Free Republic

President Obama's diversity czar at the Federal Communications Commission has spoken publicly of getting white media executives to "step down" in favor of minorities, prescribed policies to make liberal talk radio more successful, and described Hugo Chavez's rise to power in Venezuela "an incredible revolution." Mark Lloyd's provocative comments - most made during a tenure at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank - are giving fodder to critics who say Mr. Obama has appointed too many "czars" to government positions that don't require congressional approval. They are also worrying to some conservatives who fear the FCC might use...

Did you hear about the terrorist attack in Europe that killed 15,000? I bet you didn't. It never made a single banner headline here in the U.S. It didn't lead the television news one day. In fact, it was treated matter-of-factly because the terrorist attack that victimized Europe was perpetrated by governments we've been conditioned to believe are "compassionate." I'm talking about what has been described as last month's disastrous heat wave that killed five times as many people as were killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks of 2001. It wasn't really the heat that killed those people –...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is firing back at Sen. Jon Kyl for calling for an end to economic stimulus spending, and they're aiming for where it hurts the most - at home in Arizona. The White House on Tuesday released letters from four cabinet secretaries to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, citing Kyl's comments and outlining transportation, housing, Indian education and other projects in his home state they said would be eliminated if the senator has his way. Kyl, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, has said the stimulus spending hasn't succeeded in boosting the economy and...

I was wondering if any doctors here or moms or grannies have any suggestions for "prickly heat."

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's army of canvassers fanned out across the nation over the weekend to drum up support for his $3.55 trillion budget, but they had no noticeable impact on members of Congress, who on Monday said they were largely unaware of the effort. "News to me," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a House Budget Committee member, of the canvassing. Later, his staff said that his office had heard from about 100 voters

More hypocrisy from the now President Obama. Quote: WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

(IsraelNN.com) Jews living in majority-Muslim countries are in a precarious situation as Israel fights the Islamist Hamas regime in Gaza. While pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic rallies and sporadic attacks are continuing worldwide, Jews in Muslim lands face an additional danger as a vulnerable minority. Synagogue Shut by Force In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim state, that nation's only synagogue was forcibly shut down and sealed. Located in an ethnic Arab neighborhood of Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, the synagogue became the focus of a Muslim mob last Wednesday following a "free speech forum" held in the city. The small Indonesian synagogue, without...

Unprecedented heat will trigger global food crisisMARTIN MITTELSTAEDT From Friday's Globe and Mail January 8, 2009 at 10:18 PM EST TORONTO — The world faces a “perpetual food crisis” because global warming will likely lead to massive and simultaneous crop failures in many regions, possibly as early as the period from 2040 to 2060, a new study says. The finding, appearing in the journal Science, is based on climate models that suggest the worst heat waves of the past – such as the one in Europe in 2003 that killed at least 30,000 people – are likely to become the...

Heat Miser is cooler, but I think I'm a snow miser ... Snow Miser vs Heat Miser

Subject: Obama Took Rezko Money Even When Heat Was Off10/13/2008 1:29:04 PM Obama Benefited From Shady Rezko Deals According to his first book, "Dreams from My Father," published in 1996, Sen. Barack Obama claims that he was a champion of the little people. "In my legal practice, I work mostly with churches and community groups, men and women who quietly build grocery stores and health clinics in the inner city, and housing for the poor," Obama wrote in the book. Yet, in the brutal winter of 1996, Obama all but ignored the little people in his district living without heat...

Call Congress back to have an up-or-down vote on a comprehensive energy bill which includes expanded drilling for oil. There is a petition here: http://www.callbackcongress.com/

Link only.

Expect More Droughts, Heavy Downpours, Excessive Heat, And Intense Hurricanes Due To Global Warming, NOAATornado. A new NOAA assessment reports that droughts, heavy downpours, excessive heat, and intense hurricanes are likely to become more commonplace as humans continue to increase the atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. (Credit: OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)) ScienceDaily (June 20, 2008) — The U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research has released a scientific assessment that provides the first comprehensive analysis of observed and projected changes in weather and climate extremes in North America and U.S. territories. Among the...

