Free Republic

Did anybody capture it? They're trying to hide it ... hope it's cached or caught by somebody. http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/HopeTacos/gG59KJ

Salvaging Our North Korea Policy.... By JOHN R. BOLTON There are signs, albeit small ones, that the Bush administration may be reaching the end of its patience with the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. These signs could prove illusory. But as it nears its end, the administration has a serious responsibility: It must not leave its successor with an ongoing, failed policy. At a minimum, President Bush should not bequeath to the next president only the burned-out hulk of the Six-Party Talks, and countless failed and violated North Korean commitments. Since they were conceived in spring 2003,...

(CNSNews.com) - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, would allow illegal aliens to apply for permanent residency but would also require them to go back home after a "set period" of time, he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday. After four days of questioning from Cybercast News Service, however, the Romney campaign was unable to specify how long that "set period" would be. On "Meet the Press" Romney said: "Well, whether they go home - they should go home eventually. There's a set period - in my view they should have a set period during...

Rudy Mitt Huckabee   By Don FederFrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, December 12, 2007 On the issue of illegal immigration, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney have begun doing passable impressions of Lou Dobbs. But can you trust a candidate whose record contradicts his campaign rhetoric? At the recent CNN/YouTube debate, Romney and Rudy squared off on what's shaping up to be the defining issue of Campaign 2008 -- with the ferocity of rabid mongooses. Rudy -- who wants to "secure the border" (is there anyone, including Hillary, who says they don't?) -- bragged that as mayor of New York...

U.S. Diplomat Is Residing in North Korean Capital, Chosun Says By Heejin Koo Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. diplomat has been residing in North Korea since mid-November, acting as a liaison between the governments of Washington and Pyongyang, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified official in Washington.The presence of the unidentified U.S. envoy, who is staying at the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang, is an indication of improved relations between the two nations since North Korea pledged to disable its Yongbyon nuclear plant by the end of this year, the Seoul-based daily said. The U.S. plans...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday proposed selling the state lottery for at least $14 billion to create an endowment for Texans without health insurance and a trust fund for cancer research. That money could be used to form a $2.7 billion endowment for the uninsured and to create a $3 billion fund for the fight against cancer, Perry said in his State of the State address. Both funds would generate ongoing payments, he said.

Ethanol in Gasoline: Not a Good Deal for the Consumers By Michael R. Fox Ph.D., 7/2/2006 11:14:32 PM People buying into the myth that Ethanol is our energy ace have simply got to beware. In Hawaii, that includes The Honolulu Advertiser pushing it (June 20, 2006), and in recent weeks Hawaiian Electric Co. spokespeople, Governor Linda Lingle, and local radio talk show hosts. We had the Bill O'Reilly/Sen. John Kerry love fest on June 29 asserting the ethanol option is the right one. Even President George W. Bush has been swayed by the rhetoric. These politically correct solutions to our...

WASHINGTON -- Sometime between now and the Fourth of July, the Senate plans to revisit what over the course of 17 years has become a seasonal rite of patriotism on Capitol Hill: a vote on whether to amend the Constitution to ban protesters from burning the American flag. Each time, the arguments on both sides are passionate. Each time, the support needed to move ahead with an amendment falls short. But this year could be different, as two important trends cross paths. For one, proponents of the amendment appear to have more support than ever in the Senate. They say...

"Things aren't always as they seem" is an old saying with common sense. Wednesday is Flag Day. A week later the U.S. Senate will debate a proposed constitutional amendment that reads, "The Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The vote is expected to be close. The House of Representatives has already passed this amendment. The next step would be ratification by two-thirds of the states. All 50 state legislatures have indicated they would support the amendment. Our society has accepted 30-second sound bites for news. On the surface, the...

Harris Campaign Calls on Nelson to Defend Sanctity of Marriage For Immediate Release June 6, 2006 Contact:  Chris Ingram   (813) 288-8400 (Tampa, Fla.) - The Katherine Harris for U.S. Senate campaign called on Senator Bill Nelson to support the Marriage Protection Amendment today. "I believe the majority of Americans strongly support the preservation of traditional marriage. We must never undermine the uniqueness of an institution that continues to serve as an essential thread in the fabric of our society. I support the passage of the Marriage Protection amendment being debated in the Senate," Congresswoman Harris said. Campaign spokesman Chris Ingram...

