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Toy Guns Pulled From Costume Shop Shelves Thousands of toy guns that were for sale in costume and novelty shops in New York state have been removed as part of a settlement between the state attorney general's office and two national wholesalers, the New York Times reported Dec. 20.Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had accused the wholesalers of distributing 12,000 toy guns in 2001 in violation of a state law which previously had applied only to retailers. New York State bans the sale of toy guns in stores unless they have a permanent orange stripe running down both sides of...

Six Navy SEALs filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press and one of its reporters yesterday, saying the news organization revealed their identities, compromised their security and invaded their privacy by publishing personal photographs in a Dec. 4 story.     The complaint says AP reporter Seth Hettena used about 40 images from the personal photo-storage Web site of a Navy SEAL wife. [snip] The images were picked up by the Arab press, including Al Jazeera, and have made their way onto a billboard outside U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where detainees from the war on terror are being kept. The...

The U.S. military can force its personnel to wear the blue beret of the United Nations and serve under the world body's command, a federal judge ruled. Judge Paul Friedman upheld the military's conviction of former Army specialist Michael New, who refused to don the U.N. cap and shoulder patch and to serve in a peacekeeping mission in Macedonia nearly 10 years ago, the New York Sun reported. New argued that the Constitution and the law governing U.S. participation in the world body prevent the president from sending American troops into possible combat under U.N. command without express authorization from...

A 12-year-old New Hampshire boy who wanted to jolly up his junior high dance by dressing in a Santa suit instead got a lesson in political correctness when his Scroogelike principal turned the student away, fearing he might offend his classmates.

Ashcroft v. Raich, the Supreme Court's medical marijuana case, isn't really about medical marijuana. It's about power -- the power of Congress to exert control, and the power of the Constitution to rein Congress in. The named plaintiff in this case is Angel McClary Raich, a California mother of two afflicted with an awful array of diseases, including tumors in her brain and uterus, asthma, severe weight loss, and endometriosis. To ease her symptoms, doctors put her on dozens of standard medications. When none of them helped, they prescribed marijuana. That did help -- so much so that Raich, who...

For Immediate Release December 18, 2004 SUBJECT: NH residents torch UN flag Liberty lovers from across the Live Free or Die State converged on Keene, New Hampshire today to demonstrate their defiance of the United Nations. Twenty citizens from Keene and as far away as Rochester and Etna joined in opposing the UN by burning multiple UN flags. A promised counter-protest failed to materialize. Various reasons for disgust with the UN drew this group together. Some were there in opposition to UN attempts to ban private gun ownership as was proposed at the 2001 UN Small Arms and Light Weapons...

Humane Society of the United States to challenge hunting via courts U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance — Dec. 3, 2004 The nation's largest anti-hunting group has launched a new legal department to challenge sportsmen in the courts. An Animal Protection Litigation section was created in the wake of the recent merger of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Fund for Animals. Attorney Jonathan Lovvorn was selected to head the department. The organization intends to add four litigating attorneys by the end of the year. "The animal rights movement sees the courts as the easiest way to realize its...

The U.S. attorney for the northern district of Indiana is being asked to investigate an alleged incident of voter fraud. The name of a man who died more than three years ago has shown up on paperwork requesting a mailed absentee ballot.The man's name is Stanley Grygiel. He was a staunch democrat, a UAW member and somewhat politically active. Up until now, it appeared that activity ended when he died in June of 2001.Mail from the Democratic Party still occasionally shows up at the home of the late Grygiel, according to a son who still lives there. The son expressed...

BOSTON -- Sen. John Kerry's sister assured a rally of feminist Democrats here yesterday that her brother will name several pro-choice justices to the Supreme Court if elected president.     "There are three things my brother is going to do when he's elected president," Peggy Kerry told a Boston event held yesterday at the Harvard Club by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Feminist Majority.     Mr. Kerry will restore $34 billion to the United Nation's population fund for family planning, she pledged, and the Democrat will make sure that "CEDAW," an international treaty to eliminate discrimination against women, is...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

HOUSE MEMBERS WILL DISCUSS REQUEST TO UNITED NATIONS TO MONITOR ELECTION Rep. Johnson Spearheads Effort to Invite International Body Washington, D.C. - The request by several Members of Congress to the United Nations to send observers to monitor the upcoming Presidential election has sparked interest around the globe. At this juncture a dozen House Members have signed the letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Thursday morning those Members who have signed the U.N. letter will hold a news conference on Capitol Hill to discuss the ramifications of their request. ”We are hoping that our action will alleviate the nation from...

