Free Republic

Freedom through Regulation Those of us sitting on our hands with tape over our mouths trying not to distract attention from the Democratic Convention in Denver are in awe of the obvious. Catholics take exception to the abortion policies of the Dems. Soldiers don’t like the cut and run ethic that has only recently been watered down by the Democratic Party. Businesses don’t want to hear any more of the taxation policies being proposed. The NRA is against the over-regulation of firearms that has become a tenet of faith to the Dems. Christians have had it with the pro-homosexual policies...

Italy's Finmeccanica to buy DRS Technologies for $5.2BBusiness Courier of Cincinnati DRS Technologies Inc., which has several Cincinnati-area operations, is being bought by Finmeccanica SpA, an Italian aerospace and defense supplier, for $5.2 billion. Finmeccanica said the deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter this year, allows the company to enter the U.S. market and enables DRS to better compete in the global military and security market. DRS (NYSE: DRS) will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary, maintaining its current management and headquarters. The company will lead Finmeccanica's defense electronics efforts in the United States and it is expected...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - FBI agents on Wednesday busted 10 people they termed "special interest illegal aliens" for allegedly trying to use fraudulent documents to get New Mexico drivers licenses. A Motor Vehicle Division employee alerted police several weeks ago about what the employee believed to be a fraudulent attempt to get a license, according to an FBI news release. Albuquerque police called the FBI, which worked with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to investigate the incident. The investigation showed that several New Mexico residents had allegedly been fabricating proof of residence documents to allow people from out of the country to...

SACRAMENTO - One of the most extensive campaign finance studies in California history showed today that when voters restricted direct contributions to candidates in 2001, donations from special interests flowed around that curb and swelled into an $88 million torrent. The study compiled by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, shows indirect contributions to legislative candidates from special interests surged more than 6,000 percent - from $376,000 to $23.5 million. Indirect donations from wealthy groups to statewide candidates surged more than 5,000 percent to $29.5 million. "The astounding increase in independent expenditures benefiting candidates for state office is clearly thwarting...

Ever wonder why California legislators - who are all but guaranteed re-election once elected - continue to raise mountains of campaign cash? Well, they need the money for swank hotels and casinos, fine wines, posh golf courses, trips to Hawaii - even jet-ski rentals. You know, the staples of "public service." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, California legislators spent nearly $700,000 in campaign funds within the past three years on junkets and luxuries. Special interests paid the bill so our politicians, their families and their staffers could have a grand old time without paying a penny. According to the...

It could be Barack Obama’s "axis of evil": lobbyists, political action committees and corporations. In speech after speech, hundreds of miles from Washington (the axis’ base of operations), Obama these days portrays the trio as a scourge, blocking progress on health care, energy and prescription drug policy. So if elected, Obama says, he would negotiate an insurance plan on C-SPAN and disclose meetings between political appointees and lobbyists and restrict their employment in his White House. “The days of corporate lobbyists setting the agenda in Washington are over,” Obama said at a rally here. Across Iowa, the line elicits a...

Given that the primary job of most elected officials' aides is to make their politician-bosses look good, we shouldn't be too alarmed by reports that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger uses campaign funds to supplement some of his key aides' state salaries. Call it honesty in employment. The apparatchiks are doing campaign work anyway, they might as well get some campaign cash for doing it. Hopefully, they limit such activities to when they're off the taxpayers' clock. Far more concerning than how campaign funds and other private donations are spent, though, is how they're raised — and what contributors expect to get...

Link to story: Wal-Mart 'customizing' stores

WASHINGTON - Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), the Ohio Republican who wants to be House majority leader, helped expose abuses at the House bank under Democrats' control a decade ago and then embarrassed his own party with his dealings with lobbying interests. Boehner was forced to apologize in the mid-1990s for distributing checks from tobacco companies to his colleagues as they worked on the House floor. More recently, he was scrutinized for accepting donations, parties and trips from Sallie Mae, the nation's largest provider of student loans, as it lobbied the House Education and the Workforce Committee, which...

When US Representative Henry Hyde spoke about the bill that would penalize the United Nations half the dues it extorts from the US annually for not embracing reform he included as shocking a statement that has ever been uttered on Capitol Hill. He alluded to the fact that those who represent us in Washington DC need to be “good stewards of the people’s money.” Of course, for this statement of common sense to have any meaning those in Washington would first have to understand that the money they “appropriate” isn’t theirs, it’s ours, and that they work for us. I...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suddenly ranks among the most unpopular governors in modern California history, as residents grow increasingly unhappy about the action hero-turned-politician's budget plans and his call for a special election, according to a new Field Poll. Less than a third -- 31 percent -- of the state's adults approve of the job the governor is doing in Sacramento, down from 54 percent in February. The numbers are only slightly better among registered voters, 37 percent of whom are happy with Schwarzenegger's performance and 53 percent dissatisfied. "There's very little for the governor to cheer about in this poll,''...

