Free Republic

-Waukesha County executive scoops came from talk radio Mark Belling's Free Consultation Service For the Mainstream Media (MSM): Stop condescendingly insulting your target audience. Doing so merely alientates them and drives them toward the new media (talk radio, Internet bloggers, Fox News) that actually respects their intelligence and programs for them (emphasis mine) * * * I don't suspect the above advice will be taken. Instead members of the MSM will continue to assault their readers and viwers with a barely disguised leftist agenda under the pompous pretense that they are trying to "inform" them. As the audience continues to...

Nextel Speaks With Forked Tongue By Carol Bell March 25, 2004 Three months. It took only three months. What has NASCAR wrought in its deal with Nextel? Is it possible there is a section or sub-section in their contract that turns over every aspect of decision making to Nextel? Apparently, Nextel officials are not comfortable with the presence of the military that has been a large part of Sunday’s pre race activities for years. They feel it puts forth a “Pro War” feeling and perhaps something more middle of the road would be better. Compare this if you will to...

-The Huntsville Times- Opinion Columnist Ben Johnson "Beyond Affirmative Action" It's time to dump affirmative action. Wow, what a statement. I can't imagine that my fingers, my brain, my muscles actually came together to write those words. A few months back my body never would have allowed the coordination needed to pen those words. And I haven't just written these words, as I did in this space Aug. 29. I've actually spoken them in recent weeks. Those who regularly review my often left-leaning offerings here have to be wondering: How did it all come to this? It's all part of...

I like big cars, big boats, big motorcycles, big houses, and big campfires. I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some governmental stooge with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts for squirting out babies. Guns don't make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game. I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, which is why there are...

Slavery Reparations by Fred Reed On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro-American Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks. It's because of slavery, see. He is joined in this endeavor by a gaggle of other professional blacks. I guess he'll send me a bill, huh? I feel like saying, Let me get this straight, Hank. I'm slow. Be patient. You want free money because of slavery, right? I don't blame you. I'd like free money too. Tell you what. I believe in justice. I'll give you a million dollars...

I sat in a movie theater watching "Schindler's List," and I asked myself, "Why didn't the Jews fight back?" Now I know why.I sat in a movie theater, watching "Pearl Harbor" and asked myself, "Why weren't we prepared?" Now I know why.Civilized people cannot fathom, much less predict, the actions of evil people. On September 11, dozens of capable airplane passengers allowed themselves to be overpowered by a handful of poorly armed terrorists because they did not comprehend the depth of hatred that motivated their captors. On September 11, thousands of innocent people were murdered because too many Americans naively...

On Flower Children And The Flowers Of Hate by Patrick Hersh March 15, 2001 I have a friend, let’s call him BK. He is a trusting, sweet and gifted professional musician/songwriter living in a rather desolate section of a west coast inner city near a Greyhound bus station. I have known him for sometime now and in hours of conversation with him I have never heard the “N” word cross his lips, it was simply not in his vocabulary, nor is it in mine. A few months ago he had mentioned to me, in his naive way, that the ...

WASHINGTON - It has come to this: Al Gore says in a presidential debate that his uncle was gassed in World War I and then his campaign searches for the records.The campaign knows no claim by the Democratic candidate about his family or professional resume will be taken at face value.His exaggerations, standing alone, are not earthshaking by anyone's serious estimation, although Republican operatives gleefully tally them up for public consumption.Gore said Thursday he considers such criticism a personal attack. When has Bush made a mistake, Gore said, he has not tried to portray it as "evidence of some character ...

With politicians pledging to hit right-wing extremists with the full force of the law, an eastern German court sentenced a man and teen-ager Thursday to long sentences for attempted murder in a firebomb attack on a Vietnamese family.Marcel Hanwald, 23, was sentenced to nine years and his 16-year old accomplice, Andreas Pischel, received five years from the court in Potsdam for throwing two Molotov cocktails through an open window of the family's apartment in May.The couple, their young child and two guests escaped unharmed from their apartment in the town of Belzig, near Berlin.

BALTIMORE - Susan Wagner said she had no way of knowing that the fragerance her mother gave her as a Christmas gift present in 1996 was meant for cats.The 36-year old sales clerk from Marriottsville, Md., says she thought it was perfume and sprayed it on herself.What she says happened next has led to a battle in Baltimore County Circuit Court over her alleged injuries.The fight began in early 1999 when Wagner filed a $120,000 negligence suit against the manufacturer and escalated a year later with the filing of a $3 million countersuit.The dispute can be traced to the day ...

