Free Republic

I awakened the other morning from a dream to a vivid certainty. The certainty is that America is in mortal danger. Our country has reached a pivot point in its national existence, and the American people must now decide whether this country will be victorious or join the long line of historically vanquished nations.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., warned Americans that "Republicans want you to die quickly" during an after-hours House floor speech Tuesday night. His remarks, which drew angry and immediate calls for an apology from Republicans, were highlighted by a sign reading "The Republican Health Care Plan: Die Quickly." ... "It's fully appropriate that the gentleman return to the floor and apologize," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, another Tennessee Republican. But none was forthcoming from Grayson — a freshman Democrat from a competitive district — who said the first part of the GOP approach to health care is: Don't get sick. "If you...

A young mother's premature baby died in her arms after doctors refused to help because it was born just before 22-week cut-off point for treatment. Sarah Capewell, 23, gave birth to her son Jayden when she was 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy. Although doctors refused to place the baby in intensive care, Jayden lived for two hours before he passed away at James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, last October.

While a health care overhaul takes precedence, the Obama administration will eventually tackle the Social Security issue, top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said last week.In reality, Social Security is on the table right now, though few seem to recognize it. The demographics of an aging population and slow-growing work force are the primary forces behind Social Security's coming shortfalls, but spiraling health care costs are no small factor. There will be fewer workers per retiree, and a bigger portion of total compensation will be devoted to tax-free health care benefits. Social Security's actuaries project that untaxed compensation, primarily...

CHICAGO – Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die. Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia. The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control...

Would A President Let Our Children Perish? A Tale of Two Baby Girls Twenty-nine years ago my wife delivered a baby girl with acute hydrocephalus. This is a condition of having an excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain (the clear fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord). This resulted in an abnormal widening of spaces in the brain called ventricles. In our baby daughter there was such pressure on in the cerebrum over many months of development in the womb, that not much brain tissue developed at all. The baby’s head was shunted at four days after...

The Hearst Corp. said Tuesday that unless the San Francisco Chronicle can undertake "critical" cost cutting measures including job cuts within weeks, the company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper. Hearst said the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and added that, "this year's losses to date are worse." The Chronicle has had major losses each year since 2001, Hearst said. The closely-held media company said cost reductions including an unspecified reduction in union and non-union employees are needed to restore the Chronicle to health.

<p>For years, the law firm Heller Ehrman LLP used a goofy coat of arms inside its offices: a laurel wreath, the scales of justice and a Latin quotation, elvem ipsum etiam vivere. Rough translation: Elvis Lives.</p> <p>In late September, Heller Ehrman went the way of Elvis. Just two years after its most profitable year ever, the freewheeling San Francisco firm expired, closing its doors after 118 years in business.</p>

Before the debate began, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) requested that the House adjourn without taking up the bailout package "so we don’t do this terrible thing to America." Gohmert temporarily delayed debate by seeking a 15-minute vote to establish a quorum on the floor. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Texas), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said he "cannot in good conscience" vote for the package because it "socializes losses," and he called for spending more time reviewing other proposals. "I believe that this plan is fraught with unintended consequences, would force generations of taxpayers to pick up the tab for...

More Americans Say Value Of Their Home Has Fallen Topics:Housing | Real Estate | Consumers | Economy (U.S.)By Reuters | 21 Sep 2007 | 10:48 AM ET Font size: A record 26% of U.S. homeowners say the value of their homes has fallen during the past year, above the previous peak of 24% seen in 1992, a survey released Friday showed. Reflecting the extent of the prolonged housing slump, 21% of homeowners polled in September expect the value of their home to decline in the year ahead, up from 18% in August, according to the data from Reuters/University of Michigan...

MANASSAS, Va. --Kevin Kelly is a law-abiding citizen who, much distracted, left his beloved 21-month-old daughter in a sweltering van for seven hours. Frances Kelly had probably been dead for more than four hours by the time a neighbor noticed her strapped in her car seat; when rescue personnel removed the girl from the vehicle, her skin was red and blistered, her fine, carrot-colored hair matted with sweat. Two hours later, her body temperature was still nearly 106 degrees. What is the appropriate punishment for a doting parent responsible for his child's death? A judge eventually spared Kelly a lengthy...

Adapt, Move or Die: Prehistoric Climate Change by Joe Palca The skeleton of a prehistoric elephant found on a beach in England raises questions about ancient changes in global climate. Scientists estimate that the elephant was 10 tons — twice the size of today's African elephants. Sam Brown, Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service The prehistoric elephant bones were found protruding from the cliffs at West Runton after a winter storm. Geologists analyze the layers of sediment in the cliffs for clues about the ancient climate. “We're entering a new phase, and it certainly seems to me that this is now...

