Free Republic

When the Bush administration lands on the same side of an issue as The New York Times editorial board, Sen. Hillary Clinton and the Sierra Club, it's time to clear out the cockpit. The administration's latest junk science decision should cause Bush supporters to wonder: Is Al Gore secretly manning the EPA? This week, Bush's Environmental Protection Agency ordered General Electric Co. to fork over nearly half a billion dollars to dredge up long-buried chemicals from New York's Hudson River. That's exactly what the Clinton-Gore administration proposed in an eleventh-hour decree last year -- despite heated opposition from local ...

Cheney Sees 'Some Justification' in Israeli Attacks Photos Reuters Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has said that Israel had ``some justification'' when it deliberately killed Palestinians thought to be planning bombings. In remarks that contradict State Department policy on the attacks, Cheney told Fox News on Thursday. ``If you've got an organization that has plotted or is plotting some kind of suicide bomber attack, for example, and they (the Israelis) have hard evidence of who it is and where they're located, I think there's some justification in their trying to protect themselves by preempting.'' State Department ...

Agency rates power plant, lines planENERGY: It tells concerns and calls for more studies of the project proposed for the Cleveland National Forest.BY C.J. SCHEXNAYDERTHE PRESS-ENTERPRISELAKE ELSINORE The U.S. Forest Service roundly criticized a project Thursday to put a hydroelectric plant and power lines in the Cleveland National Forest. In a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Forest Service questioned the handling of the project, opposed an abbreviated licensing procedure and noted that alternative routes need to be explored. A battery of environmental studies was also requested. Lee Di Gregorio, who is coordinating the project for the ...

At the official “South Park” web site, there is this short but piquant description of Wednesday night’s episode. Episode 507: Proper Condom Use Original Air Date: 08-01-2001 Thanks to Stan’s “handy” work, the children of South Park must endure sex education from the unlikely duo of Mr. Mackey and Ms. Choksondik. While the two adults take their lessons to heart, the children are left frightened, misinformed, and armed for battle against the opposite sex. Much hilarity ensues. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have spent the past four years slaughtering the sacred cows of liberalism and political correctness. They have scored ...

European paper wasp descends upon Michigan The Associated Press 8/3/01 4:04 AM PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan's newest group of European immigrants might already be building a colony in your neighborhood. The European paper wasp (Polistes dominulus) is being seen in southeast Michigan in large numbers for the first time. Experts don't know how the foreign wasps made it to Michigan, but they've been known to be living in the eastern United States since 1980. The wasps nest in cavities such as hollow trees, under deck rails or in roof eaves. But unlike natives wasps, the Europeans seem to have ...

President Bush to Address U.N. Updated: Fri, Aug 03 12:56 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will go to New York next month for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. Bush will address the General Assembly on Sept. 24 and remain in New York City through Sept. 26, using the occasion to meet foreign leaders and play host at a reception for heads of delegations, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Friday.

RAMALLAH — Last year, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat blasted Hizbullah as part of an Iranian plot to destabilize the regime. Today, Arafat has embraced Hizbullah as his strategic partner amid a debate within the Palestinian leadership regarding the future of the war with Israel. Palestinian sources said Arafat has allowed Hizbullah a free hand in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority chairman has granted Hizbullah permission to open offices in major cities and hold rallies. The result is that Hizbullah has become the fastest-growing movement in the West Bank. Palestinian sources said the Lebanese-based Shi'ite group is ...

THERE are three ancient institutions still functioning in modern Britain: the monarchy, the House of Lords, and the Corporation of London, the local authority that controls the City of London. But while the importance of the first two is much diminished, the Corporation, the least reformed of all, is more influential than it has been since its medieval heyday. Dating back to the early 12th century, it owes its survival to what Tony Travers, professor of local government at the London School of Economics, calls a “steely determination” to maintain its power. The Corporation is unique. It doubles as a ...

The leaders of several prominent pro-life and social- conservative organizations, joined by some of their allies in Congress, are warning President Bush that he risks demoralizing many of his core supporters if he flip-flops on his previously stated opposition to federal funding for stem cell research that involves killing human embryos. As late as May 18, Bush sent a letter to the Culture of Life Foundation, saying, "I oppose federal funding for stem-cell research that involves destroying living human embryos." Since then, however, Bush has indicated that he is deliberating whether to change his position. "This is an emotional ...

