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NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street surged higher Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrials up more than 400 points after a report that the federal government is considering creation of a repository for banks' bad debt. CNBC said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering creation of an entity like the Resolution Trust Corp. that was formed after the failure of savings and loan banks in the 1980s.

HOLLAND - The mayor of this small community 15 miles south of Temple said Tuesday the commission of which she is president is ready to take by the horns the Texas Department of Transportation and its controversial proposal, the Trans-Texas Corridor. Armed with an 80-page manual, “How to Fight the TTC,” and backed by two non-profits who say they protect private property rights, Holland mayor Mae Smith said rural Bell County is ready for a fight. “Bell County sits here like a stepchild and they’re cramming this corridor down our throats,” Ms. Smith said, regarding the commission’s relationship with TxDOT....

County commissioners reaffirmed their stance against the Trans-Texas Corridor, and they took another step toward keeping county government transparent when they met Tuesday. First up on the court's agenda, commissioners heard a presentation by Connie Fogle on behalf of the newly formed Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission. According to Fogle, the Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 391, requires state agencies to coordinate with local commissions to "ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level." "Critical in the code is the word 'coordinate,'" she said. "This does not mean the commission has to cooperate. The intent is to...

It has been roughly three months since residents of Huntsville and Walker County attended town hall meetings to voice their opinion on the Trans-Texas Corridor/I-69 project to the Texas Department of Transportation. There was no question then that there was strong opposition to the proposed 1,600-mile national highway, and it seems as though residents’ efforts to stop it has not lost any of its momentum. Several residents attended the Walker County Commissioners Court on Monday morning, expressing concerns about the project and encouraged the court to take another step of action. The five-member court agrees with the majority of the...

The first has long since lapsed. It permitted the president to "defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq." This threat came to an end with the destruction of Saddam Hussein's government. Instead, U.S. military intervention is authorized under the second prong of the 2002 resolution. This authorizes the president to "enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq." This has allowed the Bush administration to satisfy American law by obtaining a series of resolutions authorizing the United States to serve as the head of the multinational force in Iraq. But...

In the midst of inflation, funding difficulties and halted expansion projects, a budget error on the part of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may have exacerbated their challenges. "TxDOT does some mysterious accounting," said Rep. Chuck Hopson (D-Jacksonville). "They had close to $1 billion counted in their budget twice." "That was a serious error on our part and we have made changes to try to prevent that type of error from occurring again," said TxDOT Spokesman Chris Lippincott, adding that the amount added twice in their financial statement was unrelated to the $1.2 billion in federal rescissions, which are...

REFUGIO, Texas - With an abandoned Wild West-vintage town of storefronts slumbering just a block from old US 77, tiny Refugio is a place where myth and reality coexist in a ghostly silence. more stories like this Obama faces heat over aide's NAFTA remarks to Canadians Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination Canada says didn't misrepresent Obama over NAFTA McCain tags Dems on trade treaty NAFTA seen differently in Ohio, Texas And now this South Texas outpost is swept up in one of the more intriguing tests of myth vs. reality in today's political life: the battle over the so-called...

Resolution encourages U.S. 59 development El Campo City Council joined in the protest cries against the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor Monday night advocating an improved and expanded U.S. 59 instead. Possible economic impacts from the proposed TTC corridor caused concern with draft versions of the roadway limiting access, cutting through family farms and bypassing many cities completely.

The proposed Trans Texas Corridor did not find any fans, or any support, in Fort Bend County this week. At public meetings hosted by the Texas Department of Transportation in both Katy and Rosenberg, speaker after speaker, many in emotional tones, voiced their opposition to the proposed transportation corridor. No one spoke up in support of the proposal at either meeting. The Tuesday night session took place at Katy High School’s Performing Arts Center with over 200 residents in attendance. The evening before at the Rosenberg Civic and Convention Center, a similar crowd showed up to voice their opinions. In...

The Nacogdoches County commissioners court voted Tuesday to support numerous community members who have recently turned out in droves opposing the proposed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor by adopting a resolution against the project. The resolution is expected to be sent to the Texas Department of Transportation and to the governor's office. Precinct 4 Commissioner Tom Strickland said that it's apparent most people in Nacogdoches County approved of the original project — a standard Interstate roadway. But now most are opposed to the large TTC structure. 145th District Court Judge Campbell Cox II submitted a map that showed several oil and gas wells...

