Free Republic

Russian warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country's civil unrest.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in an attempt to pluck an arrow out of President Obama's rhetorical quiver, tried to get the Senate to vote on the president's $447 billion jobs bill Tuesday -- presumably to test whether Democrats have the votes to pass it. But while Obama repeatedly has called on Congress to pass the bill right away, Democratic Leader Harry Reid shot down the effort, accusing McConnell of pulling a political stunt. "I am disappointed that he would play games with this important legislation," Reid said, pledging to take up the bill later on in the session. The...

A top Palestinian official said Wednesday that President Mahmoud Abbas would accept no political delays on his bid for membership in the United Nations, rejecting mounting pressure from the United States and France to first return to negotiations with Israel. The Palestinians plan to submit their letter of application on Friday when Abbas is to speak to the U.N. General Assembly, but he faced a withering lack of support as the world body opened its annual meeting. President Barack Obama said there could be no "shortcuts" in the quest for Middle East peace, a message that was echoed by French...

Abbas advisor says if Quartet calls on Israel to withdraw from '67 territories, halt settlement construction, PA will abandon September plan; Netanyahu says his stance hasn't changed. The Palestinian Authority will abandon its plan to ask the UN in September to recognize a Palestinian state along pre-1967 lines if Quartet members ­ the US, EU, UN and Russia ­ recognize the two-state principle as the basis for a settlement and call on Israel to withdraw from the territories captured in 1967, including east Jerusalem, an advisor to PA President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday. Nimer Hammad, political advisor to Abbas,...

Daniels Closer to 2012 Bid, But Has He Overcome Abortion Truce? Indianapolis, IN -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels appears closer than ever to indicating he will seek the Republican nomination for president, but, for pro-life voters, one key question remains about his talk of an abortion truce. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/13/daniels-closer-to-2012-bid-but-has-he-overcome-abortion-truce/

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is expected to announce his decision regarding the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in the coming weeks. Allen County Republican Party Chairman Steve Shine says, “The Indiana Legislature will be adjourning at the end of this month and that is the Governor’s timetable to make his decision on whether or not to run for President.” The Republican county chairman also noted that he expects Mr. Daniels will enter the 2012 Republican presidential race.

Shell Oil announced Thursday that it's abandoning efforts to drill in icy waters off Alaska’s northern coast this year, a decision that prompted Alaska's senators to accuse the Obama administration of blocking access to large domestic supplies. The company’s plans to drill in Arctic waters have long been under attack from environmental groups. The Interior Department, after the BP oil spill, halted the oil giant’s plan to drill in 2010. Now the company – which is awaiting air quality permits and Interior’s permission – is throwing in the towel on 2011 too. The Houston Chronicle reports:

There is a live, online discussion of the mosque situation.

I just watched the video from yesterday of Obama addressing the comment John Boehner made about the 'ant' and right as Obama mentions Boehner's name, he rubbed his eyebrow with his middle finger. We have seen him do this, what, 4 times so far, when he's CAMPAIGNING and mentioning Republicans? Sorry I don't have the video clip but I'm sure someone can post it. This guy is a despicable loser.

Glenn Beck's TV Show ratings are going through the roof. Here's why...From Mediaite: Business Investor's DailyCap-And-Trade: While senators froth over Goldman Sachs and derivatives, a climate trading scheme being run out of the Chicago Climate Exchange would make Bernie Madoff blush. Its trail leads to the White House. Lost in the recent headlines was Al Gore's appearance Monday in Denver at the annual meeting of the Council of Foundations, an association of the nation's philanthropic leaders. "Time's running out (on climate change)," Gore told them. "We have to get our act together. You have a unique role in getting our...

State Rep. Paul Kohls became an early casualty of the crowded race for Minnesota governor, dropping out Thursday because of a lack of support from GOP constituencies. "I've come to the conclusion that I don't have sufficient support from the delegates to keep going," Kohls told reporters. Kohls, who has been in the state House since 2002, was not among the top finishers in the state Republican party's straw poll earlier this month. The poll was won by House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, one of the first and most prominent Republicans to join the race after incumbent Tim Pawlenty, a...

Classic....state run BIASED media..CRIED!!!

Chicago's bid to win the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games is an important strand in President Barack Obama's diplomatic efforts to reach out to the world, his senior advisor Valerie Jarrett told AFP on Thursday. Jarrett, who was given personal responsibility by Obama of the first ever White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport, said that the President and the First Lady Michelle Obama considered the Olympic Movement and the Games itself as vital to diplomacy.

