Free Republic

The Major League Baseball season began in full swing Monday with two controversial figures receiving vastly different receptions from fans. President Bush received a loud standing ovation when he took the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in Cincinnati, a Republican-leaning city. He was accompanied by two injured soldiers and a father who lost his son in Afghanistan. -Snip-Bush became the first sitting president to throw a ceremonial pitch in Cincinnati as the Reds lost 16-7 to the Chicago Cubs. The ball to catcher Jason LaRue was high and off the plate, but Bush called it “my best...

ZIMBABWE'S military wants to forge a new "strategic partnership" with China, an increasingly important ally as Robert Mugabe's government fights international isolation, an official newspaper said yesterday. Mr Mugabe, 82, is seeking friends in Asia under an economic and diplomatic drive called the "Look East Policy", developed after the West accused his government of human rights abuses. Analysts say Zimbabwe plays an important role in China's strategic plans to increase access to African oil and other raw materials. The state-run Herald newspaper said Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General Constantine Chiwenga told a group of Chinese military visitors Zimbabwe's army...

SARASOTA, Fla. -- President George W. Bush is scheduled to throw out a ceremonial first pitch for the Reds on Opening Day at Great American Ball Park. "We're proud to announce that the president will join us for the start of this new beginning for Cincinnati Reds baseball," Reds chief executive officer Bob Castellini said in a statement. Cincinnati opens its 2006 season hosting the Chicago Cubs on April 3 at 2:10 p.m. CT.

HISTORIANS OF the future will look back with amazement at U.S. foreign policy at the turn of the millennium, especially with regard to Russia. It's true, of course, that the Soviet Union once posed a severe threat to the United States and its allies — a global challenge that tied up American energies for 50 years and cost tens of thousands of American lives in anti-communist proxy wars. But that struggle ended in 1989 with a Western victory that was not only complete but miraculously peaceful. Since then, the U.S.-Russia relationship has been uneasy but usually cooperative. Not one American...

Almost 80 percent of Chinese people feel good about people from the United States and most were satisfied with the Sino-U.S. relations, results of a recent poll show. The poll, carried out in late February by the Global Times, a publication of the leading newspaper People's Daily, showed that 60 percent of Chinese are generally satisfied with the Sino-U.S. ties, and nearly 20 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with bilateral ties. The survey was conducted in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Wuhan. Some 36.7 percent of the interviewees regarded the United States as a cooperative partner, 23.5 percent said...

The Chinese leadership has issued an eight-point ethical code to instil civic virtue in the country's wayward youth.In a throwback to campaigns of the Mao Tse-tung era, the "to do" list mixes slogans from the early years of the communist revolution with the carefully worded pragmatism that is the mark of the current Communist Party general secretary, President Hu Jintao. "Serve the People!" - Chairman Mao's most famous motto - becomes the more specific "Serve and do not disserve the People!" Mao's "Preserve modesty and prudence" and "Preserve the style of plain living and hard struggle" become "Know plain living...

BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), China imported advanced technology worth 70 billion U.S. dollars, according to sources with the Ministry of Commerce. The figure accounts for about 30 percent of China's total technology import since the start of reform and opening-up at the end of 1970s, the ministry said. Thanks for such technology importation, China's technological level and production capacity in power, metallurgy and petrochemical industry have been lifted up remarkably, the ministry said. China signed a total of 9,902 technology import contracts in 2005, up 15.1 percent year on year, according to...

ON THE NIGHT OF DECEMBER 6, 2005, Radio Free Asia (RFA) received a frantic call for help from a resident of Dongzhou village, near the port city of Shanwei, in the prosperous southern Chinese province of Guangdong. The caller told RFA that hundreds of paramilitary police had moved into the area and were firing at thousands of villagers. The villagers had been protesting what they claimed was inadequate compensation for land that local officials had expropriated, and upon which a power plant was being constructed. As the caller screamed into his cell phone, "They are using real bullets on us!"...

