Free Republic

The Manhattan apartment and Southampton mansion of a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin were raided by federal agents on Thursday, according to the FBI and a report. An FBI spokesperson confirmed agents “conducted law enforcement activity” at the Upper East Side high-rise and Long Island estate linked to billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, but declined to comment further. FBI officials and Homeland Security Investigation agents were seen carrying boxes out of Vekselberg’s 515 Park Ave. apartment building and his Southampton mansion at 19 Duck Pond Lane, according to NBC New York, which first reported the searches. The US...

The Arabic news channel Al Jazeera provides a high quality “honest-to-goodness” service that compares well with U.S. cable news networks, former vice president Al Gore has claimed, Forbes reports. “You have heard me be very critical of American television journalism,” Gore said at the South by SouthWest festival in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, as he was asked about selling his Current TV channel to the Qatar-based network.

I am occasionally asked why it is that so many Europeans display reflexive anti-Americanism, and I force myself to choose from a salad of possible answers. One of these is the resentment that I can remember feeling myself when I lived in England in the 1970s: the sheer brute fact that American voters who knew nothing about Europe (and cared less) could pick a president who had more clout than any of our elected prime ministers could exert. America could change our economic climate by means of the Federal Reserve, could use bases in Britain to forward its policies in...

Recently, The Sun — hardly the most erudite or sophisticated of Britain's newspapers, I grant you — published a feature article entitled "Why is TV more keen on Paris Hilton than on saving the planet?" Actually, it's not so much an article as a write-up of an interview with none other than Al Gore. "Al Gore is a man on a mission to save the planet — and is enraged that everyone else seems more interested in saving Paris Hilton," writes reporter Victoria Newton, who had a talk with the former Vice President. Now, I'm a little tired of Gore's...

Consumer advocate and 2000/2004 presidential candidate Ralph Nader has not ruled out another run in 2008, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Thursday it’s too early for him to make a decision. The man who many blame as spoiling the election for Al Gore in 2000 also said a potential third party candidacy by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would not affect his decision to run. Earlier this week, Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat until he ran for mayor in 2001, dropped his affiliation with the GOP — a move that increased speculation he is considering an independent presidential bid. Nader also...

As the Democratic presidential candidates gather in Washington to make their pitch to party activists this week, "liberal" is suddenly no longer a dirty word. In recent months, virtually the entire Democratic field has tacked left -- not just on the Iraq War, but on health care, taxes, energy issues and gay rights. In each of those areas, much of the field is standing to the left of where Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., stood in 2004, when President Bush lampooned Kerry as a "Massachusetts liberal." "They're responding to the reality of the primaries, where the center of gravity is far...

Former Vice President Al Gore is acting in a very "Nixonian" way, a top political expert says. Appearing Thursday night on CNN's "Glenn Beck" show, savvy Republican political pro Roger Stone told guest host Michael Smerconish that Gore carefully parses his words when he ducks the question about running for the presidency. "He's preserving his political options: 'I'm not planning to run; I have no plans to run; it is highly unlikely that I would run,'" Stone said. "Nowhere does he say, 'if nominated I won't run; if elected I won't serve.' And I don't think he's going to say...

LONDON (AFP) - Al Gore said the war in Iraq mirrors the lack of action on climate change in that the best evidence has been ignored, in an interview published Saturday. The United States was sucked in by "crass manipulation" over the moves towards the invasion of Iraq, the former US vice president turned environmental campaigner told British newspaper The Guardian. And Gore, who is repeatedly asked if he will run for office again, said he did not have the skills it takes to get elected as US president -- though he admitted there was no job in the world...

Early coverage of Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason, has focused on the fact that the book is largely an assault on the Bush administration. But they have glossed over the most significant and alarming theme that Al Gore has taken up: his alleged defense of "reason" includes a justification for government controls over political speech. Judging from the excerpts of Gore's book published in TIME, his not-so-subtle theme is that reason is being "assaulted" by a free and unfettered debate in the media--and particularly by the fact that Gore has to contend with opposition from the right-leaning...

