Free Republic

Good old Joe Biden, introducing Barack Obama at the health-care bill-signing lollapalooza in Washington yesterday, leaned over and whispered into the presidential ear (and a nearby open mike): "This is a big f---ing deal." Sure was -- though not personally to Veep Potty-Mouth, nor to the president. They're exempt, you see. Really. No worrying for them about the personal consequences of ObamaCare's overbearing regulation, worrisome coverage uncertainties and financial confusions. Same for members of the presidential Cabinet -- and all of their staff members. They and their families are exempt from the calamitous health-care "reform" plan they've hung on the...

Today the Obama administration’s Department of Interior announced that it would keep a Bush administration rule [1] forbidding government scientists from considering global warming when protecting polar bears pursuant to the Endangered Species Act.When the Bush Interior Department announced their rule, they were roundly [2] criticized [3] by the enviro-left [4]. It will be interesting to see how they react to the Obama administration taking the same position.More interesting is how the Obama EPA justified their decision. McClatchy reports [1]: On Friday, the Interior Department reluctantly agreed, saying that it’s scientifically impossible to use the Endangered Species Act to regulate...

Plans for the Queen Mother to fly to Iran in Concorde were blocked by Harold Wilson because he was worried about the plane's safety, it has been revealed. The Labour prime minister intervened days before the planned trip in April 1975 when told there was a problem with the engine. Aviation watchdogs said the plane could be flown by an experienced test pilot. But Wilson said the government's position would be "indefensible" if the engine fault became known. The episode is revealed in government records from 1975 which have now been released for the public to see at The National...

WND FAITH UNDER FIRE Americans roughed up in China Cops reportedly mistreat U.S. Christians during raid on house church Posted: August 9, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Two Americans were roughed up by plain-clothes Chinese police during a raid of a house church in the Communist state, reports Christian-persecution monitor China Aid Association. According to the group, the raid came during a crackdown on house churches that has seen 210 Chinese house pastors and members arrested since last month. On Aug. 2, the two Americans, students believed to be from Westminster Theological Seminary campuses in Texas and California,...

Attorneys general from nine states filed suit Tuesday over a final rule by the Environmental Protection Agency reversing its 2000 decision to regulate coal- and oil-fired generation for hazardous air pollutants under section 112 of the Clean Air Act. Section 112 would require utilities to install “maximum achievable control” technology. EPA’s final rule, published in the Federal Register and effective Tuesday, removes coal and oil-fired utility units from the section 112 source list. In pursuing a mercury rule wrought by litigation, the agency concluded in December 2000 that it was “appropriate and necessary” to regulate fossil units under section 112...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 - The Defense Department, which controls 28 million acres of land across the nation that it uses for combat exercises and weapons testing, has been moving on a variety of fronts to reduce requirements that it safeguard the environment on that land. In Congress, the Pentagon has won exemptions in the last two years from parts of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It has sought in recent years to exempt military activities, for three years, from compliance with parts of the Clean Air Act. Also, the Pentagon, which controls about 140 of...

THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS in life that disappoint, and people who don’t live up to their billing. But not Michael Ovitz, in what is sarcastically being billed as “The Trial of the Century.” For days now, internal memos and expert testimony inside Delaware Chancery Court had described the guy we love to hate as a “psychopath” and “congenital liar” (not to mention recounting behavior that merited other terms of endearment like “spendthrift,” “incompetent” and “fraud”). Before the trial, sources close to Ovitz told L.A. Weekly that the Creative Artists Agency co-founder was relishing the opportunity to go to court....