Free Republic

Do I feel safer because we've spent $300,000 ousting a tinpot dictator from a country that didn't threaten American freedom? No --- but I feel a h-ll of a lot less safe in my home because the Supreme Court says it's ok for government to seize it and give it to some politically connected friends of politicians. Has Bush said ANYTHING about the Supreme Court's outrageous eminent domain decision last week? I want to hear about THAT, not another speech about the mess in Iraq.

The United States will "have to face" a painful dilemma on restoring the military draft as rising casualties result in persistent shortfalls in US army recruitment, a top US senator warned yesterday. . Senator Joseph Biden, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the prediction after new data released by the Pentagon showed the US Army (picture) failing to meet its recruitment targets for four straight months. "We're going to have to face that question," Mr Biden said on an NBC television show when asked if it was realistic to expect restoration of the draft. . "The...

The government's most definitive account of Iraq's arms programs, to be released today, will show that Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, U.S. officials said yesterday. The officials said that the 1,000-page report by Charles A. Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, concluded that Hussein had the desire but not the means to produce unconventional weapons that could threaten his neighbors or the West. ...[snip]The official said Duelfer will tell Congress in the report and in...

LOU DOBBS: Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California ...has introduced a bill that would forbid anyone working in this country illegally from receiving Social Security benefits, and he joins us tonight from Capitol Hill. Congressman, good to have you with us. ROHRABACHER: Thank you very much. DOBBS: Correct my interpretation if it is wrong -- not only are the American people denied representation on immigration policy in this country, but the effect of a totalization agreement is to deny participation by the U.S. Congress, other than through veto. ROHRABACHER: I will have to say that this is an undemocratic way of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) Sep 15, 2004 The US military may run out of national guard and reserve troops for the war on terrorism because of existing limits on involuntary mobilizations, a congressional watchdog agency warned in a report released Wednesday. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the government has considered changing the policy to make members of the 1.2 million-strong guard and reserve subject to repeated involuntary mobilization so long as no single mobilization exceeds 24 consecutive months. In commenting on the report, however, the Department of Defense (DOD) said it planned to keep its current approach. "Under DOD's current implementation of...

CAMDEN — The aftermath of the war in Iraq has become a problem for President Bush among South Carolina’s swing voters in Kershaw County. It has turned what once was believed to be an asset for re-election into a vulnerability, according to interviews with those voters. Especially chilling were government reports last week that 1,000 Americans had been killed in combat since the conflict began. “Young guys are getting killed over there for nothing,” said Wanda Blakeney, a 49-year-old cook. “It’s sickening,” said Peter Roland, a 52 year-old baker and owner of the Mulberry Market in Camden. The war clearly...