Free Republic

Two University of Wisconsin freshmen appeared in court Jan. 17 facing felony charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property as hate crimes. The students, Benjamin Chamberlain and Michael Riha, allegedly vandalized the dorm room door of a UW student and LGBT liaison in Ogg Hall Dec. 21, according to court documents. Also charged and due to appear in Dane County Court Feb. 13 are Purdue University freshman Kevin Cochacki and Auburn University freshman Caleb Moore, both of whom were visiting Riha, their Naperville, Ill., high school friend. According to court documents, Chamberlain is a U.S. Marine ROTC student,...

AN ISLAMIC campaign group has called for a Catholic primary school to be based on the Muslim faith. The Campaign for Muslim Schools said 90 per cent of pupils at St Albert's Primary, in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow, are Muslim, yet children are having to take part in Catholic rituals like saying the Lord's Prayer and attending mass. Osama Saeed, co-ordinator of the alliance of Glasgow's main mosques and Muslim organisations, said he could see no reason why the main faith of the school should not change. He said: "Clearly the parents of that area find a faith school,...

<p>Al Franken and the other liberals are probably still wondering why they had such little luck in their efforts to start a talk-radio network to bash George Bush from the left. They didn't consider the obvious explanation. George Bush has his left flank nicely covered. It's on the right that he's weak.</p>

Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole) began his advocacy for black supremacy in the 1930s when he met W.D. Fard, an ex-convict who preached that he was Allah’s last prophet. Fard had much success in influencing his flock, and Elijah Muhammad became heavily involved in the movement, calling himself the “Divine Messenger of Allah.” The Divine Messenger was born in 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia. In his message to the black men of America, Muhammad refers to Caucasians as “White devils,” “men of sin,” “beasts,” “serpents,” “anti-Christs,” and “archdeceivers.” The white devils “cannot produce good, for they are without the nature of good”...

SHAKOPEE, Minn. (AP) Once the thin blue mattress rolls out from under the single bed, the prison cell is sleepover-ready. The trundle bed is the best thing Suzanne Locke has here. Along with good behavior, it allows her to host her 6-year-old daughter, Marae, for monthly overnight visits during her 12-year sentence for arson in the state prison for women. "She's my saving grace," said Locke, 26, who says she was high on methamphetamine four years ago when she set fire to a Bemidji duplex and a trailer home over unpaid drug debts. "This little girl loves me. She's got...

I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions. How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alternate universe"?

Israel's supreme court has banned the use of Palestinian human shields in arrest raids, saying the practice violates international law. The court issued a temporary injunction against the practice in 2002 after a teenager was killed when troops made him negotiate with a wanted militant.

Mayor Ray Nagin says the city has to lay off as many as 3,000 workers.

it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Jalila, the new Arab super heroine, coursing across the sky, black hair flying, in her battle to right the wrongs and ensure that justice prevails in West Asia. "I'll make you swallow your teeth, killer!" she threatens her foe, muscles rippling under her skin-tight garb, as she lands a hard right to the chops. Also see: Sify Offbeat special Tough as she is, Jalila, the creation of 36-year-old Egyptian Ayman Kandeel, is not left on her own to fight the forces of evil. There are also Aya the Princess of Darkness,...

...developing. Searched, no story yet.

Howie Carr of WRKO Boston has posted a new Mary Jo Kopechne photo at http://fatboy.cc/live_from_chappaquiddick.htm This is the first new Mary Jo Photo since 1969 to appear.

This would be a new low, even for the Times ----- NY TIMES INVESTIGATES ADOPTION RECORDS OF SUPREME COURT NOMINEE'S CHILDREN **Exclusive** The NEW YORK TIMES is looking into the adoption records of the children of Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. The TIMES has investigative reporter Glen Justice hot on the case to investigate the status of adoption records of Judge Roberts’ two young children, Josie age 5 and Jack age 4, a top source reveals. Judge Roberts and his wife Jane adopted the children when they each were infants. Both children were adopted...

Lottery Winner's Granddaughter Found Dead SCOTT DEPOT, W.Va. - The 17-year-old granddaughter of the nation's largest lottery winner was found dead near her boyfriend's home, her body wrapped in a sheet and plastic tarp. "All I know is she OD'd and Brandon freaked out," Steve Crosier, the father of Brandi Bragg's boyfriend, Brandon, told reporters in a brief conversation outside the house. Bragg, who lived in the nearby town of Hurricane, was last seen alive Dec. 4. She was reported missing five days later by Jack Whittaker, who won a $314.9 million jackpot on Christmas Day 2002 but has battled...

Arabs No Longer Want 'Devil They Know' in White House Mon Oct 25, 2004 07:23 AM ET By Jonathan Wright CAIRO (Reuters) - In U.S. presidential elections Arab leaders usually prefer the devil they know over any candidate challenging the man in the White House, however much they view the incumbent as an overbearing partner. But as Americans choose between President Bush and Senator John Kerry on Nov. 2, analysts say many Arabs wonder whether anyone could be worse than a U.S. president who occupied Iraq, aligned himself with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and turned his back on the...

WASHINGTON Sept. 3, 2004 — America's payrolls picked up in August, with the economy adding 144,000 jobs, slightly less than economists were forecasting and highlighting the slow and uneven recovery in the labor market that jobseekers have braved. The unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent last month from 5.5 percent in July. But the drop in the jobless rate in August came as people left the work force for any number of reasons, the Labor Department reported Friday. Economists were predicting the jobless rate to hold steady in August. The gain in payrolls was short of the 150,000 net jobs...

Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, said Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary is a "selfish hedonist" because she is a lesbian. His comments came during an interview with SIRIUS satellite radio. Keyes said: "The essence of ... family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principal excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism." Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney "is a selfish hedonist," Keyes said: "That...

<p>California's mess is a capital political crime that more than just tarnishes the Golden State.</p> <p>The Sacramento gang has created a fiscal mess more than 20 times worse than anything Congress could manufacture.</p> <p>California's budget deficit works out to more than $1,000 per resident and makes New York City look fiscally responsible.</p> <p>California's deficit is 20 percent of state spending and a third of its operating budget. If every state worker were fired, California would still be at least $10 billion in the red.</p>

The Media Research Center has just announced it's Fifteenth Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting. Please access link for article......

Following ballot initiatives in some parts of the country this fall, local authorities and experts agree that any form of legalization or decriminalization of narcotics is a bad idea. Mary Sloan, prevention supervisor for Northwest Iowa Drug and Alcohol Treatment Unit, had one word to describe the proposals - wrong. "It normalizes use - it gives society a message that if it's legal then it's normal for people to use," she said. "And we do know that marijuana is addictive. People talk about hard drugs and soft drugs - it is a drug. "It can cause problems for people physically...

Trent Lott, the Republican Party's eternal Maalox moment, has given the Beltway's liberal pontiffs on race exactly what they crave: a big, fat excuse to extract legislative payoffs to ease their collective "pain." On Wednesday, the Senate Republican leader went on Fox News and CNN promising more race-conscious government remedies to make amends for his tacit endorsement of segregation. In interviews with Sean Hannity and Larry King, Lott cravenly pledged support for "community renewal" (more minority set-asides); said he would "put more money into education so no child is left behind" (more federal spending for failed urban programs); and boasted...