Free Republic

Oshkosh - Facing cuts in defense spending, Oshkosh Corp. is gearing up for one of the biggest new military truck contracts on the horizon - worth billions of dollars and eight years of work at the truck maker's factory. The Army and Marines want thousands of Joint Light Tactical Vehicles that would be a replacement for the military's Humvees. At least five companies will probably seek the contract, which analysts say could be worth as much as $20 billion. With defense spending on the decline, the competition will be especially intense. "Honestly, this could get kind of vicious," said Jim...

The mastermind behind the Republicans' dramatic return to congressional power after 40 years in the minority, Newt Gingrich commanded a conservative assault on big government to achieve his long-held dream of becoming House speaker. ...it was a disappointing GOP showing in Tuesday's election that ultimately brought him down. He fulfilled his vision through his "Contract with America," a campaign blueprint he helped craft that called for tax cuts, welfare reform and other changes aimed at shrinking the federal government. "When I said revolution, I meant revolution. When I said real change, I meant real change," Gingrich said in the midst...

Fox does a piece on how the bid for this defense contract went to a Brazilian company.

The solution is obvious: Get the state entirely out of the marriage business. No more marriage licenses. No more special treatment of married couples by the IRS or any other facet of government. No state ever had a legitimate claim to issue marriage licenses, to begin with, since marriage is a spiritual commitment and quite often, a religious one. And it is, fundamentally, an intensely personal one based in autonomy—until city hall gets involved and messes everything up. In the new paradigm I suggest, every couple wishing to get married would state that intention to their house of worship or...

The scourge of smallpox has been all but eradicated for decades, with the only live samples of the source bacteria locked away in laboratories in the US and Russia. Nonetheless, the US maintains a large stockpile of proven smallpox vaccines just in case anyone gets access to the disease, and can quickly distribute it to the American population and prevent an epidemic, even after exposure. There is no reason to spend another dollar developing a new smallpox vaccine — and yet that is exactly what the Obama administration did, and in a most peculiar manner: Over the last year, the...

A $90 million contract aimed at creating jobs as well as strengthening local governments in Colombia has been awarded to Chemonics International by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The Consolidation and Enhanced Livelihoods Initiative, or CELI, as it is known, seeks to sway Colombian citizens from participating in drug-related activities and to instead pursue legal livelihoods. A U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor previously reported, USAID earlier this year separately awarded a $110 million contract to a different vendor to achieve similar goals across Colombia (see: U.S. Contractor to Help Colombia Establish 'Presence' in Former Coca-Eradication Zones, April 27,...

Gannett; Link only

Newt Gingrich to detail new ‘Contract With America’By Sandhya Somashekhar Former House speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday will outline a set of sweeping changes to government that he says will foster a “national renewal” in the United States and return the country to its founding principles. Gingrich, who is trying to revive his presidential campaign after a series of stumbles early on, will unveil the 26-page plan at a press event in Iowa. It is modeled on the 1994 “Contract With America” that Gingrich helped write while in Congress. The new plan, which Gingrich has dubbed a “21st Century Contract...

We, the American people, promise to defend and advance a simple ideal: liberty and justice . . . for all. Americans who are willing to work hard and play by the rules should be able to find a decent job, get a good home in a strong community, retire with dignity, and give their kids a better life. Every one of us – rich, poor, or in-between, regardless of skin color or birthplace, no matter their sexual orientation or gender – has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is our covenant, our compact, our contract...

Liberals outline stimulus agenda in 'Contract for the American Dream' By Erik Wasson - 08/09/11 10:57 AM ET Liberal organizations and unions are frustrated that President Obama has not aggressively pushed a new jobs stimulus agenda and they are offering up a consolidated fall agenda for Democrats to embrace as an alternative to austerity. Representatives of MoveOn, Rebuild the Dream and the Center for Economic Policy and Research will join Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) on Tuesday to launch a progressive “Contract for the American Dream” to urge the administration and Congress to turn away from budget cutting and focus on...

