Free Republic

SENATOR CALLS ON BUSH TO TAKE DOWN ATTACK AD Sat Dec 10 2005 16:41:38 ET Today, Senator Daniel Inouye, the Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his service in World War II, released the following statement: "As a Veteran of World War II, I know what it’s like to fight a war and put your life on the line every day. I also know what it takes to win a war, and I know that politics and an attack machine like the President’s plays no part in it. "The Republican...

October 14, 2005 Op-Ed Contributor The Harriet Miers I Know By MATTHEW SCULLY Los AngelesWHITE House speechwriters first learned the name Harriet Miers in January 2001, when drafts started reappearing full of corrections, instructions and particularly annoying requests for factual substantiation. In the campaign, life had been simpler, the editing and fact-checking a little more casual. Now the old ways wouldn't do anymore because "Harriet said" this or "Harriet said" that. Who was this woman, and could the staff secretary please confine herself to secretarial duties? We had a few things to learn about the job of the staff secretary...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A fugitive inmate and his wife, wanted in a brazen courthouse escape and shooting in Tennessee, were captured Wednesday night at a Columbus motel, authorities said. The two were in a motel room and were arrested without incident, said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The search started Tuesday after, authorities said, Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte, 31, ambushed two guards as they were leading George Hyatte, 34, from a courthouse hearing in Kingston, Tenn. Guard Wayne "Cotton" Morgan was fatally shot during the escape. One law-enforcement official called it a "Bonnie and Clyde-style shootout." Authorities...

Aloha, Apartheid A court strikes down a race-based policy in Hawaii, while Congress considers enshrining one. Monday, August 8, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT HONOLULU--For the seven million people who vacation in Hawaii every year, it is a magical island destination. For its 1.2 million residents, the 50th state is, in the words of its senior senator, Daniel Inouye, "one of the greatest examples of a multiethnic society living in relative peace." But that peace is fraying as tensions rise over a bill the U.S. Senate will vote on next month that would create an independent, race-based government for Native Hawaiians....

The Bush administration is negotiating the transfer of nearly 70 percent of the detainees at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to three countries as part of a plan, officials said, to share the burden of keeping suspected terrorists behind bars. U.S. officials announced yesterday that they have reached an agreement with the government of Afghanistan to transfer most of its nationals to Kabul's "exclusive" control and custody. There are 110 Afghan detainees at Guantanamo and 350 more at the Bagram airfield near Kabul. Their transfers could begin in the next six months. Pierre-Richard Prosper, ambassador at large...

Rethinking Nationalism Is nationalism a coherent political philosophy? Is it logically, as well as emotionally, compelling? What is a "nation," exactly? Does it have a right to existence, and to independence? If so, why? These are the sort of questions The Philosophy of Nationalism is all about; but its author, Paul Gilbert, is not the man to answer these questions. Gilbert starts out promising to treat nationalist ideas seriously, and nationalists themselves with respect. But, as an all-too-typical modern academic, he cannot get his mind out of its prison of liberal/Left prejudices. His procedure is to define the "nation," subdivide...

What should a reasonable person conclude about touch screen voting machines? Sure, there are some safeguards it would be nice to add. But most of the worry out there is loony tunes stuff. The big picture: (1) No touch screen machine has been shown to have been rigged or to have delivered an inaccurate vote total. They work fine. (2) Claims of "flaws" or "errors" in various incidents around the country almost always involve human elements, such as poll workers not getting the things turned on. (3) A conspiracy to rig the machines in a national election is ridiculously unlikely...

Take a humor break and listen to a Frank Sinatra imitator do Strangers On My Flight (Strangers In The Night parody. It's a quick load and guaranteed to make you laugh!

Negative Thinking or how ‘Negativitis’ cripples the human spirit Does it seem strange that some people COMPLAIN they don’t have enough TIME to be happy, yet they find enough time to be sad? Not really. You see, their deplorable plight has nothing to do with having sufficient or insufficient time. It has everything to do with complaining. After all, complaining is the negation of happiness. It’s impossible to complain and be happy at the same time. So, beware of that insidious disease known as ‘negativitis’ (negative thinking). It is as pervasive as the common cold, but far more damaging. It...

Liberals Accept Responsiibility for Killers In response to a letter to the White House complaining about the treatment of a captive taken during the Afghanistan war, the following response was sent: The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20016 Dear Concerned Citizen: Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees, currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. My administration takes these matters seriously, and your opinion was heard loud and clear here in Washington. You'll be pleased to learn that, thanks to the concerns of citizens like you, we are...

