Free Republic

Mar. 20, 2006 Hi, Actually, it is not so much pessimism but rather realism that pushed me to write that last post. I think most people here, including the political elites realize that a civil war is something unthinkable that will tear the country apart. However, like in Yugoslavia, the sect or ethnic group that really caused the partitioning and break up of the country was non-other but that which most wanted to keep it one, namely the Serbs. By their brutality, cruelty and ethnic genocide, they destroyed any basis for coexistence between the various ethnic constituents of the old...

Oscar-winner George Clooney may make politically provocative films like "Syriana." But he doesn't write politically provocative blogs. So imagine his ire when Arianna Huffington used some of his recent answers to political questions in a way that makes it look as if he wrote one for her Huffington Post blog site.

Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify Kevin Fobbs March 13, 2006 Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives? And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can...

A top city leader admits the FBI has been looking through records and asking lots of questions. City Finance and Housing Director, Robert Lipscomb, confirmed that the FBI is looking into the HARP program. The program helps low income families repair or replace their homes. Lipscomb says the FBI's investigation also involves a conflict of interest. This past summer, Eyewitness News did its own investigation into a possible conflict of interest at the HARP program. Reporter Jeni DiPrizio had some questions about Councilman Rickey Peete's grandmother getting a new house on your dime. Peete’s grandmother, Lizzie Jones, was one...

For up-to-date info visit Michael J Totten's website: http://www.michaeltotten.com Other related posts: Michael J. Totten: Kurdistan. Iraq Without a Gun; Dream City of the Kurds; Massive Reconstruction Southern Kurdistan, The Most pro-American Place In The World Read these articles belowLockdown, February 17, 2006 http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001058.htmlNorthern Iraq: A Photo Gallery, February 18, 2006  http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001059.html“Our Jerusalem”, February 20, 2006 http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001060.htmlThe Safest City in Iraq, February 21, 2006 http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001061.htmlThe Utah of the Middle East, February 22, 2006 The Kurd Way. Lockdown, February 17, 2006 http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001058.html ERBIL, IRAQ – A Western journalist I met in Erbil, who has been in Iraq for some time, told...

"I am so tired of Muslims of blaming 'culture' not the 'religion' for any trouble inside Muslim countries. If you need an example of the falsehood of that statement - look at India and Pakistan. The people are ethnically identical, speak the same languages and eat the same foods. (In fact they were the same country until Muslims demanded they get their own country). Today Pakistan is a military dictatorship and has been for most of its 50 plus year life. Its only claims to fame are killing journalists, operating jihadi camps, beating up women who try to run marathons,...

Points, the Sunday viewpoints section edited by Rod Dreher, had an excellent series of articles and short takes on a wide range of subjects. It quotes Republican Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska as saying: "This party that sometimes I don’t recognize anymore has presided over the largest growth of government in the history of the country and maybe even the history of man." I second Chuck Hagel’s concerns about the spending excesses of the Administration and Congress.

Every walk of life and field of endeavor generates its own insiders' lingo. Those of us in the MSM — that's the superannuated, archaic mainstream media — have our own jargon, of which the first sentence of an article is the lede, the early edition is the bulldog and the guys working into the wee hours make up the lobster shift. Some of our special vocabulary is being stolen from us by the denizens of the world of Web logs. Above the fold — the top half of a standard-size newspaper page, where the major stories begin — now, in...

Time for the last post By Trevor Butterworth Published: February 17 2006 14:01 | Last updated: February 17 2006 21:54 On a winter-cold morning last autumn, before the leaves could summon up the energy to burn and fall, the barbarians entered the gate. A group of feisty young writers, known only to millions of readers by their blog names - Gawker, Gizmodo, Wonkette and Defamer - were in a soigne studio in New York’s Chelsea district to be photographed for the February issue of Vanity Fair magazine. ADVERTISEMENT They represented the cream of Gawker Media - a mini-empire of clever,...

Muslims are hypocrites! NOT! It seems fitting to start a blog that will most likely deal a lot with religion and politics with a topic that spans both. One comment one reads and hears a lot in right-wing commentary on 'the Cartoon Wars' are 'Muslims are such hypocrites!' I'd like to take exception. Devout Muslims, like devout Jews or devout Christians of any confession, take seriously their belief that their religion is true, a reflection of the one, existing God and grounded in His decisive self-revelation, the Qu'ran. I, too, believe that my religion--Orthodox Christianity--is true and grounded in...

