Free Republic

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Wednesday it is adding 100,000 Gaza residents, mostly government employees and their families, to its food distribution program to meet an increasingly desperate situation there.

NEW YORK Columnist Ann Coulter made a provocative remark Friday about "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau and editorial cartoonist Ted Rall. Trudeau is shrugging it off, but Rall is considering a lawsuit. Coulter reportedly said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.: "Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times have made submissions."

According to a report in the New York Times, several Yankees were not pleased that Showalter pulled three of his best hitters from Sunday's game with the Angels in the third inning. If Los Angeles had lost that game, the best-of-five series would have opened at Yankee Stadium. But the Angels earned home-field advantage for the ALDS with the 7-4 win over the Rangers.

This thread has been pulled. Pulled on 07/23/2005 10:40:47 PM PDT by Jim Robinson, reason: Censorship Goodbye FreeRepublic,I'm off to Liberty Post. It was good while it lasted........Please ban me NOW Jim!

With U.S. prisons filling up with aliens, 10 million illegals here and counting, Californians fleeing east, savage Salvadorian gangs battling with machetes inside the Beltway, and Minutemen headed for the Arizona border, Rip Van Republican has awakened to the threat of open borders. Meanwhile, the White House dozes on. But just as the chickens are coming home to roost on the Bush failure to defend America’s frontier, so they will soon be coming home on Bush’s embrace of free-trade fanaticism. As I write, the Department of Commerce has just released the trade deficit numbers for February. Again, the monthly trade...

"I am very disappointed at the selection of Cardinal Ratzinger as pope," said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which serves U.S. gay and lesbian Catholics. "He has been a lightning rod for the anger that many lesbian and gay people and other progressive Catholics have felt during the papacy of John Paul II."White smoke rose above the Sistine Chapel and bells heralded the election of a new pope on Tuesday, but the symbolism lacked joy for many LGBT Catholics once they learned the new pope is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany. The 78-year-old ultraconservative cardinal has been...

In March, the U.S. economy created a paltry 111,000 private sector jobs, half the expected amount. Following a well-established pattern, U.S. job growth was concentrated in domestic services: waitresses and bartenders, construction, administrative and waste services, and health care and social assistance. In the 21st century, the U.S. economy has ceased to create jobs in knowledge industries or information technology (IT). It has been a long time since any jobs were created in export and import-competitive sectors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts no change in the new pattern of U.S. payroll job growth. Outsourcing and offshore production have reduced...

First, this is NOT an April Fool's joke. I am leaving Free Republic. Over the past two years, civility and thoughtful discourse has vanished from this site, replaced with demands for ideological conformity that are straight out of Stalinist Russia or China's Great Cultural Revolution, and unrelenting uncivility if said conformance is not forthcoming. This trend began with the California recall election, where certain posters were allowed to flame the living beejezus out of those who didn't wholeheartedly support Tom McClintock, or thought that he wasn't running a campaign capable of winning. It extended into the Keyes campaign last year,...

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the...

An American-Islamic group has blasted the makers of Kiefer Sutherland's hit TV drama 24 after learning the first episode of the new season portrays a Muslim family as terrorists. Officials at the Council on American-Islamic Relations were made aware of the controversial episode after upset Muslims got hold of a promotional preview of the show, which airs next week. The council's spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed says she's particularly disturbed by one scene, in which an American-Muslim teenager plots to kill Americans. She adds, "It casts a cloud of suspicion over every American Muslim family out there." Bosses at TV network Fox,...

  We have been hearing, in the last week or so, that there was something amiss with this election (too). Just like in 2000, the leftist democrats and their willing accomplices in the media, can't seem to, ehem, move on.The leading purveyor of this delusional fantasy has been, MSNBC talking head, Keith Oblermann. Mr. Oblermann got his start with the famed sports network ESPN, where he was moderately amusing. Since his arrival at MSNBC, however, he has been nothing short of a cheerleader and propagator of left-wing causes. Prior to the election, Mr. Oblermann actually thought that John Edward trounced...

