Free Republic

Che Guevara: PC Icon by Larry Pratt July 12, 2007 02:00 PM EST Che Guevara's image graces many a T-shirt worn in the US. Wearing one of these seems to be intended as a statement that it is good to be free of the crushing norms of a civilization tricked up by dead white men. The T-shirt image depicts a long-haired 1960’s hippy gazing steadfastly into the future. The truth is, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the one-time number three in Fidel Castro's thugocracy, would have had a guy looking like Guevara's resemblance arrested and sent to a concentration camp known by...

'Mohammad cartoon' publisher appalled at reaction to Rushdie's knighting Chad Groening OneNewsNow.com July 9, 2007 The man responsible for publishing the controversial cartoons that angered the Islamic world almost two years ago says he's seeing similar reaction to the decision by Queen Elizabeth to knight author Salman Rushdie, who received death threats for writing The Satanic Verses. Hear this Report Flemming Rose is the cultural editor for Jyllands Posten, the Danish newspaper that published the "Mohammad cartoons" that sparked one of the most significant discussions of free speech of this generation. He sees similarities between Muslim reaction to that and...

Frustrated by a legislative session that left many key issues hanging, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday that he could govern without lawmakers. Downplaying the importance of passing laws, the freshman governor said he favored regulatory changes and executive orders to run the state -- neither of which require prior approval by the legislature. The Democratic governor repeated his criticism of a decision by the Senate's Republican majority to go home June 21, the official end of the six-month session, though many bills remain to be considered.

North Korea has increased its public executions against cell phone users and those who circulate outside information in the communist country, a South Korean government think tank said Thursday. The phenomenon of executions of those who "circulate South Korean leaflets and sell videos and use cell phones are on the rise," the South's government-affiliated Korea Institute for National Unification think tank said in a white paper on the North's human rights conditions. No exact figures were given. North Koreans are officially banned from communicating with the outside world but some of them listen to foreign news and use cell phones...

Che Guevara: Mass Murderer and Coward By Jamie Glazov FrontPageMagazine.com June 13, 2007 Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Cuban-born Humberto Fontova, who left Cuba in 1961 at age seven, has written for several conservative magazines and is the author of Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant. He has appeared on many radio and television shows and is active in the Cuban American community. He is the author of the new book Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. FP: Humberto Fontova, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Fontova: It's my pleasure. Let's face it: how many media outlets are...

Malaysia: 37 books that 'undermine Islam' banned Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 6, 2007 Malaysia has banned 37 books and other publications on Islam, saying they contain "twisted facts" that could undermine Muslims' faith. Che Din Yusoh, a senior official of the Publications and Quranic Texts Control Division, said in a statement Wednesday that 21 of the items were English-language publications from the US, UK and Jordan, and 16 others were in the Bahasa Malaysia language, published in Malaysia and Indonesia. "These publications can cause confusion and apprehension among Muslims and eventually jeopardize public order," Che Din said in...

A Chinese-language international TV station called New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) recently broadcast a news item on Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv's adamant prohibition of Jews deriving any benefit from Chinese organ harvesting, even in life-threatening situations. Elyashiv, the most respected halachic authority among haredi Lithuanian Jewry, ruled over a month ago that it was forbidden to use organs harvested from members of the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that is being persecuted by the Chinese Communist regime. Although Elyashiv did not mention the Falun Gong by name, he said it was a desecration of God's name for Jews to exploit...

1989 : Tiananmen Square Massacre Takes Place Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States. In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive. For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television...

Latin America's leading newspapers devoted their Monday editorials to the discontinuation of 53-year old private TV channel Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). They all claimed that the arbitrary measure taken against an enterprise that pioneered TV broadcasting in Venezuela was "a step backwards" in the freedoms of the country and the whole region. Editor of Venezuelan evening newspaper Tal Cual Teodoro Petkoff pointed out in the Argentinean Clarín daily that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is pressing ahead with "his plans to set up a mass media hegemonic position." In this regard, he said that if the excuse not to renew a...

(03/20/2007) CODEPINK's Desiree Fairooz interrupts Hillary Clinton Fundraiser with the "Why, Why, Hillary Why?" song to the tune of "American Pie" as another CODEPINK protester Jodie Evans gets dragged out by 3-4 secret service officers. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=960_1174488595&p=1

France is one of three EU countries to sign an extradition text with China France has signed an extradition treaty with China despite concerns expressed by human rights groups over Beijing's use of the death penalty. France's justice minister said a suspect would be extradited in cases punishable by death only if China guaranteed they would not be executed. Pascal Clement also said the treaty excluded offences judged to be political or military. France is the third EU country after Spain and Portugal to sign such a pact. "This treaty explicitly anticipates the rejection of extradition requests based on...

