Free Republic

A ballot measure to ban gay marriage has already won the support of many religious leaders and Republican politicians. On Tuesday, it received another endorsement -- this time from a group of Democrats. In a press conference headlined by Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, the community leaders -- including pastors and civic activists -- said marriage should be defined as the union between a man and a woman. Amendment 2, if passed by voters on Election Day, would do just that by changing the Florida Constitution to say, ``No other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial...

NEW YORK/PRNewswire/ -- Award-winning broadcast journalist and author Lou Dobbs announced today that he will be bringing his influential and popular point of view to a coast-to-coast radio audience with a new daily Talk Show. The show, tentatively titled "The Lou Dobbs Show," will be produced, distributed to affiliates and sold to advertisers by United Stations Radio Networks, Inc. ("USRN"), a privately-held radio programming company based in New York. Dobbs, who is best known as the anchor of the nightly "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on CNN, has become an ideological flashpoint himself in recent years and is certain to bring his...

TALLAHASSEE - The issue was whether employees have the right to keep guns in their cars at work, and the National Rifle Association got help from an unexpected ally at a committee hearing Tuesday: the AFL-CIO labor union. The business community strongly opposes the new NRA-supported legislation, but that's no surprise, said AFL-CIO spokesman Rich Templin, who said big business wants sweeping new property rights. "They're seeking to put the rights of dirt over the rights of people," Templin said. "They're seeking to say that the rights of Floridians stop at the boundaries of our property. People should not have...

Proposals to build nuclear power plants have often often met opposition from environmental and progressive organizations, however, a growing number of green-minded activists are reconsidering their past objections to nukes. The Lakeland (FL) Ledger reported on 12/22/06: "In an article he wrote for Technology Review last year, Stewart Brand, a founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue, argued: "Everything must be done to increase energy efficiency and decarbonize energy production," including development of renewable energy sources like solar, wind and bio mass." "But add them all up," Brand continued, "and it's just a fraction of enough. … The only technology ready...

Forty-five states — fully 90 percent of the United States — have enacted legislation or amended state constitutions to ensure that marriage is defined only as the union of one man and one woman. In spite of this overwhelming national consensus, the U.S. Senate recently rejected the federal Marriage Protection Amendment, falling far short of the two-thirds supermajority required to amend the Constitution. The vote was 49 to 48, eighteen votes short of passage and light-years short of accurately reflecting the will of the American public on this issue I think it’s time to do an end run on our...

Conservatives and Republicans are anti-abortion while Democrats and liberals are for abortion, right? This conventional wisdom has not come about haphazardly. If you ask people why they identify with one party or the other, abortion (or "women's rights," as liberals prefer to call the issue) is usually at the top of the list. In fact, sometimes abortion is the sole issue people use to determine their party preference, however faulty that might be. That's probably because abortion is a topic people get passionate about as early as middle or high school long before they have opinions about taxes, Social Security,...

DENVER - Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm has been saying it for years - that the state and the nation must do something about the growing number of illegal immigrants. Now, Lamm and others are poised to get a citizens' initiative on next year's ballot that they hope would do just that. For years Lamm, who served three terms as governor, has traveled around the state and the nation warning about the perils and pitfalls of the country's current immigration policies. In a speech on immigration overpopulation at a Washington, D.C., conference earlier this year, Lamm satirically outlined eight ways...

TALLAHASSEE -- A rare and spectacular showdown may be coming in Florida's Republican Party: Big Business vs. Big Guns. And the stakes couldn't be higher. To critics, it's about the safety of workplaces, including hospitals and churches, throughout the Sunshine State. To supporters, it's about the safety of employees who travel to and from those workplaces. The dust-up is over the "guns-at-work" bill, which the National Rifle Association began pushing last month in Tallahassee to force all Florida businesses to allow firearms in the vehicles of any employee or visitor. Companies could keep policies banning guns from their buildings themselves...

LAS CHEPAS, MEXICO – Mario Pérez, muscular and 16 years old, is a budding carpenter. Next to him is Samuel Sánchez, 32, an experienced roofer. Fed up with earning $4 a day in Mexico, they recently arrived at this tiny town on the Mexican-New Mexican border to start the two-day walk to the US. They talked about where they would go. "Probably Texas," said Mr. Sánchez. "What about New Orleans?" suggested Mr. Pérez In the wake of hurricane Katrina, recent moves by the US government may help would-be migrants like Sánchez and Pérez decide where to go. And decisions in...

Fifteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives have produced a document and a strategy that they hope will convince substantial numbers of voters who don't trust them on national security to begin trusting them again. Led by Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Ensuring America's Strength and Security: A Democratic National Security Strategy for the 21st Century is an attempt by Democrats to reclaim this issue from Republicans and return the Democratic Party to majority status. Hoyer, a liberal who voted for the Patriot Act, tells me that during Bill Clinton's presidency, ''We didn't do enough to fight terrorism.''...

