Free Republic

WASHINGTON - President Bush nominated two new Republicans and one new Democrat to the Federal Election Commission Tuesday in an attempt to break a Senate confirmation deadlock that had paralyzed the regulatory agency. Bush resisted efforts to withdraw the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department official whom he nominated in 2007 but who had not been able to win votes in the Senate to get confirmed. The White House said the latest compromise would permit a separate vote on von Spakovsky. The stalemate over von Spakovsky had left the six-member FEC without a quorum to conduct business...

In 2006, former premier Lucien Bouchard and several business leaders blamed the not-in-my-backyard syndrome - NIMBY - for much of the Montreal metropolitan area's "immobilisme." The criticism followed the cancellation of two projects that had stirred public protests - a casino near Pointe St. Charles and the Suroît power plant. Despite the scolding, citizens remain unrepentant and as pesky as ever. Protests against noisy aircraft over the West Island, for example, are giving headaches to airport officials trying to accommodate increasing numbers of flights. Protests on the North Shore are also causing problems for the expansion of a smelly regional...

Steven Stark lays out a scenario whereby all the other candidates, none of whom have wholehearted Republican support, cancel each other out, paving the way for Fred Thompson to receive the nomination at the convention. "When conventions deadlock, history teaches us that yesterday's disappointments become tomorrow's stars. If McCain can't stampede to the nomination and Super Tuesday doesn't produce another clear front-runner, we may not have heard the last of Fred..." I find the idea highly unlikely, though appealing...but stranger things have happened. Whoever would have thought the 2000 election wouldn't be decided for 36 days?

The European Union is set for financial deadlock - with Britain being blamed.Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg prime minister and current EU president, said he was fairly certain a deal will not be agreed at an EU summit this week. And Britain's £3 billion annual rebate will be the main sticking point, he added. Mr Juncker said that although farm payments will be discussed "a number of states ferociously stick to agreements we made in 2002". "We have to take a detailed look at what to do with the British rebate; 24 member states believe the rebate can't go on like this,"...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

<p>CONSIDER a radical idea: Enable a mere majority, not two-thirds, of the California Legislature to pass a budget.</p> <p>Then consider how completely un-radical it is. Majority rule is good enough for Congress to approve the federal budget. Majority rule is good enough for all but two other states.</p>

Thursday, January 30, 2003 11:58AM EST State House still deadlocked on speaker Members are split between 3 men By LYNN BONNER, AMY GARDNER, AND DAN KANE, STAFF WRITERS, Staff Writers At mid-morning, the state House remained deadlocked over the election of a new speaker of the House. With the House evenly divided 60 to 60, Republicans had to essentially filibuster because one of their members, Rep. Cary Allred of Burlington, wasn't there. That gave Democrats a temporary 1 vote advantage. But Republicans successfully used procedural moves to delay a vote on the speaker until Allred showed up an hour late....