A preliminary five-year plan to improve Ethiopia's educational system was released today by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The draft Statement of Work (SOW) outlines what the agency expects to accomplish via the Reading for Ethiopia’s Achievement Developed (READ) project, which seeks to improve the reading and writing skills of elementary school students. According to the draft SOW: "The overall program will have four components: curriculum improvement, pedagogical techniques, appropriate technology and teaching aids, and co�curricular activity and community outreach. In addition, an evaluation project is expected to conduct mid�term and final evaluations of the complete READ program...

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has plans to develop a "logic model and measurement framework" that supposedly will help it weigh the impact of art on society and, presumably, when, why, and how that impact affects governmental funding of the arts. Here's an excerpt from the Statement of Work governing the project, which NEA intends to outsource to a "capable" contractor. "SECTION B SUPPLIES/SERVICES AND PRICES B.1 GENERAL Historically, generations of artists, philosophers, and social science researchers have struggled to define the role and impact of art in terms of public value. They have asked questions as fundamental...

Alabama Passes Mandatory E-Verify & Immigration Enforcement Bill Friday, June 3, 2011, 1:25 PM EDT An Alabama House and Senate conference committee agreed on a new bill, which both chambers have already passed, that requires the use of E-Verify by all businesses in the state and includes several immigration enforcement provisions. Should Gov. Robert Bentley sign the bill into law, it would become one of the largest state crackdowns on illegal immigration in the country. The bill requires all businesses, public and private, to begin using E-Verify effective April 1, 2012. Businesses that do not comply face suspension of its...

Deep in the 200-page contract that Gov. Jerry Brown recently approved for state prison guards is a provision that could generate a cash windfall to the officers when they retire. The guards, who are among Brown's largest political benefactors, would be able to save an unlimited number of vacation days under their new deal. When they leave state service, those days could be exchanged for cash at their final pay rate, which would probably be higher than when they earned the time off. The governor is extending this benefit only to members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., a...

A panel of federal judges on Monday ruled that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss can't back out of the settlement deal they made in a lawsuit charging that Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook. Twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss claim they enlisted Zuckerberg to finish software code for their ConnectU social-networking website while they were all students at Harvard in 2003. Zuckerberg, a second year student at the time, took their code and their idea and launched Facebook in February 2004 instead of holding up his end of the deal, according to the brothers. Facebook rejects that account. Hollywood...

Is it possible to sue a politician for violation of an implied contract when he fails to perform in accord with his campaign promises?

The Daily Caller has learned CNBC reporter Matt Nesto will not have his contract renewed, which is up at the beginning of 2011. Were Nesto’s politics a factor in the network’s decision not to bring him back? Nesto, known for his market research in appearances on the network throughout the broadcast day, is generally a low-key actor.

Hunting rope squirrels for food could be fuelling cases of monkeypox in the Congo basinResearchers probing risk factors for human cases of monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a ‘hotspot’ of the disease, found that people living near dense forests favoured by rope squirrels are more likely to contract the virus. “Our finding... is consistent with the fact that rope squirrels are the only natural host that have been demonstrated to transmit the monkeypox virus directly to humans in Africa,” write Trevon Fuller and colleagues this month in EcoHealth. The study suggests that the scant resources available for...

The CBS anchor is nearing the end of her contract—and signs point surprisingly to her staying put. Howard Kurtz talks to her about her salary, her next move—and her love of the campaign trail.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Channel's signature news anchor Shepard Smith has signed a new multi-year deal to continue as the channel's lead news anchor as well as anchor of FOX Report and Studio B. Smith's most recent pact with Fox News inked in 2007 was for 3 years and nets him $7 million-8 million a year. Fox News is expected to announce Smith's re-signing this afternoon. Smith, who is a guest on The View today to talk about midterm election coverage will also probably address his new contract on the ABC talk show where his Fox News colleague Bill O'Reilly recently...

Fox News moved swiftly to turn the controversy over Juan Williams’s firing to its advantage, offering him an expanded role and a new three-year contract Thursday morning in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million, Matea Gold reports. Roger Ailes took a jab at NPR in the process. "Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997,” he said in a statement. “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.” In his new role, Williams will appear more frequently on the...

Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy, dropped by NR’s offices yesterday for a spirited, very enjoyable discussion. They were here to promote their new book, Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders. We’ll have more from the conversation in a while, but wanted to highlight what McCarthy said about the “America Speaking Out� effort, which he leads and is creating the Contract-like document Republicans will unveil in a couple of weeks. It’s clearly going to be an incrementalist document focusing on opposition to basic Obama administration initiatives, on measures aimed at small business, on rolling back discretionary spending,...

Lawmakers Want To Know How Much CSU Stanislaus Is Paying For Sarah Palin VisitSACRAMENTO - The California State University Foundation has released its contract with former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin that shows the speaker's request as well as compensation for a fundraiser dinner conducted in June. According to the contract released Thursday afternoon, Palin was compensated $75,000 to appear at the event and requested two bottles of "unopened still water" with "bendable straws" placed "in or near the wooden lectern." A private plane, more specifically a Lear 60 jet, was required for Palin under the contract, though the contract...

Our Mission As members of the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas, we pledge to defend the values and principles on which our nation was founded. We are proud Republicans who support our party. But our first allegiance is to the people, the conservative majority of our party who elected us to office. We pledge not to divide, but to unite Conservatives everywhere. We pledge to make America and Texas stronger by defending individual liberty, freedom, and the free market ideals that made our country the envy of the world. Our Contract with Texas We give our word to stand for...

Michigan - Nearly every aspect of a teacher's job falls under the rules of a union contract. The following is an analysis of the current collective bargaining agreement for teachers and a few other employee groups in Farmington Public Schools. The district employs about 890 teachers and enrolls 11,900 students. Of its $158 million operating budget (excluding capital and debt services expenditures), about 67 percent goes towards paying employees covered by this contract. Teacher salaries are determined by a single salary schedule that creates automatic raises based solely an employee's years of experience and graduate degrees. Although teachers are evaluated...

The current Republican leadership proposes that America needs a "New Contract" [i]. Why? We already have the finest social contract/compact ever devised by mankind. The historical basis of the Republican Party is to stand firm on those fundamental founding principles. That contract is the Constitution of the United States, which evolved from the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This paragraph, from The...

Paperwork lifted from a Dumpster by students at California State University, Stanislaus was not part of Sarah Palin's speaking contract, but an earlier version of the agreement, campus President Hamid Shirvani said Wednesday. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/14/BAG31CUTIO.DTL#ixzz0l9LLubUJ

SACRAMENTO, California -- A document fished out of a California state university trash bin last week has prompted a state investigation into the university's foundation arm and its refusal to disclose details related to Sarah Palin's upcoming speech at the school. On Tuesday, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office would look into the finances of the California State University, Stanislaus Foundation, as well as allegations that the nonprofit organization violated public disclosure laws by keeping details of Palin's contract secret.

Nearly every aspect of a teacher's job falls under the rules of a union contract. The following is an analysis of the current collective bargaining agreement for teachers and a few other employee groups in the East Lansing School District. The district employs about 220 teachers and enrolls 3,400 students. Of its $34 million operating budget (excluding capital and debt services expenditures), about 70 percent goes towards paying employees covered by this contract. Teacher salaries are determined by a single salary schedule that creates automatic raises based solely an employee’s years of experience and graduate degrees. Although teachers are evaluated...

Sprout McGee, Hamster Assassin Do you have enemies? Do your enemies have hamsters? Then you need Sprout McGee, Hamster Assassin! (Watch the video at the link provided)

(CNSNews.com) - The R.I. Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday rejected a contract that would have allowed Rhode Island’s largest electric utility to buy power from a wind farm that's planned for the waters off the R.I. coast. It would have been the first project of its kind in the United States, the Providence Journal reported. The three-member commission voted unanimously against the power-purchase agreement, saying the price of power agreed to by the two sides was too high and that the overall deal was not “commercially reasonable.”

carrier+ (AP) - NEW DELHI, March 12 (Kyodo)—India and Russia on Friday signed a deal to buy Mig-29 fighters and the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, Indian officials said. The two countries inked the contract during a meeting in New Delhi between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The leaders of the two countries also signed five pacts to promote cooperation in space technology, nuclear reactors and fertilizer production. Under the deal, India will buy 29 Mig-29 fighters and the Soviet-built aircraft carrier. Russia will deliver the carrier to India by the end of 2012. Russia...

