Free Republic

Grammy award-winning rapper T.I. told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama’s plan to raise taxes on people making $250,000 or more a year will help create jobs. He also said that people well off have a responsibility to help the poor, through inspiration, work and direct financial assistance in some cases. When asked what personal responsibility he thinks rappers have today, T.I. said they have to help those who cannot help themselves. -snip-

WASHINGTON — Whenever the world's tropical seas rose several degrees, Earth experienced mass extinctions over millions of years, according to a first-of-its-kind statistical study of fossil records. And scientists fear it may be about to happen again — but in a matter of several decades, not tens of millions of years. Four of the five major extinctions over 520 million years of Earth history have been linked to warmer tropical seas, something that indicates a warmer world overall, according to the new study published today. "We found that over the fossil record as a whole, the higher the temperatures have...

QUEBEC -- Quebecers will be distinct from other Canadians in another way starting this fall: they'll have the country's first designated "carbon tax" to help fight global warming. Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard, who announced Wednesday that a 0.8-cent-a-litre carbon tax will come into force on Oct 1, added that he hopes the oil companies, which are reporting record profits, would absorb the tax and not pass it on to the consumer. Oil industry spokespeople were unavailable for comment late Wednesday afternoon. The tax, Bechard said, is based on the "polluter pays" principle. "That is not negotiable," the minister said....

While everyone else is focusing on Bush incompetence and the red-state/blue-state standoff, a more significant and quiet revolution is under way among younger voters. They are identifying more and more with the Democratic Party. In an effort to classify the newest generation of voters, researchers say obvious things about those now ages 18 to 25. These so-called Gen Nexters rely heavily on technology and the Internet. Knew that. They maintain close contact with parents and family. Figured that. They wear a ton of tattoos. Yes, of course. What most people may not realize is how noticeably these people are moving...

Former U.S. vice president Al Gore says he has "fallen out of love with politics" and does not want to run for president although he has not ruled it out completely. "If I do my job right, all the candidates will be talking about the climate crisis," Gore said in an interview with Time Magazine released on Thursday. "And I'm not convinced the presidency is the highest and best role I could play." He added, "It would take a lot to disabuse me of the notion that my highest and best use is to keep building that consensus." Asked what...

"I definitely expected people to be upset, but you know what? I don't really care what they think of us desecrating the flags of terrorists." Leigh Wolf, a member of the College Republicans at San Francisco State University, said this past October while talking with a reporter from the student newspaper, the [X]press. Controversy sparked when the College Republicans at SFSU decided to stand and walk on the flags of Hezbollah and Hamas in protest against terrorism. The group did not realize at the beginning of the protest that several of the symbols on the flags represented Allah, or God,...

01:10 PM PST on Monday, February 19, 2007 Associated Press LONGVIEW, Wash. - Planned Parenthood is closing its Longview clinic next month because of federal Medicaid cuts. The closure of the small clinic, which is open each Thursday, comes as low-income patients are having difficulty finding reproductive care and Cowlitz County has growing rates of sexually transmitted diseases, Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Jennifer Allen said. The clinic provides STD testing and treatment, condoms, menopause treatment and gynecological exams. It has operated in the county Health Department's Longview headquarters for the past three years. Allen said Friday that the closure was necessary...

AL-AWWAMIYA, Saudi Arabia - When the teenager went to the police a few months ago to report she was gang-raped by seven men, she never imagined a judge would punish her - and that she would be sentenced to more lashes than one of her alleged rapists received. The story of the Girl of Qatif, as the alleged rape victim has been called by the media in Saudi Arabia, has triggered a rare debate about the country's legal system, in which judges have wide discretion in punishing a criminal, rules of evidence are shaky and sometimes no defense lawyers are...

Let's begin with a multitrillion-dollar question: Will this rally of the past 2 1/2 months be defined, in retrospect, as the ending blowoff to the rally of the past few years (fueled by what the housing bubble did for the economy)? Or, will it -- for reasons unknown to me -- signal the start of some new leg higher? That silence you hear is the "answer" to this question. Last week, I anticipated a huge reversal -- admittedly, a low-probability event -- as both Wednesday and Thursday saw disappointing tech news trumped by soft-landing/Dow 12,000 euphoria. Furthermore, critical revelations surfaced...

