Free Republic

Dr. Healy is uniquely positioned to offer analysis on this topic; she served on two Presidential task forces on science and health during the two Bush administrations, ran the National Institute of Health (the first woman to have held that position), and served as president of the Red Cross.

Mr Ainsworth took the unprecedented step of publicly criticising the US President and his delays in sending more troops to bolster the mission against the Taliban. A “period of hiatus” in Washington - and a lack of clear direction - had made it harder for ministers to persuade the British public to go on backing the Afghan mission in the face of a rising death toll, he said. But Mr Ainsworth is the first Government minister to express in public what amounts to personal criticism of the US president’s leadership over the conflict which has so far cost 235 British...

Note to fashion reporters: Don't ask Nancy Pelosi what she's wearing. At Tuesday's state dinner, Washington Post's Robin Givhan approached the House Speaker and, according to a pool report, asked, "Is your gown Armani?" "Pelosi shot her a disapproving stare and rolled her eyes a bit," says the pool report. She also refused to answer Givhan's follow up question, "What was that look?!"

DALLAS, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Singer-songwriter John Ondrasik's annual gift to military Families is playing it for laughs this year as "CD For the Troops III" offers a free compilation of comedy routines to Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, Marines and their families. "I'm proud to present the third edition of the CD for the Troops project 'Stand Up For Troops,'" said Ondrasik. "This year we've gone for laughs with bits from world class comics; Chris Rock, Ray Ramano, Jeff Foxworthy, Dana Carvey, Adam Sandler, Dennis Miller and more!"

“I think that she’s not anywhere near the person that sometimes she’s been portrayed to be –- as completely lacking of any intellectual capacity.” –Mike Huckabee, subtly putting the stress on the word “completely.” Is this emerging as the new party line on Palin among other top Republican politicians? Last week, Haley Barbour told Chris Matthews that Palin is “a lot brighter than she gets credit for,” and on yesterday’s @katiecouric, Fox News Channel host and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee trotted out a similar-sounding soundbite. Huckabee did go with the ‘Palin has more executive experience than Obama’ line, which...

NEW YORK, Nov 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Workers making shoes, Christmas lights, tools, curtains and paper boxes sold at Wal-Mart stores labor in illegal and degrading conditions. China Labor Watch's latest investigation of five Wal-Mart supplier factories reveals that not a single factory has implemented Wal-Mart's basic standards, and a total of 10,000 workers included in the report suffer serious rights abuses. "This is not about a single factory, but about Wal-Mart's inability to implement its standards," says CLW Executive Director, Li Qiang. In the report, CLW attributes this failure to ineffective auditing and a pricing structure that forces factories to...

Eat less meat 'to reduce climate change and save thousands of lives' People should eat less meat to reduce climate change and save thousands of lives a year, a Government-funded report has said. By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent Published: 3:54PM GMT 25 Nov 2009 It was released as Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, warned that global warming poses a “real and present danger” to the health of millions. The report suggests that tens of thousands of lives a year could be saved in Britain alone by cutting the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. The number of animals farmed...

The list of staffers downsized from Time Inc. yesterday grew by another 25 people, even though it appeared that CEO Ann Moore and Editor-in-Chief John Huey would wait until after Thanksgiving to begin this round of cuts. Fortune was the hardest-hit title. Including yesterday's layoffs, about 30 staffers have left the company rather than the expected 40, with about 22 from the edit side. Yesterday, three assistant managing editors were whacked: Eric Gellman, John Brodie and Brian Dumanie, who ran the recently shuttered Fortune Small Business. Two writers were also laid off, Suzanne Kapner and Telis Demos. Managing Editor Andy...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

President Barack Obama will deliver Tuesday's address on Afghanistan policy at 8 p.m. Eastern time from the United States Military Academy at West Point, the White House said Wednesday. The setting allows the commander-in-chief to talk directly to future officers as he announces a troop buildup in the eight-year war.

Video at site. RCMP have solved a bizarre mystery: How did $15.3 million in gold vanish from the Royal Canadian Mint? And while their report is still two weeks away, CTV News has learned the answer. "Senior government officials say there was a colossal error at the mint itself," said CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife on Tuesday night. Mint officials double-counted some gold bullion they sold, and also underestimated the shrinkage of the gold during processing. The federal government had withheld bonuses for mint executives until the mystery was solved. It's unclear whether those bonuses will still be paid...