When Abraham Lincoln declared that government of the people, by the people, and for the people would not perish from the earth, he could not have anticipated the times we live in. A time when politicians would allow themselves to be corrupted by money from the rich and powerful, whose desire is to stomp all over the rights of we the people. We the people, the citizenry, once the most powerful in this nation, have become the least powerful, and now the despised. Money is the name of the game, and money means power, and we the people have increasingly...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lauded teachers union leaders and educators last year for their "generosity and great vision" when they agreed to give up $2 billion in education funding to help balance the state budget. This year, when the same coalition demanded that Schwarzenegger follow through with that deal and give more money to schools as he promised, he called them "special interests." Since being swept into office in the recall campaign of 2003, Schwarzenegger has defined "special interest" selectively. Most Californians consider special interests to be all-powerful Sacramento players that spend millions on lobbying and campaign contributions. Schwarzenegger...

The Schwarzenegger administration, under fire for attempting a quick rule change that would weaken the state law that guarantees lunch breaks for workers, backed off its plan for the emergency order on Monday. Instead, state officials say they will pursue changes to the lunch-break law under regular, drawn-out procedures that give the public an opportunity to weigh in at public hearings and during a public comment period. "We wanted to make sure all the interested parties had a chance to have their concerns heard," said Dean Fryer, spokesman for the state Department of Industrial Relations, the agency overseeing the division...

SAN FRANCISCO - In the strange world of Schwarzenegger-era politics, it seems only fitting that the Republican governor, who rode to fame making tough-guy action films and who's been accused by dozens of women of being a serial groper, could get away with standing before a state women's conference and boast that he had angered a group of nurses because he was "always kicking their butts." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made the remarks in Long Beach last week as he opened the first day of the California Gov.'s Conference on Women and Families, an annual gathering hosted this year by his...

The founding fathers knew this day would come, when “we the people” would become so focused on our own individual desires, that we would no longer act in the interest of our nations needs. They talked about America’s most fatal threat coming from within, in the form of self-servitude. They spoke of America’s eventual fall from the weight of decisions made by “me the people” without regard for “we the people”. They knew that America’s long term future would depend on “the people’s” ability to resist the urge to vote ourselves money from the treasury, once we figured out that...

The monthlong bill-signing period is upon us, and the question for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger remains: How much and from whom will he accept campaign cash while considering hundreds of bills left on his desk by the Legislature? Spokesman Rob Stutzman said the governor will not accept money into his re-election pot (which has a $21,200-per-donor limit) during September. Political adviser Marty Wilson said the governor will accept checks in unlimited amounts in his ballot measure committees, which will fuel his involvement in Nov. 2 election matters. Indeed, Univision Chairman Jerry Perenchio dropped a quarter-million-dollar check into Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups, John Kerry collected more than $120,000 in fees from interests as diverse as big oil, tobacco, the liquor lobby and unions, records show. Between 1985 and 1990, Kerry's first five years in the Senate from Massachusetts, he pocketed annual amounts slightly under the limits for speaking fees set by Congress. Unlike many colleagues, he donated a speaking fee to charity only once, according to annual financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Associated Press. One of the companies to pay Kerry $1,000 for a speech...

In mid-July, when the budget stalemate started to drag, the governor’s office announced a press conference. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in the Capitol pressroom and blamed the standoff on “special interests” causing “chaos.” Schwarzenegger singled out trial lawyers for supporting the “sue your boss” law, passed during the last days of the previous administration to give workers the right to sue employers for various transgressions. He also accused labor unions of blocking an effort to let school districts contract out school services such as busing rather than stick with union contracts. “I’ve always said, 'When the special interests push me...

Knowledge is power and that is especially true in politics. Therein lies the danger to California if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger follows through with threats to turn the state Legislature into an underpaid "part-time" body. Blaming legislators (Democrats publicly, both parties privately) and not his own budget giveaway deals for delaying this year's spending plan, Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman has told the Los Angeles Times that the governor may seek revenge. That would come in the form of a special election next year. This election may or may not seek constitutional changes to shrink the legislative calendar to a part-time status,...

To: National Desk Contact: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787; 202-744-7726 or cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787; 202-439-1441 or rahmed@cair-net.org, both of CAIR WASHINGTON, May 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) today condemned the murder of an American civilian in Iraq by a group claiming links to Al-Qaeda. A video posted on an Internet web site shows the beheading of a Philadelphia man working as a contractor in Iraq whose body was found on a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday. The group that carried out the killing said it was in retaliation for the ongoing Iraq prison abuse...

