Free Republic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Laura Capps/Melissa Wagoner (202) 224-2633 This is a critical moment for this country¹s future. If John Roberts is confirmed, he will have a vital role in setting the direction of the country for generations to come. The Supreme Court is often the last line of defense for the freedoms and liberties for hundreds of millions of Americans. Few responsibilities of the Senate are more important than reviewing the qualifications of nominees for the Supreme Court. Every Senator, Republican or Democrats, has a responsibility to determine whether Mr. Roberts deserves to join the currently closely divided court...

John Kerry on Roberts Nomination FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: David Wade or April Boyd July 19, 2005 Statement by John Kerry on the Nomination of John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court "Americans deserve a Supreme Court that is fair, independent, ethical and served by justices committed to our constitutional freedoms rather than an ideological agenda. Justice O'Connor refused to use her position as a means to advance a political agenda. In replacing her, we must be confident Judge Roberts will do the same. "We know Judge Roberts is no Sandra Day O'Connor, and the White House has sent a...

A day after the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony that detainees at Guantanamo Bay were being tortured with women's underwear, Committee member Ted Kennedy announced he would make his first-ever visit the facility. Investigators told Kennedy and his Armed Services colleagues on Wednesday that Gitmo interrogators forced a detainee to wear a bra, put women's g-string panties on his head, ordered him to dance with a male interrogator and forced him to stand naked in front of women, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I am deeply concerned about the failure - indeed, outright refusal - of our military and...

The Massachusetts congressional delegation Friday sent a letter to a Pennsylvania senator demanding an apology for what they called his "outrageous, erroneous and insensitive" comments in a column linking Boston's liberalism to the clergy sex abuse scandal. "We are deeply disturbed that you would offend Massachusetts by using an abuse scandal, one that has been mirrored in your state and in others, to score cheap political points with far right political groups," said the 10 lawmakers in a letter to Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. A spokesman for Santorum said Friday that the senator stands by his comments. Spokesman Robert Traynham...

WASHINGTON - In a rare personal attack on the Senate floor, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) accused Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) on Wednesday of being self-righteous and insensitive for a column he wrote three years ago linking Boston's liberalism to the sex abuse scandal in its Catholic diocese. Santorum, R-Pa., wrote in the July 2002 column for Catholic Online that promoting alternative lifestyles feeds such aberrant behavior as priests molesting children. "Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture," Santorum wrote. "When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected....

Statement from Senator John Kerry On Terrorist Bombings in London Cold blooded killers will not for a moment stop the critical work of the G-8 nations in our commitment to end poverty around the globe Boston, MA - The following statement was issued today by Senator John Kerry in response to the terrorist bombings in London: “Every American heart feels for the British people and the families of those killed and injured in today's horrific terrorist bombings in London. As a country which has also experienced tragedy at the hands of cowardly killers and which keeps faith with the special...

A U.S. senator who criticized President Bush's Iraq policy at recent congressional hearings was in Baghdad on Wednesday for meetings with politicians, officials said. Sen. Carl Levin, the Senate Armed Services Committee's senior Democrat, was accompanied by several members of his staff, U.S. Embassy spokesman Adam Hobson said. The embassy referred all other queries to the Michigan senator's office, where staffers weren't immediately available for comment. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a statement early Wednesday saying that he would receive a U.S. Senate delegation in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located....

The draft of this letter, dated July 7, is currently published on a liberal blog: July 7, 2005 The President The White House Washington, DC Dear Mr. President: We write in order to urge that you require your Deputy White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, to either come forward immediately to explain his role in the Valerie Plame matter or to resign from your Administration. Notwithstanding whether Mr. Rove intentionally violated the law in leaking information concerning former CIA operative Valerie Plame, we believe it is not tenable to maintain Mr. Rove as one of your most important advisors...

Gloria Steinem Among Celebrity Protesters Demanding Shutdown of Guantanamo The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - Feminist author Gloria Steinem on Monday joined about 200 protesters to demand the closure of the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, saying holding prisoners indefinitely without charging them violates the values upon which the United States was founded. Steinem compared Guantanamo to the kind of autocratic rule early colonists were trying to flee. "They came to escape the very things - detention without due process, bias, a religious government ... that we protest today," Steinem said. Some detainees have been held at the...

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is blasting President Bush for lax enforcement of the nation's immigration laws, saying the White House has dropped the ball on border security and put the country at risk for another major terrorist attack. In a statement posted to her newly revamped official Senate web site, Clinton charges: "The Bush administration is failing to meet what should be the basic requirements of immigration policy: continuing our American tradition of welcoming immigrants who follow the rules and are trying to build a better life for their families, while strengthening national security in a post 9-11 world."...

