Free Republic

Ah, the travails of a tiny country caught at the crossroads of greater powers. Sound familiar? Lithuania? Armenia? Israel? There have been so many holocausts that we could easily pick one out of a hat and discuss it. But because of recent developments in Damascus and Beirut, we’ll discuss Lebanon today. In a move I found quite surprising, the U.N. Security Council voted Friday in, support for a free and fair electoral process in Lebanon's upcoming presidential election, conducted according to Lebanese constitutional rules devised without foreign interference or influence. The new U.N. resolution also called for, the restoration of...

Over dued Due Process by Linda Eddy John Kerry’s 1971 Senate testimony put into the American public’s mind stories of war crimes being done by American troops serving in Vietnam. These stories Kerry told to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to the American people were based on lies by men falsely claiming to be Vietnam veterans. Here is what Kerry said: “I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed...

BREAKING NEWS: al-Sadr to Disband Militia, Leave Imam Ali Mosque By Andrew L. Jaffee, August 18, 2004 Home   Search   Forum   Terms Threatened with an imminent raid of the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf by Iraqi forces, radical Islamist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to disband his militia, vacate the mosque, and "enter into the mainstream political process." Pressure has been building against al-Sadr for quite some time now. The power-hungry cleric has been stirring up trouble in Najaf, Karbala, and Baghdad since early April. On May 21, over 2,000 Iraqis held a demonstration in the city of Karbala insisting that al-Sadr and...

It is no longer enough to be a good manager focusing on efficiency and "optimization," DoD's director of force transformation said here today. "It is more important to be a good manager and a transformational leader," Arthur K. Cebrowski said at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Defense 2004 conference. "The role of good management, of the transformational leader, is to look at and identify perfectly predictable surprises and act in advance," Cebrowski told those assembled. "The responsibilities of transformational leaders are to identify disparities before they take place and stop wasting time with optimizations and efficiencies that will...

The Arizona Republic Jul. 23, 2003 07:45 PM TEMPE - A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit claiming Tempe's smoking ban was unconstitutional ..Judge Roslyn O. Silver said in Tuesday's ruling that the ban "easily passes constitutional muster." She stated that a city does not need proof that smoking is a hazard, but can base regulation on the belief that is so. She also stated the ban is not an illegal. See Suit vs. smoking ban dismissed AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE Smoking bans and judicial tyranny July 28, 2003 I am amazed a federal Judge [Roslyn O. Silver] would...

The clear impression from the White House press conference held by George Bush and Ariel Sharon on Tuesday is that the U.S. president accepted the Israeli prime minister's argument that the primary issue is the dismantling of armed groups by the Palestinian Authority. In other words, Bush did not accept the argument put forward by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud (Abu Mazen), at their meeting last Friday, that he cannot move against groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, because this would precipitate a civil war. This is a clear indication that Bush is not prepared to get into a confrontation with...

The Israeli Government has voted to release a new batch of Palestinian prisoners - a goodwill gesture that it is hoped will push forward the US-backed peace plan, known as the roadmap. A ministerial committee will decide who will be released from a list of 200-400 candidates drawn up by Israel's Shin Bet security services - although militants and those involved in violence against Israelis will not be eligible. Securing the freedom of prisoners is a top priority for the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. The BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem, Michael Voss, says a large-scale...

<p>The new chairman of the two-house budget committee that will negotiate a legislative budget plan has some unique tools to try to twist arms during his year's talks: burgundy and brie.</p> <p>Sen. Wes Chesbro, D-Arcata, whose home district includes wine-producing Napa and Sonoma counties, has been hosting Wednesday night wine-and-cheese parties to try to "get to know people," as he prepares for his role as legislative budget steward, said spokeswoman Darby Kernan.</p>

Asif Iqbal, a Rochester, New York, management consultant, must get FBI clearance every Monday and Thursday when he flies to and from Syracuse for business. Iqbal can't get off a government watch list because he shares the same name as a suspected terrorist. But Asif Iqbal, the suspected terrorist, is eight years younger than his Rochester namesake. What's more, the suspected terrorist Iqbal has been in U.S. custody at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since January 2002 when he was captured in Afghanistan. In a letter to his congressional representative, Iqbal of New York said he was...

A current story here in New York is the trial of John Taylor, a principal in the Wendy's Massacre. Taylor is accused of masterminding the murder of five employees, and the attempted murder of two others, at a fast-food outlet in Queens borough of New York City. He and an accomplice had gone into the restaurant just before closing time one night. When the last customer had left, they pulled guns, forced the manager to open the safe and give them the day's takings, then herded him and his six employees into a basement freezer. There they tied the...

The Clinton Mystique - The Corruption of Critical Thinking Gerald L. Rowles, Ph.D. We have often attributed a broad range of societal ills to the misguided tyranny of the educational system. I don't believe that to be hyperbolic, but I think that it is easy to overlook the tyranny of the "socialization system" that is governed by other such elite institutions as (American Psychological Association) APA-accredited training programs and their offspring - psychology licensing agencies. An example: People stand in awe of the Clinton mystique, that a man such as Bill Clinton is such a persuasive communicator, when he has...

I hvae been going through the many petitions to remove the two Judges of the 9th Circuit who used the "Founding Fathers wanted the US to be an athiest nation" myth, to stop school children from exercise their freedoms of speech and religion. I plan to have as many people as possible sign petitions for impeachment. I have a few questions about all this and I've thought of some the questions that other people might ask. 1. How exactly is a federal judge impeached? 2. Is there a line of succession? If yes, who succeeds the impeached judge? 3. Can...

“Ten weddings and two funerals”: this is the formula used in the Brussels circles to describe the current path in the enlargement process. Ten candidate countries are on the way to signing their accession to the European Union by the end of the year, and join in 2004. Two other candidate countries, Romania and Bulgaria, are expected to be told they have to work more to improve their economic performance before being accepted. However, Bucharest and Sofia are set to fight to transform the funeral into an engagement. Roadmap and entry date The two countries will seek to get a...