Free Republic

Tensions are reaching a boiling point for Democrats as intense divisions between liberals and moderates threaten to derail key pillars of President Joe Biden's agenda and factions within the party increasingly cast blame on one another. The Biden agenda has entered a pivotal stage on Capitol Hill as House Democrats run up against a looming September 27 deadline to vote on a $1 trillion Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill. Progressives have vowed not to vote in favor of the bipartisan bill unless a far larger economic package with a price tag of up to $3.5 trillion moves in tandem. But that...

A study of the public-private partnership project delivery method has some cautionary advice for governments and contractors considering them. Entitled "Highway Robbery: Public Private Partnerships and Nova Scotia Highways" by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the study urges jurisdictions to stop using the model to build highways. The report concludes that governments should instead employ traditional public procurement, based on its findings that contracting out services through a P3 is more expensive than public procurement, has the potential to compromise highway safety, needlessly duplicates government services and lacks mechanisms for public accountability. “Public infrastructure and services should remain fully...

BRISBANE, Australia—President Barack Obama disputed controversial comments from a former consultant on his health-care law, who said the White House misled Americans to get the legislation passed. “The fact that an adviser who was never on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with in terms of the voters is not a reflection on the actual process that was run,” Obama declared at a press conference ..."

Deep ideological divisions within the Justice Department’s voting rights section fueled disputes harmful to its operation and often evolved into the harassment of its employees and managers, but there was “insufficient evidence” to show that either the Bush or the Obama administration used the enforcement of voting laws to seek improper partisan advantage, the agency’s inspector general said Tuesday. The long-awaited report, spawned by the New Black Panther Party voter harassment investigation, was released as Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez, who oversees the section, is being considered

China says it will allow tourists to visit disputed islands in the South China Sea, a move likely to further inflame tensions over the vast maritime region. Beijing's plans for the Paracel islands are likely to irritate Vietnam, which also claims the islands as part of its territory. Hanoi issued a statement last week denouncing a sailing race around the Parcels staged by authorities in China's Hainan province.

The billionaire backer of a wireless company accused of using White House connections to interfere with a Pentagon commander’s congressional testimony last week emphatically rejected that and other charges relating to the embattled firm on Monday. In an exclusive interview with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, private equity titan Phil Falcone – the chief investor in LightSquared, a Virginia-based firm aiming to establish a new wireless broadband network – rejected as “absolutely false” allegations that LightSquared had obtained in advance the written testimony of Air Force Gen. William Shelton.

The old saw that "you're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts" just doesn't seem to apply when it comes to healthcare reform. A day after the National Council on Aging vowed to give seniors "straight talk" on the new law, the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis said seniors already get it — despite the findings of a poll commissioned by the council. "Seniors know more than the people conducting the poll," said NCPA President John Goodman. "The answers that seniors are giving are more correct than the answers that the pollsters claim are right."

Iraqis agree on secret peace plan: Iraqi Sunni and Shia representatives have agreed on a peace plan during secret talks in Finland. "Participants committed themselves to work towards a robust framework for a lasting settlement," said a statement issued on Monday by the Crisis Management Initiative, a conflict-prevention group that organised the meeting. In an agreement released by CMI, the participants "agreed to consult further" on a list of recommendations to begin reconciliation talks, including resolving political disputes through non-violence and democracy. The recommendations also included the disarming of factions and forming an independent commission to supervise the disarming "in...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Officials and residents here are taking issue with the results of a magazine study that ranked their city as one of the nation's fattest. Men's Fitness named San Jose as the country's 24th fattest city, behind San Diego, Fresno and Philadelphia. Chicago won the designation as the fattest city, followed by Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Dallas. David Vossbrink, spokesman for San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, disputed the results, saying the nation's 10th biggest city is no different from other locations across the country. The 54-year-old mayor does his part to keep the city off...

