Free Republic

Britain's first 'divorce fair' aims to make breaking up easier By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 2:48PM BST 04/06/2008   Britain's first-ever "divorce fair" is being held to cater for the growing number of couples whose marriages are breaking down. Estranged spouses will be able to get information from lawyers, financial advisers and self-help experts at the event, to help make their separation easier and rebuild their lives. Organisers insist there is a real need for the show, after official figures showed almost half of newly married couples will end up getting divorced. But critics claim the...

WASHINGTON — In a response to anti-immigrant sentiment and an increase in hate crimes against Latinos, a Hispanic rights group launched an effort Thursday to debunk myths espoused by media talk shows and political campaigns. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund unveiled the "Truth in Immigration" campaign to rebut legal and factual inaccuracies about immigrants, particularly Latinos, in the United States. "Right now the airwaves are dominated by a few that speak very negatively and falsely about immigrants and immigration," said John Trasviña, MALDEF president and general counsel. Trasviña said the Web site — www.truthinimmigration.org, which will be...

British sense of fair play proven by science By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 7:01pm GMT 06/03/2008 The British sense of fair play has been scientifically proven by experiments held in 16 cities which show that, by comparison, the Russians and Greeks thirst for revenge. The idealised games held around the world have shed new light on the way in which people co-operate for the common good - and what happens when they don't. The research published today in the journal Science shows that taking revenge is more common in relatively corrupt and undemocratic traditional societies based on authoritarian...

In a surprising admission, Hillary Clinton says Fox News Channel has actually been fairer to her presidential campaign than liberal MSNBC. Clinton stated in an interview that aired on station WJLA in Washington, D.C., that her staff had delivered to her “some independent study” suggesting that “in terms of the fairness of the coverage,” Fox has treated her campaign more fairly than MSNBC. Clinton was responding to a question from politico.com’s John Harris about MSNBC’s David Shuster, who was suspended last week for saying that Hillary’s daughter Chelsea had been "pimped out" by the Clinton campaign by asking her to...

BAGHDAD, Feb. 12, 2008 – In the late-morning sunlight, the crowd paid close attention to the speaker. He was one of them -- a home-grown leader. Army Col. Jeffery Bonner, a Fayetteville, Tenn., native who serves as an agricultural and commercial business development officer with the local embedded provincial reconstruction team, speaks to citizens from the Suleikh, Tunnis and Qahira neighborhoods in Baghdad’s Adhamiya district during a market fair in Suleikh, Feb. 9, 2008. Photo by Pfc. April Campbell, USA   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. They heard this meeting would offer them benefits, and Fikrat Kareem, the...

Turin, 29 Jan.(AKI) - The Union of Arab Writers has written a letter of protest at the designation of Israel as a guest of honour for the next edition of the Turin International Book Fair, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reports. The letter slams Israel's invitation to the event - timed to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state - at a time when its economic blockade is crippling the Gaza Strip, according to prominent Iraqi author Younis Tawfik, quoted by Corriere della Sera. The Union of Arab writers has also written a letter to the Union of Italian...

20 hosts gather in Iowa to focus on candidates' border positions. DES MOINES -- Twenty talk show hosts from across the nation are gathering in Des Moines today and tomorrow in a "Talk Radio Row" organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform that is intended to bring presidential candidates' positions on immigration reform into the spotlight. FAIR's plans include a forum in which top Democratic and Republican Party presidential contenders, Iowa politicians, and national experts can meet to be interviewed in a talk radio marathon that reflects the growing importance of the immigration debate to the 2008 presidential campaign....

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Immigrant-rights groups are criticizing the organizers of an upcoming radio event that will promote a crackdown on illegal immigration. The groups accuse the Federation for American Immigration Reform of endorsing bigotry and racism. FAIR is sponsoring a broadcast marathon for Thursday and Friday in a downtown Des Moines hotel. The event is expected to attract 22 radio talk show hosts from across the country to discuss immigration. ``We don't agree with their views that are demonizing immigrants, and we don't appreciate their coming to Iowa telling us what we should think about immigrants,'' said Alicia...

What emerged from this research is that a national retail sales tax is a preferred method of taxation among most Americans surveyed. Another is that the tax would have significant benefits for the nation's economy. Why? Because it eliminates income taxes and payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare), which are costly to collect and end up as "embedded" in the price of everything we buy. Along with getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service and the complexities of the income tax code, the FairTax would eliminate the distorting effect that income and payroll taxes have on the economy. Research...

