Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday easily rejected the inclusion of a government-run "public" insurance option, backed by President Barack Obama, in its sweeping healthcare reform bill. The panel voted 16-8 against a government-run insurance plan in the first of several battles expected in Congress over the issue, one of the most contentious in the raging U.S. debate over healthcare reform.

“I think President Obama addressed that directly and said that he didn’t feel that was the case,” Pawlenty said His comments came when asked about former President Jimmy Carter's and former Vice President Walter Mondale's arguments that Obama’s race is a factor in the animus against him. "I don't like saying it," Mondale told the online news outlet Politico Thursday. "I don't want to pick a person, say, he's a racist, but I do think the way they're piling on Obama, the harshness, you kind of feel it.” “I think people that are guilty of that kind of personal attack...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday rejected calls, including by some fellow Democrats, for a truth commission to investigate Bush-era terrorism policies, saying nothing would be gained from it.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California lawmakers should reject Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to sell $6 billion in revenue anticipation warrants to raise cash for the state government as it faces a $21.3 billion budget gap, the state's budget watchdog office said on Thursday. The California Legislative Analyst's office said in a report that Schwarzenegger's plan for the short-term debt would be a "terrible precedent and a poor fiscal policy," and "presents serious legal concerns."

U.S. envoys met with Pakistani leaders on Tuesday to ensure that the $7.5 billion that President Obama plans to send their way over the next five years will be used to achieve common goals in the fight against extremism. But according to a Pakistani newspaper, regional envoy Richard Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen came up empty-handed and received a "rude shock" when a proposal for joint operations against al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the volatile tribal regions was rejected.

BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration notified legislative leaders Tuesday that it plans to reject some federal health-care dollars for the poor and uninsured, marking the second time the governor has opposed taking a portion of the economic stimulus package. Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said accepting the new federal financing would require the state to put up matching money that it doesn't have and could create unaffordable obligations in the years ahead.

Washington, DC -- During the Bush administration, President Bush displayed his concern for both mother and unborn child by putting an administrative rule in place allowing states to cover unborn children in the SCHIP program. On Thursday, the Senate rejected an amendment to make that administrative rule national law. Sen. Orrin Hatch sponsored the amendment to codify the Unborn Child Rule and the Senate rejected his motion on a 59 to 39 vote.

Libertarians and fiscal conservatives will probably be happy about the news that the House has rejected the bailout bill. Maybe there is hope for the free market after all. However, I'm not so optimistic that this is the end of this saga. Yes, I realize the stock markets may crash in the immediate future if the government doesn't act. Nevertheless, I think the long-term benefit of not having a government bailout is much greater than the immediate partisan political interests of either candidate.

WASHINGTON - In a stunning vote that shocked the capital and worldwide markets, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. Stocks plummeted on Wall Street, beginning their plunge even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was officially announced on the House floor. The Dow Jones industrials sank nearly 700 points for the day. Democratic and Republican leaders alike said they were committed to trying again, though the Democrats said GOP lawmakers...

WASHINGTON - The Democratic-led House on Thursday rejected more funds to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as many Republicans angry over the majority party's tactics sat out the vote. It did approve more money for the jobless and an expansion of GI education benefits. In a rapid series of votes on the war funding bill and accompanying components, Republicans withheld their votes in protest, leading to the defeat of the Iraq funding legislation by a 149-141 tally. Nearly two-thirds of the House's Democrats voted against continuing to fund the war. Democrats then forced through a nonbinding plan...

WASHINGTON - The Senate has rejected a Republican energy plan that calls for opening an Alaska wildlife refuge and some offshore waters to oil development. Supporters of the measure couldn't get the needed 60 votes to overcome a Democratic-led filibuster threat. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said more domestic oil production is needed to keep prices in check and to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports. Opponents said areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and coastal waters that have been off limits to drilling for 25 years ought to remain that out of bounds to oil companies....

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's High Court rejected an opposition demand Monday for the immediate release of long-delayed election results, prolonging a political crisis that has paralyzed this southern African nation for more than two weeks. An opposition spokesman said the party would stage a nationwide "stay-away" from work on Tuesday. The main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, says he won the March 29 election outright, and has accused President Robert Mugabe of holding back the results so he can orchestrate a runoff and ensure his 28-year grip on power. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change had hoped that the court — though...

