Free Republic

After fighting his way across Europe during World War II, John Pistone was among the U.S. soldiers who entered Adolf Hitler's home nestled in the Bavarian Alps as the war came to a close. Making his way through the Berghof, Hitler's home near Berchtesgaden, Germany, Pistone noticed a table with shelves underneath. Exhilarated by the certainty of victory over the Nazis, Pistone took an album filled with photographs of paintings as a souvenir. "It was really a great feeling to be there and we knew, by that time, he was on his last leg," Pistone told The Associated Press. Sixty-four...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Next year had been shaping up as a great year to get a big inheritance - no federal taxes on it. Congress, however, has other plans for the few wealthy heirs expecting a big boon. Uncle Sam may take a 45 percent cut after all. Under current law, the federal estate tax is scheduled to temporarily disappear next year before returning in 2011 at an even higher rate. But the House is expected to vote as early as Thursday on a bill that would permanently extend the current top rate of 45 percent on estates larger than...

Four years ago, on June 23, 2005, a 6-3 Supreme Court majority ruled in Kelo v. New London that the New London, Connecticut government could condemn houses in that city's Fort Trumbull area in the name of redevelopment. A bit over a year later, the city settled with the area's final two holdouts, the Cristofaro family and Susette Kelo. Since then the city has without success tried to engage a developer to build a hotel on part of the now-leveled area, and to put apartments or condos on the rest. Yes, you read that right; they're building residences where residences...

Frederic Bastiat Perverted Law Causes Conflict As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose — that it may violate property instead of protecting it — then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious. To know this, it is hardly necessary to examine what transpires in the French and English...

It was a fascist general in 1930s Spain who coined the phrase "Viva la muerte!" - "Long live death!" Essentially meaningless, the words captured the blind cult of soil, blood and savagery that coursed through European fascism, in its Francoist and other forms. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela hates "fascists;" they are central to his repertoire of insults. But he has not hesitated to deploy the imagery of death to bolster his leftist brand of petro-authoritarianism, now operating under the ludicrous banner of "Fatherland, Socialism or Death!" The slogan looks almost quaint in its anachronism. Chávez would no doubt claim...

The documents seized in the FBI raid on the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) remain unread by Justice Department investigators, pending a federal Appeals Court ruling scheduled for August 27. [snip] But we already know a bit about the charges and some of the alleged partners of Congressman Jefferson. Two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him.

Although Syrian troops have withdrawn from Lebanon, their departure is little more than a symbolic acknowledgment of Lebanese sovereignty, extracted under enormous pressure from the international community. They had not been directly involved in policing the country for nearly a decade, and their number had already dwindled in recent years from a peak of over 40,000 down to 14,000. The backbone of Syria's power in Lebanon — its intelligence apparatus — has merely gone underground. The assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in February and the murders of prominent dissidents Samir Kassir and George Hawi in June suggest that Syria remains as capable as ever...

"I'm interested in land not [black people]." Cecil Rhodes Rarely has Western savagery been more destructive than in the Congo. After 115 years of Belgian colonialism and U.S. neo-colonialism, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today is a war-ravaged, balkanized country where an incredible 2.5 million people have died during the last 2 ½ years and 2.3 million have been displaced. OXFAM called this "the world's biggest humanitarian disaster." The catastrophic war which began in August 1998 has been imposed on the long-suffering Congolese by U.S. proxies Rwanda and Uganda which have occupied the eastern half of the Congo and...

Common Dreams NewsCenter Sunday, July 03, 2005 Published on Wednesday, August 23, 2000 in The Irish Times Clinton's 'Plan Colombia': Disturbing Questions Concerning The Real US Agenda by Ana Carrigan http://www.commondreams.org/views/082300-106.htm Africa Faces New Threat of New Colonialism New Internationalist, Jan/Feb 2003 Title: "How (not) to Feed Africa" Author: Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher no.10 on project censored list 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003 http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/10.html Source: Left Turn, July/August, 2002 Title: "NEPAD: Repackaging Colonialism in Africa" Author: Michelle Robidoux Evaluator: Heidi LaMoreaux Briarpatch, Vol. 32, No. 1, Excerpted from The CCPA Monitor, October 2002 Title: "Ravaging...

MOSCOW, May 16 - A week ago, on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Vladimir V. Putin appeared together in Red Square in a symbolic nod to the historical reconciliation between Germany and Russia. But a few blocks away, a museum exhibition showed how the war's dark legacies continue to divide the two countries. Shortly before Victory Day, as it is known here, the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts put on display 552 ancient works of art, including Greek bronzes, vases and amphorae, Etruscan figures, fragments of Roman wall paintings...

