Free Republic

Having taught for many years a course in US government, I was always struck by the kind of triumphalist textbooks used to teach the material. The standard text when I began teaching the course, by Theodor Lowi and Benjamin Ginsburg, one that is still being periodically updated by their graduate assistants, celebrates in more than five hundred bloated pages the march of Big Brother through American history. The residual authority of the states, the defined powers of Congress in Article One of the Constitution, and the notion the Supreme Court should be the "weakest of the three branches" are treated...

Bush threatens to halt PA funds By NEWS AGENCIES KANANASKIS, Alberta - US President George W. Bush threatened yesterday to cut off money to the Palestinians if they fail to embrace reform, stepping up pressure for the removal of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. "I've got confidence in the Palestinians, when they understand fully what we're saying, that they'll make the right decisions," said Bush. But he warned: "I can assure you, we won't be putting money into a society which is not transparent and corrupt, and I suspect other countries won't either." The US donates approximately $80 million a...

(June 26) -- The National Fair Housing Alliance has partnered with Stanford University education and linguistics professor Dr. John Baugh to study the impact of linguistic profiling on housing discrimination. This summer, Baugh will track the instances of bias that the housing markets show toward speakers of non-standard English over the telephone. Baugh says speakers who do not "sound white" often are discriminated against over the telephone. "Even though the courts are reasonably well equipped to prosecute cases of face-to-face discrimination," says Dr. Baugh, "they have a hard time understanding and applying the law to linguistic profiling, and that's where...

The US government is at risk of a major cyber-attack for which many agencies are ill-prepared, according to a survey of information technology professionals released Tuesday. The survey, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for the Business Software Alliance, found 49 percent of IT professionals believed such an attack is likely in the next 12 months, with a third of those saying it is "extremely likely." Moreover, of those IT professionals specializing in security issues, including those responsible for their company's computer and Internet security, 59 percent think a major attack against the government is likely in the next year, the...

Steven Spielberg has seen the future - and much of it, in his enthralling new SF thriller starring Tom Cruise, is already here. Minority Report is set in 2053, in Washington, DC. But the metropolis Cruise inhabits is an eerie extrapolation of big cities everywhere today where civil liberties are being eroded in the name of public security. In the new, improved future, crimes are detected even before they can be committed. People are detained without evidence of their wrongdoing, save what an elite pack of psychics foresee as their criminal intention. Last week's arrest in the US of the...

cow strayed .. cow fell over tunnel entrance .. women injured VIENNA, Austria

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 27, 2002 LANDMARK CALLS COURT'S VOUCHER DECISION "THE NEXT CRITICAL PHASE IN A NEW ERA FOR AMERICA'S SCHOOLS" Supreme Court Decision in Cleveland School Choice Case Caps 12-year Battle for Competition and Accountability in Education (HERNDON, VA)...Mark R. Levin, president of Landmark Legal Foundation, the first legal group to join the battle for school choice more than a dozen years ago, heralded today's U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Cleveland, OH, school voucher program as the "next critical phase in the new era of competition and accountability in America's schools." "Vouchers give hope to families who...

New rules that restrict smoking in thousands of Oklahoma restaurants and indoor workplaces were signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Frank Keating, who said excessive tobacco use keeps the state unhealthy and poor."These rules are fair. Secondhand smoke shouldn't be wafting over our children," Keating said at a state Capitol news conference. The anti-smoking regulations take effect Monday, but state Health Department leaders said full compliance will not be enforced until later in the summer. The Oklahoma Restaurant Association plans to file a lawsuit today in Sapulpa to block the regulations. "This is a glaring example of why citizens often...

WASHINGTON- The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down limits on what some judicial candidates may tell voters, a landmark free speech ruling that could heat up court campaigns around the country. Nearly 40 states elect some judges, and also restrict what they say or do while campaigning to promote an image of fairness and independence for courts. The Supreme Court, in throwing out strict limits in Minnesota on a 5-4 vote, said the rules impose an unconstitutional gag order. Minnesota is one of nine states that had banned would-be judges from announcing views on "disputed legal or political issues." Most...

Jesus would always go up to Jerusalem. He never went down to Jerusalem, always up. Jerusalem, was set on the Judean hills. It was the city of God. You never go down to God, you had to go up. The journey to Jerusalem had a special name, called "Aliyah", "the going up". When any Jewish person returns to Israel, they are said to be making "ALIYAH". They are going up. If you're born again, you're a child of Abraham and that means your life is to be an ALIYAH.The direction of your life is never to be aimed north, south,...

