Free Republic

The Christian includes, he does not close the door to anyone, even if this provokes resistance. He who excludes, because he believes himself to be better, generates conflicts and divisions, and does not consider the fact that "we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God." That was the message of Pope Francis during Thursday morning's Mass at Casa Santa Marta. The attitude of Christ is to include In the Letter to the Romans, Saint Paul exhorts us not to judge and not to despise our brothers, because, the Pope said, this leads to excluding them from "our little...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Treasury bailout watchdog has warned that excluding his office from oversight of a proposed $30 billion small business lending fund would be "terribly wasteful" and could put taxpayers at risk. Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), said in a letter to a senior Treasury official that he was "surprised" to learn last week that Treasury is proposing the new program operate outside his purview. The letter, dated Friday, was made public on Monday.

Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Attorneys representing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of his closest political allies are putting up an aggressive challenge to stop a consumer group from helping to defend a state limit on campaign contributions. The California Public Interest Research Group, CalPIRG, has filed a request in Sacramento Superior Court to intervene in support of a state rule that limits how much money donors can give to a candidate-controlled committee. With a hearing on the issue set for Friday, attorneys representing the governor and the Citizens to Save California, a political action committee organized by Schwarzenegger supporters, have filed...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The commission organizing the U.S. presidential campaign debates on Thursday defended its decision to set conditions for participation that are likely to exclude independent candidate Ralph Nader (news - web sites). Presenting its format for the three proposed presidential debates, as well as one vice presidential debate, the commission said candidates could only be included if they had a chance of winning the presidency and had at least 15 percent support in the electorate in the polls. Nader, seen as potentially drawing votes from Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites), has poll support that's only...