Web site names Jim Gilchrist, Lou Dobbs as 'voices of intolerance.' WASHINGTON – A coalition of human rights and labor groups have begun a campaign to counter what they call the "vile and vicious" rhetoric of the anti-illegal immigration movement and "recapture the civility of discussion and debate" on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. The campaign, called Campaign for a United America, launched Wednesday with the release of its Web site. As part of their work, the coalition will give tool kits to community groups that include sample letters to the editor and instructions on constructive meeting techniques. "Today...

Ron Petrucci's Sept. 24 letter addressing Charles Firth is right on a number of points. We have been running more than an $800 billion trade deficit. That can't go on for very long. Ron says we're a debtor nation and we are. Our manufacturing continues to move overseas to "more tax friendly" locations. We can't exist by providing each other services. Picture everyone doing their neighbor's laundry. We need to produce products to exist. What Ron neglected to say is that the reason for that migration is our tax system. Federal taxes and associated compliance costs comprise an average of...

For a squealin' good time at the fair, make sure to stop by the Hambone Express pig races. You can bet yer bacon they'll be sizzlin' around the track all 11 days of the fair - no tires needed. The squealers of Hambone Express are known to delight fairgoers as they go "whole hog" around the track, even putting it into "four-squeal drive" to come in first and receive an edible prize. The show consists of four races with four pigs in each race. The swinemaster assigns cheering sections, with one special cheerleader to lead each section. Then he introduces...

A Confederate flag, in part anyway, is an emblem of slavery and thus racism. If we have not been upset or bothered by the marketing of a racist symbol at the county-owned fairground, perhaps that tells us something about ourselves.

This is a forum in which WND readers serve as citizen-journalists, using their news judgment to decide which are the most important breaking news stories of the hour. See a breaking news story not yet posted on WND? Here's the place to send it. WND's editors -- and we're sure the editors of many other news outlets -- will be watching and evaluating your moves.

Hormones affect men's sense of fair play 11:33 04 July 2007 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi Next time you have to negotiate a deal with a male business contact, you might want to check his hormone levels first. A new study shows that men with high levels of testosterone are more likely to turn down low offers, even if they stand to gain money by accepting them. According to researchers, the finding demonstrates that our hardwired biology can cause us to make irrational economic decisions. In what is known as the "low ultimatum game", an anonymous individual can offer either...

Bank of America has begun quietly offering credit cards to customers in the Los Angeles are who don't have a Social Security number, The Wall Street Journal reports. Such persons are usually undocumented immigrants. The newspaper said that Bank of America, the country's second-largest bank, is offering credit cards to consumers who have had an account at the bank for three months or more, even if they do not have a credit history or Social Security number. It's the latest indication that American financial institutions are serious about doing business with the millions of undocumented immigrants who until recently have...

Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans. No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- America's top military commander in Iraq has sent a letter to troops challenging them to "occupy the moral high ground" after a Pentagon survey showed some service members were reluctant to report the "illegal actions" of fellow personnel. In the letter, dated Thursday, Gen. David Petraeus wrote he was "concerned" with the poll's findings. "This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we -- not our enemies -- occupy the moral high ground," he said. The survey of ethics, released last week, assessed the mental health and ethical attitudes of more than 1,300...

An influential House DFLer plans today to introduce an education funding bill that would raise income taxes for the Minnesotans in the highest income tax bracket. Flanked by several legislators who support the plan, Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, and chairwoman of the House K-12 finance division, said she wants to raise the income tax rate from 7.85 percent to 8.5 percent for taxpapyers in the top income tax tier.

The lawyers defending I. Lewis Libby Jr. against perjury charges rested their case today, but not before suffering a series of defeats in legal rulings by the presiding judge. The judge, Reggie B. Walton, expressed in the strongest terms yet that he had been misled by the defense team about whether Mr. Libby would take the stand in his own defense ....Judge Walton said he “believed all along in the process that Mr. Libby was going to testify” and that his lawyers were now “playing games with the process.” The juror said that they were wearing the T-shirts (red with...

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) is expected to announce the formation of an exploratory committee to seek the candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. "He's going to paint himself as a mainstream conservative," says the staffer for one of Tancredo's colleagues in the House of Representatives. "But the folks he's associating with are not part of the mainstream." Tancredo, who came to national prominence on the basis of his tough stands on immigration reform, an issue he has pressed for quite some time. "There is more to Tancredo than just immigration," says another House staffer. "If he does this, he's going...