NEW YORK - Former President Clinton is pushing back on criticism that he fanned racial tension while campaigning for his wife in South Carolina. In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast Monday, Clinton said he had gotten a "bum rap" from the news media after he compared Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jackson's wins in the state in 1984 and 1988. Clinton was widely criticized for appearing to cast Obama as little more than a black candidate popular in a state with a heavily black electorate. "They made up...

A judge has ruled that disgraced political donor Norman Hsu's 16-year-old plea to a fraud charge remains in effect, meaning the one-time Democratic rainmaker is likely headed to state prison. Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall rejected Hsu's bid Friday to dismiss his 1992 no contest plea, and was set to sentence him to three years in state prison. Hsu also faces federal charges in New York. Hsu's lawyers asked the judge to toss his plea, arguing his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren't actively pursuing him during his years as a fugitive. They could easily have...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan rejected foreign help in investigating the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Saturday, despite controversy over the circumstances of her death and three days of paralyzing turmoil. The Islamic militant group blamed by officials for the attack that killed Bhutto denied any links to the killing on Saturday, and Bhutto's aides accused the government of a cover-up. President Pervez Musharraf ordered his security chiefs to quell rioting by Bhutto's grieving followers that has killed at least 44 people over three days and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. "Criminals should stop their despicable activities,...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday that talk of U.S. military strikes against al-Qaida in Pakistan only hurts the fight against terrorism, and his troops bombarded militant hideouts in their strongest response yet to a month of anti-government attacks. Ten suspected militants were killed. The assault by artillery and helicopter gunships "knocked out" two compounds in Daygan village in the tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan that were being used as staging posts for attacks on security forces, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the army's top spokesman. Ten militants were killed and at least seven were...

MIAMI - A federal judge refused Tuesday to acquit Jose Padilla and two co-defendants on terrorism support charges, clearing the way for defense lawyers to begin presenting their case this week. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, ruling after a daylong hearing, said the evidence and testimony offered by the prosecuton over the past nine weeks was enough proof to let a jury decide the men's guilt or innocence. "That is something the jurors will have to find," Cooke said. The trial is expected to last well into August. Padilla, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi face possible life in...

CAIRO, Egypt - Hamas rejected President Bush's proposal for a Mideast peace conference, denouncing it Monday as nothing but lies, while Syria said it fears the offer is "just words." Without cooperation from key Arab players, Bush's last major push for a Mideast breakthrough could falter. Washington's close Arab allies, including the region's traditional powerbrokers Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, welcomed Bush's proposal, but stressed the importance of making an Arab land-for-peace proposal first adopted in 2002 key to any talks. Israel's support was also qualified, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman saying it was too early to talk about...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday rejected the Bush administration's vision of a Korea-type, decades-long U.S. troop presence in Iraq and suggested a need for benchmarks to gauge progress. "Our objective would not be a Korea-type setting with 25-50,000 troops on a near permanent basis remaining in bases in Iraq," the former Massachusetts governor told the Associated Press. "I think we would hope to turn Iraq security over to their own military and their own security forces, and if presence in the region is important for us than we have other options that are nearby," Romney said....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected an application Friday by an Australian energy company to build an $800 million floating liquefied natural gas terminal off the Southern California coast. BHP Billiton's proposal previously was rejected by the State Lands Commission and the California Coastal Commission. The company needed permission from both bodies and the governor to build the terminal. Schwarzenegger said he was open to the idea of building a terminal off the coast as a means of diversifying the state's fuel supply. But he said the current proposal did not pass muster. "Liquefied natural gas can and...

The head of Russia's space agency says that the US has rejected a Moscow proposal that the two countries join forces to explore the Moon. "We were ready to co-operate, but for unknown reasons, the United States have said they will undertake this programme themselves," Anatoly Perminov said.

A federal judge on Wednesday refused to throw out a lawsuit by automakers aimed at blocking states from regulating emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. The decision by District Court Judge William Sessions III came two days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that automobile emissions are subject to regulation by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Sessions' ruling clears the way for a trial scheduled to begin Monday over rules drafted by California and being followed by Vermont and nine other states. Under those rules, states would regulate carbon emissions. The federal Clean Air Act allows California to set...

