Free Republic

McCain's health proposal aims to tackle costs MarketWatch News Clipping By: Kristen Gerencher 4.3.2008 MarketWatch, April 3, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Given the amount of attention focused on the differences between the Democratic presidential candidates' health-care proposals, you might think presumed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain didn't have one of his own. But he does. As Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spar over whose proposal would cover more people, McCain has taken a different tack that's in line with a traditional Republican approach, experts say. He doesn't talk much about universal coverage. Instead, he's said he wants...

The newly elected mayor of a Mexican city in the country's southwestern part of the state of Puebla was returned to New York yesterday to face charges of trafficking multikilogram quantities of cocaine into the United States. Ruben Gil, 41, who was elected in November, is charged with participating in a "far-reaching narcotics trafficking conspiracy" that involved the transportation and delivery of cocaine to co-conspirators in the New York metropolitan area in 2006 and 2007. "This arrest exemplifies the commitment of global law enforcement to identify and arrest those individuals responsible for trafficking cocaine into New York," said Drug Enforcement...

Opposition protesters egged and then tore down a bronze statue of former Mexican President Vicente Fox down on Saturday, just hours after it was erected.

Chávez lashes out at Mexico On the same day the Calderón administration took steps to ease rocky relations with Venezuela and Cuba, Venezuela´s Hugo Chávez on Thursday hurled personal insults at his Mexican counterpart Wire reports El Universal Viernes 02 de febrero de 2007 On the same day the Calderón administration took steps to ease rocky relations with Venezuela and Cuba, Venezuela´s Hugo Chávez on Thursday hurled personal insults at his Mexican counterpart. Chávez´s ire was raised as he attacked Calderón for comments the latter made in Davos, Switzerland, last week criticizing countries that "nationalize industries" and "interfere in the...

ZIHUATANEJO, Mexico -- Andr?s Sauzo collects newspapers, astoundingly grisly newspapers. There's the one with the close-up shot of a severed human head. There's the one with the wide-angle of a man hacked to death with a machete. But the worst in his bulky archive of drug-war gore rolled off the presses the day after someone found pieces of what used to be Sauzo's 24-year-old namesake. A hit man had decapitated Sauzo's son, then chopped off his arms and legs. The killer was so unconcerned about being brought to justice that he scrawled his own name and nickname -- "El Barby"...

<p>Three simultaneous explosions occurred late Sunday night in Mexico City, destroying an entrance at the headquarters of a leading political party and apparently affecting the Federal Electoral Tribunal and a bank branch.</p> <p>The government news agency Notimex said there were no immediate reports of injuries.</p>

The Oaxacanization of the Country: From the Myth of Fraud to that of Ingovernability It was left clear this week, the connection between the insurrectional strategy of Oaxaca and that of AMLO, which already seems to be weakening between desertions and the universal loss of prestige. The difference is one of perspective: For AMLO and his landscaped spaces it was considered vital to exhibit as a survival certificate the oxygen tank which he offered to the Popular Assembly of the People (sic) of Oaxaca (APPO) to identify its goal with that of the defeated presidential candidate: that of preventing...

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president-elect says murder and mayhem fueled by drug smuggling have overwhelmed the governments of the nation’s capital and key states across the country. Felipe Calderón said the wave of bloodshed knows no politics; it is ravaging state governments controlled by each of Mexico’s three major parties. He singled out Mexico City, the northern states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, the southern state of Guerrero and his home state of Michoacan, as being especially hard-hit. “It seems to me that drug violence has overwhelmed the governments of the PAN, the PRI and the PRD,” Calderón said in a...

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: "They are stealing the presidency from me" Which are the elements making it possible to establish that there was fraud at the time of the elections of July 2 in Mexico? For more than three years we were victims of a campaign of all the state apparatus with the active participation of the President of the Republic because we represent an alternative project. Our adversaries wanted to destroy us politically. They tried to discredit me with the help of videos, but it was demonstrated that it was the acting out of a plot of former...

