Free Republic

The night Van Jones resigned, Newsreal editor David Swindle emailed me and said: watch how long it takes them to use the “L” word. That’s not for liberal, mind you; it’s for “lynch.” Destruction of the enemy is always the agenda of the left. While conservatives prepare arguments, assemble evidence, leftists are busy looking into their quivers for a poison arrow, which always turns out to be a tainted label, and always pretty much the same label: racist (or sexist, or Islamophobe). So it wasn’t surprising to see the following post from Carl Pope the radical head of the Sierra...

'Taking Woodstock' set to start Emile Hirsch, Demetri Martin to star in Ang Lee pic By MICHAEL FLEMING Focus Features will begin production late this month on "Taking Woodstock," scripted by James Schamus and to be directed by Ang Lee. Lee's ensemble cast includes Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and Liev Schreiber. Pic is an adaptation of the memoir of Elliot Tiber, who played a role in helping the historic 1969 music fest unfold on his neighbor's farm (Daily Variety, April 22). Less than a month ago, Focus had been thinking about postponing the start of production over concerns that a...

Folks living in Oakland's Lakeshore and Rockridge neighborhoods have made it loud and clear that they want Trader Joe's to open its grocery stores in their areas. You'd think the city's Planning Commission would bow to the will of the people. Not quite. Two planning commissioners tried to hold up the approval of liquor licenses at Trader Joe's stores scheduled to open on Lakeshore and College avenues. The move last week by Commissioners Michael Lighty and Doug Boxer (the son of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer) had nothing to do with whether alcohol sold at the stores could end up in...

Thousand Hurt In Anti-G8 Protest In Germany Germany - An anti-G8 protester waves a flag in front of a burning car during unrest between riot police and anti-G8 protesters in Rostock, 02Jun2007 Protester in Rostock on June 2 (AFP) June 3, 2007 -- German police said today that 128 people were arrested after a violent demonstration on June 2 against the upcoming meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized countries in Rostock. About 1,000 people were injured in the riots. The organizers of the protest in northern Germany, which came four days before the start of the G8...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A student government attempt to financially punish the campus newspaper at the University of California, Santa Barbara was vetoed by the student body president. The Associated Students Legislative Council voted 13-5 to withhold money from The Daily Nexus because advertising space was sold to a company considered politically offensive by some council members. But council president Jared Goldschen vetoed his colleagues' decision, explaining two lawyers told him the student council's vote was possibly illegal. Goldschen said he was troubled by freedom of speech issues. Money from student fees - about $17,000 a quarter - augments the...

Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend By Chris Hastings, Stephanie Plentl and Beth Jones, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:29am GMT 07/01/2007 Diamonds have been synonymous with Hollywood glamour since Marilyn Monroe declared them to be a girl's best friend in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But now a new generation of Hollywood stars is shunning the stones as a new film exposes the darker side of the international diamond trade. Blood Diamond tells the story of forced-labour diamond mines For the first time in the 79-year history of the Oscars, certain kinds of diamond will be absent from...

Once the anchor of civil society in America's second-biggest city, the LA Times is facing its biggest challenge. John Pomfret reports. IF there was ever a "there there" in Los Angeles, it could be found at the Los Angeles Times. In a region whose hallmarks are traffic snarls, sunshine, the Lakers and taco trucks, the paper has been an adhesive binding this crazy jangle of centrifugal energy into something bigger — the future, perhaps, the first modern city. But now the Times has slipped into a centrifuge of its own. In the space of two months, its publisher and beloved...

As Al Gore gave an impassioned speech about global warming at a sun-bathed downtown Berkeley park recently, Stephen Bing stood a few hundred feet behind the former vice president, away from the stage and the crowds, under the shadow of large pine trees. In fact, hardly anyone even noticed the salt-and-pepper-haired Bing, a Hollywood producer who has become the main force behind Proposition 87, a statewide initiative that seeks to raise $4 billion in oil production tax to help develop alternative fuels. Bing, 41, so far has dropped $49.6 million of his personal funds to help fend off an immense...

LOS ANGELES -- A little-known and rarely used California authority could soon be setting a $4 billion agenda to curb California's "addiction to oil." The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority has been in existence for more than a quarter-century. But it has no staff and hasn't financed a project in 11 years. This bureaucratic backwater could become the largest state-run source of alternative energy financing in the nation, if voters approve Proposition 87, one of the hardest-fought initiatives on the Nov. 7 ballot. "Our president said that this is a nation addicted to oil, a nation that...

