Free Republic

Very interesting.

The idea of a value-added tax (VAT), attacked by national Republicans ever since it was floated by a White House adviser, has some GOP supporters in Congress. Five Republican House members are co-sponsors of a bill by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) that would impose a VAT on imports from countries that use the tax. In the Senate, George Voinovich (R-Ohio) has suggested that replacing income taxes with a VAT could be one way to streamline the tax code. "I don't know whether it would [be more efficient] or not," Voinovich told The Hill. "All I'm saying is that we shouldn't...

Most of the posted and published articles regarding the Gulf oil spill are generic, non-technical, and without much real meat. Thus, I spent some time looking around to find some more satisfying and technical information. Here is an initial New York Times article which explains some of the issues. And, here is a Washington Post graphic that better details the current situation. BTW, a blowout preventer (BOP) is a device full of hydraulic rams and/or valves that sets on top of the well to seal uncontrolled leaks. To some degree it is at least conceptually possible to operate the gulf...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama on Tuesday met with congressional Republicans to discuss his proposed $825 billion economic stimulus plan as a critical House vote looms. The president met with House Republicans first, and then had a meeting scheduled with the Senate GOP caucus. "We had a wonderful exchange of ideas, and I continue to be optimistic about our ability to get this recovery package done to put people back to work," Obama said after leaving a meeting with GOP House members. "There are some legitimate philosophical differences" between Democrats and Republicans on how to stimulate the economy, Obama noted,...

Update: Despite efforts from Fox News to facilitate this dying girl's wish to have her father at her bedise when she passes, the imovable, cold-hearted, beauraucratic, red tape of the Jucidiary, Bureau Of Prisons and U.S. Attorney are intransigent in their unwillingness to bend the "rules" to allow this to happen.

Many branches of government need to understand Islam, but probably none deal with Muslims and their religious practices in so practical and detailed a way as do the wardens of prisons. It is therefore particularly dismaying to see that the highest prison authority in the United States, the Bureau of Prisons (which oversees all federal correctional facilities), has bought the Islamist line. My evidence for this comes from the Annual Refresher Training (ART) that all BOP staff must participate in. The 2005 course includes a lesson plan, "Islam in the Correctional Environment," designed by the Training and Staff Development Branch...

FBI DNA program struck down Court says prisoners can’t be ordered to give blood samples BREAKING NEWS ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 2 — A federal appeals court declared Thursday that it was unconstitutional to require federal prisoners or those on supervised release to give blood samples for the FBI’s DNA databank A THREE-JUDGE PANEL of the 9TH U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the first federal appeals court to address the federal DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act, said requiring convicts to give blood for a criminal database was a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches. Ruling 2-to-1,...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis Presley and helped usher in the rock 'n' roll revolution, died Wednesday. He was 80. Phillips died at St. Francis Hospital, spokeswoman Gwendolyn McClain said. No details were immediately available about the cause of death or how long he had been hospitalized. Phillips founded Sun Records in Memphis in 1952 and helped launch the career of Presley, then a young singer who had moved from Tupelo, Miss. He produced Presley's first record, the 1954 single that featured ``That's All Right, Mama'' and ``Blue Moon of Kentucky.'' ``God only knows that we didn't...