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Political operatives on both sides of the aisle are discussing the 2008 election as if it were only days away. But this seemingly premature preoccupation is hardly a dismissal of the important issues facing President Bush in his second term. Rather, this talk of the next presidential race is representative of the pivotal changes in the political landscape that occurred last November. Unfortunately, the forces of “moderation” are still at work within the GOP, threatening to undermine the tremendous gains made by conservatives in the elections. Arnold Schwarzenegger contends that the Republican Party should move “to the center” (which means...

The Duke of Wellington once defined the best test of a leader. His idea might be helpful to an organization presently needing a bit of help from a wise old head: the Democratic Party. The best test of a general, he wrote, was “to know when to retreat, and to dare to do it.” He knew what he was talking about, because he executed the most successful retreat in British history, from the battle that he had won in the summer of 1809 at Talavera in central Spain to the Lines of Torres Vedras that he had fortified just outside...

A lawmaker is scheduled to introduce legislation today to provide state oversight for Hollywood director Rob Reiner's much-heralded, but yet-to-be-implemented universal preschool program. The program -- funded by Proposition 10's 50-cent-a-pack cigarette tax approved by voters in 1998 -- was supposed to make preschool available for disadvantaged children, but has yet to pay for a single child's education -- despite securing almost $3.5 billion in revenue. The bill is being authored by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Oakland. Chan was unavailable for comment Monday. A recent state audit slammed the universal preschool program, the brainchild of actor-director and political activist Reiner, for...

MR. RUSSERT: Private accounts for Social Security--the president has made that a priority of his domestic agenda. Will you work with him in privatizing part of Social Security? SEN. REID: Tim, I can remember as a little boy my widowed grandmother with eight children. She lived alone, but she felt independent because she got every month her old age pension check. That's what this is all about. The most successful social program in the history of the world is being hijacked by Wall Street. Yes, Social Security is a good program. And if the president has some ideas about trying...

"After all the pleas by democrats to overhaul national security and CIA, four major Democratic Senators now saying they are AGAINST new, fully funded spy program! They are - Jay Rockefeller Richard Durbin of Illinois Carl Levin of Michigan Ron Wyden of Oregon Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive." Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators _ Richard Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of...

Mystery surrounds costly spy programWASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending includes a mysterious and expensive spy program that drew extraordinary criticism from leading Democrats, with one saying the highly classified project is a threat to national security.In an unusual rebuke, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators -- Richard Durbin, Carl Levin and Ron Wyden -- refused to sign the congressional compromise...

A program that spies on keystrokes and mouse clicks to capture passwords and other personal information from computer users has begun circulating disguised as a screensaver purporting to attack spam-related websites. This “Trojan horse” program is the latest twist in a controversial saga that began with the release of an anti-spam screensaver by Lycos Europe on 30 November. The www.makelovenotspam.com screensaver aimed to clog up the bandwidth of spam sites by barraging them with fake data. Experts believe the new trojan program may have been developed in retaliation to the Lycos screensaver, perhaps to deter users from downloading the it...

Throughout the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy analysts had an easy job. After all, Turkish foreign policy was predictable. Ankara cooperated enthusiastically with Washington, whether in the Middle East or in the Balkans. Turkey aligned itself with Israel and kept at arms length from Middle Eastern neighbors such as Syria and Iran. In Europe, Ankara traded heavily with the European Union (EU) but did not allow the EU to dictate foreign policy. The European Union's frequent allegations and criticism of human rights abuses in Turkey, especially with regard to Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK, Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan) terrorists, soured...

Business & Finance > Investments > Sectors > Technology > Computer Networks > CSCO # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? - by: ocean_07712 # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? - by: q2q2w2w2 # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? - by: bilbo2000_us # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? - by: jsdsi2 # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? - by: rockster72000 # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? - by: october_11th_crash # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? - by: airgead_uaim # Why does McDemocracy sound like... - JUNK? -...

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!

WASHINGTON (AP) - The military will install a long-range missile interceptor in a silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., next Tuesday, the Pentagon said. The interceptor is part of the Bush administration's missile defense program, designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles fired from North Korea or elsewhere in eastern Asia. It is the first interceptor to be placed at Vandenberg. Six other interceptors are already in place at the primary site in Fort Greely, Alaska; the Vandenberg site will receive a second missile this month. The multibillion-dollar system is still being tested. The military has no date set...