ROBSTOWN, Tex. — Leon Little’s farm here near Corpus Christi would not be seized for Texas’s proposed $184-billion-plus superhighway project for 5 or 10 years, if ever. But Mr. Little was alarmed enough to show up Wednesday night with hundreds of his South Texas coastal neighbors to do what the Texas Department of Transportation has been urging: “Go ahead, don’t hold back.� Don’t worry. Texans have gotten the message, swamping hearings and town meetings across the state to grill and often excoriate agency officials about a colossal traffic makeover known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, a public-private partnership unrivaled in the...

My wife and I recently decided to look through the myriad pictures, mementoes and papers we have gathered over our 46 years together. We found pictures of my father (who I barely remember since he passed when I was 15). Of course there are pictures of our 40+ vacations, many not labeled so they are nearly impossible to truly identify. There are too many memories to mention but one stood out. It is a pamphlet, given to me by my dad's brother in the early 60's. Now he was a Christian Scientist (as was my dad) and since it looked...

Grimes County commissioners and County Judge Betty Shiflett made sure they attended a TTC/I-69 meeting at the Walker County Fairgrounds last week, as residents previously demanded they take a stronger stance against the proposed route through Grimes County. Shiflett received a roaring applause from audience members with her speech that ended with the question, “What part of “no� do you not understand?� Shiflett added that Grimes County was not given an option for having a town meeting, just the environmental meeting. “Representative Lois Kolkhorst stole the show as she announced loud and clear that she was against TTC I-69,� said...

A so-called “NAFTA Superhighway� earned support from the city’s mayor and discussion among residents Monday during a public hearing on the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-69 project. TxDOT held a public hearing at the Brownsville Events Center Monday to explain the progress of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a future segment of Highway I-69, which will link the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border. After a short presentation, the floor was open for comments. Among the local politicians, college students and retirees at the hearing there was a wide range of opinion on the project. According to Mario Jorge, district engineer for...

S. Korea may seek 'U.N. resolution' for return of POWs in N. Korea SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea may seek help from the international community in pressing North Korea to return South Korean prisoners of war, the Defense Ministry said Saturday. North Korea has so far balked at South Korean requests to return POWs, saying it has never held any South Korean citizens against their will. "The government plans to refer the issue of POWs to the international community so it could influence North Korea to return the prisoners," the ministry said in a recently released book on...

My New Year's resolutions so far are: 1- To get a job. It's becoming series. 2- To go fishing and hunting this year. 3- If I don't get a job, concentrate on fishing and hunting, and building polygons with Magnetix. 4- Not to post vanities.

Lately, liberals (read: statists) have been giving me a hard time about my opposition to a gun control initiative that would limit gun purchases to one per month per owner. Since I a) don’t like the government telling me how many guns I can own, and b) just hate having liberals (read: statists) mad at me, I’ve come up with a solution. It takes the form of a New Year’s resolution sure to make everyone happy (myself especially). I hereby resolve to help the cause of gun control in America by purchasing only one gun per month in 2008. Naturally,...

Congressional Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have decided that it is time to condemn the horrific genocide of over a million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915. Genocide should be condemned, even if almost 100 years late, they say, cynically pretending this is a moral imperative. On its face, it seems a reasonable thing, an ethical stand, and one most Americans would support. That’s what they’re banking on. The modern Turkish state was founded in 1923, well after the Armenian massacres, and is very sensitive to being blamed for what it considers a crime that predates it....

Recently, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by US Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), passed a resolution that recognized the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 as genocide. While the circumstances surrounding the slaughter are disputed, the killings did occur. The larger questions this action presents could very well be as disturbing as the killings themselves. What was there to gain by issuing this non-binding resolution at this moment in time? And, did the issuance of the non-binding resolution usurp the Executive Branch’s authority to establish foreign policy? Article II of the United States Constitution...

GEP'S LOBBYING WAS A TURKEY October 13, 2007 -- FORMER Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, a registered lobbyist for Turkey, failed several months ago to get his successor as top House Democrat, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to withdraw her support from a long-pending resolution condemning alleged Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915. The Bush administration had urged Congress not to offend Turkey, a U.S. ally, but the measure passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday. Pelosi has pledged House action this year on the genocide resolution that in the past was blocked by Dennis Hastert, her Republican predecessor as speaker. In addition...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today expressed concern over the state of U.S.-Turkey relations, a day after Congress passed a symbolic measure that considers Turkey guilty of waging a genocide campaign against Armenians in World War I. Despite appeals from President Bush and other top U.S. officials to reject the measure, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday voted 27 to 21 in favor of a nonbinding resolution that characterized the mass killings of some 1.5 million Armenians, which began in 1915, as genocide. “This is a very sensitive subject for a close...