SACRAMENTO - Despite pledging to reject money from insurance companies while negotiating a workers' compensation reform plan, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has cashed a six-figure industry donation to fund his backup ballot measure.<..> The decision violates the governor's stated policy of rebuffing insurance donations received after the March 2 election. Thursday, Schwarzenegger fundraiser Marty Wilson said the governor's campaign committee would not return the donation because the company pledged the money before March 2, even though state records show it was cashed two days after the election. ``We're keeping it and we're spending it,'' said Wilson.

Proposed legislation that threatens local land control undermines the credibility of the saying: If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, why it must be a duck. Sen. Sheila Kuehl has introduced legislation, SB 1462, that sounds pallatible, but would squeeze power from local planning commissions, city councils and boards of supervisors. Her bill would establish a 17-member Southern California Military Greenway Commission. The proposal would have the naive believe it is merely designed to protect the region's valuable military bases. After all, there's few if any in Kern County who would not want the strongest measures enacted...

National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) National Education Association American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees EMILY's List (a pro-choice group for women Democrats) Leadership Conference on Civil Rights NAACP National Organization for Women Handgun Control United Auto Workers Sierra Club (environmental group) National Education Association People for the America Way Alliance for Justice (focus is on the judiciary and blocking conservative judges) AFL-CIO (union that endorsed Kerry) Human Rights Campaign (working for gay equal rights South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus Coalition for a Fair and Independent Judiciary ADA Watch-National Coalition for Disability Rights American Association of...

SEN. JOHN KERRY’S HYPOCRISY, VOL. I, ISSUE 5Kerry Blasts Special InterestsBut Loved Their Honoraria________________________________________________________Candidate Kerry:  “I have a message for the influence peddlers, for the polluters, the HMOs, the big drug companies, that get in the way, the big oil and the special interests who now call the White House their home.  We’re coming, you’re going, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”  (CNN’s “CNN Live,” 1/28/04)TOOK THOUSANDS IN SPECIAL INTERESTHONORARIA FROM BIG OIL AND WALL STREETBetween 1985 And 1990, Kerry Accepted Over $120,000 In Special Interest Honoraria.   “Back when federal lawmakers legally could be...

SACRAMENTO -- Although he said he could pay for his own race and not take money from special interests, records show Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a pattern of relying on bank loans and other credit, which some critics say disguises hundreds of thousands of dollars of special-interest donations. Schwarzenegger's borrowing of millions of dollars before the Oct. 7 recall election was ruled a violation of state campaign law by a Superior Court judge last week because he could raise money to pay off the loans after the election. That ruling may mean Schwarzenegger may have to pay back $4.5 million...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 — The Senate gave President Bush and his Republican allies a victory today by approving an $820 billion spending bill covering more than a dozen federal departments and agencies in the fiscal year that began almost four months ago. The vote was 65 to 28. But that vote was anticlimactic, in a sense, because minutes earlier the chamber had voted, 61-32, to end a delay, or filibuster, that had blocked the measure. The 61 votes were one more than needed to defeat the filibuster. The bill, approved by the House weeks ago, was a conspicuous item of...

"Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel." "Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States...

Memo-Gate By: Andy Obermann 24 November 2003 Once again, partisan politics has won out in Washington. Memos from and to many top democrats, detailing dishonest practices ranging from the blocking of judicial nominations, to the exploitation of sensitive intelligence information, have leaked like rain in the monsoon. As revealed in these memos, both the Senate Intelligence Committee and judicial confirmation process have been compromised to a great extent. The Democratic hierarchy has attempted to downplay the significance of the documents as nothing but advice from their constituency. The actions of the party, however, lead one to believe that rather than...

ST. LOUIS (Talon News) -- Congressman Richard Gephardt on Saturday accused President Bush of being allied with "homophobic bigotry" during an address he made before a homosexual advocacy group. Gephardt (D-MO), who is one of nine Democrats seeking to win their party's nomination and square off against Bush in the general election next year, is making his pro-homosexual agenda a campaign issue. Speaking before the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Annual Gala in St. Louis, Gephardt said, "It is time for President Bush to end his alliance with homophobic bigotry once and for all and speak out against the Republican Party's...

Now look who's hiding special-interest donations Fri Sep 26, 6:36 AM ET California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante wanted to raise money quickly for the state's gubernatorial-recall election this fall. So his campaign found a way for Indian casinos, labor unions and other special-interest donors to get around the state's $21,000 limit on individual contributions. Almost immediately, however, the media and Bustamante's election rivals were able to detect the ploy. The reason: California's strict requirements for prompt disclosure of political giving. On Monday, a judge ordered more than $4 million of the donations returned. The timely exposure of other special-interest contributions...