Scientists show we can die of a broken heart By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 12:47am BST 10/04/2007 Scientists have charted for the first time how intense stress caused by bereavement can make someone "die of a broken heart". A British team has found that the regions of the brain responsible for learning, memory and emotion can destabilise the cardiac muscle of someone who already has heart disease. When we are under stress, these "higher regions" of the brain take part in a vicious circle of activity which can trigger harmful rhythms, researchers say. While it has always been...

B-52Type Strategic bomber Manufacturer Boeing Maiden flight 1952-04-15 Status 85 remain in service Primary user United States Air Force Produced 1952-1962 Number built 744

Hundreds die from deadly bacteria JERUSALEM, March 7 (UPI) -- Doctors said an antibiotic-resistant bacterium known as Klebsiella pneumoniae has killed as many as 200 patients in hospitals across Israel. Elderly patients and people with weak immune systems are particularly vulnerable to the bacterium, Arutz Sheva reported. Epidemiologist Yehuda Carmeli of the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv said 400 to 500 people have been infected by the bug. "Thirty to forty percent of them have already died," Carmeli told YNetNews. "However, it is important to note that most of them were in a serious condition, and some were suffering...

THREE suspected Pakistani militants have been blown to pieces by their explosives when they rode over a bump on a bicycle outside a town in the central province of Punjab. "The head of one man has been blown off," Deputy Superintendent Bashir Ahmed said. Another of the dead men had his legs blown off, while the third had his stomach ripped open and died later in hospital, police said. Supt. Ahmed said at least two of the dead men were students at a nearby madrasa, suspected of having links to Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a banned Sunni Muslim sectarian group. Pakistan is...

The mysterious catastrophe has taken place over a period of three weeks in Esperance, about 450 miles southeast of Perth. The area was declared a disaster zone by government officials. So far, authorities are clueless as to the cause. Autopsies on the birds have shed no light. The main casualties, according to Australian news sources, are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters. Some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found. Some birds were seen convulsing when they died. Wildlife officers are baffled by what they characterize as a "catastrophic" event. It does not appear...

16th of June DEFEATING DEPRESSION PART 1 “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad” Proverbs 12:25 Depression- from Webster’s New Unabridged Dictionary Low spirits, gloominess, dejection, sadness, a decrease in force, or activity, or amount, a decrease in functional activity. An emotional condition either normal or pathological characterized by discouragement, a feeling of inadequacy, the act of humbling abasement as a depression of pride. Abasement, reduction, sinking, fall, humiliation, dejection, melancholy. Major Depression Facts Major depression is the No.1 psychological disorder in the western world.(1) It is growing in all age groups,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2006 – Afghan and coalition forces killed an al Qaeda member and detained 13 other suspected terrorists today during an early-morning operation in Afghanistan’s Khowst province, U.S. military officials reported. The operation’s aim was to capture a known al Qaeda facilitator considered a significant threat to Afghan and coalition forces. Intelligence linked the targeted terrorist to weapons and explosive smuggling, officials said. The assault force first requested a peaceful surrender of people within the suspect’s hideout. Most inside immediately surrendered. During a routine search of the compound’s buildings, a man disguised as a woman resisted capture and...

Peace deal on hold as 20 die in bitter fighting By Colin Freeman in Beirut and Harry De Quetteville on the Lebanon-Israel border (Filed: 13/08/2006) At least 20 people were killed in southern Lebanon yesterday as Israel made the deepest incursion of its month-long campaign into Hezbollah-controlled areas, even as both sides indicated a willingness to accept a freshly minted United Nations peace deal. Within hours of the UN Security Council's unanimous approval of a ceasefire resolution on Friday night, Israel launched fresh air strikes across Lebanon. More than 20,000 Israeli soldiers crossed the border in a race for the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2006 – Coalition soldiers killed 15 extremists Aug. 8 during a firefight at a provincial reconstruction team base in the Kamdesh district of Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, military officials reported. Two U.S. soldiers and one Afghan policeman suffered minor wounds when 30 insurgents attacked the base with small arms and rockets. Coalition forces responded with small arms and mortars. The wounded soldiers and police officer were treated on the scene and returned to duty. The coalition base was not damaged. “These extremists will never succeed in overcoming coalition and Afghan security forces,” Army Col. Thomas Collins, a coalition...

