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OTTAWA (Reuters) - Republican John McCain defended the North American Free Trade Agreement in Canada on Friday during an unusual foreign trip as a U.S. presidential candidate to draw a contrast with Barack Obama, his Democratic rival in the November election. McCain, an Arizona senator who has wrapped up his party's White House nomination, said the trip was not a political one and declined to mention Obama by name during remarks before a group of Canadian business leaders and policy makers. --snip-- Trade is one of several issues that has come to the forefront of the U.S. presidential campaign as...

This is how it will be. Across the fair face of Albion, to the ringing of bells and the soft murmur of doves, appears a leafy flush of eco-towns. They are sun-dappled utopias, urban dreamworlds in which no human need is unfulfilled. Wildlife romps through bird-loud glades. People work at home or in business parks to which they can stroll or cycle. Public transport is swift, efficient and free, so cars are not needed. Community sports hubs, leisure and cultural facilities are so abundant that nobody wants to leave the town anyway. Children walk safely to schools in which the...

Geopolitics: With the discovery of vast troves of oil south of our border, it's probable that U.S. strategic interests will shift to our hemisphere. For the Middle East, that's a warning. For the Americas, it's an opportunity. By 2020, the places that matter to the U.S. strategically may be entirely different than today. It's not hard to project the possibilities. Oil is being discovered in vast quantities in Brazil. Other gigantic deposits have been located in Mexico, Colombia and Peru. Colombia now shows oil reserves as high as Algeria's. The U.S. imported 4.9 million barrels of oil a day in...

Al Gore bought carbon credits to cover his "global footprint." Sounds impressive, but in reality, if I thought the Earth was in such peril, paying to help maintain the Redwood Forest is a strange payoff. When any claim is repeated over and over, the mantra seems to become fact. One's rational thought and reason are "tweaked," and we just believe. "Yes we are in a warming, but CO2 has not been proven as the cause," says John R. Christy, who is a partial recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and a climatologist. "Mother Nature simply operates at a level of...

OLYMPIA – Attorney General Rob McKenna announced today that Washington will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to order the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to respond to a landmark ruling that requires the agency to exercise its authority to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles. McKenna joined attorneys general from 16 states and the District of Columbia, the Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, the City Solicitor of Baltimore, and 11 environmental advocacy groups in petitioning the court to require EPA to respond to last year’s ruling in...

IMF tells states to plan for the worst By Krishna Guha in Washington Published: March 12, 2008 23:55 | Last updated: March 12 2008 23:55 Governments might have to intervene with taxpayers’ money to shore up the financial system and prevent a “downward credit spiral” from taking hold, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. John Lipsky, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, said: “We must keep all options on the table, including the potential use of public funds to safeguard the financial system.” EDITOR’S CHOICE US will avoid deep recession, Fed says - Mar-12Maverecon blog: why make things simple?...

NO more good intentions. Washington state is committed to a purposeful response to climate change. The Legislature has bravely and aggressively moved down a path to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, pare back vehicle miles traveled and prepare for the employment opportunities of an environmentally-attuned economy.Passage of House Bill 2815 takes the goals outlined a year ago by Gov. Christine Gregoire and transforms them into an action plan. As captured in the title of a report by her Climate Advisory Team, the state is leading the way. Key state agencies will report back to the Legislature by December with the tools and...

American and Canadian patriots scouring the Internet for the latest on the North American Union (NAU) may be missing a huge resource. Politicians and the mainstream media still brand as conspiracy theorists those who suspect a European Union style NAU is destined for Canada, the United States and Mexico. A Canada Free Press (CFP) reader reminds us “Mexico has its own Security and Prosperity (SPP) websites. Mexico’s SPP websites are called (ASPAN) (Spanish).” “Just because we’ve been defending (and attacking) on so many other fronts doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten the North American Union a.k.a. the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP),”...

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY MAP----TERRORIST ENTRY POINTS Map of First Private Texas-Canada-Mexico Trade Corridor Construction of Hway in Mexico Bracewell & Giuliani Firm Advises Cintra in First Privatization of Toll Road in Texas DALLAS (March 1, 2007) Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (Texas-based law firm with global connections) advised Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a Spanish transportation company, in its successful bid to develop State Highway 121 into a toll road through Collin and Denton counties ("trade road" is four football fields wide). The award to Cintra, approved by the Texas Transportation Commission, is the first privatization of a...

