Free Republic

If elected governor, Republican Meg Whitman plans to add California to the list of states suing to overturn the new federal health care law. Or maybe she won't. The most recent statements by Whitman's campaign are much more equivocal than the position she took in March, during the Republican primary. When supporters at a campaign event asked her whether she would "force (her) attorney general" to join the health care suit, she said yes. Questioned by reporters later that day, Whitman acknowledged that a governor couldn't order the independently elected attorney general to sue, but said she would "strongly encourage"...

Republicans had been opposing President Obama's plan to have the next Census Bureau director report to both the commerce secretary and White House senior officials. The White House this week suggested a subtle shift in its plans for overseeing the next year's national head count following Republican criticisms over past administration comments. "The president

Straw softens tone as he offers Hamas financial lifeline By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 20/04/2006) Britain wants to have "normal relations" with Hamas and is seeking means of unfreezing millions of pounds worth of aid to Palestinians, Jack Straw said yesterday, in a striking softening of tone. Two days after a Palestinian suicide bombing killed nine people in Tel Aviv, the Foreign Secretary appeared to be moving away from America's policy of isolating the new Hamas-led Palestinian government and starving it of funds. Mr Straw wants normal: relations with Hamas He also appeared to adopt a more indulgent...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Lacking Republican support, a proposed $103 billion state budget failed in the Senate by three votes Wednesday as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continued to campaign for his own spending plan. The largely symbolic vote came as Schwarzenegger prodded San Diego shoppers and diners to keep pressure on lawmakers and he continued to blame the three week impasse on unions and special interests linked to Democrats. But the governor curbed his harsh partisan rhetoric that peaked over the weekend. In the Capitol, Democrats attempted to shift responsibility for the holdup to the governor and his fellow Republicans by voting...

JERUSALEM, Aug. 16 Israel has relented on one of its core demands on the Palestinian leadership, backing away for now from its insistence that the men it regards as wanted terrorists be held under lock and key in Palestinian prisons, Israeli and Palestinian officials said today. Instead, Israel has accepted in principle the assurances of Muhammad Dahlan, the Palestinian minister of security, that he will monitor the wanted men in the cities where they now live and prevent them from mounting attacks, the officials said. That would represent a less aggressive strategy than the immediate "dismantlement" of terrorist infrastructure that...

With U.S.-led forces reaching the outskirts of Baghdad, the Kremlin is softening its staunch opposition to the war in what analysts say is an indication Moscow wants to mend frayed relations with Washington and, perhaps, win a spot for Russian companies in postwar Iraq. "For political and economic considerations, Russia is not interested in the defeat of the United States," President Vladimir Putin told reporters in the provincial city of Tambov on Wednesday. Putin did not elaborate, but he continued to toe the softer line Thursday, saying Russia will still cooperate with the United States despite differences over Iraq. "In...