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SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal grand jury is investigating whether San Francisco's policy of offering sanctuary to undocumented immigrants violates U.S. laws against harboring people who are in the country illegally, city officials say. City Attorney Dennis Herrera said his office has hired a criminal defense lawyer to represent employees who might be questioned or asked for documents. He and Mayor Gavin Newsom said they would cooperate with the investigation. San Francisco, like about 80 other U.S. cities and five states, has a law prohibiting the use of its funds to help enforce federal immigration law or to question individuals...

Gwen Ifill (debate moderator): "Sen. Biden, the following questions go to you. "Let's begin with your approach to diplomacy. During the primary campaign last year, you criticized Sen. Obama's pledge to meet with the leaders of states such as Iran and Venezuela as 'naive,' particularly if such meetings were held without preconditions.

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INCREASED OIL/GAS PRODUCTION ANWR Development · Increasing domestic oil production from the vast reserves of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a solid first step towards making American energy independent; the Department of the Interior estimates ANWR has between 10 to 18 billion barrels of oil. · ANWR is unique among potential energy solutions in that the cost for its development would be met by private industry. · The development of ANWR would foster immediate job growth around the country; estimates show that in Virginia alone between 3000 and almost 7000 jobs would be created. Offshore Drilling · We...

By Burt Prelutsky Frankly, I’m amazed that the Democratic party is anything more than a cult. How in the world do they garner more votes than the Libertarians or the Greens? They are beholden to trial lawyers, teachers unions, and the ecological crazies. So, why is it that upwards of 55 million Americans are ready, even anxious, to vote for Barack Obama in November? It’s a scary thought. But not half as scary as the notion of “Hail to the Chief� becoming Senator Obama’s theme song. Democrats insist that we shouldn’t drill off the Pacific coast or in Alaska...

They may paint themselves as agents for a new, more bipartisan attitude in Washington, but John McCain and Barack Obama both tend to adhere to their parties' usual approaches to tax policy. McCain would cut overall income taxes for the top 1% of American earners, according to recent data from the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. Obama would raise taxes on those in the highest tax bracket, while reducing them for low- and moderate-income families. The TPC study says both candidates' tax plans would substantially increase the national debt over...

Six months ago, at the height of giddy, star-struck Obamamania in Canada and Europe, Toronto Star reporter Susan Delacourt wrote what we still regard as the single giddiest, most star-struck example of the genre. Her article, which appeared in the Star’s March 8 edition, repeated a then-familiar theme -- that even as we Canadians are thrilled to bask in Mr. Obama’s American aura, we must also flagellate ourselves for not producing a Canadian specimen of equal magnificence. “Where’s the hope?” Ms. Delacourt wrote after contrasting Mr. Obama’s “big ambitions” to Mr. Harper’s “low expectations.” “Where,” she plaintively asked “is...

Sarah Palin’s detractors may want to know what can possibly be worse than a zero for zero record (the kind held by most state governors) on foreign policy. Try Barack Obama’s “experienced” running mate Joe Biden, whose record is zero for five if not worse. Peter Wehner’s “Biden Was Wrong on the Cold War” (http://www.wsj.com/article/SB122049148440397625.html?mod=most_emailed_day) reports, In the 1970s, Mr. Biden opposed giving aid to the South Vietnamese government in its war against the North. Congress’s cut-off of funds contributed to the fall of an American ally, helped communism advance, and led to mass death throughout the region. In addition,...

Acknowledging that a NASA authorization bill is unlikely to be enacted this year, three Republican senators – including presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) – have written President George W. Bush imploring him to direct NASA to hold off for at least a year taking any action that would preclude the agency from flying space shuttles beyond 2010. McCain, joined by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and David Vitter (R-La.), also cited Russia's recent military incursion into neighboring Georgia earlier this month as evidence that Russia's continued cooperation on the international space station program should not be taken for granted. Once...

Barack Obama's liberal policies are the enemy of black Americans By William Owens, Jr. Barack Obama does not think too highly of Black America. Whether liberal puppet-masters in his campaign are prompting this or Obama, himself, lacks a real connection with the Black American struggle, one thing is clear: Barack Obama and his party do not want us to leave the oppressive plantation mindset that has exploited the Black vote for years. Obama is far more liberal than he is Black. His elitist views that Black Americans cannot succeed, contribute to society, or take care of our families without government...