Bad treaties never die. Such is the lesson of the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST. The treaty would turn over all of the world's unclaimed natural resources to a second United Nations, yet is beginning to move towards ratification. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on the treaty on Wednesday. Three decades ago the Third World was busy campaigning for a so-called New International Economic Order (NIEO), which combined demands for more foreign aid, UN regulation of business, and collectivist resource development. LOST declared all seabed resources to be the "common heritage of mankind," levied...

With its Geo-4 report, the United Nations tells us that most aspects of the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.

A state climate change panel is considering a slate of bold proposals to reduce vehicle use in the interest of lowering greenhouse gas emissions: * More bike paths, sidewalks and HOV lanes. * More high-speed bus and passenger train alternatives. * Congestion pricing to induce people to drive at times other than rush hour. * Changes to the Growth Management Act that would reward high-density, transit-oriented development and make it harder to expand urban growth boundaries. How these recommendations would play in Clark County if the Legislature eventually adopts them is an open question. The state's first attempt to get...

I was listening to the hearings and just heard AlGore say that natural CO2, such as CO2 produced by volcanos, is heavier than CO2 produced by man. Did I hear right? Is that what he said? Is it true? Does anybody know?

Hollywood has a thing for Al Gore and his three-alarm film on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which won an Academy Award for best documentary. So do many environmentalists, who praise him as a visionary, and many scientists, who laud him for raising public awareness of climate change.

OTTAWA - Canadian, U.S. and Mexican politicians discussed using "stealth" to overcome public resistance to the integration of the three countries at a confidential meeting last year, according to documents just released under U.S. Freedom of Information laws. Top military brass, corporate executives and diplomats also attended the meeting in Banff, Alta., where participants discussed everything from the harmonization of food and drug standards, to common immigration policies, and the pooling of energy resources. The secret guest list of the North American Forum included then-U.S. secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, Canadian Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, Public Safety...

BILLINGS (AP) — A Butte-based coalition is predicting farmers in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado are on their way to getting paid for conservation practices such as no-till farming that keep carbon dioxide in the ground Ted Dodge of the National Carbon Offset Coalition believes the Chicago Climate Exchange will soon allow farmers in the three states to bundle their ‘‘carbon credits’’ for sale. The private agency trades greenhouse gases and pollutants much like other exchanges trade commodities. A spokesman for the Chicago Climate Exchange was out of the office Friday and did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment....

Shift in Harvard Curriculum Reflects Larger Trend Toward Global Law Leigh Jones The National Law Journal 10-24-2006 Harvard Law School's recent announcement that it is making the most sweeping changes to its first-year curriculum in 100 years heralded a major shift in legal education, including a new emphasis on global law. But some of its competitors say that they already have revamped their programs in similar ways. Harvard will begin requiring first-year students to take three new courses, including a class on legislation and regulation, another covering global legal systems and a third focusing on problems and theories. The school's...

Heat wave makes Pat Robertson a global warming 'convert' VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. The Reverend Pat Robertson says he hasn't been a believer in global warming in the past, but this summer's record-breaking heat is -- quote -- "making a convert out of me." On his "700 Club" broadcast, Robertson said, "It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air." Switching sides on an issue that divides evangelical Christians, Robertson said, "We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels." The religious broadcaster told viewers, "If we are contributing...

A blue-ribbon panel of researchers assigned to provide Congress with a clear analysis of the Earth's surface temperature changes over time has concluded the planet warmed more rapidly over the past 25 years than at any other period in the past 400 years. In doing so, the group validated controversial climate research published in the journal Nature in 1998, describing warming trends at the end of the 20th century as unprecedented in the last 1,000 years. It also establishes the foundation for stronger projections for future climate change, experts said. "I think global warming is happening and has been for...

