Free Republic

Whether U.S. military prisoners at Yokosuka Prison are getting fed better than their Japanese counterparts is again under Japanese legislative scrutiny. After World War II, the United States and Japan entered an arrangement to ensure the basic welfare of U.S. prisoners in the Kanagawa Prefecture facility, which is near Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. The arrangement allows U.S. Forces-Japan to supply American food to its members in the prison, a long-established practice that has led to accusations of special treatment for the Americans. Five years ago, the Japanese Justice Ministry promised changes after Yasuo Ogata, a Japanese Communist Party upper...

KAGOSHIMA (Kyodo News Agency) -- The unidentified ship that sank in the East China Sea after a shootout with the Japan Coast Guard in December was carrying a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile, sources said Wednesday. The weapon was a model developed by the former Soviet Union, they said. The missile and its launcher were reportedly among arms retrieved by Japanese divers during a preliminary undersea probe of the ship, which Japan suspects was carrying North Korean agents. Other weapons found near the ship, including machineguns and rocket launchers, were also Soviet-made, the sources said. However, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kosei Ueno...

My sidebar has changed recently without any input from me. Now I have "Question of the Day" on top of the sidebar, instead of on the bottom of the sidebar where it was. Can anyone help?

<p>On radio and TV, a growing number of ads are beseeching the public to thank or spank a particular candidate.</p> <p>What's noteworthy about all of those ads? The candidates claim to have had nothing to do with them.</p> <p>In Missouri, most of the ads target either Sen. Jean Carnahan, a Democrat, or her likely Republican rival, former Rep. Jim Talent.</p>

Over the years it would be hard to find a more stalwart free marketer in the United States Senate than Larry Craig of Idaho. Craig has one of the highest National Taxpayers Union marks in fighting against big government. He has lead the charge on supply-side tax-cutting. I have worked with him and his staff on capital-gains tax reduction — which is so critical to getting the financial markets out of their 24 month-long slide.So why in the world has Larry Craig teamed up with ultra-liberal Democrat Mark Dayton of Minnesota to sponsor a poison-pill amendment to President Bush's...

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/06/27/national1005EDT0546.DTL (06-27) 07:05 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court approved random drug tests for many public high school students Thursday, ruling that schools' interest in ridding their campuses of drugs outweighs an individual's right to privacy. The 5-4 decision would allow the broadest drug testing the court has yet permitted for young people whom authorities have no particular reason to suspect of wrongdoing. It applies to students who join competitive after-school activities or teams, a category that includes many if not most middle-school and high-school students. Previously these tests had been allowed only for student athletes. ©2002 Associated...

Supernova Photographed in Earliest Stage By Heather SparksSPACE.com staff writerposted: 07:00 am ET27 June 2002 Farthest Supernova Detected, 'Dark Energy' Suspected Farthest Supernova Sheds Light on Dark Universe Cosmic Cannon: How an Exploding Star Could Fry Earth Dramatic Increase in Supernova Explosions Looms Cosmic Radiation Possible in Our Galaxy This image of Supernova 2002dj was taken by the 0.9-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile on 14 June 2002. It is located in the nearby galaxy NGC5018. The supernova is the bluish speck to the right of the galactic center. NGC5018 is located in the constellation...

In a recent forum of the three major-party candidates for governor, Tim Pawlenty told the audience that, if elected, he would do his job "quicker, faster, better, cheaper, just like in business.'' You hear this sort of comparison a lot in politics. The Bush administration bragged that they were going to base the Cabinet on a board-of-directors model. School superintendents use management jargon about "improving efficiencies" and "incentivizing outcomes." Gov. Jesse Ventura has often described himself as the state's CEO. Such corporate comparisons have historically played well with taxpayers convinced that government bureaucracy is out of control. But now, in...

The state has a God-given authority of its own, and priests and pastors are not above the law of the land "Don't call the police," Catholic bishops were telling parents of children abused by priests. "We'll take care of it." Of course, they didn't. The bishops "took care of it"—as news reports have told us for months now—by having the offending priest go in for counseling and transferring him to another parish, thereby multiplying the offenses. Child abuse, molestation of children, sexual assault—these are felonies. Churches are not equipped, nor are they authorized, to deal with crime. This is why...

US Recognition Of Ravalomanana Challenges France In Africa; Provides US With Naval Facilities Options In The Indian Ocean Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor. With input from GIS Stations and sources. The United States Government on June 26, 2002, formally recognized the legality of the election of Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana in a move which seemed designed to pre-empt French entry into the Malagasy civil war. Former President Didier Ratsiraka had been lobbying the French Government for support and for the position that the presidential elections of December 2001 should be vacated and new elections held, with an interim administration...

