Free Republic

Ruddock blamed for woes at Woomera By Penelope DebelleJune 29 2002 South Australia's Police Minister, Pat Conlon, has accused the Federal Immigration Minister of arrogance for having failed to address the chronic problems at the Woomera detention centre. The minister's comments came after 38 asylum seekers were sprung from the centre on Thursday night. Three refugee activists from Melbourne have been charged with aiding their escape.Mr Conlon said yesterday: "We have had detention centres in Australia since the late 1980s and none of them have these ongoing problems." Yesterday, two women and a man from Melbourne were arrested at a...

Government — Please Give Us More! by George F. Smith California and its governor are in the news again, this time about Oracle's no-bid deal with the state that could cost taxpayers over $40 million more than expected. It looks bad for Governor Davis, who took $25,000 from the computer company to help his re-election.[1] Oracle's CEO, you will recall, volunteered to design a national ID card system for us. With the populace thus wired, we'd be safe from all threats because the system would be run by our government. You know who I mean: the people who make air...

In his Rose Garden speech on Monday, the president outlined the much-anticipated Bush Plan for crafting a modus vivendi that will allow Israel and her Arab neighbors to proceed in peace. In many ways, the speech merely repackaged salient elements of Mr. Bush's several earlier Mideast plans, among them the "Mitchell Plan," the "Tenet Initiative," and the Louisville, Ky., address delivered by Secretary of State Colin Powell.Ironically, though some pundits complain that this president has not shown leadership in the Mideast conflict, Bush probably has packaged and supported more Mideast plans in 18 months of office than any other...

Dog in Mercy Dash to Save Farmer's LifeFri Jun 28, 9:20 AM ET VIENNA (Reuters) - An Austrian farmer's faithful dog saved his life by running for help after a hay-making machine sliced up the 62-year-old's left foot, police said on Friday. The farmer was working alone on Thursday except for Tschibsi, his one-year-old Alsatian mixed breed, and could have bled to death without help, police in Upper Austria province said. Tschibsi ran two km (more than a mile) after the farmer's wife as she bicycled into town and barked and whined until she came back. The wife called for...

George Soros, the billionaire financier, has warned that the US dollar could lose one-third of its value over the next few years. On the currency markets, meanwhile, allegations of yet another accounting scandal - this time at office equipment firm Xerox - made investors dump the US dollar and push it within a quarter of a cent of parity with the euro. Mr Soros also warned stock markets could fall "much lower" if consumer confidence and growth faltered in the United States. The financier made his fortune running a hedge fund which speculated against weak currencies, including the British pound,...

The courts suddenly decide to care about our constitutional rights, and this is where they start? Many atheists, leftists, rightists, and even more annoying, those with no ideology whatsoever who get off on being just plain pesky were busy swimming in their own happy this past week after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. The ruling, if upheld, would apply to nine states. Ten if you count "shock." Since the Pledge is an important part of any student's education, I thought it might be a good idea to try to come up...

With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said late Wednesday that the two judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional should be removed from the judiciary. "These two judges are so out of touch with reality that they should be kicked off the bench," Gingrich told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." Bristling at the harsh penalty, "H & C" co-host Alan Colmes protested, "For one decision? You kick judges off if you don't like one decision they make?" "Absolutely," Gingrich shot back....

LONDON (Reuters) - A British theater company has dropped the word hunchback from its stage adaptation of the classic novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to avoid offending disabled people, newspapers reported Friday.Oddsocks Productions has renamed its touring production "The Bellringer of Notre Dame" after discussions with a disability adviser raised the possibility of offending people with spina bifida or the disfiguring scoliosis of the spine."We have not changed the novel in any way, we simply felt changing the title would cause less offence of people," producer Elli Mackenzie was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror.French author Victor Hugo's...

Is the Army becoming irrelevant? When General Eric K. Shinseki became the Army’s thirty-fourth Chief of Staff, in June of 1999, he declared that he would transform the ponderous Cold War force that stared down the Soviets for half a century into something more useful in the disordered new millennium. He said that he wanted an Army that was nimble, light, and lethal, a force supple enough to perform peacekeeping missions or to fight an all-out war against a country like North Korea or Iraq. He said he would wean the Army from the tanks and armored fighting vehicles it...