If you've been following recent media coverage of the elections next month, you've probably heard a fairytale that goes something like this: President Bush and the major oil companies have conspired to cut gasoline prices for electoral gains. In fact, a recent Gallup poll found that 42 percent of the general public believes the Bush administration has deliberately manipulated gasoline prices in advance of the fall elections. But a careful examination of the oil market reveals a much different explanation of why gasoline prices have been falling for the last three months. The simple truth is that changes in the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of new homes posted the biggest increase in five months in August, raising hopes that the steep slide in the housing industry may be leveling off. Sales of new single-family homes increased by 4.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.05 million units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the biggest increase since an 8 percent gain in March. The August rise followed a 7.5 percent plunge in sales in July, which had registered the third straight decline. The gain was far better than the 3 percent decline economists had been...

Red card on the field! The foul: a venue double-booking a major sporting event the same day as a wedding. Final score: Soccer 2, Stinde/Lambro Wedding 1. Bev Stinde and her husband, Allen, saved up for years to give their eldest girl a wedding day she would never forget. She got that day, and it was unforgettable -- but for all the wrong reason. Three weeks before Rachelle Stinde and Jim Lambro were to be married, Lord Hill Farms drop-kicked a bomb on them: There was going to be a soccer tournament in the fields below their outdoor wedding. They...

Soldiers in the war on terror have learned much since 9/11. So, too, has the enemy. How the London plot was foiled—and where we are in the five-year struggle. Aug. 21-28, 2006 issue - Have we learned anything since 9/11? President George W. Bush has apparently learned not to overreact. In the panicky days after the September 11 attacks, the president wanted to see any scrap of information, no matter how thinly sourced. As a result, raw and unfiltered intelligence gushed into the Oval Office. A few weeks after 9/11, for instance, authorities in Pennsylvania received a frightening tip from...

A waitress who asked a woman to show proof of age upon ordering a drink was shown her own license, police said. The waitress, a 22-year-old Lakewood woman, had reported her wallet stolen from a bar on July 9. Her driver's license and credit card were in the wallet. The credit card had already been used for $1,000 in illicit purchases, authorities said. Last week, the waitress was working at the Moosehead Saloon when the stolen license was produced, officers said. As the waitress called Westlake police, the woman apparently got suspicious and took off , according to police. She...

I'd be the last person to tell you that money can buy happiness, but I'm fascinated by recent reports insisting that money isn't a major factor in whether or not people are happy. Please. Positive psychology (that's what academicians call the study of human happiness) is a hot field of research, and the folks at the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania have come up with an interesting questionnaire that's been getting a lot of press. Yet nowhere in the 24-question Authentic Happiness Inventory does the issue of money -- or, more important, our desire for financial security...

Economy Zooms in 1st Quarter, but Slower Housing Market, High Energy Costs May Put a Crimp in It WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy showed even more pep than initially thought in the first quarter, zipping ahead at a 5.3 percent pace. But a less energetic housing market and high energy prices are now taking out some of the oomph. "I think we sort of had the last hurrah for the economy for a while," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight. "We aren't going to see this kind of growth for a bit. We will see softening in the...

Party chair's left jabs put Cantwell on the defensive When Dwight Pelz was elected chairman of the Washington State Democrats, he promised to reach out to moderate and rural Democrats all across the state. It didn't take long for him to revert to form — a reflexive liberal playing to a narrow Seattle base. Pelz is living proof Democrats love to eat their young — or at least work against their own candidates. Pelz last week did a disservice to U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and the moderate wing of the party by effectively challenging her Democratic bona fides. Pelz, longtime...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy is strong when measured by macro-statistics, but sluggish wage growth, rising gasoline prices and interest rates, and the gloomy background music from the Iraq war are overshadowing the good economic news in the minds of most Americans. To be sure, corporations are raking in strong profits, which are driving the stock market toward its all-time high. Unemployment is near historic lows. Even a slump in home sales in parts of the country hasn't slowed consumer spending significantly. But when pollster Gallup recently surveyed Americans, 64 percent said the economy was getting worse. Only 33 percent...

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Distractions for drivers are everywhere these days with the explosion of new technologies. They talk on their cellphones, check e-mail or send text messages; get directions from their GPS system; or change stations on satellite radio. Don't forget the age-old distractions of eating, drinking, talking and grooming. Turns out there can be a high cost. A study released Thursday by the government found that nearly eight of 10 collisions or near-crashes involved a lack of attention from drivers in the moments before impact. Researchers reviewed the thousands of hours of video and data from sensor monitors linked...

Ordered to give up his keys, an Arlington man takes matters into his own hands.MARYSVILLE - The would-be robber made threats and demanded keys to a van. The van's owner was having a rough day already. The bad guy ended up with a fist in the face and a trip to jail. "The suspect attempted to rob the wrong guy and got more than he could handle," Marysville police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux said Wednesday. An Arlington contractor was the wrong guy. The man, 39, requested that The Herald identify him only by his first name to protect his family. John...