Free Republic

MUSCATINE, Iowa — At her home on Tom Sawyer Road here the other night, Bonnie Adkins agreed to begin spreading the word that President Obama’s embattled health care plan needed help. In Des Moines, Pat Walters made telephone calls to Democrats to rally support for the Obama health care plan. Ms. Adkins, who for the past two years devoted hundreds of hours helping Mr. Obama get to the White House, hosted a potluck supper that was advertised to Democrats in this eastern Iowa town along the Mississippi River. People were invited to bring a favorite salad or dessert — and...

The Obama administration has failed to name an envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism around the world as mandated by US law since the previous ambassador was relieved of his duties at the start of the president's term more than six months ago, officials said Thursday. The failure to name a new envoy for the post raises questions about the importance the new administration attaches to the fight against anti-Semitism, said Rafael Medoff, director of the Washington DC-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. "Foot-dragging on the selection sends a message that anti-Semitism is not of great importance to...

Yes, President Einstein should be held to his same standards for GM. Anybody with an Economics 101 level knows the Stimulus bill is a failed plan. Combine that with the ‘Green’ legislation and all the other ways Democrats punish achievers, and America will have a Politically Made Disaster, easily predictable, Politically Made Disaster by a Democrat Congress and the media President Øbama. Increasing taxes will actually decrease economic activity, which will result in less federal tax revenues collected. Mix that with the enormous spending bills Congress is writing into law and the eventual outcome is easily predictable, a very unbalanced...

Police Arrest "Insane" Man Who Demanded Commercial Jet Fly To Vienna (CBS/AP) A passenger demanded that a Moscow-bound flight change course and fly to Vienna but the attempted hijacking was thwarted. Russian news media say the hijacker — described in one report as having a history of mental illness — was overpowered by other passengers. The ITAR-Tass news agency quotes a spokesman for Sky Express airline saying that a passenger demanded the plane change course about 20 minutes before it was due to land in Moscow. The incident occurred while the plane with 130 people on board was en route...

(IsraelNN.com) Boris Johnson defeated Ken Livingstone, who was running for a third term of mayor and won wide support from the city's growing Muslim community. Johnson, a member of the Conservative party, was backed by 53.2 percent of the voters. Livingstone frequently has collided with Jewish community in London, previously accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and once refused to apologize for comparing a Jewish reporter with a Nazi concentration camp guard. Johnson has been more favorable towards Israel and opposed last year's movement by academics to boycott the Jewish state

The Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives has failed to overturn the US president's veto of a war-funding bill that would have set a timetable for withdrawing US forces from Iraq. By a vote of 222-203 on Wednesday, the house fell far short of the two-thirds support needed to override George Bush's veto.

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday said his administration will sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it fails to act more quickly on California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Schwarzenegger said he called EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on Wednesday and told him his agency was moving too slowly on California's 2005 request for a waiver to the federal Clean Air Act. The waiver, if granted by the EPA, would allow California to more aggressively regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants. “If we don't see quick action from the government, we will sue the U.S. EPA,” Schwarzenegger...

Sen. Clinton fails to report charity WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's office has amended her Senate financial disclosure reports to include her family's $5.16 million charity. The reports were amended late Monday after receiving inquiries from The Washington Post. The newspaper said Clinton has failed to report the charity five times since it was established in 2001. A Clinton's spokesman said the senator's failure to report the existence of the family foundation was an oversight, the Post said. Clinton serves as treasurer and secretary of the family foundation, which was seeded with $5.16 million of...

Pope's apology fails to halt Islamic uproar By Michael Hirst and Nick Pisa in Rome (Filed: 17/09/2006) Muslims leaders around the world demanded a more personal apology from the Pope last night after the Vatican said he "sincerely regrets" the offence caused by remarks which they claimed had insulted Islam. Senior Vatican officials tried to damp down fury over the speech in which the Pope quoted from a medieval text saying that the Prophet Mohammed had brought the world "only evil and inhuman" things. Activists from the Daughters of Faith protest against the Pope Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary...

Bush doctrine on terror fails to convince public · Poll shows rising anxiety in both US and Europe· Iran now seen as country posing the gravest threat Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor Thursday September 7, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The Bush administration's claim that Americans are now safer from terrorism has been undermined by a poll yesterday showing a significant jump in the number of Americans and Europeans concerned about Islamist extremism and other global threats. The survey, published days before the fifth anniversary of 9/11, is at odds with a Bush administration document on terrorism on Tuesday that insisted: "America...