Global petition to stop the war in Iraq Date: 5 Jan 2006 GLOBAL CALL FOR NONVIOLENT CIVIL RESISTANCE TO END THE U.S.-LED MILITARY OCCUPATION OF IRAQ Contact: dm@aglobalcall.org Global Call to Action Voluntown, CT, USA Our website: www.aglobalcall.org FROM: Nobel Peace and Literature Laureates Cindy Sheehan and other peace and human-rights activists Religious leaders of various traditions Prisoners of Conscience Former government ministers Poets, authors, journalists A Global Call for Nonviolent Civil Resistance at U.S. and British government installations around the world has been issued by Nobel Peace and Literature Laureates along with Cindy Sheehan and other peace and human-rights activists, religious...

A too-close-to-call federal election campaign in Canada has spurred the nation’s beleaguered Liberal leader to try and cling to power by attacking the nation’s oldest ally and largest trading partner. That Canada sells 83% of its world exports to the United States and some 50% of all Canadian jobs depend either directly or indirectly on those exports seems irrelevant right now. It’s a bizarre world Up North these days. Prime Minister Paul Martin is in the fight of his political life against Conservative leader Stephen Harper and that’s obviously why he’s been trying to whip up anti-American fervor in the...

Main dividends from the bankruptcy of the West’s Central Asian policy are being shared by the Russians and the Chinese. Contrary to other parties of "anti-Western front", Beijing and Moscow were tenaciously striving to push the Americans out of the region. For this purpose they, among other means, used their influence over Tashkent and Bishkek, in the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Both Russia and China to the same extent benefited from the change of external powers in the region in 2005. However, in a long-term prospective, Beijing has a real chance of monopolizing economic and political influence in Central...

President Hugo Chavez is pushing for South American unity and against a US-promoted trade proposal, as Venezuela discusses full entry into a South American trade bloc during a visit by Argentina's president. Chavez bluntly portrayed the South American trade bloc Mercosur as an alternative to the US-promoted Free Trade Area of the Americas, with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner arriving for talks. The conversations with Kirchner would be aimed at "agreements for the strengthening of South American unity", Chavez said during his Sunday broadcast programme. "We're happy Nestor is here," said Chavez, meeting Kirchner at the airport outside Puerto Ordaz, about...

NEW DELHI, NOV 18: As the mood in the US Congress begins to shift in favour of the Bush Administration’s nuclear pact with India, the non-proliferation lobby in Washington has raised a new red flag—of China reacting to the deal by stepping up its own nuclear cooperation with Pakistan. In a letter to all members of the US Congress today, a section of the non-proliferation lobby in Washington has demanded a critical review of the ‘‘full implications’’ of the nuclear deal signed by President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18 ‘‘and pursue additional stipulations that...

Washington, Nov 3.(PTI): The Bush administration has made it clear that it would not ask the US Congress to take legislative action that would end India's nuclear isolation unless New Delhi acted to fulfill its commitments, particularly "the most important" one on separating its civilian and military facilities. "Our judgment is that it would not be wise or fair to ask the Congress to make such a consequential decision without evidence that the Indian government was acting on what is arguably the most important of its commitments -- the separation of its civilian and military facilities," Under Secretary of State...

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Peter Lavelle) - For some reason a subterranean belief persists among Russia-watchers and members of the media that the Russian electorate remains enamored with the political extremes of the old Communist left and the seemingly resurgent ultra-nationalist right. A closer look proves the opposite. The majority of voters have supported the Kremlin’s middle-of-the-road “party of power” and is set to do so for some time to come. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) and the so-called ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky have declined relative to other parties...

Now that Air America's chased away nearly every potential corporate advertiser, isn't it fitting the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) has emerged as a key sponsorship source? Don't take the Radio Equalizer's word for it, here it is, straight from Pravda (or Revolution, as the party's publication is now called, formerly Revolutionary Worker): Revolution talked with Debra Sweet, National Coordinator of World Can’t Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime, about building for November 2, National Day of Resistance. Revolution: We’ve been hearing of significant new developments in building for Nov. 2, such as important new signatories to the Call, ads on the...

THE UNITED STATES is concerned classified documents allegedly stolen by Leandro Aragoncillo and Michael Ray Aquino may have ended up in the hands of communists, according to an official of the National Bureau of Investigation. Ricardo Diaz, chief of the NBI’s Interpol division, said at a recent meeting that US officials noted that known leftists were at the forefront of so-called destabilization efforts and mass actions in the country. “They said there was a possibility that the classified government information from the White House and FBI [the Federal Bureau of Investigation] are now in the hands of the local...

