Free Republic

Is there such as thing as "must-see" C-SPAN3? If so, set the DVR for 6:30 a.m. West Coast time for Thursday's Homeland Security Committee, where as we told you the other day, GOP Rep. Peter King is planning to look into the radicalization of U.S. Muslims. San Mateo's own Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier is a member of that committee and told us Wednesday that she is planning to "call out" King Thursday: "This is one member's bias that he is now putting forth as the policy of this country and there are going to be many of us who will...

I had an historical flashback recently when I read a Washington Post news story about how the U.S. commander in Afghanistan thinks he may need many thousands more troops to win the war. Shades of Vietnam. Do we ever learn? It brought back memories of the late Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Southeast Asia, who kept escalating the troop numbers after the 1967 Tet offensive in Vietnam. His strategy produced a debacle for us. When the besieged Westmoreland asked for 240,000 more troops, President Lyndon B. Johnson was shocked. The command in Vietnam had been giving him...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is tossing verbal grenades at his successors. Maybe he just can't stand the loss of power. Pitiful. He is acting like a man who is one step ahead of the sheriff. Actually, that could be the case. The true story of Cheney's manipulations and deceptions during his eight years in the White House is yet to be told. Right now he sees that his best defense is offense. He has accused President Obama of "recklessness'' and weakening national security. Cheney should be grateful to Obama for not throwing the book at him and revealing his...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged Israel to stop using "disproportionate and excessive force" against the Palestinians. "Israel's disproportionate and excessive use of force has killed and injured many civilians including children ... I condemn these actions and call on Israel to cease such acts," Ban told the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)summit in Senegal's capital Dakar. Earlier at the summit, Senegal's president and the new OIC chairman, Abdoulaye Wade, said he would make solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a priority for the organization. "The just and legitimate cause of Palestine remains at the heart of our concerns," Wade...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A U.S. federal judge in Washington has blocked the Pentagon from transferring a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Tunisia, where he allegedly faces torture, according to a ruling unsealed Tuesday. Lawyers said the order by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler was an unprecedented direct intervention in the case of a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay,

A high school social studies teacher who was put on leave after comparing President Bush's State of the Union address to speeches made by Adolf Hitler defended his lecture on Tuesday, saying he was trying to encourage students to think. "My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society," Jay Bennish said on NBC's "Today Show." Bennish is on paid leave from Overland High School in suburban Aurora, Colo., while Cherry Creek School District investigates whether his Feb. 1 lecture violated a policy requiring that balancing viewpoints...

A potential Off Broadway production of "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," an acclaimed solo show about an American demonstrator killed by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to stop the destruction of a Palestinian home, has been postponed because of concerns about the show's political content. The production, a hit at the Royal Court Theater in London last year, had been tentatively scheduled to start performances at the New York Theater Workshop in the East Village on March 22. But yesterday, James C. Nicola, the artistic director of the workshop, said he had decided to postpone the show after polling local...

<p>Elizabeth Corrie would see her younger cousin every summer at the family vacation spot on Minnesota's Cedar Lake.</p> <p>Elizabeth, a Midlothian High School alumna who teaches at a private school in Atlanta, was born nearly a decade earlier than Rachel. But they shared a similar sense of humor, a yearning for social justice and a desire to make a difference.</p>