Free Republic

<p>LOS ANGELES -- Oscar Rodriguez, a 30-year-old photography major at East Los Angeles College, says he's a registered Republican. But, he says, "I usually go for who has the better speech."</p> <p>He says he voted for Gray Davis in 1998 because he resented then-Gov. Pete Wilson's support of Proposition 187, intended to cut public services to undocumented immigrants. And he voted Democratic in 2002 because he has cerebral palsy and is concerned about cuts to Medi-Cal.</p>

PARIS - Worried it could be shut out of business deals in postwar Iraq (news - web sites), France is drawing up plans to win French companies access to lucrative oil and reconstruction contracts, officials said Tuesday. The government is determined that French companies will be part of rebuilding Iraq, despite President Jacques Chirac's vigorous opposition to the war, a Finance Ministry official said. Gilles Munier, an executive board member of the French-Iraq Association for Economic Cooperation, said business leaders and government representatives were studying how to gain a foothold in postwar Iraq. He said a meeting between France's most...