Computerworld - A proposed amendment that would have given Congress more oversight over the White House cybersecurity czar and at least 17 other czars appointed by President Obama was shut down in the U.S. Senate today. The amendment, proposed by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), sought to restrict federal funds for the expenses of White House-appointed czars unless two conditions are met. One of them was to require the president to agree that every czar would respond to "reasonable requests" to testify before Congress on matters related to the office. The other required White House-appointed czars to issue a report to...

McCain denies dropping out of White House bid By Toby Harnden in Washington Last Updated: 2:30am BST 30/06/2007 McCain is trailing Rudy Giuliani by about 10 percentage points Senator John McCain, once the Republican front-runner for the White House, has been forced to deny rumours that he is poised to drop out of the race because he is struggling to raise funds. "That's ridiculous," he snapped back at reporters on Capitol Hill who asked whether he was about to abandon his presidential ambitions. "Why in the world would I want to do that? It would be nuts." But Mr McCain's...

Lawyers for Mohamed al Fayed today launched an astonishing bid to force the Queen to give evidence in the Diana, Princess of Wales inquest. They called for the monarch to be "directly approached" over conversations she allegedly had with former royal butler Paul Burrell. Mr Burrell, who previously worked for the Princess, claimed after the collapse of his Old Bailey trial for theft that the monarch had once warned him of "powers at work in this country which we have no knowledge about".Mohamed al Fayed has fought a long battle over the inquest of his son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess...

Gov. Mitt Romney will file paperwork forming a presidential exploratory committee on Wednesday, a delay of 24 hours out of respect for the funeral services scheduled Tuesday for former President Gerald R. Ford, according to a top aide familiar with his plans. Romney, like Ford a Republican and former Michigan resident, will submit the necessary papers to the Federal Election Commission, a registration that will allow him to raise and spend money in pursuit of the 2008 GOP nomination. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have already taken the same step. Romney ended a 10-day...

Bayh Moves Toward Presidential Bid Bayh, a Democrat with a record of political success in a Republican-leaning state, intends to take the first official step toward a 2008 presidential campaign early next week, officials said Friday, Dec. ED ANDRIESKIBy DAVID ESPO (AP Special Correspondent) From Associated Press December 01, 2006 6:53 PM EST WASHINGTON - Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat with a record of political success in a Republican-leaning state, intends to take the first official step toward a 2008 presidential campaign early next week, officials said Friday. Bayh's plans include creation of a presidential exploratory committee, as well...

Karzai calls in the tribes in bid to oust Taliban (Filed: 09/10/2006) The first thing you notice when you enter the Presidential palace in Kabul is that the Americans are missing. For the past five years President Hamid Karzai has been guarded by rude, scruffy, heavily built American male and female Rambo-style bodyguards. They treated everyone with contempt. President Hamid Karzai is protected by one of his new Afghan bodyguards Now much to the relief of tribal elders, there are different guards for the president: young Afghans in sharp suits and ties, but with machine guns slung across their shoulders....

Scientists bid to take Neanderthal DNA sample KARL MANSFIELD SCIENTISTS are attempting to extract DNA for the first time from the fossilised bones thought to be of a Neanderthal man who roamed Britain 35,000 years ago. Experts plan to use a tooth from an upper jaw to establish whether the closest relative of modern humans lived on the British Isles later than it was once thought. The fragment of an upper jaw, which was found in 1926 at Kent's Cavern in Devon, was originally thought to be human, but experts now think it could date back even further. Chris Stringer,...

Israel backs Annan bid to secure freedom for soldiers By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 05/09/2006)Kofi Annan said he would appoint a secret negotiator to mediate between Israel and Hizbollah for the release of two Israeli soldiers Kofi Annan announced yesterday that the United Nations would mediate to secure the release of the two Israeli soldiers held by Hizbollah in Lebanon in a fresh attempt to defuse tensions in the area. The abduction of the soldiers by guerrillas in a cross-border raid in July provoked an Israeli offensive and led to 34 days of bloody fighting. Until yesterday's announcement by...

US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds * Millions of dollars given to opposition, claim critics* Venezuelan groups' details hidden from list Duncan Campbell Wednesday August 30, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez. Photograph: Tengku Bahar/AFP/Getty The US government has been accused of trying to undermine the Chávez government in Venezuela by funding anonymous groups via its main international aid agency. Millions of dollars have been provided in a "pro-democracy programme" that Chávez supporters claim is a covert attempt to bankroll an opposition to defeat the government. The money is being provided by the...