VANCOUVER -- Under a roof where World War II Liberty ships were built, Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., urged the Bush administration on Tuesday to insist that California award the contract for the center span of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to a U.S. company. Skirting the Buy America law and sending family-wage jobs overseas to save "a couple of dollars" will undermine the U.S. economy, destroy the domestic steel industry and compromise national security, Baird told about 60 union members at Oregon Iron Works Inc.'s plant at the old Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver. Once the country's steel industry is...

"Globalisation" has become one of the great buzzwords of modern times. Microsoft's Bill Gates is amongst those who say the world is 'flatter' It came to the fore during the 1990s, and the impact of globalisation looks set to play a prominent part in shaping our world during the first decades of this new century.  To see the advocates of globalisation at work and play there is no better vantage point than the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  Its members have probably all read columnist Tom Friedman's best-seller, The World Is Flat: A Brief...

The Cooling World There are ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production- with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only ten years from now. The Cooling World

Editor's Note: Published on Page A3 of the November 12, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer GREENPEACE, THE ENVIRONMENTAL activist group, is considering filing charges against the security guards who beat up a German volunteer during a protest against "dirty energy" in the state-run Masinloc coal-fired power plant in Zambales. The violent encounter between the National Power Corp. guards and 16 Greenpeace activists on Thursday was "the most severe attack" against its campaigners in the Philippines, said Red Constantino, Greenpeace's Southeast Asia energy campaigner. "The security personnel put the safety of the activists at extreme risk," Constantino said in...

Increased output from the Sun might be to blame for 10 to 30 percent of global warming that has been measured in the past 20 years, according to a new report. Increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases still play a role, the scientists say. But climate models of global warming should be corrected to better account for changes in solar activity, according to Nicola Scafetta and Bruce West of Duke University. The findings were published online this week by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Good reasons to reject CAFTA By Bill Graves Congress is debating the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), also known as son of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). America presumably benefits from "free" trade, and CAFTA allegedly will open up billions in trade between the United States and Central America. However, here's the other side of the story. With CAFTA, as with its membership in NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, America will surrender more of its sovereignty as a nation and its states' rights to outside tribunals. For example, California's legislature passed a bill in 2004 to dispose...

Saying that the Joint Chiefs and combatant commanders “strongly support” ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has stated that the measure “ensures the ability of the US Armed Forces to operate freely across the vast expanse of the world’s oceans under the authority of widely recognized and accepted international law.” [1] But would our military leaders support the treaty if they knew that the activists behind it were also instrumental in promoting the International Criminal Court (ICC), which could prosecute and imprison American troops and military...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court unanimously rejected a bid by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance to force the Bush administration to limit off-road vehicle traffic in potential Utah wilderness areas -- a decision praised by off-road enthusiasts. Attorneys for the environmental group had argued that the Bureau of Land Management had an obligation to crack down on off-road vehicle use to protect several potential wilderness areas. But Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said forcing the BLM to act would insert the court into the day-to-day operations of the agency. A ruling in SUWA's favor "would divert BLM's energies...

More on Environmentalism Science, Politics and Deathby Arthur B. Robinson & Jane M. OrientEnvironmental extremism kills. Millions die annually because of restrictions on DDT, and imposing the "Kyoto" regulations would kill many more.Dr. Arthur B. Robinson, a professor of chemistry, is the founder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and editor of the newsletter Access to Energy. Dr. Jane Orient, a specialist in internal medicine, has a private practice and is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Easily usable energy is the currency of human progress. Without it, stagnation, regression and untold...

For decades, since the early 1980s, the entire world has been deluged with predictions of a coming "Global Warming." But there isn't a scintilla of scientific data to support these claims. Indeed, in the 1970's the same "environmentalists" were predicting a coming Ice Age. We are, in fact, in what climatologists called an "interglacial era." That is to say, we are between Ice Ages. For about 10,000 years since the last Ice Age, civilization has followed with the spread of the human race out of Africa to all parts of the globe. If that Ice Age had not ended, there...

Loggerhead turtles have begun nesting much sooner than in years past. A University of Central Florida study reported that global warming has increased water temperature by a degree and a half in the last 14 years, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported. The increase in temperature has caused the turtles to head to shore 10 days earlier than in the past. There is concern among experts because if the babies hatch out before the food supply of crabs and shrimp are easy to get to, the hatchlings may not survive.

