Free Republic

On June 8, 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited President Bush in the White House. Among the topics the two discussed were freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Speaking from the Oval Office, Bush declared Turkey's democracy to be "an important example for the people of the broader Middle East."Turkey remains an important ally of the United States despite recent bilateral tensions over the Iraq war and its aftermath. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have valued Turkey not only as a strategic military partner in the Cold War but also, in recent decades, as a democratic outpost...

Founding fathers & mothers: How many crossed the land bridge?Contact: Joseph Blumberg blumberg@ur.rutgers.edu 732-932-7084 x652 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Programs on the Discovery Channel and PBS have sparked fresh interest in the prehistoric peopling of the New World. Now, for the first time, we have a realistic estimate of how many ancients made that ice age trek across the long-lost land bridge from Asia to become the first Native Americans. Jody Hey, a professor of genetics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has developed a computational method that uses genetic information...

Terror threat from 'very many' Muslim men, says Met chief By John Steele, Home Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 04/03/2005) Britain faces a potential terrorist threat from "very many" Muslim men who returned to Britain after spending time in training camps in Afghanistan, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said yesterday. Sir Ian Blair, whose force, with MI5, leads anti-terrorism work in Britain, was asked if he supported the assertion of the Prime Minister earlier this week that there were "several hundred people in the UK plotting terror attacks". The commissioner told LBC radio in London: "Yes, I am aware of the...

United States still faces obstacles after tackling many security issues By Adam Hines Staff Writer The United States has hit and destroyed the terrorist beehive, but there are still bees left to kill, said a former national security adviser. Sandy Berger, who served with the Clinton administrations, said that America has made a lot of strides when it comes to homeland security and the war on terror, but it’s not done yet. "To me the great danger is the complacency we have fallen into three and a half years after 9/11," she said. Berger was part of a cast that...

When Margaret Herlth wakes up in the morning, 13 prescription drugs and two over-the-counter supplements are as much a part of her routine as a first cup of coffee. That's a lot of pills, but not a highly unusual number for an 80-year-old with serious health problems, including cardiovascular disease and breathing difficulties. "They do make me feel better if I take them," says Herlth, who lives in southwest Baltimore. "I've been in and out of the hospital so many times. Each time they give me new pills, but they never take any away." These days, if you're elderly, a...

Growth Thwarts Va. Hunters The dawn is still, a faint brightening just above the dried husks of a Purcellville cornfield, the moon still bright. Jay McKeever freezes and slowly inches down into a squat. A white-tailed buck emerges from a thicket of bare trees, the "big boy" he has tracked all morning. The buck, colorblind to the blaze orange baseball cap McKeever wears, comes to a halt. It would be a perfect shot -- and a rack of antlers worth mounting. McKeever curses quietly, his Browning .270-caliber deer hunting rifle, with scope, untouched on the frozen ground next to...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

"I can wage a better war on terror than George Bush has." So speaks Senator Kerry in the U.S. presidential campaign's final days, again reminding voters that the key issue in this race remains as it was a year earlier - deciding which candidate will better protect Americans from terrorism.As with so many topics, the basic difference between Kerry and President Bush is one of character, with the challenger repeatedly changing his mind and the president sticking with one position.On occasion, Mr. Kerry adopts Bush-like terminology. For example, in September 2004 he talked about the war on terror being "as...

"I know it when I see it" was the famous response by a U.S. Supreme Court justice to the vexed problem of defining pornography. Terrorism may be no less difficult to define, but the wanton killing of schoolchildren, of mourners at a funeral, or workers at their desks in skyscrapers surely fits the know-it-when-I-see-it definition.The press, however, generally shies away from the word terrorist, preferring euphemisms. Take the assault that led to the deaths of some 400 people, many of them children, in Beslan, Russia, on September 3. Journalists have delved deep into their thesauruses, finding at least twenty euphemisms...

Yes, this will save you all the time of reading Bill's mega-page memoir...It's Bill Clinton: My Life, cliff notes!click here or on cartoon to super-size it!

