said he decided to take a public stand because "it is completely wrong to deprive this poor woman from food and water.”He added that the court ordered method of killing – depriving her of basic sustenance --...

President Bush will make remarks on the death of Terri Schindler (Schiavo) at 11:40 am EST.

FOX News says President Bush will speak about Terri's death 15 minutes from now.

President Bush's record-low approval ratings are a result primarily of public dissatisfaction with his handling of domestic issues that loom larger than foreign policy in his second term. On issues such as immigration and controlling federal spending, Americans disapprove of the president's approach by margins of at least 20 percent, according to Gallup. While they approve of his handling of terrorism by a similar margin, such foreign-policy issues have faded from the headlines in recent months.

Press Conferences in Washington and Tallahassee on March 23 at noon. To: National Desk Contact: Joe Giganti, 703-928-9695, Joe@VeritasMediaGroup.com WASHINGTON, March 23 /Christian Wire Service/ -- The 11th Hour Coalition to Save Terri Schiavo's Life will hold simultaneous press conferences -- Wednesday, March 23 -- at 12 noon in Washington, D.C., and Tallahassee, Fla. This ad hoc partnership of religious and political organizations -- which will gather in front of the White House and the Florida governor's mansion -- will call on President George W. Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush to use their executive powers to protect Terri Schiavo from...