Free Republic

SACRAMENTO — If you thought this year at the Capitol was ugly, wait till next year. A year of unfulfilled expectations — during which lawmakers failed to produce hoped-for reform in health care, water storage and political behavior — will likely give way to legislative paralysis and partisan sniping in 2008 with lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger focused on digging out of a projected $14 billion budget hole. Forget The Year of Education Reform. The big ideas that Schwarzenegger wanted to chisel into his legacy are out for next year, political analysts predict, along with any other proposals that come...

"The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right? The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change. So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ''What we are so unhappy about?'' Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours...

SAN FRANCISCO - The Supreme Court's most recent term was a difficult one, Justice Stephen Breyer said Saturday, because he found himself on the losing end of several key cases. "I was in dissent quite a lot and I wasn't happy," Breyer said at the American Bar Association's annual meeting. Breyer was one of four liberal justices who dissented in cases involving abortion rights, school integration and pay discrimination. In the school case, in which the court struck down student assignment plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, his frustration bubbled over in a lengthy dissent that was twice as long...

Less than half of Americans -- 47% -- are satisfied with their jobs, according to a 2006 survey of 5,000 households released Friday by the Conference Board. The dissatisfaction is growing. Last year marked the first time a majority of respondents have said they're unhappy at work, according to the occasional survey from the private research organization. Twenty years ago, about 61% of workers were happy with their jobs. In 2005, 52% were satisfied. ...The happiest workers are those over 55, those who make more than $50,000 a year, those who put in more than 50 hours a week on...

16th of June DEFEATING DEPRESSION PART 1 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” Proverbs 12:25 Depression- from Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary Low spirits, gloominess, dejection, sadness, a decrease in force, or activity, or amount, a decrease in functional activity. An emotional condition either normal or pathological characterized by discouragement, a feeling of inadequacy, the act of humbling abasement as a depression of pride. Abasement, reduction, sinking, fall, humiliation, dejection, melancholy. Major Depression Facts Major depression is the No.1 psychological disorder in the western world.(1) It is growing in all age groups,...

Grassroots Democrats weighing in on several popular liberal web sites Thursday morning said that they were troubled by reports that al Qaeda's top operational terrorist, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, had been killed in a U.S. air strike. Reacting to the news, one visitor to the Daily Kos complained that using military force to kill Zarqawi "violates everything my America stands for." "It violates the rule of law and invokes the rule of force in what should be a criminal, not a military, matter." Another Daily Kos'er was irked because he thought the news would benefit President Bush: "No doubt Karl...

NOGALES, Ariz. ¡ª Rancher Sonny Clarke's job these days isn't just barreling around in his pickup truck to shore up aging dirt watering tanks. It's also fixing up fences knocked down by illegal immigrants and keeping an eye out for drug smugglers. That's one reason he agrees with a new federal decision to lower public land ranchers' grazing fees by 23 cents per animal-unit month. An animal-unit month is the amount of forage a cow and her calf eat in a month. The fee drop starts March 1, and stems from sharply higher gasoline prices. Critics say the fee decrease...

SACRAMENTO - Education spending would rise by $2.9 billion under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spending plan for the 2005-06 fiscal year, which covers a growing student population and a cost-of-living adjustment, but little more. Education spending is the largest share of the state's general fund, with Schwarzenegger proposing a $36.5 billion budget next year - an increase of $2.4 billion in state money over last year's budget. The increase works out to a $362 per pupil increase in state funds, for a total of $10,084 per student, including all state and federal sources. But while the budget calls for more money,...

Its time for the Rich Soros to take stage left and leave the country with Skerry.

MADRID (AP) - Five months after the worst terror attack in Spain's history, a parliamentary inquiry into the March 11 Madrid train bombings has little to show save a spreading discomfort among Spaniards about its members' jockeying for political gain. The inquiry - now recessed after a month of hearings - has drawn unflattering comparisons to the recently concluded U.S. 9/11 investigation, which was perceived here to have been far more comprehensive, forward-looking and bipartisan. "The comparison with the Sept. 11 commission is lacerating," the leading El Pais newspaper said. Francisco Jose Alcaraz, president of the Association of Victims of...

<p>More than six months before the start of an Assembly election campaign that she would eventually win, Nicole Parra could barely contain her glee after scoring an early endorsement from the influential United Farm Workers union.</p> <p>This week, Assembly Member Parra, now seven months into her first term, abstained from voting on the UFW's top priority bill for this legislative session.</p>