Last Monday, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama gave a speech in Michigan in which he said he would eliminate the nation’s dependence on foreign oil within 10 years – without drilling for any additional domestic oil. In his clouded mind, he believes we can free ourselves from our oil addiction by means of renewable forms of energy such as wind generation, solar energy and bio-fuels. And it’s only going to cost taxpayers $150 billion in “investments.” How is he going to do this, considering these energy alternatives comprise only about 3 percent of total energy production? He’ll simply...

Just as it is true that “Man shall not live by bread alone,” it is equally true humanity cannot live upon words alone. Yet dangerous words that represent nothing more than figments of the liberal imagination (think of “free love”) are the stock-in-trade of supposed liberal intellects. That fact was surprisingly reinforced in a recent column by Thomas L. Friedman of the NY Times, a man who usually knows better than to associate himself with stupidity but wrote admiringly of Al Gore as follows: “Mr. Gore proposed dramatically improving our national electricity grid and energy efficiency, while investing massively in...

For years, the left have been building a superior online political infrastructure, cultivating a powerful online community of activists, dominating the blogosphere, and leaving conservatives at a severe disadvantage in a web 2.0 world. For conservatives tired of being left behind, we invite you to RightOnline. Join leading conservative bloggers and new media experts, America’s foremost experts in grassroots mobilization, representatives from influential conservative organizations, and hundreds of citizen activists this July 18th and 19th in Austin, Texas. RightOnline will serve as a meeting place for the free enterprise movement, focusing on how we can more effectively leverage the power...

On Sunday CNN aired an interview Barack Obama recently gave to Fareed Zakaria, in which the candidate expressed the opinion that Islamic jihad is a result of U.S. foreign policy failure. This is, of course, an assumption that he shares with virtually everyone of any influence in both parties. It is conventional wisdom that the United States, or the West in general, can make the global jihad problem go away by doing something that is not being done now, or by stopping doing something else. The possibility that the jihad might have arisen not as a reaction to actions of...

Defense officials are criticizing what they say is the failure to capture or kill top al Qaeda leaders because of timidity on the part of policy officials in the Pentagon, diplomats at the State Department and risk-averse bureaucrats within the intelligence community. Military special operations forces (SOF) commandos are frustrated by the lack of aggressiveness on the part of several policy and intelligence leaders in pursuing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top henchmen, who are thought to have hidden inside the tribal areas of Pakistan for the past 6½ years. The focus of the commandos' ire, the...

There has been much ado about Barack Obama’s associations and the judgment used in maintaining and entering into those associations. Obama’s associations with Jeremiah Wright, Williams Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis, the Progressive-Left activist group ACORN and his ideological association with Saul Alinsky are all perfect examples of his judgment, his willingness to associate with radical and troubled individuals and organizations. Is it fair to judge Barack Obama by his associations and the judgment used in acquiring and maintaining those associations? Sorry Mr. Colmes, all is fair in love and war...and politics. A perfect example of Barack Obama’s questionable judgment comes...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When John McCain met privately with Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin after a political event in the Milwaukee suburbs May 29, the Republican presidential candidate might not have realized that he had just come face to face with an opportunity and a test. Ryan showed him his plan to reform the economy. McCain expressed interest and said he would turn it over to his campaign's economists. That was truly ominous. If the Kemp-Roth tax cut had been handed over to economists three decades ago, it likely would have died in its crib and aborted the national and...

There is a feature of my seminars on U.S. Middle East policy at Princeton that I call "déjà vu all over again" -- with apologies to Yogi Berra. I ask students to assess the bungled efforts and missed opportunities of generations of U.S. diplomats and seek in them lessons for the future. They examine the hubris that drove the U.S. government to engineer the 1953 overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddeq's democratically elected government in Iran. This traumatic episode was conveniently forgotten by 1979, when National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski encouraged Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to use force against the opposition, ignoring...

Standing Athwart Hope and Change Yelling Stop Stomping the Liberals, Goldwater style, with a brand spanking new, shiny, Contract with AmericaBy Michael Donnella I would like this piece to focus on conservative principles and the New Contract with America that I have drawn up in order to move the conservative movement forward. There is no sense in arguing about our nominee any longer ladies and gentlemen. We will go in, vote against Obama, take a good clean shower afterwards, and continue to move forward with our lives. However, there is something that we can have some effect on, which is...