Speech codes. Censorship. Enforced political conformity. Hostility to diversity of opinion. Sensitivity training. We usually associate such things with the worst excesses of fascism and communism, not with the American universities that nurtured the free speech movement. But American higher education bears a disturbing resemblance to the totalitarian societies that are anathema to our nation’s ideal of liberty. Evan Coyne Maloney’s documentary film, Indoctrinate U, reveals the breathtaking institutional intolerance you won't read about in the glossy marketing brochures of Harvard, Berkeley, Michigan, Yale, and hundreds of other American colleges and universities. "When we think of going to college, we...

Several vehicles were burned out in the riot Security is tight in a town in central China following riots that involved as many as 20,000 people.A BBC correspondent in the town, in Hunan province, has seen riot police and soldiers protecting government buildings and patrolling the streets. He says it appears the protests began after a local firm took over the town's bus routes and doubled the fares. Vehicles were burned and several people were injured in clashes with police as the protests climaxed on Monday. Reports said one person had been killed, although this was denied on Wednesday...

A teenager taken from her home and parents by German police officers and institionalized in a psychiatric ward for homeschooling is pleading with the international community for help so she can return home. "I want to ask you for help, to get my right to go back to my family, as I wish," Melissa Busekros wrote in an English letter hand-delivered to the International Human Rights Group, whose lawyers have been working on her case. More than six weeks ago she was taken "with more than 15 police men" from her home to a psychiatric hospital in Nuremberg, she wrote,...

A protest staged by thousands of rural workers in central China ended in violent clashes last week, media reports and an official said.Several people were injured as up to 20,000 people clashed with 1,000 police in Hunan province on Friday, a local official told Reuters news agency. A report on the Boxun Chinese news website said the clash was sparked by rising public transport costs. Rural regions of China have mounting unrest in recent years. Thousands of protests were held last year amid growing discontent over the widening gap between rich and poor and corruption among officials at local...

Locking up as mentally ill those who refuse to obey a tyrannical state was a favorite tactic of Stalin and his successors. The New Europe is learning to love this reinforcement of government power. According to Paul Belien, the editor of Brussels Journal, a sixteen-year old girl in Germany has been locked up in a psychiatric ward for "school phobia" --- resisting state schooling after years of being home schooled. Belien quotes the one-paragraph psychiatrist's report on Melissa Busekros. Judging by her photo, she seems about as healthy and normal as teenage girls get. One "Dr. Siegfried Schanda" --- I'm not kidding,...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Two candidates in local elections here in March, a soccer star and figure skating champion, have no known intention of giving up sports for legislative politics. If they win, as they almost certainly will, their Kremlin-friendly parties, not the voters, will choose the candidates to fill their seats.... The elections here on March 11, like those in 13 other regions, will preview coming national elections in which voters’ choices will be severely limited at best. “Democracy?” asked Vladimir I. Fyodorov, a leader of the Communist Party here, which faces an uphill task of winning any seats...

Dr. Daniels begins predictably witht this: ...Why should Orwell be so desired and desirable, in short so unanswerable, an ally? He is a secular saint, over whose relics everyone squabbles. There are good reasons for this, no doubt. In his essay, Why I Write, published in 1946, Orwell disarmingly tells us that all writers are to some extent egotistical: they desire to seem clever, to be talked about and admired, and to be remembered after their death.... But finally Dr. Daniels points this out: ...But by far the worst aspect of Homage to Catalonia is its strong advocacy of totalitarianism....

Synopsis: Designating specified firearms as assault weapons; prohibiting with specified exceptions a person from transporting an assault weapon into the State or possessing, selling, offering to sell, transferring, or receiving an assault weapon; requiring the Handgun Roster Board to compile and maintain a roster of prohibited assault weapons; etc. Senate Bill 43 is a pdf file: http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/bills/sb/sb0043f.pdf

Kwanzaa: A Holiday From the FBI by Ann Coulter President Bush's 2005 Kwanzaa message began with the patently absurd statement: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa." I believe more African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth of Christ than some phony non-Christian holiday invented a few decades ago by an FBI stooge. Kwanzaa is a holiday for white liberals, not blacks. It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga, aka Dr. Maulana Karenga. Karenga was a founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist...

