Free Republic

The Senate is gearing up to ratify a Nixon-era U.N. treaty meant to create universal laws to govern the seas -- a treaty critics say will create a massive U.N. bureaucracy that could even claim powers over American waterways. LOST -- the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, also called the Law of the Sea Treaty -- regulates all things oceanic, from fishing rights, navigation lanes and environmental concerns to what lies beneath: the seabed's oil and mineral wealth that companies hope to explore and exploit in coming years. But critics say the treaty, which declares the sea...

Clearly many of you are in desperate need of a history lesson and perhaps a reminder of your manners. Recently too many of you have issues regarding the Great people of the Seneca Nation and the other Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. If it were not for the generosity and hospitality of the Seneca's and the rest of the Iroquois, there would be NO New York State nor would you enjoy the democratic society YOU enjoy today. Apparently Governor Patterson thinks this is the other way around. That the Senecas and the rest of the Iroquois tribes are citizens of...

There are few things that keep me up at night, but this is one of them. It may be cynicism, but more likely it’s the long sad experience of watching the courts over the years. So when your side finally wins one that should have you celebrating, and yet you walk away with a knot in your gut, it’s probably warranted. Senior Judge Laurence H. Silberman’s majority opinion in Parker v. District of Columbia was a thing of beauty, affirming armed self-defense as an individual right pre-existing the Constitution. It was almost hard to believe. Maybe that's what’s bugging me....

Some parts of the constitution need a lawyer to interpret, others are pretty straight forward, like this one: Article Two, Section Two of the US constitution says Clause 2: He [the President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors ... That's pretty clear, two thirds of the senate are needed to approve approve a treaty. But not if Senate democrats get their way. For Controversial...

New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state's economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson's first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components. The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the...

Gov. David Paterson is heading near Indian Country to sign a bill that would call for the state to collect taxes on sales by Indian retailers. Despite urgings by the Seneca Nation for the governor to veto the measure, he is traveling to Oneida County to sign the legislation in Utica on Monday

Like a monster in a horror flick franchise, the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), an omnibus treaty originally blocked by President Ronald Reagan, is back! And despite what the doomsday document's delirious spokesmen say, it's about as scary as ever. The convention is being pushed by a mix of activists, who support international law -- any international law -- and businesses, such as the International Association of Drilling Contractors, that see visions of profits dancing in their boardrooms. Treaty critics are being dismissed as ignorant fools or cynical liars.

In one of the most important international-law decisions in its history, the Supreme Court on Tuesday restored the Constitution’s prudent balance between politics and law in the quintessentially political arena of foreign affairs. Doing so, Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion concurrently provided individual justice for murder victims, vindication for the rights of states to democratic self-determination, and a searing reminder of why presidential elections — which can chart the high Court’s course for a generation — are crucially important.

Do you support the Lakota Freedom Delegation's declaration of sovereign-nation status? Yes No

Angering conservatives on the critical issue of national sovereignty, the Bush Administration is supporting a plan by Senator Joseph Biden, D-De., to stage a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on September 27 in order to usher the controversial U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty to the Senate floor for a quick vote. Biden, chairman of the committee and a Democratic presidential candidate, was a leader of the effort to defeat Bush’s pick of John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Conservatives are hoping the facts about President Reagan’s rejection of the measure, mainly on the grounds that it was a...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007Managua Nicaragua (LifeNews.com) -- The Supreme Court in Nicaragua is expected to issue a ruling on the nation's abortion ban in the next two weeks. The Central American nation adopted the complete ban last November that prohibits all abortions, including those for rape and incest or to save the life of the mother.Abortion advocates, led by the New York-based Americas for Human Rights Watch, have taken the law to court.The nation's high court is expected to deliver a decision in the case soon and it could result in the undermining of other pro-life laws in...

OTTAWA — It's a threat that has left-wing Canadian nationalists and right-wing U.S. congressmen in rare and dismayed agreement: a freeway, four football fields wide, stretching from Mexico to northern Manitoba. Groups on both sides of the political spectrum say the corridor - dubbed the NAFTA superhighway - is a primary goal of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America established two years ago by the leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico. At separate press conferences in Ottawa yesterday, the road was held out as an example of the potentially repugnant effects of the trilateral partnership....

Saturday, April 14, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, 'cultural diversity' – goodbye, sovereignty -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: April 14, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Henry Lamb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2007 A new U.N. treaty entered into force on March 18, 2007: the "Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions." This new treaty has been ratified by 56 nations, and it is only a matter of time (and who occupies the White House) before it is presented to the U.S. Senate for ratification. The purpose of the treaty is to further integrate the world into a global village by applying...

The French offer of cooperation in civilian nuclear energy development is likely to figure prominently in defence dialogue with India on Monday as Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday that New Delhi wanted to deepen strategic relationship with Paris. "France has assured us of cooperating in development of nuclear energy for civil use," Mukherjee told newsmen on arrival here adding "India wants to take this process forward". The Minister's remarks came as Indo-US agreement on civilian nuclear deal is still pending with the US Congress. Impressing on the United States that the process of removing the embargo and lifting...

I seem to recall reading a law somewhere stating that ordinary U.S. citizens were not authorized to enter into negotiations with foreign governments on behalf of the United States, and that only the U.S. government had that power alone. I keep thinking I remembered reading something to that affect in the Constitution, but cannot seem to find it. I haven't looked yet in the U.S. Code but will do right after I post this. Does such a law exist or am losing it?

Nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government to regulate private property. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government to manage wildlife or prescribe land-use regulations within the various states. By what authority, then, has the federal government constructed the expansive bureaucracy that now forces wolves, panthers and bears on states and communities that don't want them, or levied fines, and jailed people who dare dig a ditch or dump a load of sand on their own private property? This federal power arises from the treaty clause (Article VI (2)) of the U.S. Constitution. Alabama attorney Larry...

by Mark Finkelstein July 23, 2006 - 06:47 Don't the press in general and the New York Times in particular take pride in portraying themselves as ever-the vigilant defenders of the First Amendment? But judging by an editorial in the paper this morning, the Times experiences a power loss worse than the one currently gripping Queens when it comes to defending the First Amendment rights of groups it disfavors, in this case the tobacco industry. Entitled Take the Tobacco Pledge, the editorial urges ratification of The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, known colloquially as 'the tobacco treaty.'...

President Bush is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's true open borders policy. Secretly, the Bush administration is pursuing a policy to expand NAFTA politically, setting the stage for a North American Union designed to encompass the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. What the Bush administration truly wants is the free, unimpeded movement of people across open borders with Mexico and Canada. President Bush intends to abrogate U.S. sovereignty to the North American Union, a new economic and political...

India has virtually agreed to joint policing of international waters with the United States in the 10-year defence agreement signed between the two governments in Washington. The agreement is being seen as a "back-door entry" for India into the US-led 11-nation Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) that is now claiming the right to stop and search ships not merely in coastal waters, but also on international waters, merely on the suspicion that a vessel could be carrying missile shipments. India, which has opened its waters over the past few years to the United States, is now readying for a more substantive...

Will the real Brazil please stand up? Is Brazil a poor country that needs more foreign aid from the United States -- even involuntary aid? Or is it an increasingly rich and powerful country that can seize foreign markets for itself? Indeed, is it so powerful that that it doesn't need to play by the rules? One source not to look to for answers is the Brazilian government itself, as we shall see. To an outside observer, it's apparent that the Brazilians clearly want to have it all three ways: being needy when it suits them, being export-y as they...