Last week, Oklahoma judges considered a fundamental question - the status of international law in state courts in the U.S. And they made a paradigm-shifting decision. Not only did they properly treat a U.S. treaty as binding law, they also relied on a March decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. (The ICJ, the U.N.'s highest tribunal, is also often referred to as the World Court.) The result was to halt an execution that would have taken place May 18--the execution of Mexican national Osbaldo Torres, whose right to assistance from the Mexican consulate was not...

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall recently made the news for penning yet another crass cartoon, this one denigrating Pat Tillman, the football star turned soldier recently killed in Afghanistan. Rall painted Tillman as a racist, bloodthirsty idiot who was just another cog in the "El Busho" war machine. MSNBC.com decided to pull the cartoon because it "did not meet MSNBC.com standards of fairness and taste." Blogger Andrew Sullivan called for a protest campaign against Rall and yesterday offered this enlightening Rall quote: "The word 'hero' has been bandied about a lot to refer to anyone killed in Afghanistan or Iraq....

When the World Health Organization (WHO) released its proposed "global strategy on diet, physical activity and health" calling for "fat taxes," the Bush administration noticed something conspicuously missing from the report -- any notion of personal responsibility. Thankfully, the former Director of Communications for WHO's European Office, Franklin Apfel, provides insight into this obvious omission. He recently told a conference in Dublin (as reported in The Irish Times): [W]e are all influenced by 'hazard merchants' selling us a false view of things like tobacco, alcohol and high density foodstuffs -- we're given the impression that these things represent personal choice,...

Tweedy Browne suing Hollinger Top shareholder seeks legal fees Investigated payments to Black Hollinger International Inc. is facing a lawsuit from a New York investment firm that helped blow the whistle on millions in unauthorized payments made to Conrad Black, other executives and parent company Hollinger Inc. of Toronto. Tweedy Browne Co. filed suit yesterday seeking reimbursement of legal fees its Global Value Fund incurred investigating possible wrongdoing at the company that owns London's Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and Jerusalem Post. The lawsuit against Chicago-based Hollinger International was filed in Wilmington, Del., in the state's Chancery Court. "Lord Black...

Vote for Tasty Manatees, Don't Let Anti-War.com win! Please take ten seconds to click on this link to the 2003 Weblog Awards and vote for Tasty Manatees. Apparently, Tasty Manatees is listed in the "Crawly Amphibians" category for some reason. I would really feel discouraged if more people voted for Anti-war.com over Tasty Manatees! [2nd Update- Anti-war.com has more votes for best blog than Tasty Manatees. Currently, about 1 in 15 of you are actually hitting the link and voting. Understandable, but please take ten seconds to make a statement that you do not agree with the rants of the...

WASHINGTON — The presidential election of 2000 was one of the low points of modern U.S. politics. But the upcoming 2004 nomination contests have the potential to be exciting. Either or both conventions could be electrifying affairs. Democrats may have the first multi-ballot convention since 1952, which could be a disaster or an unexpected opportunity. Republicans, who set their convention in New York City so President Bush could return to the scene of his apparent post-9/11 political triumph, might find Manhattan circa 2004 a much less friendly international stage. There may be more FBI agents and uniformed military people in...

WASHINGTON - The AFL-CIO is enduring a budget shortfall so severe that its own workers are taking two days of unpaid leave to avoid layoffs, even as the labor federation attempts to mobilize its largest-ever political campaign. Dubbed "solidarity days," the days off were agreed to this past summer in contract negotiations between managers and the union representing about 200 workers at the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of 64 international unions. Managers also have agreed to take the unpaid time. AFL-CIO spokeswoman Lane Windham said employees covered by the Newspaper Guild Local 32035 decided they would rather lose pay for...

A parent of a high school student asked local school officials last week (Nov. 14) to reconsider a Sept. 22 decision that paved the way for students to choose clothing that displays the Confederate flag. Stella Moore told members of the Jackson County Board of Education that her son had heard racial slurs at Smoky Mountain High School and described an incident where students ran across the football field (during a pep rally) carrying a Confederate flag and yelling "KKK." "Your decision was made without regard for the feelings of those who think that flag represents racism and slavery," Moore...

Posted on Sat, Nov. 15, 2003 by RON GOLDWYN goldwyr@phillynews.com When the "World Tribunal on Reparations for African People in the U.S." convenes in Philadelphia for two days of revolutionary testimony today, there won't be any cheers for the host city's landslide re-election of an African-American mayor. In fact, leaders of the tribunal, who demand compensation for everything from slavery to police brutality, view Mayor Street and other black officials as tools of an oppressive system. "We see the role of the John Streets of the world as a cover to commit crimes against African people in America," Chimurenga...