Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration says it will allow 17-year-olds to get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription. The FDA said Wednesday it will not appeal a federal judge's order overturning restrictions that were imposed during the Bush administration. U.S. District Judge Edward Korman ruled that Bush administration appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to allow over-the-counter access only for women 18 and older. Korman ordered the FDA to let 17-year-olds get the medication. He also is ordering the agency to evaluate whether all age restrictions should be lifted. In a statement, the...

Are You an "Extremist"? While the rest of us may be worried about violent Mexican drug gangs on our border, or about terrorists who are going to be released from Guantanimo, the Director of Homeland Security is worried about "right-wing extremists." Just who are these right-wing extremists? According to an official document of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, right-wing extremists include "groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration." It also includes those "rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority." If you fit into any of these...

I know this is a radical idea that certainly won't be accepted by our present government. As conservatives one of our core principles is Limited Government. The less the better. This was a principle that was accepted during the earliest years of our Republic. Sending legislators to Washington, D.C. fulltime apparently hasn't worked for either political party. Today we find ourselves 'dominated and governed' rather than represented. Term limits haven't succeeded either. they simply overturn them ignore them or declare them 'unconstituional' while they sponsor 'pork barrel' earmarks that guarantee that they are re-elected by their special interests. We need...

As critics slam the administration's Recovery.gov website for a lack of accessible data, a private company has launched a rival — Recovery.com. Onvia, a 12-year old consulting group, started Recovery.com with the goal of providing real-time data on spending that comes out of the $787 billion stimulus bill. "If the money is being spent now, we need folks looking at the dollars being spent now to flag anything that might be inappropriate or might be wasteful," Jerry Brito, a senior research fellow at George Mason University, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Welders, bricklayers and other construction workers under the U.S. government's $787 billion stimulus law would earn significantly higher wages in some areas than crews on private, non-stimulus projects. Wage rules in the law are a potential bonus to workers' wallets but they're upsetting contractors who say it will increase their costs and reduce the numbers of projects that can be funded. Tucked within the 407-page law is a requirement that laborers and mechanics employed on government stimulus projects be paid "prevailing wages," which is defined as the salary and fringe benefits for corresponding work on similar...

WASHINGTON – Suspected al-Qaida sleeper agent Ali Al-Marri is now facing criminal charges, but the Obama administration is refusing to rule out the future use of indefinite detention for terrorism suspects picked up in the United States. The administration urged the Supreme Court Friday to dismiss al-Marri's challenge to the president's authority to detain people in the U.S. indefinitely and without charges. Al-Marri was the only person being held inside this country without being charged, the administration said in court papers, and President Barack Obama "has ordered a comprehensive review of all military detention policies worldwide." The transfer signals that...

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes,...

Obama to unveil $75 billion mortgage relief plan President Barack Obama's plan to tackle the foreclosure crisis will spend $75 billion in an effort to prevent up to 9 million Americans from losing their homes.

When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus. Our government should not be immune from similar risks. Therefore: Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100...

A top UK Foreign Office official has been arrested on suspicion of an anti-Semitic outburst at a gym, the Daily Mail reported Monday. Rowan Laxton, who is head of the South Asia Group at the Foreign Office, was watching TV reports of the IDF offensive in Gaza while on an exercise bike at a gym when he was allegedly heard shouting: "F**king Israelis, f**king Jews," and saying that IDF soldiers should be wiped off the face of the earth, the UK newspaper reported. His tirade reportedly continued even after he was approached by other exercisers at the London Business School's...

(IsraelNN.com) Front-running prime ministerial candidate Binyamin Netanyahu told foreign diplomats over the weekend that he does not plan to form an "extremist right-wing" government, if elected in the February 10th elections. Netanyahu’s remarks appear to be a reaction to accusations by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, running at the head of the Kadima Party, that if Netanyahu is elected, he will form “an extremist right-wing government” that will “lead to a split between Israel and the United States.” The Likud has long been leading in polls, and Netanyahu is expected to receive the nod from President Shimon Peres to form Israel’s...

