Free Republic

BEITBRIDGE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe dismissed his two challengers in next month's Zimbabwean elections as a lightweight and a Western puppet on Saturday. In a rally to mark his 84th birthday and launch his campaign for another five-year term, Mugabe said his ruling ZANU-PF party would win the March 29 votes resoundingly. Former Finance Minister Simba Makoni, who says he has the support of a number of ZANU-PF officials, is standing against Mugabe in the presidential contest. "He is like a frog trying to inflate itself up to the size of an ox. It will burst," Mugabe told...

AUSTIN – Lawmakers broke camp Monday, taking it on faith that Gov. Rick Perry won't slam the brakes on a compromise toll road bill. Monday's session finale came and went without Mr. Perry signing the bill, which imposes a partial two-year freeze on private toll road deals. Lawmakers did not try to override his veto on their initial bill to overhaul the state's toll policies. Many involved in the contentious toll road debate were expecting Mr. Perry to approve the bill by now because his office was closely involved in hammering out the compromise. Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody said the...

I recently read a book about the battle for Iwo Jima. It was a deadly battle for both sides. Thousands died in the effort to acquire U.S. airfields close to Japan. It was successful, but painful. Shortly after this conflict, Japan surrendered. Would the outcome have been different if peace factions in the U.S. had forced us to withdraw from WWII before defeating Japan? Probably so. World War II is the last war the U.S. has won. Since that time, we have a "cease fire" in Korea, we were ushered out of Vietnam and Somalia and we did not complete...

(IsraelNN.com) Reformists opposed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a decisive victory in the Tehran local elections. Preliminary results of the Friday elections were published Sunday night. However, much of the support for the opposition candidate was based on his personal appeal and was not necessarily a repudiation of Ahmadinejad, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Turnout was unexpectedly high

Shadowy corporate figures who cut backroom deals. Stealthy terrorists who drive cabs by day. Immigrants who steal across the border by night. Politicians are finding no shortage of boogeymen to associate with their opponents this campaign season. And it turns out that some of the most popular targets of opportunity at this early stage in the elections are simply other politicians — those whose mere mention is enough to raise partisan hairs on the backs of loyal party members. Sure, candidates are tying their opponents to Big Oil and Islamic fascists. And to special interests and partisan bloggers. But they're...

About 900 illegal-immigrant rights supporters gathered at the Arizona Capitol by midday Monday in a peaceful demonstration of what protesters called government inaction on repairing America's failed immigration system. The event drew significantly fewer participants than immigrant rallies this spring, when illegal-immigrant supporters showed their political muscle at demonstrations in Arizona and across the country. The largest rally in Arizona drew 100,000 marchers on the streets of Phoenix in April. As it considers massive changes in immigration policy, Congress is divided over whether to focus solely on border security or whether to offer illegal immigrants a short-cut to become U.S....

Austin, Texas ­- With one day remaining for candidates to withdraw from the race and have their names not appear on the ballot, candidate Michael Badnarik's principal campaign committee, Badnarik for Congress, has asked Democrat Ted Ankrum to withdraw from the race. "While Mr. Ankrum is definitely a nice guy, that is not enough to win over the Republican incumbent," says campaign manager and committee treasurer Allen Hacker. Hacker expects that the Democrat, who has no party or Political Action Committee support, hasn't raised even $75,000.00 and is very unlikely to break $100,000.00 in the entire campaign. A recent appeal...

It has gotten to the point where you don't know whether to pity Gov. Rick Perry and the toll road zealots in this state or arm some of their equally scary foes with pitchforks and torches to storm the governor's mansion. And I say that as someone who is willing to give Perry and company the benefit of the doubt and agree that new funding mechanisms like tollways should be part of the state's solution to future highway needs. But the way state transportation officials are approaching the Trans-Texas Corridor, a 50-year plan to produce a statewide network of toll...

WASHINGTON, April 17, 2006 – Nobody likes war and every U.S. conflict since the Revolutionary War has had its critics, but some things are worth fighting for, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today on the "Rush Limbaugh Show." "There have always been people who have opposed wars. Wars are terrible things," the secretary said on the syndicated radio program. But if the United States had bowed throughout its history to critics and opponents of war, he said the country wouldn't exist as it does today. "We wouldn't have won the Revolutionary War and we wouldn't have been involved in World...

MIRA LOMA - Opposing immigration protests held across the street from Jurupa Valley High School ended peacefully early Friday afternoon with both sides being escorted to their vehicles by Riverside County sheriff's deputies. "The students need to say their peace on campus. No matter what your view is, you should be able to say your peace," said Jurupa Valley High School parent Renee Cortez as the protests were winding down. The event started at 11 a.m. when a group of 50 to 75 people, including Minutemen Project and Save Our State group members, gathered on one corner of Bellegrave Avenue...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are demanding further investigation of what they call gross irregularities in the voter registry, pointing to a western state where 1,921 people by the name of Gonzalez are listed with an identical birthday. The electoral council, which is independent but faces accusations that it is pro-government, insists the lists are sound, and plans to release an external audit Tuesday as it prepares for December presidential elections. The case of the many Gonzalezes in Zulia state was reported by Roberto Ansuini, an opposition-aligned researcher and former member of the National Electoral Council...

