Free Republic

On Monday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) circulated an internal memorandum announcing that Holly Paz--the Obama donor-turned-IRS director of Tax Exempt Organizations who sat in on 36 of 41 Inspector General interviews with IRS employees--will be replaced. It is presently unclear whether Paz has been fired, transferred, or placed on leave. Democrats and Republicans on the House Oversight Committee were baffled when they learned that the Inspector General had allowed Paz to sit in on the audit interviews of her IRS employees about improper targeting of conservative groups. During congressional hearings, Inspector General J. Russell George said he was unaware...

1/25/2008 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- As many parents anxiously await the next phone call from their sons and daughters fighting the war on terrorism in Southwest Asia, one mother journeyed across the Atlantic to not only see her child, but also to replace him on the front line. Staff Sgt. Tammi Johnson, a reservist with the 507th Security Forces Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., arrived to Kirkuk Air Base Jan. 20 and will receive a complete week of training from her son, Senior Airman Derrick Johnson, before he heads back to the U.S. Atop a...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named a new head for the elite Revolutionary Guard, an organization Washington is looking to list as a terrorist group, state media announced Saturday. No reason was given for the change and it was not clear if the reshuffle would affect the possible U.S. move to pressure businesses the corps is thought to control, from construction to oil sectors. The United States accuses the Guard of responsibility for terrorist acts abroad and especially violence against American forces in Iraq. Khamenei appointed Mohammed Ali Jafari, described only as a senior figure in...

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani has ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with the Kurdish one in his northern autonomous region in what appeared to be another move toward more self-rule in the north, local officials said Friday. The order was issued Thursday and applies to the Kurdish region, said Beshraw Ahmed, a spokesman for the Sulaimaniyah municipality. According to Azad Jundiyanim, a member of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Sulaimaniyah, Barzani issued a formal message asking for the Iraqi flag to be lowered. The message was also broadcast on Kurdish radio. Iraq's...

When Michael Ward of Troop 406 in Phoenix, Ariz., learned that Hurricane Katrina had destroyed all 9,612 books in the Anniston Elementary School library in Gulfport, Miss., he resolved to dedicate his Eagle Scout project to collecting enough books to restock the library. After getting approval from his local school board, Michael sent fliers about the book drive to the 32 schools in his district. Students were eager to help, collecting books and donating school supplies, while the school district agreed to deliver the books to a central location. When Michael invited local businesses to participate, a bookstore chain set...

PARIS - President Jacques Chirac on Monday scrapped a controversial part of a youth labor law that triggered massive protests and strikes, bowing to intense pressure from students and unions and dealing a blow to his loyal premier in a bid to end the crisis. Unions celebrated what they called "a great victory," and also were deciding whether to keep up the protests. The top two student union UNEF and FIDL said they would press on with demonstrations Tuesday across France. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who devised the law, had faced down protesters for weeks, insisting that its most...

Battered by conservative allies who believe he's broken faith with them, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday replaced Cabinet Secretary Terry Tamminen, a Democrat and well-known environmental activist whose appointment two years ago was trumpeted as a show of the Republican governor's bipartisanship. Tamminen, who headed the Santa Monica-based Environment Now foundation when he became one of the governor's first major appointments in November 2003, will hold an advisory job as special assistant to the governor for energy and environmental technologies, Schwarzenegger's office announced late Friday. Fred Aguiar, who now runs the State and Consumer Services Agency, will replace Tamminen as Cabinet...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has replaced three Democrats on the California Coastal Commission with three Republicans, the governor's office announced. Among Schwarzenegger's replacements was Steven H. Kram, an executive at the governor's former talent agency, the William Morris Agency. The 12-member commission meets monthly to rule on development and construction along the state's 1,100-mile coastline, ranging from offshore oil drilling to expansion of the decks of oceanfront homes. Kram donated $5,000 to help elect Schwarzenegger last fall. One of the ousted Democrats, former California Resources Secretary Mary Nichols, was appointed in one of former Gov. Gray Davis'...