Free Republic

Thirty-six years and hundreds of billions of dollars after President Richard M. Nixon launched the war on drugs, consumers worldwide are taking more narcotics and criminals are making fatter profits than ever before. The syndicates that control narcotics production and distribution reap the profits from an annual turnover of $400 billion to $500 billion. And terrorist organizations such as the Taliban are using this money to expand their operations and buy ever more sophisticated weapons, threatening Western security. In the past two years, the drug war has become the Taliban's most effective recruiter in Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Muslim extremists have reinvigorated...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Florida man described as patriotic, who faced prison time for wearing a U.S. Army uniform at Orlando International Airport, won a legal battle Thursday when an Orange County, Fla., judge ruled the state law unconstitutional. In May, Fernando Montas, who is not a member of the military, was arrested at OIA for violating a state law prohibiting civilians from wearing military clothing. "My client is patriotic with what is going on overseas and he is proud to be in this country and was basically exercising his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech," Montas' attorney Rajan...

Azia Kim was like any other Stanford freshman. She graduated from one of California’s most competitive high schools last June, moved into the dorms during New Student Orientation, talked about upcoming tests and spent her free time with friends. Azia Kim allegedly climbed through this first-floor window in Okada to sleep during spring quarter. The 18-year-old was evicted after her ruse was uncovered Monday night. Azia Kim allegedly climbed through this first-floor window in Okada to sleep during spring quarter. The 18-year-old was evicted after her ruse was uncovered Monday night. The only problem is that Azia Kim was never...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

McALLEN — A combat veteran always knows when there is another one in the same room. That’s what many Rio Grande Valley veterans have said since J.C. Ortiz, the Mission man who claimed to be a decorated combat veteran, admitted his supposedly illustrious and heroic military career in the U.S. Marine Corps was really less than honorable. “He told me about his Purple Hearts,” said Homer Gomez, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam. “The things he told me didn’t jive.” Ortiz, born Gerrald Jerome Bowman, lived a lie for at least a decade, convincing many he served four tours...

The Monitor has created a multimedia presentation on Ortiz which can be viewed at www.themonitor.com/ortiz. MISSION — Marine Sgt. Maj. J.C. Ortiz has spent at least the last 15 years living a lie. The story he has told his friends and family countless times about his decorated war record is not true. Sgt. Maj. J.C. Ortiz never existed. There were no seven Purple Hearts. No four tours of combat in Vietnam. And he certainly was never a sergeant major. The lies caught up with Ortiz, born Gerrald Jerome Bowman, on Tuesday. He admitted the medals and battlefield stories were all...

This morning I noted the lame Star Tribune story by Dane Smith on Keith Ellison's vehicular infractions. Smith seemed not to realize that the story was the number of infractions combined with nonpayment of fines and the suspension or revocation of his driver's license to an extent Ellison himself could not recall. Minnesota Democrats Exposed remains on top of the story, updating it tonight to note 38 parking violations and 17 moving violations for a total of 55 tickets. All in all, it is a picture of an attorney who does not have much respect for the law. Also lying...

Evangelicals are joining hands with mainline Christians, Catholics, and Muslims once again to help shape government policies, this time in the area of torture. Wednesday, Jun. 14, 2006 Posted: 5:06:24PM EST Evangelicals are joining hands with mainline Christians, Catholics, and Muslims once again to help shape government policies, this time in the area of torture. Some 27 religious leaders, including Saddleback Church's Rick Warren and the National Association of Evangelicals' president Ted Haggard, have signed onto a statement urging the United States to "abolish torture now - without exceptions." The statement, published today in newspapers nationwide, marks the official launch...

My new book, "Impostor," is very critical of President Bush for not standing up for conservative principles. One of the main criticisms I have heard is that Republicans in Congress deserve much of the blame for out-of-control spending and other sins I blame on him. This is a valid point. But I take the view members of Congress will always behave myopically, seeing spending that benefits their constituents as supremely virtuous even as they decry deficits and bloated budgets.

The area's home prices have a 60-percent chance of dropping, one of many factors making San Diego the riskiest real estate market in the nation, according to a quarterly report put out by a California mortgage insurer.The report, put out by the Bay Area insurance company PMI Group, is well-respected by experts, who said it usually gives an accurate picture of the state of the nation's 50 largest home-buying markets. However, they stressed that the report is merely the latest in a long line of analyses that point to something the industry already knows: The nation's housing market is cooling,...

....They weren't the vanguard of a sweeping social revolution that will erase the U.S.-Mexico border or reconfigure the American political order. Nor were they a grim harbinger of an alien takeover that will turn "our" hard-won privileges and prosperity over to hordes of invading foreigners. I believe a lot of these kids sincerely feel that their families and culture are under assault by a politically motivated wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. They wanted to make a stand. As teenagers invariably do, some of them went too far, waving Mexican flags, chanting slogans in Spanish and trying to stretch the festivities to...

