Free Republic

<p>HARRISBURG – House Majority Leader John Perzel, the tough-fisted leader of the Republican caucus, teed off Thursday on Rep. Jeffrey Coleman for refusing to support a tax increase.</p> <p>“The boy´s got to understand that the money´s got to come from somewhere,” said Perzel, a Philadelphia Republican. “If you want more money for school districts that money has to come from taxes. Ask the boy if he is going to vote for the spending.”</p>

Friday, June 28, 2002'Kaboom, it blew' Home levelled by blast after gas line ruptured By CARY CASTAGNA, POLICE REPORTER It was supposed to be a home renovation. But when Transcona resident Ken Reimer ruptured a natural gas line while digging a hole for a chain-link fence yesterday, he spurred a massive explosion minutes later that levelled his house at 54 Sunway Ave. "I'm in La-la Land right now," said next-door neighbour Jackie Sawatzky, whose home was partially damaged in the blast. "You see this on the news happening to other people, but you really don't think it's going to...

A few short weeks ago, President Bush was preparing a speech announcing his plan to establish an interim Palestinian state. Then, something changed. A homicidal Palestinian boarded a bus in Jerusalem and detonated a bomb, massacring 19 innocent people and injuring more than 50 others. The White House announced that it would delay the president's speech. Most assumed that Bush would still call for the immediate creation of a Palestinian state, after once again condemning the latest act of genocide. But he surprised us this time and finally changed course. Bush said that there were at least two conditions precedent...

<p>The Pledge of Allegiance, the 110-year-old American loyalty oath which precedes most school days and public meetings, is an expression of what most people think and therefore should be preserved, people throughout Tompkins County said Thursday.</p> <p>A federal appellate court's ruling Wednesday that the Pledge was unconstitutional because of the phrase "under God" led many to react with scorn, while a smaller group thought it was a well-reasoned decision.</p>

I had a nightmare. I dreamed President Bush gave a speech and called for new leadership of al-Qaida. He told the terrorists all they had to do to placate the United States was pick a new leader – anyone other than Osama bin Laden. All would be forgiven if the organization just cleaned up its act and found some new faces to represent it. Thank goodness, I woke up. But, sadly, the nightmare continues for Israel and the international war on terrorism Bush himself proclaimed. Because this is precisely what Bush has done with another group of terrorist murderers in...

Clandestine Forces loyal to George Bush Sr. are planning to attack the US population, blame it on Islamic terrorists and use the attacks as a pretext for a TOTAL clamp-down on dissent, liberty, freedom, democratic processes, so that they may wage unchecked war and aggression against Iraq, and any other nation Islamic or otherwise who has any natural resources and particularly oil reserves that these industrialists are thirsting for to enrich their petrochemical and arms based industrial empires. American’s are being, “softened up” right now for their first “Dirty Bomb,” self fulfilling media prophecy. The Dirty bomb will be dropped...

The Supreme Court has certainly taken issue with the taking of life recently. How ironic for a judicial body that otherwise condones it in one of the worst ways. In a pair of controversial rulings last week, the high court decreed that the death penalty cannot be carried out against people who were ordered to die by a judge instead of a jury, or against prisoners judged to be mentally incompetent – findings that have alarmed death-penalty proponents who are convinced that sort of conspiracy is afoot to dismantle this form of punishment. My Catholic beliefs leave me opposed to...

On June 26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck again. This time, these judicial extremists have ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. Not surprising for that court, but it is an inevitable result of the judicial activism rampant throughout the federal bench. First, the facts. Michael Newdow is a minister of atheism, ordained by the Universal Life Church. He says he will soon open his own church, the First Amendment Church of True Science, on the Internet. His daughter attends public elementary school in California. Under state law and school district policy, teachers begin...

The Ongoing Destruction of the Democratic PartyWritten by: big bad easter bunnyJune 28 2002I discovered Freerepublic.com during the 1996 campaign season and it was a mental life saver. I knew I was not getting the true story on the regular news channels, finding this site changed every thing for my hunger for information. During the election there were a lot of postings by cryptic individuals who were claiming that the GOP was not going to bother putting resources behind Bob Dole. Keeping the Congress was there main goal and four more years of Bill Clinton should pretty much cook the...

