Free Republic

Al Gore was able to get most people to forget the money he took from the tobacco industry and Buddhist monks by winning both the Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his work on educating the world about the dangers of global warming and other problems that affect the environment. Gore's problem is that in this economic climate he cannot get himself arrested even for chaining himself to the entrance of a coal-fired electrical plant. Realistically, trying to improve the environment during a recession is a losing game, even if the North Pole ends up having a climate like Cuba...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 7, 2007 – Just a few months ago, Operation Rogue Thunder began to reclaim the streets of Jamia and Adel, Iraq, from the grip of violence. Today, the streets not only are peaceful, they’re also thriving. Troops from 3rd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division Military Transition Team; 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment; and their Iraqi counterparts have seen what was once a community gripped by fear come out of hiding and begin living for the first time in a long time. Before the joint operation in July took place, many residents were being oppressed by militia...

3/20/2006 - NOME, Alaska (AFPN) -- After finishing last year’s Iditarod Sled Dog Race, Maj. (Dr) Thomas Knolmayer said it would be his one and only running of the 1,150 mile race across Alaska’s wilderness. But, anyone who knows the 38-year-old surgeon stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, knew better. After getting the blessing from his wife, Tina, the major threw his name in the hat to compete in the 2006 race. “I still had all the dogs and they can’t just sit around doing nothing,” he said, referring to his kennel of 21 Alaskan Huskies. After a good...

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has championed "direct democracy" since he was swept into office in an extraordinary recall election last year, but he's not the only force in California using voter initiatives as a form of raw political power. Several new measures are likely to appear on the November ballot, forcing Schwarzenegger to keep close watch and use his influence at times to shape major public policy initiatives and have some say over how voters might require the state to spend billions of dollars. The questions that appear to have gathered the necessary signatures by Friday's deadline include...

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) - More than 600 victims of the infamous Srebrenica massacre were finally laid to rest, almost eight years after Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, with many relatives making a painful trip back to the town. Over 10,000 people, including many of the bereaved as well as overseas officials, helped re-bury 600 Muslim men and boys, removed from mass graves, at a memorial cemetery in Potocari, just outside Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. More than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys are believed to have been slain in Srebrenica after Serbs overran the enclave on July 11,...