Free Republic

Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming. TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO, on 26 April 1986, reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, blew apart, spewing radioactive dust and debris far and wide. Ever since, a 30 km 'exclusion zone' has existed around the contaminated site, accessible to those with special clearance only. It's quite easy, then, to conjure an apocalyptic vision of the area; to imagine an eerily deserted wasteland, utterly devoid of life. But the truth is quite the opposite. The exclusion zone is teeming with wildlife...

Obama’s behavior toward American troops in Germany was so egregious, even the New York Times this morning is picking up the story. The Times writes, “It wasn’t perfectly clear whether the Pentagon asked the Obama campaign to cancel the trip outright or the campaign decided on its own -- after quiet pressure from military officials -- that a political trip to the base was inappropriate.” “The trip” was a scheduled trip to visit American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, one of the world’s largest military hospitals. Initially, Obama claimed it would be inappropriate because he was in...

Confessions of a Money Manager: Gold isn't a glittering investment Ray Unger — 7/25/2008 12:13 pm Have you heard those clever spiels on the radio coaxing us to buy gold in lieu of common stocks that can go to zero? Are they true? Yes, in a way. But sometimes the truth is mixed with a bit of chicanery. Those gold ads remind me of a funny golf story. Ben Hogan is about to play an approach shot to a green fronted by a yawning pond. He asks his caddy what club he should use. "I caddied for Sam Snead yesterday,...

Two months ago in the Oval Office, President George W. Bush, coming to the end of a two-term presidency and presumably as expert on Israeli-Palestinian policy as he is ever going to be, was accompanied by a team of no fewer than five advisers and spokespeople during a 40-minute interview with this writer and three other Israeli journalists. In March, on his whirlwind visit to Israel, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, one of whose primary strengths is said to be his intimate grasp of foreign affairs, chose to bring along Sen. Joe Lieberman to the interview our diplomatic correspondent Herb...

A student group is suing Wayne State University over the denial of money for a week of anti-abortion events, saying its free-speech rights were violated last spring. Students for Life said it is a registered campus organization. And like other groups, it believes it should be entitled to a portion of student fees. The group said it sought $4,000 from Wayne State's Student Council for snacks, T-shirts, fliers and publicity, but the request was rejected. A smaller budget also was turned down. A lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Detroit said the initial request was rejected because of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is narrowing its warning to hot pepper lovers, saying only Mexican-grown jalapenos now are linked to the nationwide salmonella outbreak - clearing the U.S. crop. Food and Drug Administration inspectors are on a large Mexican farm that grew a pepper discovered in a Texas warehouse that was tainted with the same strain of the bacteria. They're trying to determine where that farm distributed its peppers, to see if it harvested enough to be responsible for an outbreak that has sickened nearly 1,300 people and counting.

(Seventh in a series of ten. For other articles in this series, click on View all articles by John Armor--and "Blogs by this author.") There has been a radical shift in how justices conduct themselves on the Supreme Court, beginning in the 1930s. Not coincidentally, 1925 was the first year that anyone who was nominated for the Supreme Court appeared in person before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Not until 1955 did the committee hold public hearings on all nominees before making a recommendation to the whole Senate. Before those changes, nominees were considered based on their probity of character and...

White House hopeful Barack Obama has said Iran should not wait for the next US president to be elected before resolving its dispute with the West. He was speaking during a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, on his world tour ahead of November's US elections. Mr Sarkozy said there was a "tremendous convergence" of views in their meeting. Afterwards Mr Obama flew to London where he is due to meet senior British politicians on Saturday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, opposition Conservative leader David Cameron and the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, are all due to...

Zip. Zilch. Nada. There's no real difference between the scores of U.S. boys and girls on common math tests, according to a massive new study. Educators hope the finding will finally dispel lingering perceptions that girls don't measure up to boys when it comes to crunching numbers. "This shows there's no issue of intellectual ability--and that's a message we still need to get out to some of our parents and teachers," says Henry "Hank" Kepner, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Reston, Virginia. It won't be a new message. Nearly 20 years ago, a large-scale study...

