Free Republic

With retirements abundant and destined to keep pouring in, it would seem that (some) Democrats have gained enough self-awareness to recognize that they’re losing. Jackie Speier has been a fixture of the California political scene for more than 40 years. So much so that in the three decades preceding her first election to Congress in a special race to replace the late Tom Lantos in 2008, there was seldom a cycle that didn’t feature Speier’s name on the ballot in the San Francisco/San Mateo County area. Before making a name for herself, though, Speier was an aide to Congressman Leo...

London: A giant jade boulder that could be worth billions of pounds has been discovered in Burma. The 50-tonne block was found half buried in soil and rock in the gem-rich north of the country. Villagers discovered the 5.5 metre-wide boulder in the mountainous state of Kachin, where rebels have been fighting the government for more than 50 years. It is now under armed guard as officials negotiate with rebels about what to do with it. Burma, also known as Myanmar, is one of the world’s biggest producers of precious stones. Jade expert Jason Holt, of Holts Jewellers in Hatton...

US Politicians Duped By The Brotherhood In the United States, one individual maintained a pretense of "moderation" which would later embarrass the left and the right. According to the testimony of Dr. Michael Waller to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Abdurahman Alamoudi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. A man born in Eritrea in 1951, he arrived in the US in 1979 and became a naturalized US citizen on May 23, 1996. From 1985 onwards he became involved in many Muslim groups. In 1990 he founded the Washington DC-based American Muslim Council (AMC), which Waller states "has...

UPDATE 3 - U.S. applies new rules to 22 more 'terrorist' groups   (Adds comments by Rep. Tom Lantos, paragraphs 8-9) By Jonathan Wright WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The United States on Friday added 22 groups including Hamas and Hizbollah to the list of "terrorist" groups under tight financial controls introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The main pro-Israeli lobbying organization in the United States applauded the decision, saying it showed the Bush administration intended to combat all forms of terrorism. Six groups -- al Qaeda and five allegedly associated groups -- came under the new rules in September. Al Qaeda, led by Saudi-born ...

(NECN: Washington) - The Dalai Lama today is receiving the Lantos Human Rights Prize. The award is in memory of the late Rep. Tom Lantos.Those who advocate for Tibet see the Dalai Lama's White House visits as important messages of support for Tibetans and others struggling for human rights. "We can't replace Tom's voice, but we can help and ensure it is not forgotten...liberty is the right of mankind," said Senator John McCain.

(AP) -- Federal prosecutors have asked that an anonymous jury be impaneled for the trial of six men accused of plotting to attack soldiers on Fort Dix. In a motion filed Monday, the U.S. attorney's office said potential jurors might fear for their safety because of the nature of the charges and the international publicity around the case. The request could be discussed at a meeting Friday before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler. Attorney Rocco Cipparone, who represents Mohamad Shnewer, told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill for Tuesday's editions that he opposes an anonymous jury, fearing it would only fuel...

Newly elected Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of Hillsborough was sworn into Congress this morning and delivered a fiery speech criticizing President Bush's Iraq policy that led some Republicans to boo and walk out of the House chamber. Speier, who won a special election Tuesday to fill the seat of the late Rep. Tom Lantos, was always an outspoken lawmaker in her years as a San Mateo County supervisor, state Assemblywoman and state Senator. She served notice Thursday that she plans be just as aggressive as a member of the House. "The process to bring the troops home must begin immediately,"...

Congressman Tom Lantos of California has died. Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress. His spokeswoman says he died early Monday morning. Lynne Weill said that Lantos, 80, passed away at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, died early Monday morning, his spokeswoman said.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Rep. Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election this year because he has cancer of the esophagus. Lantos, 79, is the only Holocaust survivor elected to Congress and is known for his dedication to human rights issues. He is serving his 14th term as a House member. "It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving...

As sharp as partisan political battles can be, nothing surpasses a full-blown shootout between members of the same party for sheer nastiness. Their ideological differences tend to be small and, therefore, their intraparty duels often turn personal. The increasingly shrill level of personal invective being thrown in the multi-candidate tussles for next year's presidential nominations of both parties illustrates the point. But in California, the syndrome is most evident in the overwhelmingly Democratic San Francisco Bay Area, which is renowned for sharp-elbow politics, and in Los Angeles. Bay Area voters may experience two nasty clashes next year as state Sen....

