Free Republic

Heard it on Rush.Somebody duct tape my head, please.

WASHINGTON — After an emotional, private meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama, survivors and victims' relatives of two al Qaida attacks said Friday that the president quelled some of their fears about closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention center, promised them an "open-door" policy and a hand in shaping anti-terror policies, and said he is considering a modified military commission system to try detainees. In a question-and-answer period with Obama that lasted about 35 minutes, some of the roughly 40 attendees affected by the USS Cole and Sept. 11, 2001, attacks emphasized concerns that a year might...

Emotions ran high for an army soldier's funeral in Martinsville Sunday. Sgt. Jeremy Doyle's sacrifice, brought many out to honor him but also sparked a standoff on a city street. People arriving to say goodbye to a hometown hero, met an altogether different scene in Martinsville. Demonstrators dragging American flags on the ground and holding signs opposing U. S. troops. "The thing that got us here is that Sgt. Doyle died for us to give us our freedom and then you have people like this to come and it's ridiculous. It's absurd," one funeral attendee told News 8. Tension grew...

NEW LONDON, Conn. A woman is suing the town whose police divers saved her from drowning. Barbara Connors is suing the town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, saying she was rescued too late to prevent serious brain damage. The Massachusetts woman was in her son-in-law's sport utility vehicle when it jumped a curb, went through a chain-link fence and plunged into the Connecticut River. Connors was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when divers pulled her from the water. The son-in-law escaped the sinking vehicle and was picked up by the crew of a passing boat. Connors is also suing him. Among...

For interviews please contact: Michael Shellenberger, Breakthrough Institute, 510-525-9900. or email info@putkingonthe20.com Put King on the 20 By Michael Shellenberger and Tommy McDonald San Francisco Chronicle op-ed piece Published in the San Francisco Chronicle Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, 2004 Republicans in Congress recently made headlines when they proposed replacing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the dime with Ronald Reagan. Putting a living former president on a coin would constitute a serious break with tradition, and the proposal soon lost momentum after Nancy Reagan made her opposition known. We agree with the Republicans that it’s time for a...

Protests over the recently unveiled revised oath to be taken by new U.S. citizens has immigration officials working on yet another rewrite. Complaints from those who criticized the weakening of the portion pledging to serve in the military, as well as the elimination of a promise to bear arms, apparently has not fallen on deaf ears, the Associated Press reported. According to the report, immigration officials announced the new oath earlier this month, saying they were revising the language for the first time in 50 years. Officials hoped to remove such archaic language as the promise to "renounce and abjure...