Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's Republican foes on Thursday blamed his energy policies and efforts to combat climate change for soaring oil and gasoline prices and called for boosting domestic production. "As gas prices go up, so does the cost of everyday life," Republican House Speaker John Boehner told reporters as he unveiled a campaign dubbed the "America Energy Initiative" to increase supplies and roll back regulations. "It costs more to drive to work, to buy groceries, or just to get the kids to school. And at a time when our economy already isn't creating enough jobs, rising...

The head of the Mexican American Political Assn. on Tuesday called on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to drop support of an ambassadorship for an owner of Ameriquest and urged him not to use the mortgage company's jet again. --snip-- In a letter to the mayor, MAPA National President Nativo Lopez said his group was "taken aback" by an article in The Times on Tuesday that detailed Villaraigosa's use of the Ameriquest jet and his letter of support to the Senate for the nomination of Ameriquest principal owner Roland E. Arnall as ambassador to the Netherlands. Lopez said his organization...

<p>Democratic supporters of Gov. Gray Davis mounted a fierce defense Tuesday against a movement to recall him by publicly calling conservative GOP Rep. Darrell Issa -- who has donated nearly $700,000 toward the recall effort -- a political "extremist" out of step with California voters.</p>

<p>A move by several Central American countries to issue identification cards to their citizens in the United States has sparked complaints that the cards promote illegal immigration.</p> <p>The cards, patterned after Mexico's highly successful consular identification card, allow immigrants to open bank accounts, board airplanes and conduct other official business, regardless of their immigration status.</p>