Free Republic

The plan to build a $1.2-billion NFL stadium in downtown Los Angeles took a big leap forward Tuesday when the City Council approved the overall framework for financing the project. On a 12-0 vote, the council voted for a nonbinding agreement with stadium developer Anschutz Entertainment Group that allows for the demolition and relocation of a section of the Los Angeles Convention Center. That, in turn, would make room for a 72,000-seat stadium just south of Staples Center, which would open in 2016 with the planned name of Farmers Field. “Today, in moving this forward, we don’t lose one bit...

After years of wrangling, US and Mexican officials signed an agreement Wednesday that allows trucks from each nation to travel on the other country’s highways – a key provision of NAFTA. Washington The United States and Mexico on Wednesday signed an agreement aimed at resolving a cross-border trucking dispute. The longstanding disagreement had come to symbolize growing resistance, especially in the US Congress, to free-trade provisions with America’s southern neighbor. The accord, signed in Mexico City by US and Mexican transportation officials, would end a 15-year-old controversy that on the US side featured fears of unsafe Mexican trucks barreling along...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. and Mexican officials signed an agreement Wednesday allowing each country's trucks to traverse the other's highways, implementing a key provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement after nearly two decades of bickering. Transportation secretaries Ray LaHood and Dionisio Perez-Jacome signed the three-year memorandum, which is based on an agreement announced in March by Presidents Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon. NAFTA, signed in 1994, had called for Mexican trucks to have unrestricted access to highways in border states by 1995 and full access to all U.S. highways by January 2000. Canadian trucks have no limits...

These days there appears to be almost nothing that all, or nearly all, Americans can agree on. But this week, fully 90% of the public said that they were hearing mostly bad news about gas prices. That might seem like a no-brainer given the recent surge in gas prices. But reaching the 90% threshold is a rare occurrence in public opinion surveys. In part, this reflects the tendency of polling organizations to focus on current issues about which there are often considerable differences of opinion. Nonetheless, even on issues where one would expect to find near-total agreement, the public's...

WASHINGTON – Senate leaders said Thursday they have agreed that minority Republicans would filibuster fewer bills and nominations in exchange for a promise by the Democratic majority to give them more chances to offer amendments. The gentleman's agreement announced by Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell was part of a package of measures to make the Senate a more workable and less contentious place. It also included support of a resolution, to be voted on later in the day, to end the practice of one senator being able to secretly block votes and a rules change that...

The Democrat set to face off against Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on the House Oversight panel suggested brokering an agreement between Issa and the Obama administration on the public release of sensitive information to congressional investigators. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the incoming ranking member of the committee, said it might be possible to negotiate a compromise that would avoid exposing national security secrets or other privileged information. "I think that Mr. Issa and I should sit down and try to figure this out. Make sure the country isn't being threatened," Cummings said on Monday during an appearance on MSNBC.

MILWAUKEE — Harley-Davidson Motor Co. and its union leaders reached a proposed labor agreement today that could keep manufacturing operations and hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin. The proposal still needs to be ratified by union workers and approved by the motorcycle company's board. Workers are expected to vote on the contract Sept. 13. Harley previously had said labor costs at its operations in Milwaukee and Tomahawk, Wis., were too high. The company threatened to move production to the Kansas City area or another U.S. city if Wisconsin workers wouldn't agree to certain labor concessions. The company declined to reveal the...

Divorce agreement “ Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go...

Ratification of the new nuclear arms treaty with the Russians may not be as easy as the White House, Senate Democrats, and the media appear to expect. The pact, called the New START agreement, faces early trouble in the Senate – serious trouble. Republicans, led by Senator John Kyl of Arizona, have balked at proceeding with consideration of the treaty until the Obama administration turns over the full record of negotiations with the Russians and follows through on its promise to fund modernization of the American nuclear arsenal.

the EU has proposed to add third-party CRIMINAL liability to the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA). This essentially outlaws the entire Internet.... Background: Third party civil liability for copyright infringement is an emerging, but still controversial, doctrine as applied to the Internet. A site may be liable if it has incited and/or facilitated the violation of copyright, see Grokster. The limits of this doctrine are still being tested: it is not clear what level of hosting or facilitating actually triggers liability. For an example of this endemic uncertainty, the § 512 of the DMCA creates a safe harbor for ISPs, provided...

