Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and Congress continued to struggle to reach a compromise on legislation over the treatment of detainees, after a meeting between Sen. John McCain and President Bush's national security adviser on Wednesday failed to broker a deal. The senator has proposed a ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects. Administration officials say torture is already illegal and some methods short of torture could help during crunch time when a prisoner could have vital information about an imminent attack. The administration is seeking language in the bill that would offer some protection from...

Week of Nov. 5, 2005; Vol. 168, No. 19 , p. 294 Volcanic Suppression: Major eruptions can reduce sea level Sid Perkins Large volcanic eruptions can temporarily cool Earth's climate and, a team of scientists now suggests, lower sea level worldwide. BLOWING ITS TOP. Ocean cooling following the June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines caused sea level worldwide to temporarily drop about 5 millimeters. D. Harlow/U.S. Geological Survey The tiny particles of broken rock and droplets of condensed gases that a volcano ejects high into the atmosphere reflect sunlight into space. So, after an eruption, there's less...

A Riot Primer The importance of using force to control the spread of urban riots. By Eugene H. Methvin EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece appeared in the June 10, 1991, issue of National Review.Do we have to relearn every couple of decades — at high cost in blood and treasure — the ABCs of riot ignition and suppression? Two recent outbursts of urban mass violence suggest we may be in for a chain reaction of anti-police rioting like the ones that erupted in Harlem and five other cities in 1964, followed by the bloody "long hot summer" riots in Watts, Newark,...

The American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund (“ACVR Legislative Fund”) is proud to present the following report as the most comprehensive and authoritative review of the facts surrounding allegations of vote fraud, intimidation and suppression made during the 2004 presidential election. Using court records, police reports and news articles, ACVR Legislative Fund presents this “after action report” which documents hundreds of incidents and allegations from around the country, notes whether a factual basis for the charge exists and assesses what actions, if any, were taken by the responsible party, law enforcement or the courts. Most importantly, ACVR Legislative Fund...

The American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund (“ACVR Legislative Fund”) is proud to present the following report as the most comprehensive and authoritative review of the facts surrounding allegations of vote fraud, intimidation and suppression made during the 2004 presidential election. Using court records, police reports and news articles, ACVR Legislative Fund presents this “after action report” which documents hundreds of incidents and allegations from around the country, notes whether a factual basis for the charge exists and assesses what actions, if any, were taken by the responsible party, law enforcement or the courts. Most importantly, ACVR Legislative Fund...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund ("ACVR Legislative Fund") today released the most comprehensive and authoritative review of the facts surrounding allegations of vote fraud, intimidation and suppression made during the 2004 presidential election. The ACVR Legislative Fund report, "Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression In The 2004 Presidential Election," finds that while Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter intimidation and suppression, neither party has a clean record on the issue. The report finds that paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression activities than were their Republican counterparts...

WASHINGTON — Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens. Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco have been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use, but critics say they have not been able to do much more than complain. "These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of...

Sadly, liberals have shown themselves at their least liberal when it comes to speech, the very means of intellectual expression and debate you'd think a liberal would cherish. For example, over the past twenty years, liberal American universities have adopted stiflingly restrictive speech codes in the name of multiculturalism and tolerance and generally shown themselves to be incapable of abiding departures from the prevailing liberal orthodoxy. Hence, Duke University recently shut down a faculty member's web site because the guy dared to support taking powerful military action against terrorism. Meanwhile, feminist liberals blow a gender-neutral gasket when you suggest a...

July 8, 2005 Uzbeks Threaten to Evict U.S. From an Air Base Near AfghanistanBy ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, July 7 - Uzbekistan on Thursday threatened to evict the United States military from an important air base near the border with Afghanistan. The United States was allowed to use the Soviet-era base, in Karshi-Khanabad after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and continues to use it to support the continuing military efforts in Afghanistan. The statement on Thursday from Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said it had allowed the base, where 800 American troops are stationed, to be established for...

Based on Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, it is incontrovertible that Democrats will not be deterred by the evidence from promoting the incendiary propaganda that Republicans engage in systematic intimidation and suppression of black voters. Will we ever be able to have a presidential election again without Democrats claiming they've been robbed? All it takes is for some Democrat bigwig or race activist like the Rev. Jesse Jackson to make an unsubstantiated allegation of black voter suppression. Henceforth, the truth of such allegations will be accepted and believed by large numbers of people, including many blacks, who trust Democrat bigwigs...

   China crisis    Published: 15 Jun 2005    By: Channel 4 News   In China, six villagers have been killed and 50 injured in a dispute over land. Channel 4 News's Asia correspondent Ian Williams reports. The attack came at dawn, hundreds of men armed with shotguns and clubs, rampaging through tents erected by the protesting farmers. Although rural unrest has been growing in China, this was one of the deadliest incidents seen in years and one of the first to be captured on video. It left at least six dead and a hundred wounded. The farmers, who...

