Free Republic

On June 6, under an overcast Thursday-morning sky, a crowd of thousands gathered in Cambridge, Mass. for Harvard University's 351st commencement ceremony. From their seats on temporary chairs in Harvard Yard, an expanse of grass and trees amid Harvard's red-bricked Georgian elegance, students and their families looked toward the dais at which the university's professors and administrators — including Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers — sat. Following custom, the ceremony began with the Star-Spangled Banner. It was then that graduating senior Jason Brinton noticed something amiss: "[A] good dozen of the professors and administrators on stage were either silent or...

When North Carolina won a $4.6 billion settlement from tobacco companies, officials said they'd use the money to break tobacco's grip on the state. They would help smokers quit and stop kids from starting. They would wean farmers off the golden leaf. But since the money began flowing in 1999, not a dime has been spent on new health services, and only a fraction has gone toward moving tobacco farmers into other crops. Instead, about 73 percent of the $59 million spent so far -- about $43 million -- has gone toward production and marketing of N.C. tobacco, an Observer...

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — With British forces preparing to leave Afghanistan, American troops can expect more work and possibly more combat operations, U.S. military officials said Friday at the largest coalition base in the country. American troops also got word that their mission could last anywhere from one to four years, with combat operations ending within 18 months and giving way to peacekeeping and nation-building. "[Lt. Gen. Dan K.] McNeill has said that he sees combat operations coming to a close between one year and 18 months from now," said Army spokesman Col. Roger King, referring to the commander of...

Under congressional pressure to present a coherent vision of Navy’s transformation, the U.S Navy’s top officer announced a new concept of naval operations, called Sea Power 21. Some analysts say the Navy, after lagging behind the Army and the Air Force in articulating a clear vision of transformation, finally has a clear template. But some critics say the Sea Power 21 concept is heavy on style and light on substance. Speaking at a June 11 conference at the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, said the concept calls for the future Navy...

The Air Force is working on a series of upgrades to the A-10 Thunderbolt II that will add new avionics, digital communications links and satellite-guided precision weapons to the service's premier close-support aircraft. The modifications are aimed at marrying advances in computer technology with the raw power of the largest, most powerful cannon ever mounted in an aircraft, the 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger Gatling gun. The Air Force plans to keep the A-10, which was first deployed in 1976, in service until 2028. A-10s are currently stationed in Bagram, Afghanistan, and played an important role supporting Army troops during...

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — U.S. Air Forces in Europe airmen have too much work and too little time, equipment and supplies, according to a confidential survey circulated in the command. But airmen also cited improvements in nine of the 13 survey areas. "Overall, people are very happy with their job," said Capt. Gabriel Orick, section chief of USAFE’s performance management office, which works to help commanders meet their goals. "They feel fulfilled, and they feel that they have a purpose and are doing a good mission," he said. More than half of USAFE’s 32,000 personnel responded to the 2002 Chief...

The new standards allow for larger, healthier MarinesBy Gordon Lubold, Times staff writer We’re still hard, but a lot smarter," says Sgt. Maj. Ronald Fetherson. And "smarter" means higher weight limits, a stricter weight-control program and a policy that gives the benefit of the doubt to Marines who may be living large but still ace their PFT. The Corps’ new physical fitness order has finally hit the streets. While the fitness test remains the same, there are big changes for older Marines, new mothers, taller men and anybody who bellies up to the body-fat maximums. On top of that, Corps...

UAVs, missile defenses, precision weapons and new explosive-detection systems dominate research By David A. Fulghum and Robert Wall, Tel Aviv With the nation's economy battered by two years of conflict with Palestinian militants, planners for Israel's defense forces have been forced to revamp military spending priorities in order to continue the introduction of critical new technologies. With research and development funding shrinking and operational costs consuming an increasing amount of the defense budget, programs for ground forces are being delayed while those involving unmanned aircraft, communications, intelligence gathering and missile defense are accelerated. Because of the need to budget for...

For those who have followed House Majority Leader Dick Armey’s (R-Texas) nine-term political career from afar, the irony is rife. After 18 years in Congress, Armey will retire at the end of the year. But even when he announced his plans to leave Congress seven months ago, no one could have predicted that the self-declared revolutionary who came to Washington in 1984 railing against big government would spend his last days in Congress happily creating a massive, brand-new government agency. "The urgency and the sheer magnitude of homeland security is so great it crowds out politics and parochial interests...

