Free Republic

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will halt gasoline imports from September 23 and start rationing gasoline supplies to motorists because of budget constraints, Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT Parliamentarians in the OPEC producer approved a budget for the year to March 2007 that cut the amount to be spent on gasoline imports to $2.5 billion from $4 billion.

March 30, 2006--As Congress considers legislation to reform the immigration process, the nation remains divided on how to proceed. By a 65% to 25% margin, Americans say it is more important to reduce the number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. than it is to expand legal opportunities for foreign workers to get jobs in the U.S. However, that doesn't translate into an overwhelming public desire to force illegal aliens out of the country. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Americans say there should be some way for illegal aliens with a job to stay in the U.S. legally. Forty-four percent (44%)...

A former military intelligence analyst, who currently works as a civilian contractor, believes he has found a cache of extremely confidential--and very shocking--audio recordings of Saddam Hussein's office meetings. The audiotapes, which had apparently been overlooked, were found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files. These tapes are extremely significant, since they may be the best evidence yet of Saddam's secret intentions concerning weapons of mass destruction. Before 9/11, many intelligence experts were convinced that a very strong and important Iraqi WMD connection existed, only to change their minds when no concrete evidence of that connection...

2005: The year the US government undermined the internet And no, it's not what you're thinking Published Thursday 29th December 2005 19:34 GMT 2005 in review 2005 will be forever seen as the year in which the US government managed to keep unilateral control of the internet, despite widespread opposition by the rest of the world. However, while this very public spat went on, everyone failed to notice a related change that will have far greater implications for everyday internet users and for the internet itself. That change will see greater state-controlled censorship on the internet, reduce people's ability to...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that most U.S. residents have a favorable opinion of Wal-Mart. 'Nearly every American lives near enough a Wal-Mart to shop there, and 84 percent say they have done so in the past year,' the research group said. 'Praise for the retailer`s low prices, wide selection and convenience flow freely, and 81 percent of those with a Wal-Mart nearby say it is a good place to shop.' Wal-Mart`s favorable rating places the retail chain just below McDonald`s and General Motors,...

W.W.J.S. — Where would Jesus shop? According to union-backed critics of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., not at the world's largest retailer. WakeUpWalMart.com on Thursday unveiled a religious-themed campaign Thursday asking shoppers whether God wants them to buy things from the Bentonville, Ark.-based company. ADVERTISEMENT The group, funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, launched a TV ad and released a letter signed by 65 clergy members and religious figures. The group says Wal-Mart's policy over wages, health benefits and other issues harm families and communities. Wal-Mart accused the group of using union dues to exploit religion and said it...

Recent work on antarctic ice cores has now given us a good record of atmospheric composition over the last 650,00 years. The work shows that CO2 and other "greenhouse" gasses are now at their highest levels ever over that period. All the news stories are quoting scientists saying that this new information proves that human-emitted gasses are causing global warming. They're wrong. In fact, the core samples might just show the opposite. (Note: I'm working from secondary sources here as I can't bring myself to plink down the $10 to get the actual paper from Science. If I get more...

Wednesday November 23, 2005--Forty-six percent (46%) of American adults approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. It is not clear whether or not the current uptick in the President's ratings is anything more than statistical noise.

PARIS - In one case, the catalyst was Hurricane Katrina; in the other, a freak electrocution accident in a Paris suburb. What followed — drownings and dislocation in the United States, riots across France — has forced each nation to confront problems of racism and poverty that are deeply entrenched but usually ignored. The parallel soul-searching is taking place in two countries where politicians and pundits have long delighted in mocking the other's perceived hypocrisies and flaws. "I'm not sure you can say that one country's system is better or worse than the other — neither works very well," said...

WASHINGTON - House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — regions currently under a drilling moratorium. The actions were a stunning setback for those who have tried for years to open a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil development, and a victory for...

The Dutch government intends to expand its current euthanasia policy, setting guidelines for when doctors may end the lives of terminally ill newborns with the parents' consent, The Associated Press has learned. A letter outlining the new directives was expected to be submitted to parliament for discussion by mid-October, but the new policy will not require a change of law, Dutch Health Ministry spokeswoman Annette Dijkstra said Thursday. The new guidelines are likely to spark an outcry from the Vatican, right-to-life proponents and some advocacy groups for the handicapped who abhor the current policy that allows adult euthanasia if the...