Liz Walker, the longtime Boston TV news anchorwoman, was standing in the middle of a sea of straw huts in a Darfur refugee camp, peering into a closet-sized shelter where six people live. In the midst of a recent fact-finding trip in which she had heard harrowing accounts of burned villages and gang rapes, Walker looked out at the tortured, parched earth of Sudan, where internal fighting has claimed the lives of 70,000 people and made 2 million homeless. For a long moment, she was overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness.

ATLANTA (AP) For the first time in two years, Gov. Sonny Perdue laid out good news to a Georgia Legislature weary of budget cuts, outlining a proposed $1 billion budget increase for next year that will put bulldozers to work on school, road and port construction projects across the state. But even as he outlined his proposed $17.4 billion spending package to a joint legislative session Wednesday night, he cautioned that the ``New Georgia'' he envisions as the first Republican governor since 1870 is one of making government an instrument to help people do more for themselves not to do...

Protesters Stone Nepal Mosque After Iraq Killings Nepalese protesters shout slogans as they stand on the dome of a mosque during a demonstration in Kathmandu to protest against the killijng of 12 Nepalese hostages in Iraq (news - web sites). Around 4,000 people set Kathmandu's biggest mosque ablaze and smashed up private job recruitment agencies in response to the killing of 12 Nepalese jobseekers in Iraq, witnesses said(AFP/Devendra M. Singh) Nepalese protester (R) shouts slogans as he stands beside a burning tyre during a demonstration in Kathmandu. The government clamped a curfew on the city after mobs ransacked a mosque...

The Bush tax cuts enabled America to climb out of the Clinton recession despite the financial devastations of 9/11 and stock market downturns. Ten straight months of economic progress and job creation have made the economy robust. So it is incongruous that Hillary Clinton would tell a San Francisco audience recently that Democrats will rescind the Bush tax cuts for the “common good.” Mrs. Clinton’s plan is not only wrong, it’s socialist. Ronald Reagan defeated communism, but we are still being leeched by creeping socialism. The 45 communist goals read into the Congressional Record in 1963 linger, and they were...

In a case that could bolster a long-running federal grand jury probe into Northeast Florida's construction industry, an undocumented Mexican worker permanently paralyzed on a job site is filing suit today in Jacksonville against homebuilding giant D.R. Horton. Jorge Gomez, 23, was injured Nov. 11 when a large beam fell on him and broke his neck at a D.R. Horton site in a Julington Creek subdivision, according to the lawsuit. The accident left him a quadriplegic. As an illegal alien, Gomez has no workers compensation insurance and has run up $500,000 in medical bills at Jacksonville's Memorial Hospital, which continues...

How the French Plunder Africa France's unchallenged political, economic, and military domination of its former sub-Saharan African colonies is rooted in a currency, the CFA franc. Created in 1948 to help France control the destiny of its colonies, fourteen countries--Benin, Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Bissau Guinea, and Chad--maintained the franc zone even after they gained independence decades ago. In exchange for France guaranteeing the CFA franc's convertibility, these countries agreed to deposit 65% of their foreign exchange reserves in a special account within the French Treasury and granted to...

SAN ANTONIO - The federal government will pay $2.15 million to the relatives of an undocumented immigrant, settling a lawsuit alleging the immigrant was paralyzed in a struggle with immigration officers. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery approved the deal for the five children and ex-wife of Serafin Olvera Carrera at a hearing in San Antonio on Tuesday. Olvera, who died at a Houston hospital in February 2002, was paralyzed March 25, 2001, during a raid at a Bryan home involving agents with the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In June 2003, a federal jury...

Beginning two to three days after President Bush proposed a plan that would allow illegal aliens to stay in the United States on renewable three-year work visas -- a plan that critics describe as an amnesty in disguise -- the number of illegal aliens caught trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border jumped dramatically, says a spokesman for the union representing Border Patrolmen. In the San Diego sector of the border "we have two to three times the number we had a few weeks ago," Senior Border Patrol Agent Shawn Moran told HUMAN EVENTS. Moran is spokesman for the local San...