The Bush administration now has in custody in this country three U.S. citizens who are suspected of being members of Al Qaeda or sympathizers: John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla (aka Abdullah al-Muhajir), and Yasser Esam Hamdi. Its handling of all three cases is troubling. This is not to say that the correct course is clear. These are difficult cases for which our legal system was not designed. And onrushing events keep exposing flaws in each newly minted proposal for how to guard against the unprecedented dangers we face without sacrificing our fundamental freedoms. So we grope ahead, by trial...

GOPUSA Poll: Do you agree with Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) that President Bush should place troops on the Mexican border?

...A political magazine, The American Conservative will presumably comport itself with a bit more dignity than the average tabloid -- or maybe not, given the crew behind it. Executive editor Scott McConnell was formerly editorial page editor of the New York Post, and right-wing fulminator Pat Buchanan will serve as an advisor and contributor. Backed by millionaire New York Press columnist Taki Theodoracopulos, the new biweekly is expected to be more conservative than either The Weekly Standard or the National Review. It launches in September.... (snip)

Supreme Court allows judges to toughen sentences when guns used in crimes GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press WriterMonday, June 24, 2002 ©2002 Associated Press URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/06/24/national1025EDT0540.DTL (06-24) 07:31 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that judges can lengthen the prison sentences of people who use guns while committing other crimes, even if the defendant hasn't been convicted of any charge specifically involving the weapon. With the 5-4 decision, justices dodged a ruling that could have threatened prison sentences of thousands of inmates and put in doubt sentencing laws in nearly every state. ©2002 Associated Press  

We Jerusalemites have acquired an intimacy with terror over the past nearly two years. A chance encounter with a recovering terror victim is cause to rejoice. That's how I felt recently when I spotted Tamar Eladi in a large Jerusalem supermarket. Shot by a terrorist on Jaffa Road on January 22, Eladi reached for her cellphone to call for help. The terrorist saw that she was not dead, stomped on her head, and shot her two more times. But there was Tamar, on a crowded Thursday night. I wanted to have the store manager make an announcement over the public...

FREEPERs....When I fly through Atlanta, I get tired of the indoctrination from CNN (Clinton News Network) on the monitors in the boarding areas. Let's ask airports to switch those monitors to FOX NEWS!! I just sent a note to the Atlanta Airport...does anyone have other email or contact info for other airports?? For Atlanta: karen.ellis@atlanta-airport.com

<p>St. Louis city officials praised a federal grant Sunday that will let them hire nearly 50 new police officers.</p> <p>While they held their news conference touting the good news, the federal government's newest batch of statistics to be released today will show that the number of major crimes overall increased nationwide last year for the first time in about a decade.</p>

It must be said: There is no peace process. Yasser Arafat, who is the declared commander of Fatah-Tanzim, the proud perpetrator of Wednesday's kamikaze attack on babies and grandmothers in Jerusalem, and the enabler of Hamas, which perpetrated Tuesday's massacre in the capital, is a terrorist and a murderer. The Palestinian Authority is not simply a regime that "cavorts with terror," as US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice gently put it last week. It is a fascist regime that defines terror and is defined by terror. Today, nine years after the inauguration of the Oslo process and 21 months into...

It was 1997, and the tobacco companies were on the ropes. Facing a rash of lawsuits from state attorneys general seeking billions of dollars in reimbursement for what they claimed were the Medicaid costs of smoking-related diseases, the companies were about to agree to an unprecedented settlement with the states. Under that settlement, the major tobacco companies would pay the states more than $200 billion, accept sweeping restrictions on cigarette advertising and pay $1.5 billion for an antismoking campaign. While very few editorialists had much sympathy for the tobacco companies, many wondered what kind of precedents these lawsuits would...

HARARE, Zimbabwe June 24 — With Zimbabwe facing a potentially devastating hunger crisis, nearly 3,000 white commercial farmers faced a deadline Monday to immediately forfeit their farms, some of which still had crops in the fields. Under the government's "fast track" land seizure program to redistribute white-owned farms to landless blacks, about 2,900 farmers faced a midnight deadline to cease all farming activities, said Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmers Union.With hundreds of other farms already seized, about 95 percent of the nation's more than 4,000 white farmers would be out of business after the deadline passed, Williams...