Free Republic

Currently, the constitution allows prisoners to perform work for governmental agencies during their prison sentence, but the amendment would allow them to volunteer for religious, charitable and educational groups as well. Letting inmates work for non-profits was common practice for jails across the state until the state Commission of Correction determined it was unconstitutional about three years ago, state Sheriffs' Association Counsel Thomas Mitchell said. The nonprofit work could be used as an incentive for good behavior.

A year ago tomorrow, a new institution called the International Freedom Center was formally designated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. as one of the four cultural institutions for the World Trade Center site, all to be operated under the aegis of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. ... snip ...the International Freedom Center...will serve as a complement to the Memorial, bringing a universal "narrative of hope" to a place where hope is imperative... snip ...the International Freedom Center will host debates and note points of view with which you--and I--will disagree... snip Judge Learned Hand may have put it...

March 15, 2005 — Fifteen years ago, Terri Schiavo's heart stopped due to a chemical imbalance, and she suffered severe brain damage as a result. Tonight in an exclusive interview: her husband, Michael Schiavo on his fight to have her feeding tube removed. CLEARWATER, Fla. Feb 26, 2005 — It's been 15 years since Terri Schiavo's heart stopped beating for several minutes, causing severe brain damage that put her into what doctors call a persistent vegetative state. For almost seven of those years, her husband Michael has been fighting to stop her feedings, arguing that she didn't want to be...

DO NOT FORGET I sat in a movie theatre watching "Schindler's List," and asked myself, "Why didn't the Jews fight back?" I sat in a movie theatre 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, thousands of innocent people were murdered because too many Americans naively rejected the reality that some nations are dedicated to the dominance of others. Many political pundits, pacifists and media personnel want us to forget the carnage. They say we must focus on the...

Last night I unearthed an interesting videotape of the post-State of the Union message (Jan. 2002) coverage on the Larry King Live show. Bob Woodward was Larry's guest. WOODWARD: "Suppose there are more attacks in this country. Suppose they come and are sponsored from some of the countries that we did not attack militarily. There's a whole group here in Washington who feels that Iraq should have been attacked along with Afghanistan. There are reasons why that was not done, but suppose it turns out that Iraq sponsors something--some sort of terrorist attack--in the United States. Lots of people would...

I got some really disturbing mail today from something called Working Assets Long Distance. If you join their long distance telephone plan, you get a free pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream every month for a year, 60 free minutes of long distance for 3 months, paid connection fee, free calls every day to targeted decision-makers, and 1% of charges to progressive nonprofit groups. "Progressive organizations" that were listed were ACLU, Stand for Children, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International, Center for Economic Justice, Planned Parenthood, Sweatshop Watch, and Children's Defense Fund (of Marian Wright Edelman...

I got some really disturbing mail today from something called Working Assets Long Distance. If you join their long distance telephone plan, you get a free pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream every month for a year, 60 free minutes of long distance for 3 months, paid connection fee, free calls every day to targeted decision-makers, and 1% of charges to progressive nonprofit groups. "Progressive organizations" that were listed were ACLU, Stand for Children, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International, Center for Economic Justice, Planned Parenthood, Sweatshop Watch, and Children's Defense Fund (of Marian Wright Edelman...

Go Negative...Please! When did it become politically incorrect to correct your opponent's politics? Who decided that legitimate differences of opinion over issues could not be dealt with by, dare we say it, arguments? For the sake of argument, our view is that the politically incorrect police have ordained that any attempt to point out a political opponent's shortcomings is viewed as "going negative"...a tactic that can't even be discussed in polite circles. Imagine what the headlines would be after the first Lincoln-Douglas debate if they were held today: "Lincoln goes negative...candidate says Douglas not best man for presidency." The first...

NIXON TARGETED KERRY FOR ANTI-WAR VIEWS White House tapes reveal then-president’s attempt to discredit Kerry during 1971 war protests, Senate testimonyBy Brian Williams, Correspondent NBC News Updated: 5:43 p.m. ET March 15, 2004John Kerry’s first steps onto the national political stage took place back in 1971, when as a returning Vietnam War hero, Kerry lead fellow veterans to Washington to protest against the Vietnam War and testify to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the horrors of the war he had seen first hand. Now a NBC News examination of White House audio tapes shows that Kerry’s leadership drew the...

