Free Republic

Mine is obviously just one community that is trying to pass school budgets that have escalated far beyond COL numbers!

US President George W Bush declared today that he had signed a rare presidential decree canceling any further expenditure of Federal funds on the US Space Shuttle program. "We cannot find any justification to continue deficit funding of a program that has no application other that proving that with enough money America can do anything," said Bush. "The whole world knows that already, so why keep spending money on it," he added. The announcement was made during an even rarer press conference with Whitehouse press corps, at which the President started proceedings by handing out Easter Eggs, quipping, "it might...

College exchange students often visit other countries to learn of other cultures, appreciate the past, or gain valuable insight into other regions. Few go to be indoctrinated consciously for the purposes of political -- and literal -- warfare. However, the International Solidarity Movement and the Bethlehem Bible College have put together a program that does just that. The ISM has long sent American students to the Middle East, where they undergo training by the ISM-ally, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a known terrorist group, and then physically obstruct Israeli forces trying to nab Palestinian terrorists. Front Page...

Overcoming an array of political and bureaucratic hurdles, actor-director Rob Reiner will announce today the launch of a tobacco tax-funded preschool program for tens of thousands of 4-year-olds throughout Los Angeles County and the rest of California. "This is a great day for the children of Los Angeles," said Reiner, chairman of First 5 California. "By launching this effort to provide access to higher-quality preschools for thousands of children, (Los Angeles Universal Preschool) is helping to solve the preschool crisis that exists in this county and state." Reiner and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina are expected to join preschoolers...

I have a DVD I need to salvage if possible. My kids have managed to scratch it (but it doesn't look horribly scratched, just superficial scuffs). I have heard there is programs that allow one to extract the infomation so I can record it (or just view it on my computer). I can watch about 2/3rds of the disk without problems then it starts lagging and eventually stops (and locks up). I have tried numerous players from my home tv dvd player to my two dvd players (one is a recorder) on my computer. All sources lock up about the...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's maverick President Hugo Chavez said Friday that Iran has a "right" to a nuclear energy program and he would back the Middle Eastern country up in its dispute with the United States over what Washington sees as an attempt by Tehran to obtain atomic bombs. "Iran has the right to develop its atomic energy like any other country in the world and continue its investigations in this field," Chavez said during meetings with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. "Venezuela and Iran agree in firmly rejecting the imperialist policy of the United States." Government ministers from both...

It just never fails to amaze me how, throughout history and, in particular, the last century, nations great and small saw what was coming and yet were unable or unwilling to stop two world wars and an endless spate of smaller, but no less deadly conflicts. Which brings us to today where we peer across the vast Pacific Ocean at North Korea and wonder whether its leader is insane enough to launch a nuclear-armed missile at us or maybe just at South Korea or Japan? That’s the kind of calculus the President has to make every day while the rest...

MCRD/ ERR PARRIS ISLAND, SC (March 4, 2005) -- As the children were dropped off at the All-Weather Training Facility to begin their training endeavors as Young Marine recruits, volunteer "drill instructors" stood waiting to train them. "That initial shock from the drill instructors is what is going to make them believe they are actually going through recruit training," said Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Curran, the Parris Island Young Marines Program volunteer coordinator. Similar to Marine recruit training, the children will be referred to as recruits until the day they graduate and complete the training. The young recruits met Saturday from...

If Defense Minister Bill Graham wasn’t so arrogant and condescending, you could almost feel sorry for him. For years, both as Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Graham was the government’s perennial fence sitter; sitting on high, looking down on the little people below and refusing to take a position, one way or the other. Then one day Graham, with a might leap, jumped down from his fence and took a stand. Unfortunately, although he landed on squarely on his feet, he ended up on the wrong side of the fence. The guy who is reluctant to change...

Why an Attack on Iran is Imminent I believe that a U.S. attack on Iran is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when.’ In stating my reasons for such an attack, I will ask three simple questions. 1) Is Iran intent on building a nuclear weapon? 2) Can Iran’s nuclear program be stopped peacefully? 3) Is George Bush firmly dedicated to preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon? 1) Is Iran intent on building a nuclear weapon? Based on the words and secretive actions of Iran’s mullahs, there is very little doubt that Iran is intent on building a...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill suggested new ways Thursday to solve the state's budget problems, including suspending the after-school initiative championed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger before the actor turned politician. Though the program hasn't begun, Hill said it could soon add $424 million to the state's bills while California remains in a budget crisis. Schwarzenegger, who headed the Inner-City Foundation to provide after-school programs for children, successfully qualified and passed Proposition 49 on the 2002 ballot. Days after Hill suggested revenues are up $2.2 billion due to an improving economy, she labeled the governor's measure - which gives...

