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THE SIEGE OF FIRE BASE ALPHA by Jay Buckner-CPI The day was sunny; my wife had gone to visit her sister in Pensacola, Florida, so I headed east toward Destin. And stopped at a popular Greasy Spoon.. I took a rear booth as the place was crowded this early in the morning and seats were scarce. A large barrel chested Negro gentleman approached and asked, " May I share your table sir?" "Certainly, have a seat!" He joined me and we ordered. We exchanged small talk for a while then he said, " Seen you from time to time; you...

Frustrated Lawyer Needs Help (no pun intended)This is not a sexually oriented thread but I figured that was the best way to get attention on a Friday night.Here's the frustration. Is there anything good on public television other than JAG?I am so frustrated with all the liberal ***&%%$#@ junk.....please if anyone knows decent shows, please tell me. I love the military (JAG) and the law (no good conservative law shows) and humor (it's all off color or gay rights). Suggestions please....

This is the coverstory of the February, 2002 issue of Insight on the News. I was not able to copy it....if someone else can, please do. It starts with "Political commentators already are calling it the political race of 2002. The Democrats have signaled their intention to throw millions of dollars from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) into the Florida governor's race to try to make it a referundum on the first two years of the George W. Bush's administration. Self-annointed black spokesmen, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, insist they will seek payback for what they continue ...

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All. Please share your Blessings with your Freeper Friends.

If you die tomorrow, what does your family need to know today? (Lawyer Needs Freeper Help) I'm an attorney who helps clients with estate planning and other money matters, but I won't claim that I "know it all". I need Freeper advice. I once had an elderly client who always told his family "When I die, everything you need is in the manila folder". When he died, we searched high and low but we never did find that folder. As a result, it took years to settle his estate. That shouldn't happen. I am putting together a booklet for ...

Military tribunals: A wartime necessity When Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley in 1901, he was tried before a civilian court, as was Giuseppe Zangara, the would-be assassin of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. When John Hinckley Jr. shot President Reagan in 1981, he, too, was tried before a civilian court. But those who plotted the murder of Lincoln were tried by a military commission at Ft. McNair – with U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt presiding – and hanged. The difference? In April 1865, the Union was still at war. Spies and saboteurs caught behind Union lines ...

Trying times When I first heard that President Bush was contemplating an executive order to establish military tribunals to try terrorists, I just knew that many liberals (and civil libertarians) would go bonkers. They tell us that this is what constitutional rights are all about: ensuring that every scumbag is amply protected – better that 10 guilty men go free than one innocent man be wrongly convicted. I know that sounds noble, and I know that sounding noble is the garden-variety liberal's greatest aspiration. But we might want to reconsider that cliché in light of the potential destruction 10 terrorists ...

Tourist burned at local bar . LAS VEGAS, NV, Nov. 27 - Fire breathing girls are part of the act at New York, New York's Coyote Ugly Bar. But they may not be part of the act for long since a customer was burned while watching the bartenders perform. Anqunette Moon reports on the details. The bar admits a customer was burned but they say his injuries were minor. Still they say they didn't take any chances. The man was taken to the hospital where he was treated and released. But it has the bar wondering if dancing, fire ...

The Hun is at the gate This week's winner for best comedy line about the war is New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer. Referring to – well, it doesn't really matter what he was referring to, but it was military tribunals – Schumer said: "To come up with the best way to do this, Congress ought to be involved." Congress came up with the Internal Revenue code, right? And the whole United States code? That's just what we need – Congress involved in emergency national security measures! Under the self-aggrandizing delusion that their input is necessary during wartime, various ...

The dream of an easy victory in Iraq Take a people tired of being tyrannized, add an opposition force determined to overthrow the government, blend with a handful of B-52s, bake for a few weeks, and there you have it -- victory. The United States used this recipe with startling results in Afghanistan, and a cadre of hawks insists it will work just as well in Iraq. Their reasoning is like saying that if you can cook yourself breakfast, you would have no trouble making Thanksgiving dinner for 30. The Taliban turned out to be a flimsy opponent whose ...

The underminers The headline on the cover of the November 12th issue of The New Republic magazine read "Losing the War," and the cover featured a caricature of President Bush in a ridiculous pose, and with a ridiculous expression on his face, winding up to throw missiles. This issue appeared just before the series of stunning victories in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, The New Republic was not unique. Many in the media have been busy predicting a quagmire in Afghanistan or scurrying around to focus on collateral damage from American bombing or repeatedly asking when it would all end, much like the ...