WE SHOULD KNOW OUR HISTORY Who’d have thought a day would come in America when George Washington would be nothing more than a caricature in a television commercial. And that Abraham Lincoln would be his foil. We used to honor these great men. Now we mock them. And worse, we ignore them. Our understanding of American history has become so weak and distorted that we fail to comprehend and appreciate our heritage. Names and events sacred to us mean nothing. And instead of grateful we are indifferent. It’s hard to see this development as an accident. Instead, it is the...

Veteran's tale a true horror storyBy KENNETH SMITH I am U.S. Army veteran receiving medical help at the Lebanon VA Medical Center. I ponder my future. In 1998, I was living in Schwabisch-Hall, Germany, with my wife and two children. On Dec. 31, 1998, we held a New Year's party. Some of my wife's family came over. Around 2 a.m., my wife and I went to bed feeling good about how much fun we had. On Jan. 1, 1999, my daughter, Samantha, came into our room as a happy little 3-year-old would. She said "ma-ma, pa-pa, let's make breakfast." I...

Not all equal This is obscenity in its most vomitive form. In Tennessee, school districts in Nashville have stopped releasing their honor rolls. Some are looking at ending the practice of hanging the best of student work in hallways. Spelling bees? Doomed, most likely. This is how the All Children Left Behind initiative begins. Parents of students at some Nashville schools complained that their children might be ridiculed for not making the honors list. School attorneys extrapolated the rest -- some students' work in the halls, but not others, might create downtrodden students. This gets worse. Unbelievably, it gets worse....

Buffalo wants discarded fruitcakes BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Competitive eaters will sink their teeth into America's unwanted fruitcakes in a contest that blurs the line between public service and public spectacle. Buffalo and the International Federation of Competitive Eating on Tuesday announced their two-part answer to the question of what to do with the persistent holiday fare: Round them up and eat them. Fruitcake recipients are being urged to mail all unopened fruitcakes, "no questions asked," to Buffalo, where Mayor Anthony Masiello has offered amnesty. On Dec. 30, the world's top competitive eaters will arrive to consume as many of...

Bizzare arrest puts Newark in the spotlight By HOWIE MANSFIELD, Times Staff Writer NEWARK — The village is gaining some unwanted publicity — even a mention on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show — as news spreads about an unusual arrest late last week. Village police charged Darlene H. Humby, 27, of 608 North Main St., with second-degree assault Friday morning after lighting her boyfriend’s shirt on fire during sex the night before. Her boyfriend was taken to Newark-Wayne Community Hospital for second- and third-degree burns to his torso and arms. He was later flown to the burn unit at Strong Memorial...

THEY FOUND HIM IN A HOLE It’s only natural that they found him in a hole in the ground. It put him that much closer to hell. Because that is where Saddam Hussein belongs. It is where Saddam Hussein has drawn his inspiration. It is the home of the god Saddam Hussein worships. Not the Allah of Islam. But the serpent of the garden. We must never fear calling a spade a spade, or a devil a devil. And Saddam Hussein is that. He long since stopped being a man and became a partner with evil. A disciple of darkness....

Black Box Voting Blues Electronic ballot technology makes things easy. But some computer-security experts warn of the possibility of stolen elections By Steven Levy NEWSWEEK Nov. 3 issue — After the traumas of butterfly ballots and hanging chad, election officials are embracing a brave new ballot: sleek, touch-screen terminals known as direct recording electronic voting systems (DRE). States are starting to replace their Rube Goldbergesque technology with digital devices like the Diebold Accu-Vote voting terminal. Georgia uses Diebolds exclusively, and other states have spent millions on such machines, funded in part by the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act. Many...

<p>Reuters, the 152-year-old London-based media giant, has a “sterling reputation of integrity, independence and freedom from bias,” said Samantha Topping, director of media relations. “We cannot be seen as accepting money from any political or religious groups.”</p> <p>The church has taken out newspaper, radio and television ads spreading its “open hearts, open minds, open doors” message, but the highlight of the marketing campaign was to have been the electronic billboard ads in the heart of midtown Manhattan, said Rochester Bishop Violet Fisher, who serves on the board for the communications arm of the large Protestant denomination.</p>

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? What cannot be refuted, must be silenced. That apparently is the attitude of the liberal and afraid. The minority who seek to dominate society through threat and intimidation, who have abandoned principle and decency in the name of arrogance and power. Who have failed at their callings, yet sit in judgement of all, ever ready to cast the first and the second and the hundredth stone. The blind leaders of the blind. It’s true, the emperor has no clothes. But they’ll kill you if you say so. Or at least take your livelihood, and curse...