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Most voters still view Israel as one of America's leading allies. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that 56% think of Israel as an ally, while just three percent (3%) view the country as an enemy to the United States. Thirty-six percent (36%) think Israel is somewhere in between an enemy and an ally of the United States. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Those numbers remain little unchanged from August when 60% felt that way. That same month, however, Americans ranked Israel third on a list of 12 nations in the news, behind...

A state senator from Cape May has introduced a bill (S-2264) to make it easier for New Jerseyeans to carry handguns. Jeff Van Drew, who owns two guns himself, proposes that New Jerseyeans should be able to carry guns if they take a gun safety class, pass a rigorous background check and pay an annual $500 licensing fee. Gun control advocates, unsurprisingly, hate the measure, which is modeled on a similar program in Pennsylvania. Gun groups think the $500 fee is excessive.

(IsraelNN.com) Hareidi and national-religious rabbis will meet Monday in Jerusalem to discuss ways of dealing with the Arab influx into Jewish neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem, as well as the purchasing of agricultural land in the Galilee by wealthy foreign Arabs. The rabbis are expected to call for an end to the phenomenon of sale of land and houses by Jews to Arabs. The organizer, Aryeh King, who heads the Israel Lands Fund, told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service that he is hoping to see the rabbis issue a pronouncement that sale of land and houses to Arabs is forbidden.

There's potentially good news on the environmental front out of Washington D.C., but it's probably more than offset by a devastating announcement Friday. First, the good news. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Environmental Protection Agency, when upgrading older power plants, may consider costs before demanding use of the most advanced technology, as required by law. The ruling was a defeat for environmentalists, who challenged the Bush administration's discretionary practice. Hans Bader, special projects counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute think tank, told us the ruling permits continued cost-benefit analysis as an option in upgrades .. The group...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country. The high court will hear a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky — Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. — who sued Kentucky in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Baze has been scheduled for execution Tuesday night, but the Kentucky Supreme Court halted the proceedings earlier this month. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously made it easier for death row inmates to...

VIENNA, Austria - Iran is ready to consider suspending uranium enrichment for up to two months, diplomats told The Associated Press on Sunday. The diplomats, who insisted on anonymity to disclose confidential information, spoke shortly after senior Iranian and European Union diplomats held a second day of talks on Tehran's defiance of a U.N. demand that it suspend enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear arms. They said the compromise was mentioned by Ali Larijani, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator, during his meeting with the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. One diplomat said Larijani floated the possibility of stopping...

The Supreme Court's refusal Monday to consider a second lethal injection case suggests the justices are not ready to decide whether the drugs amount to cruel and unusual punishment, legal experts said. The denial was issued without comment, leaving court watchers to speculate over justices' reasons for rejecting an appeal by a Tennessee death-row inmate who claims lethal injection is unconstitutional. "The Supreme Court is plainly not ready to step into the lethal injection controversy yet," said Eric M. Freedman, a Hofstra University law professor. "It's kind of a puzzle," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top education advisor said the administration is prepared to consider raising taxes as part of a long-term solution to the problems plaguing California schools. The statement by California Education Secretary Alan Bersin came in a Dec. 1 speech to the California School Boards Assn. It was posted on the group's website Friday. His comments mark the first time any top administration official has acknowledged that new taxes could be needed to restore the quality of state services. "No one can look at the history of California education over the last generation and not notice we...

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are circulating a draft letter calling for a congressional leak investigation into the disclosure of secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad. The Washington Post reported Nov. 2 on the existence of secret U.S. prisons in Eastern Europe for terrorism suspects. The Bush administration has neither confirmed nor denied that report. "If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," stated the draft. The Associated Press obtained a...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he would consider supporting a voter-approved bond to help repair California's aging levee system. Hurricane Katrina's horrific damage and the subsequent levee break in New Orleans have focused attention on the Central Valley's century-old levees, which protect thousands of homes and millions of acres of prime farmland. A Record investigation in May found that in San Joaquin County alone, more than 30,000 new homes have been built or approved by local governments in flood-prone areas since 1997, when the last major flooding hit. In an interview Tuesday with The Record, the governor softened...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - With negotiations between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders at a halt, both sides are poised to go to political war in a Nov. 8 special election, even as the number of ballot measures dwindle and new calls are made by some to cancel the balloting all together. "We are so deep into it now, I don't see how you can get the toothpaste back into the tube," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles. "We are so far down the path, I think we should have the special election and put the whole issue to rest."...

