Free Republic

There has been an increase in the number of abortions in eight states, and it's all President Bush's fault, says pro-abortion Senator Hillary Clinton.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

An independent investigator has found evidence that at least one high-level City Hall official was aware of concerns about favoritism in a multimillion-dollar technology contract months before the concerns turned into a public scandal, but failed to sound alarms. The long-awaited independent report into San Jose's bungled $8 million deal to buy Cisco Systems equipment for its new City Hall was released Monday. It contradicts two previous internal city probes that determined just three mid-level employees -- all of whom have since been disciplined -- were responsible for potential problems created by a close relationship city technology officials had forged...

Palestinian sermon calls for destruction of America, Israel. With Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently crediting the Palestinian Authority for clamping down on incitement against the Jewish state, official Palestinian television last week blamed Israel for the tsunami in southeast Asia, preached the destruction of Israel and the U.S., and declared America the prime sponsor of world terror.

The killer wave that swallowed tens of thousands of Muslims was an act of Allah designed to punish the Christians. So went the convoluted logic of some Muslim imams in recent sermons from Saudi Arabia to the Palestinian territories. Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajiid explained God's tsunami punishment of Christians stemmed from "the Christian holidays [that] are accompanied by forbidden things, by immorality, abomination, adultery, alcohol, drunken dancing and revelry. A belly dancer costs 2,500 pounds a minute and a singer costs 50,000 pounds an hour, and they hop from one hotel to another from night to dawn. "Then they spend...

(This information was recieved via e-mail & may not be posted to the web-site yet) As today's PA elections approached, the PA increased the level of hate promotion by its leaders. The most widely reported incident was a Jan. 5 speech by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas in which he twice referred to Israel as the "Zionist enemy." What has not been publicized, however, is the general increase in hate promotion from other media venues controlled by the PA. For example, after a few weeks of very moderate Friday TV sermons, including one in which the Imam actually read from a...

Tsunami hits Asia Islamists on Net blame US for tsunami destruction By Habib Trabelsi in Dubai Thursday, 06 January , 2005, 08:17 Islamists have had no trouble identifying the culprit in the tsunami disaster, using websites to blame the United States for the deaths of nearly 1,46,000 people in the earthquake and tidal waves that struck Asia. "America got wind of the catastrophe before it occurred. The State Department, the Pentagon and the American naval base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia were alerted before the destructive earthquake," wrote one internet user under the name 'al-Madhri'. Claiming...

Director Oliver Stone turned on American critics and audiences on Wednesday, saying they had focused solely on the issue of homosexuality in "Alexander," his big-budget epic that portrays the Macedonian hero as bisexual. He also blamed the U.S. invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) for the movie's poor performance at the box office, arguing that people were distracted by comparisons between Alexander the Great's forays into the Middle East and President Bush. "The homosexuality thing was a buzzword and got all around," Stone told Reuters Television in London at the film's British premiere. "It was a hot button issue...

LONDON (AFP) - Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States. In London for its British premiere, Stone, 58, said that after a career full of cage-rattling work, he thought a biopic of Alexander the Great, the 4th century Macedonian-born conquerer, would be "a safe subject". But he said he was "quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews" which greeted its US release, including outrage at the film's suggestion that Alexander was bisexual. "Sexuality is a large issue in...

LONDON (AFP) - Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States. In London for its British premiere, Stone, 58, said that after a career full of cage-rattling work, he thought a biopic of Alexander the Great, the 4th century Macedonian-born conquerer, would be "a safe subject". But he said he was "quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews" which greeted its US release, including outrage at the film's suggestion that Alexander was bisexual. "Sexuality is a large issue in...

Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States

LONDON (AFP) - Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone blamed "raging fundamentalism in morality" for the frosty reception that his new film "Alexander" is getting in his native United States. In London for its British premiere, Stone, 58, said that after a career full of cage-rattling work, he thought a biopic of Alexander the Great, the 4th century Macedonian-born conquerer, would be "a safe subject". But he said he was "quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews" which greeted its US release, including outrage at the film's suggestion that Alexander was bisexual. "Sexuality is a large issue in...

