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Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said Tuesday on CNN’s “News Central” that President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees could face holds until Attorney General Pam Bondi provides “answers” to Congress on the $400 million jet from Qatar. Shaheen said, “With respect to Qatar and the plane, I think there are serious constitutional questions about this, but there are also questions about national security. Sadly, the president doesn’t seem to be too concerned about national security. He’s been willing to allow his secretary of defense to engage in classified discussions over unclassified channels. He has, again, looking at accepting this plane without thinking...

President Donald Trump is proposing staggering spending cuts. In his budget request for fiscal year 2026, the president demands that Congress slash an eye-popping 20% of spending which lawmakers allocate each year. "You're going to see $150 billion (in cuts) passed in the House and the Senate. That is real money," said Budget Director Russ Vought on Fox News. "I think for the first time, this budget is not dead on arrival." To be clear, the budget which Mr. Trump sent to Capitol Hill is aspirational. All presidential budgets are. It’s what a president proposes that lawmakers – and his...

Senate Republicans may not be able to pass President Donald Trump’s border security, energy, and tax agenda until July at the earliest due to internal differences, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) reportedly warned. Thune has told fellow Republicans in the Senate that he wants a budget resolution moved forward in the “next work period” before the April recess, but added that the “finished product” is still months out from completion, a source told the Hill. “Thune and others have said they don’t think it’s realistic we’ll move the finished product until the end of July,” another Republican senator said...

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2006 – About 3,500 active-duty soldiers who were slated to begin their deployment to Iraq in the coming days will remain at their base in Schweinfurt, Germany, until further notice, defense officials announced today. Members of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, were officially notified within recent days that they won't deploy early this month, as scheduled, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved the adjustment, which was recommended by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, Whitman said. Whitman emphasized that the decision doesn't signal the start...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N.-established panel that investigated the Iraq oil-for-food program will stay open until the end of the year to allow prosecutors access to its documents, the United Nations said on Friday. Investigators and prosecutors from 28 countries have already requested documents from the Independent Inquiry Committee since it released its final report on October 27, said Michael Holtzman, spokesman for the IIC, whose Manhattan office has been reduced to a skeletal staff. The IIC had been scheduled to close at the end of this month. The panel, headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker,...

Petrol prices 'to rise steeply until spring' By David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor (Filed: 21/01/2006) Motorists should be braced for yet more steep rises in the price of petrol over the coming months, the AA Motoring Trust warned yesterday. The cost of a litre of unleaded was likely to rise above 90p within weeks and could well shoot up further, a spokesman said. The warning came as the trust published a report into the spiralling cost of fuel. Petrol and diesel prices started the New Year about 10p per litre higher than in January 2005, it said. With the average...

'We will cut them until Iran asks for mercy' By Massoud Ansari (Filed: 15/01/2006) Deep in the lawless triangle connecting Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, eight terrified Iranian soldiers are being held hostage by a Sunni group that is vowing to "slaughter" them if Teheran does not bow to its demands. "We will chop their heads once our deadline is over," Abdul Hameed Reeki, chief spokesman of the Jundallah or Brigade of God group, told the Sunday Telegraph, slowly drawing an index finger across his neck to demonstrate the seriousness of his intent. The deadline for the men is tomorrow. The...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 14, 2005) -- A maxim exists in Marine Corps infantry platoons and loosely paraphrased, it goes something like this: if squad leaders falter, freeze or fail, all the paper-smart strategic plans made by higher headquarters are worthless. Cpl. Chris W. Adair, a 20-year-old native of Custer County, Colo., knows about this adage from experience. He is one of many veteran squad leaders with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines Regiment, between the ages of 20 and 22, who are on their second deployment to Iraq. This is the third Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment for the Marine Corps Air Ground...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2005 – President Bush today told attendees at a military spouses luncheon here that they and their husbands and wives deserve a clear strategy for victory over global terrorism. Terrorism is "a mortal danger to all humanity," Bush said at Bolling Air Force Base. He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States revealed the terrorists' destructive intent for the United States. The terrorists would like to strike America again, Bush said. Yet, the United States will continue confronting terrorism and "will not rest or tire until the war on terror is won," he...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - The Central Valley's dairy, cotton, fruit and vegetable farms are the newest front in the fight to clean up one of the nation's dirtiest air basins. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is requiring farmers with more than 100 contiguous acres and dairies with more than 500 cows to submit plans by the end of the year showing what they're doing to reduce the microscopic particles of dust, chemicals or other substances that come from their land. More than 6,400 farms and dairies in the 270-mile-long valley between San Francisco and Los Angeles meet...

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!

Anti-Kerry 'Swift Boat' Group Vows To Keep Up Ad Campaign AFP: 8/29/2004 WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (AFP) - The controversial group of veterans, whose television advertisements attacking Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry sparked a national debate, vowed Sunday to keep up their campaign until the November 2 election. Retired admiral Roy Hoffman, who founded the so-called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," told Time magazine that since their first, relatively small ad ran in three states earlier this month, the group had raised 2.5 million dollars from 37,183 donors. "We knew that we were going to stir the pot, but I...

I didn't know, sez gov's ex 2 hours, 43 minutes ago BY MAGGIE HABERMAN, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER The first wife of New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey said yesterday she didn't know her ex was gay until last week. "He told me just before he went on TV," Kari Schutz said in a phone interview from British Columbia. Schutz described the call from her ex-husband as "difficult," although she declined to give details. But asked if she had any idea of her husband's sexual identity during their marriage, she said, "I never knew." The governor's second wife, Dina Matos McGreevey,...

Hamilton County officials have agreed to wait to see if Hustler publisher Larry Flynt is California's next governor before proceeding to try to reinstate 1999 pandering obscenity charges against him. That was the result -- albeit tongue-in-cheek -- of a Monday hearing before Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Dinkelacker. The five-minute hearing was supposed to be standard because the issue is before the Court of Appeals and can't go forward in Hamilton County until the higher court renders a decision. But the judge, wearing a smile, asked Flynt's lawyer if it was better to delay the Hamilton County case until...

Washington will have enough forces bristling on the borders of Iraq to launch a strike as soon as the March 17 disarmament deadline it is seeking expires, but it looks likely to wait a few days longer. Analysts said that, despite soaring temperatures which would make battle uncomfortable, U.S. Central Command chief General Tommy Franks may even seek a delay until April 1 to resolve a hitch in plans for a thrust into northern Iraq and have a moonless sky for aerial bombing. Britain, supported by the United States, has proposed giving Iraq a March 17 ultimatum to cooperate fully...

Wait Until the Feds Take Over by William L. Anderson [Posted June 18, 2002] As others may also attest, I have never viewed flying as particularly pleasant, and a recent cross-country trip I took with my family did nothing to change my thinking. It is difficult enough to fly alone or with a spouse these days, but three small children--and all of our luggage--tend to multiply that misery. Even in the best of times, flying with little ones is a challenge; in this day of increased airline "security," the task becomes one of endurance and misery. For those who have...