Free Republic

My job deprives me of the luxury of partisanship, as I have to reach out to both sides on the issue of free trade--a disastrous policy one can give impeccably liberal or conservative reasons to be against. So I can't offer any opinion of the Tea Party movement per se. But I can tell you that the way they're handling the issue of free trade reveals a lot about them. Over the last year, I've interacted with the Tea Party about the issue at both the local level and with some of their leadership. And I've observed a few things....

Pro-government commander reported slain in western AfghanistanA Shiite Muslim commander from a militia allied with interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's government was slain last week at his home. The Afghan Islamic Press says unidentified gunmen attacked the house of the commander, Abdul Samad Lang, in the town of Farah and shot him dead along with his mother. Several other people were injured. The killers were not identified. The victim was a member of Harkat-e-Islami, which supports Afghanistan's interim government. Story filed: 14:47 Sunday 10th March 2002