Free Republic

August confronts Rep. Gary Condit with some tough choices and some possibly unforgiving audiences. Chased by reporters the last three months, Condit on Friday starts a congressional summer recess with at least three other distinct audiences waiting to hear from him: his family, his constituents, and last, but not least, the distraught family of missing Modesto woman Chandra Levy. "I think he needs to talk to our family ... and to answer all our questions," Chandra Levy's aunt, Linda Zamsky, said Thursday. "His apology wouldn't mean anything to me at this point, but if he knows anything, to share that ...

One of the smartest op-ed pieces I've read recently is a crude right-wing rant by J. Peter Mulhern in the slightly wacky Washington Weekly. Why is it smart? Because Mulhern argues that the media's liberal bias is a blessing for conservatives and Republicans. Thanks to incessant press sniping, Republicans are never surprised by sneak attacks -- they "know who's going to pummel them, what they will be pummeled about, when they will be pummeled and where the pummeling will take place." Democrats, meanwhile, are lulled into a false confidence within a comforting cocoon of like-minded reporting and commentary. "The liberal ...

SALT LAKE CITY –– One of this city's newest business leaders gave some blunt advice to Utah: The state needs to show the world it's not ruled by the Mormon church if it hopes to lure business and take advantage of the 2002 Winter Games. Click here or on source for full article

In Lonzy Edwards' article (Racial Pride and Self Esteem are lost for African-Americans in the GOP, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, 12 Jul, 2001), he paints black conservatives with the same brush used to paint black liberals like himself. I can understand his "unalterable opposition" to everything Justice Clarence Thomas believes in, but regarding Thomas, the GOP, or conservatives in general, I don’t need any pseudo conservative to speak for ME. I am not now, nor have I ever been a Republican. I vote for ideas, ideals, principles and personal convictions, not for parties or people. I know this is unlike so ...

Hmmm, let's see. Maybe we aren't as outraged as we should be because Raleigh police Detective David Powell was off duty and working a second job as security for a nightclub when he got shot last week. Would the public outcry, of which I've heard little, be greater if Powell had been shot while, say, responding to a bank holdup instead of moonlighting at some sports bar? Probably. If we were smart, though, we'd be even angrier that he was shot while working off-duty. We'd be angrier still that he had to work while off duty. It defies logic that ...

Greens Say They Will Fill Political Void by John Nichols Condemning the conservatism of George W. Bush's Republicans and the caution of congressional Democrats, the new Green Party of the United States is moving to formalize its position as a progressive alternative to two-party politics. At the annual meeting of the Association of State Green Parties, the loose confederation of Green groups responsible for nominating Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke for president and vice president in 2000, activists from 30 states - including Wisconsin - agreed to create a formal Green Party of the United States. In coming weeks, ...

In Washington next week, many of America's most senior and experienced police leaders will gather at a conference sponsored by the Justice Department to discuss the current state of American policing. They will have a lot to talk about. Despite the historic crime reductions in the 1990's, for which police can justifiably claim much of the credit, American policing has become a deeply conflicted profession. Instead of being praised for the continuing declines in crime, police are increasingly criticized on a number of issues and for a wide variety of failings. As Gilbert and Sullivan put it more than 100 ...

School board eliminates standard to teach creationism Professor says religious views of creation are not science By Crystal Kua Star-Bulletin Multiple theories of origin such as Bible-based creationism won’t be taught in public school science classses alongside evolution due to a state Board of Education decision tonight. The board voted unanimously to deleted language from performance standards for science that were added in committee -- language that would have opened the door to the teaching of creationism as another scientific theory. Click here for rest of article.

Just one Chandra report.Dan Rather has emerged as the leading candidate to land a blockbuster interview with Rep. Gary Condit - which could explain the CBS anchor's near-total silence on the Chandra Levy case, sources told The Post yesterday. Rather has moved to the front of the pack as a slew of networks and cable stations have been in competitive negotiations with officials from Condit's office for the summer's "must get" exclusive with the embattled California Democrat. Rather could have an in with Condit because he has mentioned the Chandra story only once on the air - last month, in ...

Bush to defend affirmative action policy Friday, August 3, 2001 By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — The White House is preparing to defend a federal affirmative action policy at the heart of a politically charged case the Supreme Court will hear this fall, administration sources say. To the dismay of some conservatives, the Bush administration plans to file a legal brief by an Aug. 10 deadline backing a Department of Transportation program designed to help black and other minority highway contractors, the sources say. The case, arising from a challenge by a white contractor in Colorado, is the first ...