Cigarette, energy initiatives still ahead as TV ads kick in. A statewide television blitz appears to be working in favor of oil and tobacco interests, as a Field Poll released Tuesday shows support dropping for two tax measures they oppose on the Nov. 7 ballot.Proposition 86, which would impose a $2.60-per-pack cigarette tax, enjoyed a 2-1 lead in July. But the gap narrowed in the new survey, conducted Sept. 14-24: 53 percent of likely voters were in support, compared with 40 percent opposed.Proposition 87's double-digit lead shrank considerably, as well. The alternative energy tax initiative's 52 percent to 31 percent...

The disease of America Hatred now has reached pandemic proportions in many corners of the globe, spreading far beyond the predictably hopeless fever swamps of Islamic militants, French intellectuals, or Latin American demagogues. In fact, many citizens within the USA itself energetically embrace the basic assumptions of America Hatred, perceiving their country as an unequivocally negative force on the world scene. John Tirman, director of MIT’s prestigious Center for International Studies, recently wrote a book called “100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World.” When questioned on my radio show, he refused to dismiss the notion that humanity might have...

Washington, D.C. — Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed its strong dismay at the multibillion-dollar broadcast industry’s latest attempt to abuse the public airwaves. After repeatedly offending the public with indecent broadcasts, four major broadcasters filed what CWA believes are frivolous lawsuits challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) recent rulings. A license to broadcast doesn’t give anyone – not even super-rich Big-Media conglomerates – the right to broadcast indecent language between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The four major broadcasters want the courts to approve the indiscriminate use of words for excretory and explicit sexual conduct. “All four broadcast networks...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show. F.B.I. officials said Monday that their investigators had no interest in monitoring political or social activities and that any investigations that touched on advocacy groups were driven by evidence of criminal or violent activity at public protests and in other settings. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then attorney general, loosened restrictions...

WASHINGTON -- Four African-American New Orleans residents told a House committee Tuesday that they felt a sense of abandonment from all levels of government when Hurricane Katrina hit three months ago and believe more lives and homes would have been saved had the victims been predominantly white and wealthier. "People were allowed to die," said Leah Hodges, who told the panel she still doesn't know if her brother survived the hurricane. She likened what happened to New Orleans, and many of its black residents, to "genocide and ethnic cleansing."

Have you ever noticed how self-righteously outraged liberals become if you DARE to accuse them of being sympathetic to communism? They will accuse you of trying to smear them as well as go into a "How dare you question my patriotism?" mode. However, if you actually READ what the DUmmies and their leftist cohorts actually say to each other on the subject of communism, you will see not only sympathy but flat out LOVE for communism as you can see in this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Why do some people (DU'ers too) think that Communism is the worst?" As usual,...

Humans have been tinkering with greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere for at least 2,000 years and probably longer, according to a surprising new study of methane trapped in Antarctic ice cores conducted by an international research team. The study showed wild gyrations of methane from biomass burning from about 1 A.D. to present, said Dominic Ferretti, lead study author and a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher with a joint appointment at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, or NIWA in Wellington, New Zealand. Scientists had expected to see slowly increasing concentrations of methane, a major greenhouse...

EDINBURGH -- Bob Geldof Tuesday dismissed protesters who fought running battles with the police in Edinburgh as "a bunch of losers." The Live 8 organizer said that they had nothing to do with the Make Poverty History campaign and he ridiculed the so-called anarchist clowns with "white painted faces" who thought they could "cause world revolution by standing on top of park benches and hitting the police." He also praised the police's handling of the protests. Geldof arrived in Edinburgh Tuesday night on the eve of the G-8 summit at Gleneagles Hotel, as dozens of those arrested appeared in court....

I don’t believe in coincidences in politics. When I see the Wall Street Journal and New York Times both running big front-page stories within two days of each other on a subject that isn’t remotely time sensitive, I know that something is going on. More than likely, it signals the beginning of an organized campaign by the liberal media to gin up an issue for the Democrats. When a team is on a losing streak, the best thing the coach can do is line up a game with a cream-puff opponent. Even if the victory doesn’t mean much substantively, it...

Global warming "solutions" would devastate poor people and countries Recent articles about global warming in ultra "progressive" Mother Jones magazine reflect a meltdown in fundamental principles of science, economics, ethics and democracy. The Earth has warmed slightly since the Little Ice Age ended 150 years ago, and humans today are no doubt exerting some influence on our climate. But aside from computer-generated worst-case scenarios about temperatures, storms, melting Arctic icecaps and rising sea levels, there is little to support theories of calamitous global climate change. Models and clamorous claims of climate catastrophe are not evidence, especially when satellite and weather...

