Free Republic

DeLay Urges GOP to Blame Dems Over Ethics 20 minutes ago By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, hoping to hold support among fellow Republicans, urged GOP senators Tuesday to blame Democrats if asked about his ethics controversy and accused the news media of twisting supportive comments so they sounded like criticism. Officials said DeLay recommended that senators respond to questions by saying Democrats have no agenda other than partisanship, and are attacking him to prevent Republicans from accomplishing their legislative program. One Republican said the Texan referred to a "mammoth operation" funded by...

Six easy-to-treat infectious diseases account for the majority of deaths in young children in the developing world, according to a new report by researchers for the World Health Organization (WHO)........... ..........Better treatment would require political action that's just not there right now, however. "There is not yet the global conscience and political will to make it happen," Black said............ .........Moreover, Black noted that "the U.S. is among the worst countries in the world in terms of contributions to foreign assistance."

Former United Nations chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali is blaming the oil-for-food scandal on "right-wing politicians" in the United States, saying they are merely using it as a tool to damage the world body's reputation. Reuters reports that Boutros-Ghali, who served as U.N. general secretary from 1991 to 1996, also has said current chief Kofi Annan should stay right where he is. The oil-for-food program, begun near the end of Boutros-Ghali's tenure in 1996, generated some $67 billion in revenue for Iraq, 2 percent of which came to the U.N. as an administration fee for overseeing the program. U.S. and U.N. investigators...

Former United Nations chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali is blaming the oil-for-food scandal on "right-wing politicians" in the United States, saying they are merely using it as a tool to damage the world body's reputation. Reuters reports that Boutros-Ghali, who served as U.N. general secretary from 1991 to 1996, also has said current chief Kofi Annan should stay right where he is.

Rumsfeld Faults Turkey for Barring Use of Its Land in '03 to Open Northern Front in Iraq By THOM SHANKER Published: March 21, 2005 WASHINGTON, March 20 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Sunday used the second anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq to answer the most tenacious criticism of the war effort - that the Pentagon did not commit sufficient troops to the major offensive or to stability efforts after Baghdad fell. The fault, Mr. Rumsfeld contended in two appearances on television talk shows, rested with Turkey, a NATO ally, which would not give permission for the...

Does any decent American man want a modern American woman? Signs are there…no, they don’t, or given our behavior, they shouldn’t. And we only have women to blame. Yeah, I said it—women. Now I’ve suspected this for a long time. After all, the damage done to society by the rants of feminism—or as I call it, Pussy Politics—is far-reaching and deeply embedded into our education system, insuring that the next generation is as bludgeoned with the lie as their parents were. My foray into this lie began years ago, when as a little girl I began hearing the rumblings of...

Those who want to get with the latest US program must put the blame on Syria. What for? Doesn’t matter in the least. Whether it is for the two world wars, the demise of Elvis or sinking the Titanic, Syria makes a handy and eminently fashionable punching bag. Even if Syria’s accusers get it wrong, no matter. Syria’s friends are one by one deserting an apparently sinking ship. The US clearly blames Syria for the assassination of Rafik Hariri in downtown Beirut. It hasn’t said so in so many words. Instead, it has pulled out its ambassador and has engaged...

Internal discussions at Colorado University are centering on a buyout offer to controversial professor Ward Churchill in order to quell the tempest caused by his characterizations of victims of Sept. 11, 2001, as "little Eichmans" and to avoid a costly, drawn-out lawsuit, the Denver Post reports. David Lane, Churchill's attorney said he had not yet received word of such an offer, but he would consider it. "If they offer $10 million, I would think about it. If they offer him $10, I wouldn't," Lane said. As WorldNetDaily reported, Churchill has most recently come under fire for making an Indian-themed serigraph...

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz blamed Syria on Saturday for a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis in Tel Aviv, and Israel's Army Radio reported that he also froze plans to hand over security responsibilities in the West Bank to the Palestinians. Although Mofaz blamed Syria for Friday night's bombing outside a nightclub, he did not immediately threaten retaliation against Israel's northern neighbor. Speaking at a meeting with defense chiefs, Mofaz said Israeli officials would go abroad in coming days on a diplomatic offensive to present the case against Damascus, a statement from his office said. "The defense minister ruled...

Making what she called her "first real speech" since her husband lost the presidential election, Teresa Heinz blamed the media for distorting their position on the environment.

Teresa Heinz Blames the Media Making what she called her "first real speech" since her husband lost the presidential election, Teresa Heinz blamed the media for distorting their position on the environment. Addressing Stanford University's "Whole Earth Symposium" last week, the first lady wannabe said that the press was largely responsible for the perception that her husband ignored the environment during the 2004 campaign, according to the campus newspaper, the Stanford Report. She insisted that John Kerry discussed energy issues every day and claimed that she frequently talked about "sustainability." But their comments were not reported. What did get covered...

