Free Republic

This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Sikh family lost a court battle Monday in Muslim-majority Malaysia for the right to cremate one of their relatives after officials said the man had converted to Islam years before his death. ... Malaysia has a double-tier court system for civil matters — Muslims go to the Shariah court; non-Muslims go to secular courts. But in interfaith disputes, non-Muslims complain they lose out as Shariah courts get the final say and rarely rule in their favor.

CYPRESS - The owners of a home where a woman is accused of leaving her kids overnight while she was off smoking pot are working to clean up the residence so city officials can declare it habitable. Alison Le Anne Ebert, 35, turned herself in Tuesday after police found her 9- and 11-year-old daughters alone in a home filled with knee-deep trash piles, maggots and overflowing toilets. Authorities say the conditions were so bad that officials were forced to condemn the home. "According to code enforcement, they are going to have to replace the drywall and flooring," Cypress police...

Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust, warns Prince Charles The Prince of Wales has said that "Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust" in an apocalyptic warning that the Earth is on the brink of environmental disaster. By Urmee Khan, Digital and Media Correspondent 08 Jul 2009 Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust, warns Prince Charles Delivering this year's Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the Prince said that the next generation will face a "living hell" unless governments urgently tackle climate change and stop plundering the Earth's natural resources. "In failing the Earth, we...

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said a man shot and killed an 8-year-old child Wednesday afternoon and then shot himself. Deputies said Ricky Lee Blackwell picked up his estranged wife and the daughter of the woman's new boyfriend at about 3 p.m. He drove them to the woman's home on Ridings Road in the Cooley Springs community where the child, Heather Brooke Center, planned to swim and play with friends. Witnesses said that's when Center got out of the car and the man put her in a headlock and shot her four times, killing her. "He said...

We now have a a bi-partisan amendment that has the critical support from the Senate committees which have responsibility for the FSA and which is endorsed by the Administration (Customs and Border Production have signed off on it). That gives it a very good chance of making it through the process, but first we have to get it voted into the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. We're going to ask you to write yet again, because your letters and emails and faxes are WORKING. You are the ones who have made this happen

Miss Obama's peacenik T-shirt sends a message to G8 leaders By CHARLOTTE SPRATT 09th July 2009. Barack Obama's eldest daughter has a clear message for her father - it's time to get rid of the world's nuclear weapons. Just 48 hours after the U.S. President shook hands with Vladimir Putin over an agreement to reduce their stockpile of nuclear weapons, Malia spotted out wearing not one, but two anti-nuclear T-shirts. The 11-year-old wore tops bearing the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's famous symbol as her father prepared for three days of G8 talks in Italy. [Pic in URL] Statement: Malia Obama,...

President Barack Obama believes you get what you pay for -- in business, in health care and in teaching. And in each of those spheres, he doesn't think the way the U.S. pays professionals is designed to get what the nation really wants and needs. In executive suites, he says, we rewarded reckless risk-taking and got the worst recession in half a century. In doctors' offices and hospitals, we pay for more care instead of better care and get a wastefully expensive health-care system. In K-12 classrooms, we pay teachers, good and bad, for showing up instead of successful teaching...

Honduras views: Presidential crisis In Central America's worst crisis in a decade, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was sent into exile on Sunday amid a dispute over his proposals to change the constitution. Some Hondurans share their thoughts on the deposed leader with the BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Tegucigalpa: ARGENTINA DOMINGUEZ, Retired President Zelaya deceived us. He talked about democracy but then got too close to [Venezuelan President Hugo] Chavez. What hurts me most is that four years ago, I voted for him. But look at what he has done. We have become a haven for drug-runners. We have some of...

Last week Glenn got a call from a very impressive young man named Jerome Hudson, who told Glenn he had written an op-ed during the 2008 election on being a black conservative. He sent it in and it's fantastic. Enjoy! While attending a black fraternity party, I recently learned it’s a bad idea to profess one’s affinity for Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. Worse, according to current polls, it appears I may be the only black 22 year old in America who will be voting for Sen. John McCain. It’s not that I was unaware that...

Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women? JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to...

WASHINGTON -- Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E. Panetta has told lawmakers that the agency "concealed significant actions" from Congress, according to a letter released Wednesday from seven Democratic lawmakers. The letter also contends that Mr. Panetta said CIA officials have misled Congress since 2001. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes sent a separate letter on Tuesday to the top Republican on his committee saying that Mr. Panetta's appearance led him to conclude that the CIA had "affirmatively lied" to the committee. Mr. Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said the issues Mr. Panetta disclosed to the committee may lead to a...

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog, well-respected in the business community, yesterday published an open letter from Governor Palin's counsel, Thomas Van Flein, concerning the massive legal fees incurred by the Palin family in the course of responding to frivolous ethics complaints. The letter apparently bothered Democratic state representative Les Gara so much that he felt compelled to respond to it in the comments of the blog entry. (You remember Mr. Gara - he's the legislator who is so partisan that he has tell himself "Act Calm Les, Act Calm" at the thought of laying eyes on Barack Obama.) In...

Obama Tax Pledge Unrealistic Lawmakers are looking for more revenue to fund health care overhaul Wed., July 8, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama promised to fix health care and trim the federal budget deficit, all without raising taxes on anyone but the wealthiest Americans. It's a promise he's already broken and will likely have to break again. Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have already increased tobacco taxes — which disproportionately hit the poor — to pay for extending health coverage to 4 million children in working low-income families. Now, lawmakers are looking for more revenues to help pay for...

That's why MSNBC's Keith Olbermann completely overreacted by claiming the Department of Homeland Security should pay Scheuer and Beck a visit, because we need to "legally stop the people who view terrorism as acceptable means of effecting political change." Plus Olbermann just plain lied when he said Scheuer "issued a call for the head of Al-Qaeda to detonate a major weapon in the United States." I'm guessing Olbermann also wouldn't be able to tell the difference between "I think the Lakers will win the NBA Finals" and "Go Lakers!" See Olbermann's full jump off the deep end from the 1:57...

WASHINGTON — The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said Wednesday he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration. In an interview with The Associated Press, Sen. Chuck Schumer said an immigration bill can be done by the end of the year or early next year that works out disagreements between labor and business interests on the flow of legal foreign workers. "I think we'll have a good bill by Labor...

the title of the article Political rivals in Honduras accept mediation what caught my eye In Washington, the State Department said the U.S. has suspended military assistance programs estimated at $16.5 million and a few development assistance programs estimated at $1.9 million, all aimed at the Honduran government.

It used to be easy to predict who the next Republican presidential nominee would be. It was decided by primogeniture: The next oldest guy in line got to be the king. It’s not so easy looking to 2012, with former Vice President Dick Cheney out of the running and a woman, soon-to-be former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in.And I do believe she’s in — damaged in her chances, maybe, but fully intending to make a run and very popular with the shrinking hard core of the GOP.In the Democratic Party, primogeniture sometimes applies, as with Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and...

A majority of Americans now give President Obama's handling of the economy a negative rating and many economists and city officials are concerned that Obama's gargantuan stimulus effort has not given the expected quick boost to the economy. Some argue this is because funds have been slow in coming due to bureaucratic red tape meant to ensure that the money spent will not be wasted. Jared Bernstein, chief economist for the office of Vice President Joe Biden (who knew that the Vice President needed a chief economist?), is quoted as saying "We're hitting the right balance between speed and oversight."...