CalPERS plans to extend a management contract with financial services giant State Street Corp., the same firm accused in a lawsuit of defrauding CalPERS and CalSTRS. The one-year extension, announced Tuesday at a meeting of CalPERS' investment committee, brought concern from state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a fund board member. "My question is whether we ought to be extending business relationships with firms that may have defrauded the state of California," he said in an interview. But the California Public Employees' Retirement System staff said the bidding process on a new contract is so lengthy, the one-year extension became a necessity....

Here is a list of 21 items they are trying to whittle down to a "Top Ten." Idea is to open voting to everyone for a week, take the top 10, and then ask every representative, senator, or those running for one of those offices to sign it from either party. I was impressed with the list, but am having difficulty whittling the list myself. I'd enjoy a discussion on FR to decide on which ones I definitely want in my top ten. DEMAND A BALANCED BUDGET Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds...

Outfielder avoids arbitration by completing deal The Houston Astros announced that the club has signed outfielder Hunter Pence to a one-year, $3.5 million contract for the 2010 season. The announcement was made by General Manager Ed Wade.

Congressional Republicans are right to savor Scott Brown’s stunning Senate victory. Democrat Martha Coakley’s self-destructive gaffes notwithstanding, conservative Republican Brown’s formidable 52 percent to 47 percent win is akin to Rep. Barney Frank surfacing in Salt Lake City and, three weeks later, zooming past a pro-market entrepreneur right into the Senate. Massachusetts voters rejected Kennedy-style liberalism and Obama-Pelosi style leftist overreach. They embraced limited government, fiscal discipline, lighter taxes, and tougher treatment of terrorists. There is no spinning this away. Republicans should enjoy this moment and thank Brown for reminding the GOP of how to run a winning campaign. Once...

The title says it all. Please keep in mind that unless they get a 60 seat majority in the Senate, the will not be able to push through legislation that is heavily opposed by the Rats. My suggestions: 1. Abstain from earmarks that cost the taxpayers billions of dollars every year. 2. Never vote for a budget that has a deficit. 3. Take power to make laws away from government agencies. 4. Pass a resolution denouncing the global warming scam and call for investigations into entities that have received money for global warming research. 5. Make the Bush tax cuts...

Several months ago we warned that Tara O’Toole who recently became Under Secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security would reward her friends resulting in millions of dollars in gifts to John Murtha cronies who supported her nomination. And it now appears the Murtha/O’Toole favor factory has begun production. In February 2008, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a second-generation Anthrax vaccine. This RFP was issued to be a re-procurement for a contract that had been canceled in 2006 for the same vaccine. And on...

Power company Caithness Energy has given General Electric a $1.4 billion contract to supply wind turbines and 10 years' worth of maintenance for an Oregon wind farm, GE announced Thursday. The massive 845-megawatt wind farm, Shepherds Flat, will be located near Arlington, Oregon, but span approximately 30 square miles and cover parts of Oregon's Gilliam and Morrow Counties. GE estimates that it will supply 338 of its 2.5-megawatt wind turbine models to be installed between 2011 and 2012. Although they have been used in Europe and Asia, the company says the Shepherds Flat project will include the first U.S. installations...

Newt Gingrich. His name became familiar in 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress following Bill and Hillary Clinton’s disastrous attempt to take over the health care industry. In the year or so that followed, Republicans instituted welfare reform and balanced the budget for the first time since LBJ’s presidency. Clinton, of course, was quick to take credit for the new fiscal conservatism in Washington, and he and the Congress were just as quick to spend the “surplus.” Many of the Republicans who won in 1994, as Newt will readily proclaim to all who will listen, were moderates. Therefore, moderate...

In a post almost seven months ago, I reported on a claim that the Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System, a hand-held portable lie detector system made by Lafayette Instrument Company, was never tested for countermeasures before it was deployed to troops in combat zones and that it was the success of National Institute for Truth Verification’s more-accurate and versatile Computer Voice Stress Analyzer® technology in Iraq and Afghanistan that led the Department of Defense to create the PCASS system in the first place. Today, a source who has read my previous posts on this subject matter provided me a copy...