The failure to produce additional oil and drill in offshore and onshore areas known to have oil has caused a terrific run-up in the price of oil. The question is this: how has the near tripling of oil prices dealt tragedy in the lives of people. How many Americans have died so that caribou can live? How many from other countries have been sacrificed on the altar of environmental love for any species except the human species? Food prices have soared -- hunger, malnutrition, birth defects and deficiencies are the results of malnutrition. Death is the result of starvation. Fuel...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals. The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush's words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue. In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as...

I have Miami Heat season tickets for the remainder of this year and all of next year. I can't make it to many of the games so I wanted to donate most of them to military veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I would love some recommendations on good charities. Thanx FReepers. :-p

· Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them. This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when...

BAGHDAD — When the joint patrol arrived in Saydiyah, there was already a crowd of more than 150 families waiting for kerosene, Jan. 31. On this momentous occasion, Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers from Company A, 4th Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment, along with policemen from 1st Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police (NP) Division, distributed the fuel to the neighborhood’s residents for the first time since September. The distribution was important for the residents since Iraqis primarily use kerosene to provide heat for their homes as well as cooking. The local residents lined up hours before so they could...

FAHAMA, Iraq, Jan. 30, 2008 – As the teal dump truck made its way down the muddy street, local citizens appeared from behind the gates guarding their houses. They walked to the truck, their hands full of an empty burden. Army 1st Lt. Nick Piergallini (center) and Army Capt. Enardo Collazo (right), talk with Sheik Emad Abdul-Settar Muhammad, the senior sheik for the village of Fahama, Iraq, Jan. 27, 2008. Soldiers escorted a truck filled with empty propane tanks from the villages of Fahama and Gumayrah to Boob Al Sham to exchange them for full tanks. Photo by Pfc....

For the past five years, a group of area residents have heated their homes with stoves that burn corn, an energy source they say is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than gas, oil or electricity, and one they hope others also will use. Almost 70 families in the Takoma Park Silver Spring Cornburners Cooperative use corn-burning stoves that produce a clean-burning fuel to heat their homes.

American commanders in Iraq are urging Pentagon chiefs to authorise the deployment of newly-developed heat wave guns to disperse angry crowds or violent rioters. But the plea for what senior army officers believe could prove a valuable alternative to traditional firepower in dangerous trouble-spots has so far gone unanswered. Washington fears a barrage of adverse publicity in the suspicious Muslim world and is concerned that critics will claim the invisible beam weapons were being used for torture. Now the US military directorate charged with developing non-lethal weapons, which has invested more than a decade developing the Active Denial System (ADS),...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Parts of Southern California sweltered in triple-digit temperatures Monday as a heat wave stretched into the seventh day and contributed to power outages that left thousands without air conditioning. Temperatures soared in the San Fernando Valley with Woodland Hills reporting 102 degrees and Van Nuys at 99, according to the National Weather Service. Downtown Los Angeles also was expected to see temperatures climb above 100. Southern California Edison said 20,000 customers in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties had no electricity, spokesman Steve Conroy said. San Diego Gas and Electric Co., which serves...

But officials refuse, concerned non-lethal effects could be seen as torture By Richard Lardner Updated: 2:55 p.m. MT Aug 29, 2007 Saddam Hussein had been gone just a few weeks, and U.S. forces in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, were already being called unwelcome invaders. One of the first big anti-American protests of the war escalated into shootouts that left 18 Iraqis dead and 78 wounded. It would be a familiar scene in Iraq's next few years: Crowds gather, insurgents mingle with civilians. Troops open fire, and innocents die. All the while, according to internal military correspondence obtained by The Associated...

It was five years before the turn of the century and major media were warning of disastrous climate change. Page six of The New York Times was headlined with the serious concerns of “geologists.” Only the president at the time wasn’t Bill Clinton; it was Grover Cleveland. And the Times wasn’t warning about global warming – it was telling readers the looming dangers of a new ice age.