WASHINGTON: Turkey was making a final direct appeal to U.S. lawmakers to reject a resolution that would declare the World War I-era killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians an act of genocide. The House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee planned a vote Wednesday on the measure that is opposed by the Bush administration. On Tuesday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned of "serious troubles in the two countries' relations" if the measure is approved. Those threats were coming as Turkey's government was seeking parliamentary approval for a cross-border military operation to chase separatist Kurdish rebels who operate from bases in...

After San Francisco Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval introduced a resolution condemning the "defamatory language used by radio personality Michael Savage against immigrants,� Savage lashed back at the newly elected supervisor. "Illiberalism is not only a mental disorder it is fascist at its core,� the mega-popular talk show host told NewsMax.com. "This schmuck says my comments are 'symbolic of hatred and racism.' And they want the City to sue me for 'symbolism.' "There is no basis in American Law for such a suit but the larger point is the astonishing hate speech he is engaging in. To stop opinion by threatening legal...

NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY | An urban myth or reality? Super suspicious foes The government denies any such plans, but campaign against it continues. By MATT STEARNS McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON | If the government really has a secret plan for a 12-lane road-and-rail NAFTA Superhighway that will split the heartland from Mexico to Canada, it is playing with a great poker face. “There is absolutely no U.S. government plan for a NAFTA Superhighway of any sort,” said David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce. Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican and a powerful member of committees that would authorize and pay for...

(DOWNTOWN TULSA, Okla.) May 25 - Many people in the Hispanic community are not happy with a city council resolution that targets illegal immigrants. The resolution passed last night, and would require city police officers to check the immigration status of anyone arrested for a felony or misdemeanor. If they're found to be illegal, the resolution says police must notify immigration and customs enforcement within 24 hours. When someone is arrested they’re required to provide one of three things, a driver’s license, immigration papers or a green card. If this resolution becomes an ordinance and you don’t have either of...

More than just a "Few" Allies with us in Iraq.The Iraq Study Group Report SUPPORTS the Surge!The Difference between the Kosovo Vote and the Iraq VoteOur Military is more Well-Equipped than it was before the War.Why the Democrats are Wrong and have been Wrong on Retreat.The Iraq War is a Moral War.Our Military is Not Stretched too Thinly

I should have been ready for some ugly weekend reading; after all, even the LA Times titled an editorial “Do we really need a Gen. Pelosi? [March 12, 2007]” Yet I don’t regret having checked out the piece of dangerous, immoral trash titled “U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act, 2007” because it confirms that the self-anointed general and her fellow Democrats are just as expediently false about the Iraq War and the military today as they were when they campaigned during last year’s election. (That accusation, by the way, is not an opinion but a fact; for...

U.S., North Korea resolve bank dispute By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 19, 10:57 AM ET The United States and North Korea have resolved a dispute over $25 million in frozen North Korean funds, clearing the way for progress in dismantling the North's nuclear programs, U.S. officials said Monday. The U.S. nuclear envoy, Christopher Hill, said six-party talks, which resumed Monday, could now "move on to the next problem, of which there are many." Meanwhile, North Korea questioned Japan's qualifications to participate in the talks, ratcheting up recent tensions between the two sides. U.S. Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary...

The debate over the US military’s engagement on the Iraqi battlefield is raging on Capitol Hill with congressional Democrats attempting to defund the campaign through back-channel means. Simultaneously, reports are coming from a multitude of sources – both inside and outside of Iraq – that testify to the overwhelming success, to date, of President Bush’s “surge” initiative. Why are our elected officials wasting taxpayer dollars, allocated in the form of their salaries, to debate turning a victory into a defeat? Anti-war activists, the mainstream media and liberal Democrats like Harry Reid, David Obey and Ted “Hope Floats” Kennedy are no...