Beijing: Amid booming Sino-Indian trade, Indian missions in China have witnessed a growing tendency by some Chinese businesses to secure Indian visas by allegedly presenting fraudulent documents, including fake invitations from leading Indian firms. Today in Sify Finance "We have received fraud visa applications from some Chinese businesses in the past and are still receiving them," Indian Embassy sources said here while commenting on reports that India is very stingy in granting visas to the Chinese. "There is no truth in these reports," one official said pointing out that the mission cannot dole out Indian visas without proper documentation as...

LONDON: Indira Gandhi's India was awash with KGB spies, a Left-leaning bought-up media, wild, well paid-for rumours about CIA conspiracies to foment trouble in Assam and Punjab, millions of Soviet roubles pumped into the governing Congress party and remarkably successful Soviet plots to use honey traps and 'swallows' to seduce Indian diplomats, one of the world's leading Cold War historians has told TOI . The astonishing revelation, totally undreamt of in scale, ambition and detail, says India was the only country outside the Soviet bloc to be most successfully penetrated by the KGB, right up to the office of the...

Interview: Solana says stronger China "good for world" European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Wednesday rejected the "China threat" hypothesis, saying a stronger China is good for the world. "Throughout history, new arrivals or new competitors have often been regarded as threats, but the reality is that a stronger and more confident China is good for the world," Solana said during an exclusive interview with Xinhua on the eve of the eighth EU-China summit slated to begin Sept. 5 in Beijing. From the beginning of this year, some Western politicians, businessmen and media have issued a new...

Iran will export electrical equipment worth $5 mln to Cuba. The agreement to export the equipment is in its final stages and if concluded the exports would begin soon. The Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) is to finance the contract. Iran's exports of electrical equipment have significantly increased during the recent years. Last year, the country exported electrical instruments valued at over 100 million dollars to different countries such as, Lebanon, Syria, Turkmenistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Pakistan and a number of African countries. Construction of power plants, development of electricity networks and water conveyance projects, management and overhauls of...

BEIJING - A rare protest by Chinese journalists at a leading national newspaper offers a window into the intensifying severity of information control in China and the sometimes sophisticated resistance to it by Chinese journalists. A frank 19-page letter by Li Datong, a senior editor at China Youth Daily, details a struggle between the news staff and senior party officials over policies that the journalists say would encourage propaganda. The paper has been seen as a progressive organ within Communist Party media, tackling stories on corruption. Mr. Li's letter, leaked Aug. 17, took issue with a new "appraisal system" introduced...

The past four years since 9-11 has seen several important and contentious elections. In the West, where the peaceful transfer of power can often be taken for granted, voters returned to power statesmen like Bush, Blair and Howard, who's War Against Terror is being waged also in support of global political liberty. Elsewhere, entire nations selected their own leaders for the first time. In Iraq, where political liberty remains under threat, many died exercising their right to vote while eight million succeeded in spite of the danger posed by terrorists and the disapproval of Western elites. But in the United...

The Hidden Truth About Joseph McCarthy Daniel J. Flynn     For generations of American students, the name Joe McCarthy and not Joe Stalin has been synonymous with evil. A practitioner of “black arts,” a “demon,” “ogreish,” and a “seditionist” are a few of the descriptions of him handed down to us from his first major biographer. The passage of time hasn’t tempered these hysterical reactions.    The late senator, the story goes, created a climate of fear in the early 1950s by conducting a witchhunt that called liberals “Communists” and Communists “spies.” We now know better. The witches were real. Today,...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

The AFL-CIO succumbed to division Sunday, with its largest union deciding to bolt the 50-year-old federation and three others poised to do so in a dispute over how to reverse organized labor's long slide. The four unions, representing nearly one-third of the AFL-CIO's 13 million members, announced they were boycotting the federation's convention that begins Monday, a step that was widely considered to be a precursor to leaving the federation. They are part of the Coalition to Win, a group of seven unions vowing to reform and modernize the labor movement — outside the AFL-CIO if necessary. But many union...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20050715/tc_cmp/165702500 UN Panel: No Single Nation Should Control Internet Addresses Aoife White Thu Jul 14, 9:38 PM ET BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

WASHINGTON — Megan Watson, leader of Mainstream Moms, is so angry at military recruiters for invading schools to sign up unwary youth for combat in Iraq that she and her group launched an online movement, “LeaveMyChildAlone.org.” “They offer these trinkets to lure our children to enlist,” Watson said in a phone interview from her home in Bolinas, Calif. “This is very aggressive, demographic targeting to have conversations with our kids that should not be happening.” All branches of the military are falling short of recruiting goals as parents say, in effect, “Hell no! My kids won’t go!” Watson blasted the...