Bucharest - Persistent heat of 35 degrees celsius has caused 19 deaths in Romania by Friday morning, but the worst was yet to come, meteorologists and medical services warned. The people who succumbed to the heat were mostly older or chronically ill people, according to the health ministry. In Bucharest alone 143 people passed out in the searing heat on the streets. After hovering around mid-30's since the start of the week, the temperature was expected to rise to 38 in the coming days. The heat in the streets is already higher, since the temperature is measured in the shade...

London, June 19 (ANI): Former US Vice-president Al Gore is enraged that his best of efforts to raise awareness about global warming are being overshadowed by the excessive media coverage of people's interest in saving Paris Hilton. ccording to reports, while the politician-turned- environmental campaigner has been trying to get his messages across to people, TV networks are donating the majority of their airtime to American socialite Paris Hilton's stint behind bars, and this is what is troubling him. "The G8 have been meeting in Germany and the United States is throwing a monkey wrench in the efforts to get...

(KUTV) BOSTON - Former Massachusetts governor and Salt Lake Olympic chief Mitt Romney has gotten plenty of media attention this week – not for his political campaign, but rather for appearing in a comic strip. Romney, who is running for president, has appeared in the satirical comic strip Doonesbury all week long. The comic features Romney speaking to a fictional radio show host about his campaign, and his reported “flip flops” on certain issues. “Say it ain’t so, governor,” the radio host says in one of this week’s comic strips. “Changed positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights. What’s...

The U.S. Constitution and most state constitutions guarantee the right to keep and bear arms. Transporting a firearm in your vehicle for protection while traveling to and from work, grocery shopping, to the doctor's office, to a shopping center or anywhere else people commonly travel is central to that right. In Plona v. United Parcel Service, 2007 (U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio), UPS fired an employee for having a firearm stored in his vehicle in a public-access parking lot used by UPS employees and customers. The court found that "the right to keep and bear arms" is enough to form...

MELBOURNE, Australia - It was a thumbs-up dripping with irony. Soaked with sweat, and delusional by her own admission, top-seeded Maria Sharapova had come within two points of a first-round exit at the Australian Open. When it was announced the roof would be closed over Rod Laver Arena after her match, Sharapova clapped her hands above her head and raised her right thumb to applaud the decision. Asked after her 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 win Tuesday over Camille Pin if it was hot enough, Sharapova replied: "You're not kidding." "It's inhumanly possible to play three hours in that kind of heat,"...

Waters Hot owner Kevin Flammang stands next to a component of his Reverse Ambient Solar Energy Reclamation System installed at a hog finishing site in Northwest Iowa. ALTON -- It may have a long name and it’s somewhat unconventional, but all Pat Zenk knows is the new energy system in his hog finisher is saving him money. Zenk, who farms near here in Sioux County, had a Reverse Ambient Solar Energy Reclamation System (RASERS) installed in his finishing unit and his home in July. The result, he says, has been a much smaller propane bill. “We haven’t had really...

Mystery of the Missing Heat: Upper ocean has cooled slightly in recent years, despite warming climate Sid Perkins Between 2003 and 2005, the top layers of the world's oceans cooled slightly, but scientists aren't sure where the heat went. According to climate data gathered worldwide, 2003, 2004, and 2005 are three of the five warmest years since reliable record keeping of global air temperatures began more than a century ago. However, oceanographic surveys suggest that on average, the upper 750 meters of the world's ice-free oceans cooled about 0.03°C during that 3-year period. This cooling reverses an oceanic-warming trend observed...

Teheran police order 64,000 women to cover up in the heat of summer By David Blair (Filed: 29/08/2006) Police in Iran's capital, Teheran, have stopped almost 64,000 women and warned them against breaching strict Muslim dress codes in the last month alone. The authorities have chosen the height of summer for a new crackdown to ensure that women cover their heads with veils and their bodies with long, heavy overcoats whenever they can be seen in public. For years, Iran's police turned a blind eye when young women pushed the boundaries of the rules by wearing the flimsiest of veils,...

