Free Republic

...Americans fighting against government-run health care are out of the woods yet. Conrad insists that the Senate could pass health reform that includes health insurance co-operatives. Co-operatives do have a long and proud tradition in many sectors of the U.S. economy, but details matter. Conrad says these health co-ops will not be “government-run and government-controlled” but instead “membership-run and membership controlled.” But others in Conrad’s caucus have a starkly different co-op goal. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is pushing a vision of co-ops that are: 1) run by the government, preferably the federal government; 2) funded or subsidized by the government;...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's health secretary is suggesting the White House is ready to accept nonprofit insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run public option in a health overhaul plan. A Republican senator says that is worth looking at. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says Obama still believes there should be choice and competition" in the health insurance market — but that a public option is "not the essential element."

".....Abortion rights supporters say that would have the effect of denying coverage for abortion to millions of women who now have it through workplace insurance and are expected to join the exchange......."

Launching a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities will be the "only one choice" left for the United States if new economic sanctions fail to convince Tehran to halt its bomb-making program, according to Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Only through "crippling sanctions do we have a chance to convince the Iranians to stop this nuclear weapons program," Lieberman, an independent Democrat from Connecticut, told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Stiffer sanctions are necessary in order to "save ourselves" from having to make the most difficult choice, which he said was "doing nothing in regard to a nuclear Iran,...

WASHINGTON – Cells taken from men's testicles seem as versatile as the stem cells derived from embryos, researchers reported Wednesday in what may be yet another new approach in a burgeoning scientific field. The new type of stem cells could be useful for growing personalized replacement tissues, according to a study in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. But because of their source, their highest promise would apply to only half the world's population: men. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any tissue in the body and scientists believe they may offer treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and...

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on partial birth abortion, proponents of abortion have reacted as if the sky were falling. Abortion proponents have grimly announced that a "womans right to choose" is in peril. Of course, they speak about the "right to choose" only in the abstract; they are careful not to identify the choice they have in view. The morality of any "choice" under consideration, however, cannot be divorced from the thing that is being chosen. Choices are not mere abstractions. They are concrete, and they have consequences. Let's not kid ourselves about...

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) is asking whether he can take money from donors who want him to be president, then give it back later. The Federal Election Commission said Wednesday that it will look into the novel question. Obama is indicating that he wants to at least keep the option of using the public financing system for his presidential campaign if he becomes the Democratic nominee. To do so, the Illinois senator could not spend any money from contributors for political purposes, but instead use federal funding that is expected to total about $85...

HONOLULU -- In a move that could augur the selection of Southern California tailback Reggie Bush as the first overall pick in the 2006 draft, league sources here for the Pro Bowl confirmed late Thursday that the Houston Texans have exercised a "buy back" clause in quarterback David Carr's contract, paying him an $8 million bonus to secure his services for three more seasons. The Texans, who announced the extension Friday in a news release, did not provide details, but called a 2 p.m. news conference to discuss the deal. Retaining the four-year veteran quarterback, who would have become eligible...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2005 – Quitting in Iraq before the mission is finished would be an invitation to more terrorist violence against the United States, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today. "This is not just a hypothesis," Rumsfeld told an audience at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at its campus here. "The U.S. withdrawal from Somalia emboldened Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. We know this. He said so." Similarly, a retreat in Iraq would send an unmistakable message to America's enemies and friends alike, the secretary said. It would signal to Iraqis and...

WASHINGTON - Widely recognized as a military hawk, President Richard M. Nixon fretted privately over the notion of any no-holds-barred nuclear war, newly released documents from his time at the White House reveal. Visions of such an all-out war involving nuclear missiles were unpalatable from the first days of Nixon's presidency, starting in 1969 and lasting until the summer of 1974, when he resigned during the Watergate scandal. Recently declassified papers from that time in history show that Nixon wanted an alternative to the option of full-scale nuclear war — a plan for a gentler war, one that could ultimately...

