Free Republic

Judging by his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, there are three questions about the U.S. attorneys mess that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wants answered: What did I know? When did I know it? And why did I fire those U.S. attorneys? As the day dragged on, it became clear — painfully clear to anyone who supports Gonzales — that the attorney general didn’t know the answers. Much of the time, he explained, he didn’t really know much at all — he was just doing what his senior staff recommended he do. Gonzales began the day with an apology....

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday he misspoke in his recent upbeat comments about security in Baghdad, where he traveled under heavy military protection. The Arizona senator, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, maintains progress has been made in the U.S.-led war in Iraq, according to comments to be aired on CBS' "60 Minutes." Excerpts were released on Friday. McCain said he regrets comments he made after a tour of Baghdad last Sunday, when he said he could see progress and the American people...

1. Bendable Concrete The nickname for Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is self-explanatory: bendable concrete. Specially coated microscopic polymer fibers slide past each other instead of snapping under stress, so ECC bends without breaking. The material has been used to create stretchable expansion joints for a Michigan bridge, and to allow the coupling beams in a 41-story tower in Yokohama to flex during Japan's frequent earthquakes. Short-term impact: LOW It could take years for ECC to be commonly used in construction, unless a major earthquake puts it in the spotlight. 2. PRAM (Phase-Change Random Access Memory)Flash memory, with no moving parts...

CLIFTON PARK -- The wife of U.S. Rep. John Sweeney called police last December to complain her husband was "knocking her around" during a late-night argument at the couple's home, according to a document obtained last week by the Times Union. The emergency call to a police dispatcher triggered a visit to the couple's residence by a state trooper from Clifton Park, who filed a domestic incident report after noting that the congressman had scratches on his face, the document states. No criminal charges were filed. Gaia M. Sweeney, 36, told a trooper that her husband had grabbed her by...

In an election in New Mexico's 1st Congressional District today, 10/16/06, Democrat challenger Patrica Madrid tops Republican incumbent Heather Wilson by 8 points, 53% to 45%, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KOB-TV Albuquerque. Since an identical SurveyUSA KOB-TV poll released 9/21/06, Madrid has gained 7 points and Wilson has lost 6 points. Wilson had led by 5, now trails by 8, a 13-point swing. Madrid leads by 16 points among women. The race is tied among men. Wilson gets 85% of Republican votes. Madrid gets 79% of Democrat votes. Independents favor Madrid 55% to 42%. In the...

It is time to take seriously the possibility that the Democrats will assume control of the House of Representatives in the elections next month. The breaking of the Mark Foley scandal on the last day of the congressional session-Who held on to the incriminating instant messages until this strategic delivery date?-put the Republican leadership on the defensive and changed the political landscape. Speaker Dennis Hastert was right just to warn Foley off communicating with former pages when informed in 2005 of the "over friendly" E-mails that the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald independently concluded were so innocuous as to...

Aided by public revulsion over an Internet-age sex scandal, Democrats enter the final month of the campaign well-positioned to challenge for control of Congress, while Republicans increasingly express concern about holding onto power. "We're going to need everything we have to make sure we're victorious," said Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who had long experience as a party strategist before his election to Congress. "I think we have the ability to do that but it depends on how well we perform," he added. Yet with four weeks and an unknown number of swings in political momentum remaining until the...

WASHINGTON - A senior House Republican said Wednesday that Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a page — now at the center of an intensifying federal investigation — should have been thoroughly pursued at the time. As conservatives debated whether House Speaker Dennis Hastert should resign over his handling of the complaint, the House majority whip, Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he would have handled it differently if he'd known about it. He was the acting majority leader when the complaint was raised. Although he did not criticize Hastert, his remarks to reporters in Springfield, Ill., were no endorsement of the...

The FBI has opened a "preliminary investigation" of disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley over the sexually explicit Internet messages he sent to congressional pages, all male high school students under the age of 18. Agents in the FBI's Cyber Division have already begun to examine the texts of some of the messages, according to a FBI spokesperson. Officials say the FBI and Department of Justice lawyers are trying to determine how many such e-mails were sent, how many different computers were used and whether any of the teenage victims will cooperate in the investigation. It's possible Foley could be prosecuted...

In yet another surprise in the race for Congressional District 22, there will be two Republican write-in candidates running against Democrat Nick Lampson and Libertarian Bob Smither. On Tuesday – the deadline for withdrawing or registering as a write-in – Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs traveled to Austin to file her papers, as expected. But unexpectedly, by the end of the day former Republican congressional candidate and Houston businessman Don Richardson did not ask the Texas Secretary of State’s office to remove his name as a write-in candidate. The move threatens to further confuse voters in what has already been...