Though widely viewed as an arch conservative in the major media, Bruce Bartlett increasingly finds himself alienated from the president of his party. Bush's policies, he warns, have been anything but conservative. Bartlett faults Bush for moving away from free trade, adopting Keynesian economic theories, increasing government regulation and doing an extremely poor job of developing and selling conservative initiatives, such as Social Security reform. As such, George W. Bush, he says, has been a disaster for conservatism. Criticism of Bush from the right has largely been confined to fringe elements outside the mainstream of the conservative movement. Bartlett...

Good interview by Mike Rosen on KOA 850am today with Melanie Morgan of Move America Forward and Deborah Johns of Northern California Marine Corps Moms. In the final minutes of their one hour appearance a caller from Colorado Springs called in to argue against the two guests and the mission of our military in Iraq. He started the call by stating that he had served for ten years in the Army during the first gulf war in Kuwait / Iraq. The caller was unhinged during his 5 to 7 minutes 'debating' with Mike and Melanie Morgan, totally undisciplined. He was...

Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush's nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years, according to Utah state officials. Under Utah law, Griffith's only option for obtaining the state license was to take and pass the state bar exam, an arduous test that lawyers try to take only once. He applied to sit for the exam, but never took it, Utah bar officials confirm. Utah State Bar rules require all lawyers practicing law in the state to have a Utah law license. There is no...

630 KHOW afternoon show hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman have obtained numerous University of Colorado documents regarding Professor Ward Churchill through a freedom of information request. The documents show that Churchill filled out an Affirmative Action form claiming American Indian heritage when he applied for a job as an Associate Professor. The record shows only two people were interviewed for the job and that both were American Indian. In addition, Churchill claims Creek/ Cherokee heritage on his resume. Churchill has claimed he is three-sixteenths Cherokee but has never provided any documentation to support the claim. A Rocky Mountain News...

The coming economic crisis. Unemployment. Health care for the poor. The almost 1,500 dead soldiers. The almost 100,000 dead Iraqis. Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. The Christian Conservative takeover of our nation. The missing 9 billion. The missing weapons of mass destruction. The impending invasion of Iran, and Syria. The total failure to protect us on 9-11.

US Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had hoped to replace George W. Bush as president yesterday, instead sat in the cold and clapped as the Republican began a second four-year term. Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin patted Senator Kerry on the back shortly before the inauguration Senator Kerry had hoped would be his. As Mr Bush delivered his inaugural address, Senator Kerry, about 10m away on the steps of the US Capitol, joined other lawmakers and the crowd in repeated applause. Senator Kerry looked relaxed, at times wistful. He frequently smiled, able to hide any disappointment over what...

...Boat Commander Chenoweth in his sworn affidavit states that he was preparing to rescue Rassman from the water when Kerry's boat returned and picked him up. His boat was right beside Kerry's. Chenoweth states that at that time no firing was taking place. Chenoweth later stated "His (Kerry's) account of what happened and what really happened are as different as night and day." Crewman Van Odell, who was on the boat next to Kerry's (Chenoweth's) when Rassman was rescued, stated, "Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star ... I know. I was there." Also remember that most of those present...

By WALTER WILLIAMS GUEST COLUMNIST During his first term, George W. Bush has inflicted more damage on the nation's people than any other president in the post-World War II era. Not only has the Bush administration failed, it has been far and away the most dangerous presidency in this period. No other administration has seen itself above the law or so disregarded the Constitution by attacking the venerable institutions created to uphold democracy. In addition, the Bush presidency pushed through its policies by employing a calculated lawlessness that featured both deception and secrecy. A couple of examples help illustrate the...

Open Letter to the Democratic Party To whom it may concern: Be advised that the majority of Veterans and Independent Voters are fed up with your assaults on the Viet Nam Veterans that are exposing your “war hero” When Kerry used his Viet Nam service as his central theme, he seems to have conveniently forgotten the insults he poured on us during the 1971 Senate Hearings. It also seems that he has done everything to keep his “New Soldier” out of the hands of the general public, to include the latest PDF version on a website that is now blocked....

The United States Navy has launched an official investigation into John Kerry's Vietnam War decorations, saying, "it's the responsibility of all personnel to correct errors in official records." In a launching a formal probe, the Navy was responding to a referral from the Pentagon's inspector general's office - based on a complaint filed by the Washington-based legal watchdog group Judicial Watch, Fox News reported Friday. In a letter to Judicial Watch, the inspector general's office said: "Concerning our allegations of violations of Uniform Code of Military Justice, we have the responsibility to . . . 'report suspected or alleged...

August 15, 2004 — For two days, a Palos Heights man passed himself off as an F-B-I agent while lecturing to hundreds of law-enforcement officers at a Chicago conference. But Mark Rizzo's cover was blown by day three. Real F-B-I agents arrested the impersonator in a conference room of a Chicago hotel yesterday. Federal prosecutors charged Rizzo with impersonating an F-B-I employee. The 51-year-old faces up to three years in prison. An F-B-I agent attending the conference checked out Rizzo's background after speaking to him and figured out he was an impersonator. Peotone-based National Gang Crime Research Center hosted the...