A.N.S .W.E.R.'s response to Bush:Hit the Streets September 24!Recognizing that the people of the United States have turned dramat ically against the war and occupation of Iraq, Bush went on national televi sion tonight to defend his imperial foreign policy. He repea tedly invoked September 11 as a pretext for the criminal and illegal war ag ainst Iraq. Bush took to the airwaves tonight because the antiwar m ovement is growing in strength. Our power poses a major poli tical obstacle to the continuation of the war and occupation. Now Bush has taken on the additional role of Recruiter-in-Chi ef, urging young people to sign up for military...

At the culmination of a gathering of global 'antiwar' groups in Istanbul to hold court on the liberation of Iraq led by the United States and the United Kingdom, the jurors who heard testimony against the liberators issued their findings which included a declaration of support for the terrorists in Iraq who are killing American, British and coalition soldiers and Iraqis.The World Tribunal on Iraq is endorsed by leading leftwing organizations from around the world including American-based groups like Not in Our Name Project, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink and International ANSWER.The war on terror has reached a...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US anti-war group vowed to surround the White House in a sea of demonstrators during coordinated protests scheduled to take place in Washington, as well as Los Angeles and San Francisco on September 24. The ANSWER Coalition expects more than 100,000 people, from families of US soldiers to trade unions and diverse religious groups, to take part in the demonstrations against the war in Iraq.

Which kills more: ideology or religion? Andrew Kenny The sun set on the 20th century more than four years ago but you can still see a blood-red glow on the horizon. The century that saw unprecedented technological progress also saw unprecedented slaughter. Previously, religion had served mankind’s deep needs for explanation, order, spiritual comfort and transcendental meaning. Now a new and hideous thing was summoned up to serve the same needs. The thing was ideology, and in a few decades it caused more bloodshed than millennia of religion. It was darker and more irrational, and contained within it something unknown...

Momentum Buildsfor Sept. 24 Mass Marchin Washington DCThe importance of the mass antiwar protests being organized on September 24 is driven home by two major new stories appearing today (M ay 19). A front-page article in the New York Times, headlined "Generals Offer a Sober Outlook on Iraqi War", is further confirmation of what has become crystal clear over the past month: The U.S. war strategy is in deep crisis and there is no more a "light" at the end of the tunnel in Iraq than there was in Vietnam. Pulling back from their rosy assessments of just a...

Are you a hater? Do you consider yourself to be superior based on your race, religion, sexual orientation? Are you a self-righteous blowhard? If you are reading this, then you most likely are one. What makes you so superior? Because of your religion? What about all the Islams who are acting just as self-righteous and oppressive and "RIGHT" as you?? Moslems and Homosexuals aren't the scourge of the world. Intolerance, judgmentalism, and vice-pointing (i.e. You're going to hell because you do this or that, or don't believe exactly what I believe). You've got it all wrong as far as I'm...

Russian Civil War... (1918-20), conflict in which the Red Army successfully defended the newly formed Bolshevik government against various Russian and interventionist anti-Bolshevik armies. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, whereby Russia yielded large portions of its territory to Germany, caused a breach between the Bolsheviks (Communists) and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who thereupon left the coalition. In the next months there was a marked drawing together of two main groups of Russian opponents of Vladimir I. Lenin: (1) the non-Bolshevik left, who had been finally alienated from Lenin by his dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and (2) the rightist whites, whose...

The first 'I' in Cincinnati was missing on the uniform front of pitcher Aaron Harang Tuesday night in Busch Stadium according to the DAYTON DAILY NEWS and the spelling appeared: "Cncinnati." These days the Cincinnati Reds can't even buy a vowel. By the third inning, the 'I' magically appeared — Harang put on a fresh jersey — but it was after the St. Louis Cardinals scored three runs in the second inning en route to a 5-1 victory. "That's the last time I wear that jersey," Harang said. Harang wore the same jersey for the first four days of this...

