Free Republic

Afghans fail to find 41 Taliban jailbreakers Sun 12 October, 2003 13:31 BST By Mohammad Ismail Sameem KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan authorities say they have so far failed to recapture any of the 41 Taliban prisoners who made an audacious tunnel escape from the main prison in the southern city of Kandahar. Government officials said the Friday night escape could not have been carried out without the assistance of guards. And a Taliban commander, Mullah Sabir, told Reuters on Sunday the group paid bribes of 100,000 afghanis to the prison authorities for each of the escapees. Sabir said some...

Unbelievable! Bernie the Hutt is saying kind and understanding things about Rush on KGO. Bernie the Blowhard, always so full of vitriol, is actually suggesting that people shouldn't pile on Rush over this drug thing. AMAZING!

Feminist scholar commits suicide at 77 Son says Heilbrun saw her life as `a journey that had concluded' ROBERT D. MCFADDEN New York Times Carolyn Heilbrun, a retired Columbia University literary scholar whose extensive writings included pioneering books and essays in the feminist canon and a dozen highly erudite detective novels under the pseudonym Amanda Cross, died at her home in Manhattan on Thursday. She was 77. Heilbrun, who had written of taking her own life in a 1997 book, "The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty," committed suicide, said her son, Robert. She had not been ill, he...

Red River blowout01:00 AM CDT on Sunday, October 12, 2003By CHIP BROWN / The Dallas Morning News The only question facing Oklahoma heading into its annual blitzkrieg with No. 11 Texas was whether the Sooners were as good as advertised because they hadn't been tested. Late Saturday afternoon at the Cotton Bowl, as the nation's top-ranked team posed for pictures in front of a scoreboard that read Oklahoma 65, Texas 13, OU still hadn't been tested. "We're on our way," said defensive tackle Tommie Harris when asked if Oklahoma was capable of winning the national title. The Sooners were their...

Taliban Kill Eight Policemen in Afghan Attack Sun October 12, 2003 09:37 AM ET KABUL (Reuters) - Up to 100 Afghan Taliban guerrillas attacked a district office in the volatile southern province of Zabul early Sunday, killing eight policemen and wounding two others, a local official said. The latest attack by a resurgent guerrilla movement occurred in Zabul's Arghandab district shortly before 2 a.m., district officer Haji Qudratullah told Reuters. He said up to 100 Taliban fighters were involved, who burned down the district office and destroyed four vehicles. Qudratullah said he had no figure for Taliban casualties, though he...

<p>A new anti-free-trade movement is emerging in the U.S., comprising highly skilled workers who once figured they would be big winners in the globalized economy but now see their white-collar jobs moving overseas in growing numbers.</p> <p>The new opponents to lowering trade barriers are especially vocal, and their complaints already are getting the attention of Congress and the White House. Their concerns got an unexpected boost Thursday when Intel Corp. Chairman Andy Grove, a pioneer in the American high-tech industry, warned that the U.S. could lose the bulk of its information technology jobs to overseas competitors in the next decade, largely to India and China.</p>

Penman for the terrorists Edward Said was the Harriet Beecher Stowe of radical Islam's war on the WestBy Gene Edward Veith WHY IS IT THAT THE WORLD'S UNIVERSITIES ARE hotbeds of support for the cause of radical Islam? This, despite the fact that they are also hotbeds of support for feminism, gay rights, and free sex, causes the radical Muslims would put to the sword? Why do even Jewish professors and students at major universities feel constrained to denounce "Zionism" and support the Palestinian cause? Outside of the ivory towers, why did Islamic radicalism break out just now in...

You gotta admire the way the media stayed on the Demo-crats' sinking California ship right to the very end. On the CNN Web site, even after Gray Davis had conceded, they were sticking to the loser's talking-points: ''Schwarzenegger, who, like Hitler, is a native of Austria . . .'' CNN? Oh, that's that network with Larry King, who, like the Son of Sam, is a native of Brooklyn. Used to be owned by Ted Turner, who, like the Cincinnati Strangler, is a native of Cincinnati. Now part of Time Warner, founded by the Warner Brothers, the oldest of whom, Harry...

<p>History can often be in the hands of Mississippi's lieutenant governor.</p> <p>Oct. 25 Circuit clerks' offices must remain open until noon for absentee voting.</p> <p>Last day to vote by absentee ballots in the circuit clerk offices.</p> <p>Mailed absentee ballots must be received by 5 p.m.</p>

I was wrong!Ken Joseph Jr. (archive) October 12, 2003How do you admit you were wrong? What do you do when you realize those you were defending in fact did not want your defense and wanted something completely different from you and from the world? This is my story.  It will probably upset everybody - those with whom I have fought for peace all my life and those for whom the decision for war comes a bit too fast. I am an Assyrian. I was born and raised in Japan where I am the second generation in ministry after my Father came to Japan...