Governor Mitt Romney has sent this letter to every member of the Senate encouraging them to Vote "Yes" on this landmark peice of legislation--the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA). A few excerpts are below: "Americans are tolerant, generous, and kind people. We all oppose bigotry and disparagement, and we all wish to avoid hurtful disregard of the feelings of others. But the debate over same-sex marriage is not a debate over tolerance. It is a debate about the purpose of the institution of marriage. Attaching the word marriage to the association of same-sex individuals mistakenly presumes that marriage is principally a...

by Mark Finkelstein June 6, 2006 While considerable attention focuses on Ann Coulter's more superficial charms, from a conservative perspective Ann's real beauty is her absolute refusal to buy into liberal logic, no matter how pervasive. That independence of mind was on display this morning during her interview with Matt Lauer. Ann was on to tout her new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, released today on . . . 6/6/6 - sign of the devil and all that. The first example came in the the context of President Bush's current push for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay...

The chief of the Russian military general staff said Thursday that Moscow was concerned about U.S. interference in the political affairs of other ex-Soviet nations. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky also said that Russia's relations with the United States and other NATO nations were clouded by Western efforts to expand their military presence on ex-Soviet territory.......

The biggest question surrounding stem cell research in California right now isn’t whether it will eventually cure devastating health problems. It’s what happened to the billion dollars. When California voters approved Proposition 71 last year, critics say, it was partially on the promise that their $3 billion investment in stem cell research would provide a financial payoff to the state. Supporters cited a study that claimed California could get a payback of anywhere between $537 million and $1.1 billion from royalties and licensing from intellectual property, or IP, as it is known in the investment community. Actually, the figures were...

1.) Wilson Insisted That The Vice President’s Office Sent Him To Niger: Wilson Said He Traveled To Niger At CIA Request To Help Provide Response To Vice President’s Office. “In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney’s office had questions about a particular intelligence report. … The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president’s office.” (Joseph C. Wilson, Op-Ed, “What I Didn’t Find In Africa,” The New York Times, 7/6/03)

Inclusionary Housing Is A Pea Shell Game by Wayne Lusvardi “Shell game. A form of the game thimblerig in which spectators bet on the final location of an object hidden under one of three walnut shells or cups that have been shuffled.” Encarta Dictionary Politics has been defined as the art of promising something for nothing and of concealing who really bears the burden of taxation. This was demonstrated recently when Bill Bogaard, the mayor of the City of Pasadena, California was quoted as praising affordable housing advocates for pushing for an amendment to the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance that...

Buzz By Date Legislators brace for perilous record votes on Monday The committee substitute for House Bill 3 is a fascinating read and may work. But it also appears to have all types of political pitfalls other than the obvious one of cutting taxes on high income Texans while raising the taxes of the working and middle class. Talk radio around the state has been ripe with questions about why a payroll tax is not a backdoor income tax. I know. I was asked that question on four different radio programs last week. Of course, the answer is that the...

In the early days of Vietnam I commanded a 150 Marine replacement unit arriving in country by ship. As we entered port the ship's Captain summoned me and ordered a perimeter established around the Seabee compound where we docked. It had been receiving probing attacks by the Viet Cong. When the unit was in position I called my four Staff NCOs and told them to move up and down the line all night to keep everyone alert and their spirits high. I reminded them these were very young Marines and that they had never heard a shot fired in anger....

If any California politician must be above reproach, it's the secretary of state, who runs state elections. But Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, who has a reputation of clean politicking, has gotten himself into an ethical scandal. "A San Francisco nonprofit group paid $108,000 from a state grant to two individuals and two companies who then made donations of nearly identical amounts to Kevin Shelley's successful 2002 campaign for California secretary of state," the San Francisco Chronicle, his home-town newspaper, reported on Sunday. "The money came from a $500,000 taxpayer-financed grant that Shelley himself arranged in 2000 when he was...

The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003. The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program. The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite...

Syria and the WMD Shell Game April 21, 2004 by Joe Mariani Since the day the first American soldier stepped across the Kuwait-Iraq border in March 2003, everyone who supported the removal of Saddam Hussein from power has been under a relentless attack from the Left. Led by the "mainstream" media, the attack began on the very first day, at the very first CENTCOM briefing, and has continued like a relentless mosquito whining to this day. Despite the fact that every intelligence service in the world agreed, members of the US government agreed, the United Nations agreed and Iraqi officials...

