Free Republic

Nancy McEldowney, Kamala’s national security adviser, is leaving the vice-president’s office to attend to some personal matters, according to an internal memo. After serving in her role for more than a year, she’s planning her exit. McEldowney hasn’t announced her last day on the job but she said she’s ‘not rushing out the door.’She said that she is stepping down to ‘focus on some pressing personal matters.’ Is that a nuanced version of spending more time with one’s family? It sounds like that but maybe it’s something more. For those keeping track at home, she is staffer number ten to...

This Quentin Tarantino movie of a Raiders training camp just got a whole lot more NC-17. Randy Hanson, the assistant coach who somehow suffered a fractured jaw in an altercation with head coach Tom Cable, has hired a lawyer and is pressing charges against coach Cable for allegedly punching him. If that's not enough, sources say Hanson is also alleging that Tom Cable choked him while screaming, "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!" Look at the bright side, Raider fans. At least the chair and the cabinet aren't planning on pressing any charges. The National Football...

JERUSALEM – A Jewish Knesset member yesterday proposed a bill to ban adults from "pressing" minors into becoming more involved in religion and Jewish tradition. Ophir Paz-Pines, from Israel's Labor party, is seeking to pass legislation to prevent adults from attempting to increase or decrease the religious involvement of anyone under the age of 18. Labor is the main coalition partner in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government. According to Pines' bill, influencing the religious involvement of children can "cause the break-up of a family and cause damage to minors." The bill was seen as targeting religious youth groups and...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2006 -- A group of American seamstresses is working to apply an old-fashioned skill -- sewing -- to help today’s wounded veterans. The nonprofit group “Sew Much Comfort” includes more than 2,000 people who sew specially made clothing for wounded servicemembers, who often find clothing off the rack doesn’t accommodate a variety of medical devices. Sew Much Comfort is a member of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, which highlights grassroots and corporate efforts to support U.S. troops and their families. Several of the groups set up tables at the end of the America Supports...

WASHINGTON - House Republican leaders, giving in to political reality, plan a vote to raise the $5.15 minimum wage before leaving Washington this weekend for a five-week recess. "Whether people like it or not, we need to go ahead with it," said Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who supports the idea. "There's a general agreement among Republicans (opposing the raise) that `maybe we don't like it much, but we need to move forward with it just for political reasons.'" The No. 3 House GOP leader, Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, said the plan was to have a vote before week's...

U.S. President George Bush Friday said the United States is pressing its search for terror leader Osama bin Laden. At a Chicago news conference, Bush called "incorrect" a report this week that the CIA had disbanded the unit set up to track the Saudi dissident. "We've got a lot of assets looking for Osama bin Laden," Bush said. "We're going to stay on the offense as long as I'm your president. (Letting up would make) the world more dangerous. ... We'll bring people to justice," the U.S. president said.

VIENNA, Austria - Homeowners hoping for a break on high winter heating bills got no reassurance Saturday from OPEC (news - web sites), whose members arriving for a key meeting expressed little alarm at prices hovering around the $50 a barrel mark. Most member countries see no need to change oil output and none is arguing for cuts despite concerns about the high prices and an oversupply, said Sheik Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Kuwait's oil minister and the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "Almost all the members support the idea to keep the same ceiling of our...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...