CONTROVERSIAL mufti Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali was today urged to "keep his mouth shut" as Muslim groups distanced themselves from his latest shocking comments. NSW Community Relations Commission (CRC) chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian branded the mufti's outburst outrageous, though Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said nobody took the sheik seriously any more. Sheik Hilali said in an interview on Egyptian television that Australian Muslims were more entitled to be in the country than those with a convict heritage He attacked Western values and said: "The Western people are the biggest liars and oppressors and especially the English race." Kuranda Seyit, executive director...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Tim Johnson (news, bio, voting record)'s condition has been upgraded from critical to fair, four weeks after he was hospitalized for a brain hemorrhage, his office said Tuesday. The South Dakota Democrat, who was rushed to the hospital on Dec. 13 and underwent emergency surgery, remains in intensive care, said his spokeswoman, Julianne Fisher. "The senator continues to make progress," Fisher said. "The next step would be rehabilitation and we hope that would happen within the week." Johnson's office has said that his recovery is expected to take several months. He underwent surgery to correct a condition...

"Overcrowded schools, congested highways, environmental stresses: We are a nation paving over its wildernesses while depending on our enemies for vital resources. Why? Because Americans have been blindsided by a government-mandated mass immigration program that's fueling this nation's runaway population growth. This growth was neither planned nor expected, but we feel the consequences every day. The population of the USA will reach 300 million this week on a relentless march to half a billion before 2050. That's because about 80% of the current population growth in the USA is due to immigration policies — immigrants legally admitted, illegal immigrants, and...

Tucson Region AdWatch: The Star's ongoing evaluation of the record versus the rhetoric in campaign ads Giffords' TV ad addresses America's safety By Josh Brodesky arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.01.2006 advertisement Today: We look at an ad for Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. The Race: Congress, District 8. Medium: A 30-second television ad. The Message: The ad begins with an image of cargo containers as a narrator says, "our ports uninspected." The message is re-emphasized by a graphic stating "one in 20 ports inspected." It then cuts to an image of a dirt road slicing across the desert as...

Tucson Region Political Notebook Despite Giffords' gripe, ad still on air By Daniel Scarpinato arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.01.2006 Democrat Gabrielle Giffords wants a new television ad criticizing her taken off the air, but Cox Media has no plans to pull it. In a letter sent Wednesday from Giffords' attorney to Cox Media, the campaign urges the company to take an ad paid for by the Minuteman Political Action Committee off the air since the Minutemen haven't been able to clearly back up claims they make about Congressional District 8 candidate Giffords in the ad. In the...

Trip Comes Amid New Reports Linking Rove to Indicted Former Republican Lobbyist Jack Abramoff9/29/2006 6:14:00 PM To: State Desk Contact: Luis Miranda of the Democratic National Committee, 202-863-8148 WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following release was issued today by the Democratic National Committee: Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Arizona Republican Party has gone to desperate measures today by bringing GOP fear and smear king Karl Rove to Tucson and Scottsdale to raise campaign cash. But, Rove is lucky to be getting out of Washington and avoiding questions raised in a new a bipartisan Congressional report,...

PTA parents must fight illegal alien educational spending Kevin Fobbs September 19, 2006 PTA parents: welcome to America 2006. Your child wants to play football or play in the school band or on the soccer team. Well you already know you have to dig a little deeper into your wallet due to school budget cuts. While the cost to parents handling out cash in order to keep their children in these extra curricular activities keeps going up, another part of state educational budget is actually exploding because those dollars are being diverted to educating illegal alien children because of an...

POMONA -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened the 84th annual L.A. County Fair at Fairplex in Pomona Friday ostensibly to promote the fair as ``huge for our economy'' and to urge people to attend, but the crowd that surrounded him was visibly more excited by his appearance than his message. After leading a red ribbon-cutting ceremony with fair officials and local politicians, Schwarzenegger left the stage and began a slow walk to the America's Kids exhibition hall, the crowd's cameras and cell phones documenting his every move. He shook hands and made small talk along his route. At one point, he...

Clintons take her campaign to the fair SYRACUSE, N.Y. Former President Bill Clinton says he's not pressuring his wife to run for president. The former president made comments at the State Fair yesterday, where Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was capping a three-day swing through New York farm country. The trip has served to boost Clinton's visibility in the state's Finger Lakes wine region and other rural parts of central New York, a predominantly Republican region where she would need to do well if she runs for president in 2008. Former President Bill Clinton said he quote -- "didn't have a...