<p>A key question raised in the big political brouhaha over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: Why didn't Saddam just come clean? Had he opened up fully to U.N. inspections and proved he had no WMDs, he would still be in power rather than behind bars facing the gallows.</p>

<p>Major liberal donors are demonstrating their willingness to fund a new shadow Democratic Party, according to reports filed Friday by a network of nominally independent organizations committed to defeating President George W. Bush in November. Meanwhile, a drive to bar their activities has gained strength. On Thursday, the legal staff of the Federal Election Commission proposed regulations that could stifle the groups' plans, with backing from Republican Party leaders and campaign watchdog groups.</p>

Same old game, just new players. Although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised during last fall's recall election to end the smoke and mirror state budgeting game, the plan he released last week includes many of the gimmicks he vehemently criticized. He described former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' recent budgets as "shell games" that depended on borrowing and shaky financial assumptions. Guess what? So does Schwarzenegger's $99 billion budget. The largest chunk of proposed borrowing will come in March, when voters will be asked to approve a $15 billion bond measure to keep California from toppling over the brink of bankruptcy. Like...

<p>Remember the aphorism about giant oaks growing from little acorns? It's as true in politics as it is in botany, as the experience with 10 obscure words in the state constitution would attest. Proposition 13, enacted by voters in 1978, limited property taxes to 1 percent of market value, and said that the taxes would be "apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties."</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) unveiled his first state, including cuts to education and healthcare spending in a bid to curb the largest state's multi-billion-dollar deficit. AFP/Getty Images Photo   The former actor-turned-politician said he had been forced to make radical spending cuts in the face of a projected 12-14 billion dollar budget shortfall for 2004. Aides say Schwarzenegger's plan will balance the state's precarious finances. "Over the past five years the politicians have made a mess of the California budget, and now it's time to clean it up," Schwarzenegger said in a...

<p>Part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $99.1 billion budget proposal unveiled Friday calls for shifting $1.3 billion in property taxes from cities and counties to help pay the state's bill to schools.</p> <p>Even in conservative south Sacramento County, the governor's proposal elicited howls from local officials.</p>

<p>The budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will take $1.3 billion of property tax from local governments to offset the state's obligation to pay for schools, sources said Thursday.</p> <p>The proposal would closely resemble the property tax shift that occurred in the early 1990s and has been a sore point in the state's relationship with local governments ever since.</p>

<p>GOV. ARNOLD Schwarzenegger moved Thursday to declare an emergency of his own creation.</p> <p>There is no doubt about the authenticity of the crisis. Cities and counties throughout the state were reeling at the prospect of losing a combined $2.6 billion from the governor's inauguration-day rollback of vehicle license fees.</p>

MP3s Are Not the Devil Since every penny I earn depends on copyright protection, I'm all in favor of reasonable laws to do the job. But there's something kind of sad about the recording industry's indecent passion to punish the "criminals" who are violating their rights. Copyright is a temporary monopoly granted by the government -- it creates the legal fiction that a piece of writing or composing (or, as technologies were created, a recorded performance) is property and can only be sold by those who have been licensed to do so by the copyright holder. Without copyright, once a...

After a week of continuous pounding by coalition forces, Saddam's "true colors," as one U.S. general puts it, are starting to show, as reports of atrocities on the part of the Iraqi regime mount. Israeli television Channel 1 reports Iraq is playing a shell game with coalition forces, hiding missile launchers and Scud missiles on specially constructed trucks that move around the country and hide beneath bridges to escape detection by satellite and air surveillance. Master Sgt. Joe Cross ropes off safe area far from uncontrolled natural-gas fire in Rumaylah oil fields Iraq has so far launched 10 missiles toward...

The Claremont Review of Books is a quarterly journal of statesmanship and political philosophy. Click here for more information.Angelo M. Codevilla is Professor of International Relations at Boston University, a former national security analyst for the Reagan administration, and a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute.Also by Angelo M. CodevillaTerror War Cannot Be Won Until Fear is GonePosted on December 19, 2001The Way to Missile DefensePosted on May 5, 2001 Looking for something? Enter any text below to search our content. Enter your email address below to join Precepts, our free weekly policy watch newsletter. Home »   Writings...