Free Republic

The deal on confirmation of judicial nominees seems to have been struck by seven Democrats essentially supported by their party's base and seven Republicans at odds with theirs. It contains one crucial phrase — Democrats will filibuster only in "extraordinary circumstances" — and it is undefined. Unless it is defined by the Democrats' recent behavior. But can anyone contrive to tickle coherence from that behavior? Democrats have agreed to stop filibustering the confirmation of three judges they have hitherto identified as extraordinarily dangerous to fundamental American liberties. One of the three, Priscilla Owen, is an impeccable representative of mainstream conservative...

SEOUL North Korea said it would reject any settlement of the nuclear weapons dispute as long as the United States was led by President George W. Bush, whom a North Korean official called a "cowboy." Meanwhile, the United States reportedly warned allies that North Korea might be ready to carry out an underground nuclear test as early as June. "Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being, to say nothing of stature as president of a country," a spokesman of the North Korean Foreign Ministry told the country's official news agency, KCNA, on Saturday. The official...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ronald Reagan's handwritten personal diaries covering his eight years as president from 1981 will be published next year after an agreement with his presidential library. Publisher HarperCollins called Reagan's private journal "the most detailed presidential diaries in America's history," and said it had been seen only by a few people. "When Ronnie became president, he wanted to write it all down so we could remember these special times," Nancy Reagan said in the publishing house statement released on Tuesday. Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died last year at the age of 93. He...

WASHINGTON - Democrats have quietly pushed several of their bills to the Senate floor to give lawmakers something to vote on if the fight over judicial filibusters gums up the works. "I've always said that we'd make sure the Senate went forward, but we're going to do it on our agenda, not their agenda," said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid has threatened to block the Republicans' legislative agenda if Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., succeeds in banning judicial filibusters. Democrats stopped 10 of Bush's first-term appeals court nominations through filibuster threats and allowed confirmation of 34. But Republicans...

<p>The list of people who let down 25-year-old Huang Jin Bao--who, in fact, left him for dead by the side of the road--includes the police officers who ignored him and the ambulance driver who refused to pick him up because he had no money.</p>

BERLIN (Reuters) - A wild bull on the loose in southern Germany was brought under control by the charms of a cow which lured the distressed male back to the barn, police said on Friday. "When bulls break out there's no telling what might happen," a police spokesman in the town of Hof said. "He was pretty worked up." Authorities were getting a tranquilizer gun ready when the farmer's niece suggested luring the bull back home with a cow on a leash. "It worked," the spokesman said. "He calmed right down and trotted behind her back to the barn."

WASHINGTON - Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush (news - web sites)'s decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said Friday. In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war. "The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of...

BANGKOK (AFP) - At least sixteen people were injured, including four critically, when three blasts rocked Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, police and witnesses said. All 16 were injured in the first of the blasts Friday evening when a remote control bomb was triggered in a crowded restaurant in the capital of Narathiwat province, according to a witness counting the injured at hospital. Two other bombs went off within two hours of the first but nobody was injured, according to officials. The bomb blasts came hours after a Buddhist teacher was shot dead and raised fears of a major surge in...

CHILHOWIE, Va. - Fourteen cars of an 83-car Norfolk Southern train derailed near an industrial park, leaving the area smelling like a brewery Thursday. About 20,000 gallons of beer leaked from three cars of the Roanoke-bound train, said railway spokesman Robin Chapman. No one was injured when the cars skipped the tracks about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Chapman said. Investigating officers said the leak did not contaminate any nearby water sources nor affect any highways. "Everything was contained away from the creek," said Jack Tolbert Jr. of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. Authorities were investigating the cause of the derailment....

OKLAHOMA CITY - One of the prosecutors in bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' murder trial was arrested in a police prostitution sting, officials said Friday. Assistant District Attorney Lou Keel was accused of trying to hire a woman for sex Thursday evening. The woman was an undercover police officer, authorities said. He was booked on a charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness with a prostitute, said police Capt. Jeffrey Becker. Keel posted bond and was released. District Attorney Wes Lane said he has suspended Keel with pay pending a review of the police investigation. Nichols was found...

MILWAUKEE -- City officials are considering billing the campaigns of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry for more than $200,000 to cover police department costs for visits by the candidates, their running mates and spouses. The proposal endorsed Thursday by a Common Council committee goes before the full city council for a vote Nov. 23. "We're not talking about Abe Lincoln stepping off a train and giving a stump speech and heading out of town," said Alderman Bob Donovan, sponsor of the measure. "These are huge, huge extravaganzas." Alderman Terry Witkowski criticized the measure, saying the state -- one of...