Today a wide coalition of charities, trade unions and campaigning groups announced ambitious plans for next year (14 September). In a world where poverty kills 30,000 people every day, 2005 will be a year of unprecedented opportunity for rich countries to change the rules and practices of trade, cancel poor countries' debts and deliver more and better aid. MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY aims to be the most powerful coalition ever against world poverty. It calls for urgent action and is looking to Tony Blair as he hosts the G8 and holds the presidency of the EU to improve the lives of millions of...

You know things are getting bad when a conference sponsored by seemingly mainstream groups like the Ocean Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts includes a panel on "direct action" featuring the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's "Captain" Paul Watson. An open promoter of violence, Watson declares there's "nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win." Yesterday he told the self-described "seaweed rebels" at the conference on ocean health: "We can no longer afford to eat any seafood." After announcing that Sea Shepherd is "proudly a pirate organization," Watson insisted: ... we have got to cease and desist and...

Not allowed to post the story per lawsuit, check the link.Click

U.S. Navy (news - web sites) veteran Robert Turner holds a U.S. flag as demonstrators march in Brunswick, Ga., to protest the G-8 Summit being held on nearby Sea Island, Ga. Tuesday, June 8, 2004. Turner said he supports President Bush (news - web sites) and that he 'wanted to show my colors'. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

The fringe left was out in all its glory in San Francisco on Saturday (6/5), marking the anniversary of Israel's 1967 war. International A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers also managed to lump Iraq into the equation, with the blanket statement, ''End All Occupations!'' And just to cover their bases, the banner above the stage read, ''U.S. Troops Out of Everwhere!'' The banner also called for the U.S. to ''End the Torture'' and of course, there were many references to Abu Ghraib throughout the day. But all in all, it was a pitiful display and the best they could turn out was 4000-5000 people....

I had to take an extra day off to recover from this weekend's activities, but I'm back now, and ready to give a full report. On Friday I attended the Phoenix stop on the Punk Voter tour which promotes the CD compilation "Rock Against Bush". The concert featured such huge acts as NOFX, Alkaline Trio, and Authority Zero. I didn't pay to get in of course, I have a friend who gets free tickets to everything. To ensure that we would stand out in the crowd of dyed hair and ripped jeans, I wore my "Bush Cheney in '04" hat...

Michael Moore is at it again. The fat, fraudulent filmmaker's latest hit piece, "Fahrenheit 911," apparently focuses on how the Bush administration has botched the war on terror. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Moore's film "reduces decades of American foreign-policy failures to a black-and-white cartoon that lays the blame on one family." Naturally, the Europeans love it. Many critics say that Moore's film is the front-runner to receive the prestigious Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival; Moore's smear job received the longest standing ovation of any film in festival history, clocking in at 20 minutes.  In the United States,...

Despite the fact that Seattle, WA is known as a hotbed of liberalism, I was shocked to see an unprecedented display of contempt for our country and our troops on public display. In front of New Freeway Hall, a local leftist hangout, is a brazen display of Hate America posters the likes of which I have never seen. The most obnoxious poster in their display window reads "Victory to the Iraqi Resistance!. I took some photos of this and posted them on the web. If any of you know how to post the photos over here please feel free to...

Halliburton surely got lambasted last week recently by John Kerry. "This war brings billions of dollars to big companies, either to those that manufacture weapons or those who reconstruct Iraq, like Halliburton and its sister companies," he thundered. "And from here it becomes clear who benefits from the outbreak of wars and bloodshed: war traders and vampires who administer world politics from behind the curtain." Oops, sorry. That wasn't John Kerry. That was Osama bin Laden, or at least someone claiming to be him on an audiotape. When the rhetorical lines blur between the leader of the Democratic Party and...

Here is a story you’re unlikely to read in the spate of press attacks on Wal-Mart these days: When Hartford, Connecticut, tore down a blighted housing project, city officials hatched an innovative plan to redevelop the land: lure Wal-Mart there, entice other retailers with the promise of being near the discount giant, and then use the development’s revenues to build new housing. Wal-Mart, after some convincing, agreed, and city officials and neighborhood residents celebrated a big win — better shopping, more jobs, and new housing in one of America’s poorest cities. But then, out of nowhere, outsiders claiming to represent...

Liberalism Is Unpatriotic Kyle Williams During the dead heat of this election year, sharp criticism is in the air against President Bush, and this being a post-war time, critics are out in further attacks over the legitimacy of the war in Iraq. In return, these critics are being attacked by conservatives and by the administration; thus an all-out political war is ongoing. These critics must concur with Hillary Clinton, who, in April 2003, shouted out to a group of supporters, "I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow...

