Free Republic

James J. Baker, the longtime lobbyist for the National Rifle Association (NRA), is stepping down to join the Federalist Group, a GOP lobbying outfit, the National Journal reported May 11. Baker has served as executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action for nearly two decades. NRA insiders said that Baker's departure is a blow to the gun-rights organization. Baker had built a reputation on Capital Hill as a strong advocate. "Jim Baker is a worthy adversary," said Matt Bennett, a spokesman for Americans for Gun Safety. "He's smart, cunning, ruthless, and very effective." Chris Cox, 32, an NRA...

<p>Summertime, and the capital is sizzlin'. It's so egg-frying hot that the squirrels stopped chasing each other in circles - and the politicians are acting squirrelly.</p> <p>Which may explain why the FBI has begun investigating a congressional committee that is investigating the FBI.</p>

<p>Two Egyptian business partners who live in Brooklyn were arrested yesterday for allegedly trying to hire a hit man to whack their wives - one because she's fat and Jewish, sources told The Post.</p> <p>Mohammed Khatib, 40, of 8703 Bedell Lane, and his partner, Mohammed Kadry, 45, of 494 Seventh St., also agreed to fork over thousands of dollars to have other family members wiped out - providing photos, locations and, in one case, a gun, law-enforcement sources said.</p>

The sagging stock market is diverging significantly from the rising economy. It's a puzzling and very unusual event. Much of this disconnect can be traced to a loss of investor trust due to corporate corruption and the breakdown of accounting standards. Worries about domestic terrorist bombings are also weighing down Wall Street. But there's more to it than that. Anti-growth policy mistakes by the Bush administration could be curbing investor appetites for longer-run stock-market commitments. Recently, the administration's economic message has dramatically shifted away from the Reaganesque, free-market, free-trade, supply-side policy direction that George W. Bush touted during the 2000...

LONDON (Reuters) - Hormones in semen may help to ease female depression because women whose partners don't use condoms are less likely to feel down. Scientists at the State University of New York suspect the mood-altering hormones are absorbed through the vagina and make women feel good but they stressed that their results are not an excuse for unprotected sex. "I want to make it clear that we are not advocating that people abstain from using condoms," Gordon Gallup, who led the study, told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday. "Clearly an unwanted pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease would...

FORT LEE - The Borough Council has shut down the Police Department's shooting range after learning it will cost $100,000 to clean up lead-contaminated soil at the Palisade Terrace training facility. Noise pollution generated from the weekly firing of guns over the past several decades made matters worse, said Mayor Jack Alter, who lives in The Plaza - a 171-unit co-op building that is adjacent to the range. "When the range was built, it was there by itself," Alter said of the outdoor range, which opened about 50 years ago. "Now it's surrounded by three large buildings, and I happen...

The scene is a staple of silent movies and TV cartoons -- a damsel tied to the railroad tracks as a train comes hurtling around the bend, while the hero races to free her in time. But this time, there's a twist: It's the people running the trains who have bound the victim. Amtrak, the federally funded national passenger railroad, was put on notice in 1997 that it had to achieve financial self-sufficiency by the end of 2002 or else be dismantled. But last year, it lost $1.1 billion. And president David Gunn has suddenly discovered that the continuing losses...

Today is the last day of the Supreme Court's 01/02 session. The ruling in the vouchers case should come down today, along with a few other cases. Keep your eyes peeled for the decisions as they come out...of course, comment on them as well.

John Kenneth Galbraith is not a Republican guru. Try to tell President Bush and Sen. John McCain. Both are following Galbraith's political prescription for "the good society." Six years ago, Galbraith published "The Good Society: The Human Agenda," in which the good society is defined as one politically organized to coerce "the favored" to work for the poor. The coercion of "the favored" is not to be limited to serving the needs of their fellow citizens. The good society, Galbraith says, must not attempt to avoid its responsibility for the worlds' poor on nation-state grounds. The "favored" American citizen's worldwide...

JUNE 2005, JERUSALEM -- I'm writing to you from Jerusalem, where I recently interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Effie Eitam. Eitam entered the Israeli government as minister-without-portfolio in the government of Ariel Sharon in 2002 and as a member of the National Religious Party. After the Palestinian intifada intensified during the fall of 2002, Sharon called new elections. Likud won a plurality and formed a coalition with the other right-wing parties in Knesset. Sharon made Eitam minister of defense. In the winter of 2003, the largest terrorist attack in Israeli history took place in Haifa, with nearly 100 Israelis, mostly women...