Jun. 09 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has endorsed the suppression of a troubled religious order in Pennsylvania. Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton announced last November that he was withdrawing support from the Society of St. John, a group that faced serious problems involved sex-abuse charges and allegations of financial improprieties. The Society appealed to Rome, but the Congregation for Clergy has backed the bishop, who has now barred the priests of the Society of St. John from saying Mass or raising funds within the Pennsylvania diocese. The Society of St. John was established in 1997, and inaugurated an aggressive fundraising...

Chinese Police Head Off Anti-Japan Protests Claro Cortes IV/Reuters Tiananmen Square was closed Wednesday morning for a youth pageant. It reopened under heavy security. By JIM YARDLEYPublished: May 5, 2005 BEIJING, May 4 - Thousands of police officers in Beijing and Shanghai stood guard on Wednesday in a show of force to ensure that one of China's most sensitive political anniversaries did not erupt into a new wave of angry protests against Japan. Greg Baker/Associated Press Chinese paramilitary police officers stood guard Wednesday at the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai. The May 4 anniversary, a pivotal date in defining modern Chinese...

SPEAKING FREELYToday anti-Japan, tomorrow anti-Beijing?By Aaron Kyle Dennis Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. SHANGHAI - What's at stake when 20,000 people in Shanghai take to the streets? On Saturday, April 16, at about 9:30 in the morning, throngs of Chinese took to the streets around Shanghai's People's Square. Armed with eggs, bottles, stones and a long-standing anti-Japanese nationalist sentiment, these angry patriots flowed like a river through 16 kilometers of the city, merging like flooded tributaries into a raging torrent of...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A major shift in the century-old policy for suppressing the wildfire danger in Southern California's national forests could be coming this summer. Unchecked growth has left the region's woodlands dangerously overgrown and the new plans will be part legacy of 2003's deadly firestorms, part science and part popular opinion. U.S. Forest Service planners have worked three years on the new management guidelines and they are now poring over nearly 11,000 separate concerns contained in more than 3,000 letters and e-mails sent in response to an initial draft released last year. Plans for the San Bernardino, Cleveland, Los...

California professor flunks Kuwaiti's pro-U.S. essay By George Archibald THE WASHINGTON TIMES A 17-year-old Kuwaiti student whose uncles were kidnapped and tortured by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invaders more than a decade ago said his California college political science professor failed him for praising the United States in a final-exam essay last month. Ahmad Al-Qloushi, a foreign student at Foothill College near San Jose, Calif., said he was told by professor Joseph A. Woolcock to get psychological treatment because of the pro-American views expressed in his essay. "Apparently, if you are an Arab Muslim who loves America, you must be...

Soldiers Worried About Ballots Getting Back In Time Governor Gives Prisoners Right To Vote PHILADELPHIA -- The war in Iraq is a big issue in the presidential race and many soldiers fighting overseas are worried that their vote may not get counted in Pennsylvania. Soldiers Want Votes To Count There are over 26,000 troops from Pennsylvania overseas and ballots were sent to them late because of a controversy over whether Ralph Nader should be included on the ballot. Rep. Curt Weldon, a Republican, was in downtown Philadelphia Wednesday. He angrily accused Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, of not supporting a...

The GOP's Shameful Vote Strategy With Election Day almost upon us, it's not clear whether President Bush is running a campaign or plotting a coup d'etat. By all accounts, Republicans are spending these last precious days devoting nearly as much energy to suppressing the Democratic vote as they are to mobilizing their own. Time was when Republicans were at least embarrassed by their efforts to keep African Americans from the polls. Republican consultant Ed Rollins was all but drummed out of the profession after his efforts to pay black ministers to keep their congregants from voting in a 1993 New...

Here is the c-span web page with the Oct. 19, 2004 interview with Greg Palast: Greg Palast Discusses Black Voter Suppression by Republicans The interview is the third and last on the page and looks like this: "Washington Journal Entire Program Tony Blankley, Washington Times, Editorial Page Editor Greg Palast, Harper's Magazine, Contributor Elgie Holstein, Kerry-Edwards Campaign, Energy Adviser & Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Director of Global Warming Policy 10/19/2004: WASHINGTON, DC: 3 hr. : C-SPAN" The interview with Mr. Palast starts at 01:38:00 on the RealOne Player.

Under mounting political, legal and financial pressure, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. yesterday backed away from its plan to carry a film attacking John F. Kerry's Vietnam War record, saying it would air only portions of the movie in an hour-long special scheduled for Friday. "The experience of preparing to air this news special has been trying for many of those involved," Sinclair chief executive David D. Smith said in a statement. "The company and many of its executives have endured personal attacks of the vilest nature, as well as calls on our advertisers and our viewers to boycott our stations...