<p>CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- A federal judge Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by descendants of slaves against corporations they say profited from slavery, saying the plaintiffs had established no clear link to the companies they targeted.</p> <p>The court still left the door open for further litigation.</p>

Bush Immigration Plan Borders On Treason By Chuck Baldwin Food For Thought From The Chuck Wagon January 9, 2003 President George W. Bush wants to give some eight to ten million illegal aliens, most of them from Mexico, legal status. The plan would legalize these aliens as "temporary workers," which would allow them to work freely in the United States without fear of deportation. The plan is so disastrous to our country's well being and so fraught with potential risk to our country's security that the plan should be regarded as bordering treason! Already, more than ten percent of Mexico's...

Bush's Ridiculous Speech About Immigration Reform I just want to comment on a few of the things that jumped out at me as I read the text of Bush's speech about the horrendous new immigration legislation he is going to propose. To begin with, this line just chaps me..."As a nation that values immigration and depends on immigration, we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud. Yet today we do not."No, our immigration laws don't work or make us proud. You know why? Because we don't make an effort to enforce them. It's like telling your kid...

Court: N.C. must broaden its Medicaid coverage for illegal immigrants RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina must broaden its Medicaid coverage for illegal immigrants to allow for longer-term treatment of serious health problems, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The ruling could expand the kinds of medical treatment that illegal immigrants receive under the Medicaid program. For hospitals that are already treating illegal immigrants, the decision could also mean more Medicaid reimbursements.

<p>SAN FRANCISCO - A suburban San Jose school district agreed to pay $1.1 million Tuesday to settle a lawsuit brought by six gay students who said they were subjected to beatings, death threats and other harassment.</p> <p>The Morgan Hill district also agreed to hold training sessions for students and teachers to discourage anti-gay harassment.</p>

<p>HARRISBURG - The state Senate approved a $1.3 billion tax increase shortly after dawn today- including a 10 percent income-tax hike - but was unable to fashion a deal that would have brought slot machines to the state's racetracks, big cities and resorts.</p>

BENEATH BOSTON – With a tellingly simple ribbon-cutting ceremony, the last underground segment of Boston's Big Dig project opens Friday - completing major construction on one of the most complex and controversial engineering projects in human history. It may not look as dramatic as the Hoover Dam, but the revamp of traffic flows in one of America's oldest cities rivals any past US public-works project in complexity - and outpaced them all in cost. Its effects will be felt for decades and far beyond Boston: It is changing commuting habits here, may influence the prospects for any similarly large-scale efforts...

Freeloading on the Taxpayer’s Dime By: Andy Obermann 14 December 2003 The other day I was at the grocery store doing some shopping. I patiently waited in line to purchase a few miscellaneous items. In front of me, a woman, no older than forty, was buying two sodas, two packs of gum, and a personal size bag of potato chips—trivial purchases, a snack perhaps. She proceeded to pull out what appeared to be a credit or debit card to pay for the goods. An unnecessary step for such a menial purchase, I thought. Much to my surprise, however, she was...

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORKSex predators getting federal grantsFlorida law loophole allows offenders to receive cash for education Posted: December 17, 200311:08 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Sexual predators confined to mental-health facilities in Florida are receiving federal grants to take college courses. The taxpayer-funded tuition grants are allowed because the offenders are considered "residents," not "inmates," Fox News reports. A 1994 federal law prohibits "inmates" from getting financial aid. In Florida, jurors are allowed to confine the worst sexual predators to mental-health facilities rather than prisons. As such, they are able to take advantage of their status as "residents" and qualify to...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – The holiday trip home for many Mexican migrants has gotten easier under President Vicente Fox. Instead of insisting on bribes, some police offer to guide caravans of migrant cars, and customs agents allow gifts that in the past were often confiscated. Since taking office, Fox has made changing government officials' attitudes toward migrants one of his top priorities. He has focused on the annual return trip home before Christmas, a time when the majority of migrant families return to Mexico, clogging highways with pickup trucks and U.S. sedans overflowing with bicycles, television sets and computers. Fox...

Ramiro Cruz doesn't know who Homeland Secretary Tom Ridge is. But he appreciated what Ridge said last week about legalizing undocumented immigrants. "The man is right. I hope he can do something for us," said Cruz while he waited for a drive-by job offer on South Ninth Avenue Monday morning. Gonzalo Mendoza, who was waiting on the street which serves as an unofficial day laborer hiring site, agreed with Cruz who was about a block away. "I can't believe that someone in the United States government would say something like that. It seems that the politicians in Mexico and the...