Government-Induced Food Insecurity by: Emily Miller, June 18, 2008 The recent food crisis and rising global food prices are short-term problems, said CATO Institute Research Fellow for India and Asia Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar last week. “I firmly believe the current food crisis will soon blow over and we are going to be back very soon to the issues of overproduction through subsidies,” said Aiyar in a discussion about trade and food security at the Heritage Foundation. “I do believe that the current phase is a temporary one.” Aiyar blamed export caps, which forty countries currently impose on grain, for...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Crude oil futures hit a record close to $140 a barrel Monday as the dollar weakened against the euro. Retail gas prices rose to a record $4.08 a gallon. Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose to $139.89 before retreating to trade up $3.62 at $138.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Many investors buy commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation when the dollar falls. Also, a weaker dollar makes oil less expensive to investors dealing in other currencies. Many analysts believe the dollar's protracted decline is a major factor behind...

In 2004, as regulators warned that subprime lenders were saddling borrowers with mortgages they could not afford, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development helped fuel more of that risky lending. Eager to put more low-income and minority families into their own homes, the agency required that two government-chartered mortgage finance firms purchase far more "affordable" loans made to these borrowers. HUD stuck with an outdated policy that allowed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to count billions of dollars they invested in subprime loans as a public good that would foster affordable housing. Housing experts and some congressional leaders...

As we move toward the general election, the Democratic Party has to be the Party of ordinary Americans, not Washington lobbyists and special interests. We've unilaterally agreed to shut lobbyists out of the process, and are we're relying on people just like you. We have a chance to change the way business is done in this country, and we're taking the lead. Will you join us and make a contribution right now to help us elect Barack Obama?

In line with conservative orthodoxy, McCain is a defense hawk who supports the troop-increase strategy in Iraq and opposes a quick pullout. He also favors tougher sanctions against Iran. He backs free trade and the extension of the Bush tax cuts that are the cornerstone of the current economic policy. He opposes abortion rights, and he favors school choice. He is a longtime advocate of fiscal restraint and a crusader against wasteful government spending. He takes a free-market approach to health care. Obama has a record of liberal votes in the Senate. He opposed extending Bush's tax cuts on investments,...

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama told Florida's Cuban-American community Friday that his Cuba policy would be based on "libertad" and freedom for the island nation's people. Sen. Barack Obama speaks at a Cuban Independence Day event in Miami, Florida, on Friday. "My policy toward Cuba will be guided by one word: 'libertad,' " he said, using the Spanish word for liberty at an event celebrating Cuban Independence Day in Miami, Florida. "The road to freedom for all Cubans must begin with justice for Cuba's political prisoners, the right of free speech, a free press, freedom of assembly, and...

Candidate Obama, like so many lefties, seems to believe anything bad about the United States, without even submitting it to critical thinking. He said on May 19, 2008, for example, that 3% of the world’s population (i.e., in his calculation, the United States) accounts for 25% of the greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere. In the 1970s, the lefties used to talk about 6% of the world’s population using 25% of the world’s energy. Even before Obama, they were blaming America first. The left’s figures depend on what is meant by “energy.” Before the founding and development of the United...

In 52 seconds, he rattles off what an Obama presidency would mean for our national defense; slowing down of existing programs to build new weapons, cutting "tens of billions" of dollars in "wasteful" spending, scrapping missile defense completely, and setting up an "independent defense priority review board" (you can imagine the anti-defense liberals sitting on that board) to make sure we don't waste any money building "unnecessary" weapons. That's not all. Obama wishes upon a star for a "nuclear free world" and to that end, he will not allow any new designs for nukes nor will be build any new...

Kurt Hauser is a San Francisco investment economist who, 15 years ago, published fresh and eye-opening data about the federal tax system. His findings imply that there are draconian constraints on the ability of tax-rate increases to generate fresh revenues. I think his discovery deserves to be called Hauser's Law, because it is as central to the economics of taxation as Boyle's Law is to the physics of gases. Yet economists and policy makers are barely aware of it. Like science, economics advances as verifiable patterns are recognized and codified. But economics is in a far earlier stage of evolution...