In the quaint old days, when a heat wave like the one we're experiencing hit, you didn't worry about, oh, the planet's health or Earth's ability to sustain itself. You got a fan. But now when temperatures soar to record-breaking highs, as they did in San Diego County on Saturday, one of the first things that comes to mind is global warming. One can't help but wonder: Is that the cause of the sweltering heat? Are the record highs a sign that global warming is not the imagination of former Vice President Al Gore and so many nerdy scientists? Taken...

Guard to St. Louis, heat deaths rise By CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer AP Photo: Customers battle long lines as well as heat at the gas pumps in St. Louis,... ST. LOUIS - The governor sent in the National Guard to evacuate people from their sweltering homes Thursday after storms knocked out power to more than half a million St. Louis-area households and businesses in the middle of a deadly heat wave. With forecasters expecting another day of 100-degree heat, utility crews raced to restore electricity, and Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency, granting the mayor's request to...

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health issued an "extreme heat advisory" Thursday in light of high temperatures expected to continue through this weekend. A "power watch" will also be in effect Thursday through Monday for much of the Southland due to high temperatures and increased power demands, the California Independent System Operator announced.

Researchers work to shrink technology that harnesses sun's energy to both heat and coolEvery day, the sun bathes the planet in energy--free of charge--yet few systems can take advantage of that source for both heating and cooling. Now, researchers are making progress on a thin-film technology that adheres both solar cells and heat pumps onto surfaces, ultimately turning walls, windows, and maybe even soda bottles into climate control systems. On July 12, 2006, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researcher Steven Van Dessel and his colleagues will announce their most recent progress--including a computer model to help them simulate the climate within...

Observers of contemporary society will surely have noted that a liberal is far more likely to fear global warming than a conservative. Why is this? After all, if the science is as conclusive as Al Gore, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and virtually every other spokesman of the Left says it is, conservatives are just as likely to be scorched and drowned and otherwise done in by global warming as liberals will. So why aren't non-leftists nearly as exercised as leftists are? Do conservatives handle heat better? Are libertarians better swimmers? Do religious people love their children less? The...

FOB KALSU, Iraq – Citizens of the Bedrani village in the northern Babil province beat the heat June 7 after receiving hundreds of gallons of water from Iraqi army and Coalition forces. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division and 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, initially visited the Bedrani village two days prior to the operation and found the village had a serious water problem. “The village had not seen a CF (Coalition force) or Iraqi security force presence in the area for over a year,” said Staff Sgt. Morris...

Wildlife Awareness Needed with Summer Heat Servicemembers need to be cautious and alert for animals than can cause serious injury or death. By U.S. Army Spc. Anna-Marie Hizer 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment KIRKUK, Iraq, June 2, 2006 — Being aware of one’s surroundings is a skill soldiers constantly maintain and seek to improve. However, one potential hazard for troops in Northern Iraq may be easily missed. And it is right under their feet. "Prevention is the best cure. Use common sense; don’t put your hands in places that could house a snake." U.S. Army Maj. Ken Brooks Temperatures...

We were recently contacted by a Marine officer requesting 10,000 cool ties (aka "hugs") ASAP. We can get that done but we need your help. We can mail 100 for $8.10 so that gives you some idea of the postage costs involved. That's not counting any money for supplies. We need some donations if we're going to make this happen. Hugs can lower body temperatures by as much as 5 degrees. Last year, a Navy medic wrote to tell us this story - - - He said that we had overestimated the number in their unit and so they wound...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 4, 2006) -- Outdoor temperatures sore above 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months here, so personnel will need to take proper precautions in order to keep themselves from falling victim to the dangerous side effects of heat injury. Everyone is susceptible to a heat injury. Luckily there are multiple steps that can be taken to prevent the potentially lethal threat from striking. “A lot of people have the misconception that all you have to do is drink a lot of water or Gatorade,” said the leading petty officer of the I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters...

