Free Republic

Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she’s the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She’s also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light...

A journalist working for Arabic TV news channel al-Jazeera has been arrested in Egypt for allegedly fabricating videos of police torturing suspects. Huweida Taha Metwalli was stopped on her way to Qatar and 50 video tapes were found in her luggage, the Egyptian interior ministry said. She is reportedly charged with "tarnishing Egypt's reputation and harming Egyptian national interests". Al-Jazeera said the tapes showed a "documentary reconstruction" by actors.

Federal election officials will have a hand in writing the script on Sen. John Kerry's plans to become a movie producer. The Federal Election Commission meets Thursday to consider Kerry's request to use $300,000 from his campaign funds to invest in a documentary about injured Iraq war veterans. The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee wants to be an executive producer for a movie tentatively titled "Keeping Faith," by White Mountain Films. Kerry would not be paid, but he could get up to a 120 percent return on his $300,000 investment, according to a March 16 letter he sent to the FEC...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

An Oneonta man who helped produce a 9/11 conspiracy documentary that became an Internet hit was arrested Monday for allegedly deserting the Army. Korey Rowe, 24, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, was picked up by deputies at about 10:45 p.m. Monday, Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. said… Rowe was arrested on a “military warrant” that Devlin said was brought to the attention of deputies by the Oneonta Police Department, who received information from a source outside of that department… After deputies received the information from Oneonta police, they reached out to the Army, and officials from Fort Knox...

THESE petitions from the Great and Good, damning John Howard, have persuaded me at last. We do indeed suffer from a culture of deceit. What finally won me was reading the name "Phillip Noyce" on the latest of these declarations -- a demand on the weekend from 40 actors, writers and directors for "truth in government". Phillip Noyce, I told my wife over breakfast. Demanding truth. Heavens. I just had to keep reading. You may have doubted that people paid to pretend or make things up are especially expert in truth, in government or anything else. But these petitioners shared...

TAMPA - Maybe it was his desire to stand and stretch in the airplane. Maybe it was the gruesome images of torture he watched on his laptop that caught attention. Something about Iyad Abuhajjaj's behavior on a Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Tampa on Wednesday afternoon concerned airline officials enough to call police. Police have not accused Abuhajjaj, 36, of any wrongdoing on the plane, but a search of his name revealed an Okaloosa County warrant for his arrest. On Thursday, the Palestinian health care worker and actor who lives in California was held without bail in the Hillsborough...

A documentary says French special forces had Osama bin Laden in their sights twice about three years ago but their U.S. superiors never ordered them to fire. The French military, however, said that the incidents never happened and the report was "erroneous information." The documentary, due to air next year and seen by Reuters on Tuesday, says the troops could have killed the al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan but the order to shoot never came, possibly because it took too long to request it. "In 2003 and 2004 we had bin Laden in our sights. The sniper said 'I have...

LOS ANGELES (AP)-Actor Alec Baldwin wants to be removed as narrator of an Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary called "Running with Arnold," saying filmmakers went too far by including images of Nazi rallies.Baldwin wrote in a posting on The Huffington Post Web site that he agreed to narrate the documentary about the actor-turned-governor's political rise based on a reading of the script. He said that when he saw the film as he recorded the tracks he was "somewhat dismayed by some of the images."

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) returned home to Georgia on Sunday from a triumphant weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where an award-winning documentary about her life premiered. Her mood quickly soured, however, when she found the front yard of her district home littered with VCR tape in an apparent act of vandalism. “Obviously, someone wants to send a message that they know where I live and can have access to my front yard to do unkind things,” she said in a statement released by her office. The incident has been reported to police. According to a release from...

Despite the attention lavished on Cindy Sheehan by the media, none of these "journalists" have bothered to ask her about her group--the Gold Star Families For Peace. If you will check out their website, you will find that it is very short on members. Of those listed besides Cindy Sheehan herself, there is only Linda Bright (who is a member of the group, but not a Gold Star Mother, apparently) and Nadia McCaffrey. That appears to be it. Two Gold Star Mothers. Two members. You may remember Nadia McCaffrey as the woman who got a lot of media attention by...

Despite strongly supporting and promoting a new movie touting Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry and his service in Vietnam heavily to its members last week, liberal political action group MoveOn.org had very little effect on the box office totals and saw the movie bomb in its opening weekend. The new pro-Kerry movie which hit theaters on Friday just one month before the presidential election is called "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry." MoveOn.org had high hopes this film would perform well over the weekend. "It's a great new movie," MoveOn.org gushed to its supporters in an e-mail...