Navy Dedicates Destroyer To WWII Sailor United Press International June 1, 2004 PORT HUENEME - The U.S. Navy dedicated its latest ship to a World War II sailor who earned the Navy Cross, but whose race prevented him from rising in the ranks. Several thousand people lined the docks of Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme, Calif., as naval officials commissioned the Pinckney, a guided-missile destroyer, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. It is only the 10th vessel named for an African-American in the 229-year history of the U.S. Navy. Bill Pinckney was a cook aboard the aircraft carrier...

<p>EVERY PRESIDENT makes foreign policy. Only a select few, over the sweep of history, design what scholars term grand strategy.</p> <p>Grand strategy is the blueprint from which policy follows. It envisions a country's mission, defines its interests, and sets its priorities.</p>

When Pan Am 103 went down over Lockerbie in 1988, it took my friend Berndt Carlsson, a Swedish diplomat and former chairman of the Socialist International who had become the United Nations' special rapporteur for Namibia. So active had he been in working to free Namibia from South African apartheid and occupation that some people speculated on a South African role in the atrocity. As so often is the case, this speculation was useless because it was so rational. Those who put bombs on civilian aircraft usually don't much care who is on board; their point is made by the...

LTC ALLEN B. WEST Breaking News! Lt. Col. Allen B. West, who faced criminal charges for firing his weapon to intimidate an Iraqi detainee into providing information about an upcoming assault on West's unit, has himself, dodged a bullet. LTC West's actions yielded critical information which enabled West and his soldiers to thwart the attack -- thus saving the lives of their fellow soldiers. It was and remains our position that LTC West's actions were justified. Indeed, President Bush, on his visit to Iraq Thanksgiving Day, said "In some cases, the measured use of force is all that protects us...

Joseph Perkins THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE November 28, 2003 The young couple and their 9-year-old son were detained by police on the evening of Oct. 7 after having crossed the U.S.-Mexico border earlier that day. Two officers walked the husband and the son to an ATM, relieving the husband of the cash they forced him to withdraw. Meanwhile, two other officers escorted the wife to a police station. She was ordered to take off her clothes – the better to strip search her. Then one officer allegedly raped her as the other kept watch. Had this crime occurred in San...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - The mayor fired the city's police chief Tuesday after he said a black suspect had acted "almost like an orangutan" during an arrest. Mack Vines, who is white, made the remark during a Dec. 4 police roll call at which he mentioned a recent case in which officers dragged the suspect out the window of a pickup truck. During the arrest, the man entangled his feet and legs around his vehicle's steering column. Vines said he described the man as "resisting significantly to the point of almost like an orangutan." Vines, who had served ...

Aids causes half adult deaths BY MICHAEL DYNES Johannesburg: Nearly half of adult deaths in South Africa are caused by conditions related to HIV-Aids, according to a survey published yesterday. The high death-rate means that the population, which was expected to increase from 43 million to 51 million by 2010, is now likely to peak at 47 million over the next ten years. The report, by the American charity Lovelife, showed that deaths among teenagers caused by the virus were still rising, despite government attempts to promote health education. Copyright 2001

SPOILED BLACKS by Robert L. Kocher "Recognition of, or toleration of, the Jesse Jacksons, the Al Sharptons, the Marion Barrys, the Kwesei Mfumes, the Farrakhans, the Elders, etc. by the white Liberal power structure is an indirect insidious method of conferring or enforcing inferiority upon black people. If that degree of degeneracy is accepted to represent black people, it's a way of saying black people are inferior. If left to their own devices the Ku Klux Klan couldn't state the assertion with better effect than is done by the white Liberal community and is being done by blacks themselves in ...

Channel 4 gameshow contestants have sex in front of cameras A couple taking part in a new Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall gameshow where they are handcuffed together for days have had sex in front of the cameras. Warren Hibberd, 20, and a woman, whose identity has not been revealed, were taking part in a new programme called Chained for Channel 4's digital offshoot E4. But the scenes which will be seen in the programme will not be too rude as the action takes place under the sheets, a spokeswoman for the show said. Former Big Brother contestant Melanie Hill presents ...

Chernomyrdin Says to Sue Bush Over IMF Funds Remark ------It wasn't IMF money he stole, it was something else.------ MOSCOW, Oct 13, 2000 -- (Reuters) Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said on Thursday he would sue U.S. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush over his accusation in a television debate that Chernomyrdin stole IMF funds. Bush attacked Vice-President Al Gore over the Democratic administration's ties with Russia in Wednesday's second presidential campaign debate. He said a part of a 1998 USD 4.8 billion IMF loan to prop up the Russian rouble had "ended up in Viktor Chernomyrdin's pockets". Chernomyrdin, ...