Free Republic

Monday marked eight months since WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested in Russia. Tuesday marked her 32nd birthday. Griner's representatives shared a message on Tuesday thanking everyone for the support they have given over the past several months. "Thank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home. All the support and love are definitely helping me," Griner said in her message, according to the statement.

Yes, folks, that is what she said, according to an instructor at a School for the Deaf and Blind who watched the video. The video is shown at normal speed, 3/4 speed, and 1/2 speed with no banners obstructing her lips.

SPRING HILL, FL -- While showing off her JROTC uniform, 16-year-old Heather Lawrence told us joining the Army is her next big goal, to follow in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. "Our flag represents everything that our country is," she said. The teen says an issue over the American flag is why she was written up and handed a five-day suspension from Springstead High School this week for criticizing a Muslim student. Heather says the other girl was sitting down during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Boehner asks, "when will we stand up to this enemy?"

ATLANTA --Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has a message for critics of the war in Iraq: "Keep your mouth shut." The Republican governor made the remark Friday during a talk-radio session at the state Capitol with Bill Bennett, former U.S. secretary of education. On his "Morning in America" show, broadcast on Atlanta radio station WGKA, Bennett noted Perdue has been mentioned as vice-presidential material in 2008. He asked if Perdue agreed with some who say Republican candidates should distance themselves from President Bush on the topic of Iraq. Perdue said no, then added: "We have everyone that wants to talk about...

A US survey of battlefield ethics among troops in Iraq has found widespread tolerance for torture in certain circumstances and problems with morale. [snip] More than a third believed that torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier or if it helped get information about the insurgents. About 10% of those surveyed said they had actually mistreated Iraqi civilians by hitting or kicking them, or had damaged their property when it was not necessary to do so.

Although a quick search of the Web draws up the speech, available here (with video and audio links), rare is the online news service that links to President Bush's remarks on May 1, 2003, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Notice, for example, no link to the speech in this story at CBSNews.com that follows Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) latest swipe at the Iraq war. (see related post here) Since the media don't reprint excerpts of the speech nor give readers the links to the original source material, here are some comments from May 1, 2003, that point to President Bush...

Oliver Stone to create anti-Iraq war TV spot Last Updated: Saturday, April 21, 2007 | 11:30 AM ET CBC Arts Director Oliver Stone, who won Oscars for Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon, will produce a television commercial urging the U.S. to bring American troops back from Iraq. Stone, who is also a Vietnam vet, is directing a 30-second spot for the campaign by MoveOn.org and VoteVets.org. It's slated to air in late May. "We have leaders in Washington who say they're 'supporting our troops' — but the people who suffer most from their policies are the troops...

WASHINGTON – It’s 19 months until the next congressional elections, but the anti-war folks are getting an early jump on the opposition. Americans United for Change – a Democratic-leaning umbrella group – is airing television ads this week targeting six House Republicans whom the group sees as vulnerable because they are not voting with Democrats on the Iraq war. Those under siege are Mary Bono of California, Dean Heller of Nevada, Timothy Johnson of Illinois, Randy Kuhl and Jim Walsh, both of New York, and Heather Wilson of New Mexico. “These guys have a choice whether to break with the...

George Bush and Dick Cheney have lied the nation into a war of aggression, are spying in open violation of the law, and have sanctioned the use of torture. These are high crimes and misdemeanors that demand accountability through the Constitutional mechanism of impeachment. Since Congress doesn't seem to get it, we're calling on all Americans who stand for truth, freedom, and justice to join us on April 28 and spell it out for them: IMPEACH! Let's put the word IMPEACH! everywhere on April 28. If you're in Miami you'll be able to voice your opinion directly to George Bush...

An increased Latino population in Southern California leads to racial tension, CNN's Ted Rowlands reports. http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=16598&rn=49750&cl=1661696&ch=49799&src=news 

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed doubt Saturday that Iraq's government would follow through with its promises to secure Baghdad as she met with top Iraqi officials and American commanders. It was the third trip to Iraq for Clinton, a Democrat from New York who is considering running for president, and comes amid opposition from the Democratic-controlled Congress to President Bush's plans to send in 21,500 more troops to stop the rampant violence. "I don't know that the American people or the Congress at this point believe this mission can work," she told ABC News in Baghdad....

