Free Republic

Almost 70 percent of Americans say the U.S. would benefit from new curbs on migration at the southern border, according to an Economist/YouGov poll of 1,671 citizens. The February 11-13 poll asked, “If Congress passes a new bill restricting the admission of new migrants at the border, do you think this would be good or bad for the United States?” Sixty-nine percent of the Americans responded that it would be “good,” while only 14 percent predicted “bad.” That result shows five Americans believe migration curbs will benefit America for every one American who believes migration curbs would be harmful. The...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New state laws designed to fight voter fraud could reduce the number of Americans signing up to vote in this year's presidential election by hundreds of thousands, a potential problem for President Barack Obama's re-election bid. Voting laws passed by Republican-led legislatures in a dozen states during the past year have sharply restricted voter-registration drives that typically target young, low-income, African-American and Hispanic voters - groups that have backed the Democratic president by wide margins. A further 16 states are considering bills that would end voter registration on election days, impose a range of limits on groups...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called on Wednesday for stricter controls on lawmakers to confront "the corrosive influence" of money in Washington as he signed into law an insider trading ban he said was needed to help restore trust in the U.S. government. The Democrat, who is running for re-election in November, said the STOCK Act he signed at the White House made plain that members of Congress using non-public information to improve their personal investment portfolios were breaking the law. Enforcement of the core stock trading disclosure provisions will begin in July. He also called for more restrictions,...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – In what the White House calls a push for transparency, a pending executive order would require companies doing business with the federal government to disclose political contributions to independent groups, but would not place the same requirement on public employee unions or federal grant recipients that typically donate to Democrats. Entitled the “Disclosure of Political Spending By Government Contractors,” the order would implement parts of the DISCLOSE Act, which failed to get through Congress last year. The legislation sought to restrict campaign speech after the landmark Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission U.S. Supreme Court ruling that...

Click here to find out more! In "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity," I bet my readers $1,000 that they couldn't name one thing that government does better than the private sector. I am yet to pay. Free enterprise does everything better. Why? Because if private companies don't do things efficiently, they lose money and die. Unlike government, they cannot compel payment through the power to tax. Even when a private company operates a public facility under contract to government, it must perform. If it doesn't, it will be "fired" -- its contract won't be renewed. Government is never fired. Contracting...

The Treasury Department formally lifted nearly all U.S. restrictions on family travel to Cuba on Thursday, along with limits on how much money families can send to relatives on the island. The department also eased regulations prohibiting U.S. telecommunications and satellite linkages between the United States and Cuba and licensing requirements for visitors engaged in agricultural and medical sales. President Obama first announced most of the changes in April as part of a general opening that he said would allow Americans to reach out to the Cuban people, and he ordered Cabinet departments to take steps to implement the changes....

GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic states are bidding to use the United Nations to limit freedom of expression and belief around the world, the global humanist body IHEU told the U.N.'s Human Rights Council on Wednesday. In a statement submitted to the 48-nation Council, the IHEU said the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were also aiming to undermine the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "The Islamic states see human rights exclusively in Islamic terms, and by sheer weight of numbers this view is becoming dominant within the U.N. system. The implications for the universality of...

When it comes to their role in causing global warming, Californians can feel slightly less guilty than most Americans. The average Californian generates fewer carbon dioxide emissions - the main heat-trapping gas blamed for warming the planet - than residents in all other states but Idaho, Vermont and Rhode Island, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy. California ranks second in total carbon emissions, trailing only Texas. But the country's most populous state is one of the lowest carbon emitters on a per-person basis. Each person in California is responsible for about 24,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per...

WASHINGTON - In an election-year bid to polish their credentials as fiscal conservatives in an election year, Senate Republicans on Tuesday advanced a bill designed to force cuts in the spiraling growth of federal benefit programs while also reviving the line-item veto. The measure, written by Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and approved by that panel by a 12-10 party-line vote, combines several ideas aimed at putting the brakes on spending. Most striking, the bill would force mandatory cuts to the deficit, enforced by across-the-board cuts to benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance if Congress can't...

