Free Republic

A House committee yesterday voted to slash U.S. dues payments to the United Nations by half if the world body fails to enact sweeping reforms to its budget, human rights arm and peacekeeping missions. By a one-vote margin, the House International Relations Committee rejected a softer Democratic alternative that would have given Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the power to decide whether to withhold dues. Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and a co-sponsor of the bill, said anything short of a mandatory cutoff of U.S. funds was an "empty gesture" in the face of such scandals as the...

This year, the Libertarian Party is -- for the first time -- taking part in the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) annual conference as a co-sponsor. The conference will be held February 17-19 at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, DC. A disparate group of organizations will sponsor the event, including the Objectivist Center, Americans for Tax Reform, the National Rifle Association, Regent University, National Taxpayers Union, the ACLU, Heritage Foundation, Bureaucrash, Log Cabin Republicans, Drug Policy Alliance, the College Republican National Committee and a host of others. "A prime example of the variety of opinions in CPAC sponsors...