Free Republic

Under increasing pressure to do something about the Middle East, the president of the United States has done what any realistic political leader under pressure would do about an intractable problem: He pretended to do something. It was quite a challenge. George W. Bush had to say little while speaking a lot. He had little room for maneuver while unveiling a Comprehensive Solution. His speech Monday required the verbal incoherence of an Eisenhower, the sage duplicity of a Kissinger and the innocent air of a Pollyanna. The dictates of diplomacy require that those willing to be patient must appear impatient,...

<p>DECATUR, Ga. -- Classes were just out for the summer, but Tom Keating wouldn't dream of taking a break from his education crusade. One recent morning found him at Redan High School, a few miles from his home. Striding down the main hall like a detective on his way to a crime scene, he turned into an empty men's room near the gym.</p>

HARARE (Reuters) - The Zimbabwean government on Thursday branded white farmers resisting its controversial land seizure program as "unrepentant racists and fascists." Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told the official Herald newspaper that the farmers were trying to hold onto "stolen land" to maintain their control of the key agriculture sector. The white farmers have said they will defy government orders to stop farming. About 3,000 farmers were given until midnight on Monday to stop working their farms and just over a month to leave, after Zimbabwe amended its land acquisition law in May. A 45-day countdown for the farmers...

EWW, RANK: Ah, breathe deep, Citizen. The first, telltale stink of summer garbage. Or is that acrid smell the rancid rhetoric of the ridiculous City Summit? Mayor Mel and 200 stale-dated politicians, academics and business blimps passing gas? See them stomp their feet. Is there a doubt in your mind who their "new source of municipal revenue" will be? Why it's the Old Source of Municipal Revenue! You and me! Yes, I know: the Toronto Star swears the money will come from Mars. New demands dumped on us. Too much to do. Property taxes way too low. Subways and buses...

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. The newspaper that George Bush read on Wednesday morning, while he was in Calgary, Canada, blared the latest accounting news from Wall Street: WorldCom overstated its profits by $3.8 billion and will likely go bankrupt. Bush’s response was to demand a full investigation and promise to "hold people accountable." Why? The revelations of accounting irregularities hurt "not only shareholders but employees as well." On those grounds, there should be a full investigation by the government of every company that goes belly up. And what’s to investigate? Thousands of companies cooked their books during the boom,...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan sent 100 more soldiers into the mountains along the Afghan border Thursday to join the dangerous search for 40 suspected al-Qaida fighters believed hiding among the fiercely independent, armed tribesmen in the region. The troops, backed by helicopters and armored vehicles, joined more than 500 soldiers who have been in the area since Wednesday, when the suspected al-Qaida fighters opened fire on Pakistani soldiers, killing ten, including a captain and a major. More soldiers were wounded. An army officer in the North West Frontier Province, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said soldiers were checking...

Fueling the controversy over free speech restrictions on campus, University of Houston officials say they will not follow a judge's order and allow an anti-abortion group to display large pictures of dead fetuses where it wants. U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. ruled last week that UH must allow the student group Pro-Life Cougars to put up the controversial display this fall in the heavily trafficked Butler Plaza, near UH's Hoffman Hall and M.D. Anderson Library. The judge concluded that UH violated the group's First Amendment rights to free speech and 14th Amendment rights to equal protection last October by...

June 27, 2002 Struggling to Sort Out 9/11 Aid to ForeignersBy DAVID W. CHEN irtually nothing in the world of Sept. 11 relief efforts has come without complications. Charities are being criticized for failing to distribute cash fast enough. Family members are locked in tense struggles over inheritances. But few concepts may be more confusing or daunting than the federal government's task of compensating the hundreds of families of foreign nationals who were killed or injured in the World Trade Center disaster. When Congress approved the multibillion-dollar Victim Compensation Fund in the weeks after the terror attack, the legislation provided...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - "Excuse me, your eminence, but if you don't put out that cigarette, I will have to slap you with a Papal fine."That might be the warning a lowly Vatican policeman may have to recite to a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church next week when smoking will be effectively banned indoors in the Vatican.A law approved by Pope John Paul and made public on Thursday will ban smoking in nearly all closed spaces inside the 108-acre city-state as of July 1.The law entrusts the Vatican's tiny police force with enforcement. Violators, including cardinals and archbishops whom...

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,...