When news broke in September that a census worker had been found hanged in rural Kentucky with the word "fed" scrawled across his bare chest, a number of liberal commentators suggested that anti-government sentiment whipped up by conservative activists had inspired a heinous crime. Now it turns out to have been a suicide, but the mistaken impression of the commentators was no accident. (snip) Shortly after Mr. Sparkman's death, there were attempts to blame the political climate fostered by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck; Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republican, and other conservatives. In a blog post from September titled "No...

BEIJING (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc's demand for rock-bottom prices from suppliers in China means some of these companies are forcing their employees to work in sweatshop-like conditions, a new report said on Wednesday. China Labour Watch said Wal-Mart, which also operates more than 250 stores in China, is failing to pick up on such abuses when it carries out audits of certain suppliers, calling into doubt pledges to source ethically. "As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart leverages its massive product orders to purchase goods at low prices, and workers suffer the financial burden," China Labour Watch, a New York-based...

Reporting from Washington - President Obama will attend the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month, according to a senior administration official, a sign of the president's increasing confidence that the talks will yield a meaningful agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The White House also will announce today that the United States will commit, in the talks, to reduce its emissions of the heat-trapping gases scientists blame for global warming "in the range of" 17% below 2005 levels by 2020, the official said. That's the target set out in the climate bill the House passed in June. The president will...

Call it the Domino Effect. After Monday’s Newsnight item on the Climategate scandal it is evident that the leaked e-mails allegedly from the University of East Anglia’s manmade global warming propaganda unit are threatening to bring down more than just the IPCC/Al Gore axis. The much-derided mainstream media are waking up to the fact that their own credibility and hence commercial viability are imminently threatened by their clinging to the climate change superstition. Do not misunderstand me. The Newsnight package was in no sense a mea culpa by the BBC; nor was it a resiling from the Corporation’s fanatical attachment...

Everyone have a happy Thanksgiving!

If you’re feeling queasy, look away now. The New York Times scales new heights of sycophancy in its report of the White House state dinner last night, which by their account was the most charming, imaginative, glittering – yet tasteful! – social event since Jackie Kennedy was Queen of Camelot. Indeed, it may even have surpassed Jackie’s standards, since Barack and Michelle added a deeply appropriate and thoughtful element of multiculturalism to the glamorous proceedings. And the decorative magnolia branches, I’m relieved to report, were “sustainably harvested”. Modern Flourishes at Obamas’ State DinnerBy RACHEL L. SWARNSWASHINGTON — It is an...

Now the infighting begins. Democrats fired back only minutes after Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fill the vacant office of lieutenant governor. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg questioned the cost: Wouldn't California be better served spending $2 million to defray college tuition rather than for a special election to fill Maldonado's Senate seat should lawmakers confirm him? "It may be both fiscally and politically prudent to permit the people to make their own selection for this statewide office next year and avoid the expense of a costly special election," Steinberg said...

Kentucky Dem Congressman John Yarmuth was just interviewed on Fox. He surprised me by confirming that, under Obamacare, all health care will be rationed based upon the government's double secret Quality Life Years scale. When the reporter asked him to repeat that, he continued with, "If you want any procedure not approved by Obama's Health Care Panel of experts (hip replacement, cancer screening, etc.), "you will have to pay for that yourself." Pretty clear.

Obviously traumatised by that infamous email leak from East Anglia which revealed the unedifying spin tactics of some of the climate change lobby’s most influential spokesmen (news of which has gone round the world faster than any super-polluting passenger jet), the Global Warming Party opens another front. Climate change policies are good for your health. According to a series of articles specially commissioned by the Lancet, such measures as cutting carbon emissions and reducing livestock production could bring significant improvements in the general health and well-being of the world’s populations. Reducing carbon emissions would improve air quality. Increased walking and...

Dozens of students at the University of California, Davis, ended a standoff at the main administration building Tuesday night after administrators agreed to some of their demands, officials said. No one was arrested and students left Mrak Hall at about 11:15 p.m., said Sylvia Wright, a university spokeswoman. About 150 students packed the building's lobby at the height of Tuesday's protest, which began about 5 p.m. when students were asked to leave and refused. The number dropped to about 90 later in the night. Last week, authorities at UC Davis arrested 52 people - including 47 students - who protested...

