Free Republic

Minister arrested for praying, reading in front of DC abortion clinicBy Daniel S. McClintockReverend Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, has been arrested in Washington D.C. after praying and reading the Bible to close to an abortion clinic, despite a 1998 court order. The order made it illegal for pro-life protestors to protest abortion within 20 feet of an abortion clinic. "If Mister Ashcroft wants to incarcerate an American citizen for simply reading scripture on a public sidewalk, I would find that most troubling, particularly in today's climate, where America is facing terrorist attack," he said Tuesday. Rev....

The tobacco companies, under siege from individual smokers, state attorneys general, and elected officials seeking ways to raise revenues, have long argued that links between cigarette smoking and disease were supposed by science, but not supported. That argument ends now. As a result of the world's first comprehensive evaluation of smoking research since 1986, and undoubtedly the most thorough, health experts have found that tobacco smoke is even more deadly than they had previously thought. The research, conducted by 29 scientists from 12 countries, demonstrates that one-half of all persistent smokers (who number 1.2 billion people) will eventually be killed...

Ex-GOP Chairman is among Torricelli donorsBy BRIAN P. MURPHYPoliticsNJ.com   HOBOKEN, June 21 - Chuck Haytaian, the former Republican State Chairman and Assembly Speaker, has contributed $2,000 to the re-election campaign of Democrat Bob Torricelli, according to a campaign finance report filed by Torricelli's campaign committee.Haytaian, who now works as a consultant and lobbyist, says that the $2,000 contribution was made at the request of one of his clients, Oxford Health Plan."It's a part of doing business in New Jersey," Haytaian told PoliticsNJ.com. "Bob Torricelli has always been a good friend, and was a good friend back when I was...

Who blew out the candle? Why has Amnesty International (AI) become so arrogant and politically correct that they see only moral equivalency between the USA and Communist China? Their latest finding, of June 2002, seem to indicate as much. Granted, for some reason, AI is opposed to capital punishment--but capital punishment is overwhelmingly supported by the free citizens of the USA. So how can one compare the wishes of a democratic electorate with the dictates of a totalitarian party that could outlaw capital punishment with the stroke of a pen? Although AI apparently opposes the detention of 1,200 people following...

Current hours for the National Fire InformationCenter are (MDT) 7:30 am - 4:30 pmMonday through Friday 208-387-5050 For another source of daily national wildland fireinformation see the National Interagency Coordination Center. Wildland Fire Update June 21, 2002 Initial attack was moderate in the Southwest, Western Great Basin and Rocky Mountain Areas and light elsewhere.  Nationally, 157 new fires were reported.  Two became large fires, one in California and one in Utah.  Crews were successful at containing three large fires, one in New Mexico, one in South Carolina, one in Virginia.  Eighteen large fires are burning in 8 states.Acreage burned for this...

Project America: a sinking ship By Leslie WayneNew York June 19 2002 Two years ago, amid waving flags and swaying hula dancers, the United States Government announced an ambitious program to build two passenger cruise ships - the first in a US shipyard since the 1950s and provided more than $US1 billion ($A1.79 billion) in loan guarantees to get the program going. It did not hurt that the ships were to be built in the Mississippi shipyard where the father of Trent Lott, the Republican Senate minority leader, once worked. As a result, Senator Lott became one of the strongest...

The young woman who changed her mind By Alan Philps June 20 2002 Arien Ahmed, a 20-year-old student from Bethlehem, has a message for suicide bombers: think twice before you push the button. In May, she went on a suicide mission to the Israeli town of Rishon Lezion, but changed her mind when she saw the people she was about to blow up. "I walked out of the car with a backpack full of explosives and nails," she said. "I looked at the street and I thought 'I cannot kill innocent people'." She went on the mission apparently convinced that...

We need to profile http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Imagine you're a munitions manufacturer, and you manufacture hand grenades for the military. Your contract requires a guarantee that 99 percent of the hand grenades delivered are not duds. What do you do? If you assumed there was an equal probability of every hand grenade being a dud, you might test them by pulling the pin and tossing each hand grenade to see if, in fact, it explodes. You'd be certain about whether the hand grenades were duds or not, but you'd have none to deliver. A more intelligent method would be to test...

June 21, 2002 ........ Fears for Jobs Could Bring Shutdown of West Coast PortsBy STEVEN GREENHOUSE ONG BEACH, Calif., June 19 — For decades, the West Coast longshoremen's union could boast that its members had some of the highest-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation. Workers who unload ships commonly earn more than $90,000 a year.But now the longshoremen fear that their jobs — and those of future generations of longshoremen — are under siege. Those fears could lead to a shutdown of all seaports from San Diego to Seattle on July 1, a move that could send shock waves...

