Free Republic

Ready for EnviroCops? This is the question asked by Ed Morrissey at Hoit Air, who informs us of a London Times article about such a development: Whether the British public is ready or not, here come the EnviroCops. The Times of London reports that simply selling carbon credits hasn’t been enough to keep companies from potentially violating carbon-emissions limits. Now they will send green-jacketed police to monitor their operations. […]Of course, the British authorities do not have a Fourth Amendment to limit them, but even this may be a bit much for Brits to swallow. Green-jacketed inspectors can descend on...

Democracy: Riots exploded in China's western Xinjiang province this week, in what authorities alternatively call criminal acts or global terrorism. In reality, it's neither: it's the pent-up fury of people who live without freedom.Sunday's riot in Urumqi, where ethnic Uighurs battled Chinese police, ended with 159 dead, 1,000 injured and 1,400 arrested, according to official sources. Unofficially, the death toll has been estimated as high as 400. International response has been muted, but shouldn't be. The scale of deaths and the increasing frequency of such upheavals across the country raises red flags about China's prized "stability." It's curious, but places...

There were 5,000 in attendance. My talk is a mere 4:48, but I tried to pack a lot in, borrowing from Chris Rock in his politician role, saying "That Ain't Right."

Yes, of course it’s easy to conflate Libertarians and Libertines, because in many cases they appear to be one and the same. Some of their single issue dedication to being able to use hallucinogenic drugs is an example of some of that orientation. I am on the fence on that issue as all Conservatives should be because Conservatives are – by definition – cautious about changing the rules for fear of unintended consequences. Who would have guessed that the “War on poverty” would appear to have as its primary result, not a reduction in poverty, but an increase in unwed...

Even Calbuzz was moved when 11-year-old Paris Katherine Jackson took the microphone to tell the world that Michael had been a wonderful father and that she loved him dearly, which you can watch here on TMZ. That was the emotional high point of the MJ Tribute, for sure. The political high points were two: the Rev. Al Sharpton’s observation that Jackson was instrumental in breaking the color barrier and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s insistence on the presumption of innocence. Sharpton’s great line: “He put on one glove, pulled his pants up and broke down the color curtain.” The Rev...

Diplomacy: Russia's nondemocratic rulers over the years have shown an uncanny knack for detecting weakness in their foes. Russia's Vladimir Putin is continuing the tradition.President Obama no doubt believes he was dealing with honest brokers when he agreed with Russia's leaders to cut U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads to about 1,600 each. For the U.S., that's a cut of about a third. But please read the fine print. This is a "preliminary" agreement. In order for it to go into effect, Russian leaders say they want the U.S. to give up its plans for a missile defense system. To do...

You'd figure that the seven House Republicans who have signed on to Bill Posey's "birther" bill requiring the filing of a birth certificate with pre-Presidential filings would be from far-right, lock-solid GOP districts. You would be wrong, according to an analysis conducted by the folks at Campaign Diaries. In fact, Barack Obama -- the target of HR 1503 -- lost Posey's Brevard County, Fla. district by only a couple of points -- and Posey himself narrowly held off his Dem opponent with 53 percent of the vote in '08. Irvine Calif. Rep. John Campbell runs the biggest risk: Obama narrowly...

Forever it seems. Forever we've listened to Michael Jackson tripe. It's trite and it's incredibly stupid...in the sense of "stupor inducing." It ignores face bleaching, nose trimming, pedophilia, and lying about fathering children. We're told: "Greatest this and greatest that." I just read that some representative in our US Congress stated that Jackson "changed the world." If so, how come not one of his own songs is in Billboard's top 50 of all time? How come it takes us all the way to #71 before one of MJ's pops up? Chubby Checkers is #1, Dianah Ross is in there. Lionel...

Dear Nations of the World, As you are no doubt aware I am having some financial difficulties. I have a management team who is driving me into the ground. I have workers languishing under debt from the Company Store and from the Company Bank. Their efforts are effectively negated by such debt and the accounting department has informed me that I'll be indebted for about 20 years, if I'm lucky. The worst outlook has me perpetually in debt. So given this grim prospect I hereby give you all notice that, starting today, I will no longer be able to provide...

OTTAWA — Henry and Vera Jones have a dream of a new kind of backyard, one that is an oasis of nature. But that dream is threatened by a City of Ottawa bylaw that appears to suggest they should mow it all down. For nine months the Constance Bay couple have been planning a new ecologically tuned garden on their half-acre lot on Allbirch Road. No manicured lawns to be watered, fertilized, cut and weeded. Just lots of flowers, trees and vegetables to create a sanctuary for wildlife, especially the kind that pollinate flowers. They call it the Allbirch Pollinator...