It is a well-known fact that overworked Irony, who’s got his fingerprints all over human behavior, will tell anyone who asks that ironically he has had not a thing to do with the ironies surrounding Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Moreover, to his firm denial, he’ll add (without a bit of prodding) an honest admission that says, “That stuff lies far beyond my powers.” So, with the idea in mind that some other force (perhaps Justice) is behind the ironic tsunami sweeping over Mrs. Clinton, let’s examine the torments affecting a person eminently deserving of unexpected comeuppances....

It’s official. The war in Iraq is now a “Civil War,” according to our vaunted Fourth Estate. In the Sunni Triangle especially, things have not been going well. Every day, dozens of Iraqis (yesterday it was over 100) are killed in bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and drive-by shootings. Every day U.S. casualties mount. If you believe the media, this is not and never was a “central front in the ‘Global War on Terror.’” It only provoked Islamic terrorists to take up arms in a country that was stable, if not exactly democratic. Saddam died ignominiously and probably should have been spared....

NEW YORK — A majority of Americans thinks the U.S. House of Representatives was wasting its time passing a nonbinding resolution on Iraq. Nearly half say if they were in Congress, they would vote to continue funding the war, while the other half says they would vote against funding it as a way to force a withdrawal from Iraq. These are just some of the findings from a new FOX News Poll. Opinion Dynamics Corp . conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from February 27 to February 28. The poll has a 3-point error...

America has just witnessed another amazing episode of hypocrisy from the left, specifically, the recent controversy over former Vice-President Al Gore’s extravagant usage of a private jet. But while breathtaking, given his status as supposed high priest of environmental awareness, Gore’s behavior is also entirely typical. As such, it is illustrative of the real arrogance and indifference driving American liberals. Issues of the day are never determined as a result of the concerns and needs of the citizens, but rather by their ability to be utilized to further accrue prestige (and thus, power) to the political left. Within this framework,...

With the news concentrating on only the evil in Iraq and none of the great amounts of good that is going on there as we build schools, hospitals and infrastructure, no wonder that the polls reflect a loss of appetite for winning this war against terrorism. No wonder there are so many who only think of bringing home all the troops. And no wonder that our populace stops at this point without realizing the consequences of this action. So many simply think that if we leave Iraq, the Middle East terrorists will be kind to us and leave us alone....

The question of whether the Democrats will be able to edit and amend the 2002 Iraq war resolution is one of those constitutional conundrums that comes along once every quarter millennium or so. The majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, has already expressed enthusiasm for the idea, as has Senator Clinton. On Sunday, the Senate's commander in chief, Carl Levin, slithered onto "Meet the Press" to announce that he's working with Senator Biden on a new mission statement for GIs in Iraq. Our troops, Mr. Levin said, will be "in a supporting role rather than a combat role in...

As al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Iraq have not been able to defeat the United States of America, Democrats and RINOs (Republicans in name only) are finally making the moves to do it themselves. The first step for the Democrats is the ‘non-binding’ vote of ‘no confidence’ in President Bush’s plan to add reinforcements into the Iraq arena, which was passed on Friday. The second is to defund US troops. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) who vocally denigrated US troops in 2006 when he said they were murdering Iraqis “in cold blood continues to call for an immediate cut and...

It is a shocker, but the AP actually let loose a kernel of truth about the situation in Iraq in one of their reports for a change. To wit, if Iraqi insurgents wait long enough, the USA will leave and they can come back on the scene with guns blazing and knives sharpened for decapitations. In the streets of Sadr City, the strategy of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite militia leader, is clear: Lie low, avoid a showdown and hope to emerge even stronger after the Americans leave. This must have been a mistake. The AP would never knowingly give opponents...

Joe DiPietro hilariously skewers most of the quandaries and vagaries of love, dating, and romance in his Off-Broadway play I Love You! You're Perfect! Now Change! (one of the longest-running Off-Broadway musicals in theater history). It's poignant title is taken from the habit of certain women (and some men) who deliriously see the object of their affection as perfect, or nearly so, and then within a few months, weeks, or days, begin demanding that they change so they'll really be perfect. I wish the Democrats' treatment of America's Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airman in the Middle East, in Iraq and...

OK, what’s next? Democrats lost their second attempt to debate the war in Iraq on the Senate floor. So, what’s next? Seems to me there’s only one answer: The White House didn’t want a non-binding resolution. So, let’s give them something binding, instead. Next priority for Democrats in Congress: Repeal the 2002 resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq. There are three reasons for doing so: We know Bush lied to Congress about WMD in order to get it passed. So it’s based on false pretenses. Bush has abused his authority ever since: not sending enough troops, not...