Some rank-and-file Democrats fear Clinton bidActivists express doubts about whether senator should be party’s nominee By Tom Curry National affairs writer MSNBC Updated: 7:29 a.m. PT June 7, 2006 Sen. Hillary Clinton gives her acceptance speech after the New York State Democratic Convention endorsed her re-election last week. Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters file WASHINGTON - Public opinion polls, as well as inside-the-Beltway punditry, suggest that Sen. Hillary Clinton is the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. A Gallup Poll in February found that 39 percent of self-described Democrats and Democratic “leaners” would be most likely to support Clinton for...

He fought off a challenge to the state's three-strikes law, endorsed the Jessica's Law initiative cracking down on sex offenders and has denied clemency on every petition sent his way from death row. But coming into the 2006 political season, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still found himself vulnerable on the crime issue, thanks to a relentless campaign waged against him last year by the California prison cops union and two leading victims rights groups that it supports. Schwarzenegger's top-level administrative staff, however, has shifted into overdrive this year to shore up his standing with his adversaries on the criminal justice front,...

ARLINGTON, Va., April 14, 2006 – Six Medal of Honor recipients and the Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights, were among those gathered at Arlington National Cemetery here yesterday to pay their last respects to retired Army Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. "Mike" Novosel, a Medal of Honor recipient and former Golden Knight. Soldiers from the 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard) carry Medal of Honor recipient retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel Sr. at Arlington National Cemetery April 13. Novosel, 83, was laid to rest after he succumbed to a long battle with cancer. A former pilot...

WASHINGTON - Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), the Ohio Republican who wants to be House majority leader, helped expose abuses at the House bank under Democrats' control a decade ago and then embarrassed his own party with his dealings with lobbying interests. Boehner was forced to apologize in the mid-1990s for distributing checks from tobacco companies to his colleagues as they worked on the House floor. More recently, he was scrutinized for accepting donations, parties and trips from Sallie Mae, the nation's largest provider of student loans, as it lobbied the House Education and the Workforce Committee, which...

Army culls 6m birds in bid to contain flu virus Jonathan Watts in Beijing Tuesday November 8, 2005 The Guardian (UK) Chinese troops and farmers have slaughtered 6m poultry in less than 24 hours in one of the biggest culls since the outbreak of avian flu. The authorities have also banned sales of live chickens in Beijing. The army was mobilised on Saturday in Heishan, in the north-east province of Liaoning, to cull every chicken, duck and wildfowl within a two-mile radius of an outbreak which last week killed 9,000 birds. China has also asked the World Health Organisation to...

Ex-Ark. Governor Loses Bid to Change Plea By KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer Jim Guy Tucker LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A federal appeals court rejected former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker's bid to withdraw his guilty plea in a tax fraud case that arose during the Whitewater investigation of his predecessor, Bill Clinton. Tucker admitted in 1998 that he conspired to impede the Internal Revenue Service by hiding the sale of a cable television business. The plea came two years after he was convicted of fraud in a case also brought by Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Tucker resigned but was...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state's largest teachers union has dropped an initiative that would have poured billions of dollars into schools by raising property taxes on businesses, union officials said Thursday. Instead, the California Teachers Association will work with the opponents of the "Tax Fairness Act" to craft long-term solutions to school funding in the state, CTA president Barbara Kerr said. The CTA had gathered enough signatures - more than 900,000 - to qualify the initiative for the June 2006 ballot, Kerr said. It would have exempted California commercial and business properties from Proposition 13's rule that property value, upon...

BEIJING, July 6 -- The chairman of CNOOC Ltd., the Chinese energy firm embroiled in a thorny campaign to purchase the U.S. oil company Unocal Corp., voiced dismay on Wednesday over what he called "overreaction" from Washington by those portraying the deal as a threat to fair trade and U.S. national security.In an interview with The Washington Post at CNOOC's headquarters in Beijing, Chairman Fu Chengyu said critics of his company's bid for Unocal were guilty of viewing China through an outdated lens by failing to appreciate how economic reforms have forced Chinese companies to adopt market principles and focus...

Secretive panel could block China's Unocal bid By Jim Wolf 38 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If Unocal Corp. accepts an $18.5 billion takeover by China's CNOOC Ltd. the deal's fate may hinge on how a secretive U.S. review panel defines "national security," experts said on Friday. "The primary question for this transaction is whether they consider energy security to be a national-security issue," said Michael Wessel, a Democrat and a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Wessel said the Bush administration, so far, had restricted the definition of national security. State-owned CNOOC's unsolicited bid trumped a...