Thousands of Women Killed for Family "Honor" National Geographic News for National Geographic News February 12, 2002 Hundreds, if not thousands, of women are murdered by their families each year in the name of family "honor." It's difficult to get precise numbers on the phenomenon of honor killing; the murders frequently go unreported, the perpetrators unpunished, and the concept of family honor justifies the act in the eyes of some societies. Most honor killings occur in countries where the concept of women as a vessel of the family reputation predominates, said Marsha Freemen, director of International Women's Rights Action Watch...

Some of Seth Warshavsky's ex-lawyers will be in court this week trying to collect unpaid fees. But he's not likely to show. The prince of porn has split town and country. "He carried out his computers and left," says a doorman at Market Place Tower on First Avenue. "That was after he lost his condo across the street." And he went where? "Thailand, I hear." Right on all counts, it appears. The nasally cyberspace wunderkind who ruled the global Internet sex world from behind a huge desk high above First, left Seattle steps ahead of a posse of bill collectors,...

It is summer reading time, and I have a perfect book for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to bring to Martha's Vineyard, that posh New York resort where she and husband Bill always find a nice captain of industry to loan them a cottage with servants and golf clubs. The book is a modern French masterpiece, "L' Effroyable Imposture," by France's next Jean-Paul Sartre, M. Thierry Meyssan, a sleepy-eyed moderate leftist, whose title, translated into English, reads, "The Horrifying Fraud." It is not a book about the Clintons. Rather, it is a book about a topic Hillary herself introduced to America,...

The Judicial Murder Of Your Nation By William A. Mayer, Editor & Publisher June 27, 2002 If we needed any further evidence that this great nation is under the most serious assault in its history, the Wednesday June, 26 decision by the notoriously inept [reversed 19 out of 20 cases in the latest US Supreme Court session] and manifestly leftwing Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals, declaring the Pledge of Allegiance to be unconstitutional, certainly provides it. This essay started out as an attack on the June, 20 U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Atkins v. Virginia, in which 6 activist jurists...

Just heard on KSFO Radio - SPONTANEOUS PLEDGE RALLY 1:15PM Today: Come join MELANIE MORGAN for a spontaneous recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance today outside the 9th Circuit Court at 7th St. & Mission in San Francisco! A special guest MYSTERY SPEAKER will also be on hand to speak to the crowd! BE THERE to show your disapproval of the Court's ruling that says the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.

I'm looking for "One Nation Under God" images to be printed out. Any freepers feel free to post them here.

The original Pledge, composed by Francis Bellamy, read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all." 1923 - At the first National Flag Conference, the words "the Flag of the United States" are inserted. 1942 - Congress officially recognizes the Pledge. 1943 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that youngsters cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge in WEST VIRGINIA BOARD OF EDUCATION v. BARNETTE, 319 U.S. 624 (1943). The case is heard on behalf of parents and students belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses sect, who...

Osama bin Laden is dead, says Mark Steyn, but it suits the Bush administration for the Eurosophists to believe he is alive New Hampshire He’s back! Or he will be. Any day now. Just you wait. ‘I want to assure Muslims,’ said bigshot Islamofascist Suleiman Abu Ghaith the other day, ‘that Sheikh Osama bin Laden ...is in good and prosperous health and all what is being rumoured about his illness and injury in Tora Bora has no truth.’ He’s tanned, rested, and ready to rumble. ‘America,’ warned Suleiman, ‘must prepare itself and fasten its seatbelt.’ Wow. These guys don’t just...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy raced ahead at its fastest clip in more than two years in the first quarter, up from earlier estimates and reflecting a better-than-expected showing for consumer spending and business investment, the government said on Thursday. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP ( news - web sites)), the broadest measure of goods and services produced within the country's borders, grew at a revised 6.1 percent seasonally adjusted annual rate during the first three months of this year, up from an earlier estimate of 5.6 percent, the Commerce Department ( news - web sites) said in its...

Anatomy of a MurderThe disappearance of Danielle van Dam was a shocking tragedy that ballooned into more than just a murder case. The parents’ lifestyle—and actions by police, media, lawyers and the district attorney—came into question. As the legal team for defendant David Westerfield begins the fight for his life, here’s a no-holds-barred look behind the scenes of San Diego’s biggest story of 2002.By Kevin Cox Amid the superstores and strip malls that pass for community in the suburbs of San Diego, some small-town traditions remain. Parents still come out to watch their kids play Little League baseball, just like...