Free Republic

Conservatives should rethink their support for John P. Walters, who has been nominated by President Bush to head the Drug Enforcement Administration. While they are at it, they should reconsider their commitment to the war on drugs, which is destroying our freedom. Walters is a good man, and he would pursue drugs energetically. The problem with Walters is that he would pursue drugs at too high a cost to our civil liberties and privacy, and at the expense of the sovereignty of Latin American countries. The conservatives' war on drugs is an example of good intentions that have had unfortunate ...

TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Walter WilliamsQUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEWtownhall.comWalter Williams (back to story)August 1, 2001Riot ideology and de-policing A Seattle policeman explained de-policing as: "Parking under a shady tree to work on a crossword puzzle is a great alternative to being labeled a racist and being dragged through an inquest, a review board, an FBI and U.S. attorney investigation, and a lawsuit." According to columnist John Leo, that's precisely what's happening in Cincinnati in the wake of the city's recent riots. There's less patrolling to prevent low-level crimes. Policemen await ...

TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Linda BowlesQUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEWtownhall.comLinda Bowles (back to story)August 1, 2001Leaving the moral mainstream In mid-July, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an organization of "moderate" Democrats, held a two-day meeting in Indianapolis to critique the 2000 presidential defeat and to develop political strategies for rescuing their party from left-wing radicals. Political strategist Al From and other leading Democrats founded the DLC 16 years ago in response to two stinging presidential losses to Ronald Reagan. They were convinced that their party lost the White House because it ...

TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Jacob SullumQUICK LINKS: HOME | NEWS | OPINION | RIGHTPAGES | CHAT | WHAT'S NEWtownhall.comJacob Sullum (back to story)August 1, 2001When the chips are off In his 1996 State of the Union address, President Clinton urged Congress "to pass the requirement for a V-chip in TV sets, so that parents can screen out programs they believe are inappropriate for their children." He said the technology would enable parents "to assume more personal responsibility for their children's upbringing." This was an odd way to characterize the V-chip, which actually represented an abdication of parental responsibility. Instead of ...

Well, I guess Honor and Dignity can take you only so far. These were the qualities George W. Bush promised to bring, or in his less charitable moments, to "restore," to the Oval Office. But along the way, W. forgot to tuck into his little tote bag some other attributes that might have proved more useful: engagement, concern, energy (and not the kind you get by drilling in ANWR). As President Bush was slouching toward summer hibernation in dusty Crawford, former President Bill Clinton was grooving at his summer coming-out party in jazzy Harlem. Standing next to Chuck Schumer in ...

The Democratic Party showed Washington its sense of humor by naming Terry McAuliffe to lead the Democratic National Committee. He hasn't disappointed. He continues making us want to laugh. Start with the concept that the nation's biggest bloviators for "campaign finance reform" picked as their top dog one of the country's most notorious soft money abusers. Consider that the same party whose congressional investigators are breathing heavily over teapot tempests like Karl Rove's tardy stock sales is led by a man who's seemingly always in the shadows of sleazy schemes, like the illegal DNC-Teamsters fundraising swap that killed union boss ...

For your convenience… After-Action Reports, news articles, pictures and other relevant threads regarding the Tyranny Response Team (TRT), Second Amendment Sisters, FReepers, other individuals and organizations involved in the July 14, 2001 National TRT Protest Rally (hosted by TRT-NY) at the United Nations Small Arms "Disarmament" Conference are listed here: AAR: DC Metro Patriots at UN Rally http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b51b45e42f4.htm ADL lists UN protest with KKK events http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b5f48a329dc.htm European, U.S. gun makers SELLOUT American gunowners' privacy rights, facilitate World Police state http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b4dbe265803.htm Global Gun Controllers Surrender to U.S. http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b5e9ce62ddf.htm IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST: An Encounter with the UN!!! http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a3b53bda03d35.htm More ...

Are you for humans or for suckerfish? That's the issue in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where armed U.S. federal marshals are guarding the irrigation canal gates to keep the river from flowing to 1,400 farms that will soon be out of business if they don't get water. On July 12, Oregon's Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith offered Amendment 899 to release the river water to the farmers. That should have been a no-brainer - what could be easier than choosing between desperate farmers and a couple of ugly fish? Smith's amendment lost on a roll-call vote in which all Democrats ...

A diverse team of world-renowned experts, including two Nobel laureates and the world's most famous heart surgeon, make up an independent task force created by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to take a focused look at the budget and management challenges facing the International Space Station program. "In the last year, we have successfully carried out all of the 14 scheduled assembly missions to the International Space Station. We did so with unbelievable precision and execution, completing the second phase of space station construction," said Administrator Goldin. "It's an incredible management and engineering achievement, but we must ensure it is ...

REVIEW & OUTLOOKBallot Fixing Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter's recipe for more Floridas. Wednesday, August 1, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT In an effort to spare Americans another grueling encounter with dimpled chads and butterfly ballots, a 19-member commission co-chaired by former Presidents Ford and Carter has weighed in with ideas to improve our nation's decentralized election systems. Avoiding the confusion of another Florida is a worthy idea, but we hope Congress thinks carefully before adopting some of the commission's ideas, because some of them could wind up making elections more uncertain and likely to end up in disputes. That ...