Democratic former Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez ended a two-day period of political confusion Friday afternoon when he announced he will proceed with his campaign against seven-term Texas Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla in the unusual Nov. 7 primary in the state’s redrawn 23rd District. Rodriguez himself had caused the stir on Wednesday night when, according to local news reports, he told a gathering of AFL-CIO activists that he would drop his challenge to Republican Rep. Henry Bonilla — whose district lines were adjusted Aug. 4 by a federal court panel that also vacated the results of the district’s March 7 primary...

Rep. Joel Hefley is seriously considering running as a writein candidate to retain his seat rather than risk handing it over to Republican nominee Doug Lamborn. In meetings with national political consultants, Hefley and his supporters have come up with yard-sign designs and the key messages of a possible campaign, Republican Party activist Peggy Littleton said. Hefley, who has represented the 5th Congressional District for 20 years, has been the subject of a three-week push by high-level Republicans to take this nearly unheard-of step, Littleton said Monday. To be a write-in candidate, Hefley must file an affidavit of intention with...

The History of Successful Congressional Write-In Candidates. The Republican efforts to keep the CD-22 seat, recently vacated by former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, face long odds. In US history, only five times has a general election to Congress been won by a write-in candidate. US Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina won as a write-in in 1954, but was already widely known and popular figure, having previously served as Governor, as the Dixiecrat candidate for President in 1948, and was a leader of the South’s resistance to integration (Brown v. Board of Education having been decided earlier that...

BEIJING (AFP) - China said initial test results of its first AIDS vaccine showed it could protect people against the HIV virus. None of the participants in the clinical trial's first phase showed severe adverse reactions after 180 days and some showed immunity to the HIV-1 virus 15 days after receiving the vaccine, the State Food and Drug Administration said. "Initially, this indicates the vaccine is effective in stimulating the body's immunity," the administration said in a statement on its website. Researchers were still analysing the outcome of the initial trial before deciding whether further tests would be carried out,...

WASHINGTON — Standing outside a Starbucks in Sarasota, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris was berating a campaign aide as customers at outdoor tables sat watching. Two days earlier, she had left some books in the aide's car as he drove her to campaign events in Florida. That night, when she returned to Washington, she called the aide and told him to send the books to her right away. He sent them the next morning by FedEx, but Harris returned to Sarasota that day before the books arrived. "She kept saying 'I need those books. Why didn't you get them to me?'...

LONDON (Reuters) - It's unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning a special cloak, but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday. Harry Potter accomplished it with his magic cloak. H.G. Wells' Invisible Man swallowed a substance that made him transparent. But Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, believes the most plausible example is the Invisible Woman, one of the Marvel Comics superheroes in the "Fantastic Four." "She guides light around her using a force field in this cartoon. This is what could...

In the latest poll on the U.S. Senate race, Republican Katherine Harris remained far behind incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, indicating that her prospects of beating him are slim. In only three months, U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris has lost almost half of the Republicans who planned to vote for her, according to a new poll that suggests the congresswoman has little chance of unseating Sen. Bill Nelson. "This candidacy was an uphill battle to begin with. But it can't even climb now. It just loses ground," Brad Coker, director for Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., said Tuesday. Were the election...

A spacecraft taking off from a private West Texas spaceport being bankrolled and developed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos would take off vertically, but unlike NASA's space shuttle would also land vertically, according to an environmental study that offers a glimpse into the secretive plans. The craft would hit an altitude of about 325,000 feet — or almost 62 miles — before descending and restarting its engine for a "precision vertical powered landing on the landing pad" in sparsely populated Culberson County, about 125 miles east of El Paso. Those were among the plans detailed in a 229-page draft of...

AUSTIN — A federal judge ruled today that Republicans cannot replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the ballot for the 22nd Congressional District race. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, a Republican appointee, ruled that DeLay must appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as the GOP nominee for the congressional seat that DeLay abandoned last month. Sparks ruling was confirmed by Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Amber Moon. Details of Sparks ruling were not immediately available. Sparks ruling halts the process of replacing DeLay on the ballot, but the GOP is expected to appeal the decision to the 5th Circuit Court...

Actress Brooke Shields has a pretty impressive pedigree — hanging from her family tree are Catherine de Medici and Lucrezia Borgia, Charlemagne and El Cid, William the Conquerer and King Harold, vanquished by William at the Battle of Hastings. Shields also descends from five popes, a whole mess of early New England settlers, and the royal houses of virtually every European country. She counts renaissance pundit Niccolo Machiavelli and conquistador Hernando Cortes as ancestors. What is it about Brooke? Well, nothing — at least genealogically. Even without a documented connection to a notable forebear, experts say the odds are virtually...