Free Republic

<p>Rep. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, has decided to challenge Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson in 2002, Roll Call reports, citing anonymous Republican sources.</p> <p>Mr. Thune is expected to announce his candidacy late this month or in early October, reporters John Bresnahan and Chris Cillizza write.</p>

<p>Shortly after President Bush said he would issue plans to improve the handling of illegal aliens in September, the two ranking Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said they would oppose immigration-reform legislation until the administration proposes plans to reform the Immigration and Naturalization Service.</p>

<p>The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday warned President Bush that he would face a "difficult fight" with congressional Democrats over his defense budget and denounced the administration's missile-defense plan as a "theological mission."</p> <p>Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, who took over the committee leadership from Sen. Jesse Helms after the Republicans lost control of the Senate earlier this year, asked Mr. Bush to re-prioritize his budget proposal to reflect the military's "real needs" and the hard economic times.</p>

The suicide bomb attack on Ahmed Shah Masood, the leader of the Afghan opposition, has dealt a deadly blow to world attempts to hold the Taleban in check. The “Lion of Panjshir”, feared dead by Washington and Islamabad, may yet be clinging to life; but the attackers, by reaching his stronghold, have shredded his mantle of invincibility. He has been the last of the commanders still holding out against the Islamic extremists. From his stronghold in the Panjshir Valley, where he once fought off more than a dozen Soviet offensives, he has kept alive the resistance to a regime ...

<p>The Bush administration is increasingly blaming the Palestinians alone for the Middle East violence — adopting a pro-Israel stance that has sparked anti-Americanism in the Arab world.</p> <p>"If you call asking people not to be violent placing the onus on them, then it is," a senior administration official said in an interview late last week.</p>

<p>A broad coalition of conservative and civil liberties groups wants assurances that the Bush administration's war on drugs will respect constitutional rights and the privacy of citizens.</p> <p>Bringing together such diverse groups as the American Civil Liberties Union and the social conservative Eagle Forum, the ad-hoc Coalition for Constitutional Liberties has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to question President Bush's top drug-policy nominee on issues of electronic surveillance and other law-enforcement tactics that they say violate citizens' Fourth Amendment rights.</p>

Pork or tombstones? &copy;&nbsp;2001&nbsp;David H. Hackworth Will pork win over combat readiness? This is the question every American should be pondering. Because contrary to all the "they're-good-to-go hype" from presidents past and present, our military is on its butt. Most of its equipment – designed to fight Cold War battles – is worn out or obsolete. Much of its infrastructure is rotting from wear and tear or too-long-deferred maintenance – and many of its lower-rankers are working and living in ghettos that do nothing for morale or retention. Without a vital injection of modernization – and even more important, ...

<p>Negotiations on a United Nations document on the world's children have dragged into a third week as U.S., European and Latin American delegates remain deadlocked on abortion rights language.</p> <p>One session went as late as 3 a.m. for negotiators hammering out "A World Fit for Children," a 36-page document that will set U.N. policy on treatment of minors around the world.</p>

<p>Black leaders yesterday accused the U.S. government of "orchestrating" distractions during last week's U.N. conference on racism in South Africa, calling the action President Bush's "biggest debacle" to date.</p> <p>"Our [delegation] felt the necessity to guarantee that America would not be perceived solely through the prism of the U.S. government's vacillation, contrivances and manipulation of issues surrounding the [conference] agenda," said Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, executive director of the Black Leadership Forum.</p>

<p>Democrats in a rush to avoid blame for the slumping economy are suddenly free-lancing in their calls for more tax cuts, upstaging not only Republicans but also their own party leaders.</p> <p>"The economy has got to the point where the Senate Democrats are saying, 'We're not the minority party, and we've got to come up with our own ideas,'" said Chris Lapetina, a Democratic political consultant.</p>