You are being polled to determine which action of the candidate you consider Kerry's Dumbest Move To Date. Consider the following selections, or name your own Kerry dumb move: (1) the disastrous MTP interview? (2) flying in his hairdresser to be coifed for MTP? (3) finessing his "wartime atrocities" allegations? (4) not revealing his medical records? (5) not revealing his military records? (6) boasting about voting for something before voting against it? (7) touting his secular credentials? (8) continually touting his Viet service? (9) testifying against the Viet war before Congress? (10) marrying a multi-millionaress? (11) asking Al Sharpton to...

<p>Ever since super-rich superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into politics last August, he has surmounted hurdle after hurdle. And after surmounting each hurdle, pundits opine, "Now comes the real test."</p> <p>It's an amusing cliché that obscures a real problem. For it is likely that it is not the hurdles he regularly clears but the stumbles he keeps recovering from that will bring him low.</p>

Australia told it has too many whites to be part of Asia By Alex Spillius in Bangkok (Filed: 22/10/2003) Leaders of 21 Pacific Rim nations put on matching jackets of the finest Thai silk yesterday at the end of their summit, but this display of sartorial unity could not hide simmering tensions based on wealth, culture or race. Presidents, monarchs and prime ministers as diverse as George W Bush and the Sultan of Brunei, representing 2.5 billion people and half the world's trade, announced broad agreements on promoting free trade and counter-terrorism. It was not the superpower which drew the...

I am perplexed and concerned at the response of many Ohio groups/organizations to netWMD's call to oppose the Palestinian Solidarity Movement's (PSM) planned conference at Ohio State University. In many instances, our calls and emails to various Ohio groups asking for support -- even constructive criticism -- have gone completely unanswered. How can these groups ignore the evidence we've documented for PSM's calls for the "liberation" (destruction) of "historic Palestine" (Israel) "by any means necessary." How can they ignore the evidence for PSM activists rioting last year at Concordia University (see the pictures for yourself), for PSM 2002 conference attendees...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nearly one in three doctors reports withholding information from patients about useful medical services that aren't covered by their health insurance companies, and the number may be on the rise, a study reports. Study authors say their work offers the first empirical evidence for what many have long suspected: that coverage limitations imposed by managed care are infiltrating doctor-patient communications. ``Patients aren't getting the whole story,'' said Matthew K. Wynia, director of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association and lead author of the article being published in the journal Health Affairs. Wynia and his...

<p>In the end, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor couldn't buck the elites who are trying to rewrite the old American motto: e pluribus unum, or out of many, one. She and her colleagues have moved beyond affirmative action into the intoxicating -- and even more dangerous -- waters of multiculturalism.</p>

Germans 'take too many holidays' By Kate Connolly in Berlin (Filed: 19/06/2003) "Lazy Germans" might seem like an oxymoron, but not to Germany's economics minister, who said yesterday his compatriots take too many holidays and are damaging the country's prospects. Wolfgang Clement called for an increase in working hours and a cut in the number of holidays, saying Germans take an embarrassing number compared with other European workers."With regards to holidays, public days off and working hours we have without a doubt reached our limit," he said. "Anyone who compares our holiday calendar with that of other countries can really...

For years, women have been asking, "When?" They got their answer this week when a small New Jersey pharmaceutical company announced that it was shipping out new supplies of the Today Sponge, a popular over-the-counter method of birth-control that was discontinued in 1994. Within a day, a Canadian Web site set up to distribute the sponges received so many hits that it crashed; the operators set up a new site to accommodate the thousands of new orders and posted a notice on the original begging for patience. About 1,000 women who had preordered the sponges as far back as two...

Too many humps in the roads, says Goode Other ‘traffic-calming’ measures advocated in the planning process to stem speeding By BRIAN PERRY Staff Writer WAILUKU — Motorists speeding through otherwise quiet, residential streets continues to be a problem, and the solution, so far, has been for the county to install speed humps. But, as Public Works Director David Goode explained to the Maui County Council’s Public Works and Water Committee Wednesday, speed humps are costly for the county to install and other “traffic-calming” measures could be as effective if not more so. Much of the problem, Goode said, is that...