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WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2007 – Positive trends in Iraq’s Anbar province are permanent, the commander of coalition forces in western Iraq said today. Iraqi security forces in the province are shouldering the security burden, and they are 19 months away from assuming full control in what was once the al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq, Marine Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, commander of Multinational Force West, told Pentagon reporters. Violence in the Sunni-dominated province has dropped precipitously. November was the 10th month in a row of declining violence, Gaskin said during a video-teleconference from Baghdad. Put another way, this time last...

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany, Nov. 25, 2007 – Positive permanent changes in the Iraqi people are beginning to show, said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright during his visit to the Central Command area of operations Nov. 21 to 24. Cartwright traveled to Afghanistan, Iraq and Djibouti to visit deployed troops and receive updates on operations in the region. He said Iraq has seen the most notable change in operations. “You listen to the commanders and they’re really talking about what’s changing. What they see is opportunity, with caution that at any...

Expiring tax provisions (or "sunsets") have long been a feature of the tax code, but they have traditionally involved minor provisions. The 2001 tax cut departed dramatically from this pattern: All of its provisions sunset by the end of 2010 and many expire sooner. The 2002 and 2003 tax cuts continued the aggressive use of sunsets to hold down official budget costs. Last night, in his State of the Union address, President Bush once more called for making the tax cuts permanent. This note provides information on the effects of doing so. For details, see "Sunsets in the Tax Code,"...

HOLMDEL, N.J., July 10, 2006 – More than 40 American Gold Star Mothers and their guests from around the country came together here yesterday to honor the children they've lost in the country's conflicts. Members of American Gold Star Mothers Inc., are escorted by New Jersey State Troopers to the New Jersey Vietnam Memorial. A ceremony at the memorial July 9 honored the mothers and the children they lost in America's conflicts. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The ceremony, held at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial here, included a roll call honoring...

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday appealed for quick passage of $70 billion in tax cuts, saying lower taxes on dividends and profits from investment selloffs have helped revive the economy. In addition to extending those cuts by two years, the proposal would keep 15 million taxpayers from getting hit this year with a tax aimed at the wealthy. The president said raising taxes would harm the economy, especially at a time of rising gasoline prices. "A tax increase wold be disastrous for business, disastrous for families and disastrous for this economy," Bush told a Washington audience.

WASHINGTON (AP) - California Democratic lawmakers are pushing new bills to install a permanent ban against drilling for oil or gas off the state's coast. The legislation introduced in the Senate by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and in the House by nearly all of the state's 33 House Democrats comes as other lawmakers are renewing efforts to open coastal areas to energy development. Legislation by the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee would require the Interior Department to begin selling leases for oil and gas development in an area of the central Gulf of...

New Delhi, July 1 (PTI) Pledging its "active" support to India becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Britain today said it would back the G-4 resolution seeking expansion of the world body but expressed difficulties in co-sponsoring it. "We believe it is right because of India's size and importance and if the Security Council is to maintain its legitimacy, it is quite proper to ask a country like India to be represented in it," British High Commissioner Michael Arthur told reporters here. Britain has been "very vocal" and "active supporter" of India's membership of the Security Council,...

29 June 2005: With Brazil being opposed by its neighbours, Canada and the US, its run for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council looks hopeless, and both Germany and Japan want it out of the G-4, and G-4’s ultimate disbandment, but only India is holding out. Diplomats said that German foreign minister Joschka Fischer had conveyed opposition to Brazil to India, Japan and Brazil itself, although until the G-4 resolution is moved after the UN General Assembly goes into session in September, India, Germany and Japan will try to push Brazil’s case. The United States, while conveying its...

Federal Payroll, State Tax Hikes Would “Undo Four Years of Progress,” Group’s President Warns (Washington, DC) – Expiring federal tax cuts, nagging state-level tax increases, and looming proposals to boost payroll taxes constitute a triple threat to small businesses: that’s the warning the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) gave to policymakers at a forum sponsored by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. “Small businesses could be locked out of a prosperous future unless the tax cuts of the last four years are locked in,” said NTU President John Berthoud, who served as a Speaker at the Council’s event. “The income...