UNITED NATIONS - The executive who wrote an e-mail memo suggesting that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan may have known about a U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son denies that he, personally, ever discussed the firm's bid with the U.N. chief, his lawyers said Wednesday. The memo written by Michael Wilson describes a brief encounter in which officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection S.A. discussed the company's bid for the contract with the secretary-general "and his entourage" during a summit of French-speaking nations in Paris in late 1998. The London law firm Schillings issued a brief...

Hillary-haters seize on trial of fundraiser in bid to smear Clintons By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles 10 May 2005 A former fund-raising director for Hillary Clinton goes on trial in Los Angeles today to face accusations of campaign finance irregularities that political opponents of the former first Lady turned US senator hope will help dent her chances of a successful run for the presidency in 2008. To the growing band of Hillary-haters who have set up websites and political action committees to try, again, to stop her political career in its tracks, the case has all the hallmarks of...

In Attempt to Oust Clinton, a Strategist's Comeback Bid By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ Published: April 10, 2005 WASHINGTON, April 9 - Arthur J. Finkelstein, the political guru who helped engineer the defeat of one Democratic luminary, Mario M. Cuomo, has his sights set on another: Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Finkelstein, a longtime adviser to Gov. George E. Pataki of New York, is setting up a political action committee to mount a campaign offensive against Mrs. Clinton in 2006, when she is up for re-election, according to Republicans familiar with his plans. Mr. Finkelstein, who is known to be reclusive, would not...

Dean blasts GOP in bid to chair Democratic Party Western states convention hears seven candidates Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer Sunday, January 23, 2005 Sacramento -- Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, aggressively seeking to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, urged his fellow Democrats on Saturday to appeal to voters not as "mini-Republicans,'' but as "the party of centrists" dedicated to bringing "America back to a reasonable central moral position in the world. "We balance budgets; they don't. We stand up for job opportunities,'' said Dean, who received standing ovations from many of the 600 Democrats gathered...

I am looking to switch auctions sites away from Ebay since they have made huge monatiary demands upon small sellers like myself. I have only heard of bidville.com and yahoo.com auctions. I was not impressed with yahoo. I am in need of good freeper advice please. I know that the buyers will not follow as quick as the sellers, but I figure that eventually the buyers will go where the action is. So I don't mind slower sells for a while.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A California appeals court on Tuesday denied an effort by Christian activists to prevent a law that will grant same-sex couples nearly all the rights and responsibilities as marriage from taking effect on Jan. 1. The California Court of Appeal for the Third District rejected the groups' request for an emergency stay, but is allowing the legal challenges to the law itself to move forward. The groups, the Campaign for California Families and the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, are appealing a September ruling by a Superior Court judge in Sacramento that held that the...

Ms Anderson, who hails from Hobart, Indiana, said the unexpected attention generated by her whimsical eBay sale had "left her a nervous wreck" and that she had cancelled some of the more "outrageous bids". She reiterated that the purpose of the exercise was simply to reassure her five year-old-son who was uneasy about living in a house that he felt was haunted by his "mean" grandfather.

NEWARK, N.J. - Four years after spending more than $60 million of his own money to get elected to the Senate, Democrat Jon S. Corzine announced Thursday that he is running for governor in 2005. The former investment banker, whose political intentions have been widely reported in recent days, becomes the first Democrat to officially enter the race. Polls have shown Corzine would be the early front-runner. "I believe I can do more for the state of New Jersey and its citizens as governor," the freshman senator said. He said he left private life for the Senate to press for...

Former presidential candidate Howard Dean is considering a bid to become chairman of the national Democratic Party. Steve Grossman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Dean had told him he was thinking about it. Dean was traveling today in New York and unavailable for comment. His spokeswoman, Laura Gross, said ``it was far too early to be speculating on that.'' The 240 members of the Democratic National Convention will elect a new chair early next year. Several names are already being mentioned, including former Clinton aide Harold Ickes; Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's presidential campaign,...

Six months before the San Jose-Cisco Systems controversy went public, Leon Nix knew the city risked violating its own rules by favoring the networking company's products in its new City Hall. But he feared speaking out, thinking his bosses might come after him. Now it appears he may have been right. On a January morning, Nix, then the project's budget analyst, reluctantly sent an e-mail to his boss pointing out potential problems with the $8 million contract. A week later, he was taken off the project without being told why. Today, as officials wonder where the truth lies in the...