<p>Federal prosecutors investigating Martha Stewart's stock trading now are looking to persuade her Merrill Lynch broker to provide testimony that they can use against her as part of a probe into whether she lied to federal authorities about her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. shares, a person familiar with the matter said.</p>

"If liberty can blossom in the rocky soil of the West Bank and Gaza, it will inspire millions of men and women around the globe who are equally weary of poverty and oppression, equally entitled to the benefits of democratic government," US President George W. Bush said in a rhetorical flourish during his Monday night speech. In Israel, both on the Right and the Left, these words were shrugged off to a large extent as quintessential "American naivete." One Ma'ariv columnist wrote in a mocking tone that Bush told the Palestinians that before they can begin dreaming of a state,...

An article appearing this week in the Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, criticizes US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as "the dark- complexioned lady" whose policies have "dealt a blow to the image of the African-American in the eyes of the vast majority of the world's inhabitants." Itamar Marcus, director of the Israeli Palestinian Media Watch, quotes the article published on Sunday as saying: "My enthusiasm for George Bush increased after he entered the White House and chose to appoint to his administration two people from among the colored, a first in the history of American administrations: Secretary of State...

June 27, 2002 F.B.I. Chief's Muslim Speech Prompts ProtestBy THE NEW YORK TIMES ASHINGTON, June 26 — A planned appearance by Director Robert S. Mueller III of the F.B.I. at a meeting of the American Muslim Council has prompted protests because of accusations that the organization supports extremist groups and has antipathy toward Israel. Mr. Mueller is scheduled to speak Friday at a luncheon during a meeting of the council in Alexandria, Va. In the past, the council has urged members to contribute to certain charities, some of whose assets have since been frozen by the United States for links...

<p>Education, my father the grateful immigrant would say, was the glorious prize for growing up in America. He quit school in the eighth grade and always regretted it. He believed education was the passport to understanding the values of this country.</p>

June 27, 2002 House Republican Leaders Press for Votes on Drug Benefit BillBy ROBERT PEAR ASHINGTON, June 26 — House Republican leaders struggled today to round up the votes of about 20 wavering Republicans who expressed deep reservations about the party's bill to provide prescription drug benefits to the elderly. But the leaders said they still hoped to push the bill through the House this week. Votes seemed to shift continually throughout the day as Republican experts on Medicare tried to convince party members that they ought to vote for the legislation, which would also increase payments to health care...

The Left frequently claims to speak for younger Americans. But when it comes to hearing from them, the Left prefers silence. After all, they think we are irrelevant. At a recent American University forum, student Justin Meyer asked political analyst Stuart Rothenberg if 18-24 year olds could be a crucial swing vote in the 2002 elections. Rothenberg's sarcastic answer: "I'm sorry, but you're irrelevant. You don't matter." The other assembled political experts (all left of center) chuckled and nodded in agreement. A second student approached the microphone and explained his strong involvement in politics since he was in junior...

June 27, 2002 Deal Could Keep Amtrak Operating Through OctoberBy DAVID FIRESTONE ASHINGTON, June 26 — Amtrak and the Bush administration reached a tentative agreement last night that would provide enough cash to keep the railroad operating through October, but the deal requires that Congress come up with half of the money. The agreement, reached after three days of negotiations between Amtrak officials and Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta, appears to avert a shutdown of the railroad, which Amtrak had said could occur as soon as July 8. A shutdown would have stranded not only Amtrak's 60,000 daily customers,...

<p>When Attorney General John Ashcroft announced changes to the Guidelines on General Crimes, Racketeering Enterprise and Terrorism Enterprise Investigations ("Domestic Guidelines") for the Federal Bureau of Investigation on May 30, he lauded its 94-year-old history as "the tireless protector of civil rights and civil liberties for all Americans." That history may have come to an end.</p>

June 27, 2002 Palestinian Authority Sets a January VoteBy JAMES BENNET ERUSALEM, June 26 — Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority officially announced plans today to hold elections for president and legislative offices in January as part of a broad proposal for civic and security reform that stopped short of President Bush's demand for Mr. Arafat's replacement. One Palestinian minister said that Mr. Arafat planned to run again, while others said it was too early to predict who the presidential candidates might be. Mr. Arafat's Palestinian critics said they were confident that their long-serving leader would not be stepping aside voluntarily. Hussam...