Consider reformers, orders Ayatollah By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent (Filed: 24/05/2005) Hardliners in Iran suffered a rare public rebuke from the country's supreme spiritual leader yesterday, when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei helped two reformist candidates running in the presidential election next month. Mostafa Moin State radio said Ayatollah Khamenei issued an official decree for the Guardian Council, an unelected body vetting all those standing for public office, to rethink its disqualification of reformists from the poll on June 17. International concern over Iran's nuclear programme gives this poll significance beyond the Middle East. The Ayatollah did not give his backing...

CHICAGO - Democrats, looking to reverse their fortunes after two straight White House defeats, met Saturday to hear competing proposals to revamp the election calendar used to choose a presidential nominee every four years. The three major proposals would focus on regional primaries. Two of those proposals would allow Iowa and New Hampshire to retain their leadoff roles in the candidate selection process. A third plan, offered by Michigan Democrats, would create a rotating series of six regional primaries. A different region would launch each presidential nominating season. That plan would allow single-state contests to begin the process, but those...

Freedom News Service Black-powdered muskets may no longer ring in the New Year at Rudisill Stadium next New Year’s Day, school officials said Tuesday. The stadium, located at Cherryville High School, has been the site of the end of the night celebration of two groups of Cherryville shooters since 1991. But the groups’ use of the stadium may be violating school system policy. Principal Steve Huffstetler said he would probably not let the final shot from the Cherryville shooters take place on school grounds again. He has been at the school for seven years as principal but was unsure of...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union leaders on Thursday considered taking on a bigger role in rebuilding Iraq and forging stronger ties with re-elected President Bush. At the opening of a two-day summit, incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he put together a new executive team, signaling the prospect of an early end to problems surrounding his original lineup. In a key change, Barroso said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini would be the next justice commissioner, instead of conservative Italian Rocco Buttiglione, who upset many European Parliament members with anti-gay comments in confirmation hearings in October. The EU...

WASHINGTON, May 19 - The difficulty of developing an in-flight inspection and repair system may force NASA to consider alternative approaches if it wants to resume flying the space shuttle next spring, an oversight group said Wednesday.The return-to-flight task force monitoring NASA's progress in complying with recommendations from the board that investigated the Columbia disaster said inspecting shuttles after launching and fixing any damage "present enormous challenges" that could force the agency to look at alternative approaches.In issuing a progress report, the task force - headed by two former astronauts, Thomas P. Stafford and Richard O. Covey - said the...

<p>Some will argue that a weapon capable of protecting American and allied lives is more dangerous than the terrorists and dictators who openly state their willingness to use weapons of mass murder to kill hundreds of thousands and even millions of civilians. This argument against America protecting itself is a path to enormous danger. Imagine an enemy of the United States that has developed a chemical or biological weapon. Now imagine that we knew conclusively its precise production and storage locations. However, because our enemy has studied us and has learned our capabilities and our vulnerabilities, he has located the facility two stories deeper than any weapon in our arsenal can penetrate.</p>

<p>CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush is leaving the door open to campaigning for California Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger if it could help tip the balance in a close recall election, officials said today.</p> <p>Nearly a dozen people with ties to Bush emphasized he has no plans now to do so. But none would rule it out.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. - With new polling showing Gov. Gray Davis facing tough odds to save his job, jittery Democrats met around the state Monday to consider breaking ranks and urging U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein or another prominent party leader to run in the historic recall race.</p>

The California Supreme Court declined late yesterday to halt the recall vote of Gov. Gray Davis, virtually assuring the Golden State's first voter-driven measure to oust its governor. SAN FRANCISCO — While Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante ordered an Oct. 7 recall election targeting Gov. Gray Davis, it's premature to suggest that Davis' political future rests with voters. Instead, and at least for now, Davis' fate is in the hands of seven men and women comprising the California Supreme Court, which is reviewing a host of competing yet quirky election laws stemming from a last-ditch challenge by pro-Davis forces to block...

<p>The gubernatorial recall has turned into an old-fashioned game of chicken, in which two cars head right at each other and everyone waits to see which will swerve first.</p> <p>Gray Davis is driving one car with fellow Democrats in the back seat, most of them insisting the governor should steer but wondering if he is about to kill them all.</p>

<p>The recall of Gov. Gray Davis has yet to qualify for the ballot, but politicians across the state are pondering what comes next.</p> <p>"This is so great because there are so many permutations," said Bill Simon, the wealthy GOP businessman Davis defeated in November. Simon is seriously considering another bid for governor if the recall reaches voters.</p>