Free Republic

In what critics are describing as a government land grab, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a change Tuesday to the Clean Water Act that would give it regulatory authority over temporary wetlands and waterways. The proposal immediately sparked concerns that the regulatory power could extend into seasonal ponds, streams and ditches, including those on private property. "The ... rule may be one of the most significant private property grabs in U.S. history," said Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The EPA proposal would apply pollution regulations to the country's so-called "intermittent...

THEY'RE BAAAAAACK! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 9, 2003 -- French President Jacques Chirac, having failed to keep Saddam Hussein in power, is now reordering the Axis of Weasel to cash in on the American-led liberation of Iraq. How do you say "chutzpah" in French? Chirac yesterday demanded - yes, demanded! - that "the political, economic, humanitarian and administrative reconstruction of Iraq is a matter for the United Nations and for it alone." And he intends to meet this week with fellow weasels Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to enlist them to the cause....