Granholm walks away from charter schools talks; teachers plan protest By AMY F. BAILEY The Associated Press 9/25/2003, 4:29 a.m. ET LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Classes at Detroit public schools were canceled Thursday because thousands of teachers planned to gather at the state Capitol to protest a deal allowing more charter schools in Michigan. Thursday morning's rally, organized by the Detroit Federation of Teachers, comes a day after Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she was ending negotiations on charter school expansion. The Democratic governor said Wednesday a bill intended to reflect an agreement she reached last week with House Speaker Rick...

Also FRom Yahoo! News 8/29/03 WASHINGTON - Several of the nation's most powerful interest groups say that despite high stakes they plan to stay out of California's recall, citing the high cost of campaigning there, the chaos of the race or simply a policy of skipping state elections. AP Photo "This is a bit of a bizarre situation and we have decided not to get involved in it," said Jeff Trewhitt, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America. "There's no way," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites)'s political director, Bill Miller, said when asked...

Gov. Gray Davis' offer to give tribal gaming leaders a say in who sits on the state commission that regulates casinos drew a sharp retort Saturday from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who accused the governor of ``putting his own political interest ahead of the public interest.'' Davis said Saturday he is seeking qualified people with gambling-regulation experience for the two vacancies on the five-member California Gambling Control Commission. He said he asked the California Nations Indian Gaming Association in a Thursday meeting to give him suggestions. ``I have asked individual Indian tribes over the years, and now I've asked an association of...

CAIR vs. the FBIBy Joe Kaufman and Beila RabinowitzFrontPageMagazine.com | August 22, 2003 In March of 2003, the Miami office of the FBI held a joint press conference with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) concerning the FBI’s search for suspected terrorist Adnan El Shukrijumah.  According to the FBI, El Shukrijumah was “identified by senior members of the al-Qaeda organization as a very, very, very serious threat to the United States interests, both here and abroad.”Before the event, the FBI issued a press release, claiming CAIR had “approached the FBI and offered their assistance in reaching out to the...

This week's statements by President Bush and the Vatican, critical of homosexual marriage, have re-ignited the debate over morality and fairness. While the Vatican labels political support of same sex unions "gravely immoral," one Baptist minister says religious views about homosexuality are changing in the same way they changed about slavery, women preachers and Galileo's scientific theories. Dan Avila, associate director for policy and research with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, defended the Church's position while admitting that it is "counter-cultural." The Church teaches that marriage, defined as an exclusive and indissoluble union between one man and one woman, is a...

Emphasizing the failures and hypocrisy of the feminist movement and calling feminists who claim to speak for women "phonies," conservative activist Michelle Easton told a gathering of students this week to be wary of the tendency of the media, feminists and other liberals to ignore and often marginalize conservative women. Easton, president of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, an organization that prepares women in leadership skills, spoke to the Young America's Foundation 25th Annual National Conservative Conference, a week-long event that brings together young conservative activists from across the nation. Comparing the women's movement of a century earlier to...

Regarding Wednesday's story, "McCain may face '04 GOP challenge": Stephen Moore and the Club for Growth have encouraged Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., to challenge Sen. John McCain in the 2004 GOP senate primary, claiming that the incumbent senator is too moderate on policy issues like the environment. To that I say: Bring it on, Mr. Moore. While McCain may be too reasonable on this issue for Flake, Moore and the rest of the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, his positions are shared by the vast majority of the people of Arizona. By challenging McCain on environmental issues, Flake...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said Monday any attack on Iraq must first have the approval of the United Nations. The Vatican's position on the crisis was made clear in an interview by its foreign minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, to appear in Tuesday's edition of the Catholic newspaper Avvenire. "If the international community ... judges it to be opportune to resort to a proportionate use of force, it must be part of a decision taken within the framework of the United Nations," Tauran told the paper. A transcript of the answers to the questions regarding Iraq and the anniversary...

John Thune for South Dakota INSIDER UPDATE Once again, out-of-state environmental extremists have come to South Dakota to distort John Thune’s record on the environment. The Sierra Club is attacking John’s votes on arsenic levels. Like the League of Conservation Voters, this group doesn’t mention that John voted for the stricter arsenic standard just as Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson did. These extreme environmental groups continue to attack John’s fair, balanced approach to the environment and the needs of rural South Dakotans. Like with the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club is an out-of-state group that promotes policies, which...

<p>Delaware smokers would pay 50 cents more in taxes for a pack of cigarettes under a bill introduced Wednesday in Dover.</p> <p>House Bill 450 is the third cigarette tax bill now pending before the General Assembly. Its chief sponsor said Wednesday the legislation is the combined effort of lawmakers who sponsored the two other bills.</p>