Free Republic

U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to make remarks on a proposed high-speed rail system in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, April 16, 2009. President Obama outlined his plan for developing "long overdue" high-speed rail on Thursday that would rival air travel, create jobs and help curb the U.S. transportation system's appetite for oil. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to audience members after delivering remarks on a proposed high-speed rail system in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, April 16, 2009. Vice President Joe Biden reacts to the audience after making remarks, with President Barack Obama, on expanding...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Republican John McCain contrasts images of Woodstock and his years as a Vietnam prisoner of war in a new television ad that pokes fun at Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. The commercial, set to air on New Hampshire television Thursday, decries a proposal, since scrapped, to spend $1 million for a museum in Bethel, N.Y., site of the August 1969 rock festival. Clinton and her fellow New York senator, Chuck Schumer, had backed the plan. The ad highlights McCain's criticism of excessive Washington spending, reminds voters of the Arizona senator's decorated war record and also shows...

South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle said last week he had convinced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dig into its budget for as much as $9.5 million to help keep boat ramps open this summer on drought-plagued Lake Oahe. And Daschle said about $8.7 million of that could come from the operating budget of Oahe Dam. That came as puzzling news to some Corps officials contacted Wednesday, the day after Daschle announced the agreement. They confirmed that the total operating budget for Oahe was about $12 million to $13 million and wondered how the project could function with a...