Free Republic

Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Civil liberties activists, anti-war organizers, eco-militants and animal rights operatives are in a fright over news that the nefarious FBI is watching them. Why on earth would the government be worried about harmless liberal grannies, innocent vegetarians, unassuming rainforest lovers and other "peaceful groups" simply exercising their First Amendment rights? Let me remind you of some very good reasons. In March 2003, I reported on a manifesto disseminated across the Internet by infamous eco-radical Craig Rosebraugh -- former spokesman for the violent Earth Liberation Front -- who called on fellow leftists to take "direct actions" against...

Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Civil liberties activists, anti-war organizers, eco-militants, and animal rights operatives are in a fright over news that the nefarious FBI is watching them. Why on earth would the government be worried about harmless liberal grannies, innocent vegetarians, unassuming rainforest lovers and other "peaceful groups" simply exercising their First Amendment rights?

You can learn as much about someone by what their friends say about them as by what their opponents do. While I never want to pre-judge or misjudge someone based on their associations, knowing who vouches for them and who does not can be very telling. Such is the case with the president's nominee for the Supreme Court, John Roberts. Tonight, as I watched some of the coverage of the president's nominee to the Supreme Court, I got a pretty good idea about this man. Not because he gave such a riveting speech. Not because I could hear confidence and...

With all the commentary, protests and Monday morning quarter-backing taking place on a daily basis regarding the Iraq war, I was struck by a USA Today report about the Army's re-enlistment rates. It turns out that soldier re-enlistment rates are one-third higher than the Army's target. The report attributes the increased numbers to better monetary bonuses and to "a renewed sense of purpose in fighting terrorism."I'm curious how much air time this particular report will receive in the mainstream media today and this week. "The biggest thing is that soldiers believe in what they are doing," said. Col. Debbra...

You know, a lot of people join the military to see the world, only to get disillusioned and get out because it didn’t happen. Since joining the military, I’ve been to Mexico, Canada, Panama, Ecuador, Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq (not necessarily in exotic order). With that said, even if a soldier never leaves the country, I’m willing to bet they’ve seen things and been places they hadn’t been and seen before. Now, listen to the story of the boy from Texas (although, I’m a military brat myself and had already seen the world as a teen): For instance, I...

A Guide to PirateBallerina Churchilliana Our library of Churchill prevarications, misdirections, and general arcania has grown very large, and, we're afraid, largely unread. As a public service, we offer a refresher course in our coverage of Ward Churchill: We noted back in February that academia would attempt to recast the debate over Churchill as a "freedom of speech" and "academic freedom" issue. And that's what's happened. We compiled a basic Churchill history as well as a chronology of life events to assist readers and researchers alike. We shed light on his scholarly pretentions back in March We were first to...

Hugh's blog about the next SCOTUS nominee makes an interesting prediction (among many that are out there): "the left will use the "return of Lochner" rhetoric as a smokescreen for its real strategy for defeating a nominee, which is the Townsel Gambit times a hundred. The nominee can expect the left, harnassing the energy and fanaticism of MoveOn.org etc and using the technology of the web, to identify, canvass and interview every member of the nominee's high school, college and law school classes, plus associates at law firms and past clients as well as lawyers who have appeared before the...

Durbinization alert: Tons of readers are e-mailing me about NBC News anchor Brian Williams' comments tonight in which he apparently compared the Founding Fathers to modern-day terrorists. The remarks seem to pooh-pooh the story about Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's alleged involvement in the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Williams previewed his argument on his MSNBC blog: Many Americans woke up to a curious story this morning: several of the former Iran Hostages have decided there is a strong resemblance between Iran's new president and one of their captors more than 25 years ago. The White House...

Transcript of Hugh Hewitt's interview with milblogger Austin Bay: Tuesday, June 28 Col. Austin Bay back from the Middle East, after a 51-hour return trip. And yet, he was still more coherent than Ted Kennedy on one of his sobriety days. You can read more of Col. Bay's adventures here, but below is the transcript on Hugh's show earlier this afternoon: HH: Colonel, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show, and welcome back to the U.S. AB: Thanks, Hugh. It's great to be back. HH: I heard you had quite an adventurous return. AB: Yes. Fifty one and half hours...

Lead-in to the President's address tonight. Instead off listening to Senatorial chumps from Massachusetts like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry undermine what is going on in Iraq, let's see what people who have actually been there and served on the ground think. Up first, Matt the paratrooper from Black Five. Here's what he had to say: HH: Good to talk to you, Matt. I want to start with tonight, and the president's...what do you expect the president to say tonight? Black5: Well, you know, I'd expect a couple of things. Of course, he's going to focus on the troops. I've...

