Free Republic

Dear Mr. Robbins, I’ve never written to a movie star before—least of all to one who cares as much as you. That I have contempt in my heart for you disturbs me more than you will at first appreciate. Make no mistake about my feelings. Your feeble political satire about the war in Iraq, Embedded, which you’ve also directed at the Public, has been dressed up as a revolutionary statement. Enough is enough. I usually strain to be polite, but there will be no apologies from me this time. I’m no political animal, but I know smugness when I see...

War record doesn't sway most voters By Michael Lollar Contact February 9, 2004 But how many times was he shot? A presidential candidate can have a degree from Yale, be a Rhodes scholar, have a daddy who was president or a wife who's a ketchup heiress, but can he take cover - or return fire - when under the gun on his military record? And do voters really care? "If you're shot four times I believe you're blessed by the grace of God, and you must have survived for a reason," says LeMoyne-Owen College international business major Christopher Walton. But...

October 21, 1971 October 22, 1971 October 23, 1971

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John F. Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, Tuesday "defended" President Bush's choice to serve in the National Guard -- but then, in the same breath, Kerry appeared to equate National Guard service with draft-dodging. In an interview on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes show Tuesday night, Sean Hannity asked Kerry if Democrats such as Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe are being fair in criticizing President Bush's National Guard service. Bush learned to fly fighter jets while serving in the National Guard, but he was never called for active duty. McAuliffe infuriated Republicans Sunday when he accused...

Sen. John Kerry and his media boosters are hoping bogus allegations that President Bush went AWOL from the National Guard will catapult him into the White House - but during the 1992 presidential campaign, Kerry angrily denounced Bush's father for raising Bill Clinton's Vietnam draft record. In fact, back then, Kerry called those who wanted to make Vietnam service an issue "cowardly." "I'm here personally to express my anger, as a veteran," Kerry told National Public Radio two months before the 1992 election, "that a president who would stand before this nation in his inaugural address and promise to put...

<p>TUCSON -- Democratic presidential front-runner John F. Kerry, who has turned his decorated Vietnam War service into a theme of his campaign, said yesterday that President Bush and the US military should settle questions -- raised recently by Kerry allies -- about whether Bush completed his military service requirement in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s.</p>

Misquoted Iraq rape tales arouse Turks' fury By Charles Radin in Istanbul January 5, 2004 The allegations can be heard almost everywhere in Turkey, from farmers' wives in kebab shops, in influential journals and from erudite political leaders: US troops have raped thousands of Iraqi women and young girls since ousting Saddam Hussein. Articles in Turkey's Islamic press reporting the allegations have fanned opposition here to the US invasion of Iraq to white-hot anger - and even, apparently, to murder. Nurullah Kuncak says his father, Ilyas Kuncak, was boiling with rage about the rumoured rapes just before he killed himself...

<p>WITH THE HUGE amounts of money appropriated by Congress and additional billions pledged by international donors to address the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is now evident that if an issue has priority, money can be located. Without question, Iraq and Afghanistan must be rebuilt, but other pressing human needs cannot be forgotten. As World Bank President James Wolfensohn recently emphasized, the world devoted about $800 billion to military expenditures in 2002, compared with $56 billion in development assistance. To put it another way, UNICEF's annual budget is being spent on military purposes every 15 hours, even as 1.3 billion people, half of them children, live on less than $1 per day, in almost unimaginable conditions of deprivation.</p>

Did anyone else see that report? A French reporter who I believe worked for MSNBC was filming Iraqi insurgents as they were going on a mission to fire rockets and a light morter on American troops. These terrorists were disguised as civilians and covered their faces with the Kayffia(sp?)when on film. They were filmed with night vision as they fired from a morter and then got back in their car and sped off. Then they mixed in with traffic and drove past American troops on the highway. These reporters tried to justify it by saying they are nuetral as journalists....

<p>Fla. -- Democratic presidential candidates flocked to a Walt Disney World resort here yesterday, seeking to tap into the pain of the 2000 election and denounce the administration it installed, enthralling state party convention delegates who seemed happiest when jeering the GOP and President Bush.</p>

Drunken Soldiers Fined for Causing Panic on Plane By John-Paul Ford Rojas, PA News Five soldiers who caused panic on a packed passenger aircraft with their drunken and rowdy behaviour were each fined sums ranging from £1,200 to £1,500 today. They were in a group of 18 soldiers heading back to Newcastle Airport from Belfast in November last year. Their antics included shouting, abusive language and touching the bottom of a young air hostess, Newcastle Crown Court heard. The pilot of the British European flight had to radio for police to meet the men when it landed and some...

<p>Eat your heart out, Ronald Reagan! George W. Bush has made you look like a rank amateur. His Thanksgiving Day publicity stunt in Baghdad was the stuff of true genius.</p> <p>Take a back seat, Mr. Great Communicator. "Win one for the Gipper" just doesn't cut it any more. This is the new millennium. Bush rules!</p>

<p>ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Gregor Jordan set out to make a film that teasingly mocked the military.</p> <p>Little did he know he would come under a firestorm from media pundits, the military and those who uphold the memory of America's first all-black cavalry unit, which was nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers -- also the title of his new movie.</p>

I couldn't get away to listen, but Keith Olbermann was going on and on about some story involving Canada, Drudge, homosexuality, and the Bush White House. Did anyone catch the details?

"Here in the UK no one gets upset, but over there, where the President is fighting these military campaigns in the name of democracy, the first casualty seems to be freedom of speech, the cornerstone of any democracy." - BUFFALO SOLDIERS Director Gregor Jordan The WALT DISNEY CO. is set for maximum controversy when it releases a "warts-and-all" portrait of U.S. Army life with the fuss-film BUFFALO SOLDIERS. As American men and women put their lives on the line in Iraq and other locations throughout the world, DISNEY and its subsidiary MIRAMAX have set a July 25 opening for the...

I have reflected a great deal over the years about the need for dialogue and unity among various minority and progressive communities. The presidential primary process is underway, and this is the time when the candidates within the Democratic party work to differentiate themselves from one other. It is important, however, to keep in mind that the end goal for all of us is to elect a Democratic president who will work to provide a decent education for the most underprivileged children, pass tax cuts for the lower and middle classes rather than the wealthy, protect the environment and a...