San Jose accepted the resignation of its top technology official Monday just hours before the much-anticipated release of a city audit that found favoritism and collusion in the award of an $8 million contract to install Cisco Systems equipment in the new downtown City Hall. The audit, whose preliminary findings were released last week, tells the story that cost Chief Information Officer Wandzia Grycz her $174,000-a-year job: Working closely with Cisco, Grycz and her staff designed a computer-and-phone network that required Cisco equipment, in violation of city policies encouraging competition for contracts. But the final audit goes further to locate...

Russia launches Arctic rescue bid Most of the research base disappeared into the icy depths Russia has launched a rescue operation to evacuate 12 of its scientists stranded on a research station which partially sank near the North Pole. A heavy lift MI-26 helicopter and an An-72 plane are due to land on Norway's Spitzbergen island later on Friday. Early on Saturday, the aircraft will fly to the ice-floe about 700km (435 miles) to the north. The scientists' leader said morale was high in the team - but four of their six buildings sank into the icy ocean. The North...

Nigeria denies nuclear bomb bid By Robin Gedye, Foreign Affairs Writer and Ahmed Rashid in Lahore (Filed: 05/03/2004) Nigeria denied yesterday that it had discussed getting nuclear technology from Pakistan. It dismissed as a "typographical error" a statement by its defence ministry that it had done so. The scramble to apologise and Pakistan's assurances of a "baseless story and conspiracy to hurt our name" failed to calm alarm that Nigeria was possibly trying to create an atomic bomb. The ministry's late night communique was clear. Gen Muhammad Aziz Khan, chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff, had told Nigerian officials...

SAS joins fresh bid to snare bin Laden Jason Burke, chief reporter Sunday February 29, 2004 The Observer (UK) American and British forces have launched a dramatic new effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan. SAS detachments will join thousands of US troops - including a 'super-secret' special forces unit transferred from Iraq - and contingents of Afghan soldiers in a huge sweep of mountainous border areas where the terrorists are believed to be hiding. The push will be the biggest such operation for 18 months. Attempts to find the fugitives last...

Mugabe shrugs off 'murder' bid and health fears Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria Monday February 23, 2004 The Guardian (UK) The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, recently found ground glass in his food: possibly an attempt to kill him. He told state television during a special birthday interview that a presidential cook had been questioned about the incident. In the past, Mr Mugabe has accused western leaders of seeking to topple him, but he did not blame this latest incident on the west. "I do not think it was anything to do with western imperialism. Western imperialism is much more thorough...

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's largest mobile phone firm Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) and U.S rival Cingular Wireless were poised on Friday for a head-to-head bid battle that could value struggling AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE - news) of the U.S. at around $35 billion. As the clock ticks to a 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) bid deadline, sources close to talks said Vodafone was putting the final touches on a bid, while Cingular was ready to fight back. But final bid strategies were expected to be left to the 11th-hour. "What happens in these auctions is that everybody is making decisions...

Dean's bid for White House alarms Blair allies Alliance could be strained by anti-war stance Patrick Wintour Tuesday January 13, 2004 The Guardian (UK) New Labour allies of Tony Blair are becoming alarmed at the prospect of a Howard Dean US presidential candidacy, fearing it will create formidable tensions in the traditional transatlantic Democrat-Labour alliance. Amid concerns that a Dean presidential campaign would be dominated by attacks on the Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq, one ally of the prime minister has suggested that he would prefer anyone but Mr Dean as president, although in public Mr Blair will be careful to...

New bid fails to raise Beagle Scientists say two further attempts to contact Britain's Beagle 2 Mars probe have failed. The craft's mothership, Mars Express, flew over the landing site at 12.50pm yesterday and 1.27pm today but heard no signal. Mars Express was in its most sensitive listening mode. Hopes of finding the lander, which has been missing since Christmas Day, are now fading fast.More passes will be made tomorrow at 2.04pm and on Monday at 2.02am. Story filed: 18:10 Friday 9th January 2004

Korea nuclear talks bid fails The North is thought to have stored 8,000 spent fuel rods South Korea has failed to persuade the North to attend talks with its neighbours and the United States to resolve the dispute over its nuclear weapons programme. Delegations from the two Koreas, meeting in the southern capital Seoul, did agree to seek a peaceful solution through "appropriate" dialogue. North Korea has long insisted on first having bilateral discussions with the US before wider talks involving China and Japan as it blames Washington for provoking the crisis over its weapons programmes. At the meeting, which...