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6/30/2010 | Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech
Pakistan’s Web Censorship Guidelines to Go Beyond ‘Blasphemy’
CNS News
Stepping up efforts to prevent citizens from accessing “blasphemous” material on the Internet, Pakistani authorities have banned more than a dozen Web sites, are closely monitoring others, and reportedly are laying the groundwork to block any site viewed as meeting such vague criteria as harming “national sentiments.”
The new measures take to a new level Pakistan’s response to the dissemination online of information many Muslims regard as offensive. Beyond its borders, Pakistan is a leading force in the campaign at the United Nations – an effort led by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) -- to have such material outlawed across the globe.
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6/30/2010 | Campaign Finance
DISCLOSE Act would 'muzzle' pro-family groups
OneNewsNow
The American Family Association (AFA) is sounding a warning about a campaign finance bill before the U.S. Senate.
H.R. 5175, the bill is known as the "DISCLOSE Act," has been passed by the House and is expected to come up in the Senate this week.
According to Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for AFA, the "Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act" would muzzle pro-family groups.
Bryan Fischer"This is a campaign finance reform -- quote, end quote -- bill. [But] what it's going to do is...censor and muzzle the voice of pro-life and pro-family organizations leading up to both primary and general elections," Fischer explains. "But the Democrats carved out a major exception for all their union buddies. The Sierra Club has an exemption, and the AARP has an exemption."
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6/29/2010 | Economy
Fannie-Freddie Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $1 Trillion
Associated Press
For American taxpayers, now on the hook for some $145 billion in housing losses connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, that amount could be just the tip of the iceberg.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the losses could balloon to $400 billion. And if housing prices fall further, the cost to the taxpayer could hit as much as $1 trillion.
Two things are clear: Taxpayers don’t want to foot the bill, and Fannie and Freddie, taken over by the government in 2008 to stanch the financial bloodletting, need a major overhaul.
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6/29/2010 | Economy
U.S. Can’t Continue As Engine That Drives the Global Economy, Obama and Geithner Say
CNS News
Citing the country’s trade deficit, President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner each asserted last week that the United States cannot continue to lead the world economy.
“We said in Pittsburgh [at] the G20 that it was important for us to rebalance, in part because the U.S. economy for a long period of time was the engine of world economic growth; we were sucking in imports from all across the world financed by huge amounts of consumer debt,” Obama said Thursday during a joint press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
“Because of the financial crisis, but also because that debt was fundamentally unsustainable, the United States is not going to be able to serve in that same capacity to that same extent,” the president added.
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6/28/2010 | Gun Control
Supreme Court Rules That Gun Rights Apply to Local Laws
New York Times
The Second Amendment’s guarantee of an individual right to bear arms applies to state and local gun control laws, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a 5-to-4 decision.
The ruling came almost exactly two years after the court first ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own guns in District of Columbia v. Heller, another 5-to-4 decision.
But the Heller case addressed only federal laws; it left open the question of whether Second Amendment rights protect gun owners from overreaching by state and local governments.
6/28/2010 | Economy
Federal Regs Set to Restrain Wall Street Risk
Associated Press
The toughest financial regulations since the Great Depression are headed for final votes in Congress next week, covering everything from debit card swipes at Starbucks to the most complex securities, in an election-year salve for public anger over the Wall Street risk-taking that cost millions their jobs, homes and nest eggs.
House and Senate bargainers approved the deal as the sun rose Friday, giving President Barack Obama a fresh campaign-season triumph after his health care overhaul - and an achievement to tout at the weekend global economic summit in Toronto. Democrats hope lawmakers can pass the legislation and ship it to Obama for his signature by July 4, capping a burst of action prompted by the worst recession in seven decades.
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6/23/2010 | Homosexuality
Hillary Clinton Urges State Department Employees to Let Teens Know It's Okay to Be Homosexual
CNS News
At an event celebrating Gay Pride Month on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged State Department employees to let teenagers know homosexuality is okay.
“We’ve come such a far distance in our own country, but there are still so many who need the outreach, need the mentoring, need the support to stand up and be who they are and then think about people in so many countries where it just seems impossible,” Clinton said.