<p>Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday carried his battle to reform the military from the field to the bureaucracy, saying he has ordered commanders to reduce headquarters staff by 15 percent next year.</p> <p>In a major policy speech festooned with military imagery, the defense secretary began a campaign to rid the Pentagon of overlapping bureaucracies, which he said pose "a threat, a serious threat, to the security of the United States of America."</p>

An exercise in futility? &copy;&nbsp;2001&nbsp;WorldNetDaily.com Last Thursday, the White House hastily configured a Rose Garden event to announce President Bush's designation of former Senator John Danforth to be his special envoy for Sudan. Unfortunately, unless a House-Senate conference committee expected to convene today (September 11) defies the immense pressure being brought to bear by the Bush administration, Wall Street, foreign oil companies and trade interest groups, Sen. Danforth can probably forget about doing anything useful in his new capacity. In fact, his mission may actually prove detrimental to the quest for a just peace for the people of Sudan. ...

Good news in the shrinking surplus &copy;&nbsp;2001&nbsp;WorldNetDaily.com Recently, the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office released some sobering news to the drunks in the United States Congress. The projected surpluses, which have produced new rounds of binge spending among elected representatives who get their highs from the money of hard working taxpayers coming into the treasury, are shrinking. This is good news, not bad news, for those who recognize that the federal government is too large and want to put those out-of-control big spenders in Congress "on the wagon." The Bush tax cut did not ...

<p>The virtually voiceless attorney general, John Ashcroft, is squandering a bully pulpit opportunity to influence the constitutional rulings of both federal and state courts. He is leaving unaddressed controversial areas that divided President Bush and rival Al Gore, including abortion, affirmative action, church-state relations and federalism.</p>

David Broder, trash mouth &copy;&nbsp;2001&nbsp;WorldNetDaily.com The illustrious David Broder wrote a column a couple of weeks ago for the Washington Post that shows why he remains one of the darlings of the beltway media establishment. Titled, "Jesse Helms, white racist," this was determined to be the official political epitaph of the man known as "Senator No, R-N.C." Broder attacked his media establishment colleagues in a way they love to be attacked – for being too nice to conservatives and Republicans. Broder claims it wasn't Helms' conservative credentials that set him apart among his colleagues. It was his racism. "What ...

Jury Verdict Set Aside On Potato As Weapon By MARK PAZNIOKASThe Hartford Courant Sep 11 2001 12:00AM Luckily for Alpha McQueen, U.S. District Chief Judge Alfred V. Covello concluded Monday in Hartford that the drug dealer threatened three women in January 1998 with only a loaded gun - not an uncooked potato.Covello set aside a first-of-its-kind jury verdict that McQueen and an accomplice, Dale Stewart, used a potato as a silencer to threaten the women during a tense interrogation over $30,000 in missing drug money. The judge's decision saved the 31-year-old McQueen from an extra 25 years in prison, ...

<p>Russian warplanes threatened patrolling U.S. Navy P-3 aircraft over the Pacific Ocean last week as the American planes monitored a military exercise in the region, The Washington Times has learned.</p> <p>At one point during the aerial harassment, a MiG-31 interceptor pilot flew his jet within 50 feet of a P-3 maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane.</p>

<p>September 11, 2001 -- Monica Lewinsky is heading uptown, close to the new haunts of her old paramour, Bill Clinton.</p> <p>The ex-White House intern will be taking a once-a-week psychology class at Columbia University, New York magazine reports on its Web site today.</p>

Okay, Bush has an open arms policy while Buchanan has a get-tough policy on illegals and immigration. Who do you support?

More Charges By EDMUND H. MAHONYThe Hartford Courant Sep 11 2001 12:00AM The prospect of a long prison sentence for Waterbury Mayor Philip A. Giordano increased dramatically Monday when Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly charged him with six counts each of sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and conspiracy. Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly, center announces new charges against Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano. He is joined by Chief State's Attorney John Bailey, right, and inspector James Deeley. Connelly, who has been butting heads with federal prosecutors for more than a month over evidence in the case, announced ...