Apple board member and former US vice president Al Gore would win the presidency if he ran for election, says Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he would be elected," Jobs told Time Magazine. "But I think there's a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see." The report explains the background Gore's strenuous campaigning to persuade people to address the growing threat of climate-change caused environmental collapse. "We have dug ourselves into a 20-foot hole, and...

Former Vice President Al Gore is harshly critical of President Bush in his new book, "The Assault on Reason," in which he claims that "the current White House has engaged in an unprecedented and sustained campaign of mass deception." In an interview with ABC News, Gore goes one step further on the war in Iraq, calling it "the worst strategic mistake in the whole history of the United States." However, Gore refuses to place the blame squarely on Bush. "When our country made a decision to invade Iraq, it's too partisan to simply blame that on the current president," he...

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio sent out a message about global warming at the Cannes Film Festival. The heartthrob has made a film, the 11th Hour, warning that human beings face extinction as a result of the environmental crisis. At a press conference in the South of France following the screening, The Blood Diamond actor, 32, attacked US President George Bush, saying: "It's very simple. He's done very little for the environmental movement." The Titanic star's latest film, which he narrates, follows another environmental warming documentary by former US Presidential candidate Al Gore, shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year....

Al Gore's big night at the Oscars -- celebrating an Academy Award for the documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' -- has renewed speculation about his political future. The former vice president says he has no plans to run for president in 2008, but he's stopped short of flatly ruling out the possibility. Should he jump into the race? Tell us, and rate his chances against some fellow Democrats.

The green prince has found an uncritical audience for his message. Feted in Philadelphia, honoured in New York, Prince Charles's East Coast weekend appears to have re-cast the heir to the throne in a new role. While Americans have always been entranced by the gleam of royalty - even if they would not choose it for themselves - America's willingness to hear the Prince's message on environmental issues suggests that he has a voice here in the former colony that is drowned out in the convolution of royal goings-on at home. Americans are not interested in the obvious eco-contradictions of...

I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions. How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alternate universe"?

<p>Watching Ralph Nader declare his candidacy was like having a terrible flashback. Oh no--not this again! I'm not saying we should muzzle independent voices or rule out third parties. Mr. Nader has a right to run for president. And I have a right to say, What an awful idea.</p>

<p>You're only fueling defeatism--and you defeated my father.</p> <p>Watching Ralph Nader declare his candidacy was like having a terrible flashback. Oh no--not this again! I'm not saying we should muzzle independent voices or rule out third parties. Mr. Nader has a right to run for president. And I have a right to say, What an awful idea.</p>

Md. (AP) - The 21-year-old son of former Vice President Al Gore must complete substance abuse counseling as part of a pretrial diversion program to settle a marijuana possession charge. The agreement approved by a judge Monday calls for the misdemeanor charge to be dropped after a year if Albert Gore III submits to urine testing, community service and counseling, and steers clear of criminal convictions. The younger Gore, who attends Harvard University, had no comment after the brief hearing. He was accompanied by his mother, Tipper Gore, who did not comment other than saying the issue was a ``private...

<p>ROCKVILLE, Maryland (AP) --The 21-year-old son of former Vice President Al Gore must complete substance abuse counseling as part of a pretrial diversion program to settle a marijuana possession charge.</p> <p>The agreement approved by a judge Monday calls for the misdemeanor charge to be dropped after a year if Albert Gore III submits to urine testing, community service and counseling, and steers clear of criminal convictions.</p>

Gore's Son Given Probation on Marijuana Charge Rockville, Md. -- Albert Gore III will have to complete a substance abuse program under an agreement approved Monday by a judge presiding over a marijuana possession case against the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore. Montgomery County District Court Judge Mary McCormick put Albert Gore III's case on an inactive docket for a year, at which point the case will be dropped if Gore meets certain requirements. Those include submitting to 12 weeks of urine testing, community service and substance abuse counseling sessions. Gore also can't have...