“So I think that each and everyone of you, not only professionally, particularly from State and USAID and every bureau and every embassy and every part of our government have to do what you can to create that safe space, but also personally, to really look for those who might need a helping hand; particularly young people; particularly teenagers who still today have such a difficult time,” she added.
6/23/2010 | Religion
Thomas More to represent arrested Christians
OneNewsNow
The four evangelists who were arrested at an Arab festival in Michigan now have legal assistance.
The Arab culture festival last weekend in Dearborn, Michigan, attracted about 300,000 people over a three-day period. Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) tells OneNewsNow that four Christian evangelists were sharing their faith with Moslems on Friday night.
"For a period of time, the police, when they were coming up, they were telling some of the Moslems, who were being very vocal and using profanity and so forth, to quiet down, and [they were] disbursing the mobs and letting these Christian evangelists do what they wanted to do at the festival," Muise explains.
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6/21/2010 | Israel
Aluf Benn / Turkey can take credit for ending Israel's blockade of Gaza
Haaretz
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan can claim a big check mark for himself, despite the Turkish flotilla not having reached Gaza and nine activists aboard the Mavi Marmara ship having been killed during the raid in May. Erdogan achieved his goal: He collapsed the Israeli siege on "Hamastan." The cabinet announcement on Sunday put an end to the three-year-old civilian blockade on Gaza, initiated when Hamas took power.
The second person to take credit for Israel easing the siege on Gaza is U.S. President Barack Obama. The White House made an announcement praising Israel's new policy toward Gaza, stressing that Israel responded "to the calls of many in the international community" – or, in less diplomatic language, Israel succumbed to the unbearable pressure and preferred to open the crossings and allow the transfer of civilian goods and building materials rather than absorb additional condemnation or worse.
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6/21/2010 | Healthcare
Senate Fails to Spare Doctors from Medicare Cuts
Associated Press
The Senate passed legislation Friday to spare doctors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments - but the last-ditch effort did not come in time.
Moments after the Senate acted, Medicare announced it would begin processing claims it has already received for June at the lower rate. The reason: the House cannot act on the fix until next week.
That means doctors, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and other providers who bill under Medicare's physician fee schedule will have to resubmit their claims if they want to be made whole, with added paperwork costs both for the providers and for taxpayers.
6/17/2010 | Economy, Governmental Control
High-Speed Internet Rules Might Prove Costly
Bloomberg.com
Giving the FCC the authority to impose net neutrality on broadband service could cost more than $62 billion if providers pull back, a study says.
Proposed regulation of high-speed Internet service providers by the U.S. government could cost the economy at least $62 billion annually over the next five years and eliminate 502,000 jobs, according to a study released by New York University Law School.
The report estimates that broadband providers and related industries may cut their investments by 10 percent to 30 percent from 2010 to 2015 in response to additional regulation. At 30 percent, the economy might sustain an $80 billion hit, according to Charles Davidson, director of the law school's Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute, which released the report on June 16.
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6/17/2010 | Governmental Control
Kerry, Lieberman Not Worried Cap-and-Trade Bill Will Hurt Democrats
CNS News
Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said they are not worried that their cap-and-trade plan might harm fellow Democrats going into the November elections, at a time when voters are more concerned about bread and butter issues such as the economy and the 9.7 percent unemployment rate.
The bill, the American Power Act, was unveiled in May and would establish a nationwide cap-and-trade system that would regulate the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. In exchange, the bill would also extend various tax subsidies and credits in an attempt to make renewable energy sources relatively affordable.
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6/16/2010 | Economy, Governmental Control
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to delist shares from NYSE
Associated Press
Government-sponsored mortgage purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to delist their shares from the New York Stock Exchange.
The companies' regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said Wednesday that it expects Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares to trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, an electronic quotation service.
The move to delist the shares isn't a surprise. The crash in the housing market has pounded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with heavy loan losses since 2007. Fannie shares have been below the $1 average price level for 30 trading days. NYSE rules require a company to take action to boost its shares or delist.
