Free Republic

Imagine a place with a population nearly the size of England but with only half the economic clout of San Diego County. And in this place almost half the people make less than $2 per day. Now imagine some of the highest-paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. – representing labor unions, textile mills, beef ranchers and sugar growers – filing into the Capitol to fight over whether the United States should establish a free-trade agreement with that deeply impoverished land. Once you have that picture firmly in mind, you have an idea of the debate that's shaping up over the Central...

      On June 13, 1866, in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Congress passed the 14th Amendment to the  Constitution of the United States, which was ratified by the states and became part of our Constitution on July 9, 1868.       The 14th Amendment, or Article 14, is commonly known as the ''Equal Rights Amendment,'' for it contains in Section 1 the now-famous injunction that ''No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due...

The Saddam conundrum: Was he killed in first raid? By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 22 March 2003 American intelligence was wrestling yesterday with a conundrum whose answer may decide the course of the war against Iraq: was Saddam Hussein killed or injured in Wednesday night's raid against a fortified compound in Baghdad? And if he survived unscathed, were either of his sons, or other top aides, among the victims? Because, of course, there were victims. As one official here put it, "You don't drop 40 cruise missiles and 2,000lb 'bunker busters' and not hurt someone." And despite the prevailing (but...

SCRANTON, Pa. -- A man charged with theft didn't have the money to pay for a rehabilitation program that would clear his criminal record, so he stole a courthouse computer to pawn off, police said. Police said Ernesto Valdez, 32, arrived Monday at the Lackawanna County Courthouse to enroll in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, which expunges the criminal record of first-time offenders. Valdez did not have the $685 enrollment fee, so he stole a court stenographer's laptop computer to pawn, according to police. The pawn shop refused to take the computer because the power cord was missing, so...