PARIS - France's highest court Tuesday rejected as unlawful the first marriage by a gay couple in France, annulling the union of the two men. Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married in a civil ceremony on June 5, 2004, in Begles, a town in the southwest Bordeaux region. The government immediately said the union was outside the law, and a series of court decisions unfavorable to the couple followed. In the latest decision, the court ruled that "under French law, marriage is a union between a man and a woman," backing a 2005 decision by an appeals court in...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Friday rejected an international call to abandon the use of cluster bombs, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We ... take the position that these munitions do have a place and a use in military inventories, given the right technology as well as the proper rules of engagement," McCormack said. Forty-six countries meeting in Oslo on Friday pledged to seek a treaty banning cluster bombs by next year, with major user and stockpiler Britain and manufacturer France signing on, Norway said. "We, ourselves, have already taken a couple of other steps with regard...

WASHINGTON - Despite a strongly worded global warming report from the world's top climate scientists, the Bush administration expressed continued opposition Friday to mandatory reductions in heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman warned against "unintended consequences" — including job losses — that he said might result if the government requires economy-wide caps on carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. He and other administration officials at a news conference praised the report Friday by a United Nations-sponsored panel of top climate scientist who said there is little doubt the earth is warming as a result of man-made emissions....

WASHINGTON - President Bush has taken the most dramatic options off the table as he tries to change direction in Iraq, leaving him with a list of modest military and diplomatic moves to announce in the new year. Bush probably will ignore the boldest suggestions from a bipartisan commission that studied U.S. options in Iraq, adopting some of the group's lesser prescriptions alongside those drafted by his civilian and military advisers. The White House National Security Council has compiled recommendations from several agencies as the administration's internal reassessment of Iraq policy nears an end. Bush plans to address the nation...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Qatar's attempt to end a growing crisis in the Palestinian territories appeared to end in failure Tuesday after Hamas rejected the plan's key demands that it recognize Israel and renounce violence. Fatah faulted Hamas for the breakdown in negotiations — the latest setback to international efforts to establish a unity government and restore much-needed aid to the Palestinians. However, Palestinian Information Minister Youssef Rizka of Hamas said the U.S. was to blame for dismissing a separate Palestinian plan that would establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank but not explicitly recognize Israel. The document...

Israel rejects Syria's arms embargo pledge By Patrick Bishop in Beirut and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 02/09/2006) Israel last night rejected Syria's pledge to Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, that it would prevent weapons being smuggled to Hizbollah across its border with Lebanon. Syrian soldiers on parade at Riyyak airbase President Bashar al-Assad of Syria told Mr Annan during talks in Damascus that he was prepared to deploy his military forces along the Lebanese border to enforce the arms embargo on Hizbollah demanded by security council resolution 1701. Mr Assad has previously warned that Damascus would take...

The state Board of Pardons refused Thursday to recommend commutation of the life prison sentences for a man who committed one of Delaware's most notorious crimes and then killed a San Francisco businessman. The board deliberated less than three minutes in deciding not to recommend commutation for Charles Cohen, 41, who pleaded guilty but mentally ill in the brutal 1988 murders of his parents, Martin and Ethel Cohen. "In light of the heinous nature of these crimes, the opposition of the state Board of Parole, and the obvious threat to society, we will not recommend that commutation be granted," Lt....

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Bush administration plan to allow commercial logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument violates environmental laws. U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer sided with environmental groups that sued the U.S. Forest Service over plans to manage the 328,000-acre preserve, home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees. In the lawsuit filed last year, the Sierra Club and other conservation groups said the forest management plan was a scientifically suspect strategy meant to satisfy timber interests under the guise of wildfire prevention. In September last year, Breyer issued a preliminary...

Oakland International Airport security officials on Friday rejected National Guard troops that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had activated on Thursday, saying they had the necessary security and law enforcement resources in place to respond to this week's terror threat. Airport managers, anti-terrorism officials, and representatives of local and regional law enforcement agencies met Friday morning at Oakland airport and decided unanimously to decline the deployment, said Fred Lau, the airport's federal security director. "We told the National Guard we would not require the deployment," Lau said. The airport's decision came as California National Guard troops deployed to the state's other major...

