Free Republic

"Firefighters struggling to contain a blaze in central Washington State that ultimately killed four of their own were hampered in their efforts by a federal policy to protect endangered fish, Fox News has learned. "Firefighters were unable to douse the deadly fire in Okanogan National Forest in Winthrop, Wash., in July because of delays in granting permission for fire-fighting helicopters to use water from nearby streams and rivers protected by the Endangered Species Act, according to sources close to the fire. " When people are left to burn to death so the poor widdle fishies may live, it is time ...

New West breeding new feuds between local, federal authorities By Scott Sonner, Associated Press, 8/2/2001 13:23 FALLON, Nev. (AP) A battle over cattle grazing in Nevada's high desert is pitting lawman against lawman. When federal officers seized the herds of two local ranchers from government land last week, only a stern warning from the U.S. attorney stopped a pair of county sheriffs from blocking the roundup. Now, dozens of ranchers and states-rights activists are holding protests at the livestock yard where the captured cattle are being kept, a sheriff is pressing a legal offensive against future seizures and local authorities ...

Thursday August 2 12:58 PM ET Arafat Calls for Monitors, Israel Battles Criticism By Michael Rose JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on Thursday for a halt to all violence in the Middle East and the immediate appointment of international observers to the region. Meanwhile Israel battled mounting criticism of its missile attack on the offices of the militant Islamic movement Hamas, which killed eight people including two children in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday. The attack sparked an upsurge in the violence that has raged in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since a ...

Palestinian rage turns on collaborators Suzanne Goldenberg in Nablus Thursday August 2, 2001 The Guardian The field commanders of the Palestinian intifada declared open season on suspected traitors in their ranks yesterday, the day after Israeli helicopter gunships carried out the most devastating attack of the 10 months of uprising. Tens of thousands of furious mourners buried the eight killed in Tuesday night's raid, who included the two most popular leaders of Hamas in the West Bank and two young boys, to the steady crackle of gunfire and chants of revenge. But while the anger at Israel was paramount, the ...

A 15-year-old boy died Wednesday after accidentally shooting himself while using the barrel of a shotgun to break into a car, police said. Oliver Shepphard of the 5000 block of South Loomis Street was pronounced dead at 2:10 a.m., the Cook County medical examiner's office said.

The alert passengers and driver on an Egged bus from Jerusalem to Kiryat Shmona prevented a mass murder shortly before 1:00 PM today. An Arab carrying a bag attempted to board the bus via the rear door but was instructed to enter up front. He immediately aroused the suspicion of the driver and others. Two soldiers jumped him and pinned him down, while distancing him from the bag. Police arrived at the scene and safely detonated the powerful three mortar shells that he was carrying. In his interrogation, the teenage terrorist said that he was handed the explosives shortly before ...

T R A D I T I O N A L V A L U E S C O A L I T I O N PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 2, 2001 For more information contact: Steve Aiken, 202-547-8570 Why Have Senate Democrats Slammed The Door In God’s Face? Washington, DC – "Senate Democrats are apparently not satisfied with demoting Republicans on Senate Committees. Now they’ve decided to demote God as well," said Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of Traditional Values Coalition today. "Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has just exposed an undercurrent of anti-God bigotry in the U.S. ...

Nail gun accident X-ray proves one for the books August 2, 2001BY JANET MCCONNAUGHEY In the dog days of August, we find our news wherever we ca n. When the carpenter walked into the emergency room, only the head of the 3-inch nail could be seen against the red inside surface of his lower eyelid. The eyelid was pinned open. An X-ray and CAT scan revealed that the nail, shot from a co-worker's nail gun, had missed a half dozen vital areas by an eighth of an inch. ''This has got to be the luckiest guy in the world. He ...

Judiciary Committee unanimously recommends Robert Mueller to be director of FBI By Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press, 8/2/2001 13:10 WASHINGTON (AP) FBI Director-designate Robert Mueller came a step closer to confirmation Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended his nomination to the Senate. The vote in the committee was 19-0, and the Senate is expected to approve the nomination either late Thursday or Friday. Mueller, U.S. attorney in San Francisco and a former Justice Department official who has served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, was tapped to help steer the FBI back on course. The bureau has been ...

Time for the gadfly to pay up Barry Cooper and David Bercuson Calgary Herald It's time the Canadian government came to grips with the real world of international diplomacy instead of pursuing its current hippie-dippy aims of world peace based primarily on unbridled love and unsecured trust. Last week's outburst by John Manley, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, against the United States for refusing to sign an international convention designed to enforce the 1972 treaty against the use of germ warfare is just the latest proof that the ephemeral, left-wing dreams of Mr. Manley's predecessor, Lloyd Axworthy, still dominate the ...

