Free Republic

President Biden departed for his first foreign trip abroad on Wednesday morning, telling reporters that his goal will be to demonstrate to Russia and China that the alliance between the U.S. and Europe is strong. “Strengthening the alliance, making clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing for the United Kingdom when asked about the goal of the trip. Biden also said he would lay out a coronavirus vaccine strategy for the world and that cyberattacks would be a subject of his discussion with Russian...

Those traveling down Durham Drive may have noticed a new sign recently at 812 W. 28th St., the site of the former Holden Elementary and interim facility for HISD’s Energy Institute High School. The bright green sign for HISD’s new Arabic Immersion Magnet School (AIMS) is up, repairs and enhancements are underway on the campus and Principal Kate Adams is preparing to welcome the first batch of students this fall.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington is starting to dig deep in a $2.6 billion underground solution aimed at helping clean up the polluted Potomac River and the ailing Chesapeake Bay, the biggest U.S. estuary. In the U.S. capital's biggest public works project in more than 40 years, work started this fall to cut about 16 miles of tunnels to keep overflow sewage and stormwater from running into the Potomac. The project, designed to be finished in 2025, is seen by environmentalists as part of resolving the next great water pollution challenge facing the United States -- keeping fouled runoff out of...

George Soros’s latest attempt in new media is about two years behind the conservative trailblazers who changed the face of elections and political blogging. At 27, he is a full-time “tracker” for American Bridge 21st Century, a new Democratic organization that aims to record every handshake, every utterance by Republican candidates in 2011 and 2012, looking for gotcha moments that could derail political ambitions or provide fodder for television advertisements by liberal groups next year. [...] While the Democratic National Committee and Democratic candidates also have trackers, federal campaign laws prohibit the outside organizations from coordinating closely

CBS television network anchor Lesley Stahl is up in arms over Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood – known to Jews as Shiloach, and home to the City of David archaeological excavations. The reporter from the long-running Sunday evening “60 Minutes” program narrated a segment this week on the City of David, produced by Shachar Bar-On. During the segment, Stahl worked hard to cast aspersions on the validity of the archaeological findings in the City of David excavations and the unity of the city, and to delegitimize the presence of Jewish families in the area. The Jewish families are in houses bought by...

But Republican lawmakers portray the anticipated drama as foreshadowing the far bigger brawl of the 2012 presidential elections and a clash of visions with President Obama. A vote in the House to repeal the health-care overhaul would be among the GOP's top priorities. Republican leaders are also devising legislative maneuvers that might have a bigger impact, using appropriations bills and other tactics to try to undermine the administration's overhaul of health care and financial regulations and its plans to regulate greenhouse gases. GOP leaders also hope to trim spending, return unspent stimulus funds and restore sweeping tax cuts. Business groups...

RUSH: ...What I'm really focusing on here is that we have to understand we face a crossroads in the country. There are a lot of people who think we are on our last legs as a representative republic and that there has never been a greater opportunity than right now to contrast conservatism and what really works and what's gonna roll back this government and make it smaller and less intrusive. And we don't need to play around with RINOs and just get the Republicans in power, 'cause look where that got us in 2006. You need conservatives, people genuinely...

Is Arizona’s AIMS-TerraNova exam tricking parents and policymakers into thinking Arizona students are learning more than they are, or treating them to a pleasant surprise? We invite you to be the judge by reading more about the exam here: http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/AboutUs/ArticleView.aspx?id=1615

In June, the Goldwater Institute released A Test of Credibility. The essence of the argument: Arizona's Terra Nova exam produces unrealistically high scores (above the national average in every subject and grade level), when national tests show Arizona consistently below the national average. Both results can not be true. ADE recently issued a response filled with misconceptions. The Goldwater Institute will soon post a response to the ADE's critique on its website. If you'd like to get to the bottom of this issue in a hurry, however, simply look at Figure 1 below. Figure 1 compares Arizona's performance on the...

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2007 – The intentions of radical Islamic cleric Muqtada al-Sadr largely remain cloudy amid the shifting sands of power politics in the new Iraq, the commander of U.S. Central Command testified at a Congressional hearing today. “This is a guy that’s pretty difficult to understand for us,” Navy Adm. William J. Fallon told House Armed Services Committee members. “He holds, clearly, a large amount of influence within segments of the Iraqi population, but of late he has been absent.” Sadr is a Baghdad-based Shiite religious leader who commands the Mahdi Army militia, which has fought U.S....

