Free Republic

Some Democrats Are Wary of Occupy Wall StreetBy Alex Roarty Oct 27 2011, 4:29 PM ET Pinched by a still sour economy and a deeply pessimistic public, President Obama and his Democratic allies are evincing a sharper, far more populist message as a defense against next year's Republican charge. Highlighted by a $450 billion proposal in Congress, paid for by taxing the wealthy, they have found a message tailor-made for their traditional base. But their new tone and, most notably, the emergence of the populist-fueled Occupy Wall Street movement, have left some Democrats worried. They are nervous that the president's...

Netanyahu postpones decision on investigation of IDF raid. Israel will defer for further consideration UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's call for an international investigation of the boarding of the Mavi Marmara last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a government session on Sunday. "We must cautiously weigh the manner in which such an investigation will be conducted to protects the interests of the IDF and Israel," added Netanyahu.

WASHINGTON – As a young lawyer working for Justice Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan repeatedly expressed her concern that a conservative Supreme Court was looking for ways to cut back on the rights of women, criminal defendants and prisoners. Documents from Kagan's year with Marshall show a law clerk who was frequently assessing the politics of the institution. Her memos to the justice are on file in Marshall's papers at the Library of Congress. Kagan's time with Marshall, the groundbreaking lawyer who argued against segregation and later became the first African-American on the court, is likely to be a subject at...

All but one of the top Republican candidates for governor and Senate support the new anti-illegal immigration law in Arizona, now that Steve Poizner and Carly Fiorina have joined Tom Campbell and Chuck DeVore in backing it. “I think I have a better plan for California,” GOP governor candidate Meg Whitman told Register editorial and and news writers today. She reiterated her call to tighten up border security and crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. She said that would address 90 percent of the problem – and that the Arizona law means a lot of legal controversy ahead....

Respected journalist Yaakov Achimeir says the tightly-contested upcoming British elections do not bode well for Israel. “At this point,” Achimeir told Arutz-7’s Hebrew newsmagazine on Wednesday, “it does not appear that either of the two large parties - neither Labor, which is currently in power, nor the Conservatives (Tories) - will receive a majority on May 6. Whoever wins will therefore need to bring in the 3rd-largest party, namely the Liberal Democrats, to form a coalition. It is clear that Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg will have the ability to decide who will be the next British Prime Minister – Gordon...

Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they do not trust the U.S. government to do what is right, expressing the highest level of distrust in Washington in half a century... Only 22 percent of Americans say they trust the government "just about always" or "most of the time,"... Americans' trust in the federal government has been on a steady decline from a high of 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration in 1958, when the "trust" question was first posed in a national survey.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America's "Great Compromiser" Henry Clay called government "the great trust," but most Americans today have little faith in Washington's ability to deal with the nation's problems. Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don't trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America's ills, the survey found. The survey illustrates the ominous situation President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party face as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities...

As everyone knows and remembers, tomorrow is 9-11. for the past 8 years (almost), we have been safe and free from a heinous attack on the scale of 9-11 or worse. Every year around this time, though, most did not worry of another attack because of the safety measures and the two fronts of the WOT. I was one of those people for the last 4 or so years. But, recently I have had a bad feeling, almost a premonition, that something may occur, what, where, and when, I don't know, around this time. I don't want to frighten anyone,...

Somalis wary of 'Bin Laden' tape Bin Laden was giving an opinion, the Somali leader said The powerful Islamist movement in Somalia has distanced itself from comments about Somalia attributed to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. An internet audio recording warned the West not to send troops to Somalia. But a leader of the Union of Islamic Courts, which has taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, said they did not rely on any outside group. The US has accused one Islamic leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, of links to al-Qaeda and involvement with terror. Mr Aweys denies the US allegations,...

The organization for truckers serving California harbors supports a Bush administration plan to check the backgrounds of port workers as long as it doesn't interfere with their livelihood, an official said Tuesday. However, a longshore union official called the plan "harassment." The government envisions looking into the backgrounds of hundreds of thousands of workers in the most sensitive areas of the nation's ports, and also issuing tamper-proof identification cards. Stephanie Williams, vice president of the California Trucking Association, said she supported background checks if they are quick and don't interfere with the work of the nearly 12,000 truckers at the...

