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SACRAMENTO (AP) - A key supporter of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting measure announced plans Tuesday to form an independent, nonpartisan campaign supporting Proposition 77 - largely over fears the measure will fail if tied directly to Schwarzenegger's other Republican-backed ballot initiatives. Bill Mundell, a Southern California businessman who donated more than $300,000 to help qualify the redistricting measure for the ballot, said his new group would operate separately from the governor's California Recovery Team in support of the initiative. The move comes on the same day the California Recovery Team announced that Steve Poizner, a Silicon Valley billionaire and Republican...

Just do nothing, EU officials told (but be sure to fill in form to say you've done it) By Justin Stares in Brussels (Filed: 03/07/2005) "If in doubt, do nothing" might seem like common sense to most people, but in Brussels it has just become official policy. But even doing nothing will entail some paperwork. Conscious of its reputation for unnecessary meddling, the European Commission has issued staff with guidelines advising them that the status quo could be the best option. Under a heading "To regulate or not to regulate, that is the question", commission bureaucrats are told that when...

DURING THE MOST RECENT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, various antagonists repeatedly urged John Kerry to sign a Standard Form 180; by signing Form 180, Kerry would have released the entirety of his military records for public consumption. The senator stubbornly refused these pleas. (Actually he "stubbornly refused" in a uniquely Kerry-esque manner. While he kept promising to sign the form and get the information out there, he never quite managed to do so.) During Kerry's appearance on Meet the Press almost four months ago, Tim Russert once again broached the issue of Kerry signing a Form 180. As he did during the...

I may have been too quick and too generous in giving John Kerry the benefit of the doubt about the full and complete release of his military records, as reported by the Boston Globe on Tuesday. As Thomas Lipscomb details in today's Chicago Sun-Times, some questions and confusion remain. The exact details will most likely get sorted out in time, but just for the moment let's consider the one aspect of this story that we know for sure: Kerry released his records exclusively to The Boston Globe. This is an odd decision for someone seeking end speculation regarding the whole...

Sunday on "Meet the Press" John Kerry finally agreed to sign the famous Form 180, releasing his full military records. John O'Neill, co-author of Unfit for Command and many other critics of Sen. Kerry's war record have long called on him to release all records. No details were yet given on when or where Kerry would actually sign the long-sought-after release. Key excerpt from Sunday's "Meet the Press": MR. RUSSERT: Many people who’ve been criticizing you have said: Senator, if you would just do one thing and that is sign Form 180, which would allow historians and journalists complete access...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Some analysts and Democratic lawmakers predicted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's first budget would be his last without tax increases. After he and lawmakers cobbled together a plan built around borrowing, they predicted he would have to succumb to some sort of tax hike to wipe out a persistent gulf between California's revenues and spending. Not so anymore. Rising revenues, a single-digit deficit - seemingly small in contrast to the jaw-dropping $20 billion-plus gaps in past years - and the availability of $3.5 billion in voter-approved deficit bonds have cleared the way for Schwarzenegger to avoid the once-dreaded tax hike in the...

Until modern times, there existed no form of legitimacy in the Middle East outside of Islam. Rulers ruled in the name of God; assassins struck them down in the name of God. The assassinations of the early caliphs and the struggle between the Sunni rulers and the Assassins in the Middle Ages took precisely this form: each side claimed to act in accord with divine will, revealed in divine texts. Religion played a crucial role in the rationale of assassination, but it also played a crucial role in the rationale of government, law, and warfare—indeed, of everything. This invocation of...

I see calls for Kerry to release his DoD records by submitting a SF-180 all the time, but I never hear anything about Bush submitting one. Has he? If not, why not?

Help John Kerry do a ‘180’! It’s hard to believe that flip-flopper John Kerry would have trouble doing a “180” on any important issue, but he’s really struggling with this one. Here’s John Kerry’s problem: John Kerry’s fellow Vietnam Navy swift boat veterans say he is lying about his Vietnam experiences. They say Kerry’s lies got him enough purple heart medals to get him a quick trip home from Vietnam. How do they know John is lying? Because they were there -- at the very scenes John is lying about. Kamp Kerry and the DNC say Kerry’s fellow Vietnam...

Democrats form new caucus Aim is to reclaim moderate voters By Bill Cotterell DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004 A dozen Democrats in the House and six from the Senate - weary of seeing Republicans capture the flag on popular issues of faith, family and patriotism - formed a "mainstream caucus" Thursday to fight back. "There have been constant efforts in this legislative session to portray the Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals who want big government," said Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, the vice chairman of the group. "We believe in government, but we believe in efficient government -...

Cruel Joke or Medical Anomaly? Proponents of same-sex "marriage" owe us an answer by Tim Wilkins (part of this article may be unsuitable for young readers) The Physiology of Mankind "Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. This I tell ya, brother, you can't have one without the other." Neither can you have a marrriage without a man and a woman, unless you’re the Massacheutts Supreme Court–to whom I ask the following question. Why is one hundred percent of the homosexual population physiologically heterosexual? When I asked that question before a group of university...

Physicists have created blobs of gaseous plasma that can grow, replicate and communicate - fulfilling most of the traditional requirements for biological cells. Without inherited material they cannot be described as alive, but the researchers believe these curious spheres may offer a radical new explanation for how life began. Most biologists think living cells arose out of a complex and lengthy evolution of chemicals that took millions of years, beginning with simple molecules through amino acids, primitive proteins and finally forming an organised structure. But if Mircea Sanduloviciu and his colleagues at Cuza University in Romania are right, the theory...

New US Visa ‘Prostitute’ Query Shocks Saudis Mohammed Alkhereiji & Essam Al-Ghalib JEDDAH, 12 August 2003 — The new US non-immigrant visa application forms have been met with dismay in the Kingdom. Section 38 of the application, which is a new addition, asks whether the applicant has been involved in past criminal activities, in particular prostitution. “Have you ever been arrested or convicted for any offense or crime, even though the subject of a pardon, amnesty or other similar legal action? Have you ever unlawfully distributed or sold controlled substances, or been a prostitute or procurer for prostitutes?” the section...

Disease may change to an even deadlier formSars resembles the fatal flu virus of 1918 By Charles Arthur, Science Editor 06 April 2003 Reinhard Kurth, the head of the German government's Robert Koch Institute, was not exactly encouraging on Friday night. A vaccine for Sars could be developed, he said – but it would take three to five years. Experts worldwide are still struggling to identify precisely what is causing the illness, and how it is transmitted. Some can already see light at the end of the tunnel. "To me, the epidemic is almost certainly over," said Osman David Mansoor,...

What Not To Write On Your Security Clearance Formas reported in the silent-tristero list and RISKS Date: 01 Apr 88 1620 PSTFrom: Les Earnest <LES@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>Subject: The "previous account" referred to in RISKS-6.51 e-t-a-o-n-r-i Spy and the FBI Reading a book got me into early trouble--I had an FBI record by age twelve. This bizarre incident caused a problem much later when I needed a security clearance. I learned that I could obtain one only by concealing my sordid past. A friend named Bob and I read the book ``Secret and Urgent,'' by Fletcher Pratt [Blue Ribbon Books; Garden City, NY;...