2/10/2006 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Standing a post, any post, is a tough job. But when the post is a perimeter guard tower at a base in Iraq and it’s the middle of winter, the stakes go up. Thanks to one family in Arizona, the Airmen of the 506th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron are feeling a little bit warmer this winter. When his family asked what he needed for Christmas, Tech. Sgt. Max Quitiquit Jr. said he wanted something for his fellow deployed Airmen rather than for himself. “My Mom wanted to send more cookies and snacks...

PLAY was suspended on outside courts at the Australian Open oday as temperatures soared towards a forecast 43 Celsius. The policy allows for play to be halted on outside courts if the temperature reaches 35 Celsius. It also allows for the closure of Melbourne Park's two retractable roofs covering the two main stadium courts. Play will only restart when weather conditions ease. It is the third day where the policy has been implemented. On Saturday, a distressed Michaella Krajicek became the first victim of the furnace conditions here when heat exhaustion forced the Dutch teenager to concede her third-round match.

FIREFIGHTERS are bracing for conditions to worsen in eastern Australia today amid scorching temperatures and strong winds. Extreme fire danger is current nationwide, with total bans in New South Wales as the mercury heads toward 40 degrees Celsius. High temperatures and low humidity are being experienced ahead of a change which is expected to bring winds of up to 90 km/h. The situation has eased in Victoria after a cooler change moved through that state, but firefighters are responding to several small outbreaks from lightning strikes in the Gippsland area. Crews have also been on alert in areas of southern...

<p>This morning the newsette on my local ABC televiosion affiliate reported with great gusto to my fellow Pittsburgh area viewers that this December is 20% colder than was last December.</p> <p>What in the world does that mean?</p> <p>Now back in school in the 50's I heard about absolute zero, which was -273 C., -459 F., or 0 Kelvin.</p>

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) announced Tuesday that the state would add $13 million to a program helping low-income families with their heating bills this winter. In the face of spiraling costs for home heating fuels, officials are expecting more Marylanders to apply for energy assistance. Mary Lou Kueffer, director of the state’s Office of Home Energy Programs, said the number of people applying this year has already risen 10 to 12 percent. Ehrlich said the program will be expanded by raising the income limits for eligibility to 175 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of...

Japanese company creates heated bra Tokyo, Japan - An environmentally conscious Japanese firm has decided to do its part to conserve energy. Triumph, a leading lingerie company, unveiled a heated bra for winter. The fluffy creation contains special pads filled with an eco-friendly gel that can be easily heated in a microwave or with a hot water bottle. The design also includes a furry boa designed to double as a winter scarf. Being padded, the new bra packs a little more bulk than most regular designs. The bra, which comes only in white, also features a pendant shaped like a...

Government officials are evaluating and revising disaster plans around the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, just as they did after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While war and automobiles kill more people than nature, find out what natural disasters top scientists’ worry lists. #10 Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake Geologists know it’s just a matter of time before another 9.0 or larger earthquake strikes somewhere between Northern California and Canada. The shaking would be locally catastrophic, but the biggest threat is the tsunami that would ensue from a fault line that’s seismically identical to the one that...

<p>MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Shaquille O'Neal has been credited with an assist away from the basketball court, following a suspect who allegedly assaulted a gay couple and alerting police.</p> <p>The 7-foot-1 Miami Heat center, who is in the process of becoming a Miami Beach reserve officer, was driving on South Beach about 3 a.m. Sunday. That's when he saw the man, riding as a passenger in a silver Honda, yell anti-gay slurs at the couple, said Bobby Hernandez, spokesman for the Miami Beach Police Department.</p>

NEW YORK -- The suicide bombers cooked up their explosives using mundane items like hydrogen peroxide. They stored them in a fancy commercial refrigerator that was out of place in their grimy flat. And cell phones likely were used to set them off. Those details from the July 7 London bombing emerged on Wednesday at an unusually wide-ranging briefing given by the New York Police Department to city business leaders. The briefing -- based partly on information obtained by NYPD detectives who were dispatched to London to monitor the investigation -- was part of a program designed to encourage more...