Free Republic

A group in North Carolina plans to protest the "overwhelming number of illegal Hispanic workers invading the area." A California coalition urges people to lobby against giving legal status to undocumented immigrants. And on New York's Long Island, the topic at a conference this weekend is the "illegal immigration disaster." Sparked by changing demographics, examples of anti-immigration sentiment seem to be cropping up with increasing frequency around the country. Observers say much of the hard feeling is directed at Hispanics, whose numbers grew 58 percent to more than 35 million in the last decade, according to census figures. Anti-immigration ...

iven all the interest these days in the founding fathers, especially John Adams, it shouldn't be surprising that some writers are citing different Adamses as they wage one of the longest-running debates in American history. What are the respective roles of human rights and the national interest, or morality versus power, in formulating foreign policy? In one recent book, "In Our Own Best Interest" by William F. Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty International USA, the Revolutionary leader Samuel Adams is cited to support the argument that human rights should be the essential ingredient of the American national philosophy. ...

ALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 3 — While his colleagues in Russia were preparing for another traditional diplomatic clash over missile defenses next week in Washington, Oleg D. Chernov was trying a different tack — "P.R." From Harvard to Stanford, and from Senate hideaways to West Coast mansions, the 49-year-old Russian official was busy telling anyone who would listen that the Bush administration was misleading Americans about Russia's determination not to abandon the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. Reluctant to take off his suit jacket at the Portola Valley home of Walter Shorenstein, a real estate magnate and major Democratic fund-raiser, ...

ASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — Two of President Bush's onetime and possibly future political rivals joined forces today to warn that the nation's isolation from a global warming pact could hurt American businesses as well as the environment and said that they wanted to guide the nation toward limits on greenhouse gases. The two, Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said the United States should set limits on carbon dioxide emissions, much like those Mr. Bush rejected. They also said they would work with all sectors of industry to develop such a plan. ...

A CHINESE journalist has been sacked after investigating a scandal involving the unauthorised removal of organs from an executed prisoner. Yao Xiaohong, the deputy news editor of a newspaper in the southern Jiangxi province, was fired for "breaking reporting regulations", a former colleague at the Metropolitan Consumption News said yesterday. Mr Yao's exposé of the trade in organs in the rural county of Pingxiang was suppressed by his own newspaper, the colleague said. China denies claims that organs are harvested from prisoners for profit, insisting that all organs are donations, removed with the consent of either the condemned or ...

ASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — Iraq has rebuilt and even improved its air defenses since American and British planes flew strikes against radar stations and command centers in February, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said today. "It does appear that Iraq has been successful in quantitatively and qualitatively improving their air defense," Mr. Rumsfeld said during a news conference, at which he also announced that he would travel to Russia next week for talks with Defense Minister Sergei B. Ivanov. Administration officials say Iraq has become more aggressive and effective in targeting American and British planes over the no-flight ...

ASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — Filling out his own report card just before his summer vacation, President Bush said today that he had proved, through the enactment of a tax cut and the increased possibility of a patients' bill of rights, that he could end "deadlock and drift" in the nation's capital. "Together with Congress, we're proving that a new tone, a clear agenda and active leadership can bring significant progress to the nation's capital," Mr. Bush said as he stood at the edge of the Rose Garden, his entire cabinet arrayed like an exultant team around him. "On this ...

ASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — Claiming that an arm of Congress was seeking to "unconstitutionally interfere" with the workings of the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney formally refused to turn over documents demanded as part of a Congressional investigation of the administration's energy plan, according to a letter released today. The decision to contest the inquiry by the General Accounting Office makes it likely that the accounting office, the investigative arm of Congress, will take the White House to court to enforce its demand for documents, which it says it has the authority to review. Bush administration officials came ...

Students Confront Campus News Bias By Erik Baptist Despite the general lack of support from the liberal university establishment, conservative college newspapers nationwide continue to spark intellectual debate and challenge the left. For years conservative students have complained about left-wing student newspapers. Last year Chris Lilik, now a senior at Villanova University in Philadelphia, decided he’d had enough. “When I saw the hate and disgust directed at students who voiced conservative, libertarian or even pro-life opinions on a Catholic campus,” Lilik tells Insight, “I was inspired to fight.” Along with fellow conservative students, Lilik started the Villanova Times, a 20-page ...

ASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — After six years of bitter debate over patients' rights, the House and the Senate have produced bills that seem very similar. But there are big differences, illustrated by two little words, "a" and "the." Both bills would allow patients to sue health insurance plans in some circumstances. To win damages under the Senate bill, a plaintiff must show that a health plan was negligent and that such negligence was "a proximate cause" of personal injury or death. By contrast, under the House bill, passed on Thursday, a plaintiff must show that the insurer's negligence was ...

ASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — The Senate's Democratic leaders bowed to a White House veto threat today and approved a farm-aid bill that contained $2 billion less than Democrats wanted, offering a preview of the far more divisive budget battles expected this fall. The struggle over the agriculture bill turned bitter in its final hours, with Democrats accusing the White House of abandoning farmers who have been hit hard by a drop in commodities prices. Democrats said they had little choice but to approve a Republican $5.5 billion farm bill — rather than the $7.5 billion Democratic bill that Mr. ...

(CNSNews.com) - When college professor Lori Yaklin discovered that her business ethics students were unable to do the fundamental research, writing and issue evaluation required in her class, she started investigating the Michigan's K through 12 education. What she found surprised and disappointed her."The overall problem is that academic achievement is dismal," said Yaklin. For example, "You have over 60 percent of the poor children in our country can't read in the fourth grade," she said."The students [in the business ethics class] told me that their idea of being 'ethical' was not judging others and recycling," she said. "On the ...

RUMSON, N.J. (AP) -- Noise and privacy complaints have prompted borough officials in this affluent shore community to consider regulating the size and location of elaborate backyard swing sets. The equipment -- play delights for some but a nuisance for others -- can cost thousands of dollars, tower above 6 feet and feature slides, playhouses and other amenities. ''We don't want people to think we are going to prohibit little children's swing sets,'' Borough Administrator Gary Sammon said. ''The complaints we have been getting are on larger gym sets. They're almost the size of those on small parks.'' It's ...

Ellen Goodman continues her willful broadside against tax rebates in my hometown newspaper, the Boston Glob(e). Those of you with strong stomachs may attempt to view the entire article by clicking on the above link. Here are the lowlights: Ms. Goodman, in the best "blank-out" tradition of an Ayn Rand antagonist, manages to combine this piece of verborrhea: But some worried that funding their personal public policy would only please those counterrevolutionaries - dare we call them reactionaries? - who believe that individuals can replace government. (We won't ASK where she was in history class) with the following flabby rhetoric: ...

HONG KONG (Reuters) - MidAmerican Energy Holdings, controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, says it is eager to invest in China but will not enter the market until Beijing unveils a detailed policy to liberalize its fast-growing power sector. ``The Chinese market probably is the one that most intrigues us as a longer term and very significant place to locate,'' MidAmerican chairman and chief executive officer David Sokol, 43, told Reuters in an interview on Friday. But ``it's critical to understand the government's intention toward the regulatory process before we invest,'' he said. Sokol said he was in Hong Kong ...

DETROIT (AP) — Drivers think it's much more distracting to dial a number on a cell phone than it is to talk on the phone, eat, drink, receive e-mail or tune the radio while driving, a survey shows. Sixty-four percent of the 12,920 drivers surveyed by J.D. Power and Associates said dialing while driving is very distracting, while only 30% said talking on the phone while driving is very distracting. The Agoura Hills, Calif., marketing firm conducted an Internet survey of people who bought or leased new vehicles in June. It had a margin of error of plus or minus ...

Many times I've heard women say there aren't any good men left out there... You know, they're all married or losers. I know from personal experience that it just ain't so! Nice guys I work with have lots of trouble finding ladies to ask out. They don't frequent the bars, since they're not really interested in barfly types, and they usually get cold responses approaching women without being introduced or 'fixed up' by mutual friends.So I thought I'd post this, my first and last vanity post, to ask the gals of the Free Republic, (which I respect and admire) just ...

Jonathon Frakes Albert Gore Jr. 2nd in Command on Star Ship 2nd in Command on Ship of State Commander Vice President Worked for bald headed guy Worked for big headed guy Did the nasty on TV with a psychic Did the nasty on TV with a psychotic Lived in a science fiction world Invented Science Fiction Trekked on strange worlds Trekked with son, 6 SS agents, 2 photographers, a blackberry, a palm pilot and a press agent up a mountain Played a Saxophone Played a bong Went to Starfleet Academy Went to St. Alban’s Academy for young men Fired ...

VATICAN CITY, Aug 3, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Authorities in China have released a Chinese Catholic bishop they arrested 18 months ago, Vatican's Fides news agency said Thursday. It said Monsignor Joseph Zhang Weizhu, 45, who was arrested in January 2000 and was being held without charges, was freed sometime in July, although the exact date of his release was unknown. Catholic sources close to Fides said Zhang Weizhu was released on grounds of ill-health. The bishop is a member of the "underground" Chinese Catholic church, which is not recognized by the Chinese government. He has been arrested on ...

Call it the mysterious case of the disappearing candidate. Since Al Gore conceded the presidential election to George Bush last December, he has been almost invisible. True, he has been spotted here and there, particularly at a couple of universities where he volunteered to teach courses in journalism and public policy, but for the most part he has kept an uncanny silence. Could all that be about to change? The New York Times was able to announce a sighting yesterday of the erstwhile vice-president in Europe, where he has been on holiday for several weeks. Admittedly, the paper's report ...