Free Republic

Right after George W. Bush was elected President, David Harris asked members of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), "How many of you voted for Bush?" After an uncomfortable silence, a smattering of hands went up among several hundred people. Such results do not surprise Harris, who is executive director of the AJC. He regularly asks fellow Jewish leaders, "How can we expect evangelical Christians to support our concerns if we support none of theirs?" That mindset is changing. In May 2001 AJC leaders invited Bush to their annual meeting. The President told an attentive audience about his faith in Christ,...

Our Newspapers Fail Us Editorial - Israel News Agency There is no public relations or public affairs without a carrier. The most established carrier is called a newspaper. And in Israel the only newspapers which enjoy abundant readership and wealth are the Hebrew dailies – Yediot, Maariv and Haaertz. As for the English newspapers here in Israel – one is a mere translation of the Hebrew edition and the other is fifty percent wire service copy. Yes – there are some brilliant writers on these papers but their voices become deluded when you have a lack of proper leadership integrated...

With the reality of entrenched opposition in Iraq resulting in increasing U.S. fatalities there, the opposition at home to the occupation is hardening by the day. The military appears to have come up with a solution: Change reality. In what has been described as a "Pentagon infomercial," the Defense Department has hired a former producer of the TV show "Cops" to film postwar Iraq from its perspective. Though producer Bertram van Munster has denied that he is shooting a propaganda piece, it is clear that the Pentagon is gearing up to frame its own account -- and history -- of...

By ERNEST HOLSENDOLPHAtlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer Ernest Holsendolph is an editorial writer for The Atlanta JournalConstitution. T. LEVETTE BAGWELL / Staff Related: • How mentoring can help African-American boys succeed • Two effort to help black students GRADUATION RATES Of students who entered Georgia colleges in 1996, here is the percentage of white and black students who graduated by 2002. Georgia public colleges White students 53.8% Black students 33% White males 49% Black males 23.8% White females 57.6% Black females 39.2% University of Georgia White students 76% Black students 67% Black males 55% Black females 71.6% Georgia Tech White...

Powell a party to deception Colin Powell has escaped the controversy that has engulfed President Bush and the intelligence services over the president's use of discredited information in his State of the Union speech. Powell didn't use those now-infamous 16 words about an alleged Iraqi attempt to purchase uranium in Africa when he addressed the U.N. Security Council in February. But he isn't off the hook. The intelligence Powell did use was equally dubious while arguably more persuasive. In his Feb. 5 brief making the case for war, the secretary of state repeated the canard that Saddam Hussein had forged...

CNN counts on Zahn in prime-time battle By CAROLINE WILBERT The Atlanta Journal-Constitution After more than a month off the air, Paula Zahn returned to CNN on a recent weeknight with a typically poised explanation. Dressed in a coral suit with matching necklace, she explained in a few quick sentences that she was on vacation for a while and now will be hosting an 8 p.m. news show. The show is "a work in progress" that will roll out new features, contributors and set in coming weeks, she added. "I'm very excited," said Zahn, who used to host the network's...

For the needy, a poor excuse It is unfashionable to be poor in America. Even workers just a paycheck away from being poverty-stricken themselves -- an illness, a layoff, a car accident away from having the electricity turned off -- are contemptuous of those just beneath them on the socioeconomic ladder. The Horatio Alger myth is so powerful that one's fortune is either in the bank or in the near future. Hard times are just a temporary condition -- or so people believe. A Time-CNN poll during the 2000 presidential elections asked voters whether they were in the top 1...

There has been a recent tremendous hubbub over at The New York Times on the subject of one Jayson Blair, who apparently spent most of his "journalism" career fabricating news pieces for his various employers (like the Times and the Globe). Some have suggested that Jayson was allowed to get away with his transgressions against the facts because political correctness rules all at his place of employment. Jayson appears to be a member of a protected class at The New York Times. Do other national daily newspapers have similar "protected class members" in their newsrooms? At The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, there...

Bush soars, but how he'll land is another story Remember Bill Clinton's infamous haircut on board Air Force One? In 1993, according to front-page headlines and blaring broadcast reports, Clinton shut down Los Angeles International Airport to get a trendy haircut from a celebrity stylist. Those reports, which turned out to be dead wrong, took on a life of their own because of alleged inconvenience to the passengers left circling in frustration. Later news reports that put the episode in perspective -- there were no delays of scheduled commercial flights -- ended up on the back pages of newspapers or...

Board rejects appeal to spare Alday killer Carl Isaacs The Associated Press The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied an appeal Friday to commute the decades-old death sentence of Carl Isaacs, the nation's longest-serving death row inmate. Isaacs, 49, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Tuesday for orchestrating the slaughter of six members of the Alday family in their home during a burglary in 1973. There were no extraordinary circumstances that would have justified commuting Isaacs' sentence, said Heather Hedrick, spokeswoman for the board. "Carl Isaacs needs to be executed," said Susan Chambliss, whose grandfather Ned Alday was...