Matheson again fights automatic pay hike By Lee Davidson Deseret News Published: Dec. 29, 2008 12:00 a.m. Despite the country's economic meltdown, Congress is about to receive an automatic $4,700 pay raise on Thursday — a 2.8 percent increase over the current $169,300 salary for most members. Rep. Jim Matheson says that is unconscionable, and he's vowing to renew his annual fight to stop such automatic raises. He says the bad economy might just help him win this year, and a government watchdog group is joining his battle to say the raise is a bad idea in such times.

As the holiday season commences, it’s worth taking stock of the last gift that President George W. Bush and the 110th Congress have left for U.S. taxpayers. It’s a package of about $8.7 trillion dollars’ worth of potential taxpayer commitments for loans, guarantees and other bailout goodies for businesses and distressed homeowners. Amid the tissue paper: • More than $1.5 trillion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. loan guarantees, including a $139 billion assist to the lending arm of General Electric Corp. • $1.8 trillion in cash, tax breaks and loan guarantees doled out from the Treasury Department to taxpayers, financial...

BANGKOK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Bank of Thailand surprised markets by cutting interest rates by a full point on Wednesday, saying the economic damage wrought by political unrest and the global downturn triggered its first easing since mid-2007. A rapid retreat in inflation in recent months made it easier for the central bank to slash rates by the biggest margin in over eight years to help the economy, hit by anti-government protests that culminated in an eight-day siege of Bangkok's main airports. "The political problem is having quite a severe impact on the economy," BoT Assistant Governor Duangmanee Vongpradhip...

(IsraelNN.com) Vice President-elect Joe Biden has appointed former Clinton administration aide Ran Klain as his chief of staff, one week after President-elect Barack Obama tapped Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel to head the White House as chief of staff. Both appointees are Jewish, but while Emanuel is an observant Jew, Klain intermarried more than 20 years ago and his family observes Christmas. Klain, like Emanuel, promoted the Oslo Peace Accords, which eventually exploded into the Oslo War that has been raging since September, 2000. Emanuel choreographed the handshake between Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn...

Generous congressional retirement benefits are turning former lawmakers into pension millionaires. Some want to change this. But will they create a true "citizen's Congress," or just a rich person's club? By most standards, Colorado's Pat Schroeder and Pennsylvania's Robert Walker have had long and productive careers representing their constituents in the US House of Representatives. Schroeder, a Democrat, is Congress's leading advocate for women in combat, and was an early coauthor of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act. Walker, a Republican, has chaired the House Science Committee in the 104th Congress and is a key deputy to Speaker Newt...

TRUJILLO ALTO, Puerto Rico — Back roads, gorges and garbage dumps on this tropical island are littered with the decaying carcasses of dogs and cats. An Associated Press investigation reveals why: possibly thousands of unwanted animals have been tossed off bridges, buried alive and otherwise inhumanely disposed of by taxpayer-financed animal control programs. Witnesses who spoke with the AP said that, despite pledges to deliver adoptable strays to shelters and humanely euthanize the rest, the island's leading private animal control companies generally did neither.

Do you think noncitizens should serve on government boards? Yes No I don't know

(IsraelNN.com) The Hevron Jewish Community has released a sharp, detailed report accusing the Israeli Government of breach of trust, abuse, and hostility towards the Jewish owners of Arab-stolen property in the City of the Patriarchs. Entitled "The State of Israel's Management of the Stolen Jewish Property in Hevron," the report was issued this month in honor of the 78th anniversary of the Hevron massacre. In August 1929, Arabs brutally murdered 67 of their Jewish neighbors in their homes and in the local yeshiva. The Jewish survivors were then removed from Hevron, leaving behind their homes and land to be stolen...

Hello California, I have sent messages to the Governor for a private meeting. This is a request to discuss several issues. One of the most important issues is the vote of the troops that are deployed. As the Director of Military Outreach for Move America Forward, I have many contacts from the Troops. They now have issues that their votes have not been counted, or that their votes come too late in the process. For the left, this is good news. They do not want to hear from the troops and support for this war,which is a vote against defeat....