Free Republic

The National Education Association, the nation's largest labor union, voted July 5 to reject a proposal officially to remain neutral on the issues of abortion and family planning. Also during its annual meeting in San Diego July 1-6, the NEA went on record as supporting laws legalizing civil unions and "gay marriage" -- it said either are acceptable -- and it backed efforts to repeal federal legislation that "discriminates" against same-sex couples, which presumably could target the Defense of Marriage Amendment. The proposed bylaw amendment regarding abortion would have invalidated NEA Resolution I-16 on family planning, which says NEA "supports...

NINE has offended fans of the late Michael Jackson by scheduling an old documentary about child molestation allegations hours before his memorial service is broadcast live tomorrow morning. If reports are correct and his family is burying him before the public memorial the film will be screened at the same time he is being buried. At 12.35am Wednesday Nine has programmed a repeat of a much-maligned documentary “Michael Jackson: What Really Happened”, which already screened last week when it was falsely advertised as a documentary about his death. “With the world still in disbelief at the death of Michael Jackson...a...

THOMASVILLE, N.C. - An Archdale man was seriously injured Saturday when a cannon went off while he was preparing to fire it to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, according to officials in the Davidson County Sheriff's Office. Kevin Scott Hankins, of 2205 Lockwood Circle, was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center shortly after 10 p.m. with serious injuries to his arms and hands as well as lacerations and burning to his torso, waist, neck, head and arms, deputies said. Investigators said Hankins was standing in front of the cannon, packing gun powder in it after a misfire...

Al Gore today compared the battle against climate change with the struggle against the Nazis. The former US Vice President said the world lacked the political will to act and invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill by encouraging leaders to unite their nations to fight climate change. He also accused politicians around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming to avoid difficult decisions. Speaking in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by The Times, Mr Gore said: “Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilisation in...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's congressional allies want to create a powerful insurance commissioner to oversee medical plans nationwide. State regulators say it would duplicate what they do without better protecting consumers. Conservatives bemoan the big government mentality. The issue could flare as lawmakers push to meet an ambitious schedule for votes on health care legislation before their August vacation. Like the notion of a government insurance plan to compete with private companies, designating a single official appointed by the president to oversee the market goes to the heart of the federal role.

Right now California's economy is moribund, and the prospects for a quick turnaround are not good. Unable to pay its bills, the state is issuing IOUs; its once strong credit rating has collapsed. The state that once boasted the seventh-largest gross domestic product in the world is looking less like a celebrated global innovator and more like a fiscal basket case along the lines of Argentina or Latvia. It took some amazing incompetence to toss this best-endowed of places down into the dustbin of history. Yet conventional wisdom views the crisis largely as a legacy of Proposition 13, which in...

PRESIDENT Barack Obama said last night the US wanted a strong, prosperous and democratic Russia, as he set out his vision of the US relationship with its former Cold War era foe. In the most eagerly awaited address of his two-day visit to Moscow, Mr Obama reached out to Russia by emphasising its place as a "great power" but did not shy away from the differences between the two countries. The speech to students graduating from the progressive New Economic School came as Mr Obama sought to revive ties with Russia frayed by a string of crises over the past...

Many of you have responded to my emails concerning what is going on here in our beloved Honduras. Thank you so much for your concern and prayers. As most of you know, I have been here for over 13 years and have seen many things happen in Honduras. I know this country and its people very well and they tell me that I have become very Honduran myself. I am not sure if that is true, but I can tell you that I deeply love this country and am in awe of their love for God and the faith that...

President Obama today offered to scrap plans for a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe if Russia helped to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb. He appealed in Moscow for a new era of partnership between Russia and the United States to fight the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups. "That is why we should be united in opposing North Korea's efforts to become a nuclear power and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," he said. Russia strongly opposes US plans to site the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Washington says...

Does anyone know how to contact Chinese and Russian law enforcement?

TODD: I want to move to economy, it's going to come up at the G-8 a little bit. I want to read some various phrases that you've used in your administration. Early on, when you took office, you said the economy was going to get worse before it gets better. Then Larry Summers said we hit bottom to a point. Then we started hearing the phrase green chutes. You predicted, though, higher unemployment. Vice President Biden over the weekend said the team misread the economy. And then yesterday, Prime Minister Brown was saying that the recession might get worse. So...

SNIPWhat do you think is wrong right now with what President Obama is doing in particular? President Obama is growing government outrageously, and it's immoral and it's uneconomic, his plan that he tries to sell America. His plan to "put America on the right track" economically, incurring the debt that our nation is incurring, trillions of dollars that we're passing on to our kids, expecting them to pay off for us, is immoral and doesn't even make economic sense. So, his growth of government agenda needs to be ratcheted back, and it's going to take good people who have the...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to meet here Tuesday with Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya, in his highest level talks with the Obama administration since being ousted in an army-backed coup. The State Department said the meeting was scheduled for 1:00 pm (1700 GMT) at Clinton's offices in the State Department building in Washington, but no media access is being granted. During a visit to Nicaragua on Monday, Zelaya said he would travel later in the evening to Washington for talks with Clinton. Zelaya met last week with Tom Shannon, the assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs,...

Al Gore likens fight against climate change to battle with Nazis Al Gore today compared the battle against climate change with the struggle against the Nazis. The former US Vice President said the world lacked the political will to act and invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill by encouraging leaders to unite their nations to fight climate change. He also accused politicians around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming to avoid difficult decisions. Speaking in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by The Times, Mr Gore said: “Winston...

Blogging from Phoenix— Attacks orchestrated by establishment republicans more than anything else are at the center of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin’s decision to step down from office. Since the November loss, beltway republicans who still control the vast party infrastructure; have spent untold amounts attempting to discredit the popular former vice presidential candidate.

With well over 230 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle in the House of Representatives, Texas Congressman Ron Paul's effort to force an audit of the Federal Reserve is being led in the Senate by none other than South Carolina conservative Sen. Jim DeMint. Last month, DeMint became the first Republican senator to support Senate Bill 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, and since then has talked extensively on radio and television about the importance of transparency with regard to the Fed. Yesterday, however, he took it a step further, attempting to attach the full text of...

Irena Sendler, Saved Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto On Tuesday, America will reach its apex of asininity. In a city populated by irrationally overpaid narcissists and sundry mental patients, the Michael Jackson memorial bacchanal will be a fulsome testimonial to the complete decomposition of civilization. The drug addicted pedophile’s funeral service promises to be grander in scale and scope than any in history. The insolvent city of Los Angeles has no realistic expectation of recouping the elephantine expenses incurred controlling traffic and governing an unhinged assemblage. No accounting yet from business owners whose employees will be missing work due...

Gitmo: Seller’s Remorse by: Brittany Fortier, July 07, 2009 Photographs that allegedly depict detainee abuse have generated debate in Congress, with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Car.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) saying on June 11, 2009 that “if the House drops the provision [from the Senate bill] that would prevent these photos from being released … American soldiers are going to be subject to increased violent attack...” The debate has also prompted discussion of how the Obama administration will handle the split among Democrats on this issue. A panel hosted on June 15, 2009, by the Center for American Progress (CAP)...

For the past several years, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has funneled more than $3 million in earmarks to a company in his district to build an underwater “swimmer detection” sonar system for the Navy to use to protect its docks and ships. But the company, KDH Defense Systems, sews bulletproof vests. It had never built a sonar system and had no expertise in sonar engineering. The sonar project was to be the first product of a new “startup” company. Documents indicate the company did have a plan — which never came to pass — to partner with other local defense...