When columnist Robert Kuttner writes on politics and economics, I pay attention. Kuttner, a liberal, acknowledges that the vaunted Invisible Hand can indeed produce a booming economy, but he is quick to point out it is no guarantee of a humane and just community. But even the most sensible of men can be wrong, which is exactly what Bob Kuttner was, recently, when he wrote about the language of abortion: "All of us can be described as pro-life. Most Americans don't like abortion but don't consider it as murder ..." That's just not right. In fact, it's dead wrong. In ...

Thought some of you might be interested in this. In NYC, radio station WEVD, one of the remaining independent stations in the country, has been sold to Disney, and starting Sept 1. it will be all sports-radio ESPN. WEVD (named for socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs) carried Alan Colmes late nite talk show, as well as former NYC Mayor Ed Koch's show. Colmes had about 4 people listening each night, his parents, his aunt, and once..

Powell says reports of friction with other top Bush administration officials are exaggerated By Barry Schweid, Associated Press, 8/1/2001 18:16 WASHINGTON (AP) Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday he has argued with other senior members of the Bush administration on foreign policy but accounts of friction are highly exaggerated. When there are differences ''people take it to the level of a capital crime,'' Powell said on CNN's Inside Politics. ''There's always this noise level within Washington. I've been in a number of administrations and I've seen it,'' Powell said. Responding to questions about differences within the administration on dealing ...

JERUSALEM (August 2) - Israel will continue its policy of targeting Palestinian terrorists, despite the strong American criticism of Tuesday's helicopter attack on Hamas's Nablus headquarters, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told US Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday. Sharon spoke with Powell and other world leaders to explain Israel's position that it is necessary to target terrorists before they commit attacks in order to save lives and prevent a massive terrorist outrage that would escalate the conflict. "Israel reserves the right to defend its citizens, just like the US, " Sharon told Powell, explaining that Israel's policy would be unnecessary ...

Foresters call off test of open wildernesses 08/02/01 MICHAEL MILSTEIN Mount Hood National Forest managers have withdrawn their decision that allowed unlimited use of wilderness areas on Mount Hood after wilderness advocates argued the plan did not do enough to protect the very solitude wilderness is supposed to provide. The step means that forest managers may have to consider limiting the number of people using the Mount Hood, Salmon-Huckleberry and Hatfield wilderness areas, an option opposed by local outdoor groups. The wilderness plan, released in December, was the first test of a new U.S. Forest Service strategy for managing busy ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday voted against President Bush's choice to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission (news - web sites), dealing the new administration its first nomination setback. The vote was a potentially fatal blow for Mary Sheila Gall, who had been assailed by Democrats as too pro-business in her votes as a member of the commission. She was defeated in a party-line vote of 12-11. ``My years of public service to this country simply do not merit today's vote,'' Gall, the only Republican on the three-member commission, said in a statement. ``My whole life, ...

COURTLAND MILLOY'S COLUMN in Monday's paper titled "Colin Powell: Bush Man or Black Man" is a good example of the institutional racism at the Washington Post. This is the second racist column in a month written by a black staffer. It suggests that Secretary of State Colin Powell is somehow not "black," since he has failed to support the UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) with sufficient enthusiasm. What is wrong with the UN conference, which proposes to focus on Zionism and reparations against white governments? In the first place, there are several racial genocides being in conducted in Africa ...

Senator Raised Just $21,000 in First Six Months of '01 Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) raised just $21,000 during the first six months of the year, intensifying speculation he may retire in 2002. Thompson's weak fundraising - the most notable finding in a review of Senate reports due to be filed this week with the Federal Election Commission - placed him squarely at the bottom of Senators up for re-election next year. Still, it does appear to reflect a recent trend for the actor turned politician, who enjoys a powerful fundraising perch as a member of the Senate Finance Committee; ...

A second Holocaust is in the making and the destruction of Israel's Jewish population will be achieved in the same way as was the first one that ran from 1939 to 1945 under the direction of the Nazi Third Reich of Germany. In the first, the so-called civilized nations of the world turned a blind eye to the "laws" imposed on Germany's Jews and later the military dictates as that nation conquered Europe to the west and east. In the conquered nations, the peasants of Poland, Croatia, Lithuania and elsewhere were set loose upon their neighbors. George F. Will, writing ...

Police Arrest Neighbor Following Neighborhood Dispute LONGMONT, Colo. -- A 24-year-old Longmont man is on life support after he was hit in the head with a tree branch over a neighborhood dispute. Jason David Parra, 24, was listed in critical condition at Longmont United Hospital on Thursday after the incident that occured late Tuesday. Police arrested Mark Allan Klag, 41, on a charge of suspected first-degree assault. He's being held in the Boulder County Jail under a $500,000 bond. Witnesses told police that Parra was riding the ATV near his parents' home about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Parra circled the block, ...