Immigrant rights groups have a message for unsympathetic politicians around the country: Change your stand or risk getting voted out of office. A coalition of unions, Hispanic activists and religious groups is trying to convert the massive street protests of recent months into long-term political power by launching nationwide citizenship and voter registration drives Saturday in at least 19 states. The effort known as "Democracy Summer" aims to register a million new voters and convince many of the 8 million legal residents in this country to apply for citizenship. Such applications are already up nearly 20 percent over past year...

Lorena Solorio remembers her younger brother teasing her as a child, telling her he was better than she was. Born in the United States, he was a citizen. Brought to the country in the trunk of a car, she was not. ``I couldn't understand why we had to sneak in,'' she said Sunday. Now an employee of Catholic Charities of San Jose and a U.S. citizen, Solorio works with many children who are in the country illegally. As the national debate over illegal immigration continues to swirl, she said, she sees in those children the same confusion she felt as...

PAULSBORO, N.J. - It's bedtime and your toddler is having a meltdown, insisting on just one more episode of "Bob the Builder." Well, parents, now TV might help. Melanie the baby sitter, Star the puppet and Hush the goldfish are the stars of a new bedtime show on PBS KIDS Sprout. Since mid-April, the cast of "The Good Night Show" has been taping the second season in a Paulsboro studio, just outside Philadelphia. The show returns in July on KIDS Sprout, a cable and satellite network owned jointly by Comcast Corp., PBS, Sesame Workshop and HIT Entertainment. The network features...

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2006 – Raymond Harris hopes to do something no other performer is doing. The country music singer plans to spend five years on a tour to every possible military installation to support America's troops. America Supports You member Raymond Harris (center) poses with Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore and Army Col. Angela Manos-Sittnick at Fort Gillem, Ga., Dec. 14. A country music entertainer, Harris is in the midst of a five-year tour of military installations to support America's troops. Photo by Sherrye Ehrenberg   In the past 13 months, Harris has played to crowds at 70 military...

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2006 – Iraqi and coalition forces have boosted their presence in Baghdad in response to a surge in attacks against Iraqis that officials link to today's seating of the country's new parliament, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman told reporters. "Operation Scales of Justice" was launched to enhance security in Iraq's capital city as the parliament begins selecting the country's new government, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said today in Baghdad. The 275-member body met briefly today to begin the difficult process of electing a president, two vice presidents and a prime minister. Lynch called the seating of...

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (Army News Service, Jan. 26, 2006) – A new training device is being developed by Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait to reduce or eliminate injury or death suffered by troops involved in Humvee rollovers in theater. The device evolved from a comment by then-commander of U.S. Forces Command, Gen. Larry Ellis, following the deaths of three Soldiers Dec. 8, 2003, when their Stryker overturned into a canal, said Chief Warrant Officer Rik Cox, FORSCOM safety officer. HEAT based on `Dunker’ “The aviators train on the Dilbert Dunker, why can’t we do something like that for...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States formally introduced the final version of a draft Security Council resolution Thursday that would toughen U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban. U.S. mission spokesman Ben Chang said Washington hopes for a vote Friday on the resolution, which better defines groups and individuals who should fall under the sanctions regime. U.N. sanctions currently require all 191 U.N. member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against those "associated with" Osama bin Laden's terror network and the former Afghan rulers and to freeze their financial assets. Among other things, the draft would...

Terrorists win by just being there. It's the kind of sound-bite interviewers love. Short. Pithy. Seemingly profound. And, best of all, arresting: It paints terrorism as a frightening, irresistible force. There's no shortage of freshly minted "terrorism experts" spouting lines like this on the talk shows, but there's a problem. This view of terrorism is rubbish. Fact is, terrorists rarely win. True, they succeed at killing people -- murdering innocents, destroying property and creating misery -- but that's not their intended goal. Terrorism by definition is violence with a political purpose. And terrorists are terrorists not by choice, but by...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - With the spin of a numbered wheel, an Afghan child might land in an ambush by turbaned gunmen. Another turn could lead a young player to the safety of a health clinic or classroom. They are all scenarios 10- to 14-year-olds must confront in The Road to Peace, a colorful new board game unveiled Thursday by the United Nations in an effort to educate local youngsters about Afghanistan's troubled past and its hopes for the future. Some 10,000 copies of the game are being handed out nationwide to war-affected children, former child soldiers and refugee families,...