Free Republic

Do Floridians like Gov. Bush for who he is or what he does?By GARY FINEOUT CAPITAL BUREAUposted 07/01/02 OCALA -- It happens every time Jeb Bush shows up in public, and it was no different over the weekend in Marion County. A buzz, an excitement, an eagerness among anyone near him. Whether it's a room full of other elected officials or this campaign stop Saturday at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. off-track betting hall, the effect is the same: Everyone in the room wants to talk to the governor, touch him, shake his hand, get his autograph on everything from...

From the moment Time began a story with "What did Martha Stewart know? And when did she know it?" it was clear that the stock of tycoons was plummeting on the media exchange. Puffy profiles were suddenly as outmoded as Enron options. It's open season on chief executives these days as journalists rip into business leaders for fraud, book-cooking, chicanery and plain old greed. "These CEOs are the new America's Most Wanted," says columnist Christopher Byron, author of "Martha Inc." As for the relentless criticism of Stewart, Fortune writer Joe Nocera says: "It's the Monica Lewinsky principle applied to business...

<p>Hundreds of new laws take effect with the July 1 start of fiscal years in many states. The laws reflect legislators' concerns with the burdensome threats of terrorism and budget deficits, spiked with a few less-weighty matters.</p> <p>Florida lawmakers, for example, found time to stipulate that cooking-school students under the legal drinking age can taste small amounts of wine during class -- although they will be expected to spit it out after swishing it around their mouth.</p>

CNSNews.com) - Princeton University Professor Peter Singer, dubbed the 'godfather' of animal rights, says Christianity is a "problem" for the animal rights movement. Singer, author of the book "Animal Liberation" and a professor of bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, criticized American Christianity for its fundamentalist strain that takes the Bible too "literally" and promotes "speciesism." He defined speciesism as the belief that being a member of a certain species "makes you superior to any other being that is not a member of that species." In an address to the national Animal Rights 2002 conference in McLean,...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) --With millions of Americans looking forward to fireworks shows and public activities over the Fourth of July holiday, the message from top Bush administration officials was to remain vigilant, but don't let terrorism concerns disrupt the festivities.</p> <p>"Well, as you know, there have been a variety of reports coming in, intelligence reports that suggest we ought to be especially vigilant as we go into the Fourth of July season," Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."</p>

(New York-AP) -- It's costly to be a smoker in New York City now. Beginning today, cigarette smokers in the city will pay more than seven dollars a pack for many major brands. The Bloomberg administration's new tax on cigarettes is expected to raise an additional 111 (M) million dollars of revenue this year.Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the tax will prevent 50-thousand deaths -- including over 33-thousand premature deaths among city children.The law raises the city tax on cigarettes from eight cents a pack to one dollar and 50 cents a pack.Smokers in New York City will now pay more...

It's harvest time in Afghanistan. While the delegates to its grand council, the loya jurga, met under the great tent in Kabul and grudgingly acknowledged Hamid Karzai as the president of a "transitional government," the impoverished farmers of Afghanistan reaped the rewards of their best cash crop, the despised opium poppy. A few months ago, newspaper correspondents reported that the American proconsuls in Afghanistan had abandoned their hopes of reducing the opium harvest. They had considered buying the crop or paying farmers to destroy their poppies, but concluded that in the lawless Afghan hinterland they would simply be paying a...

<p>Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy is building quite a legacy. Already responsible for a judge shortage on the federal courts, Vermont's super-partisan has now received a remedial education in the separation of powers.</p> <p>It comes in the form of a letter of rebuke from no fewer than seven former U.S. Solicitor Generals -- from both political parties and stretching all the way back to Archibald Cox in the Kennedy Administration. The other signers are Seth Waxman, Walter Dellinger and Drew Days (Clinton), Ken Starr (George H.W. Bush), Charles Fried (Reagan) and Robert Bork (Nixon).</p>

Prayers requested during week of 6/23/02 Prayers for Freeper father_elijah on mission work where Sudanese churches were bombedContinued Prayers for mini_teacup and family for safe return of BillyUpdate on foster child--Continued PrayersPrayers for ImAMightyRighty's father-in-lawUpdate on Ann, home from the hospital, continued prayersPrayer request for rwfromkansas' motherPrayer request for those affected by fires in ArizonaContinued prayers for foster childPraise report on friend and prayers for foreverfree's mother and pastorPrayers for gwmoore and familyPrayer request for those affected by bus accident in TexasPrayer request from LeeMcCoy for resolution to two issuesUrgent prayer request for Teacup, mini teacup, and sonPrayer request for...