<p>June 28, 2002 -- First Ellen, then Rosie - now Whoopi? The dreadlocked doyenne of comedy shocked - and thrilled - an audience attending a gay award ceremony at City Hall last night when she announced that she once dabbled in some sapphic sister acts.</p>

Ron Smith's Something to Say Weekday Mornings 6:50AM rsmith@wbal.com You Lose June 28, 2002 Ron Smith's Something to Say (June 28, 2002) Judges aren’t immune to public opinion, as is once again proved by the instant backtracking performed by Judge Alfred T. Goodwin of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Within hours of outraging the overwhelming majority of his fellow citizens by declaring the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, Judge Goodwin decided, without comment, to put his decision on hold, perhaps anticipating that his ruling would be quickly overturned on appeal. Funny, isn’t it, how this particular ruling riled the...

Personal income tax collections slipped more than expected in May, and weak financial markets eroded earnings on invested state money, aggravating Idaho´s already bleak financial picture. The Division of Financial Management reported on Thursday that actual tax receipts last month were $5.6 million below the target, $2 million more than the initial estimate indicated three weeks ago. That estimate did not consider interest earnings, and it anticipated personal income tax would come in only about $2.7 million short when it was actually $3.6 million below the benchmark. Personal income tax revenue has been at the heart of the state´s economic...

More than 145 Representatives—more than enough to sustain a Presidential veto—have pledged to uphold a veto of supplemental spending legislation that busts the budget, House Policy Chairman Christopher Cox (R-CA) announced today. “The Senate’s failure to pass a budget has left it to the House and to the President to take more responsibility to control spending,” Chairman Cox said. “Our pledge lets President Bush and our conferees know that they have full authority to save taxpayers billions of dollars. It creates a House-White House alliance in support of the bipartisan House bill, approved 280-138 on May 24.” The Senate remains...

<p>Pleasant Ridge attorney Ben M. Gonek contends that Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan has a profit motive. Does allowing defendants charged with serious offenses to pay fines -- including fees to the prosecutor's office -- send the message that justice is for sale in Wayne County?</p>

Almost 10 months after the terror attack on Sept. 11, the verdict is in on the charities that volunteered to collect and distribute donated money to the families of the victims. And that verdict, as you may know, is guilty of fraud in the inducement. According to The New York Times, roughly a billion dollars in charitable contributions sit in banks waiting for some kind of designation. There is heavy-duty interest coming in off that billion so the charities are in no rush to disperse the funds. The Red Cross leads the league in funds sitting on the bench with...

A couple took their 4-month-old baby boy home from the hospital this month after battling both hospital officials, who urged them to "unplug" their son's life-support system, and social workers, who considered taking custody of the child because the parents refused to take government handouts to pay their medical bills. Last January, Joshua and Noelle Goforth were on a ski vacation in Colorado when their son, William, arrived more than three months premature. Weighing in at just 1 pound, 4 ounces, William Reid Goforth immediately was put on life-support systems. Doctors at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs then recommended pulling...

A Texas man has filed a lawsuit against a public library after staff there refused to let him use the facility's community room for a religious meeting. The Mitchell County Public Library loans the room out for "socially useful and cultural activities" as their policy states, but will not allow Seneca Lee to discuss his Christian views on political and social issues in the room. Lee's suit, filed Wednesday, charges the library with violating his right to freedom of speech. The library's policy specifically prohibits the community room from being used for "religious purposes." "This is a blatant violation of...

The Pledge of Allegiance A Short History by Dr. John W. Baer Copyright 1992 by Dr. John W. Baer Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist. In his Pledge, he is expressing the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, author of the American socialist utopian novels, Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). Francis Bellamy in his sermons and lectures and Edward Bellamy in his novels and articles described in detail how the middle class could create a planned economy with political, social and economic equality for...

In years to come, historians will be shocked at how Israeli leaders happily encouraged a gang of Arab murderers to create a country within our tiny borders -- a country which never existed before -- and gave them arms knowing that those arms could be used to kill and maim us, and then continued to try to appease the murderers. Why are we fulfilling Hitler's dream? Why did we ignore Arafat's rhetoric calling for our destruction, ignore the fact that they were flooding their cities with arms, and ignore the warnings that they are preparing for all-out war? Having worked...

<p>As the sun heads for the horizon on a warm, breezy evening at Beals Point, five women in running shorts focus on the challenge of a lifetime.</p> <p>The bond they've built in nearly six months of training together has been strengthened by a coach fighting cancer, an encounter with a bear during a run, and the tears and laughter that come with sacrificing so much to chase a dream.</p>