Archie Belaney's life of deception brought his cause to the worldAlmost as soon as the man known as Grey Owl died in a Prince Albert, Sask., hospital on April 13, 1938, his many secrets began to emerge into the open air. That same day, The North Bay Nugget ran a story it had sat on for three years, revealing that the famous Indian naturalist was actually an Englishman named Archie Belaney. And not just any Englishman, it eventually turned out, but a binge-drinking bigamist who had had five "wives." His closest supporters, especially Lovat Dickson, the Canadian-born London publisher who...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 — President Bush is expected to propose a health care initiative in his State of the Union address to help the uninsured and the underinsured, White House advisers said on Friday. It was unclear how much the initiative, to be announced in the address on Tuesday, would cost at a time when Mr. Bush is under pressure because of a growing budget deficit. But White House officials have made clear that they do not want to cede the politically potent issue of health care to the Democratic presidential candidates, all of whom have made health care a...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 — President Bush is expected to propose a health care initiative in his State of the Union address to help the uninsured and the underinsured, White House advisers said on Friday. It was unclear how much the initiative, to be announced in the address on Tuesday, would cost at a time when Mr. Bush is under pressure because of a growing budget deficit. But White House officials have made clear that they do not want to cede the politically potent issue of health care to the Democratic presidential candidates, all of whom have made health care a...

A man who told police officers he was top terror suspect Osama Bin Laden has been arrested on the Moscow metro. But far from being bundled off to Guantanamo Bay on a US jet, the New Year's Eve detainee was handed over to the tender mercies of psychiatrists. Officers swooped after reports of a man making a nuisance of himself on a train during the New Year's Eve revels, Russia's Interfax news agency reports. Asked to produce ID, he announced he was America's most wanted man. Officers, not immediately convinced they had the biggest catch on their hands since Saddam...

Thursday, January 30 Armstrong: A war would make racing difficult -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reuters MILAN -- American cyclist Lance Armstrong, the four-time Tour de France champion, says he is concerned about his security if the United States goes to war against Iraq. "We Americans do not enjoy much sympathy abroad at the moment," Armstrong said in an interview with the Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport published on Thursday. "If I have to do the Tour with a war under way it would be very difficult for me." "In cycling you ride in the open -- there is no fencing or protection...

Man incompetent to stand, trial in impersonation at I-40 Bridge Collapse (My Title) By Donna Hales Phoenix Staff Writer A man arrested for posing as an Army officer and taking control of riverfront operations after the May 26 collapse of the In terstate 40 bridge near Webbers Falls is not competent to stand trial, according to sealed federal medical reports. William J. "Billy" Clark was ordered back to a federal medical facility for psychiatric treatment Tuesday during what was to have been his competency hearing in Muskogee federal court before U.S. District Judge James H. Payne. "He thinks he's Capt....

The last three years, at this time of year, I have put out my hummingbird feeders and I presently have 12 feeders hanging around my house, each feeder has 5-6 birds around it. I have hummingbirds everywhere. Now, over these last three years each evening as I go out to refill the feeders I catch sight of a strange looking 'bird' that quickly disappears so fast that I began to question whether I actually saw anything. Well, three days ago I finally got a good look at one of these critters. It is a hummingbird looking thing but a little...

Muskogee - An alleged imposter in the Webbers Falls I-40 bridge collapse is back in Muskogee. William Clark made his first appearance in federal court Monday. It looks like Clark will undergo intense psychiatric tests. In part, because the government wants to know if he was sane when he allegedly showed up in Webbers Falls, telling everyone he was in charge. Under tight security, the 29-year-old was brought into federal court. Clark is charged with impersonating a U.S. Army office on May 26th and 27th after the Interstate 40 bridge collapse. According to court documents, Clark told authorities he was...

U.S. Gets Bridge Impostor TORONTO -- A man accused of impersonating a military officer to try to take control of rescue efforts after a deadly bridge collapse in Oklahoma was handed over to U.S. authorities Wednesday. William Clark, 36, of Tallapoosa, Mo., was arrested in Canada last week as he waited in Tobermory, Ontario, about 180 miles northwest of Toronto. He pleaded guilty to a weapons charge Monday and was deported on Wednesday, turned over to U.S. authorities at Niagara Falls, N.Y., said Jennifer Etter, a spokeswoman for Canada's immigration department. Clark showed up at Webbers Falls, Okla., within two...

The FBI is investigating a man who called himself an Army captain and looked through a briefcase and laptop computer belonging to a victim of last month's deadly interstate bridge collapse. The man, wearing fatigues and a beret, showed up within two hours of the Interstate 40 collapse and told the mayor he was in charge. He identified himself as Capt. William Clark. Mayor Jewell Horne said Wednesday that the man told her Army Capt. Andrew Clements had died in the river and that his briefcase and laptop were in the water. A fisherman found the items the day...