I just realized...I mean that. It's going to come down to this. I have often argued, as many here have, that when FReepers said they would sit home rather than vote for (McCain, usually, sometimes Guiliani), that such sitting out would put Hilary in the Whitehouse. But I'm not moving on this.

TEHRAN, IRAN – The ritual burning of the US flag is not going to stop. Nor will the chants - especially on Iranian revolutionary anniversaries - of "Death to America." Unlike every other presidential candidate who hinted at a thaw in relations, to appeal to the majority of Iranians who say they want better US ties, hard-line president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran "has no significant need" for the US. But beneath the anti-US façade is a nation that has much in common with its stated nemesis - from an ambitious self-image and public reliance on the divine, to a habit...

I t appears fashionable these days, and almost politically correct, to blame hard-working immigrants, especially those from Mexico and Central America, for the social and economic ills of and our nation. Anti-immigrant fervor on TV and radio talk shows, citizens attempting to enforce immigration laws and the enactment of restrictive laws, such as the Real ID Act, are evidence of this trend. Some of our elected officials are joining the parade, going so far as to call for the closing of our southern border. This growing hysteria is nothing new: Similar scapegoating has occurred at other troubled times in our...

Best selling author Erica Jong was booed and told to 'Shut Up!' and 'Go Home!" during her 40 minute commencement address at the College of Staten Island.A little less than halfway through her graduation speech, some graduated began tossing around an inflatable beach volleyball. Some even got up from their chairs, just yards from the podium, to go chat with friends and family who were seated behind them.Ms. Jong, best known for her 1973 novel 'Fear of Flying' continued unfazed. She continued to speak as if everyone was listening attentively. 'Politicans speak the opposite of what they mean. They say...

GEORGE BUSH MAY GO DOWN AS THE WORST PREZ IN HISTORY or WHY IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE A REPUBLICAN TODAY President George Bush has not distinguished himself by fighting for his judicial nominees. Indeed, the way he treated Miguel Estrada, he is arguably worse than the Democrats in the Senate. Now seven Senators have made a deal to run the Senate, and they claim that it would be best for the President to get in his Presidential Yugo and drive down to the Senate Building carrying his hat in his hand to get his judicial nominees pre-approved. If President...

This year, Washington will spend an eye-popping $22,039 per household. That is the inflation-adjusted highest since World War II, and $5,000 per household more than spent just four years ago. With difficult decisions ahead, government waste should be the easiest place to start controlling spending. So it isn't surprising the federal government costs 33 percent more than in 2001.

New Ipswich Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain and U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Paula Grenier are two frustrated people at the opposite ends of this mess. Citizens and pundits who criticize the actions of Chamberlain or the inaction of ICE have frustration-induced poor aim. Your senators and congressmen should be the targets of your unhappiness on this issue, along with your president.

Pelosi: 'Democrats Will Not Be Silenced; We Will Not Be Intimidated by the Republicans' Arrogant Power Plays' 5/18/2005 4:57:00 PM To: National Desk Contact: Brendan Daly or Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616, both of the House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi WASHINGTON, May 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and nearly 100 House and Senate Democrats today at a unity event on the steps of the United States Senate to protest Republicans' abuse of power. Below are Pelosi's remarks: "Thank you very much, Leader Reid. I know that I speak for all of my...

Aero-Views: Shame On All Of You Fri, 13 May '05 No Heroes In ADIZ Incursion By ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien I wasn't flying Wednesday when the city of Washington went into a massive, hyperventilating panic over a light plane in the ADIZ; I was driving the highways, and I got to hear the blow-by-blow on the radio and in periodic phone calls with ANN's Pete Combs. Good grief, what a shameful episode. There's enough shame to go around. Indeed, there are no heroes in this tawdry tale of ADIZ incursion, but there's a whole gaggle of goats:...

The Republican promises of smaller, less intrusive government is getting harder to believe. Especially when a more plausible plot line is unfolding every day: that the GOP has put aside the ideals of Reagan and Goldwater in order to pursue a political strategy based on big spending.For the latest, check out a report just released by the libertarian Cato Institute that tells a striking story about just how out-of-control spending has gotten under President Bush.-Bush has presided over the largest increase in federal spending since Lyndon Johnson.-Even excluding defense and homeland security spending, Bush is the biggest-spending President in 30...