Free Republic

IR-2005-41, April 1, 2005 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is inviting civic-minded individuals to help improve the nation’s tax agency by applying to be members of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel. The panel provides a forum for citizens from each state to make suggestions regarding IRS decision making. Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) members: Provide opportunities for citizen input and make recommendations to the IRS and Treasury on customer-service issues. Identify and prioritize taxpayer issues. Report annually to Treasury, the IRS and the National Taxpayer Advocate. Participate in meetings where taxpayers are invited to raise issues about their experiences with the...

This is a major barf alert that I wouldn't even post, but I think that Jim Rob is in one of the first pictures! You should be able to click on the link near the title to view the movie. It took some time to download.

Women live longer, earn less and fill more caretaking roles than men. For all these reasons they have a lot to lose if Social Security is changed, says economist Heather Boushey. So who would win? Wall Street brokers spring to her mind. Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews. (WOMENSENEWS)--President Bush is talking about changing Social Security. The word he bandies about is "reform," which harks back to progressive causes such as voting-rights reform. In those cases, to reform a system meant to change...

Women's struggle to change Egypt's divorce law shows how women's rights advocates here are relying increasingly on Islam to advance their arguments for gender equality. CAIRO (WOMENSENEWS)--As Egyptian women push to eliminate gender bias in divorce laws here, they find themselves entering a struggle over competing visions of Islam. "We always use Islam now," says Iman Bibars, director of the Cairo-based Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, which has long struggled to amend Egypt's divorce laws. To make their case, many advocates are advancing a vision of Islam in which men and women enjoy equal rights in all...

WELLINGTON — Two legs dangle from the ceiling, empty beer cans litter the floor and suicide notes are displayed prominently on a nearby table. It’s a scene now featured in the storefront of Special Effects, a video and printing store in downtown Wellington. Storeowner Chris Goran said almost all of her customers have thought the display is amusing. But others, such as Wellington’s mayor, aren’t laughing. Mayor Barbara O’Keefe said she has received numerous complaints about it. “People calling me didn’t think it was funny at all,” O’Keefe said. “Some of them with kids were very offended.” Wellington artist David...

When the 1996 welfare law is renewed this year, let's hope Olympia Snowe can persuade the Senate to show enough 'family values' to fund adequate child care support for single mothers being asked to spend longer hours working away from their children. Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews. (WOMENSENEWS)--The current welfare bill expects single mothers to work more hours without any more child care support. Let's face it, only a male-dominated organization would fail to connect the dots between single mothers leaving welfare...

The Smith family--yep, like Jayson Blair, I'm making this up--lives in Redwood City, 20 miles south of San Francisco and on the northern edge of what is known as Silicon Valley. The head of the household, John, works as a software coder at Sun Microsystems. He's a good coder but not a superstar on the level of Sun's cofounder, the legendary Bill Joy. John Smith makes $95,000 a year, which sounds plentiful to most Americans. In truth, it doesn't go too far in Silicon Valley, where the cost of a modest 1,900-square-foot house with three bedrooms and one and a...

Thom Powers deserves a lot of credit for bringing a reasonably balanced documentary about the gun debate to PBS. It is unfortunate that Powers, who wrote, directed, and produced "Guns & Mothers" for Independent Lens, probably won't see the attention Michael Moore got for his alleged documentary, precisely because Powers offers a nuanced and generally fair picture of both sides, whereas Moore peddled a shrill pack of lies to foment bigotry against civil arms advocates. We can only hope more responsible work such as Powers' is ultimately more influential. Powers follows two mothers on opposing sides of the gun debate...

“Guns & Mothers” to Air on PBS Second Amendment Sisters Spokesperson Featured in Documentary Contact: Maria Heil of Second Amendment Sisters, 877-797-4857 (press only) or email: press@2asisters.org LAKEWAY, Texas, May 6, --The Second Amendment Sisters (SAS) today announced that Maria Heil is the featured “pro-gun” Mother in the upcoming “Guns & Mothers” documentary, which is scheduled to air on PBS’s “Independent Lens” during the week of May 11th. Mrs. Heil is the National Press Coordinator and Legislative Liaison for SAS, and mother of four. Guns and Mothers is produced and directed by Thom Powers of Sugar Pictures The documentary chronicles...

<p>Women need to defend themselves, especially single women or those with husbands overseas. And the media has a responsibility to discuss honestly the issue of gun ownership. The John Walsh Show (search) on NBC may have dealt a blow (4/29) to both goals by "ambushing" three women who agreed to discuss their gun ownership and advocacy on air.</p>

From an e-alert we just sent out: http://www.johnwalsh.tv/html/topics/index.html Dear members and supporters, Maria Heil, the Press Secretary for SAS, will be featured on the John Walsh show tomorrow. The show runs during the day, so set your VCRs! You should be able to check local listings at the site above. If you go to the link above and click on the little arrow in the Women & Guns section....it does the whole promo.... But here is a write up from Maria that explains her very real concerns about the whole show. SASsily, Juli Bednarzyk Liar, Liar By Maria Heil I...