Report says agent-commandos infiltrated Amman, stopped on way to West Bank © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com An estimated 800 Iraqi commandos, the bulk of the force that stole into Jordan two weeks ago, remain pinned down in Jordan’s eastern desert in two places – around Wadi Athner and near the town of Ruwayshid, report the intelligence sources of DEBKA-Net-Weekly. The incursion into Jordan by Iraqi military forces was first reported jointly by Debka and WorldNetDaily last week. Official sources in the U.S. and Israeli governments have denied any knowledge of the Iraqi incursion to WorldNetDaily. However, small groups of the first batch ...

Watchdog group: GOP fund-raiser a 'scam'    By Jay Stapleton    The Times Herald-Record    jstapleton@th-record.com        Middletown – A government watchdog group has slammed a GOP fund-raising campaign that targeted a Middletown doctor – and thousands more – calling the practice "a classic boiler room telemarketing scam."    But local Republican lawmakers, including Benjamin A. Gilman, R-Greenville, remained silent on the practices of the National Republican Congressional Committee yesterday.    In a statement issued by the government watchdog group Common Cause, president Scott Harshbarger called the practices of the NRCC and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, "predatory, sleazy and downright deceptive."    As part ...

File this one under "B" for "banana peel": AP National 'Mockingbird' Taken Off Reading List MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) -- "To Kill a Mockingbird," the classic Harper Lee novel that explores racial tensions in a small southern town, has been pulled from the required reading list for freshmen at Muskogee High School. "It's a great book. It teaches life lessons," said Principal Terry Saul. But the book contains racially charged language and innuendoes and "we didn't want to put any kids in an uncomfortable situation." Any student who wants to read the book, which describes a lawyer's battle to defend a ...

OHRID - A key legislator in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) complained bitterly yesterday about US efforts to halt the flow of weapons into this troubled Balkan country, arguing that guns are needed for government forces battling ethnic Albanian insurgents. Speaking at a rally during FYROM's main national holiday, Parliament Speaker Stojan Andov protested that "the international community had shifted from its earlier condemnation of the rebels" to "trying now to block our imports of weapons." Despite a breakthrough Wednesday on some aspects of a peace plan, Andov, speaking in the central FYROM town of Kursevo on the ...

NEW YORK — While some Hollywood summer offerings this year have pulled in big box-office bucks, they haven't exactly been critical successes. Even Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, major works from two of the country's most widely respected directors, have been panned by many critics and expectant fans. But the re-release of a 1979 classic is serving as a reminder of the kind of epic filmmaking that has all but disappeared from mainstream movies. And that has some critics calling Francis Ford Coppola's re-edit of his Apocalypse Now the best film ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pro-gun forces have won their latest congressional skirmish as the Senate endorsed President Bush's plan to eliminate a 2-year-old program that has helped local police buy firearms from the public. By a 65-33 vote, the Senate rejected on Thursday a proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to provide $15 million for Buyback America. The program was created by President Clinton, but the Bush administration pledged last month to eliminate it because of a lack of evidence that it was effective. ''Crime goes up,'' Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said Thursday. ''We spend money. Great photo opportunity. But ...

Yesterday, scientists announced to the world the alarming results of a recent analysis that found the presence of female hormones in beer. This comes as a cruel blow to all men. It is advised that if you are male between the ages of 18 and 85 you may need to seek medical assistance to reassess your beer consumption. THE TEST: 100 men were fed 8 pints of beer each within a 1 hour period. THE RESULT: 100% of the men: 1. Gained weight 2. Talked excessively without making sense 3. Became overly emotional 4. Couldn't drive 5. Failed to think ...

A Gross Domestic SituationThe latest GDP report makes the recession official. Mr. Kudlow, CEO of Kudlow & Co., and Economics Editor of National Review Online.August 3, 2001 8:45 a.m.   Printer-Friendly E-mail a Friend Kudlow Archive It's a recession. The headlines don't tell the story, but it's the real story. Stock-market investors have known it for over a year. People in business know it as inventories and jobs have been slashed. The latest government report on the nation's gross domestic product for the April-June quarter revealed that the heart of the U.S. economy has indeed slipped into recession. It's ...

Narco-Corruption at U.S. Customs Service Ex-Agent Files Federal Lawsuit Accusation: $250,000 bribes to let Cocaine Trucks Pass and Sec. Rubin Did Nothing The Narco News Bulletin has obtained a copy of a federal lawsuit filed this week in United States Court in San Diego, California, by former U.S. Customs agent John Carman against the Customs Service Commissioner, the U.S. Treasury Secretary and various federal and local police officials. In the interests of the public's right to know about public documents, we republish the entire lawsuit today on Narco News: http://www.narconews.com/carmancomplaint.html The accusations by Officer Carman reach to the highest levels ...