Northrop Grumman Corp. on Wednesday suggested it could file a lawsuit or even withdraw from the U.S. Air Force tanker contest because of its concerns over the fairness of the competition. Top Northrop officials said they were working with the Pentagon to address their objections to the Air Force's draft Request for Proposals, released to potential bidders Sept. 25.

Reporting from Sacramento - California's high-speed rail commission, dominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees, is set to award a $9-million contract today to a company led by the governor's top political advisor and his former campaign manager. The three commission staff members charged with recommending a public relations firm have advised the board to give the contract to Mercury Public Affairs at its meeting today. Schwarzenegger strategist Adam Mendelsohn is a partner at Mercury, as is Steve Schmidt, who managed the governor's 2006 reelection effort. Two members of the staff panel are former Mendelsohn colleagues. Ethics watchdogs raised questions about...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- The largest union representing employees of the Boston Globe narrowly rejected management's final contract offer Monday, possibly setting the stage for the closure of the embattled newspaper. Parent New York Times Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!nyt/quotes/nls/nyt (NYT 6.34, -0.15, -2.31%) threatened earlier this year to shut down the Globe unless it could get $20 million in concessions from the paper's unions. Last month, the Boston Newspaper Guild and the Globe had reached a tentative deal that on a proposal that included a substantial pay cut, unpaid furloughs, and modifications to the lifetime job guarantee provisions that protect almost 200 employees....

Star Enterprize personnel examine ductile pipes before moving them from the GRD Loyalty Residence Office in Baghdad to Victory Base Compound, recently. GRD awarded its first veteran-owned contract to Star Enterprize in April. Photo courtesy of Star Enterprize. BAGHDAD — Over the past five years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Gulf Region Division (GRD) has embarked on a dedicated campaign that has enabled many “firsts� for the Iraqi people. Across the region, GRD personnel have worked tirelessly on projects that in many cases allow Iraqis to enjoy the benefits of running water and electricity for the first time....

Beyond the immediate, investment in building productive capacity must occur if the U.S. is to prosper and if higher national debt levels are to be serviced. Three forces that have built up in recent months and that will interact ferociously now make this almost impossible. Let's be optimistic and assume that any new debt default problems (e.g. from commercial real estate) can be absorbed by the reformed and refinanced financial sector. Yet, the cards are now stacked against sustained recovery.

Dicks says tanker contract won't be splitAssociated Press Published: Thursday, May 7, 2009 TACOMA -- Congressman Norm Dicks says a proposal to split an air tanker contract is dead. Dicks told The News Tribune of Tacoma that a key congressman, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, has agreed not to split the contract between Boeing and a European competitor. The Air Force spending is part of a bill being considered by the House Appropriations Committee. The tanker contract for 179 planes is worth $35 billion.

I started thinking several months ago about possible ways to get the party of Lincoln and Reagan back on track. Following the 1994 Contract with America, there was a period of time when the representatives were directly serving the will of the people. We unified under an agreement about specific reforms we all agreed were needed. They promised to act on them, and they did for the most part. We promised to elect them, and we did. We need to bring about the same kind of unity within the Republican Party (based on a conservative foundation) and with like-minded citizens...

Call it a condom conundrum. At a time when the federal government is spending billions of stimulus dollars to stem the tide of U.S. layoffs, should that same government put even more Americans out of work by buying cheaper foreign products? In this case, Chinese condoms. That’s the dilemma for the folks at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has distributed an estimated 10 billion U.S.-made AIDS-preventing condoms in poor countries around the world. But not anymore. In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist Bill Patzert and Tim Brick, head of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (*Use Less and Pay More,* LATimes, Feb. 24) state that *we can't afford our wasteful ways any longer* when it comes to water. Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brick24-2009feb24,0,3291692.story Contrary to Patzert and Brick, our present water situation is not a drought caused by household waste or even population growth. Conservation and agricultural efficiencies have brought about roughly the same level of water use over the last ten years. Drought is a misnomer. Even water activist Dorothy Green recently stated there is no *drought.* Drought...