Farmers wary of Mugabe land offer By David Blair in Johannesburg (Filed: 10/02/2006) By the time Vernon Nicolle lost his farm in Zimbabwe to a High Court judge, all his equipment had been looted and an irrigation system for 4,000 acres lay in ruins. His fertile fields were reduced to neglected wastelands. The disclosure that president Robert Mugabe's regime will give some dispossessed white farmers back their land fills him with suspicion and incredulity. "I had a gem in Zimbabwe, a real gem, and it's all been vandalised," Mr Nicolle said. "I find it very difficult to even consider going...

JUNEAU, Alaska - The tiny north coast town of Kaktovik officially supports responsible development of oil and gas. But many reacted warily to the Senate vote to allow drilling in their back yard. Even with just 284 residents, Kaktovik is the largest town on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain. Mayor Lon Sonsalla said just about everyone has concerns about changes that could accompany any work in the 1.5 million-acre stretch, where billions of barrels of crude oil are believed to rest beneath the tundra. "We are now given notice that we have to be on our toes," said...

In a sign of California's uneven economic recovery and changing political landscape, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vow this week that higher taxes are "out of the question" barely raised a peep in a state with a $9.1 billion deficit. With the exception of state Treasurer Phil Angelides, Democrats for now have dropped earlier calls for higher taxes to fix the budget. Instead, the Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature, reacted to Schwarzenegger's budget proposal by talking about closing corporate tax loopholes and getting more federal dollars from Washington. "You don't see us saying we're going to raise taxes," said...

Wavering Voters Anti-Iraq, Wary of Kerry 12 minutes ago By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer WASHINGTON - In an election where most voters have already chosen sides, the presidency could be decided by a small slice of America in the mushy middle — wavering voters who are more likely than others to question President Bush's honesty and think the war in Iraq was a mistake. An Associated Press study of 1,329 "persuadable" voters, conducted by Knowledge Networks in advance of the presidential debates, suggests these people are deeply conflicted about change in the White House. While they have problems with...

<p>Bay Area nonprofits and anti-war leaders are fuming about what they see as an attempt by the Justice Department to clamp down on peaceful dissent by filing criminal charges against a group for the nonviolent actions of its followers.</p> <p>Local activists are closely watching a case winding through the federal courts in Miami. There, a federal prosecutor has dusted off a 19th century law designed to prevent bar owners from luring sailors ashore with booze and prostitutes to file charges against Greenpeace in connection with an April 2002 case in which two activists tried to hang an anti-President Bush banner on a container ship headed into port.</p>

UN remains wary of Iraq's claim on anthrax stocks By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad 04 March 2003 Iraq will submit a new report on VX gas and anthrax to the United Nations in the next six days in an attempt to prove that it has destroyed its entire stock of the chemical and biological agents. During what is widely considered to be the endgame of a looming military strike on Iraq by the United States and Britain, the detailed report will play an important part in deciding whether Baghdad is in "material breach" of Security Council resolution 1441. A senior...

American Indians Wary of DNA Tests BY TIM SULLIVAN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Ever since the arrival of white colonists, American Indians have been tapped for their resources -- most recently their genes. And with an eye toward past abuses, some of them are growing wary of geneticists and anthropologists taking their blood, hair or ancestors' bones for research purposes. In Utah, tribes don't have as much experience with these exchanges as in other parts of the Americas, but officials with the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes and the Northwest Band of the Shoshone feel they should be prepared. On...

US wary of Pakistan intelligence services' links to al-Qa'ida By Robert Fisk in Islamabad 21 July 2002 The FBI is becoming almost as distrustful of its Pakistani counterpart as the CIA is of the warlords across the border in Afghanistan. During the trial of journalist Daniel Pearl's murderers – which ended with the conviction of the British public schoolboy Omar Sheikh – one small but disturbing fact never made its way into the headlines: that one of the co-accused was a former Pakistani police officer. The final testimony of the trial – released only yesterday morning – must owe something...