Free Republic

In the decade since I left the Senate, American politics has been characterized by two phenomena: the increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest a relationship between the two. To assert that I am on God's side and you are not, that I know God's will and you do not, and that I will use the power of government to advance my understanding of God's kingdom is certain to produce hostility. By contrast, moderate Christians see ourselves, literally, as moderators....

DANFORTH [Ramesh Ponnuru] Here's what the man writes in today's Times: "During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We [Republicans] believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive." MORE DANFORTH [Ramesh Ponnuru] Danforth was, as he notes, a reliable anti-abortion vote during his time in the Senate (although he came out in support of funding research on tissues taken from aborted fetuses toward the end of his...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR St. Louis — BY a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. The elements of this transformation have included advocacy of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposition to stem cell research involving both frozen embryos and human cells in petri dishes, and the extraordinary effort to keep Terri Schiavo hooked up to a feeding tube. Standing alone, each of these initiatives has its advocates, within the Republican Party and beyond. But the distinct elements do not stand alone. Rather they are parts of a larger package, an...

THE TERRI SCHIAVO TRAGEDY has been seized on by long-time critics of the "religious right" to launch attack after attack on the legitimacy of political action on the basis of religious belief. This attack has ignored the inconvenient participation in the debate--on the side of resuming water and nutrition for Terri Schiavo--of the spectacularly not-the-religious-rightness of Tom Harkin, Nat Hentoff, Jesse Jackson, and a coalition of disability advocacy groups. The attack has also been hysterical. After Congress acted--ineffectively, it turned out--Maureen Dowd proclaimed that "theocracy" had arrived in the land. Paul Krugman warned that assassination of liberals by extremists was...

Links not updated yet, this was just announced on 97.1 Talk FM. The Chief of Police and his assistant/deputy are in FBI Custody. There is to be a press confrence at 2:30 to announce the details. All indications is that this is in regard to an investigation into Voter Fraud that began immediately after the November presidential election.

REUTERS Filed at 6:36 p.m. ET UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has resigned after less than six months in the job, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, wanted to give President Bush a chance to move in a different direction now that a new team was coming in following Bush's re-election on Nov. 2, U.S. sources said. Some former colleagues noted that Danforth, a moderate in a conservative administration, had expressed frustration in recent speeches in his home state about not being more of...

FNC reports Danforth resigns as Ambassador to UN.

American foreign policy will soon have a new face—and much of the world is already doodling in red horns and a curled moustache. President Bush's nomination of Condoleezza Rice to succeed Colin Powell as secretary of state sent shudders down the world's spine. With his soft-spoken manner and moderate image, Mr. Powell was widely seen as the voice of sanity in American foreign relations. His successor, on the other hand, is viewed as a presidential clone, a hard-liner who believes America should run roughshod over the international community. "Among the most pessimistic conjectures made when George W. Bush gained reelection...

If Bush is reelected Rice to become Defense Secretary With nine days to the US presidential elections, the Washington Post is already predicting who will be holding which office in the new administration if President George W. Bush is reelected. According to the Post, Bush is planning a major reshuffle in his administration if he were to win a new term: Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, might well become the first female Pentagon chief, replacing Ronald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary. Rice on the other hand, is most likely to be replaced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D....

Stem-cell 911 By Robert Lanza and Wendy Goldman Rohm Worcester, MA, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- In an unprecedented move, the Royal Society -- Britain's National Academy of Science -- this week asked the United Nations to ignore President George W. Bush's call for a ban on all forms of human cloning, including stem-cell research. What hangs in the balance, on the cusp of the U.N. vote and the upcoming U.S. presidential election, is not only the plight of millions of patients, but also the future of one of the greatest medical advances in the 21st century. It is alarming that...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - 1008un-terror Facing a surge of attacks around the globe, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to step up its campaign against terrorism but backed away from authorizing a new list of terrorists that could be subject to sanctions and punishment. The resolution states that hostage-taking and other acts against civilians aimed at provoking "a state of terror" can never be justified on political, philosophical, ideological, racial, religious or ethnic grounds. It calls on all nations to prosecute or extradite anyone supporting, financing or participating in these terrorist acts. The 15-0 vote ended weeks of negotiations...

Today in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, President Bush attended the swearing in ceremony of the new representative of the United States to the United Nations, Senator John Danforth. Later in the East Room of the White House, he addressed those attending a reception commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights bill into law in 1964. Enjoy your trip to Sanity Island on the Daily Dose!

President Bush’s nominees to represent the United States at the United Nations want to roll back the body’s anti-Israel bent. John Danforth, a former Missouri senator slated to take over John Negroponte’s U.N. ambassadorship, said Thursday in Senate confirmation hearings that he wanted to end the international body’s treatment of Israel as a “verbal punching bag.” “Our position is that that certainly is not helpful to progress and Middle Eastern peace, so that the United Nations should have a balanced approach and not just pass resolution after resolution by a vote of 187-4, or whatever, lambasting the State of Israel,”...

May I speak in the name of one god, who created us, who redeemed us, who comforts us. Amen. This is a service about Ronald Reagan, and it is a religious service. We've gathered to celebrate the life of a great president in a church where believers profess their faith. So this is not only about a person, but about faith. And the homily is the place to connect the two. For President Reagan, the text is obvious. It's from the Sermon on the Mount: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be...

ROME (AP) - President Bush said Friday he had chosen former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If confirmed by the Senate, Danforth, a Republican who is a popular figure among both Republicans and Democrats, would succeed the current ambassador, John Negroponte, Bush's choice to be ambassador to Iraq. Since 2001, Danforth has been Bush's special envoy to war-torn Sudan. He served in the Senate for 18 years. Bush made the announcement in a statement released while he was in Rome on a three-day European trip during which the U.N.'s role in post-occupation...

<p>American voters will make a momentous decision in the next election.</p> <p>News reports of American casualties and shifting public opinion polls about our presence in Iraq point to the most important issue voters will decide next year: whether our nation has the resolve to stay the course and enforce the rule of law against the rule of chaos.</p>