FRESNO, Calif. - Childhood friends who enlisted in the Marine Corps together and died together in Iraq (news - web sites) were buried side by side. Jeremiah Baro and Jared Hubbard, who played together, wrestled each other in high school and toughed it out together through boot camp, died Nov. 4, after a roadside bomb exploded. They were in Iraq's Anbar province, where the military was preparing to attack the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. Members of the armed forces, classmates from the nearby high school, more than 700 friends and family members packed the church pews and stood pressed against...

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces hope to gain control of the last rebel bastion in Iraq (news - web sites)'s western city of Falluja during the night, a U.S. Marine officer said on Friday. Captain Robert Bodisch, a tank company commander, also told Reuters dozens of insurgents had been killed or captured in their last stronghold in southern Falluja. "There are lots of insurgents. My tank was attacked three times. But I would say the south is the last place we are still moving to control," he said. "Marines will try get control overnight." Bodisch said his tanks came...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A car exploded near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday, killing two people, an Israeli emergency service said. An Israeli military source said the blast, which occurred as a helicopter carrying the body of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) was landing at his Ramallah compound where he was to be buried, took place on a bridge and wounded several Palestinians. No other details were immediately available.

RALEIGH, N.C. - A man whose death sentence for impulsively killing a woman during a 1992 robbery was opposed even by some capital punishment supporters was executed by injection early Friday. Frank Chandler, 32, was put to death at Central Prison for killing 90-year-old Doris Poore, who surprised him when he broke into her house on a misguided search for drugs. He lay on a gurney, raising his head several times to look at the gathered witnesses, then reclined and closed his eyes. When the injection was administered, he gave two sharp breaths, then stopped breathing. Chandler was pronounced dead...

LONDON - An aircraft carrying Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth II (news - web sites)'s only daughter, was involved in a near miss with a British fighter plane being tested over northern England on Thursday. The Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet - with a top speed of 1,321 mph - was on an exercise from a Royal Air Force base when it came within 3.3 miles of the princess' Royal Squadron BAE125 plane over Morecambe Bay, northwest England. The fighter, not in service yet, is being tested by RAF pilots. The royal flight pilot was told to take "avoiding action" after air...

The U.S. aircraft being used this week in the air war against Fallujah: _ 5 attack craft: F-18, F-16C, F-14, AV-8 Harrier and AC-130 Spectre gunship. _ 7 unmanned spy planes: Shadow, Raven, Pioneer, Predator, Hunter, Gnat and Global Hawk. _ 3 attack helicopters: Apache, Kiowa and Super Cobra. _ 5 other: MC-130 (Special Forces C-130 used in leaflet drops over Fallujah), E/A6B Prowler (electronic warfare), EC-130 Compass Call (electronic warfare), Joint Stars (observation) and another observation plane.

NOVEMBER 10--Meet Senorita Walker. The 33-year-old Chicago high school teacher is facing felony charges for allegedly paying three teenage boys for sex and plying them with pot and booze. According to cops, Walker initially met one of the boys, aged 15, at the school where she worked, and met the two other victims, both 16, through the student. Walker, who allegedly paid the trio about $5000 for their services, was charged with three counts of criminal sexual abuse and jailed in lieu of $300,000 bail. Walker's encounters with the teenagers occurred earlier this year in her South Side home and...

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan took up with China the issue of a suspicious submarine that intruded into its waters amid alarm in Tokyo that the vessel was a show of strength from its neighbour and growing competitor. Japan's former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said he told Chinese leaders the incident was "regrettable" without assigning blame for the submarine which has been tracked for two days, Kyodo News reported from Beijing. Hashimoto said Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong and Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan were looking into whether the submarine could be Chinese and told him "'once the issue is clarified, the...

MADISON, Wis. - A man was sentenced to 195 years in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting female mall workers and young children over several years. James D. Perry, 34, received the sentence after pleading guilty to 25 out of the 51 counts authorities filed against him. The remaining charges were dismissed, but many were included in his record. Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Nicks called Perry's crimes "horrific." "He is the man that causes us all to depend on prayer for safety because we cannot identify the predator in our midst," she said. Perry had pleaded not guilty in July...