Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The committee chairman described it as a "food fight," an after-midnight bout as Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold tried to jimmy legislation to block federal money for Metro to build or extend the University and Uptown light rail lines. In the end, his effort failed. But the wrangling in the wee hours last week spotlighted the countless little-noticed struggles that take place across Capitol Hill as lawmakers try to steer taxpayers' dollars toward projects they favor – and away from projects they oppose. In this case, the stakes were potentially the future of Houston's light rail system and the...

HONOLULU (AP) — The Army on Thursday conducted its first flight test of a new weapon capable of traveling five times the speed of sound. The Army launched the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon from the military's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai at about 1:30 a.m. The weapon's "glide vehicle" reached Kwajalein Atoll — some 2,300 miles away — in less than half an hour, said Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Earlier this year, the Congressional Research Service said in a report the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon is part of the military's program to develop "prompt global strike" weapons that...

A sharp increase in Oklahoma's seismic activity has many wondering if underground drilling is responsible. On Nov. 5, a 5.6-magnitude tremor rattled Oklahoma — one of the strongest to ever hit the state. Oklahoma is typically seismically stable with about 50 small quakes a year. But in 2009, that number jumped up to more than 1,000. Some people say the increasingly common use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — the controversial practice of blasting underground rock formations with high-pressure water, sand, and chemicals to extract natural gas — may have put stress on fault lines. Can human activity really cause...

I work for a state district court here in Houston, and while I was outside the Harris County Civil Courthouse during my lunch break, I heard voices. I asked a friend of mine where those voices were coming from, and was informed that it was an "#OccupyHouston" protest outside the Criminal Justice Center. Expecting to find a crowd of thousands of angry "concerned youths", I scanned the area around the various courthouses in downtown Houston and spotted a knot of all of 30 protesters carrying signs and chanting such stirring invocations as "We are the 99%!" and other similarly high-minded...

About 110 people are gathered outside the Franklin Street post office today for Occupy Chapel Hill, billed by organizers as a day of resistance: and occupation. Bill Sward of Hillsborough held a simple pole with an index-card size sign that said “99 percent.” Sward lost his cabinet maker job two years ago at age 66 when the company’s work slowed. “The people who want there to be a point don’t get the point,” he said of the broadly anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street message. “This is about living, the quality of people’s lives. The government should be helping us live. Businesses...

The Washington Post is reporting that President Obama has assigned his staff with the task of designing a new set of government guarantees behind the U.S. mortgage market. Although as the Post also reports the “approach could even preserve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” That’s correct. Despite their role in driving the housing bubble and the already $160 billion in taxpayer losses, President Obama appears to be considering just putting the same failed system in place. Of course, we’ll be promised that it will all work better this time. Perhaps most offensive is that the Post reports that Obama “officials...

More than one in five Americans -- some 36.9 million -- are not fit to drive and would fail a driving test if asked to take one today, according to a new survey of the nation's drivers. Shocking as that may be, it's actually an improvement. Last year, 38 million received failing grades. Nationwide, the average score this year increased to 77.9% from 76.2% in 2010. According to GMAC Insurance, which conducted the survey, the results mean that a great number of people on the road still lack basic driving knowledge, an ignorance that leads to dangerous driving habits. For...

As seen on Fox News Channel's "Happening Now with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee" on January 28. FORMER U.N. AMBASSADOR JOHN BOLTON: I think what's clearly happened today [in Egypt] is that the Muslim Brotherhood, the radical Islamist party in Egypt has called it's supporters into the street. I don't think it was present on the first two or three days. I think after the Friday prayers the Brotherhood brought its people out. That's why the protests are even more extensive today. That constitutes no doubt about it a direct threat to the military government, and I think the failure...

House Republicans are proposing to follow their repeal of the national health care bill with billions in spending cuts, and most voters continue to favor a government that offers fewer services and lower taxes. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% of Likely Voters prefer a government with fewer services and lower taxes rather than a more active one with more services and higher taxes. This is virtually identical to last month and consistent with findings since September. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Since Rasmussen Reports began polling on the question in November 2006, support...

LAS VEGAS -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid branded Chinese President Hu Jintao a "dictator" on a local TV talk show on Tuesday night, a remark likely to make the start of Hu's first state visit to Washington, D.C., awkward for President Obama at a moment when the U.S. is trying to ease tensions with the Asian power. Reid, Obama's top legislative ally and Congress' most powerful Democrat, was responding to a question from "Face To Face" host Jon Ralston about the December compromise that extended the Bush-era tax cuts. The recently reelected Nevada senator veered off on a tangent...