<p>Open-borders adversaries sued to kill the initiative, but Colorado's Supreme Court approved it in early May of 2004. Herron, ex-Gov. Dick Lamm, CAIR's co-Chair Fred Elbel and other insiders chose not to seek the required 68,000 voter signatures to place it on the November 2004 ballot, claiming it was too late to guarantee success. By law, this tabled the initiative for two years, during which time a growing cabal of open-borders legislators, mainly Democrats, aligned with globalist Gov. Bill Owens (RINO) to kill similar legislation.</p>

Retired utility worker Charles Warren worries his quality of life is slipping and says that illegal immigrants are to blame. The 55-year-old retiree complains about day laborers waiting for work outside the nearby Home Depot, saying they give his neighborhood "a Third World look." "Ten or 15 years ago, the neighborhood wasn't like this," Warren said. "The states are overpopulated, there is oversprawl, and immigration is contributing to this." After seeing a television commercial that blamed many of California's woes on illegal immigrants, Warren immediately donated $50 to the sponsoring group, Californians for Population Stabilization. And he's not the only...

BUTTE, Mont. -- A band that headlined a fair last weekend is accused of masquerading as the rock group Redbone, whose hits included the 1970s song "Come and Get Your Love." The band at the Butte-Silver Bow Fair performed under the name Redbone, but the real Redbone was playing in Wisconsin, said Ron Kurtz, Redbone's manager. "I've been in the business for 40 years, and I've never ran into anything this blatant," Kurtz said Thursday from his office in Burbank, Calif. He said the fair board was conned. Fair officials said they dealt with a man who identified himself as...

HAMBURG, N.Y. Immigration agents today arrested 41 alleged illegal immigrants who had been hired to clean up at a county fair in suburban Buffalo. The 23 men and 18 women from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Honduras were being detained pending appearances in immigration court. Authorities say a tip led U-S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to round up the suspects, who were working for a cleaning company that was a subcontractor at America's Fair. No criminal charges were immediately filed against the cleaning company, which was not identified. Agents were investigating how the workers got into the country, where they...

Almost two centuries ago, a small band of national patriots joined Texans to launch a battle for freedom and sent a unifying rallying cry through out our nation "Remember The Alamo!" Our nation is being threatened by a new Alamo, and the army is between 12 million and 20 million strong. The army is one that is creeping, walking, swimming and being driven in shadowy caravans across our nation's state borders. Instead of being armed with weapons of violence, this army is simply overwhelming American health care, education, and justice systems by refusing to enter our country legally. But the...

NEW YORK (NNS) -- The 19th New York City Fleet Week came to a close May 31, as Sailors and Marines left New York City in their wake, headed for their next destination. While visiting the ‘Big Apple,’ Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen participated in community service events, sports competitions, military demonstrations and Memorial Day remembrances in all five boroughs. “I’m just impressed by the good, positive attitudes and willingness to work that the young Sailors express,” commented Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Paul Ablaza, a Reservist with Naval Security Forces, Naval Weapons Station Earle, Colts Neck, N.J. “Seeing the dedication of...

Fox Should Be Spending His Remaining Time in Office Fixing Mexico, not Meddling in U.S. Immigration Policy, Says New Coalition Wednesday May 24, 4:07 pm ET WASHINGTON, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- You Don't Speak for Me!, a new coalition of American Hispanics opposed to an illegal alien amnesty, is condemning Mexican President Vicente Fox's overt effort to meddle in the internal affairs of the United States and exert influence over U.S. immigration policies. The Mexican president is currently on a tour of Western states, during which he is openly lobbying for passage of an illegal alien amnesty and guest worker...

Washington, DC—In a speech today before the Orange County Business Council in Irvine, California, President Bush once again distorted the options that this nation has available in the effort to combat mass illegal immigration. “Massive deportation of the people here is not going to work,” Bush said in a deliberate effort to create the impression that the only alternative to his proposal would be massive round-ups and deportations of people who are in the country illegally. In his Irvine speech, President Bush assiduously ignored viable proposals for enforcing U.S. immigration laws that do not entail mass deportation. Proposals, including one...

Americans are disenchanted with the federal income tax system. And why not? Only accountants and agents of the Internal Revenue Service understand the 8 million words on the 60,000 pages of the complex Tax Code. Given some of the horror stories over the years about conflicting interpretations from one IRS office to another, even that assumption is suspect. According to an Ipsos Poll, eight out of 10 people recently surveyed think the system is unfair. Indeed, the only clear common ground for agreement between the various income groups in the poll appears to be their unhappiness. And they are echoing...

EDMOND— How much of your time and money did you spend getting your taxes filed this year? Your time is worth something even if you use a software program to do your taxes. Your time is worth something gathering up all the information to give to your hired tax preparer. Multiply that by the number of taxpayers and corporate taxpayers and you can plainly see how much a burden our current tax code is on the taxpayers of America. You can get mad, just like I do each middle of April, but the inevitable has to occur. Did you know...