WASHINGTON - A Republican election-year effort to fuse a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates with the first minimum wage increase in nearly a decade was rejected by the Senate late Thursday. Republicans needed 60 votes to advance their bill, which links a $2.10 increase in the $5.15 federal minimum wage over three years to reductions an estate taxes next decade. The bill got a 56-42 vote, four votes short of succeeding. The House passed it last Saturday. For Republicans, the combination could have neutralized a Democratic campaign issue while also advancing an estate tax cut, a priority that...

Israel rejects UN aid truce call> Many have been forced from their homes, but others remain trapped Israel has rejected a United Nations call for a three-day truce in southern Lebanon, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Israel. The UN says children, the elderly and disabled people are trapped and supplies are short. But an Israeli spokesman said there was no need for a truce as a humanitarian corridor to the area had been opened. Israeli missiles landed near the main Lebanese border crossing into Syria on Saturday, witnesses and officials said. In a separate incident, two...

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea said Friday that it had turned down a North Korean proposal to hold military talks this week, citing tension over the North's test-firing of seven missiles. North Korea said its missile barrage was not an attack on anyone. The rejection of the North Korean offer came despite South Korea's vow to press ahead with political and economic engagement with its neighbor as a way to solve the longrunning conflict on the divided Korean Peninsula. North Korea made the proposal on Monday, two days before its military fired a salvo of missiles into the sea...

Justice Minister Haim Ramon on Monday warned of a harsh military response in the Gaza Strip if an abducted Israeli is harmed by his Palestinian captors. Justice Minister Haim Ramon made the threat after the militants holding Israel Defense Forces Corporal Gilad Shalit implied the soldier would be killed if Israel does not begin releasing Palestinian soldiers by Tuesday morning. "If God forbid, they should hurt the soldier, our operations will be far far worse," Ramon told Channel 2 TV. The bureau of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Israel rejected an ultimatum issued earlier in the day by...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, July 2, 2006 – News reports published June 30 that claimed coalition forces fired rockets in Afghanistan's Kunar province, allegedly killing a school headmaster and injuring two others, are false, military officials here said today. A Combined Forces Command Afghanistan statement said the three people noted in news articles are, in fact, Taliban extremists responsible for conducting attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. According to the statement, three extremists attacked a coalition patrol on a road in the province's Pech district June 29, and the soldiers responded with small-arms and mortar fire, all positively observed by...

SAN DIEGO A three-judge federal panel on Wednesday rejected a last-ditch appeal by the city of San Diego to keep a giant cross standing on city property after a 17-year legal tussle. The city is under federal court order to move the 29-foot-tall cross from a La Jolla hilltop before Aug. 2 or face $5,000 daily fines. The failed appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was intended to stay that order and allow the cross to remain standing until appeals currently pending in state courts can be heard. City Attorney Michael Aguirre said that Wednesday's ruling, issued...

Khamenei rejects 'carrots and sticks' nuclear deal (Filed: 16/06/2006) The supreme leader of Iran yesterday gave the sternest rejection to date of the international package of incentives designed to coax Teheran into abandoning its nuclear ambitions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not bend to these pressures." He was referring to the diplomatic "carrots and sticks" agreed earlier this month by America, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. These included an offer of help with a civilian nuclear programme and the threat of travel bans for senior Iranians. His comments came as Washington used a meeting...

WASHINGTON - The Senate rejected a call for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by year's end on Thursday as Congress erupted in impassioned, election-year debate over a conflict that now has claimed the lives of 2,500 American troops. The vote was 93-6 to shelve the proposal, which would have allowed "only forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces" to remain in 2007. The vote came alongside a daylong debate in the House, where Republicans defended the war as key to winning the global struggle against terrorism while Democrats excoriated President...

A San Francisco Superior Court judge on Monday threw out the city's voter-approved ban on handguns, ruling that state law trumps local jurisdictions in gun control matters. Proposition H, approved last November with 58 percent of the vote, banned the possession, manufacture, distribution, sale and transfer of firearms and ammunition within San Francisco. (Exceptions were made for specific professional purposes, such as police or security work.) The National Rifle Association sued the city, arguing that state law preempts local gun control ordinances. The judge agreed. Both the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation called the decision a victory...