According to reports, there may be a back door built into Skype, which allows connections to be bugged. The company has declined to expressly deny the allegations. At a meeting with representatives of ISPs and the Austrian regulator on lawful interception of IP based services held on 25th June, high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry revealed that it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations. This has been confirmed to heise online by a number of the parties present at the meeting. Skype declined to give a detailed response to specific enquiries from heise...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is offering Obama a warm welcome on the day of their meeting, in an interview with the conservative daily Le Figaro. "Obama? He's my pal," the president told Le Figaro. "Unlike my diplomatic advisers, I never believed in Hillary Clinton's chances. I always said that Obama would be nominated."Sarkozy added that an Obama victory "would validate" his strategy of reconcilation with the United States. His embrace of the United States has made him American conservatives' favorite Continental politician, but he doesn't seem to be reciprocating. Meanwhile, the French press appears to be welcoming Obama Friday with...

It's another reminder of how much McCain is glad to talk about national security and also to let Obama define the race. Said the GOP nominee to a military veteran gathering in Denver: "We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right," McCain said of the surge and Obama's long-standing support for withdrawing troops in Iraq, mocking his rival's signature phrase and the title of his most recent book.

HuffPo notes that Maverick tweaked this charge during his speech this morning to a group of veterans, stating that Obama would rather win in Afghanistan by losing in Iraq. Blitzer presses him here to see if the old formulation still applies. Answer: Yup, pretty clearly it does, although McCain is careful to emphasize that he’s not questioning Obama’s patriotism, just his judgment. Is it possible to accuse someone of subordinating the national interest to their own personal ambition without, in essence, questioning their patriotism? I don’t know. Is it possible to “support the troops” while believing they’re carrying out an...

There is reason for conservatives to be troubled about this bill and its likely passage, but not for the inevitable complaining that will follow when the President signs it into law - as he has said he would. And, certainly enough there is little or no justification for the - equally inevitable - charges of "capitulation" that will emanate from those quarters to accompany and trail along after the Presidents action in doing so. (note: the author will be available online to reply to comments after the Jewish Sabbath is over)

Thank you for that kind introduction and warm welcome. I want to begin by talking about an issue in this campaign that I know concerns you as it concerns all Americans: the war in Iraq. Thankfully, the news from Iraq today is much more encouraging than I could have reported to you last year. Eighteen months ago, America faced a crisis as profound as any in our history. Iraq was in flames, torn apart by violence that was escaping our control. Al Qaeda was succeeding in what Osama bin Laden called the central front in their war against us. The...

DENVER -- In the face of Barack Obama's overseas tour de force, rival presidential candidate John McCain struggled to be heard. Yet amid the awkward moments, he managed to campaign busily in key battleground states and to raise millions of dollars at fundraisers. Polls in many swing states are close, and some are tightening. The Arizona Republican sought to turn this to his advantage in what was clearly a difficult week to be a stay-at-home candidate. He repeatedly emphasized his long military and congressional background, scolded Obama from afar on foreign policy, and kept playfully fueling speculation that he was...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Washington Mutual Inc. slipped again on Friday on concern unsecured creditors are losing confidence in the nation's largest thrift. Protection against a default by the company got more expensive. However, the company said on Friday that it has boosted liquidity to more than $50 billion this month. At the end of the second quarter, liquidity was more than $40 billion. Liquidity usually refers to access to cash and other assets that can be sold easily. WM lost more than 30% of its market value on Wednesday and Thursday. A report by Gimme Credit analyst...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Rev. Keith Roderick, a defender of religious prisoners of conscience since 1982 as the Director of the Society of St. Stephen and Co-Director of the International Taskforce on Soviet Jewery. After responding to the appeals of Coptic Christians in 1987, he began working for Christians and other minorities from predominantly Muslim countries. He organized the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights in 1993, the largest umbrella organization representing these minorities. Fr. Roderick also serves as the Washington Representative of Christian Solidarity International and is the Canon for Persecuted Christians for the Diocese of Quincy,...

Following the obvious political posturing at the Federal Communications Commission, Howard Stern called the opposition to the merger "communism" and vowed to never vote Democrat again. "I've voted Republican and I've voted Democrat," said Stern on the air. "I have vowed I will never vote for a Democrat again. I don't give a %#@% - no matter who they are." Stern took it even further and called the Democrat commissioners "communists" and referred to their tactics as "gangsterism." "The fact that these Democrats on the FCC are communists," Stern added. "They're for communism. They don't want to see companies... this...