There is a lot of anguish among Republicans as they look at the dismal polls and the even more depressing performance of their candidates in various preliminary House races. New books and prophets forecast an end to conservatism, and a need to formulate a new sort of muscular liberalism to meet new challenges. Expect more such nostrums if Barack Obama wins in the fall. What mystifies is the paralysis of Republicans and their impotent protestations that “Bush did it”. The truth is that Congressional Republicans, responsible for turning principles into governance, deserve to lose—unless they craft clear positions that won’t...

It's Time Now for a Serious Public Debate on Our Iran Policy By Victor Comras I wrote here last month that the time has come for further clarification from the presidential candidates concerning their plans for dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions. We have heard numerous sound-bites and even read a few short paragraphs issued by their campaigns on the issue, but each has shied away from providing any real substance. They all indicate that America must not allow Iran to achieve nuclear weapons capability. But none has yet indicated how they actually intend to convince Iran to change course. President...

The Bush administration has launched a new “outreach” policy reflecting it’s reluctance to discuss jihadism in public. This time, it has targeted language. We are no longer at war with “jihadism”. Rather, we are engaged in a war against “extremism”. In a document titled: "Words that Work and Words that Don't: A Guide for Counterterrorism Communication” released in March 2008, Federal agencies including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center will now be issued instructions on how not to describe "jihadists”, or the "mujahedeen", or to use any references relating to Islam, Islamic...

Recently we hear that Olmert offered to cede the Golan to Syria and I commented The Golan is safe for now. For now, because ultimately the US will be pressuring Israel to do the deal. As Ami Isseroff points out in Territorial Integrity: American Middle East policy and what it means for Israel, it has always been US policy to force Israel to trade land for peace forever. Johnson wrote on May 3rd '67, "the United States is firmly committed to the support of the political independence and territorial integrity of all the nations of the area". When this was...

I'd love to wake up one morning to headlines on one of the seven papers I read or the 5 web newsites I peruse and find the following headline: Candidates Wake Up and Finally Understand the Issues Facing America: Debate at 9 pm EST If the headline were true and the debate were actually going to be held, here's what I think they'd talk about and the truth they'd share: 1. IRAQ-We're there because of WMD (Weally Muddled Decisions) and we aren't coming home soon. It's not about the Shiites and the Sunni's. It's about the second largest oil deposit...

Ridden Amtrak lately? If not, why not? While you ponder the answer to that question, dig this. In a recent Obama campaign document ("Barack Obama's Plan For American Leadership in Space"), the candidate lays out his proposed policy vis-a-vis NASA. The paper states that as president, "Obama will support the development of this vital new platform [the Constellation spacecraft currently in development at NASA] to ensure that the United States' reliance on foreign space capabilities is limited to the minimum possible time period." In other words, he will maintain the Constellation project at a minimum $500 million per year budget...

Brzezinski seizing control over US policy in slow motion creeping coup. Events of the past few days indicate that the Zbigniew Brzezinski faction of lunatic Russia haters have now won the upper hand inside the secret councils of the Anglo-American finance oligarchy, displacing the hitherto dominant George Shultz-neocon faction. Although George Bush and his cronies still occupy the White House, the policies that are being carried out are coming from the Brzezinski left CIA machine. Brzezinski has returned to public prominence in recent months due to his role as top establishment controller for the Obama campaign. But Brzezinski is not...

Finally some examination and some information about this vast experience Hillary Clinton claims - like helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland: Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province. But to hear Hillary Clinton, she was right in the middle of it: "I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday. However, the real players disagree: But negotiators from the parties...

Mr. Chairman, A topic that is on the lips of many people during the past few months, and one with which I have greatly concerned myself, is that of moral hazard. We hear cries from all corners, from politicians, journalists, economists, businessmen, and citizens, clamoring for the federal government to intervene in the economy in order to forestall a calamitous recession. During the boom, many of these same individuals called for no end to the Fed's easy credit. Now that the consequences of that easy money policy are coming home to roost, no one wants to face those ill effects....

Mr. Chairman, Price controls are almost universally reviled by economists. The negative economic consequences of price floors or price ceilings are numerous and well-documented. Our current series of hearings have been called to discuss the most important, but least understood, price manipulation in the world today: the manipulation of the interest rate. By setting the federal funds rate, the rate at which banks in the Federal Reserve System loan funds to each other, the Federal Reserve inhibits the actions of market participants coming together to determine a market interest rate. The Federal Reserve and the federal government do not deign...

