Free Republic

A bill tripling the size of the AmeriCorps program that is scheduled for a House vote Wednesday would also create fellowships for people 55 and older and a separate Summer of Service program for middle and high school student volunteers.... Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., have introduced a similar measure that also adds 175,000 positions to AmeriCorps. A Senate committee is scheduled to vote on its legislation on Wednesday and it could come before the full Senate for a vote as early as next week.

The political reality at the moment is that regardless of the wisdom or foolishness of what is or will be proposed by the Obama administration or Congress in the next two years, it will pass. This is the consequence for the GOP of losing elections and losing them big in both 2006 and 2008....

... Given the opportunity, Mr. Daschle would likely charge the board with determining which treatments and drugs are cost effective and therefore permissible to use for patients covered by the government...

Under the ordinance, developed by the Police Department, Worcester district attorney’s office and city officials, any knife with a blade larger than 1.5 inches would be illegal to carry; people caught with such knives in their possession would be fined $300, as permitted by state law.

... But, Fresquez said, "In my experience, people in this field don't want to invest the time and energy to go back to school." More likely, many of them will focus on professions where the pay may be somewhat less but so is the stress.

1. Allow Mexican nationals to travel and to work in the US on the same basis Canadians do: show your Mexican passport on the border to travel and if there is a job offer work visa should be granted unconditionally. 2. Grant same work visas to all non-Mexican illegals who are employed in the country on 12/31/07 as on-time amnesty event. 3. As a condition for (1) have agreement with Mexico (a) to accept all deportees from the US, (b) to maintain existing strict citizenship and immigration requirements, (c) to guard its borders. 4. Enforce existing rule of no entitlements...

Because now there is absolutely nothing to lose, it seems that it is a very good time to make the best of what it available. 1. Pardon Mr.Libby. 2. Fire Mr.Fitzgerald from his US Attorney Job (this one is an absolute freeby: one more fired US Attorney can finally would not make things any worse). 3. Load out troops on the boats and get out of ME ASAP. The stable, peaceful Middle East is a nice idea but the price is to let hillarys to run our own country for the next 40 years and it is way too high....

News stories reporting that the Bush administration had considered firing all 93 U.S. attorneys across the country failed to mention that that is exactly what Bill Clinton did soon after taking office in 1993... By the way, the mass Clinton firings generated some news stories, some complaints from Republicans in Congress, but no Congressional investigations, and not a word from Chuck Schumer.

Translation: ... Russian Federation established following Russian holidays: ... November 7 - Day of October Revolution 1917; ... The President of the Russian Federation V.Putin Moscow, Kremlin, February 28, 2007

The case for adding troops in Iraq -- and keeping them there -- rests on one basic assumption: As bad as things are now, they would become catastrophic if the United States leaves. President Bush in his State of the Union address Tuesday warned that an early U.S. exit would create "a nightmare scenario" for America. ..."But the biggest problem we face right now is the danger that the United States will validate the terrorist strategy, that, in fact, what will happen here with all of the debate over whether or not we ought to stay in Iraq, with the...

... Now that plan is in chaos. Milorad Dodik, the premier of the Republika Srpska, the Serb part of Bosnia, wants the same right to self-determination as that exercised by Montenegro last year, and possibly by Kosovo soon. The latter analogy is a powerful one. If a province of Serbia can decide its own future, he argues, why not his fief? ...

... Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said that U.S. troops must defend themselves in Iraq but that the president needs congressional approval for any program that could "escalate this conflict" with Iran. Reid said Bush should be engaged in direct diplomacy with Iran and other countries in the region to avoid a widening conflict, rather than "sending battle carrier groups" to sit off the Iranian coast. ...

... Patrick said one woman told him she had never been to such an integrated event in Boston ...

It's time to call Riyadh's bluff. Having made whores of innumerable politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington, the Saudis still hope to steer American policy the way they did before their citizens attacked us on 9/11. Now they demand American protection for those Iraqis who have done their best to kill our troops, instigate a religious civil war, slaughter the innocent and destroy any hope Iraq has of a better future.

... One of the top priorities when the new Congress convenes in January will be legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for lower drug prices, he said ...

Sen. Russ Feingold, one of the first lawmakers to call for a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq, argued on Thursday that it would be wrong to categorize him as an anti-war Democrat. "I've never been anywhere near one-dimensional on these issues," Feingold said in an interview. "I think that I've become — I hope — a credible spokesman for a muscular view of anti-terrorist activity by the Democrats as well as the country. The fact is, I've never been just an anti-war guy."

Just two amazing pictures of Russian roads: a traffic jam full of Lamborgini's in Moscow and a federal road near Yakutsk (Siberia)

Is Sen. George Allen a Jew? Can a man be a Jew if he doesn't want to be one? Is being Jewish a state of mind or a matter of blood? bla-bla-bla

Next week Mr Emanuel will publish his answer to Mr Gingrich's “Contract with America”, the small-government manifesto that helped Republicans capture the House in 1994. It is called “The Plan: Big Ideas for America”, and is co-written with Bruce Reed, an old chum from the Clinton White House.... The middle class should be exempt from capital-gains tax. And families with an income of less than $100,000 a year should surrender no more than 10% of it to the taxman...