Free Republic

ALBANY — Following up on the passage of the "heroes law," Gov. Pataki yesterday announced the state will hire 100 state troopers to crack down on illegal gun trafficking. Pataki said the specially trained troopers will work with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local police to track down illegal guns that make their way into New York. "We will go after guns from the streets to the source and not just in New York, but outside of New York," Pataki said. The State Police investigators — who will be in addition to those already working...

NEW YORK (AP) - Hoping to save hundreds of lives, health officials made a regulatory change Wednesday that will allow the city to track thousands of people with diabetes and occasionally prod them to take better care of themselves. In doing so, New York will become the first American city to monitor diabetes in the same way health departments now commonly track people with HIV or tuberculosis. It will also be treading new ground, and potentially raising some privacy concerns, by collecting information about people who have a chronic disease that isn't contagious or caused by an environmental toxin. The...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Nov. 11) - Critics have dubbed it "Bald Ego," "Murky's Turkey" and "Incontinental Airlines," but Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski finally has the sleek executive jet he says he and other state officials need. The $2.6 million Westwind aircraft, equipped with a leather sofa, burgundy carpeting and a flush toilet, arrived this week in Anchorage and will replace a no-frills turboprop used by previous Alaska governors for official business. Critics say Murkowski's jet is unusable in much of rural Alaska, where runways are too short and made of gravel or nonexistent. Murkowski press secretary Becky Hultberg defended the purchase,...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to disturb New York's system of taxing the income of telecommuters who live elsewhere but are employed by companies in the Empire state. Justices passed up a chance to hear the appeal of a Tennessee computer programmer who claimed that New York's tax law is unconstitutional. Thomas Huckaby had been ordered to pay New York income tax for his full salary, not just the time he spent at the New York offices of the union for which he worked. He lived 900 miles away in Nashville.

An interim legislative committee is considering a bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child. Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, said state law does not have regulations on assisted reproduction and should have similar requirements for adoption in Indiana. "If we're going to try to put Indiana on the map, I wouldn't go this route," said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. "It feels pretty chilling. It is governmental intrusion into a very private part of our lives." Miller acknowledged that the legislation...

The Virginia Citizens Defense League is non-partisan. We are only asking all the candidates to take a position on specific issues of concern to Virginia's gun owners, so that gun owners might make an informed choice. We believe this to be a reasonable request, and remain perplexed by the hostility that this has generated from the Kilgore campaign. The emails on which I have been cc'ed from gun owners across the state run the gamut from *pleading* with Mr. Kilgore to answer the VCDL survey and take a stand on gun rights, to furious gun owners saying that they have...

hereby officially pronounce the conservative movement dead. May it rest in peace. It was killed by its faith in men, not principles – men like George W. Bush. The appointments of John Roberts as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and Harriet Miers as associate justice serve as the epitaphs for the political movement. But even before these betrayals, conservatism was on life support. It could not have survived the irresponsible spending by the Republican Congress, approved by the president during the last five years. The conservative movement, in the best of times, represented a defensive effort to slow...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - The White House distanced itself today from the comments of a prominent Republican who said on a recent radio program that the nation's crime rate could potentially be reduced through aborting blacks. The White House called the comments, made by William J. Bennett, the former Republican secretary of education, off base. The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said that President George W. Bush "believes the comments were not appropriate." Mr. Bennett has said the remarks were taken out of context, noting that he immediately said such abortions would be "reprehensible." Mr. Bennett, who served as drug...

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) had the look of a hunted man as he walked from the Capitol to the Longworth House Office Building yesterday for a speech to young conservatives. Pence, chairman of a group of House conservatives called the Republican Study Committee, was complaining to his companions about a Robert Novak column in yesterday's Washington Post saying Pence was subjected to a "closed-door auto-da-fe" from Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay for daring to suggest that the profligate House leadership should reconsider its big-spending ways. But Pence got the leadership's message, loud and clear. Pence's speech was...

washingtonpost.com GOP Leaders Try to Soothe Conservatives Drive Planned to Defuse Ire Over Spending By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 27, 2005; A04 Squeezed between a conservative clamor for spending cuts and the rising cost of hurricane relief, Republican congressional leaders will respond this week with a public relations offensive to win over angry conservatives -- but no substantive changes in budget policy. Republican lawmakers and leadership aides conceded that the wholesale budget cuts envisioned by House conservatives are not being contemplated; the Senate is moving toward approving a temporary expansion of Medicaid for hurricane survivors, estimated...

