Free Republic

<p>May 11, 2003 -- Sarah Jessica Parker filmed an entire season of "Sex and the City" preggers. And everything she wore - from a Balenciaga chain-mail, midriff-bearing top to a Juicy Couture strapless dress to 4-inch Manolo Blahniks - was just as trend-setting as ever. The starlet zipped through her pregnancy on the job, all the while whipping out ensembles that said: This ain't your grandma's pregnancy.</p>

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned that it will retaliate with force if either Turkey or the United States move to purge northern Iraq of its militants.Some 5,000 rebels are believed to have found refuge in the mountainous area across the border since 1999, when the PKK declared an end to its 15-year armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey and withdrew into Iraq.But a top PKK official warned Turkish and US troops not to drive out Kurdish rebels in the area, which has been outside of Baghdad’s control since the 1991 Gulf war.“It...

Restaurant in China shut down for using underpants as dish cloths Thu May 11 2003 22:05:36 ET Hong Kong (dpa) - A restaurant in western China has been ordered to shut down after being caught using old underpants as dish cloths, a news report said Monday. Health inspectors swooped on the restaurant in Chengdu, Sichuan province, after getting a tip-off about the old underpants being used in the kitchens. The inspectors ordered the restaurant to shut down temporarily while an investigation into its hygiene standards is conducted, the South China Morning Post reported.

Three of the self-confessed Bali bombers have described their 202 victims, including 88 Australians, as sinners and "infidels" and the Sari Club as a "place of adultery". On the eve of the Bali trial, Ali Imron, the bomb-maker, said the Sari Club deserved to be destroyed because "it was a place of sin". "The Sari Club was a place of adultery," he said in an secretly obtained interview with London's Sunday Times. The three men - Imron, 38, his brother, Amrozi, 40, who bought the explosives, and Imam Samudra, 34, the logistical mastermind - said they targeted the club expecting...

Fathers and Sons By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Reading today's news, I think there should be little doubt that President Bush will go down in history as the most pro-Israel president of all time. No, no — not this President Bush. I'm talking about his father, George Herbert Walker Bush. This President Bush — Dubya — if he keeps going in the direction he's been going, will be remembered as the president who got so wrapped around the finger of Ariel Sharon that he indulged Israel into thinking it really could have it all — settlements, prosperity, peace and democracy —...

<p>Michael Bloomberg seems to think he's mayor of Ben Tre. That's the Vietnamese city etched into history by the quote "It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it."</p> <p>The original quote was attributed to an anonymous army major in an AP dispatch by Peter Arnett of more recent notoriety. But whatever its provenance, it describes Mayor Bloomberg's answer to the New York financial crisis -- a slew of tax increases certain to speed the downward spiral. The state legislature is about to give him what he wants, precluding meaningful recovery from the September 11 attacks coming atop the debacle of the city's major industry, financial services.</p>

<p>The oft-repeated liberal charge that Joe Lieberman is Bush-lite is correct in at least one respect: The stronger the president looks in the general election, the better the Connecticut senator's chances in the Democratic primary.</p> <p>If Howard Dean, the kindly Vermont doctor, is the candidate of Democratic fantasy, Sen. Lieberman is the candidate of Democratic desperation, the centrist of last resort once all other scenarios for regime change have been exhausted. Which is why from Mr. Lieberman's perspective, the South Carolina Democratic debate, held just two days after President Bush triumphantly declared the end of major hostilities in Iraq, couldn't have been better timed. If they could have, the Lieberman team would have held the debate on the USS Abraham Lincoln itself.</p>

Ballot boxes no more: EC to usher in era of EVMs Rana Ajit/ New Delhi Ballot boxes will no longer decide the fate of Union governments from the next general election. The Election Commission is all set to usher in the era of Electronic Voting Machines, which will be used all over India during the 2004 general elections for the Lok Sabha. After successfully utilising EVMs during the various State Assembly elections, the Commission is slowly but steadily working towards realising its goal of going fully electronic during the next general elections. To realise its goal of using EVMs...

Position Available: Klingon Interpreter May 10, 2003 9:52 pm US/Eastern (AP) (PORTLAND, Ore. ) Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon. The language created for the "Star Trek" TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County. "We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients. Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary....

With the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the United States has begun the daunting task of bringing democracy to a nation that has not known freedom. The consensus among many experts is that the Arab world and democracy are incompatible. Islam, the argument goes, breeds a submissive attitude - not only to Allah but also to political and religious leaders as well - that makes Muslims inherently incapable of participating in the rough-and- tumble world of electoral politics and of respecting the rights of minorities who follow a different religious or cultural path. In "After Jihad," Noah Feldman, a New...