He told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "We have various options. The Nuremberg Trials are certainly an example of the kind of tribunal that we could move forward with. I don't think we'd have any difficulty in devising an international -- internationally supported mechanism that would mete out justice. There's no problem there." McCain said it would be a "good thing to reveal to the world the enormity of this guy's crimes, and his intentions, which are still there."

Robert Gibbs, a senior communications adviser to the Obama campaign, briefed reporters on the planne today. I just received this transcript as I am in London, having leap-frogged ahead due to requirements for live shots here. This is the full transcript about the Obama camp’s perspective on the back-and-forth with the Pentagon about the canceled visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. {Read Transcript at the Link)

Do as Al says, not as Al doesOn Thursday, former U. S. vice-president Al Gore delivered a major address calling on his country to abandon all fossil fuels within 10 years. By 2018, U. S. electricity and fuel should come entirely from "renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources," he said. Tickets to the event encouraged attendees to "please use public transit, bicycling or other climate-friendly means" to reach the lecture hall. So how did Mr. Gore and his retinue arrive? In two Lincoln Town Cars and a full-sized SUV that sat idling with the air conditioners blasting while the...

NEW YORK - Cows, pigs and chickens in the U.S. produce enough manure to supply 2.4 per cent of the nation's electricity if the waste were converted into burnable gas, an energy option overlooked by the government, researchers said. Igniting energy-rich biogas in turbines would cut U.S. global-warming emissions from power generation by 4 per cent, said Michael Webber, lead author of a study published today in the Institute of Physics' Environmental Research Letters. The paper is the first to assess the nation's ability to use livestock manure as a renewable fuel, said Webber, assistant professor at the University of...

For painter and decorator Gordon Williams, his van is simply a means of getting from A to B. But council officials chose to give the vehicle a more lofty status. When they spotted him behind the wheel with a cigarette, they handed him an on-the-spot fine of £30 - for smoking in his place of work.

California will be the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants and bakeries under legislation signed today by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The measure requires restaurants to quit using trans fats by January 2010, and for bakeries to follow suit one year later. "Consuming trans fat is linked to coronary heart disease, and today we are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California," Schwarzenegger said in a written statement. The legislation, Assembly Bill 97, was proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Tony Mendoza of Artesia and opposed by most Republicans. Trans fats, also known as trans fatty acids,...

The Democratic Party that existed during my childhood and through early adulthood bore little or no resemblance to what it has become. In earlier times being a Democrat identified one as a proud, God-inspired American with intense traditional values, true love of country, belief in a strong, cohesive family unit, hard work, self-reliance, dedication to constitutional norms, equality and respect for others. Today, however, the party I once knew seems to say forget religious beliefs, forget the right to defend one's self, forget about hard work, just let working taxpayers provide, and disavow longheld moral decency standards as being irrelevant...

Declaring that "there is no task more important for this Congress than to seriously consider whether our nation's leaders have violated their oath of office," Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin on Friday morning told the House Judiciary Committee, "I now firmly believe that impeachment hearings are the appropriate and necessary next step."The Madison Democrat's opening statement to the Judiciary Committee's "Hearing on Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations" was one of many pointed and at times passionate declarations delivered during an extraordinary session that saw both Democratic and Republican representatives engage in serious discussions about how best to address what committee chair...

Skiing, local real estate likely to suffer scientists say VAIL, Colorado — If greenhouse gas emissions aren’t curtailed, climate change will reduce Eagle County’s snowpack by 57 percent by 2085, according to a new report. “The state’s most popular tourist activity is at risk from climate change,” said the report, published Wednesday by the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland. The report, “Economic Impacts of Climate Change on Colorado,” does not paint a pretty picture for skiing — and the attendant industry of real estate — over the next century. The “snow season” could become 30...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court dealt a setback to California and environmental groups today in their battle with the Bush administration over the state's efforts to restrict vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states in January over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The court said the suit was premature because the EPA hadn't yet taken formal action to deny the...

A federal court has ordered the state of Colorado to stop discriminating against students of a Christian college, a facility that state officials determined provided too much religion. The state for years has provided grants to students of secular institutions as well as students at a Methodist university and a Roman Catholic university, according to yesterday's opinion from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, students at Colorado Christian University, a non-denominational evangelical Protestant university, were banned from the grant program after state officials decided the school was too pervasively sectarian. "We find the exclusion unconstitutional for two reasons:...

