Free Republic

I don’t often write about law. It’s been one of my professions for 35 years, but I have to admit the subject is boring. I don’t often accuse anyone else of being “un-American” because there’s a lot of leeway for opinion in a free country. Today I drop both restrictions. The subject is Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and the ACLU. The ACLU filed today (Friday) a petition for Hazleton to pay it $2.4 million in fees because ACLU lawyers persuaded a US District judge to strike down a series of local ordinances. Those laws intended to make it difficult for illegal aliens...

ALERT: PRO-TROOP EFFORT COUNTERED BY DEMOCRAT PARTY The national Democrat Party, the Democrat Party of Nevada, the Washoe County Democrat Party and the Carson City Democrat Party have all teamed up together to organize a counter-rally against Move America Forward’s “Fight for Victory Tour” kickoff event in Carson City, Nevada on Monday, September 3, 2007. This is fascinating to the staff and board members at Move America Forward because we welcome, and have invited to speak at our rallies, persons of ALL political parties who support our troops AND their missions in the war on terrorism. How a major political...

Analysis: the first jolt to the Clinton campaign Question marks over a major donor to Hillary Clinton's campaign are the first challenge to her smooth progress so far by Tim Reid The revelation that one of Hillary Clinton's major donors is wanted for fraud is the first time her hitherto relentlessly disciplined campaign has been thrown on the defensive. So far, it is no more than a temporary embarrassment for Mrs Clinton. There is no suggestion she had any personal knowledge of Norman Hsu's tainted background. But Mrs Clinton, more than any other candidate — because of the scandal-plagued White...

A state appellate court yesterday ruled that a former New Providence High School choir director who was fired for kissing a male student in 2002 deserves a new hearing to possibly reclaim his revoked, state-issued teaching certificate. The Superior Court Appellate Division's ruling reversed a decision last year by the state board of education to permanently revoke the certificate for the teacher, Stephen Fox. The judgment returns the case to the Office of Administrative Law, where Fox, who had been a nine-year employee of the New Providence Board of Education, intends to present witnesses on his behalf. Those who will...

As the summer draws to an end and thoughts go to what we will be doing in the next year, maybe a change of direction, new job, new school/college/university. As this is Labor Day Weekend what will you being doing this weekend? Do you see this as a family time or fun time with friends? Do you think that being single affects how you feel and what you do during the Labor Day weekend? What did you used to do as a child for Labor Day and do you think that children nowadays have as much fun or do they...

Research using hybrid embryos is likely to be given the go-ahead this week after warnings it would be a major blow to British science if the Government watchdog refused to allow it. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will decide on Wednesday whether to permit scientists to create human-animal hybrid embryos to extract stem cells for research. The studies could yield new treatments for diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease. Early indications are that the HFEA will approve the concept in principle, but it still has to decide on two specific applications from university scientists - rulings...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Flying over Haditha, Iraq, on November 19, 2005, a small, unmanned spy plane called "Scan Eagle" recorded scenes of heavy fighting -- bombings and strafings from the air, and ground work by U.S. Marines seeking insurgents who earlier in the day had set off a roadside bomb that killed one of their members. Lawyers for Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will introduce video of Haditha taken by a drone as evidence. The Scan Eagle arrived about 30 minutes after the initial bomb attack on the Marines and does not show the the civilians being killed. It...

With forests to corn fields to mountains to concrete jungles, New Jersey seems to have it all when it comes to landscapes. So is a drive through the state as good as a drive from coast to coast? Well, it is for the makers of "Buzzkill," an independent film with Saturday Night Live star Darrell Hammond that was shot around northern New Jersey over the last four weeks. The low-budget flick is a dark comedy about a writer down on his luck -- played by actor Daniel Raymont, who has played small television roles -- who drives from his home...

Former Head of UN Population Fund Reveals Longstanding Alliance with Catholics for a Free Choice Says Catholic Church Prior to John Paul II was Easier to Work With - "With the passing of Pope Paul VI, everything became much harder" By John-Henry Westen NEW YORK, August 31, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - During her 14 years at the helm of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Nafis Sadik always denied the organization's abortion advocacy even in the face of overwhelming evidence.  She did not directly name her pro-life enemies nor did she reveal her allies in the battle to establish a global...

Mrs. Dolores Flanagan’s Aug. 18 opinion (“Reining in guns in San Francisco”), in her defense of Mayor Newsom’s political attack on the gun show at the Cow Palace, missed the point. That is often the case when people light into a subject about which they know nothing. The mayor’s announcement that he would seek to end the gun show at the Cow Palace is part of his rapidly accelerating campaign for reelection. Unfortunately, the mayor has not always thoroughly vetted his announcements. The first in this string of announcements was that he planned to ban bottled water at city hall...