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6/16/2010 | Economy, Governmental Control, Law
Bachmann: Obama Exceeding Constitutional Authority in Ordering BP to Surrender Funds--'It's All About Extortion'
CNS News
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday that President Barack Obama is exceeding his legitimate constitutional authority in telling BP it must set up an independent fund, not controlled by the company, for compensating victims of the Gulf oil spill. She described the administration's policy as an action "that's all about extortion."
"Private companies need to be held accountable but not necessarily to the executive branch," said Bachmann. "It seems to me there’s a misreading of the Constitution and a misunderstanding of jurisdictional limits from this White House on what the extent of executive power is. They don’t seem to understand that and it—now it seems that it’s all about extortion--and that what they want to do is create a pot of money for themselves that they can control and that’s not what the Executive is supposed to do. There is a real misreading of jurisdictional limits, and they continue to stretch those limits beyond all bounds."
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6/15/2010 | Homosexuality
Spanish clinic probed for offering to 'cure' gays
Breitbart
The government in Spain's Catalonia region said Tuesday it was investigating a clinic in Barcelona that is allegedly offering treatments to "cure" homosexuality.
The Policlinica Tibidabo in the Catalan capital is offering pills and psychiatric treatment to "convert" homosexuals, Spain's leading daily El Pais reported.
Many of those coming for treatment are followers of a particular religion who believe homosexuality is incompatible with their beliefs, it said.
"An investigation has been opened into this clinic," a spokeswoman for the regional government's health department told AFP.
"We do not consider homosexuality as an illness, far from it."
6/15/2010 | Healthcare
2011 Medical Costs Will Increase for Employers
Associated Press
Companies that offer employee health insurance expect another steep jump in medical costs next year, and more will ask workers to share a bigger chunk of the expense, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report.
For the first time, most of the American workforce is expected to have health insurance deductibles of $400 or more, the consulting firm said in a report released to The Associated Press.
6/11/2010 | Environmental Issues
Feds: BP Agrees to Expedite Oil Spill Payments
Associated Press
BP said Thursday it plans to increase the amount of oil captured from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico by early next week as the Obama administration announced that the oil giant agreed to speed up payments to people whose livelihoods have been washed away by the spill.
Fishermen, property owners and businesspeople who have filed damage claims with BP are angrily complaining of delays, excessive paperwork and skimpy payments that have put them on the verge of going under as the financial and environmental toll of the seven-week-old disaster grows.
6/11/2010 | Healthcare
ObamaCare could learn from states
OneNewsNow
Grace-Marie Turner (Galen Institute)An advocate for patient-centered health reform says when it comes to healthcare, the federal government should look to lessons learned by individual states.
Grace-Marie Turner, president of the free-market think tank Galen Institute, tells OneNewsNow that as ObamaCare begins to kick in, the government must make sure it does not repeat some of the healthcare mistakes made by states -- like telling doctors what drugs they can or cannot prescribe.
"States like Georgia have found that if you have politicians deciding 'Well, we just want the doctor to prescribe the cheapest drug,' that they often wind up with higher health costs in the long run, because patients either don't comply with the medication or they wind up in the hospital or back in the doctor's office with higher health costs, because that drug didn't work for them," Turner points out.
6/10/2010 | Economy
Panel Criticizes Government on AIG Bailout
Associated Press
A watchdog panel says it's still unclear whether U.S. taxpayers will ever fully recoup the $182 billion they plowed into American International Group Inc., and the government should have used up all its options before bailing out the crippled insurance titan.
The government could have acted sooner and more aggressively to engineer a privately funded rescue of AIG in September 2008, the Congressional Oversight Panel says in a new report released Thursday.
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6/10/2010 | Politics
Women 'refashioning' GOP
OneNewsNow
A mainstream women's organization that supports the principles of economic liberty, personal responsibility, and political freedom says Tuesday night's primary was a big night for conservative women.
California Republicans picked two highly successful businesswomen on Tuesday to represent the GOP in November. Carly Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, will challenge three-term Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer in the fall, and Republican Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, will run for governor against former Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.
"I think it was a big night for conservative women," comments Sabrina Schaeffer, senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum (IWF). "These are all candidates who campaigned on a return to limited government, lowering taxes, and increasing individual freedom, and I think that's really the token to take away from the victories."