On Wednesday, New York Times Co. (NYT) reported disappointing second-quarter earnings, and on Thursday the stock continued in its steep descent. At the end of trading it stood at 12.48, or virtually half the price it commanded one year ago. This part of the story is unsurprising, given how the Street is slamming any newspaper stock. What's startling is something else: If you back out much of the rest of the company's portfolio, you arrive at a surprisingly teeny valuation for the vaunted New York Times itself, despite all the respect the brand commands. At its current $12.48 stock price—down...

Wayne County Judge Ronald Giles has revoked Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's previous bond and ordered random drug screening on Friday based on testimony from two detectives in the accusations that Kilpatrick assaulted Detective Brian White.

In two previous campaigns by Christians to disrupt America's abortion industry with continuous prayer, officials with the 40 Days for Life campaign say 35,000 have participated in vigils, 514 babies have been saved and five abortion industry workers have lost their jobs. Now a third campaign is on the calendar, with a signup deadline of July 29 for cities to take part in the outreach. Most locations will have prayer warriors on the sidewalks outside abortion clinics 24 hours a day from Sept. 24 through Nov. 2. Spokesman David Bereit said the first campaigns have seen 150,000 people praying and...

A GAPING hole which ripped through the belly of a jumbo jet mid-flight may have been caused by an explosive device or a damaged fuselage, aviation experts say. The packed Quantas Boeing 747 was forced to make an emergency landing in the Philippines today after the hole ripped through the plane’s belly. Some passengers were so terrified they vomited when oxygen masks has to be used as the Melbourne-bound flight touched down. Air expert David Learmount said: “It’s possible there was some kind of explosive device in the suitcases. There’s a hole where there shouldn’t be.” But Mr Learmount, who...

Barack Obama met in Paris Friday with the pro-US President Nicolas Sarkozy on a world tour aimed at burnishing the White House hopeful's foreign policy credentials ahead of November elections. His plane, bearing the slogan "Change we can believe in," landed at Le Bourget airport and the Democrat then headed into Paris to be greeted on the steps of the Elysee palace by a smiling Sarkozy. "Bonjour," said Obama, after he was urged by journalists to say something in French and to pose for more handshakes with the French rightwing leader. He was due to give a joint press conference...

One of U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s election opponents is seeking state and federal investigations into the growing controversy surrounding his residency in Florida. Former Broward Mayor Ben Graber will hold a press conference at noon at the Broward County Governmental Center. Graber, who is running against Wexler in November, wants investigations into whether Wexler violated Florida and Maryland tax and voter registration law as well as whether he has improperly used congressional housing benefits. Wexler is Florida's only member of Congress who does not own a home in his congressional district. The Democratic congressman has admitted the only house he...

It’s time for the Mexican government to take some responsibility for the immigration crisis. Now that more Mexicans are failing to make it across the northern border, or find themselves back in Mexico after being deported from the United States, it’s time for the Mexican government to demonstrate that it — and not the U.S. government — is primarily responsible for the welfare of its citizens. Raymundo Pacheco, 28, is a Mexican citizen deserving of government help. In June Pacheco, originally from Santa Cruz Nexila, a small indigenous village in central Oaxaca, was deported from California to Tijuana....he had no...

The Arctic holds as many as 90bn barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US government scientists have said in the first state assessment of the region. The estimates could fuel the race among polar nations, such as Russia, the US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, vying for control of the region, though the study said Russia and the Alaska platform appeared to have the most undiscovered resources. Alaska's large estimated holdings are likely to stir the debate about opening protected areas of the state to development. The 90bn...

If you believe as I do that the tax hikes proposed by Barack Obama and Democrats are bad for the country, then we are in good company. No less an authority than Nobel Prize winner and Columbia University economist Robert Mundell, a principal contributor to the creation of the euro, says that ending the Bush tax cuts — as proposed by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama — would cause "a big recession, a nosedive." In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mundell said, "the most important thing that could be done with respect to tax rates is to...