Mexican judges face tough test in disputed presidential race By JULIE WATSONTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEXICO CITY  -  The future of Mexico’s young democracy lies in the hands of seven judges who have the final word on a disputed presidential election that has strained class divisions and threatened the nation’s stability, with one candidate calling for millions to protest.The magistrates  -  including Mexico’s first female district judge and a respected author on ethics and democracy  -  have shown toughness and independence in thousands of electoral disputes, ruling against all three major parties.But they have never faced a challenge like this. Mexicans...

I am posting this independent blog for the benefit of my fellow Freepers who have been watching the post-election controversy in Mexico, following a ping I received from Freeper SAJ -- thanks again SAJ -- to another thread posted earlier today on a Christian Science Monitor article reporting the closure of a popular foklore festival in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca due to local political protests and relating the matter to the larger post-election controversy in Mexico. To get to the point of why I am posting this separate from that thread, beyond the mere length of what I...

While the U.S. Congress dithers over how best to stop illegal immigration, the Mexican people may have already decided the issue this past weekend. Mexicans went to the polls Sunday to pick a new president, only the second presidential election in the last 75 years that could be characterized as a truly free and democratic contest. The more conservative, free-trade-oriented candidate, Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN), appears to have eked out a slim victory with a few hundred thousand more votes than the leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Although Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City...

Mexico for most of its history was ruled by a small number of wealthy elites. They controlled most of Mexico's economy and politics, which is typical of most of Latin America. Many Mexicans lived in poverty. The rift between rich and poor grows wider.  Then in 1910, General Porfirio Diaz becomes president of Mexico. Opposition towards Diaz grows. Then Francisco Madero, an American and European educated man, leads the opposition and pressures for an election. Diaz has Madero imprisoned as a result, which he is later released and goes to America. He does not see Diaz as legitimate and makes...

Dear Colleague: Seventeen European nations are now having so few wee bairns that there is little prospect of a demographic comeback.  Cardinal Trujillo is among those who recognize that Europe's days could be numbered. Steven W. Mosher President PRI Weekly Briefing   3 March 2006  Vol. 8 / No. 9 Facing the Facts of Europe's Suicide By Joseph A. D'Agostino Will the Muslims inherit Western Europe?  "If [Western people] don't do something, probably," replies Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Senior Fellow in Economics at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. "That's a very probable outcome.  The West doesn't...

MEXICO CITY — Everywhere citizens look, they see reminders that there are too few jobs, too much crime and no way to know if things will get better. As they prepare to choose a new president, many are doubting even a superhero could make a difference. Doctors, engineers and lawyers are joining the ranks of the unemployed. Some work as cabbies to put food on the table — and for many, the four food groups are rice, beans, eggs and tortillas. Poor mothers recently marched to the capital's historic central plaza to demand affordable housing, calling themselves part of the...

Fully aware she was walking a thin ethical line and would face a highly skeptical audience, a Mexican congresswoman made a solo foray into San Antonio on Friday to convince her countrymen to vote in next year's presidential election. It was a bold move criticized by other politicians as potentially violating Mexican electoral laws. Consuelo Camarena Gómez, a member of Mexico's House of Representatives from President Vicente Fox's National Action Party (PAN), said her country's get-out-the-vote campaign outside its borders has failed, prompting her to take action. Her Alamo City visit was part of a larger PAN effort. Representatives also...

Mexico City -- Arturo Montiel, a former governor and one of the leading contenders in next year's presidential race in Mexico, announced Thursday that he is withdrawing his candidacy in the face of corruption allegations against his family. The decision appeared to leave the nomination of the powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to Montiel's bitter rival, Roberto Madrazo, an ex-governor of the state of Tabasco.