Having predictively nailed John McCain, I'd like to offer my brief thoughts on what Kerry will do tonight, and invite yours.Today's Democratic Party's notion of Real Leadership could be defined thus: the ability to say, with the most nuanced conviction, "Wahh!!"And so, since the Swift Both Vets' ads and Bush's ads have scored some tellingly accurate direct hits, and since those hits have cost Kerry dearly, I think this is Kerry's biggest plan. I think that he is being advised that the knockout punch will be to cry and moan and complain, and to put the President on the defensive....

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Critics Say Palm Beach County Absentee Ballot Even More Confusing Than One Used in 2000 Election The Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Aug. 22, 2004 — Palm Beach County has introduced an absentee ballot that requires voters to indicate their choices by connecting broken arrows, sparking criticism that it is even more confusing than the infamous "butterfly ballot" used in the 2000 election. Theresa LePore, the elections supervisor who approved the 2000 butterfly ballot, opted for a ballot design for the Aug. 31 primary that asks voters to draw lines joining two ends of an arrow. Critics say the...

Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's group has called on Arab governments to intervene and work out a ceasefire in Najaf immediately. Abd al-Hadi al-Darraji, official spokesman of al-Sadr in Baghdad, told Aljazeera in an interview on Thursday that the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf was surrounded by US occupation troops. Najaf is cut off completely and under heavy bombardment, al-Darraji said. "A shell was fired at the main entrance of the Imam Ali shrine indicating they have surrounded it," he said. "I call on the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) to issue a fatwa preventing the the US occupation from...

Heterosexist holiday neglects gay community By Andrea Flynn Published: Thursday, February 14, 2002 After 40 minutes of browsing through Valentine's Day cards, Robyn Smith thought she had found the perfect one. It read "For the Woman of My Dreams" and she thought it would be a good way to show her new "love interest" she cared. Unfortunately, her experience in the Erie Boulevard card store became less-than-perfect when she tried to pay for the card. The older woman behind the counter looked at Robyn's card and said, "Dear, I think you picked up the wrong card. Didn't you want...

A few days ago, the esteeemed host and founder of this foremerly great website invited me to do the following: "654. To: JohnGaltfla (#367) Oh, it's much better to go out in a blaze of glory. Martyrdom, 72 virgins, plaque on the "Great Ones" wall of fame and all that rot. jimrobfr posted on 2004-03-19 03:29:45 ET" Obviously, he was concerned that some of his better non-bot posters had abandoned FR for greener fields where our financial and intellectual contributions would be appreciated. It was amusing to watch former FReepers belittle, banter and blast JimRob in various forms. I was...

A federal judge yesterday handed a reprieve to telemarketers only days before Americans could expect to eat dinner without interruptions from an unwanted telephone pitch. Lawmakers vowed to pass legislation that in effect would nullify the decision, perhaps as early as today. U.S. District Judge Lee West ruled the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had overstepped its authority in setting up a do-not-call list to protect consumers from unwanted phone solicitations. Government officials scrambled to try to make sure the registry containing more than 50 million numbers goes into effect as planned for the first batch of registered phone numbers Wednesday....

Black bikers accuse Myrtle Beach of bias NAACP, others sue, claim resort treats white bikers better By BOB DART Cox News Service In a divisive tale of one city, Myrtle Beach was accused Tuesday of providing the best of times for white bikers and the worst of times for black bikers. The NAACP and 25 individuals filed both a federal lawsuit and a complaint with the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission charging Myrtle Beach and many of its businesses with discrimination during an event for black bikers in Atlantic Beach. The annual event draws hundreds of thousands of black motorcycle...

EU leaders are deeply suspicious of the gusto with which Mr Blair has aligned himself with George Bush The contrast could not be greater. Today's 40th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty between France and Germany has provided a remarkable springboard for the reassertion of Franco-German leadership in the European Union. Tony Blair, on the other hand, appears to have been shuffled sideways, at risk of becoming a spectator as others set the pace in EU affairs.This is a striking reversal of fortunes. Only a few months ago British diplomats could barely conceal their delight that Paris and Berlin seemed to...