OUTDOOR COLUMN -- matthews-ONS -- 05jul06 Deer in peril by aqueduct, fencing work By JIM MATTHEWS Outdoor News Service A portion of the burro deer herd in Imperial and Riverside counties is being denied water during the scorching summer heat because of work being conducted by the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) on the Coachella Canal, located on the east side of the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley. The canal, which has delivered Colorado River water to farm fields in the Imperial Valley for decades, is being replaced with a concrete lined canal to eliminate leakage. This will increase the...

Hamas call to fight Israelis as 21 die By Patrick Bishop in Beit Lahiya (Filed: 07/07/2006) A Palestinian minister called on his security forces to take up arms last night after Israeli tanks re-occupied a tract of northern Gaza, provoking the fiercest clashes since an Israeli soldier was seized 11 days ago. Israeli troops killed at least 21 Palestinians as the air force launched missile strikes and tanks took up position among the Palestinian homes. One soldier was killed. Saeed Seyam declared a state of emergency Saeed Seyam, the Palestinian interior minister and a member of the governing Hamas Party,...

4 hours ago LONDON - Author J.K. Rowling said two characters will die in the last installment of her boy wizard series, and she hinted Harry Potter might not survive either. "I have never been tempted to kill him off before the final because I've always planned seven books, and I want to finish on seven books," Rowling said on Monday's "Richard and Judy" television show. "I can completely understand, however, the mentality of an author who thinks, `Well, I'm gonna kill them off because that means there can be no non-author written sequels. So it will end with me,...

Four police and eight robbers die in S Africa shoot-out By David Blair in Johannesburg (Filed: 26/06/2006) Paramedics rushed to the scene of a "bloodbath" in central Johannesburg yesterday when a daylight gun battle between South African police and armed robbers left 12 dead. Four of those killed were policemen. The other eight were among a gang of 20 criminals. The shooting raged in the suburb of Jeppestown, east of the city centre and barely half a mile from Ellis Park stadium, one of the largest sports venues in South Africa and a key location for the next World Cup...

Pack up or die, street vendors told By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Colin Freeman (Filed: 04/06/2006) As the purveyors of nothing spicier than the odd dash of hot chilli sauce, Baghdad's falafel vendors had never imagined their snacks might be deemed a threat to public morality. Now, though, their simple offerings of chickpeas fried in breadcrumbs have gone the same way as alcohol, pop music and foreign films - labelled theologically impure by the country's growing number of Islamic zealots. In a bizarre example of Iraq's creeping "Talibanisation", militants visited falafel vendors a fortnight ago, telling them to pack...

A 27-year-old man was killed Friday night when he was sucked into a 10-foot-deep hole that opened up suddenly in a two-story home in rural Alta, Placer County sheriff's deputies said Saturday. The victim's body remained in the hole Saturday night, and efforts to extract it will resume this morning, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Dena Erwin said.

HOUSTON -- Counties that were saddled with chaos and traffic-choked highways before Hurricane Rita are defying an order from Gov. Rick Perry to empower one person to make evacuation decisions during a disaster. Instead, a group of elected Gulf Coast leaders adopted a different plan Tuesday that puts the authority in the hands of a 15-person committee _ even though the ultimate power to evacuate still rests with individual counties.

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2006 – Three U.S. soldiers died yesterday from wounds suffered by enemy action in Iraq's Anbar province, military officials in Baghdad announced today. A soldier assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died yesterday from wounds suffered April 8, and two soldiers assigned to the 2/28 Brigade Combat Team were killed in action yesterday. The soldiers' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In other news from Iraq, coalition forces raided adjacent suspected al Qaeda safehouses about 10 kilometers northwest of Balad today, killing one terrorist and detaining four others. Three of the detainees suffered...

From Monsters and Critics.com South Asia NewsAfghan convert is willing to die for his faith By DPA Mar 26, 2006, 19:00 GMT Rome/Kabul - An Afghan man at the centre of an international outcry because he risks being sentenced to death for converting to Christianity has said he is ready to die for his faith. In an interview published on Sunday by Italian daily La Repubblica, Abdul Rahman said: \'I do not want to die. But if God will decide this way, I am ready to confront my choices, until the end.\' Rahman, who is 40 and has two...

TOKYO - Four people suspected of committing group suicide were found dead inside a parked car Wednesday, officials said. The report follows a surge of such deaths arranged over the Internet. The bodies of three men and one woman, all believed to be in their 30s, were found in a car parked on a mountain road in Shizuoka, 100 miles west of Tokyo, police said. Authorities suspect suicide and said the four died from fumes as several charcoal burners were found inside the car, which had its windows sealed with tape, according to Kyodo News agency. There have been several...