People are making a living, or a decent chunk of one, by blogging. Some are warbloggers in the Middle East, like Michael Totten, who blogs from Beirut, with occasional sidetrips to Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq, or Michael Yon, who served as a war correspondent via blog, or Bill Roggio, who embedded himself for a while with a U.S. combat unit in Iraq. Back here in the States, there are plenty of people making money the older-fashioned way, without being shot at. Andrew Sullivan has moved in-house at Time for a presumably pretty penny, Josh Marshall is running a blog-collective, and...

Is Google censoring the blogs? First do no evil right? Thinking and communicating thoughts is the essence of humanity. Example #1---here is a posting on JihadWatch today Egyptian editor who printed cartoons has left the country Egyptian Sandmonkey, who has done such important work during the entire cartoon rage episode, and was the first to reveal that the Egyptian paper Al Fagr printed the cartoons in October, now tells us that the editor responsible has left Egypt -- not surprising, since editors who printed the cartoons in Jordan and Algeria have been arrested. 1. Search Google with the phrase “...

I apologize to those readers who were looking forward to my latest hit piece. Things are kind of busy on this end...

HH: Joined now by Jonathan Chait, editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times. Jonathan Chait, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show. JC: Thanks. By the way, I write columns, not editorials. So I don't write any of those editorials, so your readers know. HH: Are you on the editorial board there? JC: No, I'm not. HH: Okay. And do you live on the West Coast now? Or are you on the East Coast? JC: I live in D.C., Washington, D.C. I just write a column that appears every week. HH: Jonathan, to get some background for people to anchor them...

While I was checking out www.pittsburghkilts.com and it's latest photo gallery I came across this pic. and this... In the byline to the pics it mentioned "Baghdad Jay" is on a second tour in Iraq, and wears his two-tone (Khaki with Desert MARPAT) kilt only when off duty. (His M-4 rifle, he points out, goes with him on or off duty). Jay keeps a fantastic blog, which is a fascinating and powerful read. If you want to know what it's like to be in Iraq, forget the news channels and read Jay's blog! I checked it out, and thought it...

COMMONWEALTH of VIRGINIA Office of the Attorney General Richmond 23219 Robert F. McDonnell 900 East Main Street Attorney General Richmond, Virginia 23219 804-786-2071 804-371-8947 TDD For Release: February 7, 2006 Contact: J. Tucker Martin Website: www.vaag.com Phone: 804-692-0552 Email: jtmartin@oag.state.va.us Attorney General to Participate in “Live Blog” Could be First “Blog Hosted Town Hall” by Virginia Statewide Office Holder Richmond- Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell will participate in a unique media event on Wednesday, February 8th. McDonnell will take to the information superhighway from 5-6p.m. to participate in a “live blog” on the popular Virginia blog, Commonwealth Conservative (www.vaconservative.com). This...

Friday, February 03, 2006 CARTOONS IN THE NAME OF GOD THE COMPASSIONATE THE MERCIFUL Hi, Those who have been following my blog should know that I am a practicing believer in the religion of Islam; so naturally I consider it offensive to show disrespect to Islamic religious symbols or any religious symbols of any kind, for that matter. However there is more to this than meets the eye. It seems to me quite suspicious that this storm is created at this particular time. To start with this is certainly not the first time that insults and affronts of this nature...

Shankar Vedantam of the Washington Post believes Republicans are racist down to their very core. White Republicans especially. Now while Vedantam may now have an "Employee of the Month" privilege with the liberal Washington elite and can go to a couple of parties via the back door, one can see the obvious flaws in his piece and his attempts to place another wall between white-and-everyone-else America.

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) says it is setting new policies on shutting down Web journals after its much-publicized squelching of a well-known Chinese blogger at the request of Chinese officials. The Redmond software company, operator of a popular blogging technology called MSN Spaces, said Tuesday that it will endeavor to make blogs available to users elsewhere even if Microsoft decides it is legally obliged to block them in a particular country. The company also pledged to provide users with a clear notice that it has shut down a Web site when the decision to do so stemmed from...

Newsvine.com, a new type of news site created by four former Disney/ABCNEWs.com employees, is now up and running in beta. CyberJournalist.net has been invited to join the beta and is impressed with what it's seen so far. The site is a slick combination of some of the trendiest news-related tools online now, incorporating news aggregation, social networking, citizen journalism, blogging, user ratings and online discussions. Think of it as one-part Slashdot, one-part del.icio.us and one-part Google News, with a few other neat features thrown in. The site is built around four general actions: reading, discussing, writing and seeding the news....