The expected Republican upset at the voting booth today is bound to leave many inside the Beltway confused. What on earth do the American people want? After all, just two years ago they threw out the Republicans, and now they are throwing out the Democrats. What Americans want is a government that stays out of their pocketbooks and out of their private lives. Under Presidents Bush and Obama, we've gotten just the opposite: government program after government program created with our money to socially engineer the economy. Evidence of voters’ desires lies in the huge swing we are seeing in...

LANGHORNE, Pa. -- From the 1930s through the 1950s, Bucks County northeast of Philadelphia acquired a glamorous reputation as a retreat for Manhattan celebrities, including Oscar Hammerstein, who, according to local legend, was inspired by the view from his Doylestown front porch to write “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” the opening song of “Oklahoma!” Today the county, which is 93 percent of Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, figures in Republicans’ plans to sing that song on the morning of Nov. 3. The district has about 209,000 Democrats, 189,000 Republicans and 66,000 independents. The seat is held by a Democrat, Patrick Murphy,...

The British International School of New York offers spacious waterfront classrooms, small computers encased in rubber for small people who tend to drop them, and a pool for the once-a-week swimming classes required for all students. But there is nothing within its halls or on its Web site that indicates what differentiates British International from the teeming masses of expensive private schools in New York: It is run for profit. It is one of a small number of large for-profit schools that have opened recently or plan to open in New York City next year. While they are a speck...

Primary season is all but over. The 2010 candidate field is nearly set. The strongest and most vulnerable members of both parties know who they are. But the campaign didn’t have to look like this. It’s not just the big-picture inflection points — like the White House’s decision to pursue health care reform or the congressional GOP’s lock-step vote against the stimulus — that have determined the course of the election year. It was also the personal choices or screw-ups of individual candidates. As Labor Day launches the traditional start of the fall general election campaign, here’s POLITICO’s look back...

You can use a golf club for all kinds of non-golfy purposes -- walking stick, fishing rod, club, to name three. And now we can add to that list -- firestarter. Over the weekend, a golfer's routine swing in the rough at the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, Calif., struck a rock. Not so different from the way you play, right? Only this time, the impact caused a spark, and the spark set off a blaze that eventually covered 25 acres, according to the Steven Buck, General Manager of Shady Canyon Golf Course, and required the efforts of 150...

Left-hander Aroldis Chapman's major league debut Tuesday produced eye-popping numbers -- namely, a 103-mph fastball on the radar gun. Chapman, a Cuban defector, pitched one perfect inning for the Cincinnati Reds against the Milwaukee Brewers. Chapman joined the team at Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark after being recalled from Class AAA Louisville, where he had hit 105 mph on Friday. He entered the game in the eighth inning with the Reds up 8-3. Cincinnati eventually won 8-4 to increase their NL Central lead to seven games over the St. Louis Cardinals. By bringing up Chapman, 22, on Tuesday, the Reds made...

A $787 billion bailout. A health care “reform” law that could bury the entire nation in debt. And a trillion-dollar deficit that could repeat every year for the foreseeable future. All that spending means it’s time for the Bill. Bill Clinton, that is. The media and the left are so intent on saving the Obama presidency from its inner Jimmy Carter that they have brought back the one man they know could keep those evil conservatives at bay. The Big Dog himself has returned for yet another romp in the sun. Obama supporters called in their last, best hope –...

For the last 10 days, Brendan Millhouser has been questioning his sanity. The Chicago Blackhawks fan attended the team's annual fan convention on July 31 at the Hilton Chicago, which featured a display of trophies courtesy of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Among the hardware was the Prince of Wales Trophy, given to the winner of the NHL's Eastern Conference each season. Last season, that champion was the Philadelphia Flyers; so Millhouser was stunned and baffled to see the Washington Capitals' name etched on the trophy -- taking a photo with his Verizon Droid camera and Tweeting...

The conventional wisdom is Tom Lingenfelter will pull votes from Republican Mike Fitzpatrick. Two former interns for Congressman Patrick Murphy, now working for the state Democratic Party, have turned in nominating petitions to get a third-party candidate on the ballot. The interns - Brian Caplan of Northampton and Jessica Milinichik of Bristol Township - submitted 148 signatures on the notarized papers for Tom Lingenfelter, a Doylestown historian. The addition of Lingenfelter to the 8th District ballot is significant as his presence in a rematch between Murphy, a Democrat, and former Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican, could tilt the outcome. Back...

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- The Republican National Committee adopted a new schedule for the 2012 presidential primaries Friday, agreeing to a plan worked out in concert with Democrats and designed to delay the start of the campaign season. The proposal, drafted by a special RNC panel, gained approval from more than the necessary two-thirds of the committee's 168 members. Party leaders hailed the vote as a historic change in the presidential selection process, one that would avoid the development of a single national primary in which states choose to hold their nominating contests on the same day. The new schedule...