STEPHEN NEAL, a world champion wrestler, was captain of the wrestling team at California State University-Bakersfield when the school cut the team. It wasn't a question of resources. There were just too many male athletes. Federal law made CSU do it. Between 1981 and 1999, NCAA and NAIA colleges eliminated 40% of their wrestling teams. In a related development, at the 2000 Olympics in Australia, U.S. freestyle wrestlers failed to win a single gold medal for the first time since 1968. Men's teams are being decimated in pursuit of an insane feminist dream that has morphed into federal policy: to ...

Future Shock: Wild Wired East After the gold rush, free market Shenzhen is reinventing itself as China's Silicon Valley, by Tom Hilditch Hang around the True Colour Bar in Shenzhen, China's white-hot high-tech city, and you'll hear the same two names again and again: Bill Gates and Karl Marx. The obsession with Gates is obvious enough: Some 60% of this infant city's explosive economy is high tech. And with the world's largest and fastest developing nation to plug and wire, most people here feel the boom hasn't even begun. "We're Silicon Valley 10 years ago," says Vincent Ma, holding court ...

W A S H I N G T O N, July 31 — President Bush is trying to generate new momentum behind key White House initiatives before he retreats to the comfort of his ranch in Crawford, Texas, leaving behind a mixed record of success in pursuing his legislative agenda. "There's an energy bill working its way through Congress … that recognizes that while on the one hand we must conserve, we also must find additional sources of energy," the president told reporters in the Oval Office today as he signed an executive order on electricity conservation. "It is ...

Bush endorses principles of election law reportPresident steers clear of specificsWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush heartily endorsed the key principles of a report on election law change Tuesday, but left details to Congress.In a Rose Garden ceremony Tuesday, Bush formally received the report from the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. The commission was co-chaired by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford."The commissioners offered many recommendations to strengthen our electoral system," Bush said. "Those recommendations are grounded in four fundamental principles which I heartily endorse and recommend to the Congress."Those principles, he said, are: -- The federal government ...

In an open letter to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chairman Julian Bond, conservative civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson accused his group Tuesday of putting the interests of the Democratic Party ahead of the well being of African-Americans. "It has become clear to me and other observers, black and white, that the NAACP no longer stands for the advancement of black people, but instead, stands for the advancement of the Democratic Party and its partisan platforms," Peterson said. "This is evidenced by your virtual endorsements of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in their bids for ...

Make Room for China: In the very near future Chinese tech companies will change the global competitive landscape by JASON CHUN SHEN CHEN (general manager of Intel Corp.'s Asia-Pacific operations) Not everyone can live comfortably with another country's success and rapid development. In a global economy, at least in the short run, one nation's surplus is another's deficit, and a production line installed in one country can mean one will have to close in another. China is becoming the focus of such fears. The world is waking up to what it can already do, and to its awesome potential. It ...

On Tuesday, July 31st over, 1,000 hard-working taxpayers from all across North Carolina gathered on the lawn next to the Legislative Office Building to protest Governor "Tax Hike Mike" Easley's plan to raise taxes on the backs of working North Carolinians. The Tar Heel Tea Party was spearheaded by conservative talk show host Jerry Agar of Raleigh's WPTF 680AM, Mike Findley of Winston-Salem's WSJS, N. C. Citizens for a Sound Economy, the John Locke Foundation, and the N. C. Republican Party. The rally featured a number of speakers, including Locke Foundation president John Hood, NC CSE Director Jonathan Hill, state ...

Bush hopes to slay energy 'vampires' with executive orderWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saying that "federal agencies must lead the way for energy conservation," President Bush signed an executive order Tuesday that he hopes will slay energy "vampires" and lead to better energy conservation."One of the ways that our nation wastes energy is through what they call 'vampire devices,'" he said before he signed the order in an Oval Office ceremony. "These will be battery chargers, cell phone chargers, computer systems that we really think are not using energy when (they're) plugged in, but in fact are."The executive order requires federal ...

Bush visits Senate GOP caucusBy Dana Bash CNN Washington BureauWASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to rally Senate Republicans to press his agenda even though they no longer control the chamber.With the Senate preparing to leave Washington for a month-long recess, Bush thanked the senators for passing his tax cut and implored them to pass his education reform bill and faith-based social services initiative. Bush also reminded them to keep government spending down or risk a veto, among other things."We had a very good visit on a lot of range of issues," Bush said ...

NABLUS (August 1) - Hamas leaders vowed revenge for yesterday's IDF attack in Nablus in which eight Palestinians were killed, and called upon their military wing to attack Israeli politicians in response to the Israeli strikes. Killed in the attack were Jamal Mansour and Jamal Salim, two leading Hamas political figures; Muhammad al-Bitawi, 26, a local journalist; brothers Bilal, eight, and Ashraf Khader, five, from Jenin, who were passing by the building; Othman Katamani, 24; Abdel Munem Khalil, of Jenin; and Fahim Ibrahim Mustafa Dawabsheh. Three more are in hospital in very serious condition. According to hospital sources, their chances ...