Free Republic

SAN DIEGO - Attorneys for the House of Representatives asked a federal judge Wednesday to quash subpoenas for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt and 10 other members of Congress in the trial of a defense contractor charged with bribing jailed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. The subpoenas were sent by attorneys for Brent Wilkes, whose trial begins Tuesday on charges that he paid Cunningham $700,000 in exchange for government contracts. The contractor has pleaded not guilty to 25 counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. Cunningham, an eight-term Republican from San Diego, is serving...

Excerpts - WASHINGTON _ A special prosecutor's long-delayed report charges that a coverup at senior levels of the Clinton administration killed a tax fraud case against former Cabinet member Henry Cisneros, the New York Daily News has learned. David Barrett's 11-year, $23 million probe, which will be released Thursday, states in stinging terms that the Clinton coverup succeeded. [snip] Before Cisneros' 1999 guilty plea, Barrett's office began a second phase based in part on allegations in a 1997 memo to IRS headquarters by whistleblower John Filan, an IRS criminal investigations chief in Texas. In a memo obtained by the Daily...

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has subpoenaed two officials at the Free Enterprise Fund (http://www.freeenterprisefund.org) in connection with ads the conservative group has run criticizing him for his indictment of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.). The ads attacked Earle, who has a history of indicting his political enemies in both parties, comparing him to an attack dog. ( The TV spot was entitled "Bad Ronnie, Bad" (Attack Dog) that is being run in Austin, and other markets. FEF started airing the TV spot on October 12, 2005. Here's the video if you missed it - Funny. It...

House GOP Seeks to Quash Draft Rumor By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer October 5, 2004, 5:00 PM EDT WASHINGTON -- House Republicans sought Tuesday to quash an undying Internet rumor that the government will reinstate a military draft after the election, hoping with a vote to kill legislation that would do it, and the rumor as well. The specter of a wartime military draft like that of the Vietnam era has lingered around the presidential campaign for the past few weeks, fueled by an e-mail driven rumor mill and a campaign by Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan group that...

Saudi police quash protest rally Reports say police arrested dozens of protesters Police in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, have broken up a rare demonstration which was calling for political reform. The protest took place close to where the Saudi Government was hosting its first human rights conference. Reports said police fired shots into the air to disperse a crowd of a few hundred people, who were led by bearded men chanting "God is great". A number of arrests were made after what eyewitnesses describe as minor scuffles with the police. It is not clear what the aim of the rally...