22 die in clashes on Shia holy day By Imtiaz Ali in Peshawar and Thomas Coghlan in Kabul (Filed: 10/02/2006) Pakistan's attempts to curb Islamic extremism suffered a new setback yesterday when sectarian violence killed 22 people and left scores more injured on a Shia holy day. A Pakistani soldier stands guard at the site of the bomb explosion Sunni Muslim extremists were blamed for the suicide bombing of a Shia procession celebrating the festival of Ashura in Hangu in the North West Frontier Province. The attack, which left 60 per cent of the town's bazaar in ruins, provoked a...

Hamas vows to defend itself after three die in Israeli air strike By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 06/02/2006) Hamas reacted angrily yesterday to the first Israeli air strikes on Gaza since the Islamist group won the Palestinian election, vowing that it would never give up the right to "self-defence". The missile raids - in retaliation for a rocket fired from Gaza that injured three Israelis, including a baby - were a setback for international efforts to persuade Hamas to recognise Israel and give up its armed struggle. Palestinians gather around the wreckage of a car destroyed after being targeted...

THE drab compound that houses the Iranian embassy in Pyongyang is the focus of intense scrutiny by diplomats and intelligence services who believe that North Korea is negotiating to sell the Iranians plutonium from its newly enlarged stockpile — a sale that would hand Tehran a rapid route to the atomic bomb. It would confound the international campaign to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions by restricting its ability to make bombs through the alternative method of enriching uranium. The risk is viewed with such gravity in Washington that the United States has launched a concerted diplomatic and covert effort to prevent...

Two people die in horrendous car accident Posted: 11/23/2005 10:27 pm It is not yet known if weather was the cause of the accident Niles, MI - A deadly crash occurred Wednesday night near the Indiana/Michigan state line, on south 11th Street in Niles, just north of State Road 933. Two people died in a violent crash that left the cars completely mangled. At least three other people were hurt. One car ended up in a building, another smashed up like an accordion. One witness we spoke to was amazed that anyone was able to walk away. Linda Miller says,...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2005 – Two U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents in Iraq Nov. 2, officials reported. A soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died when his vehicle was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Ramadi. Elsewhere, a Task Force Baghdad soldier died when a patrol struck an improvised explosive device south of Baghdad. The soldiers' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In other operations in Iraq, an Iraqi security forces patrol came under attack Nov. 1 in Baqubah. Iraqi soldiers from the 4th Division were preparing...

400,000 people in China die prematurely from air pollution annually: expert Cyclists make their way along a street in Beijing amid thick smog. More than 400,000 people in China die prematurely annually from air pollution, according to an unpublished study by the research arm of the government's environmental protection agency(AFP/File/Goh Chai Hin) BEIJING, (AFP) - More than 400,000 people in China die prematurely annually from air pollution, according to an unpublished study by the research arm of the government's environmental protection agency, AFP learned. The study, conducted by the Chinese Academy on Environmental Planning in 2003, found that 300,000 people...

BINGHAMTON NY--the Ithaca New York antiwar protesters who threw blood on a recruiting center, a soldier and the American flag in 2003 have been found guilty of three counts by a federal court.According to the Ithaca Journal, the group, which calls itself “ the St. Patrick’s Day Four,” was found guilty of three counts of damaging federal property, but acquitted of the most serious conspiracy charge.The group was accused of going to a Army recruiting center near Ithaca on March 17, 2003, and throwing their own blood on the walls, the floor, the United States flag and Staff Sgt. Rachon...

The Tribune Co. saw its revenues drop in August as its major newspaper property the Los Angeles Times again reported declines in most categories of advertising, the company reported Wednesday. Tribune said that its consolidated revenues for the four-week period ending Aug. 28 were $428 million, down 0.9 percent from the $432 million reported for the like period a year ago. The company blamed declines in revenues on the results of its newspapers and television stations, which were partially offset by a significant increase in revenue of its Chicago Cubs baseball team. Tribune did not break out revenue for its...

More than 200 detainees in Guantánamo Bay are in their fifth week of a hunger strike, the Guardian has been told. Statements from prisoners in the camp which were declassified by the US government on Wednesday reveal that the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and at their alleged maltreatment - including desecration of the Qur'an - by American guards. The statements, written on August 11, have just been given to the British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith. They show that prisoners are determined to starve them selves to death. In one, Binyam...

