Free Republic

The nuts ARE running the asylum in Chicagoland... Today's 11/27 cartoon in the PAPER carried a note: "TOday's Get Fuzzy strip does not meet our standards for taste, so please enjoy this substitute strip from 2002." So, they showed some strip. Curiosity got me wondering WHAT was so terrible that they had to pull it... So, to www.comics.com I went. HERE is the strip they refused to post. Clearly, a cartoon cat with his "thumbs up" review for the pretty puppy is too much for the Trib...but, they printed the Doonesbury "Watch it Brown Sugar" comment cartoon with President Bush...

Powell kicks off whirlwind tour By Jill McGivering BBC correspondent in Budapest US Secretary of State Colin Powell is in Budapest to start a week-long visit to Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His first stop in Hungary and the last in Poland are seen partly as thank you gestures from the US towards the allies still contributing troops in Iraq. Visits to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are due to focus on building regional support for Iraq's interim government. In Egypt, talks are expected to centre on the progress of the Middle East peace process and Sudan's crisis. Mr Powell...

<p>Every Memorial Day, my sister, Marilyn, and I would put on our Sunday best and accompany our parents to Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx to visit the graves of family members. Like all kids, my sister and I were happy to have the day off from school, and I can't say we were in a solemn frame of mind. But taking part in that annual rite of remembrance gave me my first sense of the importance of honoring those who have gone before.</p>

In the middle of a fascinating article in Monday's Los Angeles Times, which quotes several former Iraqi officers on why they lost the war so badly, the following passage leaps out: "Commanders interviewed for this article said they were issued no orders regarding chemical or biological weapons. And they denied that Iraq ever possessed such weapons."The truth of this denial is, by now, close to inescapable. Too much time has passed, too many suspicious sites have been inspected, too many knowledgeable sources have been interrogated, for much doubt to remain on the matter. Maybe a ton of VX will be...

The Axis of Appeasement The State Department "breaks ranks" with the president. "Leading Republicans from Congress, the State Department and past administrations have begun to break ranks with President Bush over his administration's high-profile planning for war with Iraq." --New York Times, August 16, 2002 WAIT A MINUTE. "Leading Republicans from . . . the State Department . . . have begun to break ranks with President Bush"? Isn't the State Department part of the Bush administration? How can its "leading Republicans"--Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage--"break ranks" with the president they work for? Let's be clear. President Bush's...