Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The White House worked furiously yesterday to try to convince skeptics it had a grip on unrest in New Orleans and make the case that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was finally pressing forward with a monumental recovery effort. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff tried to blame the feds' slow response on the disastrous breaches in levees a day after Katrina hit, even though various officials now claim they'd warned about the weaknesses in the levees for years. "The second catastrophe, frankly, added a level of challenge that no one has seen before," Chertoff said. Bush, however,...

Rep. Gary Ackerman blasted President Bush on Saturday for his handling of the New Orleans hurricane disaster, even as most elected Democrats kept political gamesmanship on hold. "The leadership of the president - and this has nothing to do with [him] being a Republican, it just has to do with, I believe, the whole administration including the president - has been totally inept," Ackerman told WABC Radio. The New York Democrat predicted that Congress "will have a lot of hearings" on the Katrina disaster. Ackerman was troubled, he said, by an apparent connection between the administration's slow response and the...

During the coming week, the US Senate will be struggling with a question that will affect the path of American constitutional law for decades. While senators are battling over Democratic efforts to filibuster George W. Bush's nominees to the courts of appeal, this conflict will set the stage for a larger struggle in June, when William Rehnquist is expected to announce his retirement as chief justice of the Supreme Court. Mr Rehnquist's retirement will be the first of a series. Eight of the court's nine justices are over 65. Depending on the new appointments, the court may continue down its...

A federal court ruled the city of Oakland had a right to bar two employees from posting a flier promoting traditional family values on an office bulletin board. Employees Regina Rederford and Robin Christy posted the flier in response to an e-mail to city employees announcing formation of a gay and lesbian employee association. The two responded with a promotion of their own -- the start of an informal group that respects "the natural family, marriage and family values." But supervisors Robert Bobb, then city manager, and Joyce Hicks, then deputy director of the Community and Economic Development Agency, ordered...

An aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was arrested on the West Front of the Capitol for disorderly conduct during President Bush’s inaugural address last week. The aide, Nathan Ackerman, is a television producer on the Senate Democratic Communications Committee — an organization that was folded into Reid’s new communications “war room.” About 20 minutes into Bush’s speech, Ackerman, 36, and another man held up a sheet that said “No War.” According to a Capitol Police report, Ackerman and another suspect “were blocking the view of the audience and they were engaged in a verbal dispute with members...

Planned character assassination Posted: December 11, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern By Dave Forman© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Public-interest advocate Richard Ackerman is being brutally attacked by Planned Parenthood for filing suit against the pro-choice, pro-abortion chain of super clinics. The very court that he went to – seeking justice for the unprotected young people who foolishly turn to an organization that has made a huge business killing unborn babies – could become a willing partner in the attempted destruction of Mr. Ackerman. San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin A. Enright threw out two counts of Ackerman's 15-count lawsuit against Planned Parenthood Federation of America and...

he's a strict vegetarian, while nothing makes him happier than a juicy rib-eye steak. Her father is a fiercely liberal congressman. His, a conservative, once campaigned against hers. She is Jewish. He is Roman Catholic. But Lauren Ackerman and Paul Forte are an easygoing pair and have similar tastes in humor and style. And both are ardent Mets fans. But more on that later. They grew up in Queens, where their families knew each other for years. But though Ms. Ackerman and Mr. Forte attended Ryan Junior High School in Fresh Meadows, they never got to know each other. Then,...

<p>Finishing up his first term as California's attorney general, Bill Lockyer is going through an election most politicians can only dream about.</p> <p>He has nearly $8 million in his campaign coffers, dwarfing the $130,000 his Republican opponent, Dick Ackerman, has scraped together. He's avoided bad publicity and political scandal throughout his term. He's mustered unusual law enforcement support for a liberal to moderate Democrat, gaining endorsements from most of California's district attorneys, many of them Republicans. And the polls show him with a double-digit lead over Ackerman.</p>

Dick Ackerman will be on The Eric Hogue Show this morning at 8AM for a full hour - callers welcome at 888-923-1380 during the show. Listen via web at www.ktkz.com.