Suzanne, grandmotherly with neat snowy hair, prim gray anorak and white shirt fastened at the collar with a blue brooch, glanced furtively up and down the subway platform bustling with out-on-the-towners. Slowly, the station emptied; the coast was clear. Spinning on her heels, a mischievous glint in her soft blue eyes, she whipped a red wax crayon from her handbag and, wielding it sword-like, scrawled her fury across a billboard advertising home appliances. "TOO MANY THINGS, NOT ENOUGH POETRY!" she wrote. Pow! Thus another blow was struck in a fight raging in France against advertising. The attackers are a small,...

Stars mark women's day in India Fonda (left) said violence affected women all over the world Actresses Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei marked International Women's Day by staging a performance of The Vagina Monologues in India. The show was set up by the V-Day Foundation, a charity run by Monologues author Eve Ensler which raises awareness of violence against women. Indian and Pakistani actresses joined the show in Bombay, also called Mumbai. "Violence comes in many forms and affects women all over the world," Fonda said after the performance. Fonda, 66, said she had had to take a back seat...

Actresses Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei marked International Women's Day by staging a performance of The Vagina Monologues in India. The show was set up by the V-Day Foundation, a charity run by Monologues author Eve Ensler which raises awareness of violence against women. Indian and Pakistani actresses joined the show in Bombay, also called Mumbai. "Violence comes in many forms and affects women all over the world," Fonda said after the performance. Fonda, 66, said she had had to take a back seat in each of her three marriages. "Behind the closed doors of my marriage, I would...

If you're like me, that means you've locked yourself inside your home all day in a bid to avoid roving parades of indigenous lesbian organic women farmers burning McDonald's flags while singing folk songs berating the imperialist economy. Painful herstory demonstrations and protest marches aside, though, you would think that the symbolic day would at least be an opportunity for the world's feminists and human rights advocates to highlight some of the real oppression that women face--especially in Islamic countries where burkas and headscarves are still the order of the day. But you would be quite wrong. Instead of using...

<p>If someone had told me a few months ago that I’d be writing a piece for Front Page on this theme, I would’ve dismissed him as a lunatic. After all, then I was supporting the positions expected from those on the so-called antiwar right. I was harshly critical of Israeli defense initiatives, more willing to talk up for Noam Chomsky than the sitting President, and insistent upon baiting “neo-conservative” Michael Ledeen of National Review into admitting that he sought to see the regime in Tehran overthrown by any means necessary, including US Military involvement.</p>

India's technology industry has attacked proposed new US legislation that bans the outsourcing of federal work to low cost countries arguing it is a protectionist measure contrary to the spirit of free trade. The move by the US Senate coincides with decisions by a number of foreign companies to halt further outsourcing to India because of a new domestic tax ruling that would enable the Indian government to tax part of their worldwide earnings. (complete article at linked URL)

<p>The last of three recent Douglas Freeman High School graduates pleaded guilty yesterday to a federal conspiracy charge for vandalism against construction sites, fast-food restaurants and sport utility vehicles parked in western Henrico County.</p> <p>John Burton Wade, 18, pleaded guilty yesterday morning in U.S. District Court. Virden Blackwell, 20, pleaded guilty Dec. 18, and Aaron Labe Linas, 18, pleaded guilty Wednesday.</p>

InternationalAnswer is sponsoring a NYC Rally Thursday, January 15th, 2004 Details: Rally in Front of Madison Square Garden To Demonstrate Opposition to Bush's Convention And Say "Bring the Troops Home Now!" Thursday, January 15 4:30-7:00 p.m. 32 St. and 7th Ave. New York City Their “Bring the Troops Home Now” rally serves only to embolden the enemy & improve the enemy’s morale, while possibly simultaneously doing the opposite to our troops. I plan to protest their rally. Is there any way FReeps can blunt their attempt to kill more of our troops?

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The comedian David Cross once remarked that our country must be in trouble because we have to read other countries' newspapers to find out what is going on in our own nation. Last Saturday, community activists convened at a small house on the west side of Ann Arbor, Mich., to witness video footage compiled by independent journalists of the police brutality at the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas conference in Miami last month. The footage, and the lack of media exposure of what actually happened, is living proof that our country's media is currently divorced...

Employees at as many as 16 area Starbucks were greeted Sunday morning with stores whose doors had been glued shut, police said, in objection to the ubiquitous chain's "corporate coffee." Protesters placed glue in the locks at several stores in central and western Houston and left behind fliers. "I bet you are wondering why your local Starbucks is closed this morning," one read, according to Houston Police Department spokesman Alvin Wright. Attempts to reach officials with Starbucks on Sunday were unsuccessful. "This dispute appears to be part of an ongoing conflict between these individuals and the chain," Wright said. Employees...

