Free Republic

Ridge Claims Cultural, Historical Reasons Prevent Using Our Military A group of House Republicans called on President Bush last week to station U.S. military forces on U.S. borders to stop illegal immigration and to ensure that foreign terrorists cannot sneak into the United States undetected.The congressmen held a press conference to publicly make the request one week after Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge informed them in a closed briefing that the administration had no intention of using U.S. forces to secure the U.S. border."Just since September 11, almost 500,000 aliens have entered this country illegally," said Rep. Jim Ramstad (R.-Minn.)...

1 Officer Dead, 3 Injured In SFPD Crash Witnesses: Both Cars Had Lights, Sirens On POSTED: 9:39 a.m. PDT June 13, 2002 UPDATED: 9:47 a.m. PDT June 13, 2002 SAN FRANCISCO -- One police officer was killed and three others injured, one critically, when two patrol cars collided in an intersection late Wednesday as they sped to the scene of an arrest. One officer was listed in critical condition Thursday and the other two were in fair condition at San Francisco General Hospital. Witnesses told investigators both cars entered the Mission District intersection with roof lights on and sirens...

  Apologetics, The Papacy, And Eastern Orthodoxy By James Likoudis A sizeable religious literature in Apologetics has grown in past decades as the Catholic Church has continued to be attacked by those Protestants (Fundamentalists, evangelicals, and those belonging to minor sects) who remain influenced by the older Protestant polemics of the Reformation period filled with gross misunderstandings of Catholic doctrines. In an age which in large measure has appeared to have abandoned reason, it is desirable that Catholics restore the proper role of reason and to appeal to reason to establish the credibility of Christianity and the claims of...

Pebble Beach Pipe Bomb Defused Device Found Near Spyglass Hill Road POSTED: 11:39 a.m. PDT June 13, 2002 UPDATED: 11:49 a.m. PDT June 13, 2002 PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Bomb experts from Santa Cruz defused an explosive device found Wednesday in a Pebble Beach refuse pit. Authorities are still trying to figure out how it got there. Monterey deputies, along with officials with Pebble Beach Security and the California Department of Forestry, responded to the scene at Stevenson Drive and Spyglass Hill Road after two Pebble Beach Community Service District maintenance workers reported the incident. Authorities say the workers...

Following are the most recent polling results available for each of the US Senate races in November. I have a trial membership at PollingReports.com and thought I'd share these results. Notice that some of the polls are quite old. Incumbents are marked by an asterisk (*). I'll give you an update in a couple of weeks. Alabama (Feb. 4-7): Sessions* (R) 55%, Parker (D) 22% Arkansas (May 13-14): Hutchinson* (R) 51%, Pryor (D) 43% Colorado (April 16-28): Allard* (R) 43%, Strickland (D) 31% Georgia (Feb. 19-23): Cleland* (D) 54%, Chambliss (R) 30% Illinois (April 25-29): Durbin* (D) 49%, Durkin (R)...

Audit Shows Santa Cruz SPCA Misused Money Auditor Says Practices Were 'Accounting Chaos' POSTED: 11:50 a.m. PDT June 19, 2002 UPDATED: 11:56 a.m. PDT June 19, 2002 SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- A Santa Cruz County audit has found that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals misused $715,000 in taxpayer money. County Auditor Gary Knutson told the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors that SPCA finance practices were "accounting chaos." He said that the agency bought equipment, hired more staff and paid top administrators more than its three-year contract with the county and cities allowed. And even...

The first war of the 21st Century has been a resounding success for the United States. Thus far, operations have claimed fewer than 250 U.S. combat casualties, and, for the most part, the media are portraying U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan in a positive light. Hollywood has, at least temporarily, stopped denigrating the armed forces and is producing films that honor fighting men. Recent documentaries, books and novels are capitalizing on the pro-military sentiment that Americans have always had, but the cultural elite denied. Yet, the Class of 2002 has graduated from America’s high schools and colleges, and our armed...

FBI Agent Admits To Mishandling Alleged Killer's Call Anderson Says He Took Sampson Call, Disconnected It POSTED: 8:48 a.m. EDT June 21, 2002 BOSTON -- A former FBI employee has admitted he lied about receiving a phone call from a man accused of going on a killing spree in Massachusetts and New Hampshire last summer. William Anderson pleaded guilty Thursday to denying that he took a call from Gary Sampson the day before he's accused of killing his first victim. Sampson claims he called the FBI on July 23 to turn himself in for a North Carolina bank robbery....

Officials Want To Keep Seized Money Police Say Driver Suspected Of Dealing Drugs POSTED: 8:39 a.m. EDT June 21, 2002 CONCORD, N.H. -- Federal prosecutors want a judge to allow officials to keep nearly $18,000 Amherst police seized during a drunken driving arrest last year. Police say the driver, Michael Dipersia, 19, of Amherst, Mass., is suspected of dealing drugs. They found a marijuana joint in the car. Dipersia was acquitted of DWI and transporting a controlled drug charges, but the government says when he was stopped, he had drug charges pending in two Massachusetts courts, and was on...