As the political pundits busy themselves with rehashing the results of Super Tuesday and beyond, trying to decipher what happened and what it all means, the fact is it matters little whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama captures the remainder of the delegates up for grabs. What is important is that we are now assured that no relatively sane Democrat...Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, or Bill Richardson...will win the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. With the departure of former senator John Edwards, whose addiction to the public spotlight and whose five years of non-stop campaigning (2003-2008) was beginning to remind us of...

02/14/08 by Antenna Wilde On Feb. 13th Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would try to advance a revision bill (S.2248) that would prohibit the CIA from using interrogation techniques not authorized by the U.S.Army Field Manual. "Agreeing on one standard of interrogation will help restore our moral leadership in the world, and certainly that is needed," said Reid. "In the long run, torture does not help the United States. The information isn't reliable, puts our troops at risk and undermines our counterinsurgency efforts." This echoed the long held opinion of Sen.John McCain, R-Az., who was expected to be...

I attentively listened to Senator John McCain (R-AZ) address CPAC today. It was during his speech that a memory from the 1970 California Gubernatorial race resurfaced. That particular race pitted “Bid Daddy” Jess Unruh, then Speaker of the California Assembly , and arguably the most powerful person in state office, against then Governor Ronald Reagan, seeking reelection. While working on the Reagan campaign, I made a statement that became a tenet of the Reagan campaign. I had asked the simple question that hounded the Unruh campaign. That question asked why California voters should trust Unruh to make changes as Governor...

Is idealism dead? Should the promotion of American values of liberalism, democracy, human rights, and rule of law be a core element of U.S. foreign policy? Where to strike the balance between principles and interests is one of the most enduring debates about America ’s role in the world. But since September 11, this question has become intensely contested and deeply controversial. It has emerged as one of the central divides between the political right and left — in large part because of the history of the past seven years, the Bush administration ’s rhetoric, its strong association with the...

Source is link only. Decent and fairly long article.Click here to read story.

Former US Diplomat John Bolton is no longer in office, but he still has a lot to say about American foreign policy. SPIEGEL spoke to him about Bush's softness abroad, Rice having been taken hostage by the liberal State Department, and why it doesn't matter that the world hates the US. SPIEGEL: Mr. Ambassador, you worked closely with the president and you shared his hawkish views on Iraq. But your new book is fiercely critical of George W. Bush. Why? Bolton: His foreign policy is in free fall. The president is turning against his own best judgment and instincts under...

PHILADELPHIA - A small sign that asked customers to order in English at a famous cheesesteak shop was never meant to be offensive, the shop's owner testified Friday at a hearing to decide whether the policy was discriminatory. Joe Vento, the owner of Geno's Steaks, defended his policy before the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, which filed the discrimination complaint. "This country is a melting pot, but what makes it work is the English language," Vento told the commission. "I'm not stupid. I would never put a sign out to hurt my business." Vento posted two small signs in October...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 5, 2007 – Field commanders deployed throughout Iraq gathered here today to tell Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates firsthand that the U.S. strategy in Iraq is working and to urge vigilance in seeing it through. Gates called the commanders to Camp Victory, home of the Multinational Force Iraq headquarters, during his visit here to hear about their operations. “I think he wanted to hear from us what we are experiencing out here, and I think each one of us told him we’re having success in our individual areas,” said Marine Col. Richard Simcock, commander of Regimental Combat Team...

<p>A top Federal Reserve official said Wednesday that recent financial turbulence has undone some of the improvement seen in previous weeks, and repeated the need for "nimble" monetary policy to address economic risks.</p> <p>The remarks, by Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, suggest that interest rate reductions remain on the table even though policymakers adopted a neutral view of growth and inflation risks at their last meeting.</p>

It figures it would take a cartoon to explain how Hillary arrives at the policy decisions she's made up to this point. She is a joke after all...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2007 – If you are wounded in combat and discharged as a result, you will not have to pay back your enlistment bonus, Defense Department officials said here today. “Bonuses are not recouped simply for one's inability to complete an enlistment or re-enlistment agreement through no fault of the military member,” a policy statement said. Pentagon officials re-stated their policy after a wounded soldier in Pennsylvania received a bill from the Army. Jordan Fox was a private first class in Baqouba, Iraq, when he was wounded in the explosion of an improvised explosive device. Fox suffered vision...