Free Republic

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday he will not be making monthly public appearances before the Board of Supervisors -- as voters recently called on him to do -- and instead plans to take the discussions known as "question time" on the road. In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, Newsom said dialogues inside City Hall too often amount to "political theater" and that beginning in January he will embark on a series of town hall-style community meetings around the city rather than holding question time under the dome. Though Prop. I, which passed with 56 percent of...

Three Democratic congressmen who are about to take important leadership posts said on Sunday they plan to pass popular legislation blocked by Republicans but would refrain from pushing some of the most controversial elements on the liberal agenda. The three, appearing on Fox News Sunday, are among the most liberal Democrats who will take over key committee chairmanships when Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives in January. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who will take over the U.S. House of Representatives committee that covers banking and other financial institutions, mentioned raising the minimum wage, providing cheaper drug coverage...

Having traveled in the Soviet Union several times, I got used to reading the headlines in Pravda, Novosti, etc. The wording used by apparatchiks in those days of Stalinist repression are now being echoed by the Democratic National Committee on its website. The DNC is frothing at the mouth in the hopes of stifling freedom of expression -- a TV show, namely ABC's "The Path To 911." What's really frightening is that the Democratic Senate leadership has threatened to revoke ABC's broadcast license if it doesn't censor the 911 drama. Here is the DNC in its own words -- proving...

The Berkeley City Council referred to the Landmarks Preservation Commission a compromise proposal by Mayor Tom Bates to revise the city's landmarks preservation ordinance. The mayor was attempting to steer a middle course between property owners and developers, who find the landmarks ordinance unfairly burdensome, and preservationists, who regard the ordinance as their last bulwark against the destruction of the city's architectural heritage.Among the mayor's suggestions:• Create clear timelines to bring the ordinance into conformity with the state Permit Streamlining Act.• Increase the time period in which a citizen could initiate the landmarking process from 14 to 30 days, and reduce the...

he San Francisco Board of Education faces big challenges: dealing with perennial budget shortfalls, lagging test scores for African American students, crafting a new school-assignment plan, hiring a new superintendent and trying to reverse a decline in enrollment. But at its last meeting on May 23, the big issue was whether to boot Junior ROTC from the city's public schools in protest of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy outlawing openly gay service members. An angry crowd turned out to denounce the proposal, which will be voted on this summer. To Faith Luber, it was yet another distraction from...

Now that Air America's chased away nearly every potential corporate advertiser, isn't it fitting the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) has emerged as a key sponsorship source? Don't take the Radio Equalizer's word for it, here it is, straight from Pravda (or Revolution, as the party's publication is now called, formerly Revolutionary Worker): Revolution talked with Debra Sweet, National Coordinator of World Can’t Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime, about building for November 2, National Day of Resistance. Revolution: We’ve been hearing of significant new developments in building for Nov. 2, such as important new signatories to the Call, ads on the...

On January 18 Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, told a placard-waving anti-war crowd: "The greatest patriots of this country are here today...The president said it'd be a cold day in Washington before this country turns against this war, but it is a cold day in Washington and here we are." Apart from Conyers nasty insinuation people who disagree with his leftwing views about war against the genocidal Saddam are not patriotic, what can we deduce from his presence? Well, for one, Rep. does not like America and prefers the company of totalitarians to that of genuine democrats. And how...

BEIJING (AP) - China's Communist Party, which has increasingly embraced capitalist economics while fortifying its authoritarian rule, will hold a four-day meeting of its Central Committee starting next week, the government said Tuesday. "China's reform has entered a critical stage, so the Communist Party should adapt to the new situation in order to push forward the process of building a well-off society," Chinese Central Television said, quoting from a document to be approved at the Sept. 16-19 meeting. It also said the document targeted the party's need to "improve governance of the country and coordinate the development of material civilization."...

Academic sentenced for aiding Pyongyang Samuel Len/IHT Tuesday, March 30, 2004 SEOUL A German citizen of South Korean descent who returned to his native land last year after 36 years of exile in Germany was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in jail on charges of working for North Korea. The defendant, Song Du Yul, is a sociology professor at Munster University. He left South Korea in 1967. Song, 59, had been outspoken in his criticism of the regime of the South Korean military dictator Park Chung Hee during some of the darkest moments of the cold war. The focus...

BEIJING - Six of the seven men who hold the most powerful positions in China's Communist Party - including President Jiang Zemin - stepped down from power on Thursday, retiring to pave the way for a new generation of Chinese leaders. The only man who will keep his post on the Politburo's Standing Committee was Hu Jintao, 59, who is expected to take over from Jiang as the party chief and in March as president. Jiang, legislative leader Li Peng and Premier Zhu Rongji, who ranked No. 1 through 3 in the party hierarchy, were not on a new list...

<p>In theory, the seven members of the supreme Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) of the Chinese Communist Party will be chosen by the 2010 delegates who are attending Friday's 16th party Congress.</p> <p>However, in long-standing party tradition, the participants of the week-long congress will just endorse the decisions of Jiang and powerful out-going leaders such as Premier Zhu Rongji and National People's Congress (NPC) Chairman Li Peng.</p>

FBI agents have questioned nearly all 37 members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and have asked many if they would be willing to submit to lie detector tests as part of a broad investigation into leaks of classified information related to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to officials involved in the inquiry. Most of the lawmakers have told the FBI they would refuse a polygraph, citing the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government and the unreliability of the exam, those involved in the inquiry said. Although the chairmen of the intelligence committees,...