National Indian Conference begins in Bismarck. The National Congress of American Indians is holding its midyear conference at the Civic Center. Economic development on American Indian reservations is being discussed. The group's president is Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall. He says tribes must move from a grant-dependent mentality toward self-sustaining economies on reservations. The organization hopes to put together a national economic stimulus package for tribes to bring to the U-S Congress. One of the goals is to create 100-thousand news jobs for Indians in eight years.

Man Allegedly Kills Stray Cat With Sword Suspect Faces 1 1/2 Years If Convicted Posted: 12:16 p.m. MDT June 21, 2002 CLOVIS, N.M. -- A Clovis man has been charged with felony cruelty to animals after being accused of killing a stray cat with a sword. Peter Kuntz, 21, reportedly told officers he and his roommate were trying to kill cats in the back yard because they were tired of the animals getting underneath the house. Kuntz faces as much as 1 1/2 years in prison if convicted of the felony charge. Roommate Larry Rissmiller said he and Kuntz...

Sustaining Nothing, Losing Everything By Tom DeWeese Published 06. 20. 02 at 20:13 Sierra Time A new catch phrase, "Sustainable Development", has crept into discussions of the most fundamental right Americans have, the right to own property. It is essential to all other liberties and our economy. It is protected by the US Constitution. That protection is about to be lost if "The Community Character Act" is passed."The Community Character Act" is a homeowner's association on steroids. It sustains nothing and takes from every American their birthright of freedom. What is Sustainable Development? Imagine an America in which a...

New system helps women to fight abuse Portland Press Herald Report Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. A new security system will provide additional protection for victims of domestic violence who fear abuse from former spouses or other batterers. ADT Security Services announced on Wednesday that it is providing emergency necklace pendants with panic buttons to people who have protection-from-abuse orders. ADT is offering the systems for free to as many people as qualify, at an estimated cost of $50,000. "This is really about keeping women in Portland alive," said Mayor Karen Geraghty at a morning press conference....

SHOPIAN, June 21: Street posters and handbills, pasted outside village mosques and other public places, have spread panic in this fruit belt of south Kashmir since the beginning of this year. They carry diktats from different militant outfits—asking hapless civilians to observe a particular brand of dress code and removing of barbed-wire fencing from the boundaries of their orchards. Few have had guts to ignore. "Ignoring the (militants’) orders is taken as infidelity and punishment is nothing short of death", says a 60-year-old shopkeeper, Abdul Gaffar. According to him, this brand of senseless terrorism has returned to Shopian after years....

Lure of alcohol too strong for wayward burglar Santa Fe police say 37-year-old Grady Wayne Dennis apparently stumbled onto a bottle of Crown Royal Canadian whiskey while trying to gather rob a home. By The Associated Press (6/21/02 - Santa Fe) — Authorities say a burglar's attempt to enter a Southeast Texas home went awry when he got a little sidetracked. Santa Fe police say 37-year-old Grady Wayne Dennis apparently stumbled onto a bottle of Crown Royal Canadian whiskey while trying to gather piles of loot from the home Wednesday. The Texas City Sun reports police found Dennis sitting...

One Man's Trash Is Another Lubbock Man's Treasure Lubbock code enforcers are putting on the pressure to one man who has used junk to landscape his yard. The city says it is an unusual case because 90% of the time, cases like this are vacant unoccupied structure.62-year-old Carl Bagwell lives and owns the home. The city has handed Bagwell several violations, but the problem is, he has not paid them. On top of that, neighbors say his junk has become piles of junk over the last few years and they are fed up with it.Tech Terrace is one neighborhood in...

Onsite Report: Rally to Free President Bush’s Judicial Nominees Upper Senate Park, Washington, DC (Thursday, 20 June 2002)No Conservatives Need Apply. As the Big Hillbilly Bluegrass Band played in the sweltering noon sun, the leaders of some of America’s largest conservative organizations, as well as over 100 supporters gathered in the Upper Senate Park in an attempt to transfer some heat to Senators Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for their continued efforts to derail President Bush’s judicial nominees. Sponsored by the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, this rally marked day 406 since President Bush announced his first...

BEIJING (AP) - China warned other countries Friday not to sign free trade agreements with archrival Taiwan, saying doing so would invite political trouble. The warning from Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng appeared aimed at heading off Taiwanese proposals to sign pacts with Japan, the United States and Singapore as a counterbalance to China's growing economic might. The remarks were reported by the official Xinhua news agency. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and objects to official contacts between the island and foreign governments. The two sides have been ruled separately since 1949. Shi said China would consider...

SADDAM HUSSEIN is considering stepping down as the Iraqi head of state in favour of his younger son in an attempt to counter the growing threat to his regime from the Bush Administration. Arab diplomats in Baghdad said that the Iraqi leader may not seek re-election in the presidential vote due later this year but instead allow Qusay Hussein, his heir apparent, to become the country’s leader. The Iraqi dictator, who has ruled unopposed for three decades, would remain in de facto control, much as the late Chinese leader Deng Xaioping. But the tactic may satisfy the Americans, or at...

<p>In December 1995, a storm hit the Six Rivers National Forest in northern California, tossing dead trees across 35,000 acres and creating dangerous fire conditions. For three years local U.S. Forest Service officials labored to clean it up, but they were blocked by environmental groups and federal policy. In 1999 the time bomb blew: A fire roared over the untreated land and 90,000 more acres.</p>