Disaster's Cause? A Muslim cleric on Saudi TV insists he knows what caused the deadly tsunami in South Asia — Christians. Saudi Cleric Muhammed Al-Manajjid says, "[Christmas and other Christian holidays] are accompanied by forbidden things, by immorality, abomination, adultery, alcohol, drunken dancing ... and revelry. ... [So] At the height of immorality, Allah took vengeance on these criminals." He did not explain why the vengeance was taken on largely non-Christian nations. Back in the U.S., meanwhile, a writer on the Web site Democratic Underground (search) said President Bush and the war in Iraq could be to blame. The writer,...

W hat if something happened to make the President's cabinet appointments, the inauguration and Colin Powell's retirement seem like small news? As little as two weeks ago, such an event would have been unfathomable. But it's because they are so unthinkable that the post-Christmas tsunamis that rocked South and Southeast Asia have transfixed the media and the public alike. Suddenly small, difficult to pronounce places like Phuket and Banda Aceh are foremost in Americans' minds. Rather than obsessing about holiday weight gain or New Year's resolutions, shaken Westerners are counting their blessings and looking for ways to help the devastated...

What if something happened to make the President's cabinet appointments, the inauguration and Colin Powell's retirement seem like small news? As little as two weeks ago, such an event would have been unfathomable. But it's because they are so unthinkable that the post-Christmas tsunamis that rocked South and Southeast Asia have transfixed the media and the public alike. Suddenly small, difficult to pronounce places like Phuket and Banda Aceh are foremost in Americans' minds. Rather than obsessing about holiday weight gain or New Year's resolutions, shaken Westerners are counting their blessings and looking for ways to help the devastated region....

The Tsunami in South Asia is a truly catastrophic event. The human carnage is overwhelming and my Christian heart can’t help but respond to the human tragedy. However… As the events were unfolding on our TV screens, I found myself feeling uneasy about something, internally conflicted, a feeling I just couldn’t shake. As someone who follows politics and world views, (views towards America and Americans that is), I was keenly aware of the views in that part of the world, even before the Tsunami struck. It has become a popular international pastime to bash America at every opportunity, and news...

Monday, January 3, 2005 Don't blame God for Asian casualtiesPosted: January 3, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern By Rabbi Daniel Lapin © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com With the final death toll in Asia yet unknown, analyzing the calamity can appear callous, especially in the light of ancient Jewish wisdom's advice to refrain from even comforting mourners whose dead still lie before them, let alone analyzing their loss. Still, once we have, in some human way, associated ourselves with the disaster by means of financial or other contribution, we surely are obliged to try and learn something from it. Sometimes before the answers can be found, the...

First, the blame. Then, the healing. In a new book, NEWSWEEK talks exclusively with John Kerry about why he lost—and looks at his plans for another run. It was a little after 7 p.m. on election night 2004. The network exit polls showed John Kerry leading George Bush in both Florida and Ohio by three points. Kerry's aides were confident that the Democratic candidate would carry these key swings states; Bush had not broken 48 percent in Kerry's recent tracking polls. The aides were a little hesitant to interrupt Kerry as he was fielding satellite TV interviews in a...

God Isn’t to Blame for Asian Casualties.December 29th, 2004 By Rabbi Daniel LapinPresident, Toward Tradition With the final death toll in Asia yet unknown, analyzing the calamity can appear callous, especially in the light of ancient Jewish wisdom’s advice to refrain from even comforting mourners whose dead still lie before them, let alone analyzing their loss. Still, once we have, in some human way, associated ourselves with the disaster by means of financial or other contribution, we surely are obliged to try and learn something from it. Sometimes before the answers can be found, the right questions must be...

In the absence of God, blame has become our prevailing religion FIRST COMES the horror, the chilling horror of the disaster. Then comes the craving for statistics, as if to calibrate a response. Then come the anecdotes, the charity and finally the blame. None is so compelling as the blame. Blame somehow softens the horror. It mutates charity into insurance. There will be post mortems aplenty on the Indian Ocean tsunami. That the world could organise a warning system for the Pacific Ocean because it borders Japan and America but not for the poorer Indian Ocean will be deplored. So...