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - Three months after the mother of a fallen soldier led a 26-day anti-war vigil near President Bush's ranch, peace activists and Bush supporters converged again Saturday for dueling rallies. Cindy Sheehan, whose 24-year-old Casey died in Iraq, called for anti-war activists to return to Crawford this week as Bush celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday. The war opponents' camp is at the same 1-acre private lot that a landowner let them use in August when Sheehan's original campsite became too crowded. The first demonstration attracted thousands from around the country and made the woman from Berkeley, Calif., a...

SAN FRANCISCO - Opponents and supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment requiring parental notification before doctors can perform abortions on minors have filed lawsuits challenging statements that the other side provided for the state's voter guide. The lawsuits, filed in Sacramento Superior Court by Proposition 73's sponsors and by a pro-abortion rights group called Campaign for Teen Safety, specifically take aim at the rebuttal arguments the opposing group submitted for the upcoming ballot guide. In it, each group offers its view of the ballot initiative's potential impact. The legal tit-for-tat is just the beginning of what promises to be one...

CAFTA deal-making infuriates opponents Sunday, July 31, 2005 By Warren Vieth, Los Angeles Times Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., left, listens to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., right, during their press conference on the steps of the Capital Building Friday, July 29, 2005 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) WASHINGTON -- Rep. Robert B. Aderholt's cell phone rang Wednesday as the Alabama Republican was standing in the House gallery with some constituents. It was President Bush. **SNIP** As expected, the House had divided largely along partisan lines. But 27 Republicans bucked their party and president by casting...

(IsraelNN.com) Channel 10 TV on Friday night will air its video footage depicting Negev police commander Brigadier-General Miso Shacham. Speaking to the area border police commander, Shacham is recorded instructing his forces to beat anyone who breaks away from the Kfar Maimon group, seeking to enter Gush Katif. He called for the indiscriminate use of the water cannon, giving him authority to do so without hesitation or approval, as well as telling him to use batons and “hit them hard, blows to the lower extremities to teach them a lesson”. The documented footage includes a fair share of vulgarities and...

The Hillary War Machine has run a coordinated attack campaign against Ed Klein and his book "The Truth About Hillary," beginning before the book was even published or available for advance readings. Team Hillary's major ally in this anti-Klein effort? The so-called Mainstream Media (MSM) - comprising mostly East Coast elitist media institutions, i.e., CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek and Time magazine - are staffed with pro-Hillary zealots and acolytes who practice what is now known as "advocacy journalism." In other words, they use their media outposts to preach a leftist political agenda - in...

“The social implications of Darwinism have been disastrous,” said Richard Thompson, the president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Nazi Germany used Darwin to justify a master race based on the idea that it’s survival of the strongest.” Thompson’s perception that teaching evolution is socially destructive is just one of the reasons why he volunteered to defend the Dover Area School District’s school board and administration against a lawsuit brought against them last December, he said. Eleven parents sued the district, saying a statement issued by the district to ninth-grade biology students that...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats have decided to quit emphasizing that they will not negotiate changes to Social Security until President Bush drops his idea for private accounts. The switch in strategy comes after Democrats learned from focus groups that people frown on the lawmakers for being obstinate. "People feel like it doesn't show a good-faith effort," said a top House aide, who like several others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the internal data. "It makes us seem like we're 'typical politicians."' The shift in tactics comes with Democrats and Republicans unsure what will happen...

SACRAMENTO - In what was supposed to be an off-year for statewide elections in California, the airwaves are teeming with warring political ads as groups on both sides of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda spend millions to sway voters in the upcoming special election. ``Without big money, you don't get an issue on the ballot,'' said Robert Stern of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. And with more than a year to go until the 2006 primaries, individual candidates for office also are busy raising funds: -- The Republican governor is raising millions for a re-election bid he has yet...

Mar. 2 (ABC7) — The governor clearly wants a special legislative session to consider three major government reform ideas. A one-man lobbying campaign is now underway targeting the voters, even as Democratic critics say his reforms won't reform much. The governor stopped in Hayward to push his latest reform agenda, carrying out his promise to take his message to the people. Some are beginning to question his use of staged events to make his point. The governor's Hollywood gimmicks are nothing new, and are most often his own ideas. His newest gimmick rolled out yesterday: a Humvee dubbed "Reform One."...