Free Republic

On January 17, I posted a First Look column titled "The ACLU's Very Own Constitution." In it I commented upon an item that I had first been made aware of in a "Best of the Web" column by James Taranto of the Opinion Journal. The subject of my column was how the ACLU had distorted, edited, "censored" the 1st Amendment on its website in order to support its claim that the Framers considered the freedom of speech so important that they put it at the very tip-top of the Bill of Rights. But now the ACLU has changed its website...

Omega Letter Christian Intelligence Digest Ten Congress Members Call For Boykins' Removal They Were Appalled By His Mention Of GodCommentary on the NewsSaturday, September 04, 2004OL StaffTen members of Congress wrote a letter to President Bush stating that Lt. Gen. William Boykin should be dismissed as the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. In case you don't remember, Boykin is the man in charge of hunting for Osama and was caught speaking to a church while in uniform. The letter states that Boykin has offended Muslims and he lacks objectivity. They seem to be overlooking the fact that it...

My wife got an e-mail today from a friend who is a member of the B Company Warhawks of the California National Guard. The 'Hawks are getting ready to move into Iraq in the near future. They had a great little website going, but the California National Guard ordered them to take it down. I am more than a little bit peeved, because one of the goals of this site was to have the readers stand up and support these troops with something more than a bumper sticker. The warhawks had a wish list of item to make their life...

I'm amazed when seemingly intelligent people tell me they still think the American Civil Liberties Union is a group that fights for First Amendment freedoms no matter whose ox is being gored. If that's the case, why is the ACLU not filing amicus briefs in Philadelphia where four Christians are facing 47 years in jail for expressing their free-speech rights? That's right. Four Christians are facing 47 years in prison for peacefully quoting the Bible, an action an unglued local prosecutor determined to be "fighting words" when cited among homosexual activists. It all started Oct. 10, when a total of...

Christmas carols and other kinds of music will again be played on a Gurnee-area school district's buses after a short-lived ban gave new meaning to the "Silent Night" season. At a special meeting Wednesday night, the Woodland School District 50 board told Supt. Dennis Conti to allow radio music on the buses again. The decision brought applause from audience members, who had packed the board room. Some began singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Conti said he was disappointed that the board did not support his ban, which he contended was a matter of safety, not Christmas music. Sandra...

French Suspended By Nick Voll (August 27, 2004) Oregon City - The Clackamas County Prosecutor who appeared in an ad against John Kerry has been suspended from his job, but not for speaking out. Al French has been the target of local protests after his appearance in a political ad questioning the the Democratic candidate's war record. On Thursday he was placed on leave by the Clackamas County District Attorney's office. It wasn't for his statements against Kerry, but for lying about an extra-marital affair. Reports say French misled his former boss ten years ago to avoid getting fired. French...

So Much for Free Speech By Robert J. Samuelson Wednesday, August 25, 2004; Page A17 The presidential campaign has confirmed that, under the guise of "campaign finance reform," Congress and the Supreme Court have repealed large parts of the First Amendment. They have simply discarded what were once considered constitutional rights of free speech and political association. It is not that these rights have vanished. But they are no longer constitutional guarantees. They're governed by limits and qualifications imposed by Congress, the courts, state legislatures, regulatory agencies -- and lawyers' interpretations of all of the above. We have entered an...

The Founding Fathers established the First Amendment to protect two forms of speech: political and religious. Yet in a typically perverse irony of our time, these blameless exercises of the First Amendment are regarded as "shocking" violations of it while a growing culture of obscenity not protected by the framers receives its imprimatur. Daily we're told of sinister "outside groups" churning out...political speech. "Outside groups" is treated as a discussion-ending epithet by both the Bush and Kerry camps. Why the existence of independent groups should strike fear into the hearts of Americans is never explained. Is the United States of...

8/20/2004 5:16:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Political Reporter Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, both of Kerry-Edwards 2004, 202-464-2800; Web: http://www.johnkerry.com WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Kerry-Edwards campaign spokesman Chad Clanton released the following statement today about the new Swift Boat Veterans for Bush ad: "This is another ad from a front group funded by Bush allies that is trying to smear John Kerry. The newest ad takes Kerry's testimony out of context, editing what he said to distort the facts. He testified as a 27 year-old Vietnam veteran. He opposed a war that, at that point, cost...