Dear Colleague:   The abortion revolution is putting on a big push in Colombia, the latest victim of First World-funded efforts to impose abortion-on-demand in Latin America.   Steven W. Mosher, President   PRI Weekly Briefing, 30 September 2005, Vol. 7 / No. 38   Pro-Abortion Court Revolution Targets ColombiaBy Joseph A. D'Agostino   A tyrannical global revolution in law is underway, and the leaders of this international movement have targeted the small, turbulent country of Colombia.  By their own admission, they want Colombia to be on the leading edge of legalizing abortion in Latin America.  They may have their...

MEXICO CITY — The 2006 Mexican presidential campaign kicks off after Labor Day — in Los Angeles. The leading contenders are planning appearances in L.A. this fall, campaign aides confirm, in a bid to capture the attention and support of their country's newest constituency. Last month, Mexicans living abroad were granted the right to vote by mail, beginning with the presidential election in July 2006. There are estimated to be 10 million adult Mexicans living in the United States, and experts say a third or less are eligible to vote, though it is anybody's guess how many will cast ballots....

Farmers from the state of Veracruz protested in Mexico City yesterday. The farmers want the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to return land seized between 1992 and 1998. The PRI governs Veracruz. Stripping to one's underwear has been a common form of protest in Mexico in recent years.

Public broadcast funding 'may breach EU rules' Chris Tryhorn Thursday March 3, 2005 The funding of public broadcasting in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands may be in breach of EU competition rules, the European commission warned today. The commission said it had written to the governments of the three countries asking them to justify their funding or suggest changes after a preliminary investigation into complaints from competitors. "Having examined allegations from several complainants, the commission's preliminary view is that the current financing system in these member states is no longer in line with treaty rules requiring member states not to...

Andres Mauel Lopez Obrador: Yes. I know that you haven't heard from me in quite a while. After all, it is hard to keep in touch with my loyal, working class supporters when the filthy, plutocratic scum who have usurped power and are intent on keeping the "PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION" down bring their weight to bear against a proletarian hero such as myself. Many of you may have heard of Interior Minister Santiago Creel, the lackey of Coca-Cola-slurping, American stooge Vincente Fox, and his persistent attempts to suppress the "THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION"; the case broguht against me is nothing more than...

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) - For generations, leftist activists have fought the Institutional Revolutionary Party in the southern state of Guerrero through the ballot box and the rifle. After skirmishes, massacres and hundreds of martyrs, they were celebrating victory Monday with dancing and the honking of horns in the state's famous resort, Acapulco. Official state election results showed former Acapulco Mayor Zeferino Torreblanca with a stunning victory, 55 to 42 percent, over the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has run Guerrero for 76 years. "After nearly 50 years of social struggle, we have achieved the miracle of the vote," said...

UNFPA Elusive About Abortion Aid for Tsunami Victims The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) describes itself as the "largest international public sector supplier of contraceptives, condoms and other reproductive health essentials," and states that such supplies are "critical to protecting reproductive health in emergency situations." Yet in press releases on its tsunami relief activities, UNFPA steers clear of directly stating that it provides contraceptives or abortion aids. UNFPA may be responding to past public criticism after disclosures that it was providing such supplies. In its January 6 press release, the latest and most explicit to date, UNFPA has requested $28 million...

Many Mexicans who voted for Vicente Fox are bewildered. Four years into his term as president, the man who promised to kick the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, out of power forever now seems to have been kidding. The PRI is coming back, winning state election after state election, and Mexico's first president elected in a free and fair race doesn't appear to be doing anything about it. But other Mexicans should, because if the former ruling party returns to office in the next presidential election, in 2006, the country's democracy will have been short-lived. If the PRI returns, it...

MEXICO CITY — The drama surrounding the slaying of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's youngest brother intensified Friday, as authorities said the dead man probably knew his killers. Mexico state's top prosecutor said the investigation was "advancing rapidly," focusing on a "close nucleus" of people associated with 52-year-old businessman Enrique Salinas, who was found strangled Monday in a parked car in an upscale suburb of the capital. "Evidently, there is a relationship between the victim" and the assailants, Alfonso Navarrete Prida, attorney general of Mexico state, said at a news conference. He said several people could be involved....

