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Outgoing Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has half a billion dollars worth of earmarks in the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bills. Inhofe, who is due to retire, has the second highest number of earmarks in the over four-thousand-page bill, only losing to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Inhofe, given that he is due to soon leave the Senate, faces little to no political pressure not to stuff the bill with earmarks.

President Biden’s approval rating slipped to 39 percent, according to a new poll, as his party seeks to hold on to power in Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The Reuters-Ipsos survey released late Monday found that the president’s approval rating dropped 1 point compared to polls conducted in mid-October and last week. Democrats are seeking to avoid a historical trend that typically sees the president’s party lose seats in Congress during the midterm elections, but Republicans appear poised to retake the majority in the House. The race for control of the Senate is highly competitive, and a few key races...

Two weeks ahead of the midterms, President Biden’s approval rating is clocking in at 43 percent, according to a new Morning Consult-Politico survey. Approval for the president has appeared to climb back from dramatic lows earlier this year, but still sits lower than his disapproval rating, with 55 percent disapproving. Eighty percent of Democrats and 34 percent of independents approve of Biden, while just 9 percent of Republicans do the same. Just 30 percent of registered voters think the country is headed in the right direction, while 70 percent things have “pretty seriously” gone off the wrong track

President Joe Biden’s job approval rating has slipped three points since Friday as Democrats in the House continue to pursue a range of far-left policy proposals, including the Equality Act, H.R. 1, and mass amnesty. Monday’s Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll showed the 78-year-old commander-in-chief garnering a 49 percent approval rating and 49 percent disapproval rating.

It’s not often that the confiscation crowd is nakedly honest, but when they think they’re just preaching to the choir, they might forget the heathens are listening, too. That was the case in Sunday’s New York Times column by Maureen Dowd when Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy blurted out the real goal of the gun grabbers: Getting weapons out of your hands means getting the vote out of your hands, too. “You’re not going to disenfranchise the NRA overnight,” Murphy told Dowd. “Disenfranchise.” This isn’t the usual, misty-eyed “if it will save one life” claptrap; and the speaker isn’t some unshaven...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's national standing has slipped to a new low after his victory on the historic health care overhaul, even in the face of growing signs of economic revival, according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll. The survey shows the political terrain growing rockier for Obama and congressional Democrats heading into midterm elections, boosting Republican hopes for a return to power this fall. Just 49 percent of people now approve of the job Obama's doing overall, and less than that — 44 percent — like the way he's handled health care and the economy. Last September, Obama...

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – Green groups and activists for the developing world accused rich nations of tiptoeing away from vows to seal a binding, far-reaching UN treaty on climate change in Copenhagen next month. Their bitter response came after European Union (EU) negotiators in Barcelona spelt out the likelihood that the much-trumpeted pact would be concluded in 2010, not at the December 7-18 meeting as planned. The talks, launched under a two-year "road map" in Bali, call for a global accord to curb emissions of heat-trapping carbon gases beyond 2012 and channel funds to poor countries most threatened by drought,...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Taking to the airwaves again to pitch his economic plan, President Barack Obama drew 40 million viewers for his latest news conference, down some 9 million from his first prime-time press encounter last month. Obama's question-and-answer session with reporters at the White House on Tuesday night capped a weeklong media blitz by the president and was carried by 11 U.S. TV networks, including the Big Four broadcast outlets, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, according to Nielsen Media Research. By comparison, the first prime-time news conference of his presidency, on February 9, averaged 49.5 million viewers across...

A publicly funded, world-class research institute that would develop answers to the threat posed by climate-changing greenhouse gases is being crafted in the Legislature, and is among the last-minute proposals expected to come before the Legislature in the closing days of this year's legislative session. The plan differs sharply from the original blueprint proposed by California's top utilities regulator, state Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey. Legislation encompassing the new, estimated $87 million-a-year plan is likely to be completed within a few days. At time when public attention is focused on California's $15.2 billion budget shortage, the proposed California Institute...

Ancient bamboo slips reveal tomb owner's identity On December 6 over 200 bamboo slips inscribed with ancient Chinese characters were discovered packed in a silk bag tucked into the Xiejiaqiao No.1 tomb in Hubei Province. The tomb is over 2,200 years old. The ancient documents were found nine days after archaeologists uncovered a 2.46-meter-long coffin wrapped in four tiers of embroidered silks. Amazingly, the shroud has remained intact underground after thousands of years. "Tombs from the Han Dynasty have been found in many places across the country, but it is rare to find such a well-preserved one. This will provide...

Just a few questions for freepers. I'm looking into buying a houseboat here in NYC, and I've never bought or owned a boat before, what do I need to know. I.E. Do I need to have insurance, or some kind of drivers licience or an equivalent of it?What are slip fee's usually for docking a boat at the marina's in New York?Is it hard to find a place to dock the boat?Is there laws about living on the boat?What kind of permits do I need, and how do I register ownership of the boat, is there an agency or something...

Mobs cheer British deaths as Basra slips out of control By Oliver Poole, Iraq Correspondent (Filed: 08/05/2006) It took the soldiers from 1 Bn Light Infantry all the night and most of yesterday to remove the wreckage of the Lynx helicopter that came down in Basra at the weekend, killing five British servicemen on board. As they used heavy lifting equipment to separate twisted metal from the debris of a house that the aircraft had crashed into, military experts were trying to establish whether the crash was caused by mechanical failure or hostile fire. British officers believe the most likely...

Another working man's boating disaster is on the way. The economy is good; but the high prices of marina fuel, marina slips, boat insurance, maintenance, is going to kill boating for a lot of working people starting this coming season. I see a repeat of the early 1990s, when I moved from the Boston area to Boston's south shore. I went to a local marina and asked to get on a waiting list for a boat slip, I knew it would take years to get in. I was laughed at, the marina operator told me he had a waiting list...

Europe slips on greenhouse targets By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent Emissions of greenhouse gases from the European Union increased in 2001 for the second year running. Cold weather boosted fuel consumption The European Environment Agency (EEA) estimates they were 1% greater than in 2000. The EU as a whole is committed to reducing emissions by 8% on their 1990 levels by between 2008 and 2012. On present trends, it appears to stand almost no chance of keeping its promise. The 8% cut is the commitment made by the EU under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, the...

Baghdad slips into lawlessness as its defences crumble By Andrew Buncombe in Baghdad 09 April 2003 The road into Baghdad was lined with thousands of people. Some were waving, some were frowning and some appeared unsure whether to wave or frown. Others were too busy looting even to look up. Baghdad is falling – of that there seems little doubt. Yesterday there was so much American armour pouring though the debris-strewn streets into the south, east and west of the city that it seems now only a matter of days, perhaps even hours, before Allied forces claim they have secured...

<p>DEFEATING an incumbent governor is akin to climbing Mt. Whitney, doable but difficult. Bill Simon isn't gaining altitude; he spent the past two weeks marching down into Death Valley.</p> <p>Simon's route to the governor's office is longer and steeper than it was when he startled the political world in March by snatching the Republican nomination away from the consensus favorite, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.</p>