China's communist leadership is trying to paint a smiley face over its most recent brutal suppression of dissent. Five days ago, protestors were gunned downed by police in a village not far from Hong Kong. The authorities blame a "few instigators" for the violence, but this event is indicative of growing socio-economic shifts in mainland China; namely the disparity between those profiting from communist experimentation with capitalism, and those left on the sidelines. China's government is trying to put lipstick on the pig. From MSNBC.com: The government said three people died in Tuesday’s violence in this coastal village northeast of...

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. appeals body ruled that the only employee to be fired over the Iraq oil-for-food scandal did not violate staff rules and should be reinstated with a public apology from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, according to documents disclosed Thursday. The Joint Disciplinary Committee concluded that Joseph Stephanides was fired mostly because of the public scrutiny from an investigation that found the $64 billion program was poorly managed and corrupt. The ruling, obtained by The Associated Press, said the three-judge panel "sympathized with the applicant's argument that he was being made the 'sacrificial lamb' in this matter so...

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003, Republicans were hopeful he would restore the credibility of their party. Since Pete Wilson's reelection in 1994, the party had been in steady decline for nearly a decade-losing every single statewide office, and mired hopelessly in the minority in both legislative houses. Schwarzenegger built early momentum during his first year in office. But after the November 2004 election, Schwarzenegger and his advisors hatched an ambitious agenda, which would be laid out in the State of the State address in January 2005. The agenda would amount to a declaration of political war on many...

Rachel O'Brien has been concentrating on raising her three children since her husband was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. She hadn't given much thought to what would happen at ground zero. But when she heard about plans for a museum that would place the attacks in the historical context of mankind's quest for freedom, she got political — joining more than 900 relatives of victims to sign a petition opposing the plan. "I have no remains of my husband, and to me that's sacred ground," said O'Brien, 45, whose husband, Michael, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald....

German physicist disputes Atlantis discovery claim by American Tue Nov 16, 3:00 PM ET Science - AFP BERLIN (AFP) - The remains of the lost city of Atlantis which a United States researcher claims to have found off the Mediterranean island of Cyprus are in fact submarine volcanoes, according to a German physicist. US researcher Robert Sarmast claimed Sunday to have found proof that the mythical lost city of Atlantis actually existed and is located under the Mediterranean seabed between Cyprus and Syria. But German physicist Christian Huebscher said he had identified the phenomenon as 100,000 year-old volcanoes that spewed...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Thursday disputed the Sept. 11 commission's finding that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and the al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the attacks. "There was a relationship between Iraq (news - web sites) and al-Qaida," Bush insisted following a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House. "This administration never said that the 9-11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaida," he said. "We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, for example, Iraqi intelligence agents met with (Osama) bin Laden,...

Congress finally finished last year's spending business on Thursday, sending the president an overdue, $820 billion measure that finances most of the federal government as well as thousands of home-state projects sought by lawmakers. The approval came despite serious disputes over provisions on food labeling, media ownership, school vouchers, overtime rules and other issues. But Democrats, unwilling to engage in a showdown that could cause a government shutdown, signaled that they were ready to let the measure become law after stalling it earlier this week. It was approved 65 to 28 immediately after the Senate voted 61 to 32 to...

<p>TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's foreign minister said Friday that the al-Qaida operatives Iran now has in custody were arrested before the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and couldn't have been involved in the attacks.</p> <p>"There is no possibility that they were able to do any (bombing) operation nor could they lead these kind of military operations," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told reporters at one of several impromptu news conferences he's held recently to counter American accusations that his country is failing to fight terrorism. "When they are in prison all their connections are cut with the outside."</p>

Feuding families in an otherwise peaceful Munich suburb have installed barbed-wire barricades, cameras, 12ft-high fences and movement sensors to guard their homes and gardens in Germany's longest-running dispute between two neighbours. The Bensch and the Kern families, who occupy the two halves of a semi-detached house in Waldperlach, have turned their properties into something resembling a prison camp in the course of a 14-year row. Elsewhere in the suburb, which was originally built to provide country homes for army officers, blossoming cherry trees line wide avenues and there are flower beds on every corner. Most homes in Waldperlach sell for...