MEXICO CITY - The Institutional Revolutionary Party won nearly every Mexican election for seven decades. Thrown into disarray after President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) knocked it from power four years ago, the party has recovered — and is again becoming tough to beat at the ballot box. Fox's failure to live up to the lofty promises of his historic run to the presidency has pushed some voters back to the party known as the PRI, whose leaders are known as dinosaurs because of their adherence to old-guard politics. Some say they just want to go back to what's...

I wrote a brief amazon.com review of Garrison Keillor's "Homegrown Democrat," one of the most vile, bigoted tracts published by a major publisher this year. Apparently the lefties have been voting against my review in droves! Please stop by and vote for it. Muchos Gracias!

PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos) is the world's fifth-largest oil company. It is protected from competition in Mexico, where it enjoys a legal monopoly on the exploration, processing and sale of petroleum. And its privileged status in national mythology affords it a certain immunity from criticism. PEMEX is also in deep trouble. It's heavily-indebted and unable to provide the capital necessary to locate and exploit Mexico's oil deposits. Energy Minister Felipe Calderon recently announced that, without more investment, Mexico's known reserves could be depleted within 13 years. This wasn't the future envisioned by President Lazaro Cardenas, who expelled the foreign oil...

Mexico's first lady says she will seek presidency Mexico City, Feb 10 (EFE).- First Lady Marta Sahagun's confirmation that she will seek the nation's presidency in 2006 has roiled the waters of Mexican politics and prompted a top jurist to say that if she does indeed become a candidate, her husband, incumbent Vicente Fox, should resign before the end of his term. Asked in a television interview Monday night if she would run - a possibility much debated in the media and on the streets in recent weeks - Sahagun replied: "Speaking truthfully, as we say we should, the...

The Bush Amnesty Plan: A Tragedy in Three Acts by William Buchanan Posted Jan 30, 2004 Many individual events have occurred during the Bush Administration's tenure. However, there is one theme that consistently flows through the administration's domestic security initiatives. It is an undisguised, almost obsessive effort to eliminate our southern border. Complementing this endeavor is the one and only goal of Mexico's Fox administration—to drive as many Mexicans into the United States as possible. Bush's new "temporary worker" plan, in rapacious pursuit of cheap labor and votes, prefigures national self-destruction, while Fox seeks to maintain the corrupt and oppressive...

Accusing the White House of playing political games with the lives of poor women overseas, pro-abortion members of Congress pressed President Bush Tuesday to explain why he has held up $34 million for U.N. family planning programs that have looked the other way as China has implemented a policy of coercive abortions and sterilizations. A group of 48 pro-abortion members of Congress sent a letter to Bush asking that he release the findings of a U.S. delegation that traveled to China in early May to see how the funds are used. The group asked Bush to meet with them so...

<p>BEIJING — A decision by President Bush to suspend $34 million of funding to a U.N. body accused of assisting forced abortions in China is threatening to cloud his visit to Beijing this month.</p> <p>By withholding the money from the U.N. Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Mr. Bush has made clear his opposition to China's extreme population-control methods. Beijing is hoping to extend the controls, which restrict the majority of couples to one child, for another generation.</p>

With the 30th anniversary of the horrible Roe vs Wade ruling upon us, I want to make a compilation of all the pro-life rallies and observances. Please post any rallies that you know of. Hopefully you can make one of these or start your own. 2003 Pro-Life Rallies * CALIFORNIA * Wednesday 22 January SACRAMENTOTHIRTY YEARS OF ROE: A GENERATION LOST a Statewide Leadership Conference. 8am-10am Annual Prayer Breakfast at The Grand, 1215 J Street, Sacramento. (Cost $20 to register) 10:30 a.m. - the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and Catholics for Life will sponsor a pro-life Mass. 11th and K,...

