Free Republic

With the midterm elections November 7, organized labor has been gearing up for its biggest political blitz ever. Since being rocked by internal divisions last year and failing to unseat President Bush in 2004, labor leaders have been eager to prove that unions still matter and that the labor ground game can deliver votes for the Democratic Party. Political observers believe that in some close races, labor could help swing this month’s midterm elections—an outcome the beleaugured union movement desperately desires. Although labor’s diminished power would probably not overcome a larger change in the national political currents, those currents seem...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's military has cut back its troops by 200,000, the official mouthpiece of the People's Liberation Army said on Monday, reinforcing its high-tech military ambitions to overtake rival Taiwan. ADVERTISEMENT The Liberation Army Daily said the two-year program to slim China's military was finished on schedule at the end of 2005, and troop numbers were actually down by 230,000, or just over 9 percent. China had 2.5 million serving military in 2003 when the cuts started. In 1987, it had about 4.2 million. The reforms included reducing layers in the command hierarchy, cutting non-battle units such as...

The last time I saw Lu Banglie, he was lying in a ditch on the side of the street - placid, numb and lifeless - the spit, snot and urine of about 20 men mixing with his blood, and running all over his body. I had only met him that day. He was to show me the way to Taishi, the hotspot of the growing rural uprisings in China. It felt like heading into a war. Taishi is under siege, I was warned. The day I arrived a French radio journalist and a Hong Kong print journalist were rumoured to...