When Ted Kennedy’s 12-year-old namesake, Edward, got cancer in 1973 and had to have his leg amputated and then underwent arduous chemotherapy treatments, all under the onus of an unknown prognosis, the senator from Massachusetts told him to give up. It wasn’t worth the fight. Fold your tents, he said. You can’t win this battle. Just kidding. The senator knew what a hard fight his son faced and he fought like hell to encourage him. But clearly, what was good for Edward Jr. is not good for America! Ted Kennedy does not want our troops to prevail in Iraq. He...

WASHINGTON — Arizona’s congressional delegation split on party lines Friday in the vote over a non-binding resolution on a troop surge for Iraq. The symbolic resolution passed by a vote of 246-182, with six members of the House of Representatives not voting. The state’s Democratic House members — Gabrielle Giffords, Raul Grijialva, Ed Pastor and Harry Mitchell — voted for the resolution. Giffords represents the Eighth Congressional District, which includes Cochise County. The state’s Republican House members — Jeff Flake, Rick Renzi, John Shadegg and Trent Franks — voted against the resolution. On Thursday, Giffords spoke on the floor of...

WASHINGTON - Minnesota lawmakers Friday voted mostly along party lines on the U.S. House resolution on Iraq, but Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad was among 17 Republicans who joined with Democrats to express disapproval of President Bush's plan to increase troops.

Dear Mr Corker, It is with no little trepidation that I write this. I am very concerned about the comments you made on 2/15 about the president's diplomatic stance. If you want to follow polls and you vote for this travesty today, we here in east Tennessee will NEVER forget it. It is not improper to question the course of action in a military conflict; it is horribly improper to vote for anything that will cause our enemies to be emboldened and our troops to lose heart. The vote being offered up by the party of real estate benefactor Harry...

Right now, the enemy is actively seeking to murder more American and Iraqi soldiers and civilians. So, right now and for the immediate future, an exit from Iraq is a defeat in Iraq. Whatever one pretends to the contrary, one will never convince our enemies otherwise. Yes, it is all too human to wish the world were different; all too human to rationalize away one’s misguided actions. Being composed of frail, fallible human beings, even great assemblies such as this have succumbed to the temptation. We must not.

[Paragraph 1] REP. JOHN MURTHA (D-Pa.) has a message for anyone who spent the week following the House of Representatives' marathon debate on Iraq: You've been distracted by a sideshow. "We have to be careful that people don't think this is the vote," the 74-year-old congressman said of the House's 246-182 decision in favor of a resolution disapproving of President Bush's troop surge. "The real vote will come on the legislation we're putting together." That would be Mr. Murtha's plan to "stop the surge" and "force a redeployment" of U.S. forces from Iraq while ducking the responsibility that should come...

Are congressional 'non-binding' resolutions on the U.S. troop surge in Iraq a good use of legislative time and taxpayer money? Yes No Not Sure

Dems Push Anti-War Resolution, Stall Alternatives By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer February 13, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - As the U.S. House of Representatives begins debate on a non-binding resolution criticizing President Bush's troop "surge" policy for Iraq, some lawmakers are frustrated that the Congress is not considering bills that offer alternative approaches to the conflict. The House Rules Committee on Monday night issued a special order allowing for debate of a resolution submitted by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) that would express the House's disapproval of Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 soldiers to Iraq. The resolution is non-binding and...

"...Whether you agree with the President or whether you disagree with the President. Whether you support a commitment of more troops or you don't support a commitment of more troops. Once those troops are on the ground in the fight, we're going to give them the financial support, the logistical support the equipment that they need in order to protect themselves and pursue their mission effectively. You don't have to support the President to support this language. It's not language which is designed to say the President is right or the President is wrong. It's simply language which is designed...

Everyone here knows that the American people are frustrated about the lack of progress in Iraq. Everyone here shares that frustration. And as elected representatives of the people, everyone here feels pressure to give expression to that frustration. This is not a new challenge. It is one that every democracy in every long, difficult war has had to confront. Nearly a century and a half ago, at a site not far from here, an American president wrestled with just this problem. It was in the midst of a terrible war—a civil war—in which hundreds of thousands of Americans were fighting...