It's a familiar sight. Touring teenagers perched on the Capitol steps, listening with varying levels of attention to their representative welcoming them to where laws and history are made. But Scott Garrett uses the occasion his own way. "I explain something they won't hear anywhere else,'' says Garrett, a four-term Republican congressman from New Jersey's 5th District. "They won't read it in textbooks." So he describes the rise of the Supreme Court from a relatively weak office to a third, co-equal branch of government. Part of why it happened, he says, was the erection 75 years ago of the neoclassical...

Talk about talks with Ahmadinejad is worthless. We need sanctions and firm diplomacy snip In the expanded G8+ sessions there is no way to buck convention but in the session on foreign policy with which they kick off today, eight powerful politicians should break with tradition and do some real thinking. Binning their prepared remarks, they should concentrate, with what Barack Obama loves to call “the fierce urgency of now”, on a single question. That question is how to exert pressure on Iran’s Islamic dictatorship, now that the political landscape has been transformed by the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad electoral coup and above...

Court Upholds Dismissal of Colorado Professor By DAN FROSCH Published: July 7, 2009 DENVER — Three months after a jury ruled that Ward L. Churchill, a former University of Colorado professor, was wrongfully terminated for his political views, a judge on Tuesday refused to give him his job back. The judge, Larry J. Naves of Denver District Court, ruled that the university’s regents were immune to liability in this case because they were acting as judicial officers when they voted to dismiss Mr. Churchill after a faculty committee concluded that he had committed academic fraud. Mr. Churchill, an ethnic studies...

WASHINGTON — Unanticipated events in politics — say, for example, Sarah Palin’s announcement that she was quitting as governor of Alaska — tend to be overanalyzed, imbued with more motive, forethought and political calculus than might really be there... _________________________________________ Some people suggested there was a shrewdness to her gambit. From this view, the announcement, as precipitous as it might have appeared, was part of a considered grand plan of rehabilitation and preparation that would position her as the strongest possible challenger to President Obama in 2012... ______________________________________________ Perhaps. But there is plenty of evidence that argues against the idea...

What does it take to be considered strange in Al Sharpton’s book? I’d really like to know. Cause if Michael Jackson doesn’t qualify, then the Reverend Al most know some seriously out-there dudes. Speaking at the Staples Center service today, Sharpton, addressing himself to Jackson’s children, declared: “Wudn’t nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with.” View video here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tRQHsXujpo&feature=player_embedded

Health Care will Cause U.S. Dollar Collapse It is becoming increasingly likely that health care will be the straw that causes the U.S. Dollar to collapse. There is no doubt about it that health care costs are out-of-control in America. Unfortunately, most Americans are calling for the government to do something about astronomical health care costs, when the government is actually the cause of the crisis and will only make it much worse. Medicare costs have increased from $3 billion in 1966 to an estimated $408 billion in 2009. This equals a compound annual growth rate of 12% and proves...

Talk about nerve. The very notion of leaving an elected office occupied for barely two years. Even if it is to run for president, that makes it even more peculiar in view of the candidate's lightweight résumé of political experience. I refer, of course, to Barack Obama. Cheap stunt, but it makes my point. Sarah Palin's electoral track record, of course, is far longer than that of Obama, who overcame his meager credentials, and longer even than that of George W. Bush when he ran for president. Granted, the departing Alaska governor's early political career is defined within the walls...

Soaring U.S. unemployment and a shrinking economy drove delinquencies on credit card debt to an all-time high in the first quarter as a record number of cash-strapped consumers fell behind on their bills. Fallout from a still deteriorating housing market caused the rate of consumer loan payments at least 30 days late to rise to 3.23 percent in the January-to-March period from 3.22 percent in the 2008 fourth quarter, the American Bankers Association said. Delinquencies were the highest since the ABA began tracking the data in 1974. Late payments on home equity borrowings set records, rising to 3.52 percent from...

Support for the coup in Honduras extends beyond the pages of right wing political magazines to the United States Congress. Tomorrow, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen will host a private meeting for her Republican colleagues with former Honduran President Ricardo Maduro and former Costa Rican Ambassador to the U.S. Jaime Daremblum. According to the invitation, obtained by UN Dispatch, "President Maduro will help to outline the sequence of events leading to the shift in power in Honduras and removal of Manuel Zelaya; provide insight into Honduran constitutional authorities; and discuss how the U.S. can now...