Free Republic

The Satmar religious community was on the brink of civil war yesterday as two sons of the late Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum staked claim to the spiritual leadership of the sect. The dispute was headed for a showdown at sundown tomorrow when followers of both brothers plan to flock to Brooklyn to celebrate the Sabbath in the streets of Williamsburg. Aron Teitelbaum, eldest son of the grand rebbe, claimed to have support of 75% of the 120,000 Satmar followers, including sect leaders from Israel, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. "A ceremony proclaiming Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum's appointment will be held...

"It's (expletive) over, son."For two hours, authorities say, that message would be pounded into Lester Eugene Siler’s head and body, reinforced with the barrel of a gun and echoed in threats of electrocution. Handcuffed and surrounded, Siler was now a prisoner of the war on drugs in Campbell County. Seven months later, five former Campbell County Sheriff’s Department lawmen are poised to plead guilty to federal charges they conspired to violate Siler’s civil rights by beating, threatening and torturing him.

It's an odd thought, but a military coup in this country right now would probably have a moderating influence. Not that an actual coup is pending; still less is one desirable. But we are witnessing the rumblings of an officers' revolt, and things could get ugly if it were to take hold and roar. The revolt is a reluctant one, aimed specifically at the personage of Donald Rumsfeld and the way he is conducting the war in Iraq. It is startling to hear, in private conversations, how widely and deeply the U.S. officer corps despises this secretary of defense. The...

A Marine reservist returning home after eight months in Iraq was told he couldn't board a plane to Minneapolis because his name appeared on a watch list as a possible terrorist. Staff Sgt. Daniel Brown, who was in uniform and returning from the war Tuesday with 26 other Marine military police reservists, was delayed briefly in Los Angeles until the issue was cleared up.

Angry mobs of Hasidim taunted cops and set fires in the streets of Brooklyn last night after police busted an elderly member of their community in a traffic stop. The wild protests flared shortly after 6:30 p.m., when police pulled over 75-year-old Arthur Schick for allegedly talking on his cell phone while driving in Borough Park. Cops said Schick - whose family founded the neighborhood institution Schick's Bakery - became belligerent and refused to hand over his license and registration, leading officers to arrest and handcuff him. Witnesses gave conflicting accounts of the arrest - with several saying nothing untoward...

WASHINGTON - Imagine an explosion strong enough to blow a car's trunk apart, caused by a bomb inside a passenger plane. Government sources tell NBC News that federal investigators recently were able to carry materials needed to make a similar homemade bomb through security screening at 21 airports. In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials. NBC News briefed former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11 commission, on the results.

I just read the Vanity Fair article about Abramoff. It is pretty damning. Everyone should read it ASAP. I don't want to post the URL here because I don't want FR to get in trouble, we are not allowed to post articles from there.

http://www.whitehouse.org/kids/nicknames.asp

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records. According to sources with firsthand knowledge, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making...

Valentine’s Day has become a day when merchants order people to give candy, cards and flowers to people they lust after. It is celebrated in our schools, and even children in pre-schools are encouraged to exchange valentines. But the real Valentine’s Day is not about cards, candy, flowers, and our romantic love for each other, but about God’s love and the martydom of a Catholic saint. Why don’t most people know this? Because we’ve been leaving the saint out of Saint Valentine’s Day. Secularists and merchants who make money off Saint Valentine’s Day want you to believe this day has...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite and Sunni Arabs packed mosques and markets brimming with sweets, while children laughed as they tilted up and down on a ride at an amusement park in a run-down Baghdad neighborhood. Sheep, meanwhile, were slaughtered and hung by their hind legs and food was distributed to the poor Tuesday as Iraqis celebrated the Islamic feast of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, on a rare day with no reports of violence.

DOVER, Pa. -- Pat Robertson had a special message for residents of Dover, Pa., today after voters there elected to boot the current school board, which instituted an intelligent design policy that led to a federal trial. Robertson made the comment after Lee Webb of CBN News delivered a report on how residents in Dover voted in eight new Democratic board members, replacing all eight current members who had voted for a policy that required students in ninth-grade biology classes to hear a statement on intelligent design before hearing lessons on evolution. Webb then asked Robertson what he thought about...

WASHINGTON - "Dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla has asked the Supreme Court to limit the government's power to hold him and other U.S. terror suspects indefinitely and without charges.The case of Padilla, who has been in custody more than three years, presents a major test of the Bush administration's wartime authority. The former gang member is accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive device. Justices refused on a 5-4 vote last year to resolve Padilla's rights, ruling that he contested his detention in the wrong court. Donna Newman of New York, one of Padilla's attorneys, said the new case, which...

VICE PRESIDENT Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans. "Cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of prisoners is banned by an international treaty negotiated by the Reagan administration and ratified by the United States. The State Department annually issues a report criticizing other governments for violating it. Now Mr. Cheney is asking Congress to approve legal language that would allow the CIA to commit such abuses against foreign prisoners it is holding abroad. In other words, this vice...

There can be no compromise on the moral imperative protect the basic human rights of eery individual incarcerated for any reason.

I cannot copy and paste, but click on the link to see the letters and notes sent back and forth when Bush was Governor of Texas. Birthday cards, thank you notes, etc...

This is a very experimental output. It did well on Ivan and other test storms, but has not been formally validated! Use at your own risk - see our disclaimer before you whine about anything. This data is based on the past track and 120 hour forecast from the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Caution: they are only as good as the forecast!!. Production data and leaseholder information from the Minerals Management Service as of May 2005. Impact estimates based on wind and wave damage computed by TAOS Version 12.0X.

SHENZHEN, China - This may be the biggest place you've never heard of. More people live here than New York city. It has more factories than the Midwest; a skyscraper taller than the Empire State Building; the busiest port in China. And a premier golf course that has been played by Tiger Woods. Shenzhen was nothing but a fishing village 25 years ago when it was picked by government officials to become the showplace of China's economic resurgence. Now this city of 10-million rivals Hong Kong as a mecca of capitalism. Said Rick Cui, a computer engineer who bolted Atlanta...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea announced on Friday the introduction of the Stalinist country's first credit card, but just how it would work was unclear. "The North East Asia Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has introduced (an) IC credit card ... in order to modernise its settlement business," the official Korean Central News Agency reported. "The IC card ensures the safety of the data registered in it. And it is impossible to counterfeit it so as to prevent money from being lost," KCNA said. "Six kinds of currencies can be deposited in a card at a time....

"What's up with your shirt?"Those are the words a former senior at Fleming Island High School remembers hearing as he walked from his fifth-period algebra class toward the gym. The 18-year-old, who is not being identified due to his family's concerns of safety, had just taken off his Dixie Outfitter T-shirt, exposing a highly offensive shirt. "What about it?" replied the 18-year-old, skinny and white. "Well, you know it's racial," said a black student, now in a group confronting the 18-year-old. "Yeah. So?" The undershirt the white student wore had a confederate flag on the front with the words "Keep...