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Internet Society of China has recommended to the government that bloggers be required to use their real names when they register blogs, state media said on Monday, in the latest attempt to regulate free-wheeling Web content. The society, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Information Industry, said no decision had been made but that a 'real name system' was inevitable. "A real name system will be an unavoidable choice if China wants to standardise and develop its blog industry," the official Xinhua news agency quoted the Internet Society's secretary general, Huang Chengqing, as saying. "We...

We can -- and perhaps should -- have a discussion about the value or even the morality of rendition. However, we should be clear about something right off the bat, so we are not using incorrect terminology or assertions. Terrorists, stateless actors, pirates, etc. are not covered by the Geneva Convention. It's important that we all get that right, so we are not starting out with false assertions. That said, those in our custody are being afforded **most** (albeit not all) of the considerations that would be given someone who is covered thereby. And as far as I am concerned,...

The left talks a good game about rights and freedoms and all that, but the truth is, the more power people on the left get, the more totalitarian they become. In America, they are strongest in the universities, and sure enough, it's within many universities that you find speech codes; denials of tenure and funding based on political alignment or positions; the suppression of certain kinds of ideological expression; open attacks on conservatives and Jews; and the tacit encouragement or official endorsement of left-wing (and sometimes violent, Jihadist, anti-Semitic, or simply vile) ideological and artistic expressions. And in America, we're...

Mayor Bloomberg has been hit with another lawsuit in connection with his campaign to crack down on illegal guns. A South Carolina gun dealer became the second storeowner to sue after Mr. Bloomberg targeted it a few months ago in an undercover sting operation designed to stymie illegal gun sales. The lawsuit, filed in South Carolina, seeks damages and claims that the city smeared the storeowner's reputation. Meanwhile, a gun dealer in Queens targeted by the city's investigators, Michael Spallone, 41, pleaded guilty yesterday to disorderly conduct. Mr. Bloomberg touted that plea as a victory, saying it sends a strong...

Hillary Clinton created climate she now decries - she was part of staff of House committee during former Pres. RIchard M. Nixon's impeachment considerations - Column Mark R. Levin A few weeks ago, the only first lady to testify before a grand jury, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was on the Larry King Show lamenting the criticism she and her husband have received, particularly regarding the firing of the White House Travel Office staff. "I don't think you can get used to it," she said. "It's painful sometimes. It does upset me." She later added, "I think that what prepared me most...

John McCain showed such moral uprightness in 2008--Kerry Tried to use him as a pawn but Kerry found him to be more of a Bishop or a Knight, the dudes a POW, he's sensitive yet again-he stands up for whats right. An Officer and a Gentleman---Questions? Answers? Whatever your race or creed, I think this guy deserves a serious look, more serious than 2004.

"Palestinians" death cult - Humanity turned Upside down 9/11 & other terror victims in agony are to be cheered, danced & laughed at but monsters on humanity (on non Arabs & on their own people like) Al-Zarqawi & Saddam Hussein are to be sympathized with. They tell us day & night that they are about "freedom", yet, in their entire violent totalitarian society, not one person is ever really free. If they deliberately send their kids to be killed as murderers (bombers or shields for adult shooters), How do they expect us to take them seriously when they make a...

China's Growing Challenge To U.S. Posted 5/25/2006 Defense: The Pentagon's annual report on Chinese military power reveals that Beijing will soon be as much of a threat to America's security as it is to Taiwan's. We may soon have more to worry about than cheap imports.China's threat to Taiwan has been long-standing, growing and pretty much common knowledge, but the 2006 edition of the Pentagon's annual report to Congress, "Military Power of the People's Republic of China," makes it clear that China's ambitions and abilities go far beyond recovering what it considers its lost province.The 58-page assessment notes that while...

AmericanEconomicAlert.org | Fighting for American Companies, Fighting for American Jobs China Seeks to Perpetuate Advantages, Not Solve Problems By William R. Hawkins Thursday, April 20, 2006 As Chinese President Hu Jintao comes to Washington for a summit with President George W. Bush, all those watching the media reports and reading the official statements released by the two governments should remember the most famous words of the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, “Warfare is the Way (Tao) of deception.” The techniques of Chinese propaganda developed during the Cold War have not been abandoned, only modernized. Over the last year, Beijing has...

Vladimir Bukovksy, the 63-year old former Soviet dissident, fears that the European Union is on its way to becoming another Soviet Union. In a speech he delivered in Brussels last week Mr Bukovsky called the EU a “monster” that must be destroyed, the sooner the better, before it develops into a fullfledged totalitarian state.