George W. Bush is less overtly religious in his public pronouncements than many of his presidential predecessors. Yet his critics often portray him as some kind of zealot who sees himself on a mission from God. Pundit Norm Ornstein perpetuated the stereotype on this morning's "Good Morning America". ABC senior national correspondent Jake Tapper narrated a segment on Pres. Bush's impending announcement of a surge of troops into Iraq. The thrust was that W is making his decision despite bi-partisan opposition. Not only are virtually all Dems opposed, but, as Tapper put it, "even some Republicans are expressing serious doubts...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats yesterday said their party might deny funding for President Bush's expected call this week for a troop surge in Iraq if he doesn't meet their demands for detailed consultations and congressional debate on military strategy. "If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his budget request we want to see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now. The American people and the Congress support those troops. We will not abandon them," the California Democrat said during an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation." "But...

The year-end debate about the Iraq Study Group's unequivocal diagnosis of failure and its grim list of uncertain remedies is the real measure of the hopelessness of the mess America made. The ISG's 79 recommendations -- some wise, some impolitic, some impossible -- is itself a confession that all the choices are bad. That's not the commission's fault: No one else has a persuasive idea either, least of all the president -- the self-proclaimed decider -- who started and ran this misbegotten war. As Nick Carraway says about the privileged and insouciant Tom and Daisy at the end of "The...

The continuing deployment of US troops to Iraq and Afghanistan has diluted the pool of soldiers stationed throughout the world to dangerously thin proportions in some areas, according to experts, also resulting in a chronic dearth of military equipment both on the home front and at overseas posts. The 140,000-plus US troops in Iraq and 30,000 or more stationed in Afghanistan have caused a drain on other long-time US military obligations abroad, such as South Korea, Japan and Germany, notes one military analyst. Others point out that a systematic redeployment of US troops from the Korean Peninsula's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)...

Bloggers paid by campaigns were a rarity two years ago -- so rare that their work and their ethics, whether for Republicans or Democrats, became fodder for controversy. Bloggers on the campaign dime (and off) have been even more controversial this year, but that is at least in part because there are so many more of them. With increasing frequency, candidates across the country are paying bloggers to write, develop Web sites, connect with energetic allies on the Internet, respond to online critics, and advise their employers about how to behave in the blogosphere.

LT. EMILY J. T. PEREZ, 23, a West Point graduate who outran many men, directed a gospel choir and read the Bible every day, was at the head of a weekly convoy as it rolled down roads pocked with bombs and bullets near Najaf. As platoon leader, she insisted on leading her troops from the front. Two weeks ago, one of those bombs tripped her up, detonating near her Humvee in Kifl, south of Baghdad. She died Sept. 12, the 64th woman from the United States military to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Eight died in Vietnam. Despite longstanding...

If the latest polls are to be trusted, the Democrats will take back the House and will fall just shy of retaking the Senate. If so, they have only the perseverance of the indefatigable insurgents to thank. Certainly an uncharacteristic outbreak of peace and normalcy among the Arab tribes of upper Mesopotamia would send Mr. Bush's popularity soaring, but as long as Sunnis and Shias regularly butcher one another and plant ample bombs on Babylon's byways it promises to be a prosperous fall for the opposition. True, the Democrats will likely benefit from the automatic boost the minority gets in...

WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney offered a veiled attack Sunday on critics of the administration's Iraq policy, saying the domestic debate over the war is emboldening adversaries who believe they can undermine the resolve of the American people. "They can't beat us in a stand-up fight – they never have – but they're absolutely convinced they can break our will, that the American people don't have the stomach for the fight," Mr. Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press. The vice president said U.S. allies in Afghanistan and Iraq have doubts that America will finish the job there. "And...