Free Republic

Seemingly terminal reconstruction gridlock may not be the only scandal plaguing the site of the destroyed Twin Towers. Now serious concerns are being raised about the nature of the principal Ground Zero memorial. The International Freedom Center is to be a 250,000-square-foot museum with a self-professed mission to "harness the power of history and use it as a springboard for contemporary dialogue and debate" on the meaning of freedom.... Because odds are that, at the end of the day, this center won't focus on freedom's triumphs, so much as on its failures — particularly those in which America can be...

...The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany struck their deal with Iran on Wednesday in Geneva. Yesterday, also in Geneva, the World Trade Organization agreed to open membership talks with Iran. Unlike the 22 other times this issue has come up, the U.S. did not object. Agreeing to let Iran negotiate to join the WTO was part of the U.S. promise to the European three last March in return for their agreement that Iran can't be allowed to enrich uranium. At the very least, this action ought to put to rest the caricatures of the Bush Administration as "cowboys"...

The end of the quotas has triggered what trade experts believe could be one of the largest migrations of production in history, jeopardizing Cambodia's 220,000 apparel jobs. Hundreds of thousands more are threatened in Bangladesh, El Salvador, Lesotho and other countries that prospered under the quota system. The massive manufacturing shift will be a windfall for billions of people, bringing huge savings to consumers and accelerating the transfer of jobs to engines of low-cost production in China and India. But it could cripple economies across Latin America, Africa and Asia. Relative newcomers to the international commerce club risk losing their...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryNovember 20, 2004 President's Radio Address      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This weekend I am on my first trip outside the United States since the election, traveling to South America for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. I am meeting with many allies and friends to strengthen our ties across the Pacific and discuss practical ways we can enhance prosperity, advance liberty, and improve our shared security. America and the nations of Latin America and Asia share many vital interests. All Pacific nations benefit from free and fair trade, the foundation of this...

Last week I was joined at lunch by an Indian gentleman who had recently retired from a senior position at a semiconductor company of national repute in the United States. Much of his work in the last decade was in establishing production facilities for his company in China; not surprisingly, he displayed very intimate knowledge of the government and the industry in China, and how the two work in tandem to make China prosperous. Of Indian descent that he is, he kept bringing comparisons with the subcontinent into his conversation, and seemed to a have reached a conclusion, like most...

...Even after nearly two decades in the Senate, John Kerry is uncertain whether he is for or against TPA, even though it must be renewed early next year. Instead, Mr. Kerry wants a long study that would conveniently extend months beyond when this hard-fought authority is due to expire.... Mr. Kerry's vacillation on trade extends further. His campaign has signaled the abandonment of America's successful drive for Free Trade Agreements. The Bush administration has completed FTAs... that also include enforceable commitments on labor and environmental laws, combined with aid programs that help developing countries improve conditions cooperatively -- contradicting Mr....

The value of the national commission now investigating the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001, is that it forces the nation to look beyond its feelings of grief and awe, and grimly assess the things that could have been done better. This is a service to the future, but it is never a dismissal of the heroism of the past. We needed these respectful but hardheaded men and women to ask tough questions about the Bush administration's vigilance before 9/11, and this week we needed to hear their stern questions about New York City's emergency response to the attack on the...

GENEVA — Brazil's emphatic win over the United States in a key trade ruling over cotton will send shock waves through world trade talks and embolden those demanding all farm subsidies be slashed, analysts said on Tuesday. The Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO), in a confidential decision, told Washington to halt much of the lavish aid it gives the country's some 25,000 cotton farmers, ruling it illegal, sources close to the ruling said. The decision goes to the heart of the debate at troubled WTO negotiations to reform world farm trade, where angry poorer countries argue the massive subsidy schemes...

Free-Trade Bloc Framework OK'd in Miami Thu Nov 20, 8:47 PM ET By TRACI CARL, AP Business WriterMIAMI - Trade ministers from across the Americas — unable to agree on thorny issues like agricultural subsidies but pressured to avoid another failure in international talks — approved a watered-down framework on Thursday for the world's largest free-trade bloc. Ministers from 34 countries in the Americas, excluding Cuba, were scheduled to finish negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas on Friday. But after days of debate, they said Thursday they had achieved all they could in Miami. The agreement, due...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretarySeptember 20, 2003 President's Radio Address      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Every day, millions of Americans put in long hours building businesses of their own. Their hard work strengthens the economy, creates most of the new jobs in America, and supplies the innovation that drives our future prosperity. As we mark National Small Business Week, our nation honors the enterprise and hard work of small business owners and employees. Small businesses are a key to upward mobility, particularly for women and minorities. There are over 3 million minority-owned small businesses across America, and that...

<p>The chaotic scene was a precursor to an even larger rally and march beginning at 10 a.m. today at the state Capitol. Organizers have taken out a march permit for 8,000 people. Their target: an international agriculture conference, hosted by the U.S. government, that starts today at the Sacramento Convention Center.</p>

Dovish Wife Pecks at Sen. Baucus, Praises Saddam Poor Sen. Max Baucus. To trick Montanans into re-electing him he did everything possible to fudge his identity as a Democrat and all but licked President Bush's cowboy boots. Now his appeasement activist of a wife is causing him problems. The senator's wife, Wanda, a painter and anthropologist, has gone so far as to desecrate the American flag by replacing the stars with doves on an appeasement poster prominently displayed at their home in snooty Georgetown. "We are way out of line" and have no right to fight Saddam Hussein, Mrs. B...