In south Texas, along the windswept Gulf Coast where multitudes of hurricanes have made landfall over the centuries, there are three history-filled, ahead-of-their-time counties: Galveston, Brazoria, and Matagorda. Until the early 1980s government entities, such as cities and counties, had the right of opting out of Social Security and establishing their own retirement system. This option had been provided when the Social Security Act was passed in the thirties. Galveston County in 1979 looked into this idea when then - County Attorney Bill Decker contacted Don Kebodeaux, highly successful Houston businessman, and asked him if he could devise a plan...

In the wake of the Democrats’ unexpectedly widespread, far-reaching loss in the recent election, many strategists and operatives in their party have come to the conclusion that what the Democrats need to do in order to regain power is to stress their recognition and appreciation of the role that “moral values” play in American society today. A story has surfaced that suggests Democrats dine more frequently at Applebees restaurant, so they can experience the casual, down-to-earth atmosphere of “real” America, where values-driven Americans spend their time. At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Democratic warlord James Carville went...

War or no war, the Marine Corps recruiting juggernaut just keeps rolling. The Corps' ability to attract men and women has led to the recruiting equivalent of Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak: the Marines' nine-plus-year run of making its personnel enlistment quota, unofficially known as "The Streak." The next closest service is the Navy, which has made its recruiting numbers for three years. Part of the Corps' success arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego last month when educators from Redding, Folsom, Shasta and other towns within Maj. David Sosa's recruiting district in Northern California arrived for...

NEW YORK (AP) - Interviews with dozens of former and current Iraqi officials by congressional investigators have produced new evidence that Saddam Hussein micro-managed business deals under the U.N. oil-for-food program to maximize political influence with important foreign governments like Russia and neighboring Arab states. The Iraqi officials, who were flown outside of Iraq for their own safety during the interviews, provided a list of foreign companies favored by Saddam and his top lieutenants for import contracts under the U.N. program. They also revealed a parallel blacklist of companies that the then-Iraq leader disqualified from getting deals, investigators told The...

Frédéric Desagneaux, consul general of France for San Francisco, is not happy with the light being shown on his country’s involvement with U.N. corruption in Iraq. Poor thing. Yesterday, the independent committee investigating corruption in the U.N.’s “oil-for-food” program for Iraq made public the names of 3,545 companies that sold goods to Saddam. Also published were the names of 248 companies which received Iraqi oil under the program. Through oil-for-food, Saddam stole “$10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.” Leave it to the U.N. to pull off one of the biggest scandals in world history. Evidence is emerging...

Watching ABC, CBS, or NBC news, you would never know that Iranian civilians are now being killed while protesting against their country’s Islamist dictators. You probably wouldn’t know that Iran is considered to be the “world's ‘most active state sponsor of terrorism.’” You most surely haven’t heard that between 10,000 and 15,000 Iranians risk life and liberty to run web logs (“blogs”) opposing their government. Maybe you’ve heard that Iran’s rulers are secretly building nuclear weapons, but did you know that Britain, France, Germany, and Russia have sold nuclear technologies to Iran? Have you heard that Iran now has ballistic...

Lugano, Switzerland -- Did Saddam Hussein use any of his ill-gotten billions filched from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program to help fund Al Qaeda? Investigations have shown that the former Iraqi dictator grafted and smuggled more than $10 billion from the program that for seven years prior to Saddam's overthrow was meant to bring humanitarian aid to ordinary Iraqis. And the Sept. 11 Commission has shown a tracery of contacts between Saddam and Al Qaeda that continued after billions of Oil-for-food dollars began pouring into Saddam's coffers and Usama bin Laden declared his infamous war on the U.S. Now, buried...

Welcome to Operation: Take a Soldier to the Movies Operation: Take a Soldier to the Movies is a national grassroots program to support our troops in Iraq by “taking a soldier to the movies” for Thanksgiving. Caring families, friends or members of the public can contribute movie-related items that will be forwarded to soldiers serving in Iraq. Let it be your way of saying “thank you” to those serving our country. Background: Bernie and Kathy Hintzke of West Allis, Wisconsin (near Milwaukee) have a 22-year old son, Adam, serving in the U.S. Army near Tikrit, Iraq. Conditions are hot, dirty...

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran has agreed in principle to temporarily stop some suspect activities that its critics allege are meant to make nuclear weapons, as it seeks to blunt censure at an upcoming U.N. meeting, diplomats said Tuesday. The diplomats, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the Islamic Republic tentatively agreed to re-impose a freeze on making, testing and assembling centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Uranium, enriched to high levels, can be used to make nuclear warheads. At lower levels, it can generate power, which Iran asserts is the only activity it is interested...