ALMOST four million British homes face being flooded because of global warming. Government scientific advisers warned yesterday of "devastating" damage unless drastic action is taken to combat rising water levels. And they said people's health could be at risk from sewage pollution as Victorian drainage systems in cities crumble under the pressure of persistent and heavy downpours. The cost of water damage would rise from £1billion a year to £21billion by 2080 and the number of homes at risk of river and coastal flooding would leap from 1.6million to 3.6million, said a report by the experts. Chief Scientific Adviser Sir...

The health of millions of children worldwide is threatened by global warming and air pollution. The world's poorest kids are at highest risk, experts say, of getting caught in a growing asthma epidemic. In a report released Thursday, researchers at the Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment said the warming global climate is releasing more allergens into the air. Once floating in the sky, the allergens combine with pollutants such as ozone and soot, resulting in a recipe for a health crisis. "The combination of air pollutants, aeroallergens, heat waves and unhealthy air masses -- increasingly...

The global warming scam The British government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, has said that global warming is a more serious threat to the world than terrorism. His remarks are utter balderdash from start to finish and illustrate the truly lamentable decline of science into ideological propaganda. Sir David says the Bush administration should not dismiss global warming because: 1) the ten hottest years on record started in 1991 2) sea levels are rising 3) ice caps are melting and 4) the 'causal link' between man-made emissions and global warming is well established. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong....

PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION TAKES PILGRIM FAMILY CASE TO THE NINTH CIRCUIT The Sierra Times PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE ASKS COURT TO AFFIRM THE RIGHTS OF ALASKANS TO ACCESS FEDERAL LANDS SAN FRANCISCO, CA; December 24, 2003: Pacific Legal Foundation filed an emergency motion and notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday in a highly publicized case that pits an Alaska wilderness family against the National Park Service. PLF is asking the court to grant the Pilgrim family emergency access to the only viable road to their property, which the Park Service closed last April. The case has precedent-setting...

THE LEIPZIG DECLARATION ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGEAs independent scientists concerned with atmospheric and climate problems, we -- along with many of our fellow citizens -– are apprehensive about emission targets and timetables adopted at the Climate Conference held in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. This gathering of politicians from some 160 signatory nations aims to impose on citizens of the industrialized nations, -- but not on others -- a system of global environmental regulations that include quotas and punitive taxes on energy fuels to force substantial cuts in energy use within 10 years, with further cuts to follow. Stabilizing...

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY New York, 23 September 2003Koffee Annon*snip*I respectfully suggest to you, Excellencies, that in the eyes of your peoples the difficulty of reaching agreement does not excuse your failure to do so. If you want the Council’s decisions to command greater respect, particularly in the developing world, you need to address the issue of its composition with greater urgency. But the Security Council is not the only institution that needs strengthening. As you know, I am doing my best to make the Secretariat more effective – and I look to this Assembly to support...

Saving the Selva Maya Sunday, June 29, 2003, By JIM WRIGHT Editor's note: As part of his research for a book, Editorial Writer Jim Wright made several recent trips to the tropical forest in Belize, where until a few weeks ago a smoky haze often clouded the skies. WHAT IS THE SELVA MAYA?The Selva Maya consists of mostly contiguous jungle in three Central American nations: Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. The three nations have created biosphere reserves, national parks, and other conservation areas to protect the jungle, conduct scientific research, and seek sustainable development. Guatemala has the 5-million-acre Maya Biosphere Reserve.Mexico's...

Sharon Votaw April 21, 2003 My husband and I bought some farmland in the California Delta over 30 years ago. This is prime agricultural land with deep, rich soils, ample water and a long growing season. In the beginning we would plant a crop; either beans or tomatoes or alfalfa, hay, wheat, corn, oats or barley. Then we hoped for favorable weather and a strong market. Farming has always been gambler’s choice. Some years were good and some years were lean, but we paid our bills and enjoyed life. Unbeknownst to us, in the early 1990’s the government again became...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Farmers are mailing parcels of sheep and cow manure to lawmakers to protest a so-called "flatulence" tax on greenhouse gas emissions from their flocks and herds, the New Zealand's postal service complained Tuesday. The service said about 20 reeking packages and envelopes had been sent to the nation's Parliament and that the protest - dubbed the "Raise a Stink" campaign - was endangering the health of postal workers. Farmers are angry that the government has levied the tax to raise 8 million New Zealand dollars (US$4.7 million) a year - about 300 New Zealand dollars (US$177)...