There were 192 countries represented in Copenhagen to discuss Climate Change or the effects of man’s CO2 output as it increases the Earth’s temperature. One country, China, stop the whole process from moving forward. Delegates were there for two weeks Dec. 7 through Dec. 18, 2009 and save for China no one, not one single delegate mentioned an exit strategy. An exit strategy you say? What is a global warming exit strategy? An exit strategy is simply this: If scientific evident continues to show beyond a shadow of a doubt that CO2 emissions are not inextricably linked to the earth’s...

I was surprised that I didn’t see the Nobel Prize headline that’s above coming out of Denmark. After grading himself a B+ and after much self congratulations claiming an unprecedented breakthrough I would think the Nobel committee would be all giddy about the prospect of awarding the Nobel Prize for Science to president Soetoro for his aspirations to reduce green house gases. After all he’s done just as much for Climate Change as he’s done for peace! Didn’t Soetoro say that he was awarding the peace prize for his aspirations rather than his accomplishments? Well there you go!

Why some environmentalists believe the president has the power to sidestep the Senate and commit the US to a global pact. In 1997, in the Japanese city of Kyoto, the Clinton administration agreed to a groundbreaking treaty to combat global warming. And that's when the trouble started. The Senate had unanimously refused to approve the Kyoto Protocol, and in the end the Clinton administration didn't even submit it for a vote in the upper chamber. This made the US both the world's biggest polluter and, ultimately, the only industrialized nation to reject the accord. Now, as world leaders attempt to...

The interim leader of Honduras says he is ready to sign a deal to resolve its crisis which could include the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Roberto Micheletti said the agreement would create a power-sharing government and require both sides to recognise the result of November's presidential poll. Mr Zelaya has not yet commented on the deal, which would require the approval of Congress and the Supreme Court.

Russia and Jordan have signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement, according to media reports in Moscow over the weekend. According to terms of the deal, Russia will provide the Hashemite Kingdom with power plants, nuclear research facilities, and training centers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in Congress have agreed to let his signature $400 tax cut for most workers expire after next year but are moving to give him a better chance at passing his health care bill

Savor the occasional cause for optimism that top leaders can value teamwork over turf in the contentious area of transportation financing. Take the years of squabbling over how Texas can scrape up billions of dollars to catch up with road-building needs. Suddenly, there's positive movement, first from Gov. Rick Perry last week. He told this newspaper's transportation writer, Michael Lindenberger, that he would not use his veto to obstruct a move by lawmakers to index the lagging motor-fuels tax to inflation. "If it is the will of the people, and of the Legislature, I suspect I would go along with...

By Christopher CookAmericans and Obama disagree not just some of the time, not just half of the time, but—apparently—all of the time. Earlier today, I was exhorted to take the Barack Obama Test. I was told that this test has enjoyed tremendous traffic, that it has gotten great response (as well as some hate response), and that it has changed many minds. Excited to know these details, I went to take the test myself. I expected to find a series of question that one answers, followed by an effective statement regarding the degree to which Barack Obama dis/agrees with...

Iraq and China have agreed on the terms of a $3 billion oil service contract, the Iraqi oil minister said Wednesday, announcing his country's first major oil contract with a foreign company since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The oil minister, Hussain al- Shahristani, warned that time was running out for big Western oil companies, which have pressed for years for Iraqi contracts, to seal even short-term deals that had been expected to mark their return to Iraq, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iraq and the Chinese state-run oil company, CNPC, have agreed...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2008 – Washington and Baghdad are close to reaching a status of forces agreement, but negotiations on the deal to determine the future U.S. military role in Iraq are ongoing, a Defense Department official said today. “We’ve made good progress on it; we are close,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. “There are still some issues to work out, but … it’s very premature at this point to say that we have an agreement.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a surprise one-day visit to Baghdad today, said the discussion about the status of forces is possible only...

Here is the full press release issued Thursday afternoon by State Representative Wayne Christian: Today State Representative Wayne Christian (R-Center), President of the Texas Conservative Coalition (TCC), announces an agreement on vital issues regarding the Trans-Texas Corridor. The Transportation Commission adopted a minute order today reaffirming five statutory requirements proposed by the members of the TCC and issuing two new protections for future transportation infrastructure development.  The minute order is a response to a February 4 letter from the Texas Conservative Coalition (TCC), the conservative caucus of the Texas Legislature.  Rep. Christian, along with thirty-three of his colleagues in the State House, signed it...

