Free Republic

FOR DISCUSSION AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. Two hundred and twenty-three years ago the framers issued a Declaration of Independence. When they did, they did so with the feeling it was necessary to "declare the causes which impel them to the separation." They wrote of "unalienable rights," rights that no one gave us, and no one can take from us. They acknowledged that in order "to secure these rights, governments are instituted." However, they were quick to note that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed." That means "We the people." The Declaration goes on to reference ...

LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- Rooting out spies should be done quietly, unlike recent Congressional probes at nuclear weapons labs, according to the man who helped design the hydrogen bomb. Edward Teller, the physicist sometimes called the ``Father of the H-bomb,'' is skeptical of the spy hunt that has consumed Capitol Hill and shaken the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which he helped establish in 1952. ``Trying to find out about spies should be handled very, very quietly, and that is the exact opposite of what has happened,'' Teller told the Sacramento Bee in Sunday's editions. ``I would hope the Congress ...

The Cox Report is out, and the Media is ignoring it. (like usual) FRee Republic is not going to allow this to go away. With your help Free Republic is going to go where no web site has gone before. We have set our sights on appearing before Congress and give our Testimony on this TREASON that has taken place. We can do this, we can make a difference. We need YOUR help to accomplish everything we need to do to prepare for this historic effort. We are putting out the call for Freepers to step up and be counted. ...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - When bandits attacked his wife outside a beauty salon and made off with the family's Nissan, Richard Widmaier did what any citizen might be expected to do: He called the police. Two weeks later, Widmaier spotted the car and summoned authorities again. Instead of returning the stolen property, police demanded he show papers proving he was the car's owner. It was only after pleading with the precinct chief that Widmaier, the owner of one of the country's largest radio networks, had the keys thrown at him. ''I got played around,'' Widmaier recalled. ''But I refused to give ...

Republicans in Congress are gearing up to recreate the fiscal disaster of the Reagan era by preparing to enact a giant tax cut that favors the rich. Those in the party's more strident wing are pressing for $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years. If they get their way, say goodbye to efforts to repair Social Security and Medicare. Say goodbye to the long-held conservative Republican dream of paying off the national debt. And get ready for deep cuts in discretionary programs, from Head Start to maintenance of national parks. Someone has to stop these fanatics before they slash again. ...

Chinese nuclear officials have admitted that an accident one year ago at the country's first home-grown nuclear power plant has left it crippled for more than 12 months. The 300 megawatt Qinshan 1 plant in Zhejiang province was shut down last July after what one nuclear safety official described as a "welding problem". The problem caused bolts holding guide pipes to the main body of the reactor to fall off under strong water pressure, the official is quoted as saying. Nuclear ambitions He added that the plant would begin producing electricity again next month following repairs. Nuclear power is seen ...

Unsung musicians bypass recording industry with Internet Paul Stark helped launch the careers of the Replacements and Soul Asylum while building Twin/Tone Records into one of the most influential labels in the music industry. But these days when bands ask him how to get a record-label contract, he answers with another question: "Do you really need one?" Increasingly, the answer is no. While futurists keep pushing back the day when computers and televisions converge, the marriage between your monitor and stereo system already has been consummated. A whole new way of buying and listening to music is emerging. Thanks ...

And then there was one. After a year's deliberation, plowing through thousands of picture samples of public works from 280 artists to find four sculptors to vie for a commission outside Selby Library at Five Points Park, the Sarasota County Public Art Committee has made its choice. Provided two other groups agree with the selection, the sculpture due to stand at the library by next summer will be Ralph Helmich's 7-foot-tall silicon (white) bronze figure called "Bookman," which will sit atop a stack of books made of the same material. If the Sarasota County Arts Council OKs Helmich's work at ...

U.S. China advance to Women's World Cup final JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY (TICKER) -- The two best teams at the Women's World Cup are the two teams left standing for the championship. The host United States and China recorded shutouts on opposite coasts in today's semifinals, eliminating Brazil and defending champion Norway, respectively. The U.S. posted a 2-0 victory over the "Samba Queens" at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. China rocked Norway, 5-0, at Foxboro Stadium in Massactts behind two goals apiece from Sun Wen and Liu Ailing. The United States, which won the inaugural Women's World Cup ...

We like things to be black and white, people to be good or bad. Were the world so conveniently organized, it would be far easier to deal with. Some situations, of course, are not difficult to define as black or white, but others remain stubbornly shaded in gray. Gray is surely the color of today's scenery in Kosovo. Condemning the atrocities of the Serbian rampage through Kosovo -- with its legacy of mass graves, tortured and incinerated bodies of ethnic Albanians -- is an unambiguous moral imperative. It is sickening that barbarism of this kind and magnitude can still ...