The American Civil Liberties Union and gay rights groups have made a legal challenge to the proposed same-sex marriage ban amendment that got its start in Jacksonville last year. The ACLU, joined by Equality Florida and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, filed a brief with the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment from getting onto the general election ballot in November 2006. The Orlando-based Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage is pushing the amendment, but ACLU lawyers say it is misleading and could actually affect traditional families. Specifically, the ACLU says...

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." Pete Ashdown, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate from Utah discusses the lack of vision in Washington in his campaign blog. "I have a hard time seeing any vision in our federal government. The recent energy bill is a good example of this. Rather than pushing for a national effort towards clean and plentiful energy, our government wanders the room like a drunk looking for leftovers in bottles. The best example of this is a $5 Billion Loan to China to fund new nuclear reactors. The reason our representatives give for...

Since the United Nations is supposed to provide a voice for all nations, I see no basis other than China's objections as to why Taiwan is locked out of the U.N. I also think it is time for the U.S. to recognize Taiwan as independent and self-governing nation. Over the years, American foreign policy has taken several unrealistic approaches in regard to China and Taiwan. For more than 20 years following the communist revolution in China, we had a "one China" policy pretending that a nationalist exile regime based in Taiwan was the legitimate government of the Chinese mainland. In...

Voting along party lines, the California State Senate has approved a law that would permit same sex marriage. I think the Democratic majority in the California Senate has done something that will be very damaging to the party nationally and to our social institutions. Our society and I suspect the gay community as well is not ready for gay marriage. While divorce is a major cause of family instability (and we should take a look at changing no-fault divorce laws), I think that allowing gay marriage will only further weaken the traditional family structure. I hope that there will be...

Blue Dog Coalition 12-point reform plan for restoring fiscal sanity 1. Require a balanced budget. • Blue Dogs support a Constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget every year except in times of war or national emergency. • Blue Dogs believe a Balanced Budget Amendment is the only way to ensure fiscal discipline in Congress. • The Blue Dog Balanced Budget Amendment would require a three-fifths vote of both the House and Senate to increase the debt limit or to waive the balanced budget requirement. • In addition, the Blue Dog Balanced Budget Amendment protects Social Security from benefit cuts...

ORLANDO (FBW) – Leaders of a coalition supporting a state constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage announced at three simultaneous news conferences Aug. 19 the effort has virtually reached an important “milestone” and called on Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, Attorney General Charlie Crist and the state Supreme Court to “expedite” their review of the proposed amendment. At news conferences in Orlando, Tallahassee and Miami, spokespersons of the Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage said the Florida Division of Elections has certified 60,642 petitions as of Aug. 19, with 61,113 needed to reach the 10 percent threshold required to trigger...

A few years ago, the strategy of gun-control advocates was obvious: File frivolous liability lawsuits against gun-makers and distributors, knowing that, whatever the ultimate merits of the cases, the manufacturers would be hard- pressed to keep fighting. Many would go out of business, profits would decline for others, and the high costs imposed by endless litigation would drive up the costs of guns and make it more difficult for many people to afford to buy them. It was a cynical strategy, but one that is about to end. A shift in political winds has changed the dynamic. A gain of...

Suffolk County (New York) County Executive Steve Levy is one Democratic elected official that is doing something about illegal immigration. Levy has worked to improve communication between local police and federal immigration enforcement agencies. As County Executive, Levy authorized the cross training of Suffolk County police officers so that they have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws. Sting operations have been set up with cooperation between federal and local authorities to crack down on employers hiring illegal aliens and landlords who provide substandard housing to undocumented workers. A sweep coordinated by federal immigration agents and Sufffolk County police last...

Timing, as they say, is everything. And with bombs going off again in London's subways, the threat of terrorism took on a certain immediacy this week - even in the halls of Congress. So after nine hours of debate, the House voted 257-171 to renew some key provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at the end of this year. In doing so the House also adopted sunset provisions on two of the more controversial aspects of the law - roving wiretaps and the ability to access business, library and medical records. Both would be up for renewal 10...

What does the kind of vehicle you drive say about your political views ? An informal survey that I did before the last election found that drivers with foreign cars were more likely to back Kerry while those with American cars were more apt to support Bush. As a "old school" labor Democrat, I have consistently purchased union-made American vehicles. While conducting my survey matching political bumper stickers with cars, I observed that about 90% of the vehicles with Kerry stickers were on foreign automobiles. The only exceptions were a few middle aged guys driving American trucks with Kerry stickers...