Free Republic

Japan accepted only 27 refugees last year and rejected almost all applications, officials said Saturday, as rights groups urged the government to allow more people in. The country has long been nervous about an influx of refugees into its homogeneous society and has tightly restricted the number it accepts. Of the thousands seeking refugee status, five were Syrian, only three of which were accepted -- a far cry from the massive influx of Syrians into Europe from the war-torn Middle East nation last year....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sunday on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto said the anti-immigration views of many Americans is racist. Zakaria asked, "When you hear some of the anti-immigrant language, the rhetoric, do you think it's racist?" Nieto answered, "I think it's discriminatory, yes, and I think it's unfortunate for a country whose formation and historic origin relies so much on the migration flows of many parts, Europe and Asia, for instance. I think this is a country whose origin to a great extent is one of migration and that's why it's unfortunate to hear this exclusionary and discriminatory tones...

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Fifty years ago, Jack Kilby, who grew up in Great Bend, Kan., took the electrical engineering knowledge he acquired as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois and a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin to Dallas, to Texas Instruments, where he helped invent the modern world as we routinely experience and manipulate it. Working with improvised equipment, he created the first electronic circuit in which all the components fit on a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. On Sept. 12, 1958, he demonstrated this microchip, which was enormous,...

The European Parliament's miniscule far-right group is on the verge of collapse after the Romanian members threatened to walk out in response to derogatory comments by another member, Italian MEP Alessandra Mussolini. When xenophobic far-right political parties in the European Parliament formed a group last year, many predicted it would fall victim to its inherent contradictions. Parties whose bread and butter is attacking foreigners were expected to find it a bit difficult to cooperate even if they were all cut from the same extremist cloth. Now the Romanian contingent of the Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty group (ITS) is threatening to pull...

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., told farm workers yesterday that the immigration reform bill will be brought back to the Senate floor for deliberation within days, and that the Senate is determined to vote on it, even if it means working weekends and during the July 4th weekend. Once the energy bill clears the Senate floor, the bipartisan but controversial immigration bill, written by Kennedy and Sen. Arlen J. Specter, R-Pa., will be back before the Senate, he said. "Dealing with immigration is central to the challenge of civil rights," Kennedy said. "We have come a long way." Kennedy,...

Along with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez has been the Bush administration’s voice in an immigration debate that has divided Republicans. Gutierrez, a Cuban immigrant who became chief executive of Kellogg’s, said this week in an interview that he’s not disappointed by Republican opposition to the immigration bill, and that he hasn’t seen evidence that Democrats want to withhold a victory for President Bush. Gutierrez repeatedly framed the debate as a national security issue, predicting victory in part because of the “inevitability” of immigration reform. Q: If the Senate doesn’t approve a comprehensive immigration reform bill...

Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans. No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of...

"Bush polls have fallen to a new low," shout the newspaper headlines or the news anchors on television. "President Bush and Congress have reached their lowest numbers yet," they continue, trying to speculate whether this is caused by the high gasoline prices, the current economy, or the war in Iraq. This is strange since there is good news, mostly hidden by the media, about all three. 1. Recently, the U.S. Energy Department announced the results of a land survey: "We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates: snip...

President Bush will land in a hotbed of the illegal-immigration debate Monday when he flies into Orange County, and he's likely to find a tough sell for his approach. Bush's call for a guest-worker program has riled many who say that the international borders must be secured before normalizing the status of any of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. When Bush stands up at the Hyatt Regency Irvine to pitch his views on immigration to the Orange County Business Council, some will applaud his decision to talk here - if not what he's pushing. "I'd...

A HECKLER from the Falun Gong spiritual movement, who entered White House grounds as a reporter, interrupted a formal arrival ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao today, prompting President George W. Bush to apologise to his guest. After being welcomed by Mr Bush, the Chinese president was just beginning his response when a woman, who had been allowed into the press section, started shouting. She was escorted away by a uniformed US guard. "President Hu, your days are numbered. President Bush, make him stop persecuting Falun Gong," the woman yelled. US officials later identified her as Wang Wenyi, 47, a...

Will it Become "Portgate?" By Cliff Kincaid | February 27, 2006 Some of the negative reaction to the deal stems not from racism or Arab-bashing but the fact that initial federal approval of the deal sidestepped a legally authorized 45-day investigation. The initial outcry from the conservative blogs and talk radio over an Arab state-owned company taking over terminals at some U.S. ports seems to have subsided, as the Bush Administration, the Arab/Muslim lobby and their representatives and lobbyists have moved quickly to dominate the media debate. The firm, Dubai Ports World, is owned by the United Arab Emirates, an...

Raul Garcia-Gomez, 19, is suspected of shooting two Denver police officers at about 1 a.m. Sunday after they refused to let him re-enter a baptismal party. Detective Donald Young, 44, died at the scene after being shot from behind three times in the back and head.