Israel and Syria's geopolitical interests diverge less than it might appear. By itself, Syria poses no conventional threat to Israel. Syria is dangerous only in the context of a coalition with Egypt. In 1973, fighting on two fronts, the Syrians were a threat. With Egypt neutralized now and behind the buffer in the Sinai, Syria poses no threat. As for unconventional weapons, the Israelis indicated with their bombing of the Syrian research facility in September 2007 that they know full well how — and are perfectly willing unilaterally — to take that option off Damascus’ table. Since neither side wants...

The Bush administration is negotiating two accords with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to replace the U.N. mandate for a multinational military presence there that expires at the end of this year. The first is a "status of forces agreement," or SOFA, defining and protecting the legal status of U.S. military personnel and property in Iraq. Negotiated and signed under executive authority, it is a binding commitment but does not require congressional approval. Among aspects unique to the proposed SOFA, Senate Democrats said, are that it would allow U.S. forces to unilaterally initiate military operations and to...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2007 – A new agreement between the active Army and Army National Guard represents a big step toward achieving the force structure balance Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. calls critical to the Army’s transformation. Senior Army leaders signed a memo of understanding Oct. 9 during the Association of the U.S. Army convention here to firm up a plan to rebalance force structure and resources between the active and reserve components. Under the plan, the Army National Guard will have 112 brigades: 28 brigade combat teams, 46 multifunctional brigades and 38 functional brigades. It...

VIENNA, Austria - Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement Friday on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. A weeklong U.N. climate conference concluded that industrialized countries should strive to cut emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent of their 1990 levels by 2020. Experts said that target would serve as a loose guide for a major international climate summit to be held in December in Bali, Indonesia. "We have reached broad agreement on the main issues," said Leon Charles, a negotiator from Grenada...

AN NASIRIYAH — In an atmosphere of mutual respect, trust and cooperation, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Provincial Reconstruction and Development Council (PRDC), and the Iraq Ministry of Health (MoH) signed a partnering agreement March 28 to build Al Musayib Maternity Hospital (MMH) in Iraq’s Babil Province. “The partnering agreement is based on an essential interest in the successful and timely completion of a fully operational 50-bed maternity and pediatric hospital for the MoH,” said Robin Parks, project manager for GRS. “The main goal of the project is to reinforce support to...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The six adult children of singer James Brown have agreed with his partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, on where the entertainer will be buried, an attorney for the woman said Tuesday. Hynie's attorney, Robert Rosen, said the resting place is being kept confidential at the request of Brown's children. Rosen said the burial may take place in the "next few days." Brown died Christmas Day at age 73. His body is being kept in a confidential location, said Charles Reid, manager of the C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Ga., which handled Brown's funeral. He said he checked...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration called a deal to begin dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program a breakthrough, but the North's history of broken promises kept the celebrations to a minimum. There was worry, too, that accommodation of North Korea would encourage brinksmanship by Iran or other would-be nuclear states. The bargain among six nations gives North Korea energy, food and other aid in exchange for shuttering its main nuclear reactor. It does not expressly require the North to give up existing weapons or testing now, and the agreement does not spell out how negotiators will resolve issues that have...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States and the Iraqi government are in "broad strategic agreement" on how to bring security to Baghdad, and that their generals would work up a specific plan. Winding up a three-day visit for a first-hand assessment of the situation, Gates said he would report to President George W. Bush as early as this weekend on his findings and impressions. As Gates spoke outside the US military headquarters at "Camp Victory," the crackle of gunfire and the roar of the US military aircraft could be heard in the distance. "This...

Full disclosure, I'm a democrat, so get over it. I'm not here to insult you, and I'm certainly not here to gloat. I'm not here to trade barbs, undermine Free Republic, or infiltrate your ranks. I'll be honest ? I disagree with most FReepers on almost every issue. So, why am I posting a new thread? Because I ? we ? need you. We at Democratic Underground and Daily Kos, and all of the lefty blogs you love to hate, and who love to hate you. We need you to acknowledge that if there's one thing we're learning about our...

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 13, 2006 -- Operation Homefront and the Department of Defense formally agreed to cooperate on their joint mission to support military members and their families during a reception here yesterday evening. Allison Barber (left) and Meredith Leyva, founder of Operation Homefront, sign a memorandum of understanding between the America Supports You member group and the Department of Defense on Oct. 12. Photo by William D. Moss  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Operation Homefront, a grassroots group headed by military spouses, is a member of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, which highlights efforts to...