I find myself stunned by the magnitude of the quick victory President Bush has won on tort reform, with the new bill, now awaiting his signature federalizing most class action lawsuits. No longer will judges and juries in obscure rural counties of Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama be able to award hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to nebulous classes of supposedly injured consumers or shareholders, at the expense of productive corporations, on the thinnest of evidence. Instead , the federal judiciary, which used to be so beloved of the Democrats when it was intervening in Southern elections, will...

There will never be a better time to make the tax cuts permanent than now.Vice President Dick Cheney opened the White House economic confab yesterday with a call to make the 2003 tax cuts permanent, and a good thing too. He and President Bush need to shore up some wobbly Republicans on Capitol Hill and inside their own Administration.GOP bigfeet have been debating their priorities for the New Year, and some want to delay any tax-cut vote until they can fold it into a broader "tax reform" plan. That would mean the autumn of 2005 at the earliest, and perhaps...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

It had the face of Frankenstein and the hands of a werewolf.Outfitted in jeans and flannel shirt, the creature - stuffed with crumpled newspaper - hung by the neck on a homemade gallows outside a home in the Allendale neighborhood.To its owner, "Bob" was a Halloween decoration. But to Omali Yeshitela, it was a racially charged symbol of hate.On Tuesday, as police officers on the scene scrambled to contact the homeowner at work, Yeshitela and others from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement tore the dummy down.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Four countries that want permanent membership on an expanded U.N. Security Council - Brazil, Germany, India and Japan - vowed on Tuesday to support each other's bids and pledged to reform the United Nations. "The Security Council must reflect the realities of the international community in the 21st century," the countries said in a statement that noted the U.N.'s membership has increased nearly four-fold since it was founded in 1945. "It must be representative, legitimate and effective. It is essential that the Security Council includes, on a permanent basis, countries that have the will and the...

<p>PERMANENT FUND: Most dividends will be wired to banks Oct. 8.</p> <p>Qualified Alaska residents each will receive a Permanent Fund dividend of $1,107.56 this year, Gov. Frank Murkowski announced Wednesday night.</p> <p>It's considerably less than last year's payment of $1,540.76, but it's the ninth time in the 22-year history of the program that the dividend has been $1,000 or more.</p>

Patriot Act To Be Made Permanent? By Report by J.J. Johnson WASHINGTON, April 8 - According to the New York Times , Congressional Republicans are working to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers given to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Times reports that the move is likely to touch off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans. If you recall,...

<p>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Locked away in the walk-in vault of the first permanent war crimes court are thick files filled with tales of rape, plunder and devastation from around the world.</p> <p>One such folio is heavy with witness accounts of sexually abused children, looted homes and the expulsion of thousands of poor villagers from the Central African Republic.</p>

<!-- .nodec{text-decoration:none;} .rBar {position:absolute;top:30px;left:630px} // --> <!-- .frm {display:inline} --> E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS | ARCHIVES SEARCH:     Search Options  News Home Page  Nation  National Security  Science  Courts  Columns  Search the States  Special Reports  Photo Galleries  Live Online  Nation Index Latest AP News  World  Metro  Business  Technology  Sports  Style  Education  Travel  Health  Real Estate  Home & Garden  Food  Opinion  Weather  Weekly Sections  News Digest  Classifieds  Print Edition  Archives  Site Index Ridge Says Terrorism Is Permanent' E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Subscribe to The Post By Ron Fournier AP White House Correspondent Monday, April 29, 2002; 4:30 PM NEW ORLEANS –– Homeland...

<p>Democrats called it an unwise raid on Social Security that would increase government debt, but the GOP majority prevailed on a largely party-line 229-198 vote.</p> <p>Since Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is vowing to block the measure in the Senate, both sides said its real impact is showing clear economic differences between the parties for voters.</p>