Completely contradicts past UNFPA claimsWASHINGTON, September 24, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has admitted that it does not monitor the 32 counties in China where it operates, and therefore has no way of knowing if coercive abortion is as rampant in its 32 county programs as victims and human rights groups claim. The admission comes after UNFPA told U.S. authorities that no coercive abortion was taking place in a bid to ensure U.S. financial support for UNFPA's activities in China. UNFPA is desperate to reinstate US funding for its programs after a Population Research Institute (PRI)...

Dear RNC/Life Supporters: Please act on this report right away. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) who has led the way in trying to protect American taxpayers from involvement with China's coercive "one-child" abortion policy, and who supported George W. Bush's campaign for president, has said, according to Ken Connor's December 20, 2001 Washington Update, "I have no doubt in my mind they (the Bush administration) will do the right thing." [If they did not, "it would be a real breach of faith." You bet it would be a breach of faith - for millions of Americans who voted for George Bush, ...

(CNSNews.com) - A Virginia-based population research organization claims that Americans are funding coerced abortions and sterilizations over seas, without even knowing it. At a hearing before the House International Relations Committee Wednesday, witnesses to China's harsh population control laws testified about the effects of the laws on women and their families. Currently in China, families are allowed to have only one child. In keeping with the country's one-child policy, pregnant mothers in the People's Republic of China are required to have an explicit "birth authorization" to have their child. Violators of the law face forced abortions and sterilization. According to ...

U.S. funding for a United Nations population control program remains up in the air, with the Bush Administration under pressure from both pro-life and abortion rights activists to make a decision soon on whether to release the money - or block it instead.Congress recently approved $34 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), but President Bush has the authority to determine how much, if any, of the money will be allocated.As of last week, the White House gave no indication of what President Bush would decide.Congress passed the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill in December, which increased UNFPA funding by ...

Dear Colleague: The battle raging over the President's AIDS bill comes down to Condoms vs. Abstinence. The "have sex, just use a condom" approach has been tried for twenty years and has failed-spectacularly-to halt the epidemic. The only failsafe method of preventing the sexual spread of HIV is to encourage abstinence before marriage and faithfulness after marriage. This is what abstinence-and abstinence alone-does. Steve Mosher President PRI Weekly Briefing 30 April 2003 Vol. 5/ No. 14 Condoms vs. Abstinence By Steven W. Mosher The AIDS virus is transmitted from one person to another by contact with an infected person's body...

(CNSNews.com) - The Tanzanian government has seized a shipment of ten million condoms worth nearly $1 million, alleging that the condoms leak. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was responsible for the shipment and intended for the condoms to be distributed to the people of Tanzania free of charge. Steve Mosher, spokesman with the Virginia-based Population Research Institute, says the Tanzanian government wants to destroy the condoms seized last week because they have failed two permeability tests. However, Sarah Craven, chief of the UNFPA's Washington office, says the Tanzanian government has agreed to have a third sample of the condoms...

  29 April 2003Volume 5/ Number 13 Dear Colleague: In Africa, nearly 6 out of 10 victims of HIV/AIDS are women. Why does the disease disproportionately strike African women? Because, say the gender feminists at the United Nations, they are powerless to refuse sex with HIV-positive men. We disagree with this ideologically-motivated assessment. We believe that the targeting of women and girls for invasive contraceptive, sterilization and abortion procedures by so-called Sexual and Reproductive Health programs is largely responsible. Steven W. MosherPresident African Women and AIDS An examination of HIV/AIDS statistics by region and by gender reveals a curious anomaly....

WASHINGTON - As attention in Iraq begins to shift from war to rebuilding, some Catholic leaders wonder what kind of society the United States and United Nations want to create there. In the past, institutions such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.N. Population Fund have promoted family planning, including abortion. Such promotion could result in a backlash among the traditional Christians and Muslims of Iraq, some observers say. "I know that wherever [the U.N. Population Fund] goes, contraception and abortion follow," said Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, an organization that...