After missing a deadline, the U.S. Department of Commerce finally has granted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain complete disclosure of a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a EU-style alliance in North America. The plan is being implemented through an office within the Department of Commerce called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," under the direction of Geri Word, who is listed as working in the agency's North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, office.As WorldNetDaily previously reported, the White House has established...

Robert Pastor intends to give away U.S. sovereignty to a newly forming North American Union exactly as he gave away the Panama Canal to Panama during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.As we are taught in grade school, George Washington is the Father of our nation. If the North American Union comes into existence as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) asserts, then we all better get prepared for a new hero. Robert Pastor is the person most likely to be proclaimed the father of the North American Union, a designation consistent with his decades-long history of viewing U.S. national interests through the...

India-US nuke deal takes a Russian spin TIMES NEWS NETWORK Washington/New Delhi/ Mumbai: Within 24 hours of Russia’s decision to supply 60 tonnes of enriched uranium to two atomic power plants at Tarapur, the Bush administration on Wednesday cautioned the Putin government against the move, saying Washington would prefer Moscow to wait till New Delhi honoured its obligations under the Indo-US nuclear deal. However, dismissing US reservations and defending the offer made by Russia — a member of the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers’ Group — India said the move did not violate NSG guidelines. “Russia has approached NSG under the Safety...

India is a country that had me at hello. Call me biased, but I have a soft spot for countries of one billion people, speaking a hundred different languages and practicing a variety of religions, whose people hold regular free and fair elections and, despite massive poverty, still produce generations of doctors and engineers who help to make the world a more productive and peaceful place. Sure, as today's bombings in India illustrate, it has its problems — but it is not Iraq. It is a beacon of tolerance and stability.

VIENNA (AFP) - The United Nations gains a new weapon in its fight against corruption with the entry into force of the first legally binding international agreement against such crime. "The world will have a powerful new tool to control corruption on a scale that has never existed before," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said in a statement. The "Convention Against Corruption" adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in October 2003, has been signed by 140 countries after a conference in Merida, Mexico, and ratified by 38. The notion that...

MONTREAL - After two contentious weeks, the United States neared agreement with an array of other countries late Friday to join in global talks about possible new steps to combat climate change, the chief U.S. negotiator said. "We're getting very close. I'm quite confident we will have a successful outcome," Harlan Watson told The Associated Press as the U.N. climate conference entered its final hours. Any agreement would probably be only a small step forward, however, by a Bush administration that for days resisted Canadian and other efforts to draw it into multilateral talks on mandatory reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions...

The Boeing Co. has reached a tentative contract agreement with its striking Machinists union workers, after a weekend bargaining session in Washington, D.C. Union members will vote on the three-year pact Thursday. Union leaders are recommending they accept it. "I think it's a good deal for our members or I wouldn't put my name to it," said union district president Mark Blondin. Under the new proposal, Boeing agreed to a further increase in pension benefits, and kept health care programs and costs the same as they were under the previous contract, Blondin said. Both had been key issues often mentioned...

September 20, 2005 Yes, Parallel Tracks to North, but Parallel Tracks Don't Meet By DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 - After four years of bitter arguments over whether to negotiate with North Korea or try to engineer its collapse, the accord President Bush grudgingly approved Sunday evening provided the bare minimum - an agreement in principle that the North would end a five-decade pursuit of nuclear weapons, the only card the erratic nation has to play to get the world to pay attention to its demands. But even to get that, Mr. Bush had to blink slightly, acknowledging that...

Term sheet paves way for company's emergence from bankruptcy ATLANTA, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mirant Corporation (Pink Sheets: MIRKQ - News) announced today that it has reached an agreement with a number of the key constituencies in its Chapter 11 case regarding the terms upon which it will emerge from bankruptcy protection.The deal sets forth the modifications that Mirant will make to its currently pending Plan of Reorganization (POR) filed in March of this year, and the terms on which the constituencies will support and recommend the amended POR's confirmation. Parties to the accord include the company, all three of...

Chandigarh: Israel on Thursday said it would sign a bilateral economic agreement with India by the end of this year to further scientific and technical relations. "The potential of Israel depends upon overseas market. Companies in Israel need to expand as the export market is still small. India is a fast growing economy which is understood by the business community of that country," Israeli ambassador David Danieli said. "This is the right time to find niche in India in the business terms," he said, adding that Israel's IT delegation would visit India later this year. Listing fruit as the major...