BERLIN - Exit polls showed conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party in the lead and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's seven-year-old government voted out, as Germans on Sunday chose between different visions of their country's role in the world and how to fix its sputtering economy.

President Bush Job Approval Updated Daily by Noon Eastern Bush Job Approval Strongly Approve 27% Somewhat Approve 25% Somewhat Disapprove 13% Strongly Disapprove 34% RasmussenReports.com Wednesday July 13, 2005--Fifty-two percent (52%) of American adults approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. Forty-seven (47%) percent disapprove. For the first time since March, the President's Approval Ratings have been at or above 50% for eight straight days. His Job Approval Rating has been higher than today's reading just once once in the pat six months. The President's performance earns approval from 85% of Republicans, 24% of...

Showdown Nears Over Bush Judicial Nominees By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Republicans on Thursday moved closer to a showdown with Democrats over filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees, sending two judges under dispute to the full Senate. The GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee on identical 10-8 partisan votes gave its approval to Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown, who were nominated by Bush for lifetime judgeships on the regional U.S. appeals courts, the nation's second-highest courts.

Surprise--America Owes Too Little Kenneth L. Fisher, 04.18.05, 12:00 AM ET More From Kenneth L. Fisher Foreign capital, imported at the rate of $600 million per year, helps the U.S. economy. The money goes to build productive assets here. Here's another reason to be bullish: everyone is worried sick that America is overindebted, but it's not. This country could profitably take on more loans from abroad and invest the money in productive assets. We're underindebted. The debt worriers have been with us for a long time, and they've always been wrong. Their economic prescriptions are born of a moral philosophy...

Misconceptions Hurt Social Security Reform in Polls Survey of 2,000 Adults March 10-13, 2005 Does Bush Plan Require Younger Workers to Set Up Personal Accounts? Yes 25% No 47% RasmussenReports.com March 15, 2005--Two major misconceptions about Social Security Reform are costing Personal Retirement Accounts a net 32 percentage points in public opinion polls. Among those over 65, the impact is even greater. Surveys conducted by Rasmussen Reports in 2005 show that between 36% and 48% of senior citizens believe their own retirement benefits will be cut by President Bush's approach to Social Security. This concern exists despite the fact that...

The French Reconnection Europe's most secular country rediscovers its Christian roots. by Agnieszka Tennant | posted 02/25/2005 09:30 a.m. At dusk on a chilly October day, I get on the metro train at Oberkampf, a trendy street on the east side of Paris. A mustached man in his 40s sits in front of me, sets his briefcase down, pulls out a yellow brochure from his jacket, and begins to read it. "Scientific Proof" says the arguably apt title in French. I know what's inside—an argument that humans' meticulous design points to the existence of a loving God; and that he...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syrian troops will begin pulling back to the Lebanese border following a Monday meeting of the two countries' leadership, the Lebanese defense minister said Sunday. Abdul-Rahim Murad said Syrian troops would withdraw from Mount Lebanon and northern Lebanon toward the eastern Bekaa Valley closer to the Lebanon-Syria border. "The Syrian withdrawal will begin Monday directly after the meeting in Damascus of the Syrian and Lebanese leaderships," Murad said. Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud were to meet in Damascus with other top officials to discuss the details of the two-stage pullback the Syrian leader...

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites) on Saturday ordered a revision of the country's election laws and said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential elections, a scenario Mubarak hasn't faced since taking power in 1981. AP Photo The surprise announcement, a response to critics' calls for political reform, comes shortly after historic elections in Iraq (news - web sites) and the Palestinian territories, balloting that brought a taste of democracy to the region. It also comes amid a sharp dispute with the United States over Egypt's arrest...

02-21) 06:35 PST BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Tens of thousands of opposition supporters shouted insults at Syria and demanded the resignation of their pro-Syrian government in a Beirut demonstration Monday, marking a week since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Beating drums and waving Lebanese flags, those of their own parties and portraits of past leaders killed during the 1975-90 civil war, the protesters gathered at the site where Hariri was killed Feb. 14 in a bombing that the opposition blames on Damascus. Some in the crowd yelled "Syria out!" and "We don't want a parliament that acts...