The Republican congressional leaders want Indiana’s Rep. Mike Pence to go away, or at least shut up. They say that he’s grandstanding by talking about cutting spending and that the effort of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which he chairs, to force them to look for offsets as they prepare to spend as much as $200 billion on hurricane relief, on top of the spending that already has conservatives rolling their eyes, is “counterproductive.” Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), among others, took Pence to the woodshed last week and,...

My major complaints with the GOP are Bush's spending, and the stonewalling RINOs in Congress. And yet, what is the alternative? To vote Democrat? Or to not vote at all - which is just as helpful to Dems. Every time I think how disappointed I am with Bush, I try to remember how much worse it could be with a legitmate Bush-hater. The Democrats won't cut spending. They'll raise taxes. We'll see national health care. A Democratic President won't nominate moderate SCOTUS justices - unless you consider Ruth Bader Ginsberg a moderate. We'll cow tow to the UN, probably pull...

House conservatives called for broad spending cuts yesterday to offset emergency funding in response to Hurricane Katrina, a move that triggered heightened friction between leadership officials and the right wing of the GOP conference. The tensions illustrate a growing divide within the party about how to handle hurricane relief as another storm heads for the battered Gulf Coast region. Yesterday’s rally was an echo of the so-called Republican Revolution, when the current majority first swept into power behind their brash new Speaker, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), after the 1994 elections. Conference conservatives pointed to a number of government programs, both big...

During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush was asked whether he had ever tried cocaine. His answer was that he hadn't used drugs for 25 years. I take that as a "Yes." That same year, Lincoln Chafee was running for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island and was asked the same question. He gave a more forthright response, admitting that he had sniffed coke while a student at Brown University. Possession of cocaine, a felony, did not interfere with either politician's Ivy League education. Nor did it stop them from seeking and attaining high public office. Today, taxpayers cover...

Michigan is among a growing list of states and local governments moving toward a ban on machines that allow people to inhale alcohol, instead of drink it. The Michigan House voted 102-to-1 today to ban the machines known as Alcohol Without Liquid. The machines vaporize liquor 80-proof or higher and send alcohol quickly to the brain. They're popular on college campuses for getting drunk fast without drinking. The legislation was introduced by Republican Representative Rick Jones of Grand Ledge. The former county sheriff says the machines promote alcohol abuse and underage drinking. Republican Representative Leon Drolet of Clinton Township, was...

The vice chairman of the state Republican Party was charged Tuesday with money-laundering after he allegedly offered to "cleanse" drug proceeds for a legal client. Lawrence Novak, 54, an attorney from Brockton, was arrested at his home Tuesday after investigators said he allegedly offered to launder drug profits for Scott Holyoke, who is awaiting trial on federal drug trafficking charges and agreed to be a cooperating witness against Novak for the FBI. Novak was taken into custody after he allegedly deposited money in a Brockton bank, federal authorities said. Gov. Mitt Romney called for Novak to step down while the...

In my run for Congress (California's 48th District U.S. House Representative), I wish to support a women's right to "equal pay for equal work." This right was put into law with the "Equal Pay Act of 1963." Most women will tell you that they do not possess significant equality of equal pay compared to men doing the same job. I'd like to see the many corporate businesses of the 48th District set an example of gender equity for women.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Charged with ethics violations, Gov. Bob Taft was expected to enter a plea Thursday and apologize, wrapping up the case less than 24 hours after it was filed, two top state leaders said. Senate President Bill Harris and House Speaker Jon Husted, fellow Republicans, wouldn't be specific Thursday about whether Taft would plead guilty or no contest. But Husted said the plea would resolve the case, which would rule out a plea of innocent. Taft plans to apologize to Ohioans for his ethical lapse that led to him being the first Ohio governor charged with a...

Washington- Don't blame President Bush's trade ambassador. Yes, he urged Rep. Steve LaTourette to support the controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement. And LaTourette in the end did, voting with colleagues in the middle of the night and surprising scores of people who had believed him when he said he intended to vote no. But U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman apparently is touchy about how people see his role in a matter that has blown up in LaTourette's face. And as the week ended, he let people know it. A Plain Dealer examination last week showed that the Lake County...

A lifetime ago, when William Jefferson was just a plain old congressman, not the central figure in what's shaping up as a major investigation of his business dealings, I sat down to talk to him about one of his pet subjects, international trade. Jefferson kicked it off by asking whether I was familiar with the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Having skimmed a stack of newspaper clippings on the subject, I told him, with utter confidence, that I was. Big mistake. Before long he was off on a treatise about trade deals past, with a particular focus on provisions to...