A day after federal judges declared the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance to be unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has ruled that children can may receive publicly supported educational instruction in classrooms with crucifixes on the wall, so long as school vouchers are the funding mechanism. Yesterday's Zelman v. Simmons-Harris decision is a crowning achievement for the school-choice movement, and cause for conservative celebration. Among the think-tank set, school choice has been a cornerstone of conservative education policy for more than a decade. It has not met with much popular success so far — ballot initiatives in...

After more than a year of emotion-inciting display, a controversial billboard proclaiming the pope to be the Antichrist is no longer visible, having been taken down by its sponsor and replaced with a new message regarding days of worship. Larry Weathers, the Oregon barber responsible for posting the ad, says the media company that owns the space decided to honor a commitment to the Catholic League to remove the message once its term had expired. The contract ended in May, but it wasn't until last week that the pope placard was removed. "We're happy with the result to a certain...

Putting closed-circuit TV cameras in public places has only a small effect on crime, according to a British report released Friday, but the U.K. government insists the police cameras dissuade criminals and make people feel safe. The study came out on the same day that police turned on a $4.5-million system blanketing the downtown area of Manchester, England's third largest city, with 400 video cameras. The report by the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NARCO) analyzed government statistics and independent reports, finding that in 14 British cities using closed circuit television, six recorded falling crime. In...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military will step up random air patrols over major U.S. cities on the Fourth of July as a precaution, Pentagon officials told CNN Thursday.</p> <p>"This is not in response to any specific threat," said a senior defense official. "It's more a recognition that it is a day of symbolic significance."</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says al-Qaida terrorists are receiving fresh supplies of expensive military gear and medical supplies despite the allied success in Afghanistan.</p> <p>"We have very recently discovered some new stuff that is not old and it is modern," Rumsfeld said in an interview with The Washington Times published Friday.</p>

Voucher ruling won't stop lawsuit in Florida By Nancy Cook Lauer DEMOCRAT CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF A ruling Thursday by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of taxpayer-funded vouchers going to religious schools won't deter a group that's filed a similar lawsuit against such vouchers in Florida. In a 5-4 decision, the high court said using state money for tuition at religious schools in Cleveland does not violate the constitutional prohibition against government support of religion. The ruling is one of the most significant in court history because it dramatically expands the right of parents to demand money from the...

Politics Help Amtrak Stay on TrackJONATHAN D. SALANT Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) - As Amtrak President David Gunn and Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta work to complete their deal, they both know Congress is unlikely to allow the passenger trains to stop running.There are too many employees and too many constituents affected, making lawmakers eager to intervene to keep Amtrak chugging along.``When you live in the corridors that rely on Amtrak, it is a necessity,'' said James Thurber, director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. ``When something is a necessity, it is a potent political issue.''Though whistlestop...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Friday blocked a judge from opening immigration hearings for foreign terrorism suspects, granting the Bush administration's emergency request for a stay.</p> <p>The administration argued that national security would be threatened if reporters and others were allowed to attend the hearings.</p>

Hatred of Jews in Israel is alive and well on American college campuses. I saw it with my own eyes. On May 7 I spoke at the "We Stand With Israel" rally held at Malcolm X Plaza at San Francisco State University. The facts about that rally and the events surrounding it have been described by virtually every Jewish newspaper in the world. In the local mass-circulation press, the San Francisco Examiner headline read, "Jews blast State hate Poster is just latest example, students say" ((May 17). On April 8 a rally was co-sponsored in Malcolm X Plaza by the...

A controversial African archbishop has waded into the dispute dividing Vancouver Anglicans, warning the city's bishop he will ''protect'' priests who oppose the blessing of same-sex couples. The warning yesterday by Emmanuel Kolini -- Archbishop of Rwanda and leader of a group of breakaway Anglicans in the United States -- deepens a crisis created two weeks ago in the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster. The diocese became the first in Canada to approve gay and lesbian unions in a rite similar to a marriage ceremony. Although 63% of parish delegates approved the plan, priests and worshippers from eight conservative parishes...

<p>ORLANDO, Fla. — A judge ruled Thursday that a Muslim woman can pursue her legal fight to wear a veil for a driver's license photo, despite objections from the state that it jeopardizes public safety.</p> <p>Judge Ted Coleman denied a state motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Sultaana Freeman, whose driver's license was revoked when she refused to replace her photograph with one showing her face unveiled.</p>