European Social Forum looks eastby Arthur Neslen in ParisFriday 14 November 2003 3:43 PM GMT From all over Europe they came, idealists, activists, dreamers and revolutionaries, but their sights were set on events in the Middle East.Iraq and Palestine dominated debate among the 50,000 delegates at the European Social Forum (ESF) in Paris, as the gathering spontaneously caught fire on its second day. “This forum is creating a space for the Palestinian narrative that is not available in the mainstream,” the Palestinian civil society spokesman Mustafa Barghouti told AlJazeera.net. “With the efforts of the ESF to re-energize it, the international...

European Social Forum puts pressure on Europe's power elite PARIS (AFP) Nov 15, 2003 Tens of thousands of opponents of war, discrimination and corporate greed from more than 60 countries paraded through Paris Saturday in a show of grassroots force to Europe's power elite. Winding up a four-day European Social Forum that drew some 50,000 participants and more than 200 organizations, according to organizers, the marchers blew whistles, sang and played music under the banner of "For a Europe of rights in a war-free world". The purpose of the ESF was to focus public debate, particularly on the future of...

<p>WASHINGTON - Their mission to Miami already has begun. Some of the Pittsburgh Organizing Group -- known to the police as "The Padded Bloc" -- are on their way, linking up in Florida with the Pagan Cluster from New York City, former cell mates from D.C.'s Anti-Capitalist Convergence and the guerrilla gardeners of San Francisco's Killer Tomatoes.</p>

HOW THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT IS BLOWING IT by Bill Weinberg Raining on a parade--or, in this case, an anti-war march--isn't likely to win one popularity contests. But somebody has got to raise the alarm. The upcoming Oct. 25 march in Washington DC is being billed as a revitalization of the movement which made history with coordinated worldwide protests against the looming US-led assualt on Iraq Feb. 15. But the new mobilization actually represents a dangerous step backwards for the anti-war forces in the US. This effort displays more sanctimony than analysis, and the sloppy thinking in evidence is unlikely to...

Bands Rock Against Bush Concerts and tours to raise awareness about 2004 election Sonic Youth, the Donnas, the Liars, the Locust and Erase Errata are among the groups who have pledged their support for Bands Against Bush, a self-explanatory new artistic collective dedicated to lending its support to the "struggle against a world of perpetual fear and violence bolstered by the Bush administration." BAB has set up more than twenty regional chapters in the U.S. and abroad, with a directory of groups willing to participate in various events to raise voter awareness. Among the events planned is an October 11th...

Billionaire mounting anti-Bush effort RESTON, Va., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Billionaire George Soros reportedly is putting together a $10 million warchest to prevent U.S. President George Bush from winning a second term. Soros, who in 1992 made $1 billion in a single day through currency speculation that drove down the British pound, along with a group of philanthropists and trade unions, is mounting a campaign to unseat Bush for what he sees as the administration's misuse of power, Canada's National Post reported. "You passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act without proper discussion," Soros said in a recent interview with PBS. "Anyone...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A Vancouver, B.C.-based anti-corporate activist group is taking on sneaker giant Nike, with plans to market $60 pairs of plain canvas shoes that are a long way from Nike's signature showy athletic footwear. Adbusters Media Foundation says it hopes to "transform capitalism" with its $1 million campaign, with funding from investors and sales of its magazine. The group plans to take out a full page ad in The New York Times within the next two months to promote its blackSpot sneaker campaign, designed to "show that we have the power to un-cool megabrands," said Kalle Lasn, the...

Why A Naked Bike Ride? Every day we are bombarded with countless messages demanding our obedience to the corporate dictates of a consumption dependent society. Little regard is paid to the future of our planet and generations left with a legacy of waste and environmental contamination. How many countless times each day do our media masters spin the same message: Unless you buy this, you are not worthy. Unless you look like this you should be ashamed. By cruising naked down the spending frenzy capitals of the world, we are saying.NO! ...a fancy new car is not a mark of...

WASHINGTON - Next week will see the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, which also spawned a whole new branch in international anti-Semitism. A survey published this week by the Anti-Defamation League finds that "hateful conspiracy theories" - claiming that Jews and Israel were behind the attacks in which 3,000 people were killed - are still being disseminated. In fact, these theories are gaining strength rather than dying out. "The 9/11 attacks have fueled an entire new genre of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories leading to an environment where rumors about Jews are finding acceptance in the...

<p>Burning Man, the wild counterculture festival held annually in one of the nation's most remote areas, is coming to cities across America.</p> <p>It's time to try to influence the very culture against which this year's record 30,500 Burning Man participants rebelled, the phenomenon's founder and resident visionary said in an interview.</p>