Democratic lawmakers have denied David Crane, one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's friends and economic advisers, a seat on the California State Teachers' Retirement System board. The Senate Rules Committee voted 3-2 along party lines Wednesday to reject the Republican governor's appointment of Crane to the board. Democrats said they were concerned he would not protect teachers' pensions. Schwarzenegger last year was forced to withdraw an attempt to alter public employee pensions after police and firefighters launched an ad campaign against it. The governor wanted to shift retirement plans for teachers and other public employees to a defined-contribution system - one...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from news organizations fighting to protect confidential sources, refusing to consider the case of four reporters in legal trouble over their stories about former nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee The court's action, released Monday, was taken without comment. Late last week, Lee settled his privacy lawsuit, and he will receive $1.6 million from the government and five news organizations. Journalists had been in civil contempt of court for refusing to disclose who leaked them information about an espionage investigation of Lee, a nuclear weapons scientist fired from his job at Los...

Hamas rejects Abbas call for peace talks with Israel By Harry de Quetteville in Ramallah (Filed: 28/05/2006) Hamas, the radical Islamic group that won January's election, yesterday rejected a deadline issued by the Palestinians' moderate president, Mahmoud Abbas, to choose between violence or peace talks with Israel. At the same time, a Hamas militia involved in factional clashes with Palestinian police in Gaza that have left 10 dead, was sent back onto the streets, only a day after it was withdrawn. Mahmoud Abbas: Deadline Its return seems to signal the end of a short-lived effort to defuse tensions between Hamas,...

UNITED NATIONS - The Iranian military on Wednesday rejected a statement from a top Revolutionary Guards commander that Israel would be Iran's first target in response to any U.S. attack, an Iranian news agency reported. Brig. Gen. Alireza Afshar, deputy to the chief of Iran's military staff, said the statement by Mohammad Ebrahim Dehghani "is his personal view and has no validity as far as the Iranian military officials are concerned," according to the Entekhab News Agency. A translation of Afshar's remarks was provided to The Associated Press. Dehghani was quoted by the Iranian Student News Agency on Tuesday as...

San Francisco Board of Supervisor regects the military and the USS Iowa

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state Senate's top leader said Democrats in his house won't accept a key provision of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's massive public works plan - a limit on bond borrowing - because it could freeze out projects not sought by the governor. Schwarzenegger wants the Legislature to approve a constitutional amendment that would limit annual payments on bond debt to 6 percent of revenue coming into the state's largest budget account, the general fund. But Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, called the proposed debt limit "unworkable and unnecessary." "Circumstances change and governors and legislators need more...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday rejected bail for a Lodi man involved in a terrorism investigation, finding that his relatives could not properly post his $1.2 million bond. U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said he was gratified by the ruling, which overturned a decision last month by a federal magistrate who approved bail for Umer Hayat. Hayat's attorney said he will appeal Wednesday's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hayat, 47, was arrested in June and charged with lying to the FBI by denying that his son attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Superior Court judge has ruled against the union representing state prison guards in a dispute over a long-standing practice of using leave time donated by its members to conduct union activities. Officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation filed a lawsuit last summer to enforce provisions of their labor agreement with the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. That contract caps how much time guards can donate to the union. Union leaders said the suit is just another effort by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cripple the politically powerful union, which helped defeating the governor's ballot...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to disturb New York's system of taxing the income of telecommuters who live elsewhere but are employed by companies in the Empire state. Justices passed up a chance to hear the appeal of a Tennessee computer programmer who claimed that New York's tax law is unconstitutional. Thomas Huckaby had been ordered to pay New York income tax for his full salary, not just the time he spent at the New York offices of the union for which he worked. He lived 900 miles away in Nashville.

WASHINGTON – The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to allow the first round of U.S. military base closures and consolidations in a decade, clearing the way for facilities across the country to start shutting their doors as early as next month. In a 324-85 vote, the House refused to veto the final report of the 2005 base-closing commission, meaning the report seems all but certain to become law in mid-November. Targeted facilities then would have six years to close their doors and shift forces as required under the report. Both the House and Senate must pass resolutions rejecting the report to...