A Few of FR's Finest...........Every Day FR is a Treasure Trove of talented, compassionate, patriotic, wonderful people who gather every day to discuss the latest news and issues;  salute and support our military and our leaders;  tell a few jokes;  learn a new word;  write poetry;  pray for those in need;  and congratulate those who are deserving. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for giving us the vehicle in which we can express ourselves. Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.  I can remember lurking when there were only a few regulars...

The New York Times reports that Senator Hillary Clinton is nearing completion of her memoirs. Well, not actually Mrs. Clinton. A small village of personal aides and professional hacks pitched in to research and write the $8 million book. No doubt Mrs. Clinton's team will chronicle her "passionate" commitment to education reform, her "leadership" on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and her "selfless" crusade to help the underprivileged gain access to college. Among the many missing chapters in this self-appointed education guru's memoirs will be one on her role in tacitly endorsing the outrageous plundering of federal...

Labor: Union is donor to Davis. He OKd change, which matches other agencies, aide says. By DAN MORAIN SACRAMENTO -- In the four months after Gov. Gray Davis agreed to a new and looser sick-leave policy sought by the prison guards' union, sick leave by the officers jumped 20% over the same period last year. The new policy is part of the labor agreement negotiated by the Davis administration and the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., and approved by the governor and Legislature in January. The pact also promises correctional officers a pay increase of up to 34% over the...

The agnecy that let in all 19 Sept. 11th terrorists should absolutely be a part of the new Department of Homeland Defense--but that's not the plan. The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA), however, has proven that it can't be trusted to keep potential terrorists out of the country -- or even to be honest with Congress and the American people. The Civil Service subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee is holding hearings on CA today. I will be testifying, in large part because of my articles on the topic in last week's Post and the current National...

A new congressional study shows that an estimated 3,000 people with domestic-violence convictions were able to buy firearms between 1998 and 2001, because the FBI was unable to complete background checks before the sales went through, the Washington Post reported June 26. According to a draft report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), federal authorities had to retrieve guns from domestic abusers and more than 8,000 other felons because they were wrongly allowed to purchase the weapons. "The weapon can be used in a homicide or to terrorize battered women and their children," said Lynn Rosenthal, executive director of the...

<p>Do you think the pledge should be banned in schools?</p>

Among other points, Texas Sen. Phil Gramm insists he's not fat and says he's too old to be intimidated. "When I objected to that bill going forward, Mr. (Jan) Scruggs made a lot of personal comments about me, attacking me as 'fat.' Actually, I'm not that fat," the Texas Republican informed this column. Which was the same day we wrote about Gramm's chance encounter at New York's LaGuardia Airport with Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Ironically, we reported, Scruggs had been in the Big Apple trying to persuade NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw to investigate Gramm's legislative maneuvering...

A few nights ago I did something so simple and seemingly so routine that I never thought much about it. But for some reason, that night it occurred to me how special it was to do what I was doing and how much it meant to me. My four-year old son had fallen asleep on the couch. As most parents do from time to time, I gently picked up my youngest child and carried him to bed. As I picked him up and started walking down the hallway he instinctively wrapped his arms around my neck, laid his head...

Meeting of G-8 group of nations At the end of June, Canada will have the responsibility of hosting and chairing a meeting of the G-8 group of nations. The main topic of discussion will be the needs of Africa. Leaders have agreed in advance to consider a new program for the continent called NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development). My mother came from British Columbia in the early part of the century and moved to what was then Rhodesia in 1938. I came along in 1940 and have lived in Zimbabwe ever since. My great- grandfather was a missionary to...

There's plenty about which one could nitpick in President Bush's proposal for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. On balance, though, his speech on Monday was about as protective of Israel's interests as one could expect from a divided administration. The onus is clearly on the Palestinians to demonstrate whether they truly want a peacefully co-existing state with democratic values and will commit to ending terror. Good luck. With the exception of Israel, no other nation in the Middle East has a history of democracy or is about to accept a Western model of government. The president laid down a number...