Just when you thought California's 20-year prison construction boom was over, here comes another election season. Gubernatorial candidates Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phil Angelides are falling over each other to launch a new era of prison construction. This is bipartisan, equal opportunity pandering and fear mongering, with an obvious impetus. The prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), has $10 million to spend to help or defeat a candidate for governor. How obvious is this link? Schwarzenegger recently told The Bee editorial board that Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez, a card-carrying member of the CCPOA, would be handling his prison...

Enormous new dam fails in Brazil 10 July 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. GIANT cracks have opened in one of the world's tallest dams, just months after completion. The cracks appeared after a tunnel collapsed on 20 June beneath the 200-metre-high Campos Novos dam in southern Brazil, and the reservoir rapidly emptied. At one point, 4000 cubic metres of water (more than enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool) were rushing downstream every second towards a second dam on the river Canoas. "If this had happened during the rainy season, and the two reservoirs had been full, water would...

Happiness lies in misery as UN war on hunger fails to progress By David Blair in Dar-es-Salaam (Filed: 17/05/2006) Wrapped in the tatty sheets of a hospital bed, Happiness Kitomari raised her emaciated arms and clasped her distraught mother with tiny fingers. She stared with bewildered eyes at the tangled drip-feed keeping her alive. Emergency treatment will probably save this malnourished young girl from the slums of Tanzania's capital, Dar-es-Salaam. But her mother, Anna, must struggle every day to feed her children. "Life is very hard and sometimes I want to die," said Mrs Kitomari. "It is better to die...

The International Space Station (ISS) failed to reach a higher orbit Wednesday during a test of two long-dormant engines mounted near a Russian-built docking port. Russian ISS flight controllers hoped to test two engines along the aft end of the station's Zvezda service module during a 14-second burn planned for 3:49 p.m. EDT (1949 GMT), NASA officials said. The engines have not been fired since Zvezda docked at the ISS in July 2000, they added. "We were all set for it but the engines never fired," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias told SPACE.com. The two dormant Zvezda engines are located at...

Rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight failed to appear at a court-ordered debtor hearing Saturday, triggering legal actions which a judge had warned would place his Death Row Records in receivership. In addition, lawyers suing him plan to ask that he be held in contempt and jailed until he participates in the debtor hearing that requires him to disclose all of his assets. At issue is an unpaid judgment against Knight for $107 million that was awarded to Lydia Harris, the former Knight associate who claimed she helped start the rap record empire with her former husband, Michael Harris. Harris,...

WASHINGTON - A key provision in the Senate's main immigration bill would create a "gold card" for the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, allowing them to live and work legally in the United States -- but without offering them a clear path to citizenship. The legislation, which calls for dramatic increases in the number of legal immigrants, is meant to placate those who want illegal immigrants sent back to their home countries and those who want them to become legal, permanent residents. The problem is both sides oppose it. "It says, 'We want your labor. Yes we think you're...

Bush Fails To Prevent East Coast Blizzard Minorities Hit Hardest by Brian Williams NBC 02/12/06 As President Bush and his staff cowered in the White House, the snow continued to pile up on the many poor and African American victims who could not afford to get out of town or to safety in Florida. Crucial supplies of blankets, hot cocoa, popcorn and dark rum, so essential to surviving the stress of any major snowstorm, lay in stores undelivered. "Where is the government? I need my sidewalk shoveled so I can get out to buy my danged lottery tickets!" said one...

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's failure to wake up from a coma nine days after suffering a massive stroke does not bode well for his recovery, some doctors said Friday. With extensive brain damage looking likely, Israelis have begun to look ahead to life without Sharon. Sharon, 77, remained in "critical but stable" condition Friday, showing no change from the previous day, said Hadassah Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer. Israel's Channel 10 TV and Army Radio cited Hadassah officials as saying they were worried Sharon has shown no signs of awakening, even though doctors have begun weaning him off heavy...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Victor Edward Willis, the original policeman in the 1970s music group the Village People, was being sought on arrest warrants after failing to show up for a sentencing in a drug case Thursday, authorities said. Willis, who co-wrote disco hits such as "Macho Man" and "In the Navy" before leaving the Village People in the late 1970s, was arrested July 11 after a Daly City police officer found a gun and what was believed to be crack cocaine in his car after a traffic stop. Willis was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday morning in San Mateo...

SACRAMENTO - It's like a credit card bill that California lawmakers can't seem to get under control - the state budget deficit born of a perpetual imbalance between what the state spends and what it takes in. The gap stood at $17 billion last year, had been projected to be almost $9 billion this year and is likely to be about $5 billion in the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Despite a balanced-budget agreement struck this week, economists and fiscal analysts warn that future shortfalls are likely to continue until a long-term fix is found. "We haven't come to grips with the...