A sudden, substantial surge in popularity for Hollywood films counts as one of the most startling developments in the first half of 2002. At a time of economic uncertainty – with most forms of popular entertainment suffering from sharply declining public support – the American people made motion pictures a glorious exception, buying 16 percent more tickets than they did last year. Unlike misleadingly optimistic numbers about increases in "box office dollars" from prior years – which reflected mostly higher ticket prices rather than a growing audience – 2002 offers unequivocal evidence of more people making more trips to the...

<p>House members shunned and defeated a tax plan last night — passed earlier by the Senate — that would have let voters decide in November whether they wanted to fund state government through an income tax or through a higher state sales tax.</p>

<p>The next round in the fight over the future of school vouchers begins Monday -- at 9 a.m., on the campus of Cleveland State University, to be precise.</p> <p>That's where some antivoucher groups, including the Cleveland Teachers Union, plan to protest President Bush as he arrives in the city that provided the test case for last week's historic Supreme Court decision declaring vouchers constitutional.</p>

TODAY we are seeing a tiny respite in the unrelenting push for more and more gun control during the eight years of Bill Clinton and Janet Reno. The Bush Administration has signaled a change of philosophy that may stop more legislation, but it has not even remotely suggested that it will repeal any laws currently on the books. In fact, in signaling its change of philosophy, it asked the Supreme Court not to take up the case of the United States vs. Timothy Emerson. On June 10 the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) yielded to the Bush administration’s...

CNSNews.com) - Standing to lose $60,000 in funding because of its refusal to extend health benefits to domestic partners of homosexual employees, the Salvation Army in Portland, Maine, is searching for a way to overcome the lost funds. The Portland City Council voted last week to not exempt the charity organization from an ordinance mandating that organizations receiving city funds provide health care benefits to the domestic partners of their employees. "We will go to the public for support," said Richard Munn, the divisional commander of the Northern New England Salvation Army. He said the Salvation Army advisory board will...

<p>The cause of school vouchers has long been anathema to many black leaders. But when Tiffany Gipson, an African-American educational consultant in Oakland, Calif., visited Milwaukee last month to learn about that city's school voucher program, the nation's oldest and largest, she came back a convert. "What they have in Milwaukee works for them," she says, adding that she saw some "shining examples."</p>

The "you-know-what" hit the fan when the 9th District Court of Appeals ruled the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. Two "bad" words: "under God." Remember when #%$@ and #*!#%$ and even & %#$# were considered too rude for polite society? Things have changed. Now there's no such thing as rude – and there's not much polite society left. Anything goes, except "under God" in a pledge by children in their classrooms to honor their country and the people who fought and died to keep them safe and free. There was a warning last week from the FBI to people...

Never forget.

To her, eviction is no laughing matter Comedian's friend blames Cosbys' 'lama' By GAR JOSEPH clout@phillynews.com AMID ALLEGATIONS of witchcraft, Hollywood superstar Bill Cosby has evicted a longtime friend, the ex-wife of basketball legend Guy Rodgers, from Cosby's Elkins Park estate, which she had overseen for 19 years. Gladys Rodgers said Cosby and his spiritual adviser accused her of using blood, sparkles and other items in bizarre witch rituals to gain control over the Philly-bred comedian. Rodgers says she is a Methodist. After a three-day standoff, Gladys Rodgers left the perfectly groomed, wooded 5-acre estate Saturday afternoon under the watchful...

CNSNews.com) - The National Education Association, one of the nation's largest teachers' unions, is the object of a sexual orientation discrimination complaint. The Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting those families whose lives have been affected by homosexuality, filed the complaint Friday with the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights in Washington. At issue is PFOX's application to the union to lease an exhibit booth at the June 30 NEA Expo in Dallas. According to its statement, "PFOX explained that it wished to distribute educational materials promoting equal opportunity and...

(CNSNews.com) - Following the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that validated a taxpayer funded school voucher program for low-income students in Cleveland, Ohio, a Republican state senator from California announced he intends to follow suit. State Sen. Ray Haynes, from Murrieta, Calif., said he would introduce legislation to "create real school choice" by offering vouchers to the state's low-income public school students. In addition to Cleveland, the city of Milwaukee, Wisc., and the state of Florida already have school voucher programs on their books. According to Haynes, the Supreme Court's decision "finally ends the debate over whether offering our families...