COMING TO AMERICABush: No blanket amnestyfor illegals But wants policy linking 'willing employer with any willing employee' Posted: December 16, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Responding to recent comments by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, President Bush said yesterday he is against offering an across-the-board amnesty to illegal workers living in the United States. President Bush at news conference yesterday (White House photo) Last week, Ridge told a town hall meeting in Miami, Fla., the U.S. should give illegal immigrants legal status. At a news conference in Washington, Bush replied, "I have constantly said that we need to have an immigration...

The prospect of millions of Mexicans receiving United States Social Security checks is moving closer to reality. The Gannett News Service reports U.S. and Mexican officials are discussing a "totalization" agreement that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in payments south of the border. The plan would allow documented and undocumented immigrants to return home but still collect U.S. benefits. WorldNetDaily reported the idea to merge both countries' Social Security systems was pushed late last year by Mexican President Vincente Fox as payback from President George W. Bush for failing to secure major new immigration reforms beneficial to Mexico...

Something I often see missing in the news about illegal immigrants, is what they bring to America. We all know about the financial drain on health care, and welfare, but what about the culture shock to American citizens? Have you seen how some of our cities are looking lately? Illegals are coming over in such great numbers that we are starting to live in their cultural standards. My neighborhood is now filled with people that think the front yard is a parking lot, and that standing in the front yard drinking Bud Light and partying after work is OK. Businesses...

Boycott by immigrants urged STATEWIDE ACTION PUSHED FOR FRIDAY TO PROTEST DRIVER'S LICENSE LAW REPEAL The message to Latino immigrants in the Bay Area and around California is sweeping: Keep your kids home from school Friday, don't go to work and stay away from stores. The unprecedented request, made by immigrant advocates to protest the repeal of a law that would have allowed illegal immigrants to apply for driver's licenses, is intended to show state leaders the collective economic and social clout of California's growing immigrant population. While it's impossible to measure the success or failure of the daylong economic...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Advocates are asking Hispanics throughout the state to flex their economic muscle Friday by refusing to go to work, school or stores. The planned statewide boycott, organized by two Southern California advocacy groups, is a response to last week's repeal of a law that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses. "Latino and immigrant communities don't have to roll over," said Edward Headington, a spokesman for the Mexican American Political Association, one of the organizers of the boycott. "It's saying that there is strength in numbers." At 11.9 million, Hispanics make up about a...

The prospect of millions of Mexicans receiving United States Social Security checks is moving closer to reality. The Gannett News Service reports U.S. and Mexican officials are discussing a "totalization" agreement that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in payments south of the border. The plan would allow documented and undocumented immigrants to return home but still collect U.S. benefits. WorldNetDaily reported the idea to merge both countries' Social Security systems was pushed late last year by Mexican President Vincente Fox as payback from President George W. Bush for failing to secure major new immigration reforms beneficial to Mexico...

<p>Annie was an ethnic Chinese born in Malaysia who had legally emigrated to the U.S. decades ago. She entered my law office with her mother, who clutched a well-worn copy of a Chinese language book called What You Need to Know About Life in America that is eventually encountered by most immigration lawyers.</p>

Coming up Next on O'Reilly on Fox- Je$$e and NASCAR. W'ats Up with dat?

From American Blue, the Internet's oldest daily political news site, on . The original article can be found at: http://www.american-blue.com/article.asp?id=1782 Content © 2001 . Return to online article -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clintons Return $28,000 Worth of Gifts to White House Thursday, February 08, 2001 By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have sent $28,000 worth of household goods back to Washington after questions arose over whether the items were intended as personal gifts or donations to the White House. "We have been informed that it is being shipped back, and...

WASHINGTON – Globalists have plans for reigning in the United States after the war with Iraq. Their weapon: a worldwide tax to punish wealthy (i.e., successful) countries and correct an “unequal distribution of the natural richness.” In an article in the Paris newspaper Le Monde, Olivier Giscard d’Estaing, identified in a Google translation as a president of “the Committee of Action for a World Parliament and French section of the European League of Economic Cooperation, calls for an international tax system based on a nation’s gross national product. Pointedly, the article is titled “After the War.” One can read into...

No More Smoking In N.Y. Businesses State Law Tougher Than Upcoming NYC Law Posted: 3:13 p.m. EST March 27, 2003 ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York has joined California and Delaware as the only states to ban smoking in virtually all businesses. Legislation signed by Gov. George Pataki ends smoking in most places that had still allowed it -- bars, certain restaurants, betting parlors, bowling alleys, pool halls and even in company cars. Exemptions include private residences, personal cars, Indian casinos and New York City cigar bars already registered. The statewide measure is even tougher than a separate smoking ban...