When torture is the only option ... DAVID GELERNTER SEN. JOHN MCCAIN's proposed legislation incorporating into U.S. law the Geneva Convention ban on mistreating prisoners. The bill, which bans cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, passed the Senate 90 to 9. To say it's got momentum is putting it mildly. But President Bush says he will veto the bill unless the CIA is exempted. Vice President Cheney has led the administration's campaign for the exemption. It's a hard sell; pro-torture politicians are scarce around Washington. But of course you don't have to be "pro-torture" to oppose the McCain amendment. That naive...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - With negotiations between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders at a halt, both sides are poised to go to political war in a Nov. 8 special election, even as the number of ballot measures dwindle and new calls are made by some to cancel the balloting all together. "We are so deep into it now, I don't see how you can get the toothpaste back into the tube," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles. "We are so far down the path, I think we should have the special election and put the whole issue to rest."...

The days of the judicial-filibuster compromise are numbered. The scuttlebutt on Capitol Hill these days is that the McCain compromise will vanish as soon as a Supreme Court nomination appears. That's because the so-called compromise has that one huge loophole: It allows Democrats to filibuster (and thereby block an up-or-down vote on) any nominee they define as an "extraordinary" circumstance. And if Democrats' recent behavior is any indication, "extraordinary" will be used as a ruse for discriminating against judges who give even the slightest hint of holding pro-life views or having faith in God. "Any agreement that opens filibusters to...

Republicans, fresh off the confirmation of five judges to the Appeals court, are finally feeling some momentum on an issue that has been stalled by Democrats for years: Republicans say the confirmations of long-filibustered judges William Pryor, Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, David McKeague and Richard Griffin for the U.S. Appeals Court show that President Bush can get conservatives on the nation's highest courts despite the objections of Democrats. And it can happen without Republicans voting to eliminate judicial filibusters, a move known as the "nuclear option" because of the intense rancor it would cause. Now that the filibuster tiger...

Not only is there a bright side for conservatives in the recent Senate “compromise” on Presidential appointments, but it’s hard to find any reason at all to justify celebration by liberal Democrats. President Bush’s long-stalled 5th Circuit nominee, Priscilla Owen, now sits on that federal bench, and confirmations of capable conservatives Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor are soon to follow. Even the prospective nominations of William Meyers and Henry Saad have been sidetracked in thought only. Make no mistake – the dam has cracked and its eventual collapse is as easy as ever to see. The seven Republican signatories...

After talking for months about the “constitutional/nuclear/whatever option,” Senate majority leader Bill Frist was finally set to bring the measure to the table. The move to restore the rights of the majority in consenting to judicial nominees by a majority vote was finally going to signal the end of the Republican weasel-ness that plagues the party every time it gains power. Then the weasels stepped in. The “great compromise” resulted in the Republicans giving up everything while the Democrats gave up nothing. The give-take deal worked as it always has. Republicans give, Democrats take. The parties shake hands and the...

Blaring from network and cable TV: “Democrats forced the Senate to put off a final vote this week on John R. Bolton’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador, the latest setback for the tough-talking nominee President Bush has called "strong medicine for corruption and inefficiency at the United Nations.” This was done by another filibuster that might delay the vote until June, thus shattering the myth that the two parties had joined together in a bond of trust that would end the obstruction that has kept Bush appointees from getting an up and down vote. When is Bill Frist, the Senate...

The deal to avert a change in Senate cloture rules is more than just a temporary outbreak of sanity in this highly charged partisan accelerator chamber. It amounts to a transfer of leadership from the polarized, party leaders to the narrow but critical center of the institution. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) still has the corner office, and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) still has the key to the executive washroom, but it is the 14 senators who crafted this deal who now are the people to see in the Senate. Few realized that when the Republicans garnered 55 seats...

Pro-family leaders are expressing outrage over a compromise deal in the Senate that will allow a vote on some of the president's heretofore filibustered judicial nominees, but preserves the tactic for liberal Democrats to use against nominees they deem too conservative. Last week, 14 members of the U.S. Senate -- seven Republicans and seven Democrats -- proudly announced a Senate compromise to end Democratic filibusters against three of President Bush's judicial nominees: Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, and William Pryor. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters that filibusters will continue against two other Bush nominees -- William Myers and...

It will be some time before the full impact of this week’s sellout by seven so-called “moderate” Republicans in the U.S. Senate becomes completely apparent. The plan to break Democrat filibusters of judicial nominees was, in reality, no less than a Republican fight to restore the integrity of the Constitution. But in the face of the Republican defections, Democrats will now credibly claim to have protected it, and the nation as a whole, from the ravages of Republican “extremism.” Despite media spin, this arrangement was no agreement among “centrists” from both parties. The seven Democrats who participated in the deal...