Hysteria Central October 2005 Michael O'Brien is an accomplished Catholic novelist. His strength is fiction. In The Catholic World Report (April), he ventures into nonfiction, specifically political science, and what he writes turns out to be fiction as well. He writes about "The New Totalitarianism" that is already here or on its way because of "hate" crimes legislation and same-sex "marriage." The NOR has spoken out against active homosexuals (even calling them fags, rump rangers, and light in the loafers), and as a result subscriptions have been canceled. And the NOR has spoken out against "hate" crimes legislation and same-sex...

Bill Would Allow Arrests For No Reason In Public Place Citizens Would Also Have To Show ID UPDATED: 7:22 pm EST December 19, 2005 CLEVELAND -- A bill on Gov. Bob Taft's desk right now is drawing a lot of criticism, NewsChannel5 reported. One state representative said it resembles Gestapo-style tactics of government, and there could be changes coming on the streets of Ohio's small towns and big cities. The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to the Taft's desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country. The...

A Venezuelan court has sentenced one of the most prominent leaders of the opposition to 15 years in prison. Carlos Ortega, who once led powerful trade unions, was found guilty of inciting civil unrest during a strike that began in late 2002. The two-month strike paralysed Venezuela's vital oil industry. Ortega said the verdict was politically motivated, and his lawyers immediately announced an appeal. Ortega was arrested in the capital, Caracas, in March. He was found in possession of identity papers with an assumed name, a police official said earlier. Family members said Ortega secretly returned to Venezuela in last...

Why public servants live better than the public For 50 years, public unions, health-care lobbyists, and social-services advocacy groups have doggedly been amassing power in state capitols and city halls, using their influence to inflate pay and benefits for their workers and to boost government spending. The bill for that influence is now coming due, and it is overwhelming state and local budgets. For instance: In New Jersey, legislators wooing union votes in 2001 voted a 9 percent hike in already rich pensions for the state’s 500,000 public workers, even though a falling stock market was shrinking pension-fund assets. Today,...

BEIJING, China (UPI) -- Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP development is posing a threat to state-protected telecom carriers, calling into question China`s willingness to let technology advances into the marketplace. VoIP services took a big bite of nearly three percent out of China Telecom`s revenues in the first half of 2005 according to BDA, a technology consultancy in Beijing. BDA`s research director Dongming Zhang told UPI, 'China Telecom`s long distance revenue totaled $1.805 billion in the first half of 2005, down by 2.8 percent from $1.858 billion in the first half of 2004.' 'The decline in long distance revenue can...

Contemporary multi-cultural liberalism infects another victim: The case of Tony Blair. Blair: Poverty, Extremism Cause Terrorism "...Thursday's bomb attacks on London demonstrate the pressing need for world leaders to tackle problems like poverty, he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio..." One day after the cowardly London jihadis struck, Tony spewed psychobabble about "underlying causes" of our enemies' desire to kill us. "...I think this type of terrorism has very deep roots," Blair said. 'Deep roots'? It's not necessary to search for such buried motivations. How about the above ground weeds, the consciously stated desire of totalitarian Islam to kill and convert...

Supreme Court rules cities may seize homes HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON - A divided Supreme Court ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth conflicts with individual property rights. Thursday's 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas....

MIDI - JUST THE WAY YOU ARE (about 4/5 of the way down) You fake changing to fool the voters...it is the Clinton game, indeed It's a theme that is...oh, so familiar...it is the strategy you need Yes, you're a leftist...there's no denying...to socialists you are their star You're a phony...we see right through you...we loathe you just the way you are Your health care meetings had been held secretly...for you, that's par for the course You wanted travel office slots so bad...Billy Dale felt your full force Oh, you fake changing to fool voters...you see yourself as a...

Long story, but given the apparent end of democracy in America, and the open hostility to persons of the Christian Faith, and given History over the past 200 years or so, How can one be sure, or even 50% sure that an org such as Free Republic is legitimate? It would seem plausible that this group is merely another plant. Someone help me out here. zapp

Below press Release announcing tomorrow's hearing was just posted today on a congressional website. PATRIOT Act Oversight Hearing Tuesday What: Oversight Hearing on Sections 201, 202, 213, and 223 of the USA PATRIOT Act Who: Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security - Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), Chairman When: 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, May 3, 2005 Where: 2141 Rayburn Building House Press Release posted here: http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/PATAct201etc5305.pdf

While the Leftist majority might roll its eyes and tsk tsk the violent leftist minority, it certainly has not purged itself of that element. The equivalent, on the right, would be a largely conservative or Republican led rally with Neo-Nazi groups in its train. This is unthinkable, not just because of the political consequences that would result, but because the values of the Neo-Nazis are antithetical to those of the right, and yes, the far right. I have argued for years that fascists are not the far right- that the popular meme visualized as a line from left to right:...