WEEKEND UPDATE: SKUNKED! By Michelle Malkin   ·   June 19, 2005 11:03 PM The fishing report: Me: 0. Zip. Nada. My five-year-old daughter: 10 bluegill and crappie. No keepers. Me: A very unlucky Texas rig (lizards and pumpkin plastic worms). Daughter: Nightcrawlers under a Winnie-the-Pooh bobber (can't beat it). The fish that got away: An at least 6 lb. largemouth bass that I will be sobbing about for the next 5 days. A few photos of my daughter's catches at Flickr. Back to work in the morning. Sniff... Update: Blogger Kevin Sinclair had much better luck than I did. Wowee.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 Constitution fever! Public conferences and sessions in Baghdad and other provinces seem to be endless nowadays; municipalities, NGOs and forums are all very excited about Iraq's top topic which is writing the Iraqi constitution and they obviously don't want to miss the chance to take part in the historic event. Such activities play a good role in educating the population and activating the concept of public involvement in the state's decisive steps through organizing sending the people's suggestions and thoughts to the authorities and making sure they're being considered. During the past week, we were able...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran has among the strictest Internet censorship in the world, blocking access to sexual content, political websites, information on women's rights and "blogs," a study by Internet researchers showed. The OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of researchers from Harvard University, the University of Toronto and University of Cambridge, noted that Iran uses technology from the US company, Secure Computing, calling the firm "complicit" in the censorship. But they said that Internet content controls "have support at the highest levels of the Iranian state." The researchers found some 34 percent of tested websites blocked. "The Iranian state has effectively...

<p>Like a growing number of employees, Peter Whitney decided to launch a blog on the Internet to chronicle his life, his friends and his job at a division of Wells Fargo.</p> <p>Then he began taking jabs at a few people he worked with.</p>

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A BLOG By Michelle Malkin   ·   June 13, 2005 04:01 PM This blog turned one last week! (BTW: Congrats to Karol at Alarming News, which turned the Big 3 today.) First, some blogiversary expressions of gratitude: Special thanks to the following people for their warm welcomes, words of advice/encouragement, and early links during mm.com's incipient days: John, Paul, and Scott at Power Line, John Hawkins at Right Wing News, Frank J. at IMAO, Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom, Bill Ardolino at INDC Journal, Kevin Aylward and the Wizbang crew, Ace of Spades, Spoons, Captain...

Internet censorship is increasingly common, says technology commentator Bill Thompson, but making small gains in freedom may be enough. "We shouldn't be surprised to learn that the Chinese authorities have finally turned their attention to weblogs and decided that they have to be censored. After all, a government that has put so much effort into controlling the free flow of information was hardly going to ignore a publishing tool that is easily accessible by 78 million net users. Now anyone in China who wants to blog has until 30 June to register or face criminal sanctions, and according to the...

THE VULNERABLE BOBBY BYRD By Michelle Malkin   ·   June 03, 2005 04:03 PM Lots of political blogs buzzing about new poll results showing that Sen. Robert Byrd's re-election bid won't be smooth sailing: A new poll shows Sen. Robert Byrd and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito would run neck and neck in a possible campaign for the Senate seat now held by Byrd. An RMS Strategies Poll released today reports that 46 percent of 401 registered voters in West Virginia would vote for Byrd if the election were held now. A total of 43 percent picked Capito, R-W.Va., though she has...

Christophe Grebert, citizen blogger who was already arrested by the local police for his blog, is now sued by the city mayor because he comments how he does not like the way the city is managed every day on his blog. The city has voted a budget of 29 000 € (!) to attack him. Christophe will be in front of judges on June 21st and had to borrow money from friends to organize his defense. If you would like to support him, Christophe just added a paypal tipjar donation button and already received close to $1000 of donations from...

A Selective Adherence to Tradition - Why is it that when it comes to the judiciary, some traditions matter more than others? by Hugh Hewitt 05/12/2005 12:00:00 AM WHEN THE WORD "IMPEACHMENT" was uttered in March and April as an option for dealing with renegade judges, the guardians of conventional wisdom were quick to denounce "ideologues," who, in the words of the New York Times editorialists, "are trying to bully judges into following their political line." The Washington Post's editors agreed: "It is essential that the judges who stood up to Congress now receive ample support--so that judges will feel...

Most of Mrs. Bush's humor at the correspondents' dinner was just right: Edgy but not over the edge. But I think the stripper and horse jokes were totally beneath her. Just put it to the other-shoe test: If it were Teresa Heinz Kerry standing up on the dais telling the same jokes, the conservative commentariat would be buzzing for the rest of the year about what a tasteless skank she is.