120 die as jet crashes in flames By Kate Connolly in Grammatiko (Filed: 15/08/2005) Two people made a desperate attempt to save a Boeing 737 minutes before it crashed into a Greek hillside killing all 121 people on board, it was reported last night. Many of the dead are thought to be children on their way to a sports tournament. Witnesses in villages near the crash site reported a thunderclap-like bang as the plane hit the hillside The pilots of two F16 fighters that intercepted the Cypriot airliner said that the co-pilot was slumped in his seat and the captain...

Four Boy Scout leaders were killed in Virginia on Monday, the opening day of the organization's national Jamboree, when a metal tent pole they were holding hit a power line and apparently ignited the canvas tent above them, according to Scout officials and witnesses. Officials late Monday confirmed the leaders who died are Ron Bitzer, Michael Lacroix and Michael Shibe of Anchorage and Scott Powell, who moved to Ohio last year. A fifth Alaska Scout leader, Larry Call, and an unidentified contractor were hospitalized with injuries, according to Boy Scout officials. Call is being treated at a Virginia hospital burn...

Children die beneath Mugabe's bulldozers By Alistair Leithead in Harare (Filed: 24/06/2005) A piece of red plastic tape flutters from a post outside the remains of Lavender Nyika's home in Tafara - a place outside Harare which means "we are happy". But there is little happiness here. The tape is a traditional sign representing a loss in the family, and while hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have lost their homes, few have lost a daughter. Lavender Nyika's daughter Charmaine was crushed to death Charmaine was two years old and inside the family home when the police came with their bulldozers...

Shocking footage of crowd control 'Chinese-style' has been obtained by Sky News. The film shows dozens of hired thugs running amok in a village just 60 miles from the capital Beijing. Villagers are shown being beaten with long canes while gunfire can be heard in the background. Six villagers are reported to have died while 50 were injured. It is the worst footage of violence to emerge from the secretive country since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. The trouble broke out after the hired hands, some wearing helmuts and khakis, moved in to clear land needed by a nearby...

Will this be the first country to die from Aids? By David Blair in Matsanjeni (Filed: 04/06/2005) A dirt floor and the stinging odour of wood smoke were Margaret Zwane's only companions when she died inside a tumbledown mud hut in rural Swaziland. She never left her children to seek hospital treatment and, until a few days before Aids dragged the life from her, this emaciated mother was struggling to work the fields with a hoe. One in eight Swazis will be Aids orphans in five years When Mrs Zwane succumbed, her daughter and two sons became orphans, for Aids...

Terri Schiavo is not the first person to have a feeding tube removed, although the public may be left with that impression because of intense media attention and her parents' emotional pleas to have the tube reinserted. But getting an accurate picture of how often this procedure or stopping other forms of life support takes place in the United States is extremely difficult, partly because of privacy concerns. No national or state statistics exist on the number of patients removed from life support each year. FOX News contacted more than 12 public and private organizations and agencies in search of...

A federally funded watchdog group is investigating the recent deaths of four disabled Floridians amid an aggressive campaign by the state to cut millions of dollars from programs that provide medical care for disabled people in community settings. Saturday, March 26, 2005 (Herald.com)

The Bizarre Motivation behind Michael Schiavo's Right-to-Die Lawyer George "Killer" Felos Catholic Citizen.org ^ | 10.24.03 Posted on 10/24/2003 12:47:20 PM PDT by Coleus TORA! TORA! TORA! The Bizarre Motivation behind Michael Schiavo's Right-to-Die Lawyer George "Killer" Felos Thrilled to Death: Euthanasia proponent George Felos is Michael Schiavo's lawyer CLEARWATER, October 23, 2003 - The motivation behind Michael Schiavo's dire quest to end the life of his severely disabled wife is not certain. He has a child and another on the way with another woman but a divorce would suffice in that case. However, there is the suggestion that he...

I think the problem here is that you and so many like you have such a funny way of defining life and looking at the importance of it. A fetus that cant even breathe on its own is alive to you and precious even if its own mother dosent want it to ever be born...A woman so totally incapacitated that she cant even aknowledge the presence of the man she loved so much that she vowed to spend the rest of her life with him has a 'right' to exist in such a state. Pretend if you will, that you...

Rep. Tom Delay’s efforts Saturday to have the House and Senate enact special legislation to stop the forced starving of Terri Schiavo and the President’s willingness to return to D.C. over the weekend to sign the emergency law represents a proud moment for all who still maintain that the Judeo-Christian ethic undergirds who we are and what we deem worth fighting for. Long ago Jewish law made a distinction between withholding medication and special treatments from a patient as opposed to withholding food and water. Whereas there comes a time when we are no longer required to proactively employ “heroic”...