Free Republic

Excerpts: An ultimate State Department Arabist 25 December 2005 BITTERLEMONS-INTERNATIONAL Middle East Roundtable:22 Dec,'05: "The main concern is terrorism" by Thomas R.Pickering* QUOTES FROM TEXT: "To some extent, those bent on understanding and reconciliation in the United States face not only their own limitations in influence ... but those of their colleagues and friends within the circle of Islam. Leadership there seems to have been hijacked by the extremists "mesmerized by the words 'Judeo-Christian heritage', they seek to find common cause with the Jewish presence in the Holy Land." "denial that the Allah of Islam is the shared common God...

Chief Justice Rehnquist, stalwart defender of a strict interpretation of our Constitution is dead. He served this Nation well and stubbornly fought against the debilitating illness that eventually took him. He deserves our great respect. However, his passing now opens up the door to what, judging from demonRATS most recent past performances, will be an exercise in assorted acrimonious displays by the professional whiners and their organized legions of left-leaning loonies. Mr. President, I inplore you to, as soon as possible, hold a press conference so that all the Nation and world may see and hear you to make the...

The Man Behind the Attack on Guantanamo By Rocco DiPippo FrontPageMagazine.com | June 16, 2005 The general leading the force to free the captive enemy from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, and inflict a humiliating defeat on the United States is so-called “civil rights” and “Constitutional” attorney Michael Ratner. It was Ratner who led the way in recruiting elite lawyers to defend the enemy combatants being interrogated at Gitmo. But Ratner is a long-time leader of two pro-Communist and anti-American organizations who have for decades have lent aid and comfort to America's enemies in the Cold War and...

Chip Pickering introduces legislation to formalize agreement between broadcasters and satellite providers regarding local media transmissions WASHINGTON DC - Today Congressman Chip Pickering (R-Mississippi) introduced the Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act of 2005 (HR998). The legislation would codify an agreement between radio broadcasters and satellite radio companies to prevent future encroachment of satellite radio into local market content without the appropriate community commitment and responsibility. "I believe in a diverse media with local, community voice," Pickering said. "I also subscribe to satellite radio for national media and programming. This legislation would ensure consumers continue to have access to both...

Give us more power, says GOP class of '94 By Alexander Bolton The GOP freshman class of 1994 is growing restless and dissatisfied with being frozen out of leadership positions in the House. Members of that revolutionary class, which came to Congress 74 strong 11 years ago, are talking among themselves about the need to become more outspoken and to take at least an informal leadership role within the Republican caucus. They held a reunion last weekend in Scottsdale, Ariz., where they reminisced about their capture of nearly 50 Democratic seats a decade ago and the triumphs and disappointments of...

My nomination and permanent appointment to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has been pending before the full Senate for more than one year. The recess appointment given to me by President Bush on January 16, 2004 expires when Congress adjourns. Opposition by some Democratic senators prevented an up or down vote on my nomination. A minority of senators prevented the majority from confirming me to a permanent position on the Fifth Circuit. The actions of the minority leave me with no alternative than to retire as Congress adjourns. I thank Senator Trent Lott for fighting for my nomination. He...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Federal judge Charles Pickering, appointed by President Bush less than a year ago without Congressional approval, said Wednesday he will step down from the bench. President Bush elevated Pickering, 67, with a recess appointment in January, which temporarily sidestepped the confirmation process. Some Democrats accused Pickering of being racially insensitive and harboring anti-abortion views. Such recess appointments, which need no Senate confirmation, are valid only until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005. Democrats could have tied up his permanent nomination when Congress next meets. "The actions of the minority leave me...

With three weeks to Election Day, it is time for Republicans to close the deal with swing voters -- independents, Southern and Midwestern moderates, blue-collar households, Catholics, and Hispanics. The tactics of Senate Democrats and their liberal allies are now so nakedly partisan that the judiciary could well become the issue that wins tight Senate races and presidential battleground states for the GOP. (A secondary benefit of campaigning on this issue is that it establishes a clear "judiciary mandate" -- an advantage when addressing the Senate's rule for filibusters and a bonus when the time comes to nominate a Supreme...

The heated exchange on Thursday took place at about 7:50pm EDT as the group sat in MSNBC's outdoor set up near Madison Square Garden. The MRC's Geoff Dickens took down the highlights: Chris Matthews: "You know the old question in every political campaign is do you go hard or do you go soft? David Gergen. That fella just went hard. Was that smart?" David Gergen: "He went hate, he didn't go hard. That was a speech, in contrast to Dick Cheney's speech which was well within the bounds of political discourse and it was a tough speech. And, and, and...