Banks join US curbs on Iran By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 23/05/2006) The Bush administration has persuaded four of Europe's largest banks to start breaking off contacts with Iran as Washington pushes for anti-Iranian sanctions by "the back door", it emerged yesterday. Citing anti-terrorist laws the United States Treasury and the State Department are strengthening their efforts for banks in the Middle East, America and Europe to cut their links with Iran. President Ahmadinejad's regime is being hit with ‘smart sanctions’ Banks with branches and headquarters on US soil have in the past faced huge fines for dealing with...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election agenda to reshape California appears to be losing ground, attention is shifting to a ballot measure aimed at Democrats that would limit the use of union dues in political campaigns. Supporters of the so-called Paycheck Protection initiative said Thursday they will turn in more than 600,000 signatures early next week - far more than the 373,816 required for qualification. If so, the little-noticed initiative could displace the governor's own weakening platform and become a focal point of the expected fall election. "Paycheck protection is designed and written with one goal in...

LONDON (Reuters) - Cutting down on fossil fuel pollution could accelerate global warming and help turn parts of Europe into desert by 2100, according to research to be aired on British television on Thursday. "Global Dimming," a BBC Horizon documentary, will describe research suggesting fossil fuel by-products like sulfur dioxide particles reflect the sun's rays, "dimming" temperatures and almost canceling out the greenhouse effect. The researchers say cutting down on the burning of coal and oil, one of the main goals of international environmental agreements, will drastically heat rather than cool climate. "When the cooling affect goes away -- and...

Iran rejects more nuclear curbs Iran has been accused of keeping some of its nuclear activities secret [Photo: Digitalglobe] Iran says it rejects any new curbs on its nuclear programme and says the world must recognize the country as a nuclear-capable nation. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Iran would not stop development of the so-called nuclear cycle. This comprises the procedures used to process and uranium necessary for both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Mr Kharrazi said a draft resolution to be considered by the UN nuclear agency on Monday needed to be changed. Yellowcake Britain, France and Germany...

Landowners in the Santa Cruz Mountains and other forested areas of California who want to cut timber on their property will have to submit new information to the state showing the impacts of other nearby logging projects under a bill signed Sunday by Gov. Gray Davis. The bill, by Assemblyman Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, was championed by environmental groups and opposed by some in the timber industry. Under it, the State Board of Forestry will require by Jan. 1, 2005, anyone submitting a timber harvest plan to the state to include maps showing ``the location and boundaries of past, present,...

Iranian cleric urges Teheran to defy West's nuclear curbs By David Wastell and Behzad Farsian (Filed: 21/09/2003) A call by a leading Iranian cleric for his country to consider withdrawing from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty has raised fresh fears that Iran will ignore an international deadline to curb its nuclear ambitions. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a hardliner who heads the Guardian Council, the most powerful governing body, said during prayers at Teheran University that Iran should defy demands for tougher nuclear inspections. He said Iran should not sign an extra protocol to the treaty, demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency,...

Iran clerics' power faces curb By Wendell Steavenson in Teheran (Filed: 08/11/2002) Iran's reformist parliament has passed legislation weakening the powers of the hardline Guardian Council, setting up a showdown between President Mohammad Khatami and the traditionalist clerics who are the country's supreme authority. If the measure becomes law, it would limit the council's veto on electoral candidate selection. But the council also has a veto on all legislation and so must approve the curtailment of its own powers. Another reform, to impose the president's authority on the arbitrary and autonomous judiciary, is expected to be passed soon. The combined...

<p>California youths will be banned from purchasing ephedra, a controversial weight-loss product, under a bill Gov. Gray Davis signed Friday, two years after he vetoed a weaker measure to regulate the substance.</p> <p>Available without a prescription, ephedra has drawn concerns from parents and health experts who say it can prompt seizures and even lead to death.</p>