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush criticized Syria and Iran on Thursday as destabilizing forces in the Mideast but did not threaten new U.S. action against either country. Expressing sympathy with Israeli worries about a nuclear-armed Iran, he said the United States would protect its ally. Bush said Syria was "out of step" with progress being made in the Mideast. He cited the 15,000 troops that Syria has in Lebanon and accused Syria of harboring terrorist groups and assisting Iraqi insurgents. He did not assert involvement by Syria in the assassination this week of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik...

Huge unseasonable rainfall has triggered disastrous flooding and mudslides in several parts of Venezuela, at a cost of about 80 lives now, and rising. Tens of thousands of people remain homeless, their homes washed away by mud and rocks that thunder down from high, steep mountains sliding down oil-rich soil. The country's government has known about this hazard for years, since the gargantuan mudslides devastated Vargas province in 1999, at a cost of 30,000 lives. Supposedly the regime has spent a billion dollars in aid to reinforce the hillsides and re-channel rain-laden waterways. And as surely as nature's force, it's...

Tsunami victims to sue French hotel chain Accor, Thai govt, US authorities VIENNA (AFX) - A group of Austrian and German victims of the Asian tsunami disaster are to file a lawsuit demanding that Thailand, French hotel chain Accor (Paris: FR0000120404 - news) and US forecasters prove they reacted adequately to the disaster, their lawyers said. The suit, naming Accor and the US-run tsunami early warning system in the Pacific as well as Thai authorities, will be filed in a New York district court this week, the lawyers said in Vienna.

Christian minister calls disaster 'divine visitation' on Lord's Day A Christian minister claims the tsunami of Sunday, Dec. 26, killing at least 160,000 people, was direct result of "pleasure seekers" breaking God's Sabbath. In the February issue of his church magazine, Rev. John MacLeod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland writes: "Possibly ... no event since Noah's flood has caused such loss of life by drowning as the recent Asian tsunami. That so many of our fellow creatures should have perished in so short a time, and in so awful a fashion, was a divine visitation that ought to...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) warned the United States Saturday against plotting to kill his most important ally, Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez. "I say to world public opinion: if they assassinate Chavez, the responsibility will fall squarely on the president of the United States, George W. Bush," Castro said. The Cuban leader, who was the target of CIA (news - web sites) assassination plots after his 1959 revolution steered Cuba toward Soviet Communism, gave no evidence that Chavez's life was in danger. But he said the United States would be responsible for killing...

WASHINGTON -- Teresa Heinz Kerry got a bad rap during the presidential campaign, her husband said Monday. Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who lost his bid for the White House last November, told New York City radio host Don Imus that incidents on the campaign trail were blown up out of proportion. "I was really upset about that on a personal level," said the Massachusetts senator during the interview with Imus, which aired on WFAN-AM radio and was also broadcast on MSNBC. Reports had circulated during the campaign that Heinz Kerry -- who is known for speaking her mind -- could...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Stage and screen actor Ron Silver, in Washington for President Bush's State of the Union address Wednesday night, credited left-wing celebrities -- particularly filmmaker Michael Moore -- with helping to re-elect George W. Bush. "The celebrity backlash helped," Silver said. "Michael Moore, I think, was a big factor --a really big factor," Silver told Cybercast News Service in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall, following Bush's speech. Silver's acting credits include the television series "The West Wing," and "Chicago Hope" as well as the movie "Reversal of Fortune." He also is a co-founder of the Creative Coalition,...

State transportation secretary Sunne Wright McPeak returns to the Capitol today to explain her thinking on the Bay Bridge reconstruction, but this time she'll be armed with a report of her own. The 68-page report, released Monday, shows that a team of outside consultants agrees with her: The tower design for the new eastern span is responsible for just over half of the $2.5 billion-cost increase last year. It's backed up by five academics from around the country and is the most detailed support yet for McPeak's decision to scrap the tower for a skyway. "We're very hopeful this information...

US Democratic Senator John Kerry says a video message from Osama Bin Laden sealed his defeat in a presidential race dominated by the 9/11 attacks. Mr Kerry told NBC TV his opinion poll lead over President George W Bush fell away after the tape was broadcast. He said national security was the decisive issue in the November 2004 poll, won eventually by President Bush. Osama Bin Laden's video, shown days before the vote, urged Americans to back neither Mr Bush nor Mr Kerry. "Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush or al-Qaeda. Your security is in...