The Confederate Battle Flag has fared about as well in America's contemporary political battlefields as it did on the battlefields of Virginia in the 1860s, with a mixed bag of wins and losses. The NAACP and other liberal organizations scored victories in the past decade by having the controversial banner removed from state capitol buildings in Alabama and South Carolina. The forces of heritage bowdlerization then turned their focus to Georgia and Mississippi, states that incorporate the most recognizable symbol of the late Confederacy into their own flags.Mississippi, a state with a large black population, held a public vote on...

Prayer requested during week of 5/5/03 Prayers for GOP Thug Mom and family at passing of unclePrayer request for officer shot Prayer requested during week of 5/4/03 Praise report on surgery outcomePrayer request for 4ConservativeJustice's father-in-law with upcoming surgeryUpdate from freeagle and continued prayersPrayer request for GonzoPrayer request for Sheila and son AdamPrayers for Jerry Nadeau and familyPrayer for little PetePrayer request for freeagle and familyPrayers for Betteboop's boss in hospitalPraise report and continued prayers for Jennifer and NathanPrayers for GOP Thug Mom's uncle who is missing Prayer requested during week of 4/27/03 Prayer request for job situationsPrayer request for...

Most people do not pay attention to state budget issues, particularly in a state other than their own, and so state budget debates rarely receive national attention. Nevertheless, New York Governor George Pataki has captured the attention of Americans who are seeking a leader who will not bow to the pressure of special interests and the media. Pataki submitted a $90 billion budget plan with no tax increases. However, the money hungry State Legislature is demanding $93 billion with tax increases to make up the difference. Democratic State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and New York State Senate Republican Majority Leader...

Even now, after nearly a dozen years on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas still has a rebellious streak and a will to speak his mind. In a rare and wide-ranging interview, Thomas likened African Americans' overwhelming support for the Democratic Party to the old era of segregation in the South. "I remember when I was down in Georgia [as a youth], people were very comfortable with the idea that we should be in certain parts of town, and now we have become very comfortable with the view that we should only be thinking certain things," he said. But Thomas maintains...

<p>WHAT do Howard Dean, Vermont's former governor, and Osama bin Laden have in common?</p> <p>Hatred of America's success.</p> <p>One of the few things more painful to watch than a kiddie talent show is the desperate effort of the Democratic Party's White House hopefuls to gain any traction against President Bush.</p>

When do you think Clinton should run for president? 2004 2008 Never

NEW YORK -- A terminal at LaGuardia Airport was evacuated for an hour late Sunday when screeners lost track of a suspicious bag, the Transportation Security Administration said. The evacuation was ordered at 7:15 p.m. after security screeners operating an X-ray machine for carry-on luggage at the Delta Air Lines terminal spotted what appeared to be a weapon in a bag, TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said. While hand-searching what they thought was the piece of luggage, they realized they had grabbed the wrong bag and a passenger had taken the suspicious bag into the terminal, Hatfield said. Security officials then...

When the Dear Leader was born in a humble log cabin on Korea's sacred Mount Paekdu in 1942, a bright star and a double rainbow appeared in the sky and a swallow descended from heaven to herald the birth of a "general who will rule all the world." A soldier in the army commanded by the Dear Leader's father, the Great Leader, saw the star and the rainbow and rejoiced, carving a message into a tree: "Oh, Korea, I announce the birth of the Star of Paekdu." That's the official North Korean version of the birth of Kim Jong Il,...

Oh, Jayson! A trio of flags. What makes you “far right”? And more Who would have thought the Blair in the news these days would be, not Tony, but Jayson? (For those of you not caught up: Jayson Blair is a reporter fired by the New York Times for a career of spectacular falsification.) The Times has performed excellent damage control — but that's a little too grudging. The paper has not only engaged in (necessary) damage control, it has conducted itself admirably. Still, a couple of observations on its big spread in yesterday's edition. One observation is smallish, the...

(AP) - Pictures of Civil War battle scenes were temporarily covered with sheets or removed from a Williamsburg hotel's walls last week at the insistence of a group of judges and court officials from Washington, D.C.Leah Gurowitz, a spokeswoman for the D.C. courts, said organizers of a training conference for judicial officials feared images of the Confederate battle flag at the Radisson Fort Magruder Hotel and Conference Center would be offensive to some participants."As part of the contract, we asked that there wouldn't be any Confederate flag images in the main area," Gurowitz said.Officials of the hotel, which is named...