Fair taxes for Texas By U.S. Sen. John Cornyn Many Texans understandably wait until the last week to file their federal tax returns. The experience is so unpleasant—and I'm not just talking about paying taxes due—that we tend to put it off as long as possible With the mid-April filing deadline now behind us, let's take a moment to look at the monster we have created in the federal income tax. What started in 1913 as a small levy that affected only two percent of citizens has grown in complexity and seeming inequality. It increasingly frustrates almost everyone. There are...

It already works in two U.S. states — Florida and Texas — that have two of the top 20 economies in the world. South Carolina is one of 46 states in the nation that already have a mechanism in place for collecting a sales tax. McWilliams conceded that 23 percent seems like a lot to pay in federal sales tax. But he said economic studies show that most American families pay more than that into the federal government under the current IRS-monitored system. “The rich will still buy expensive items and be taxed accordingly,” he said, “but the middle class...

There's one thing good about tax deadline day - it reminds Americans of the harsh reality of a tax system that's brainless, expensive and out of control. Taxpayers are sending Washington more than a trillion dollars - $1,000,000,000,000 - this year. Think you're getting your money's worth? Incidentally, that figure doesn't include another $150 billion, which about 60 percent of Americans pay tax-preparers to do their taxes. That's because the 66,000-page federal tax code is beyond comprehension. And guess what Congress' response to this conundrum is? Well, from your friendly key tax-writers on the Senate Finance Committee, Republican Chuck Grassley...

In Congress today is a tax reform bill called “The FairTax.” I want to tell you a little about it and then tell you why it is important for the immigration debate. The FairTax would institute a national retail sales tax and eliminate the personal income tax, the payroll tax, and the taxes hidden in business but paid by the consumer. It replaces all of these taxes with a 23% tax on personal consumption, meaning that out of every dollar spent by consumers, 23 cents will go to the tax man and 77 cents will go to the merchant. This...

For me the top 3 reasons to support the Boortz, Linder, Peterson FairTax proposal (HR 25, SB 25): One-fourth of the money we spend on Federal Income taxes is tax compliance (not the money we remit, just compliance) - This level of waste is intolerable. The FairTax would replace 60,000 pages of tax code with a 133 page bill. Illegal immigrants and criminals would have to pay taxes It would remove the tax subsidy to foreign companies for aquisition of American companies (Think Daimler-Chrysler) how would it do all these things? (more below)

A letter to Senator Shelby, I applaud you for thinking seriously about tax reform. I agree that the current income tax system is hopelessly broken. However, I can't agree that your Flat Tax proposal is the best solution. "Over the years, many have argued that I should support a national sales tax rather than a flat tax." Yes, that is what I suggest as well. "While I support the concept of a national sales tax, I have concerns about implementing such policies without a simultaneous repeal of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution." I believe the FairTax takes adaquate precautions...

The FairTax replaces the income tax and all other federal taxes with a national consumption tax. The FairTax is levied only once, at the point of purchase on new goods and services. The group admits it will be difficult for legislators to face down entrenched special interest groups, but they initially proposed replacing the current system with U.S. Senate bill S. 25 and U.S. House of Representatives bill H.R. 25. The next step would be to repeal the 16th Amendment to the constitution allowing the Federal government to levy an income tax. Signatories to the original petition include noted academic...

of good news is that support is growing for complete replacement of the tax code with a national consumption tax. More and more taxpayers are demanding action from their representatives in Congress, and their representatives are listening. Just one year ago, there were 33 sponsors and co-sponsors of HR 25, The FairTax Act, in the U.S. House. Now there are 53 supporters, and new co-sponsors are joining every month. In the Senate, Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) was the lone sponsor of the FairTax Act, S 25, one year ago. Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John Cornyn (R-TX) now join Senator...

As it is tax time again, many people (myself included) do their taxes and look forward to the refund they will receive and how they will spend it. Now imagine if you got a tax refund from the government at the first of every month instead of only once a year. That would be something. Did you know that there is a bill in Congress right now that would give every American a tax rebate every month?

Americans should be concerned about the competitive edge that our tax system gives foreign manufacturers. We should no longer allow the income tax to make foreign-produced goods more competitive than our own. Replacing the income tax with the Fair Tax, a highly progressive federal consumption tax, will end this practice and make American products 20 percent to 30 percent more competitive, both at home and abroad. What a break for U.S. producers and consumers as well! Getting rid of the income tax will dramatically lower production costs in this country. And competition will ensure that these cost savings will flow...