"Take It To The Senate" (To be sung to the Eagles' "Take It To The Limit") Willie moans as he dreams 'bout Lewinsky... While his "bright" wife's still playin' "The Fool!" Slick keeps lyin' 'bout "that woman" he used...used like his Tool! You know Bill's always been a Creeper...spent his life sleepin' 'round... And it's so hard to change...Fem'nists like to go down! But the sleaze we've seen lately... Slick's a frickin' lout, layin' interns down, 'and lyin' 'bout "his shame." So join me on the High Road and tell Slick, "Resign!" Take it to the Senate...Impeach this Slime! Bill ...

Allan Saxe is associate professor of political science and a longtime resident of Arlington, Texas. ======================================================== Money, money, money. It makes the world go 'round. And every year Forbes magazine helps us keep score of who is making it go 'round the fastest. This year, as last, Bill Gates. His wealth has increased to $90 billion. That is almost as large as the two-year budget for the state of Texas. The Monarch of Microsoft and many of the other new high-tech billionaires are taking us into a new economic world. Their wizardry is similar to that of the late 19th ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- While relishing what some call a revolutionary triumph for air power, senior Air Force officers and strategists are working to ensure the Kosovo campaign doesn't become a model for future wars. These specialists worry that NATO's victory in the Balkans could set unrealistic expectations for airstrikes and legitimize faulty strategic decisions. They are urging that policy-makers avoid repeating the ``war by committee'' waged by NATO, and the gradual application of air power that they say prolonged the conflict in the Balkans. Some of these specialists also say that if the United States again participates in an ...

Two of the most perplexing questions of the Chinese nuclear espionage scandal have been these: (1) After learning in April of 1995 from their monitoring of Chinese nuclear test explosions that China had apparently acquired classified design information about the United States' most sophisticated nuclear warhead, the W-88, why did Department of Energy (DOE) weapons scientists and counterintelligence officials delay for an entire year -- until April 1996 -- reporting this alarming information to the White House? (2) Given that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials learned of the same development in 1995 as well, why would that agency not ...

Two men who admitted corrupting our politics during the Clinton years have copped their guilty pleas and are cheerfully walking free--without having to implicate any higher-ups. In Webster Hubbell's case, the crony and serial felon whom the Clintons appointed to run their Justice Department in 1993 triumphed over the independent counsel because Ken Starr was sure he could not get a jury to convict Hubbell, and he wants to close up shop as fast as he can. So we will never know if the $100,000 that the Riady family paid Hubbell was, in Thomas Jefferson's phrase, "hush money" --to keep ...

Hillary Still Puzzles Liberals After All These Crazy Years 07/05/1999 By Mark Green I ENJOY reading Richard Cohen's column in the Washington Post. I know, he's an unrepentant liberal with whom I seldom agree. But he makes me think so I regularly check in to see what he's up to. For example, I thought he was just wrong in a piece not long ago that variously ridiculed and scorned prayer and faith. Outrageously, he led the article by noting that Joseph Stalin attended seminary and Adolf Hitler sang in the church choir as a youngster, just to show religion ain't ...

Poland: Group wants 'Reagan' square About 100 prominent Poles inaugurated a committee to rename a central Warsaw square for Ronald Reagan to honor the former U.S. president for his contribution in defeating communism. "Reagan was the main author of the victory of the free world over the Evil Empire," Solidarity Chairman Marian Krzaklewski said in a letter accepting honorary patronage over the committee. Although Reagan never has been to Poland, Krzaklewski said the president was a great friend of Poles and had helped Solidarity in its struggle against the Communist regime in the 1980s.

In the world population table, the country will move up to the seventh position in the year 2010 at the current growth rate of 1.8 per cent, according to the latest World Population Data Sheet. Bangladesh with its population of 124.7 million now occupies the ninth position. It is hardly any consolation to this country that some neighbours like India, China and Indonesia occupy much higher positions in terms of total population because they are not comparable in terms of size. Even at the present population, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries of the world with 2,260 ...

The conventional wisdom is that Jewish voters will flock to the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton, but that might not be so. "Let's face it, her support of the Palestinians hurts," Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant and veteran of New York political wars, told U.S. News & World Report magazine. "And a key sliver of Jews is becoming more conservative." Many Jewish voters were angered by the presence of the Rev. Al Sharpton at a recent "press opportunity" on the White House lawn when the New York Yankees were invited to the White House to celebrate the World Series ...

George W. Bush and Proposition 209 By Glynn Custred July 4, 1999 George W. Bush on his first trip to California as a presidential candidate was promptly asked about his position on Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot initiative (now constitutional amendment) that ended racial, ethnic and sex preferences in the state’s systems of public education, public employment and public contracting. Instead of answering the question Bush said, “I support the spirit of no quotas, no preferences. But what’s important to say is not what you’re against - what you’re for. I’m for increasing the pool of applicants and opening the ...