Expected troop expansion prompts call for income surtax...

For a man with the very survival of human civilisation weighing heavily on his broad shoulders, Al Gore cuts a surprisingly relaxed figure. With a Diet Coke in hand, and chewing gum rolling around inside his mouth, one of the great "what ifs" of modern political history strolls into the boardroom of his London-based asset management firm, located in one of the city's "most environmentally friendly buildings". Gore is in the capital, as he is every few months, to spend a couple of days meeting with his partners at Generation Investment Management, the "sustainability-driven" asset management firm he set up...

On Wednesday, President Obama will issue the White House's standard hokey pardon of a Thanksgiving turkey. It goes with the job. That's good news for the lucky turkey, but not much help for the many nonviolent first offenders languishing in federal prisons because, nine months into office, Obama has yet to exercise his presidential pardon power. According to political science Professor P.S. Ruckman Jr. of Rock Valley College in Illinois, Obama, a former constitutional law professor, has taken longer to use the executive pardon and commutation power than all but four presidents -- George Washington, John Adams, Bill Clinton and...

The British weren't coming — the British were gone. That was the message Gen. George Washington communicated to the newly independent nation 226 years ago, on Nov. 25, 1783, the day Washington officially "took back" Manhattan from the British. Without benefit of Paul Revere or Western Union, the victorious general relied on burning beacons set along the Hudson Highlands to celebrate the day, now known as Evacuation Day. On Nov. 25 of this year, the memory of those beacons and the message they brought to the country will be invoked along the same hilltops by a variety of historical groups...

The Obama White House is addicted to the “unprecedented.” Perhaps it was a sign when President Barack Obama sat down in January to record his first weekly address and announced: “We begin this year and this administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action." (snip) “Of course, Biblically there’s nothing new under the sun and most everything he’s done as president there is some precedent for somewhere,” he added. “What he does is variations on a theme.” Still, Hess said, the word doesn’t have “great political currency.” “I don’t think he gets special credit for...

A shortage of political will – not a gauntlet of technological obstacles – is all that separates the human species from a secure, prosperous future based on clean and affordable energy, says Al Gore. "Enough energy from the sun hits the Earth in one hour to equal all our energy needs for one year," the former U.S. vice-president told a sold-out audience of about 1,300 in Toronto last night. Once the political decision is made to replace dirty, carbon-based fuels such as coal and oil with wind, solar and geothermal power, he said, the technological solutions will quickly materialize. During...

BOYS face compulsory feminism programs in state schools across Victoria in a major push to prevent violence against females. Possible classroom activities include students acting out scenes of sexual coercion after which students would suggest more appropriate behaviour. A VicHealth report for the state Education Department calls for teachers to be trained in gender, violence and sexual health issues so they would be comfortable discussing "taboo" issues. But it would help if teachers could "make the program fun", the authors said. The report says programs for all students should start at primary level and be reinforced across all year levels...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fl.) is urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to propose revisions to the Senate's cloture rules so that only 55 votes, instead of 60, would be required to end floor debate. His effort -- spearheaded with the help of an online campaign at StopSenateStalling.com -- takes special aim at the healthcare debate, which Grayson said has fallen victim to countless overused and unfair filibuster threats over the past few months. "Why should launching wars and cutting taxes for the rich require only 50 votes while saving lives requires 60?" asked Grayson, who listed a series of...

In the geological past, there have been six major ice ages. During five of these six ice ages, the atmospheric carbon dioxide content was higher than at present. It is clear that the colorless, odorless, non-poisonous gas called carbon dioxide did not drive past climates. Carbon dioxide is plant food, not a pollutant. Humans have adapted to live on ice sheets, deserts, mountains, tropics, and sea level. History shows that humans and other organisms have thrived in warm times and suffered in cold times. In the 600-year long Roman Warming, it was 4ºC warmer than now. Sea level did not...

Banner only .... Polanski könnte gegen Kaution freikommen Laut Bundesstrafgericht in Bellinzona könnte Roman Polanski gegen eine Kaution von 4,5 Millionen Franken freikommen. Dies meldet die Tribune de Genève.

