Free Republic

(9/05/06 - MEXICO CITY, Mexico) - The president of Mexico's top electoral court recommended Tuesday that the full tribunal uphold the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. The recommendation must still be approved, but Leonel Castillo suggested that the seven magistrates certify a final vote count showing Calderon with a 233,831-vote lead out of 41.6 million cast. That would trim Calderon's earlier lead of 240,000. Such a decision has been widely expected, and the leftist rival candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador already has vowed to ignore the ruling, which comes after weeks of legal challenges and protests and...

------------- Snip ------------------- The United States should be the “pre-eminent champion of freedom” and “the most generous of all industrialized nations,” Carter said. “Those are the indications of a real super-power.” Carter shared two experiences that he said have been most memorable from througout all his travels and volunteer work. He said he will never forget the image of a young woman holding her right breast, so swollen with the attempted exit of a guinea worm that it “looked like she was holding a baby in her arms.” The second image Carter recalled was of a young Ethiopian girl’s eagerness...