Girl left alone at night in Gwinnett child aid office By BETH WARREN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A 13-year-old girl in foster care was left alone at night inside the Lawrenceville headquarters of the Gwinnett Department of Family and Children Services. A police officer, responding to an alarm at the Northdale Road building, found the frightened child at 2:28 a.m. Thursday. "It's very alarming," said Reneé Huie, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the agency that oversees DFCS offices across the state. "I do not know of it ever happening before." Two caseworkers from child protective services have...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 5/1/03 Tax cut woos Greediest Generation The president's proposed $726 billion tax cut is not an economic policy. It is a crass appeal to greed, pitched to a nation conditioned to believe that greed is not a vice but a downright virtue. And that's just the beginning of the deceptions and distortions being used to sell this policy. The money that the tax cut would allegedly "return" to the taxpayer never came from the taxpayer in the first place. Every penny that taxpayers send to the federal government is spent by the federal government. So how is...

America's newest hero is the petite Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued from behind enemy lines on April 2. Lynch, who may have engaged Iraqi troops in a deadly firefight before being captured, is one of the valiant women warriors helping to erode the strictures against allowing women in combat. But Lynch's heroics mean nothing to the imperious William "Hootie" Johnson, who runs his own little tyranny in the conservative east Georgia city of Augusta. His exclusive golf club, Augusta National, will not abide incursions by women members -- no matter their courage, honor, stature or wealth. While the Army,...

Halliburton an irritant in plan for Iraq Perhaps President Bush has perfectly good reasons for allowing American companies with White House connections to get secret contracts for rebuilding Iraq. Perhaps the president has considered the ramifications of giving billions in business to companies such as Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney was CEO. Nevertheless, the president should reconsider the process for awarding bids for the reconstruction. It's bad enough that the insider deal-making feeds the conspiracy theories of loonies such as former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney -- who infamously suggested that Bush allowed the terrorist atrocities of Sept. 11 so...

Executives work out of small offices with old furniture. Carpeting in the studios is frayed. Compared with its competitors, the network has less space, fewer international correspondents and a shorter journalistic tradition. But as the nation continues to wage war against Iraq, the unabashedly patriotic network has more viewers. Critics snicker at the red-, white- and blue-festooned screen and say the network of Bill O'Reilly offers opinion, not news. But it has struck a chord with American viewers. A clear cable news ratings winner going into the war, Fox has held on to its No. 1 status, even during a...

[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 10/27/02 ] Bush offers disinformation about Saddam Do you believe that Saddam Hussein had a hand in the terrorist atrocities of Sept. 11? If you do, you have a lot of company: About two-thirds of Americans, according to a recent Pew Research poll, believe Saddam is linked to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That's not surprising. The Bush administration has worked very hard over the last several months to convince Americans that Saddam is linked to the assault that killed more than 3,000 people last year. They've succeeded despite what ought...

Bushes deserve Nobel more than Carter "I would like to suggest a more fitting recipient for this year's peace prize - George H.W. Bush or his son, George W. Bush. Seriously." By MICHAEL KELLY In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Jimmy Carter, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, explains committee secretary Geir Lundestad, intended to indicate its keen support for the former American president's criticism of the current American president's warlike ways. "But I am not too optimistic that we will have any influence on President Bush," Lundestad added. I am not too optimistic that I will have any influence with...

The official story on Iraq has never made sense. The connection that the Bush administration has tried to draw between Iraq and al-Qaida has always seemed contrived and artificial. In fact, it was hard to believe that smart people in the Bush administration would start a major war based on such flimsy evidence. The pieces just didn't fit. Something else had to be going on; something was missing. In recent days, those missing pieces have finally begun to fall into place. As it turns out, this is not really about Iraq. It is not about weapons of mass destruction, or...

If the Bush administration invades Iraq, future scholars will look back on this period and name the era for what it was: the Petroleum Wars. Almost every move the Bush administration has made in response to the terrorist attacks of a year ago has been tainted with the sickening smell of gasoline.Cynthia's 9/11 Editorial.

As Eastern Europe preens for NATO, Jews seen as canary in a coal mine Rabbi Andrew Baker, foreground, of the American Jewish Committee, addresses the NATO Aspirant Summit in Bucharest. Bucharest, Romania, March 26 (JTA) — At first glance, it appeared a bit odd: An American Jewish leader addressing 10 Eastern European prime ministers at a military summit. So odd that when Rabbi Andrew Baker, international director of the American Jewish Committee, entered the NATO Aspirant Summit in Bucharest, Romania, on Monday, he asked himself, Why am I here? "We sometimes suggest Jews are the proverbial ‘canary in the cage,´...