The Forbidden Side of ScientologyBy the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 28, 2005Religious Hard-Sell        A while back, I received a mailer from the Church of Scientology's Citizens Commission on Human Rights. The mailer offered, "You are invited to a CONFIDENTIAL closed-door Briefing and Dinner." I've been a Scientologist long enough to know that what they were really saying. Essentially, the message was "Come to our dinner and give us the opportunity to brow-beat you into giving us thousands of dollars."        L. Ron Hubbard describes this approach as "come-on promotion." The words confidential and closed-door are meant to induce, allure and attract...

The Forbidden Side of ScientologyBy the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 24, 05Totalitarian Religion        In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Church of Scientology Chairman of the Board David Miscavige promptly issued Inspector General Network Bulletin No. 44, titled "Wake-up Call." The Church's official position, although not exactly a denial of the facts, completely avoided one issue worth noting. Miscavige made absolutely no mention of the terrorists' radical religious extremism. I suspect that for most Scientologists, extremism is a concept that probably hits too uncomfortably close to home. Your average dedicated Scientologist, while able to perhaps recognize the dangers of suicide...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 18, 2005 Unauthorized Correspondent for The Church of ScientologyIndoctrinated Tyranny    One of the first things a new Scientologist encounters when studying Dianetics and Scientology is the absolute authority of L. Ron Hubbard. There's a gradual indoctrination process that takes place in which the Scientologist eventually comes to the realization that everything Hubbard says is absolutely true and completely correct. Sooner or later every Scientologist arrives at a point where Hubbard's word becomes law, not to be questioned.     Every course begins with the same Hubbard Policy Letter, Keeping Scientology...

The Forbidden Side of Scientology By the Reverend Murray Luther, Jan 13, 2005 An Ex-Fanatic Speaks Out     This is the first entry in a series of reports and commentary on the ever controversial Church of Scientology. I've been a member for roughly thirty years, and as of this writing I still remain in good standing. I've received hundreds of hours of Scientology counseling, and have attained some of the highest spiritual levels that it offers. I've also done significant amounts of training in the delivery of Scientology counseling, as well as courses in the administration of Church management policies....

The Earth Charter is the brainchild of Mikhail Gorbachev and world government advocate Maurice Strong. Gorbachev and Strong claim that "the very survival of mankind is in jeopardy" and believe that the Earth Charter is the solution. Gorbachev views the Earth Charter as "a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on the Mount,' that provides a guide for human behavior toward the environment in the next century and beyond." They've even created the "Ark of Hope", a replica of the Biblical "Ark of the Covenant". Inside the Ark's lid is the Earth Charter handwritten on papyrus paper. Some of the...

In case you missed it on December 5th in the New York Times, Michael Slackman offered the ideas from three well established political consultants to Ms. Hillary on what she needed to do to get elected in '08. David Axelrod - former Edwards adviser: 1. Get relected, redefine the Democratic Party, dive back into the health care issue/crisis.2. Promote Adoption and Abstinence as options where the government can reduce the number of abortions.3. Embrace gay marriage.4. Using her platform on the Armed Services Committee, talk about fighting terrorism.5. Suggested Theme: "Keeping America and the middle class strong in a changing...

The fundraising chairwoman of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2006 reelection campaign said Friday that Clinton shouldn't have to pledge to serve out a second full six-year term, leaving the door open for a White House run in 2008. "I want to be very honest with you," campaign chairwoman Ann Lewis told ABC Radio's Sean Hannity. "Professionally, this is all about 2006. But if you ask me personally, I don't think Hillary Clinton should be held to a higher-double standard, different from people like George Bush - who also ran for reelection in 1998 then went on to a national...

HHillary, Hillary, Hillary. Is there any other name that creates the political buzz that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's does? Maybe not, but some friends and allies advise against placing bets that the former first lady will be the nation's 44th president. They report that the New York Democrat isn't so sure about a run for the White House. "She's not running," says one supporter. The thinking in the "don't run" campaign is that Clinton is well aware of the partisan feelings she generates. "People love her or they hate her," says an adviser. "There's very little gray area to...

The UN should be reformed to make intervention in failing states easier, a commission is set to recommend. The panel, which has examined how the UN could respond better to global threats, also calls for the Security Council to be enlarged, the BBC has learned. The report has been called the "biggest make-over" of the UN since 1945. It is thought that if the UN shows greater readiness to act, unilateralism by member states would be less likely. A year ago, in the wake of the international divisions over Iraq, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the UN was at...