On bioterror, war for women, and uncommon valor The news from the terror front comes in torrents: the Taliban practically routed, falling-out among the Afghan tribes, attention turning to ferreting out Osama and the war's next phase... Such as bioterror. At home, talk is about (e.g.) anthrax and smallpox - and how to counteract them: Medical science is buckling down. Abroad, talk is about the Sinister Six - identified last week as North Korea, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Iran and Iraq - building germ-warfare arsenals. Serious consideration ought to be given - now - to how best to rub out not ...

When Hollywood wants to wave the flag Earth-shattering events usually shatter certain long-held beliefs as well. The Stoic gives in to emotional outbursts, the Epicurean gives up rich food and wine, the misanthrope begins to love his neighbor. Ever since the suicide bombers smashed into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, certain leopards have lost their spots, zebras their stripes, lions their roar. Consider ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. Faster than you can say "Yellow Submarine," he's thrown away mindless peace-loving. "Normally you're a pacifist and you don't want any kind of war at all," he explains. "But occasionally something so ...

That special relationship WASHINGTON -- On his Concorde dash to Washington early this month, British Prime Minister Tony Blair did more than plot anti-terrorism strategy with George W. Bush. He made a pitch behind closed doors for the becalmed alliance between American Airlines and British Airways. All signs are that he succeeded. President Bush and his chief of staff, Andrew Card, made clear that priority for the war against terrorism will not stall the AA-BA deal. What's really important is that the fix is in to override normal regulatory procedures, keeping the Justice Department's Antitrust Division from intervening in ...

Backwards thinking in Maryland WASHINGTON -- As things continue to go awry for Afghanistan's reforming Taliban, they now are seeking sanctuary in their native caves or in political asylum with governments sympathetic to their brand of moral rigorism. If they were a bit more cosmopolitan, they might seek political asylum in Montgomery County, Md. There, moral rigorism reigns. As all the world now knows, the Montgomery County Council recently passed one of the most Draconian (Talibanian?) anti-smoking laws in the country. It would put a fine of $750 on the head of any smoker whose exhausts were sniffed by a ...

Video Company Listed In Phone Book As Porn Maker Production Business Is Suing Publisher November 27, 2001 MAUMEE, Ohio -- A small Toledo-area company that makes educational videos is suing a phone book publisher after it was listed in the yellow pages as a porn production company. RGB Productions of Maumee is suing Iowa-based McLeod USA Publishing Company for more than $10 million. RGB's lawyer said McLeod USA listed the company as RGB Porno Productions when it released the books early last year. Attorney Marty Holmes said he's not sure how the error was made but that it has ...

Barrientos pleads no contest to DWI State senator will be on probation for a year and plans to run for re-election By Laylan Copelin American-Statesman Staff Tuesday, November 27, 2001 State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos Tuesday pleaded no contest to charges of driving while intoxicated and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, which was probated for a year. The probation forbids the Austin senator from consuming alcohol for a year and requires that he report to weekly counseling on alcohol use. The senator's driver's license also will be suspended for 180 days as part of a new state law, which ...

Bobby Kennedy's strange Justice Most Kennedys are born with a knack for making headlines, and Kerry Kennedy Cuomo is no exception. On the day President Bush formally named the Justice Department's headquarters after her father, Robert F. Kennedy, she was in the news, accusing the administration of violating basic rights in the war on terrorism. Addressing her 6-year-old daughter in a speech Thursday, Cuomo declared: "Cara, if anyone tries to tell you this is the type of justice your grandpa would embrace, don't you believe it." Her father, she said, was devoted to "protecting civil liberties even when it ...

A dynamite economics department Reporting their findings in the February 2001 Applied Economics Letters -- a British professional journal -- Professors Franklin G. Mixon Jr. and Kamal P. Upadhyaya rank economics departments in the U.S. South. The rankings are based upon faculty research productivity. As former chairman of George Mason University's Economics Department, having served the last six years, I am pleased and proud to report that our department heads the list of some 69 Southern university Ph.D. granting economics departments. How did we achieve that status? What kind of economists are you people, anyway? Everybody's heard of Keynesian economists, ...

Let's address the why of cloning before the how For all of the heat generated by the current firestorm over human cloning, it's shed very little light. Indeed, to the extent it's illuminated anything all, it's shown us how much ignorance and hype there is out there. And I'm not referring to the so-called religious zealots. First of all, there are no human clones, and it's not clear there ever were. Despite what you may have heard on the Sunday talk shows or read on the cover of U.S. News & World Report, the recent attempts to create a ...