CHICAGO — The anti-abortion group Wisconsin Right to Life) is airing a TV spot and radio ads about blocked judicial nominees aimed at Wisconsin Democratic Sens. Russ Feingold and Herbert Kohl. But come this weekend, the ad campaign will be illegal because of whom it's targeting.

Rogue AARP members are targeting a web site with the address JeffBlogworthy.com for "removal". The attack is an allegory of what has been happening to the Bush administration in recent months. The AARP liberals pulled out the standard playbook: 1)Ignore the facts 2)Demagogue opponents 3)Silence dissent 4)Distort the truth 5)Make threats 6)Wallow in willful ignorance Here is the post content detailing the complaint: Bush Blog site caught in lie & deceptionIt has been a great day I started the first step in removing a RNC blog site that uses typical Bush Mafia Tactics, and uses lies, deception. While using Google,...

In Rush's closing segment he said that he just received a story or document saying that lawyers for both the Kerry and Edwards teams were sending out letters to TV stations warning them about showing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advertisement!

DENVER - Media organizations have asked the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) to intervene in their fight to publicize details from closed-door hearings in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case. Attorneys for the media groups, which include The Associated Press, challenged a trial judge's ruling, which was upheld this week by the Colorado Supreme Court. The groups on Wednesday asked the high court to stay that ruling. The filing was confirmed by an AP attorney, Dave Tomlin. The media groups asked Justice Stephen Breyer (news - web sites) to put the ruling on hold pending a formal appeal...

Christian's message worn at Poway High By Blanca Gonzalez UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER June 4, 2004 LAURA EMBRY / Union-Tribune Robert Tyler (left) is helping sophomore Tyler Chase Harper sue the Poway school district for allegedly violating the student's civil rights. POWAY – Tyler Chase Harper is a good student and athlete who likes to surf and has never been in trouble at school. He is also a Christian who believes homosexuality is wrong, and he's suing the Poway Unified School District over a T-shirt proclaiming his beliefs. "I was appalled that my school would take such a controversial issue and...

WASHINGTON — Chief movie lobbyist Jack Valenti defended smoking in Hollywood films, but senators insisted the industry must do more to stop the practice. "I don't believe that whatever the director does ought to incite the intervention of the government in any form," Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing yesterday. "I've got to tell you I believe it is his right to tell the story as he chooses to tell it." Some lawmakers were dissatisfied by his answers. A study last year found that teens who watch movies with smoking in...

Focus on the Family is forcing lawmakers who voted against the impeachment of a Denver judge to turn over all their correspondence in the case. The Colorado Springs conservative group, citing the state's Open Records Law in letters to each member of the House Judiciary Committee, demanded e-mails, letters, cell phone bills and notes from the hearing on the effort to impeach Judge John Coughlin. Focus on the Family lobbied in favor of impeaching Coughlin because of a decision he made in a lesbian custody case. But the impeachment effort failed when three Republicans joined five Democrats on the committee...

After banning the press from videotaping its weekly meeting, the Cornell University Student Assembly (SA) rejected the Academic Bill of Rights. Citing the document’s objectives as “redundant,” “irrelevant,” “insulting,” and “objectionable,” the SA determined that academic freedom was unimportant to the Ivy League campus. The Resolution on Academic Freedom — based on David Horowitz’s Academic Bill of Rights — was introduced by a bipartisan coalition of Cornell students, including the editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun. The resolution stated that the “SA affirms [the] principles of academic freedom and intellectual diversity” and went on to cite six principles: (1) Students...

<p>Received another letter from Gannett Publications, publisher of USAToday, and several other newspapers. Due to contractual arrangements they have with third-party content providers, they have denied our request to allow posting of excerpts. They will only allow the posting of titles and links.</p>

<p>Could Al Franken's life take an unfunny turn? The liberal comedian may have crossed the line after brawling with hecklers during a Howard Dean rally in New Hampshire.</p> <p>Though accounts of the fracas vary, the beefy comedian essentially bearhugged, then brought down an agitated Lyndon LaRouche supporter who screamed Mr. Dean was "a liar" from the back of the Palace Theatre in Manchester, where the Democratic presidential hopeful took questions.</p>

<p>Hewlett-Packard had the right to fire an employee who posted anti- gay passages from the Bible at his work cubicle in protest of the computer industry giant's diversity policy and in an effort to persuade gays to repent, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.</p>