Has a mythical beast turned up in Texas? By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer August 31, 2007 Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it. But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra. "It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the...

State Rep. Mark Anderson, R-Mesa, is considering a challenge of freshman Democratic Congressman Harry Mitchell in next year's elections. Anderson, who is in his seventh term in the Arizona Legislature, has formed an exploratory committee for a possible run against Mitchell. Anderson is a Realtor and a member of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. If elected, he would be the only member of Congress to be part of the Unification Church. The Republican lawmaker cited Congress' low approval ratings in considering a run. In the Legislature, Anderson has favored tuition and school tax credits; abstinence education programs; and...

VIENNA, Austria - Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement Friday on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. A weeklong U.N. climate conference concluded that industrialized countries should strive to cut emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020. Experts said that target would serve as a loose guide for a major international climate summit to be held in December in Bali, Indonesia. "We have reached broad agreement on the main issues," said Leon Charles, a negotiator from Grenada...

Sweden Cuts Aid to Countries that Oppose its Pro-Abortion Stance Said to be "very concerned" about abortion policies of Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Peru Matthew Cullinan Hoffman CENTRAL AMERICA, August 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Sweden announced on Tuesday that it would completely sever aid to several countries that oppose its pro-abortion policy, including Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Peru. Although the government of Sweden did not publicly attribute the decision to the abortion policies of the Latin American nations, the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa yesterday quoted anonymous sources who stated that the Swedish leadership, "was very concerned about the...

China is taking action on the English translations of its restaurant menus in its campaign to brush up the country's image for next year's Olympics. The Beijing Tourism Bureau has released a list of 2,753 dishes and drinks it thinks could do with a wording rethink. Translations such as "virgin chicken" for a young chicken dish and "burnt lion's head" for pork meatballs are confusing for foreigners, it says. China has launched a major drive to present a good image next year. Spitting, littering and bad driving have all been targeted in a bid to stamp out bad habits in...

After One Year, Pro-Life Mexican President Gets 75% Positive Rating MEXICO CITY, August 31, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- After one year in office, Mexico's pro-life president Felipe Calderon is receiving positive poll ratings from a majority of Mexicans, according to a recent survey. The survey, sponsored by the Mexican publication Milenio, asked recipients "Has Felipe Calderón fulfilled his campaign promises?".  Eleven percent said "yes" and sixty-four percent said "Yes, to a certain extent", for a total of 75%.  Only 18% responded "No."  When asked if Calderon had performed better or worse than expected,  50% responded "better" and only 31% responded "worse"....

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese army helicopters stepped up raids Friday on al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north after five soldiers were killed, a senior military official said. A soldier died overnight Thursday and four other soldiers died in renewed fighting with Fatah Islam gunmen in the past two days in the besieged Nahr el-Bared camp, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity according to army regulations. The deaths raised to 153 the number of soldiers killed since fighting began May 20, he said. "The army is making a noticeable progress in its...

NEWBERRY, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says that if terrorists detonated a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city while he was president he would retaliate "in a very dramatic and clear way." Posed that scenario while campaigning Friday in this early primary state, Romney said he didn't want to say much more. "The answer is you would retaliate and you'd retaliate in a very dramatic and clear way. I don't want to be terribly more specific than that," the former Massachusetts governor said. "But there's no question that people understand that the reason that we have the thousands...

International Planned Parenthood Federation Launches New Abortion Campaign in Europe Uses strongly anti-religious language By Maciej Golubiewski BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, August 31, 2007 (C-Fam.org) - Using strongly anti-religious language, the European branch of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has recently issued a document entitled "Why We Need to Talk about Abortion" calling for the legalization of abortion in the European Union (EU).  While acknowledging that the member states retain "ultimate responsibility" for abortion legislation, the IPPF-Europe urges the EU Commission and the European Parliamentarians to act "despite this mandate" to "drive the issues forward" and "keep them high on the...

Massive Study Finds Pre-School and Early Child Education Initiatives Show No Benefit Other studies found marked negative effects from preschool including brain chemistry damage, aggression, negative social and emotional development, illness By John-Henry Westen LONDON, August 31, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A six year comparison of almost 35,000 children has shown that there has been no change in developmental levels of pupils entering primary school in this period, despite the introduction of several new early years' initiatives over the past decade, new research from Durham University's Curriculum, Evaluation and Management (CEM) Centre reveals. The research, presented Tuesday at the biennial European...