Jackson, MS) - The man John Kerry tapped to be his running mate forgot his roots to further his career by smearing Mississippi and an honorable Mississippian, says State GOP Chairman Jim Herring. "Mississippi voters won't forget John Edwards' shameless distortions of Judge Charles Pickering's record or his vicious attacks on Judge Pickering's character," said Herring. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Edwards led Senate opposition to President Bush's nomination of Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee blocked Pickering's nomination to the court for over a year until President Bush bypassed...

May 6, 2002 8:45 a.m. The Trials of John Edwards The presidential hopeful says he's not like all those bad trial lawyers. Really? alk to Republicans in politics, and you'll get a lurid picture of top trial lawyers riding around in private planes and giving lots of money to Democratic politicians, in order to insure that there won't be any legislative limits placed on their sky-high damage awards," writes Nicholas Lemann in a New Yorker profile of the Democratic senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards. "It would therefore be natural for Republicans to assume that the way to beat John...

TORONTO - An anti-terrorism probe that led to the arrest of 19 Pakistani men, including one who took commercial flight training over a nuclear power plant, highlights security holes that should have been plugged after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Ontario officials said. The Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Unit, a federal national security task force, quietly arrested the group of mostly young men last week. The men appear to have used fraudulent student visas to enter Canada or to maintain their residency here. Federal authorities documented a pattern of suspicious behaviour that shows an interest in Ontario's nuclear generators...

Will Chuck Schumer, or any anti-Pickering revilers, finally apologize to the judge? When George W. Bush placed embattled Federal District Judge Charles Pickering on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on January 16 through a temporary recess appointment, the January 24 lead editorial in Newsday proclaimed: "The most damning strike against Pickering was his decision to intervene with prosecutors in 1994 to gain leniency for a man convicted of burning a cross on a mixed-race couple's lawn." And in the Senate, Ted Kennedy said the recess appointment "serves only to emphasize again this administration's shameful opposition to civil rights." From...

Liberty Beatby Nat HentoffMike Wallace, the RedeemerCBS's 60 Minutes takes the case, and judge Charles Pickering gets his reputation backApril 23rd, 2004 5:00 PM Mike Wallace and Charles Pickering(photo: 60 Minutes) n March 28, the 16.7 million viewers of CBS's 60 Minutes saw Mike Wallace engage in one of the most valuable acts of journalism. Too often, the multiplex media circulate character assassinations from politicians and other reckless sources without doing their own investigating to get the facts straight. Other journalists can be the last resort for the victims of the calumnies. In his report, "Judge Charles Pickering," Mike Wallace...

I was all set to turn off 60 Minutes last night after its first segment -- a too-brief and entirely anticlimactic interview with Condoleezza Rice -- but if I had, I would have missed a small miracle. Judge Charles Pickering finally got the public hearing he deserved, and the competence, courage, and decency of the man shined through. Pickering was nominated by President Bush to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001, but his appointment was blocked by Senate Democrats through 2003. Finally in January of this year, Bush made a recess appointment for Pickering. But when that...

William Pickering, Key U.S. Figure in Space Race, Dead at 93 Mar 16, 2004 By Andrew Bridges/ The Associated Press PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - William H. Pickering, who as director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the dawn of the space age oversaw the launch of the first U.S. satellite, has died, lab officials said Tuesday. He was 93. Pickering, who twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine, died of pneumonia Monday at his home in suburban La Canada Flintridge, JPL said. "Dr. Pickering was one of the titans of our nation's space program," JPL director Charles Elachi said....

One of the first men to receive a recess appointment tried to drown himself in a river and said it would be better if the man who appointed him — President George Washington — would die rather than sign a historic treaty. The incident forecasted the tumult and controversy that surrounds recess appointments to this day — the latest example being President Bush’s controversial recess appointment of Judge William Pryor to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. Washington made three recess appointments to district courts. In 1795, he named John Rutledge by this method to serve as chief...

<p>Minority members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are prepared to "express their concerns" Thursday about President Bush's decision to recess appoint Charles Pickering (search) to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Democratic sources on the committee told Fox News.</p> <p>Even as Democrats prepare to cooperate on the Senate floor and decline to filibuster the long-awaited omnibus spending bill, four Democrats on the panel are planning to bring up the issue of Pickering's appointment at the top of a hearing to confirm several non-controversial Bush nominees, the sources said.</p>

On Saturday, the Washington Post ran an editorial titled "End Run for Mr. Pickering," lamenting President Bush's decision to recess-appoint Judge Charles W. Pickering to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. His actions were a direct response to the Democrats' continued filibuster of Pickering's nomination. Instead of simply acknowledging that President Bush was fully within his right to make the appointment and that, even though they disagreed with Pickering's nomination, the President is right to circumvent a filibustering, stonewalling minority of Senators who won't allow a vote on the nomination to fill the vacancy classified as a "judicial emergency" by...