Dutch lawmakers who recently visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison said they were offended by a testy exchange in Washington with a senior congressional Democrat. The lawmakers said that Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told them that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay." Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, was responding to arguments that the United States should shut down the prison, located on a U.S. naval base in Cuba, the lawmakers said. Mariko Peters, a member of the Dutch Green Party, who began the exchange with Lantos, said she took...

BAGHDAD - Five U.S. troops were killed in separate attacks in the capital this weekend, including three in a single roadside bombing, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll past 100 in the deadliest month so far this year. Both attacks occurred in eastern Baghdad, a predominantly Shiite area where American and Iraqi forces have stepped up their activities as part of a security crackdown that began on Feb. 14 to quell the sectarian violence. In violence Monday, a suicide car bomber apparently targeting an Interior Ministry convoy struck an Iraqi checkpoint near a busy square in the predominantly...

Top Democrats sought to tamp down on Wednesday any speculation that Rep. Tom Lantos — or possibly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — may be traveling to Iran, a day after revealing their willingness to travel there. "No, the speaker has no intentions of going to Iran," Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said Wednesday afternoon in a telephone interview with FOXNews.com. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also confirmed Wednesday that he is not going to Iran, although he didn't discount others who may make such plans. Reid pointed to the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the United States begin discussions — at...

"U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit Damascus next week for talks with Syrian officials, a U.S. Embassy official said Friday, making her the highest-ranking American politician to come to Syria since relations began souring in 2003. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Pelosi would be leading a delegation of members of Congress and would arrive on Tuesday and leave Wednesday."

In taking back control of the House, Democrats also are restoring the old names used for committees when they last headed them in 1994.Republicans swept into power in that year's midterm elections had created their own monikers for several committees. As part of the rules changes adopted this week, Democrats reclaimed the old names for several committee and created a new name for one other panel: • The Committee on Education and the Workforce was changed back to its pre-1995 name, Education and Labor. Tom Kiley, a spokesman for incoming chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said Miller "believed that the name...

CARACAS -- A congressional delegation led by Rep. Henry Hyde arrived on Monday in Venezuela, but was not permitted to leave the plane at the country's main airport and left abruptly, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy said. The president of the airport, however, denied the accusation, saying the U.S. ambassador met the plane at the airport, entered it briefly, and then the craft departed. The delegation on the plane had been slated to meet with Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel and other government officials, and waited for roughly one hour before departing, Brian Penn, the embassy spokesman, told...

So, just who is Tom Lantos? September 15, 2005 'We know that India has been waging a long -- and until now -- a lonely battle against terrorism... (India) has been dealing with terrorism for decades, and has paid a tremendous price in terms of human lives, lost productivity and the psychological impact on the people of India... I want to reaffirm to you that we value India as one of our most important partners and allies.'-- November 8, 2001  'They (India) will pay a heavy price for a total disregard of US concerns vis-à-vis Iran. It just will not fly...

For Immediate Release: June 14th, 2005 LEADING MEMBER OF the U.S.CONGRESS TO LEAD PROTEST AT EMBASSY OF BURMA PHOTO OPPORTUNITY, WASHINGTON, DC JUNE 17TH AT 10:00 AM   For More Information, Contact: Lynne Weil, (202) 225-6735 Office of Congressman Tom Lantos Jeremy Woodrum (202) 246-7924 US Campaign for Burma Tom Lantos, Top Democrat on International Relations Committee, To Deliver 6,000 Birthday Cards Demanding Release of World's Only Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi  (Washington, DC)  Tom Lantos (D-CA), the ranking member on the House International Relations Committee, will lead a protest in front of the Embassy...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations on Friday warned that a proposed congressional bill linking U.N. reform with tens of millions of dollars in U.S. dues would be "counterproductive." U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is pushing his own reform package, which would include some of the most sweeping changes in the 60-year history of the United Nations. Officials here worry that the congressional action would interfere with his efforts. "The secretary-general's position on the use of withholding as a tool for reform is pretty clear," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "He feels it's counterproductive, particularly at a time when reform...