It's Ali-i-i-i-ive!It was serendipity: Researchers were trying to pin down the source of "microcontamination" in computer chip production lines, and traced it to an extremely hardy bacterium that could actually build itself a protective casing out of the dissolved semiconductor materials present in otherwise-pure chip wash water. The semiconductor shell made the bacteria resistant to normal disinfecting and cleansing techniques.But the researchers soon realized the encased bacteria were actually a kind of biological semiconductor that could be employed to make living transistors!It sounds like science-fiction, but it's real: The immediate application of these bio-transistors will probably be in sensors. Like ...

A "West Point for principals" is one solution U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley proposes to solve a looming shortage of school administrators.In a speech to be delivered Friday at Columbia University's Teachers College, Riley also pitched the Clinton administration's call for a $40 million investment in state or regional training for school teachers.The tools of school reform need leaders to put them to use, he said."At the school district levels," Riley said in prepared remarks, someone needs to nurture, engage and orchestrate the teachers, parents, staff, community and students to use these tools well and work as teams."

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A man convicted of raping & killing a 2-year old girl will be free from death row barring the slim chance the state Supreme Court reconsiders its ruling the the state harmed his defense by taking five years to bring him to trialIn a 5-1 deciosion Thursday, the court ruled the delay violated the Oregon Constitution's guarentee of a speedy trial and made it difficult for Scott Dean Harberts to defend himself. The court ordered the charges dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled."I can't believe this," said Debra Holfeld, mother of 2-year old Kristina ...

Turns out two states of being not mutually exclusiveIn an appearance on the Cable News Network gabfest "Reliable Sources," Marie Cocco, the New York Newsday columnist, all but acknowledged that she hates Republicans. And that she hates black Republicans even more.Cocco related that, "I didn't speak to a single black journalist who was there (in Philadelphia) who reallt approved or was persuaded by the sot of minstrel show, frankly, that they thought was going o at the convention."Well, which black journalists exactly did she speak to? She didn't exchange words with me.And to whom exactly was Cocco referring to as ...

LOS ANGELES -- In a famous cartoon some years ago, two intellectual types are looking at the bruised and bloody body of a fellow who has just been mugged and beaten half to death. "My, my," says one of the sidewalk psychiatrists. "The person who did this really needs our help."Those two comapssionate fellows were Democrats. In the popular image, the Democratic Party once was the party of bleeding hearts and gentle people. Back in the days of George McGovern, Gary Hart and Jimmy Carter, the party was identified with probation, parole, soft sentences, and forgive them for they know ...

Right-wing extremists marked the anniversary of of the death of Hitler deputy Rudolf Hess by unfurling banners Thursday, a day after the government approved $35 million to fight racism.The banners and posters declaring "Rudolf Hess, Martyr for Peace," and similar slogans, were hung from bridges and buildings in the eastern German communities of Dresden, Gotha and Rudolstadt.The night before, about 60 neo-Nazis marched through the city of Rostaock on the Baltic coast with burning torches, shouting "Rudolf Hess, our leader," according to police.

Jackson, Miss. - At least 52 teachers from five states cheated on their competencey tests by paying $1,000 bribes to exam supervisors for extra time and help with the answers, officials say.Teachers from Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas are accused of taking part in the *scheme at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark.The test, required of teachers in 34 states to gain certification, involves a four-hour test and a survey of the candidate's subject matter.Philander Smith President Trudie Kibbe Reed said a former schoool employee who worked for the college when the alleged violations occurred ran the scam.The test ...

I never thought I'd say this.All young people should serve a stint in the military.A modified sense of the word, as I'll explain.A military lite, you could say.This comes from someone who was forced into servatude 29 years ago, complained about it every five minutes and couldn't wait for the day he could take off the uniform.Like I said. I never thought I's say this.Enter hindsight.And Ernest Gaines.The screaming drill sergeant called us to attention after we got off the bus from St. Louis. Dozens of men of every color and description stood ramrod-straight with lips puckered so much they ...

Why I WILL NOT Obey California’s Gun Registration Edict by Brian Puckett (For those hesitant to read the entire statement, PLEASE READ THE LAST TWO SECTIONS FIRST.) A brief summary of the situation The Democrat-controlled government of California has recently issued two edicts, one that bans ownership of SKS rifles with detachable magazines and requires their surrender to the state, and one that bans buying, selling, or lending of so-called "assault weapons" and that requires present owners of such arms to register them. The edicts take effect January 1, 2000. For all those who have in the past stated ...

Why I WILL NOT Obey California’s Gun Registration Edict by Brian Puckett (For those hesitant to read the entire statement, PLEASE READ THE LAST TWO SECTIONS FIRST.) A brief summary of the situation The Democrat-controlled government of California has recently issued two edicts, one that bans ownership of SKS rifles with detachable magazines and requires their surrender to the state, and one that bans buying, selling, or lending of so-called "assault weapons" and that requires present owners of such arms to register them. The edicts take effect January 1, 2000. For all those who have in the past stated that, ...