Economist Bob McIntyre has a sarcastic streak. The director of Citizens for Tax Justice headlines a new study: "White House Reveals Nation's Biggest Problems: The Very Rich Don't Have Enough Money & Workers Don't Pay Enough in Taxes." Of course, the Bush administration would deny that characterization of its policy. But the arguments put forward by R. Glenn Hubbard, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, and Larry Lindsey, the sacked head of the National Economic Council, suggest that at least some White House officials believe the really affluent are taxed too much and that more of the tax...

It's uncanny how many Americans apparently aren't making sure aluminum cans go into a recycling bin instead of a trash can. If you ask them, though, as a recent poll did, they'll say they're doing more recycling, when in fact, they're doing less. Some 50.7 billion aluminum cans were tossed last year instead of being recycled, according to the Container Recycling Institute. And the Aluminum Association says recycling of aluminum will dip below 50 percent this year, a rate not seen since 1986. More disturbing is the fact that aluminum-can recycling is a bellwether for other kinds of recycling, such...

A second lawsuit was filed by black South Africans earlier this month against 20 international companies. JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Lungisile Ntsebeza remembers well the day the police came for him. It was a cold June night in 1976, and he was just 21. He had recently graduated from South Africa's most prestigious black university. Mr. Ntsebeza was hauled off and spent 5-1/2 years in prison, followed by six years in exile in a tiny town in the desolate Eastern Cape. His crime: Participating in a study group examining alternatives to South Africa's racially segregated society, apartheid. A quarter of...

Charismatic young leader leaves Egypt as his popular sermons come under government scrutiny. By Gretel C. Kovach | Special to The Christian Science Monitor CAIRO - Outside the massive mosque, triple-parked Mercedes clogged the street. Inside, thousands of prosperous Cairenes vied for an open spot, their numbers forcing the crowd to spill outside as they waited for Amr Khaled to give his weekly sermon. But instead of the moderate former accountant with the Western-style suit and soft voice, a government-sanctioned prayer leader took the stand - and the crowd's mood quickly changed. "All the people started shouting, 'Where is Amr...

After confessing to the murder of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian, James C. Kopp is apparently gearing up for a trial defending his anti-abortion views. Supporters of clinic violence indicate they will rally in support. (WOMENSENEWS)--The February trial of James C. Kopp, the confessed murderer of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian, is shaping up as a showcase for the revolutionary religious and political views of the once-obscure Army of God. In a stunning jailhouse interview with The Buffalo News, Kopp confessed to the murder, but insisted he did not intend to slay the doctor. The statements appear to be laying...

Mothers in Montana who want to raise their kids but worry about whether they have enough money to stay at home have found a happy medium: a state-run program that compensates them for their child care. (WOMENSENEWS)--A band of low-income women in Montana are pioneering a bold solution to the nation's infant care shortage, winning over both state and local legislators, and making sure that traditional women's work--the work of caregiving--is valued along the way. Montana's "At-Home Infant Care Program" provides parents that have incomes 150 percent of the poverty line or less with up to $384 a month to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WOMENSENEWS)--A gracious southerner who has successfully blurred the line between a moderate and conservative Republican throughout her long career in public life, Elizabeth Dole does not seem like the next Jesse Helms. Yet that is what the North Carolina Senate hopeful says she will be if elected to succeed Helms, the five-term firebrand who will retire in January after having championed the conservative movement's anti-abortion, anti-women's rights agenda for the past three decades. Having spent decades in Washington as a high-profile bureaucrat and senatorial spouse, Dole moved to her native North Carolina last year shortly after she kicked...

Joyce Burges had a problem. Her 13-year-old son's failing grades were about to get him expelled. The school counselor gave her little choice: Send him to a private school or bus him to the only other public school in her Baker, Louisiana, district, nearly 45 minutes away. Burges was unimpressed with the costly private school and refused to put her "baby" through a tortuous daily commute. So she decided to teach him herself. Burges is part of a growing number of Black parents who are homeschooling their children-for a number of reasons: the sorry state of the nation's public-education system,...

The Senate is considering today whether to approve a 1979 United Nations gender fairness treaty. Meanwhile, the City of San Francisco adopted it four years ago and implemented safer public transportation and teen programs that consider young women. SAN FRANCISCO (WOMENSENEWS)--While the U.S. Senate considers ratifying a landmark international treaty on women's rights, San Francisco has been quietly implementing the treaty's protocols on gender equity--with surprising results. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations plans to vote on the controversial treaty Thursday, the first time in eight years that the document will go before a vote. The committee's chairman, Delaware Democratic...