Free Republic

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin says that state and private money will be used to develop a system where Oklahomans could shop for health insurance. No cost estimate is available. ### Oklahoma will not accept a $54.6 million federal grant for setting up a system where Oklahomans could shop for health insurance, Gov. Mary Fallin said today. Oklahoma rejects $54.6 million federal grant Fallin said the state instead will use state and private money to form the system. She had no estimate of how much it would cost, but House Speaker Kris Steele said today that he believes a system can...

Illinois Republicans were successful Friday in stripping a provision from a House defense bill that would have given permission for the transfer to the U.S. of detainees in the Guantanamo Bay military prison. The issue is of special importance to Illinois GOP lawmakers because earlier this year the Obama administration moved to buy an underutilized state prison in Thomson, Ill., in part to house Guantanamo detainees. Closing Guantanamo was a central Obama pledge that the president has not been able to keep — a promise made during his campaign and on his first day in office. Congress needs to give...

All 42 Senate Republicans have signed on to a letter expressing the caucus’s intentions to block any legislation until the expiration of current tax rates is addressed. Full letter: Dear Leader Reid, The nation’s unemployment level, stuck near 10 percent, is unacceptable to Americans. Senate Republicans have been urging Congress to make private-sector job creation a priority all year. President Obama in his first speech after the November election said “we owe” it to the American people to “focus on those issues that affect their jobs.” He went on to say that Americans “want jobs to come back faster.” Our...

In February this year, Christian evangelists Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham were doing what Christian evangelists do: handing out Bible extracts. They were stopped by a representative of the law, threatened with arrest if they carried on preaching in “a Muslim area,” and warned that they might get beaten up if they came back. Where did this incident take place? Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Pakistan, where Christian preaching is forbidden and apostates persecuted? No, this “Muslim area” was in Alum Rock, Birmingham, England. That’s right — England, cradle of free speech; England, a country with an established, if enfeebled, Church,...

London, Jun 4, 2008 / 07:24 pm (CNA).- British police said they will not apologize to two Christian preachers who were threatened with arrest by a Muslim police officer for preaching Christianity in Muslim communities in the city of Birmingham. According to the Telegraph, the incident occurred last February when Christian ministers Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham were handing out leaflets and speaking with four Muslim youths about Christianity in Birmingham. Naeem Naguthney, a Muslim police community support officer told them to cease-and-desist from preaching to Muslims and threatened to charge them with a “hate crime.” "He said we were...

Christian preachers face arrest in Birmingham By David Harrison A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham. Warned: Arthur Cunningham [left] and Joseph Abraham The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year. Arthur Cunningham, 48, and...

'No-go' Bishop defends comments The Bishop of Rochester has received death threats A Church of England bishop who claimed Islamic extremism has made some places no-go areas for non-Muslims insists he was right to speak out on the issue.The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali raised the issue last month in a Sunday Telegraph interview. Now in a follow-up interview with the same newspaper, he accuses church leaders of not confronting the matter. "The issue had to be raised. There are times when Christian leaders have to speak out. It's my duty," he says. 'Spiritual leaders' Since...

On Sunday evening Nov. 25 in Villiers-le-Bel, an immigrant suburb to the north of Paris, two youths steal a motorbike and go joyriding. They collide at high speed with a police vehicle that just happens to be passing by. The two youths die on the spot. Villiers-le-Bel is one of France's 751 "zones urbaines sensibles" (sensitive urban areas). These are no-go zones where radical Muslims hold sway. Almost 5 million people, or 8 percent of the French population, live in such zones. In May, Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidential elections with the promise that he was going to reclaim...

BRITAIN'S Prince Harry will not be allowed to fight on the front line in Afghanistan, The Mail on Sunday newspaper says, citing senior sources in the prince's regiment. Harry, third in line to the throne, reportedly threatened to quit the British Army if he was blocked from active service due to safety fears and any such decision is likely to infuriate the 22-year-old. Although a formal decision has yet to be made, sources in the Household Cavalry told the weekly tabloid they thought it was too dangerous for him to deploy in Afghanistan. The southern Helmand province, where the bulk...

Key NASA officials who oversee the agency said they don't believe the shuttle is safe for launch, according to a Local 6 News report. E-mails sent to NASA's administrator from the agency's inspector general's office obtained by the Orlando Sentinel said they didn't believe shuttle Discovery should launch without more work to prevent foam insulation from breaking off the external fuel tank. NASA already had a "no go" for flight from the agency's top safety official and chief engineer. However, NASA managers went ahead and gave the "go for launch" for Saturday. Meanwhile, NASA declined Thursday to release documents from...

Race riot fears turn Bondi into no-go zone By Nick Squires In Sydney (Filed: 17/12/2005) Australian police warned visitors to stay away from Bondi and other famous beaches in Sydney this weekend amid fears of another flare-up of race violence between gangs of white and Middle Eastern youths. The warning, unprecedented in a country in which the beach forms a central part of the national psyche, extended to two other cities in New South Wales. A young surfer carries her board outside a Sydney surf club Bondi was declared a virtual no-go zone for the weekend, along with other popular...

Miss Marple tipped me off to this on the running commentary from the National Review Online Site.Anyone have more details?

Gore's Decision on a 2004 RunWithin a month, the former Vice President plans to be in or out.These days, its almost harder to find Gore intimates who will predict that he will run than it is to find ones who say that their hunch is he won't.Keeping in mind the very real possibility that Gore himself has not decided, there is a growing sense among well informed Democrats that the needle ISN'T straight up or down, and that he wont do it.Par for the course, Debra Orin in the New York Post and ABC's The Note are leading parallel lives,...