LAW OF THE LAND Justice: Can Constitution make it in global age? On TV, Breyer wonders whether it will 'fit into governing documents of other nations' Posted: July 7, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com In a rare appearance on a television news show, Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer questioned whether the U.S. Constitution, the oldest governing document in use in the world today, will continue to be relevant in an age of globalism. Speaking with ABC News' "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos and his colleague Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Breyer took issue with Justice Antonin Scalia, who,...

With a cast of characters including a former prime minister, some of the richest executives in France and Germany, Paris' biggest-ever corporate crime trial continued this week with 37 defendants in the dock. France's largest-ever corporate corruption trial resumed in Paris this week with more drama than your average Mexican soap opera. The case offered further tales of illicit backroom dealing, a €5 million divorce settlement tab picked up by French taxpayers and allegations that a former French prime minister accepted bribes in connection with a string of acquisitions made by the state-owned French oil conglomerate Elf Aquitane in the...

Glad to hear that George Bush is still lukewarm on the United Nations. It appears that the age of bending over for this crowd of quasi-legitimate, whining third-rate bullies is fast drawing to a close. The sooner the better, for the Third World especially, since you and I can dodge the UN quite well thanks. So to George W., I say, let them hand out food and organize medical aid. Anything else? You do it, you're competent. And for heaven's sake, if there are Canadians begging to be included, like I don't know, say, Stephen Lewis, how about a nice...

(Excerpts from the Washington Post) A few months ago, Jay Garner was leading a quiet and very comfortable life in an upscale Orlando suburb not far from Disney World. Today, the retired three-star general has one of the most high-profile jobs in the world: launching the U.S. attempt to rebuild Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Named by the Pentagon to head reconstruction efforts in Iraq, the former military troubleshooter won high marks for running a very successful humanitarian relief operation in northern Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But he has also stirred controversy, particularly in the...

Peter Jennings interviewing Hans Blix doesn't ask Blix about missiles already fired by Iraq. He does ask Blix if he thinks Iraq has wmd's. Blix says yes.

<p>SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Researchers at a government-funded science organization are investigating the possibility of burying up to 1 million metric tons (1.1 million tons) of carbon dioxide to help solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.</p> <p>Carbon dioxide is among the gasses emitted by burning fossil fuels that are blamed for global warming.</p>

<p>It's a wonder President Bush even puts forth the effort.</p> <p>His administration proposes changes to the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program, and Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., calls it a "gift to polluters," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., calls for EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman to resign, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., goes Lieberman one better and says, "we don't just need a new EPA administrator, we need a new president." Of course, all three would like to be that new president.</p>

  THE U.N. PLAN FOR GLOBAL CONTROL The Habitat II Agenda by Berit Kjos Bicycles instead of cars? Dense apartment clusters instead of single homes? Community rituals instead of churches? "Human rights" instead of religious freedom? The UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) which met June 3-14 in Istanbul, painted an alarming picture of the 21st century community. The American ways-free speech, individualism, travel, and Christianity-are out. A new set of economic, environmental, and social guidelines are in. Citizenship, democracy, and education have been redefined. Handpicked civil leaders will implement UN "laws", bypassing state and national representatives to work...

Clinton talks on the global economy at N.Y.U. Former President Bill Clinton called on an audience of students to prepare for a future when America will no longer be "the biggest dog on the street" at the keynote address Tuesday of a New York University forum on globalization. The current globalized world is not sustainable economically, politically or from a security vantage point, Clinton said at the second annual conference co-sponsored by New York University and the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation. Clinton spoke to an audience of about 450 students and guests. "On Sept. 11, 2001, members of...

Bush administration ready to approve drilling inside national park... Developing...