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White House Fact Sheet: 'Six Months of Accomplishment' U.S.Newswire, 8/3/2001 13:08 To: National Desk Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2580 WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the White House: Six Months of Accomplishment -- Education -- House passed May 23 (384-45); Senate passed June 14 (91-8) -- Tax Relief -- House passed May 26 (240-154); Senate passed May 26 (58-33); Signed June 7 -- Community & Faith-Based Agenda -- House passed July 19; bipartisan bill introduced in Senate -- Patient Protections -- House passed August 2; forged bipartisan solution on August 1 -- Energy ...

No joke, That's the headline on WashingtonPost.com. If you want to complain about the Posts continued Headline-ratcheting, email this address to complain: webnews@wpni.com. I've emailed twice and have gotten actual responses both times, including after yesterday's headline, announcing Bush's 59% job approval: "Bush Avoids Political Freefall--For Now"

The politics of the Northeast Dairy Compact continue to wind down a milky river (see “Do Milk Prices Need Fixing?” July 23). Pro-compact forces long have had a strategy to protect their price-fixing scheme, which expires Sept. 30. With the clock ticking down, the plan was set into motion this week by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). The plan is simple enough: Encourage other states to inflate prices so that the Northeastern states don’t have to stand alone. A bubble state such as Pennsylvania is perfect to buttress the scheme, so Specter is leading the way to let his dairy farmers ...

DAN CARPENTER The bucks stop here; this guilt shall pass August 03, 2001 Down payment on a Hummer? Donation to Radio Marti? Merry Maids gift certificate for Linda Chavez? What's a guy who did not vote for George W. Bush to do with this munificent gift from a forgiving president? If you know anything about my office, you can imagine the suggestions I've been hearing. The party line, of course, is that a presumed liberal, even if he did not vote Democratic in the last election, would simply send back his share of the Bush tax windfall -- unless he ...

Arnold Stephens could sell his Back Bay home and stash a half-million dollars in the bank. Instead, the 97-year-old man eats in soup kitchens and hitchhikes to get around. Nearly every day, Stephens shuffles out of his Beacon Street brownstone in a rumpled brown suit, sticks out his thumb, and asks strangers to drive him to the T, the Prudential Center, or one of the churches he frequents for free meals. With no savings and only about $14,000 a year from his pension and Social Security, Stephens is one of about 2,100 elderly homeowners in Boston - and nearly ...

I recently had an opportunity to get into a debate with a co-worker while on a business trip about current issues/ills facing the American culture. One of the main topics we focused on was public education and how it has deteriorated over the last generation. I brought up that I had seen some information on FR that was kind of interesting and asked if he'd like to read it if I could find it.What I am looking for are two items:1. Someone posted a copy of a test from a long time ago (maybe early 1900's) of a "graduation" type ...

On his election George W. Bush quickly found himself with a self-styled best foreign pal — British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose spin doctors insisted that their man’s previous Third-Way comradeship with Bill Clinton would prove no bar to Blair becoming the Republican’s indispensable go-between in Europe. But it seems not to be working out that way. State Department sources say testiness has entered the “special relationship” since it has dawned on Downing Street that the Bush administration wasn’t especially looking for a go-between and that increasingly the British are at odds with the defense and environmental policies the White ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A U.N. report released Friday reveals the existence of not just one but three videotapes related to the abduction of three Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border and indications they may have been badly injured, and could be dead. It acknowledges that on humanitarian grounds, the United Nations should have informed Israel of a report from the deputy commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon. His report said the quantity of blood seen the day after the abduction in vehicles believed to have been used by the Hezbollah kidnappers made it likely that the ...

Governors Gather for Summer Meeting By WILL LESTER The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Public discussions planned for the summer meeting of the nation's governors will cover the usual: urban sprawl, education, Medicaid. But a leading topic of their private sessions is certain to be the slowing national economy. The economic slowdown has complicated virtually every function in a statehouse, from balancing a budget to running a state to running for re-election. ``I advise my friends, if you want to be governor, do it while the economy's good,'' said Kentucky's Democratic governor, Paul Patton. ``When the economy's slowing down, it ...

Christendom College is one of 30 distinguished colleges/universities which, Insight has found, still teach the fullness of the Western academic traditions. Some colleges and universities pursue political correctness (PC) with a curious fanaticism, seeming to relish the limelight each outrageous move attracts, whether it’s co-ed dorms (now long-established on many campuses) or some new rule on impermissible speech (an ever-changing category). Wesleyan University in Connecticut comes to mind. So does Swarthmore College near Philadelphia. Other American schools (their number is legion) seem internally engaged in a perpetual pitched battle between political correctness and those who oppose it, with the “progressive” ...