There’s potentially good news for people suffering from stroke and such debilitating neurological disorders as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. A new study by UC Irvine biologists Peter Bryant and Darius Gleason says that it’s possible to “produce new brain cells to replace those lost to disease or injury” by giving the cells a bit of stimulation. Scientists made the advance by locating the exact location of adult neural stem cells, which were found to be in a different part of the brain than researchers previously thought. The discovery arose from research on rats, which serve as a model of human...

As most of Washington met last week to fret over the economy, Harry Reid was attending a less-noticed summit. The Senate majority leader had summoned the titans of more than a dozen industry trade groups to a Capitol Hill meeting, where he delivered a crisp message: Get with our program, or get demolished. Anyone remember the "K Street Project"? Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and conservative activist Grover Norquist designed it to pressure the business community into hiring GOP lobbyists, supporting GOP causes, and giving money to GOP candidates. The press was shocked, shocked, to discover such behavior, and...

A mysterious explosion in a suburb of Teheran that killed 15 people last Saturday was likely an attack on a Iranian military convoy carrying arms to Hizbullah, the Telegraph reported Friday. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards imposed a news black-out immediately after the blast, but the UK newspaper reported that it looked like sabotage was responsible for destroying the convoy as it traveled through Khavarshahar. The newspaper noted that the company responsible for moving the military equipment, LTK, was owned by the Revolutionary Guards and was allegedly involved in shipping arms to Hizbullah. Last Saturday's incident was the latest in a...

Captain Hayden Video at link

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for — you just might get it. For all those who have been concerned that the AP has not been fulfilling its mission to provide “unbiased news,” be assured they have heard you. Now we may be getting something much worse. The AP has decided it will now practice something it calls “accountability journalism.” But it has nothing to do with being “accountable” to readers seeking unbiased news. Instead, it seems to be more about holding politicians accountable to the personal conclusions of reporters. If that seems like a stretch, here...

A hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child. The Beverly Hilton Hotel guard said he encountered a shaken and ashen-faced Edwards — whom he did not immediately recognize — in a hotel men's room early Tuesday morning in a literal tug-of-war with reporters on the other side of the door. "What are they saying about me?" the guard said Edwards asked. "His face just went totally...

Denver, CO (AHN) - Republican nominee Bob Schaffer and Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) are tied in the race for the seat of retiring Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. Schaffer and Udall are in a dead heat at 44 percent each. One percent of voters declared their support for other candidates and 11 percent were undecided. Schaffer has closed a 10-point deficit since last month, when he trailed 38 percent to 48 percent. Pundits are attributing his rise to increased support for offshore oil drilling, which the former Republican congressman supports. Fifty-nine percent of Colorado...

CIUDAD JUAREZ - A group of hitmen armed with automatic weapons ambushed the head of a giant prison in a northern Mexican city on Thursday soon after he received threats on his life from suspected drug gangs, said police. Salvador Barreno, 66, was leaving work at the largest jail in Ciudad Juarez when a group of men with assault rifles chased down his car, killing him and a bodyguard who was driving. The car was riddled with more than 80 bullet holes, according to local media. Barreno made it to a hospital but died in surgery. His bodyguard was killed...

While much attention has been focused on the photo-ops of Barack Obama's foreign trip orchestrated by a highly skilled political entourage, beyond the pictures numerous questions were raised about the Democratic presidential nominee's foreign policy positions and missteps....read the briefing here.

For a generation, Mexican intellectuals have pondered the possibility of a “Greater Mexico” – the idea that Mexican immigration to the United States was so persistent and sustainable, that Mexican culture could “re-settle” lands lost to the United States at the conclusion of the Mexican American War. Americans, clinging to the belief of a “melting pot,” dismissed that notion, arguing that Mexican immigrants would follow historical norms and assimilate into mainstream American life, as previous generations of newcomers did before them. A new study by the Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME), part of Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Relations, offers insight...

Conservatives wary of John McCain and worried about who he'll choose for a running mate are offering up ideas left and -- more to the point -- right. One of the ideas gaining momentum in conservative circles is Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.). McCain-Cantor Campaign Button Cantor, the 45-year-old Republican chief deputy whip of the House, has three great attributes: youth, conservative bona fides and geographic desirability, as Virginia will likely be a crucial swing state in this year's presidential election. All of which may explain why McCain had a private lunch last weekend with Cantor and his wife, Diana, in...