Free Republic

Late in the day on April 4th (just before AFPC closed its doors and unplugged its phones for the weekend), notices began going out to airmen retracting previously approved retirements, explaining that approval had been “erroneous.” They’d been given permission to retire, allowed to act on it for a few days, and then informed AFPC was “taking back” that approval. In some cases, this second notice came after the acceptance of a job offer or the hiring of a real estate agent. Spouses gave notice at work or accepted new jobs. In some cases, child care providers were given notice...

Political corruption has been a problem since the first Europeans settled in America. From officials to politicians, laws are circumvented to obtain riches and/or power.

A Republican lawmaker proposed a political reform measure Monday that would alter term limits, legislative redistricting and campaign fundraising, saying his all-in-one approach would have the best chance of winning voter approval. But it didn't please Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who called Sen. Roy Ashburn's legislation "an unworkable and unconstitutional crap shoot that is simply window dressing for term limits and redistricting reform." "We need to be straight with Californians and let them weigh each of these reforms on their own merits," the Los Angeles Democrat added in a statement. Ashburn, a Bakersfield Republican, introduced a four-part constitutional revision, part...

LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NEW YORK http://www.ny.lp.org/ 516-767-4688 Contact: Richard Cooper, State Chair nylibertarian@hotmail.com NY Libertarian Leader Has Mixed Reaction To Spitzer’s State of the State Speech Albany, NY 1/5/07: After reading Gov. Spitzer’s first State of the State speech, Libertarian Party State Chair Richard Cooper had a pleasant surprise. He actually agreed with some of what Spitzer advocated. Not that the Libertarian leader was pleased by everything said or not said. Spitzer called for political reforms. Cooper liked nonpartisan redistricting and lobbying reform. But Cooper derides Spitzer’s call for “public” financing of elections. Cooper declares “We already have taxpayer financing...

Arabs Lift Their Voices By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: April 7, 2005 Until the recent elections in Iraq and among the Palestinians, the modern Arab world was largely immune to the winds of democracy that have blown everywhere else in the world. Why? That's a pretty important question. For years, though, it was avoided in both the East and the West. In the West it was avoided because a toxic political correctness infected the academic field of Middle Eastern studies - to such a degree that anyone focusing on the absence of freedom in the Arab world ran the risk...

China asserts control over Hong Kong's political future BEIJING, (AFP) - China has tightened its grip on Hong Kong's political future, dealing a blow to pro-democracy campaigners with the ruling Beijing must have the final say on any electoral reforms in the former British colony. Members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing passed a resolution stating all political reforms in Hong Kong have to be approved by China's central government. "The interpretation has been passed," lawmakers told reporters as they exited the meeting at Beijing's central Great Hall of the People. The legislation was...

The same grass-roots group that launched the successful recall of Gov. Gray Davis turned its attention to the Legislature on Thursday and kicked off an initiative drive to reconfigure legislative districts so that politicians face tougher competition on election day. Ted Costa, chief executive officer of the conservative antitax group, People's Advocate, has taken the first step toward putting an initiative before voters next November that would take redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and give it to a panel of retired judges. Costa does not want to wait eight years to get rid of the district boundaries...

All this -- the closed primary, protectionist redistricting, term limits -- "is a dastardly combination," South continues. "I'm utterly disgusted with the whole thing."

President Bush urged world leaders Friday to demand political reform from poor countries in exchange for increased aid and warned that unchecked poverty can foster terrorism. "We fight poverty because hope is an answer to terror," Bush said in a speech before representatives from 171 nations taking part in the U.N. International Conference on Financing for Development. The president outlined his proposal to link U.S. foreign aid to a country's ability to rid itself of corruption and walk a straight, narrow path to economic reform. He said he will ask Congress to put an extra $10 billion into core U.S....