OTTAWA -- A sharp drop in the number of refugee claimants arriving in Canada this year is the result of a new pact with the United States that's turning out to be a "silent killer," a national refugee group says. The Canadian Council for Refugees issued a report yesterday urging the federal government to tear up the so-called safe third country agreement, saying it is having "a devastating effect on the ability of refugees to find protection." The Immigration Department insists that the agreement has been a success and that Canada's commitment to protecting refugees has not wavered. Under the...

The "unConstitutional" Transfer of Powerand the Nullification Party an American Patriot July 30, 2005       On July 28, 2005 in "A "Treaty" by any other name is still a "TREATY," I questioned the constitutionality of the President entering an "agreement" without the 2/3rds vote of the Senate under Article II or the power of the President to introduce legislation to "regulate commerce" to Congress under Article I which vests that power to Congress.       I have since learned that CAFTA "legislation" was introduced under the Presidents "fast track authority." Since 1974, Presidents have used "fast-track authority" to negotiate foreign...

US, Australia, India, China and SKorea To Sign New Climate PactSydney (SPX) Jul 27, 2005 A group of countries including the United States, Australia, China, India and South Korea have agreed a secret pact on greenhouse gas emissions to replace the Kyoto climate protocol, a report said Wednesday. The alliance, which is yet to be announced, will bring together nations that account for more than 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, The Australian newspaper said. A government source told AFP that the general thrust of the report was correct, but that the line-up of countries involved had not...

Chuck Morse's latest book, "The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism, Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin al-Husseini," provides the clearest, most incisive history of how Islamo-fascism and Jihad terrorism have become the dominant political philosophy in the Arab world. It is the untold story of how Nazism took root in the Islamic world through the untiring efforts of the mufti of Jerusalem, whose aim it was to destroy the Jews in Palestine. Morse writes: The Nazi Holocaust appears to have kicked into high gear on Nov. 25, 1941, during a Berlin meeting between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea said Friday that establishing a peace agreement to replace the cease-fire that ended the Korean War would also resolve its nuclear standoff with the international community. A peace pact would "lead to putting an end to the U.S. hostile policy toward (North Korea), which spawned the nuclear issue," a spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. That would "automatically result in the denuclearization of the peninsula." The unnamed spokesman, quoted by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, said such a move would "give a strong impetus" to international nuclear...

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea on Monday said it won't give up nuclear weapons without receiving anything in exchange and called on the United States to agree at revived arms talks to peacefully coexist with the communist state. Meanwhile, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun told visiting former Secretary of State Colin Powell that Washington's moves will be the deciding factor in resolving the latest nuclear standoff with North Korea that began in 2002. "The United States still has the final key to the six-party talks," Roh said Monday, according to a pool report. The North said last week it...

July 13, 2005 Will the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) finally force you to get a doctor's prescription just to buy vitamin C, or E, or other dietary supplements you currently pick up "over the counter" in America? Powerful special interests are banking on it. Since 1995, Big Medicine has spent billions of dollars trying to get Washington to regulate your dietary supplements just as European governments do. So far, that effort has failed in America. But you may lose the battle for health freedom if CAFTA entangles the U.S. in Europe's infamous Codex Alimentarius (Codex). And if you...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders reached agreement Tuesday on a state budget that adds money for schools and road projects without resorting to the deficit spending that has plagued California in recent years. "This is a terrific budget," the governor said in a late-afternoon news conference. "It's a budget that moves California forward." The accord on the roughly $116 billion spending plan comes five days after the start of the new fiscal year and after a weekend of negotiations between the governor and leaders of both major parties. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said Schwarzenegger...

The days of the judicial-filibuster compromise are numbered. The scuttlebutt on Capitol Hill these days is that the McCain compromise will vanish as soon as a Supreme Court nomination appears. That's because the so-called compromise has that one huge loophole: It allows Democrats to filibuster (and thereby block an up-or-down vote on) any nominee they define as an "extraordinary" circumstance. And if Democrats' recent behavior is any indication, "extraordinary" will be used as a ruse for discriminating against judges who give even the slightest hint of holding pro-life views or having faith in God. "Any agreement that opens filibusters to...