October 12, 2003Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Psalm: Sunday 44 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading IWis 7:7-11 I prayed, and prudence was given me;I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.I preferred her to scepter and throne,and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,and I chose to have her rather than the light,because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.Yet all good...

By R. G. DUNLOP and JASON RILEY The Courier-Journal Sunday, October 12, 2003 Today's Stories • Flaws in Kentucky's court system can lead to injustice, tragedy • Getting away with murder in Pike • In Franklin County, even 'slam dunk' cases were dismissed • Charges mean little without prosecution • Even confessions don't guarantee convictions FRANKFORT, Ky. — Justice in Kentucky is dispensed unequally because of differences among judges and prosecutors and a lack of state oversight that has allowed thousands of felony cases to stall, to disappear or to be dismissed for lack of prosecution. As a result, defendants...

<p>STOCKTON, Calif. -- Something unusual is happening among the illegal immigrants who work in the lush fields of the San Joaquin Valley. Instead of leaving after the harvest, as they did for years, they are staying here, settling into lives of poverty and putting new strains on the city.</p>

Reports last week about Yasser Arafat's failing health seem to be of a piece with the condition of his government. With Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei threatening to resign from office only days after assuming it, it is becoming plain that the latest attempt to move the Palestinian Authority away from Arafat without moving Arafat away from the Palestinian Authority has failed. This is nothing new. With Arafat and the PLO as their sole legitimate representative, the Palestinian people have achieved neither prosperity, nor peace, nor statehood. Ahmed Qurei's plight, like Mahmoud Abbas's, is only a reminder that Arafat would rather...

If Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chirinjeev Kathuria makes it to the March primary ballot, the one vote he may not be able to count on is his own. The 38-year-old Oak Brook business promoter isn't registered to vote. According to election officials in DuPage County, where he grew up and still lives with his parents, he never has been. ... snip ... Conservatives take notice Yet much of that seems to have escaped the notice of leading Republicans and many leading media outlets, who have uncritically embraced his tales of achievement and innovation. "He's someone whose being a candidate is...

Over the past two years of the war on terror, the United States has significantly toughened its procedures for obtaining visas to enter the US, including requiring more face-to-face interviews and eliminating a transit-visa program officials feared terrorists were planning to use to sneak into the country. Despite these efforts, however, individuals with established ties to terrorists or who openly support terrorism continue to gain entry. The most recent example is that of Farouk Kadoumi, head of the PLO political office in Damascus. Two weeks ago, the Palestinian Authority accused the US of failing to providing a visa for Kadoumi...

<p>Republican Bobby Jindal has agreed to participate in a number of televised debates, but there could be a problem.</p> <p>He might be the only candidate there.</p> <p>Democrat Kathleen Blanco said Friday she would have to check her calendar to see if she is available on the nights Jindal has set up with television stations.</p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Coleen Rowley, the Minneapolis FBI agent who accused bureau headquarters of bungling chances to foil the Sept. 11 attacks, is criticizing the Bush administration for "whittling away our civil liberties." In an opinion piece published in today's Star Tribune, Rowley takes issue with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's assertion in a Twin Cities speech last month that America "is freer today than at any time in the history of human freedom." "Well, this American disagrees!" Rowley wrote.

Legislature to meet in redistricting finale Associated press AUSTIN (AP) — With a big Texas football weekend under way, House Democrats took advantage of dwindling legislative attendance and again broke a quorum in their battle to block redistricting. The lawmakers' disappearance Friday night meant the House — which already had approved a Republican congressional redistricting bill — could not vote on a government reorganization bill some senators coveted. So Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Senate Republicans decided to wait to vote on new congressional district boundaries that favor the GOP. Both the House and Senate are to meet today in...

Special Dispatch Series - No. 587 October 10, 2003 No.587 Al-Qaddafi: 'Libya Should Quit the Arab League... Women Must be Trained to Booby-Trap Cars, Houses, Luggage, and Children's Toys' In an October 4, 2003 speech delivered to a group of women in the city of Sabha, Libyan ruler Col. Mu'ammar Al-Qaddafi spoke of Libya's work for the pan-Arab cause, accused the Arab countries of ingratitude, and apologized to the African states for bringing them into the Arab League. He also said that women should be trained to carry out suicide operations. The following are excerpts from his speech: [1]...