Barring a last-minute change dictated by state courts, the final results are in for redistricting following the 2000 Census. And the winner is either the Republicans or the Democrats, depending on your point of view. By my count, the Democrats lost two seats relative to the Republicans. That means redistricting was a Republican "win." But because a net of two seats is far below initial Republican predictions, the outcome is also a "win" for Congressional Democrats. Evaluating redistricting outcomes is a subjective (and often confusing) business, but that's not the same thing as saying any count is as good as...

Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right debuted earlier this week, and quickly rocketed to the top of the bestseller list...[T]his [is an] excerpt from the book's first chapter. The natives are superficially agreeable, but they go in for cannibalism, headhunting, infanticide, incest, avoidance and joking relationships, and biting lice in half with their teeth. —Margaret Mead Political "debate" in this country is insufferable. Whether conducted in Congress, on the political talk shows, or played out at dinners and cocktail parties, politics is a nasty sport. At the risk of giving away the ending: It's all liberals' fault. As there...

June 27, 2002Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Thursday Week 29 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading I2 Kgs 24:8-17 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign,and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta,daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.He did evil in the sight of the Lord,just as his forebears had done. At that time the officials of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,attacked Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,himself arrived at the citywhile his servants were besieging it.Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, together with his mother,his ministers, officers,...

Golly, it's tough being a conservative! Here's a typical day that a member of the American right must endure as imagined by Ann Coulter in her new screed "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right." Wake up to Katie Couric haranguing Charlton Heston about gun control or claiming hate speech is what killed Matthew Shephard. Flip the channel to Bryant Gumbel -- but not before you put Aunt Tillie back to bed to keep her from seeing "smut peddler" Hugh Hefner asked his views on the presidential campaign. Pick up the New York Times and read trumped-up articles about the...

NATO's Kosovo mission failed By Scott Taylor ON TARGET Mitrovica, Kosovo - IT HAS BEEN three years since NATO troops first rolled into Kosovo and the last of the Yugoslav security forces withdrew from this embattled province. At that juncture, the western media hailed NATO's intervention as the "liberation of Kosovo" and a victory for Albanian Kosovars. Many misguided military analysts proclaimed the campaign to be "proof" that overwhelming air power alone was sufficient to win modern wars. In actual fact, unexpected Serbian defiance and the inability of NATO aircraft to locate and destroy the Yugoslav military had forced NATO...

Supreme Court backs school vouchers By ANNE GEARAN Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Constitution allows public money to underwrite tuition at religious schools as long as parents have a choice among a range of religious and secular schools, the Supreme Court ruled today. The 5-4 ruling led by the court's conservative majority further erodes the figurative wall separating church and state and clears a constitutional cloud from school vouchers, an education idea dear to political conservatives and championed by President Bush. Opponents call vouchers a fraud that will only siphon tax money from struggling public schools. The court endorsed a...

<p>There was a parade of flags in chambers, Rodino recalled, and a patriotic recitation by Claude Pepper, the legendary Florida congressman.</p> <p>Rodino, who co-sponsored the measure, was disappointed yesterday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' declaration that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because the words "under God" violates the Establishment Clause -- the first sentence of the Bill of Rights, beginning, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ... "</p>

CNN is making new efforts to contend with criticism by Israel and the Jewish community of its Middle East coverage. Miriam Shaviv looks at the news station's uneasy history of reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the real reasons it decided to make changes On Monday night, star CNN presenter Wolf Blitzer is sitting at a table against the backdrop of the Old City of Jerusalem. "I have with me four very special people," he says, and introduces his guests: two relatives of terror victims, a survivor of a suicide bombing, and a psychologist who deals with post-traumatic stress disorder....

pretzel logicBig Trouble from Little Thailandby Howard AltmanThough the object of advertising is to garner attention, Sherry Levin, manager of Saint Jack's restaurant in Old City, has apparently garnered far more attention than she ever imagined. An ad she ran in this newspaper -- featuring a stylized embellishment of Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej -- has thrust the 35-year-old suburban mother into a festering international incident.The ad -- which depicts Adulyadej as a bling-bling hipster with bleached highlights, lines shaved into his hair, stone-encrusted glasses and a shirt that sports an Adidas logo -- has so angered the Thai government that...

This in an agreement at the G9 meeting today.