The US government was accused today of subsidizing and training Albanian paramilitaries in Macedonia, in a secret European report leaked to Dutch National Radio. The furor over a clandestine connection- frequently alleged, but never proven- further worsens transatlantic relations that have already been strained by an ongoing trade war. The Dutch report comes at a particularly sensitive time for President Bush, who is currently seeking to solidify international support for a wider war on terror. The US Embassy in Skopje was not aware of the charges by late Friday evening, and could not yet make an official statement.Because specific...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: LARA KENNEDY JUNE 21, 2002 (202) 226-6999 Cell: (202)225-5390 CONGRESSIONAL IMMIGRATION REFORM CAUCUS' PETITION TO PRESIDENT OVERWHELMS WHITE HOUSE EMAIL SYSTEM White House Inundated with Petitions; Americans Want Troops on U.S. Border WASHINGTON, D.C. ­ U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, today announced that the Caucus' petition urging the President to immediately deploy troops along the U.S. border has overwhelmed the White House email system. "Perhaps the White House is finally getting the message," said Tancredo. "It's about time they realize that the people of this country justifiably feel that...

President George W. Bush had no plans to deliver his long-awaited Middle East speech June 21, 2002, White House aides said. Bush speaks at the 3rd Biennial Leon H. Sullivan Summit Dinner in Washington on June 20. Photo by William Philpott/Reuters ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - President Bush on Friday condemned a series of Palestinian attacks against Israel this week as "outrageous" and said he fully respects Israel's right to defend itself. "I strongly condemn (this) series of attacks," Bush told reporters as he toured a seniors center in Orlando, Florida. "I fully recognize that Israel's got the right to...

This was mentioned on the Neal Boortz show. It is really something special that I know will interest many freepers. The idea for the site came from the movie "Pay it Forward". They have developed an "Act of Kindness" coin that can be purchased and given to someone after you do them a favor (large or small). The only payback is that they have to pass on the coin & the favor to someone else. Each coin is numbered and you can log your coins to track their stories. This sounded like a wonderful thing to try and I wanted...

 Transnational Terrorism and the al Qaeda Model: Confronting New Realities  PAUL J. SMITH © 2002 Paul J. Smith From Parameters, Summer 2002, pp. 33-46. On 6 January 1995, Philippine authorities responded to a fire that had started in room 603 of the Dona Josefa apartment complex in downtown Manila. Although firefighters quickly contained the blaze, which they first attributed to a simple cooking fire, they soon realized that they had stumbled upon something far more sinister. The fire, later investigations revealed, was started by one of the residents, who had mistakenly mixed water with chemicals being prepared for bombs. The...

The S&P experienced its worst 17-week period ever (based on number of up/down S&P weeks), with the S&P down 14 of the past 17 weeks.

June 20, 2002 -- Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered a new technique to form tiny perfect crystals that have high optical quality, a finding that could usher in a new era of ultra-fast computing and communication using photons instead of electrons. These crystals, called photonic crystals, could greatly improve both speed and bandwidth in communications systems, says University Professor Geoffrey Ozin of the Department of Chemistry. "All of the promises of what photonic crystals can do, in terms of guiding light and bending light in incredibly small spaces, may be achieved by the assembly of patterns of...

<p>Records show Perot Systems coached traders, including Edison, on market 'options.'</p> <p>SACRAMENTO – Experts hired by the company that helped craft California's deregulated electricity market told Enron Corp. how to manipulate the system and pitched similar "gaming options" to Southern California Edison, according to documents released Thursday.</p>

TEHRAN, Iran, June 21 (UPI) -- Former Iranian President Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Friday his country would cooperate with the United States if Washington changed its attitude. "If America drops its bullying as well as its imperialist policies, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to cooperate," Rafsanjani told a large congregation attending Friday prayers in Tehran. Rafsanjani's comments were softer than those coming from Tehran in recent weeks. On May 24, Iranian state radio quoted Rafsanjani as saying talks with Washington were stupid and shameless. In April, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei put Rafsanjani in charge of a committee...

Guards stand watch as Nigerian inmates play Japan Nigeria's Super Eagles may well have gone home early from the World Cup but a group of former countrymen are keeping the dream alive in the Far East. The Nigerian inmates at Thailand's notorious Klong Prem prison beat Japan 5-1 as the "Bangkok Hilton" kicked off its own World Cup. "We've been training once a day for a month. It's great. It relieves the stress of prison life," said 35-year old Prince Juvenal, a Nigerian doing time for drugs trafficking at Thailand's notorious prison. I feel like a representative, I have...

Brother of man snatched from airport offers reward Security forces blame each other for lapse Amornrat Mahitthirook Manop Thip-osot A five-million-baht ransom has been offered for the release of a Narathiwat provincial councillor abducted from Don Muang airport on Tuesday. The offer came from Masakrue Dorlor, elder brother of Pakkrurorsee Dorlor, who was snatched in front of the domestic terminal by a group of about 10 men who drove off in three cars. The incident has sparked an outcry about security at the airport. ACM Therdsak Sajjarak, governor of the Airports Authority of Thailand, said the abduction occurred in an...