NEW DELHI: Whether she makes the offer on selling F-16 fighter aircraft or not, new US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice's first visit to India and Pakistan will be fraught with this issue. According to widely held speculation, the US will try to avoid widespread trouble in India by offering to sell F-16s to both India and Pakistan. Pakistan is already in line to receive a fresh consignment of F-16C and F-16D along with upgradation kits for its aging fleet. India, meanwhile, has asked US defence manufacturing major Lockheed Martin for information on the planes. It is no secret that...

Acknowledging that China is a rising influence, the United States has said that it will try to counter it by strengthening regional alliances. "China is clearly a rising influence - I mean, there is no doubt about that - economically, politically, in terms of its sort of global interests," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "But it has to be managed a couple of ways. First of all, it's very important to be clear about American policies and American interests in the region and that means being very clear about policy, for instance, on Taiwan, where we've had and...

Instead of pitchers and catchers, the opening of baseball's spring training seemed preoccupied by syringes and steroids. One day after stores began selling former American League MVP Jose Canseco's book of doping allegations, the New York Yankees, Washington Nationals, and Cincinnati Reds opened their training camps. In his first press conference, Yankees manager Joe Torre faced a torrent of questions about the proliferation of performance-enhancing drugs in America's pastime, with the subject taking the first half-hour of the 45-minute session: "It doesn't go away, unfortunately." In light of the quick sales of Mr. Canseco's new book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant...

The United States is a "dumb puppy that has big teeth," according to American actor Johnny Depp. I say we should make certain this scumbucket never works in America again. That's right. I mean it's time to bring back the Hollywood blacklist. In fact, I'd very much like to start compiling the blacklist right now – and I welcome your suggestions for additions. I'm sure I'm missing some real anti-American zealots. Depp may be the latest offender, but he's such a lightweight on the intellectual scale that he hardly deserves to be first. So, let's reserve that position for...

After the recent presidential election, American Liberals must be feeling a little ill. Not often does a nation so overwhelmingly reject out of hand an ideology. Nevertheless, make no mistake the results at the polls on November 2, 2004 were a complete rejection of the leftist mentality that the American political left would foist upon this great nation. To get the proper perspective on just how convincing the Republican victory was consider these facts. President George W. Bush received more votes than any presidential candidate has ever received, nearly 60 million of them, well over 3 million more than his...

November 12, 2004 - Before you fall off your chair or choke on that pretzel you're munching, hear me out. If you think I mean compromise the way it was done in the past, you are dead wrong. We can compromise with liberals on some issues, but it won't be the way they define compromise. An example of compromise to a liberal is reducing the growth in the Federal budget from 6% to 4%. Even under this scenario, liberal social engineering programs get full funding while defense and intelligence end up with cuts. It is still government growth no matter...

Top three individual donors to independent 527 political groups from Ohio: Peter B. Lewis, Cleveland: $23.1 million to pro-Kerry groups. Carl Lindner, Cincinnati: $1.9 million to pro-Bush groups. Richard Rosenthal, Cincinnati: $1 million to pro-Kerry groups.

Here are a couple of acrostics I made up using the word D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T.  They gave me a few chuckles, so I thought I’d share them with you, with apologies to Zel Miller and Ed Koch.   Demagogue  (deviant works well here too) Emotionally Manipulating Openly Communist Radicals And Traitors   Or:   Devil Empowered Maniac Obsessively Causing Riots And Trouble  

One of the four vice chairs of the Iraqi national council is an avowed Communist.

Their goal is to disrupt the status quo, and they usually do it without an invitation. It takes mere minutes for the Infernal Noise Brigade to enliven a crowd on the steps of the Federal Building, in the streets of Prague, or surrounding a Starbucks in Pioneer Square. The brigade has gained a reputation for providing a soundtrack for dissent in Seattle, but many might not realize how far the music spreads. Unlike your average marching band, the Noise Brigade sets its sights higher than performing at, say, the Seafair Torchlight Parade. This week, the left-leaning group heads to...

House Republicans view a recent move by 11 Democrats to have United Nations observers monitor U.S. elections as a politically motivated stunt, and last week they moved to nip the idea in the bud.

President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind. In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.” Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in...

Proud To Serve: The Men and Women of the U.S. Army “It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to demonstrate It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us a right to a fair trial It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the...