Flying saucers and strange beings who have visited Earth aren't the typical topics reported by Peter Jennings, anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight." Jennings, whose new two-hour special tackles the subject of UFOs, admits he and his production team began the project with doubts and a dose of curiosity. "We have a lot of skeptics -- I am very skeptical -- but we seriously investigated something a lot of people are serious about," he said. "And when we come to the end, this is wonderfully interesting. "More than 80 million Americans believe intelligent beings from somewhere else have come here,"...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a government-approved program used by five Western states to improve their air quality and visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. Siding with an industry coalition, the court said the states' program was based on Environmental Protection Agency methods that the court, ruling in a case three years ago, had found to be "inconsistent with the Clean Air Act." Friday's decision deals with efforts by Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming to cut sulfur dioxide pollution that contributes to regional haze, particularly at the Grand Canyon. Mike Leavitt, now...

http://netwmd.com/articles/article890.html After a first term marked by schizophrenic Iran policy initiatives, the Bush White House will soon develop a coordinated policy to promote peaceful regime change in Iran. The Bush administration is heartened by the apparent success of the Iraqi election and believes that Iranians are ready to exert their democratic rights. Bush policy is motivated by the grave and growing threat from the Islamic Republic's nuclear weapons program, and the realization that neither Iran nor the European Union are sincere in preventing Iran's acquisition of nuclear weaponry. The Islamic Republic's potential threat to American security emanates from Tehran's determination...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The nation's second-largest school district spent nearly $50 million on a computer reading program that failed to improve student literacy skills and sometimes hindered achievement because it wasn't used properly, a newspaper reported Monday. The Los Angeles Unified School District hoped the Waterford Early Reading Program would boost test scores at low-performing elementary schools when it purchased the system four years ago to supplement language arts instruction in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. Instead, the system had no affect on most students and a "negative impact" on some kindergartners whose teachers substituted it for primary reading lessons,...

PETER JENNINGS REPORTING: UFO's: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) -- Each year there are thousands of reports of unidentified flying objects, but the U.S. government doesn't investgate any of them. This special program will seriously examine the unexplained phenomena around the world that so many people believe is proof of the existence of UFOs.

BAGHDAD, Feb 6 (AFP) - A UN panel investigating corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food programme wants to interrogate one of Saddam Hussein's jailed right-hand men, Tareq Aziz, his lawyer told AFP Sunday. Badie Aref Izzat said he expected to visit the former Iraqi deputy prime minister in the coming days and would advise him to demand he be questioned in a foreign country, possibly France. "I have received many messages over the past 10 days from the head of the panel, Paul Volcker, asking me if Tareq Aziz would accept to be interrogated on the oil-for-food programme," Aref said. A damning...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A communications firm with close ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is helping a state contractor persuade department heads to join a struggling procurement program, an official with the contractor said Wednesday. The contractor, Virginia-based CGI-AMS, recently hired Wilson-Miller Communications, which is co-owned by Marty Wilson, a top political adviser to Schwarzenegger and his main fund-raiser. Last May, the Schwarzenegger administration hired CGI-AMS to help the state trim its $4.9 billion purchasing bill. A spokeswoman for CGI-AMS said her company hired Beth Miller, Wilson's partner, to develop a marketing and education program aimed at getting more state officials...

LEFT-WING billionaire and Bush-hater George Soros was not content to spend millions to thwart a Bush victory in last November's presidential election. Now his Open Society Institute in New York is joining forces with pro-Tehran lobbying group to promote the interests and the viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In tandem with the American-Iranian Council, an industry-supported group that favors opening trade and diplomatic ties with Iran, the Open Society Institute will host Iran's ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday at the Open Society Institute's offices in New York. The talk by Ambassador Javad Zarif is benignly titled,...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to balance the next state budget depends heavily on spending cuts in health and welfare programs and higher health care costs for 550,000 low-income Californians. The Republican governor Monday proposed cutting spending by $1.2 billion for health and welfare to help eliminate a $9 billion deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1. His plan includes a 6.5 percent cut in welfare grants, elimination of automatic annual cost-of-living increases in welfare benefits, a benefit freeze for the elderly poor and disabled, and a $1,000 annual limit on dental care for low-income adults in...