Dr. Theresa Burke's latest book on post-abortion therapy, "Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion," is endorsed by the great enemy of the feminist agenda, Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Burke concurs with Dr, Laura that the feminist movement has brought us deep psychological problems, especially the abortion culture, because "if you examine the women's movement you can see that many of the women who laid the groundwork were women traumatized by their own abortions. They believed that legalizing abortion would take away the trauma." Instead, as Dr. Burke shows, they created trauma, which brought us the nightmare culture. She applies psychology...

A DECISION by President Bush to suspend £24 million of United States funding to a United Nations body accused of assisting forced abortions in China is threatening to cloud his visit to Beijing this month. By withholding the money from the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Mr Bush has made clear his opposition to China's extreme population control methods. Beijing is hoping to extend the controls, which restrict the majority of couples to one child, for another generation. Beijing is furious with Mr Bush, who has been swayed by reports implicating the UNFPA in abuses of the one-child policy. ...

USAID clearly implicatedFRONT ROYAL, April 7, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Population expert Dr. Steve Mosher reports on underhanded abortion tactics in rural Africa. "In a dusty backwater of Western Kenya, three hundred miles from the capital city of Nairobi," he says, a Marie Stopes International (MSI) abortion clinic performs primitive suction abortions, sometimes on uninformed clients unaware of what is being done until it is too late. The Population Research Institute's investigation found that MSI officials openly admitted they have collaborated with USAID-funded "family planning" groups, including EngenderHealth, to promote abortion in Kenya. According to David Walker, Kenya's Country Representative for...

Statement by Saundra Duffy My Mom died of cancer. Two of her sisters have died from cancer. Therefore, I am predisposed to cancer and, in fact, I have had two bouts with cancer. I am offended that Planned Parenthood, and some in the media, has criticized me because of my concern for women with breast cancer, even though I'm not dying of the disease myself at this very moment. I am offended that the abortion industry wants to keep women in the dark about the abortion breast-cancer link. Planned Parenthood obviously has a very low opinion of our ability to...

Our Dark AgesPro-Life Conferees Say Research on Abortion Risk IgnoredBy Fred Martinez The Global Family Life conference at the Santa Clara Marriott was not well received by Bay Area media who either ignored it, or responded with skepticism at the claims of the pro-life conferees. The speakers responded by blasting the media both for its ignorance of medical research and for misrepresenting the scandals in the Church. The conference ran from April 3 through April 7 across the street from Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara and featured 26 pro-life leaders from around the world. Steve Mosher, head of...

Dear Colleague: PRI has been observing UNFPA operations in Vietnam for several years. We have ample documentation, both from the Vietnamese government and from population experts, demonstrating that UNFPA supports coercive population control in this communist nation. UNFPA itself makes no claims that its operations in Vietnam involve "voluntarism." Clearly, continuing to fund the UNFPA would be a violation of federal law. Steven W. Mosher President PRI Weekly Briefing 1 February 2002 Vol. 4/ No. 4 UNFPA Supports Coercion in Vietnam By Steve Mosher In the summer of 1999, a PRI representative visited the headquarters of the United Nations Population ...

The news that breast cancer has now overtaken lung cancer as the most common British cancer came as a surprise to many. Not to Patrick Carroll, however, the author of a new study from Great Britain that links the huge increase in breast cancer to the widespread practice of abortion. Dr. Carroll's study demonstrates that abortion actually doubles the risk of cancer in women.(1)And the worst is yet to come. In England and Wales the breast cancer rate is expected to rise by over 2 per cent per annum between now and 2023-some 60 percent-among women aged 45 to ...

I suppose I took an interest in Warren Buffet when my wife discovered, courtesy of a newspaper account in the mid 1980s, that a college friend of mine was the son of Warren's Vice Chairman, Charlie Munger. Up to that point, he seemed to be essentially what the media portrayed him to be: a fantasticly successful investor with a home-spun wit. His sinister side, of course, came out this week with his proposition 13 comments, and it brought to mind the other public part of his life, unrelated to investing and finance. He apparently gives very little to charity and...