When all is said and done after the holidays, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection may be the only option for many chains, Cohen added. Then again, maybe retailers can rely on Cramer's optimism that everyone is massively underestimating the unemployed consumer who has bet the house and the dog on those one hundred shares of Amazon stock. In the past, for example, retailers like Nordstrom would bring in holiday merchandise early and reorder the best-selling items. This strategic tool likely will not be available to them this year. “Reorders will be down significantly this year, simply because the merchandise...

Approximately once every four years, the media establishment and certain "moderates" in the Republican Party decide to destroy a conservative candidate. They sharpen their blades and their tongues and they go into action, armed with the conviction that the vitriol of their pens will wither away the candidate's reputation and potential. Very often, it works. After all, what would you think of a candidate the Baltimore Sun calls a symptom of "the right, the radical right, which cherishes notions that often are too simple, too negative and too risky"? What would you believe about a candidate one liberal columnist calls...

In Rio Grande Valley, TX: Two Hidalgo County Sheriff's Deputies are behind bars facing several charges including burglary, drug posession and engaging in organized crime. Heriberto Diaz and Omar Salazar were arrested after weeks of investigation. The FBI and Sheriff's Deputies say Diaz and Salazar were busted trying to steal drugs, weapons, and bullet proof vests from a house in Mission.

"PRINCETON, NJ -- Since the start of his presidency, U.S. President Barack Obama's approval rating has declined more among non-Hispanic whites than among nonwhites, and now, fewer than 4 in 10 whites approve of the job Obama is doing as president."

Washington (CNN) -- The United States won't join its NATO allies and many other countries in formally banning landmines, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said during his midday briefing Tuesday. "This administration undertook a policy review and we decided our landmine policy remains in effect," Kelly said in response to a question. "We made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we sign this convention." Opponents of the U.S. landmine policy said they were surprised. "It is a disturbing...

According to Don Imus, it's the late-1970s all over again, and not in a good way. Imus appeared on the Fox News Channel's Nov. 24 "Hannity" program and had some disparaging words for the current administration's economic policy. He told viewers that Obama's associations with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers weren't the problem (h/t Erick Erickson at RedState.com). "You had me convinced - yes, he was. But you had me convinced that Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and some of these people are all going to be in the Cabinet. We'd be better off if they were," Imus said. ...more...

Gordon Brown today sparked controversy on the eve of the Commonwealth summit by suggesting he backs the sweeping away of 300-year-old laws that prevent Roman Catholics ascending to the Throne. Mr Brown is also keen to change the ancient rule of primogeniture, which stipulates that men must always take precedence over a woman in line to the throne. The Prime Minister is expected to raise the issue with heads of government in the "margins" of the Commonwealth summit that begins in Trinidad on Friday. It is not a formal item on the agenda of the gathering, which will be dominated...

Professor Phil Jones, director of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, said the suggestion that there was a conspiracy to alter evidence to support a theory of man-made climate change was "complete rubbish". And he insisted the research unit had never manipulated or deleted data or emails to support the evidence of global warming it was producing. Professor Jones broke his silence after environmental campaigners including George Monbiot called for him to resign over his reference in an email to a "trick" he applied to raw data to "hide the decline" in global temperatures. In another email, he...

The visit to the U.S. of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will focus on important geo-political and economic issues. But this visit also should focus attention on the role India might play in an emerging global culture of freedom, helping both America and India. Friends of liberty should take note. Unenlightened legacy India seems an unlikely candidate to enhance the planet’s freedom. Its culture has been steeped in irrational religious beliefs, mostly unleavened by modern intellectual enlightenment. Religious violence between Hindus (80 percent of the population), Muslims (13 percent), and Sikhs (2 percent) goes back centuries. While tamped down, it...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen next month, a White House official said Wednesday, to participate in a long-anticipated, high-stakes global climate summit. The president will attend the summit on Dec. 9 before heading to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, the official said. Obama's attendance had been in question until now. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the formal announcement has not been made.

At the White House today, President Obama will give one lucky turkey a second chance at life and save it from ending up as Thanksgiving dinner. North Carolina farmers send off turkey to be "pardoned" by President Obama. (Bobby Williams/Goldsboro News-Argus)Obama, a former constitutional law professor, will issue a presidential pardon to Courage, a 20-week-old, 45-pound turkey from Princeton, N.C .

At first it was just an unverifiable assertion. Now it turns out to have been a case of bureaucratic ineptitude and possible fraud. Transparency and accountability aren't working out the way President Obama had hoped. The administration was already skating on thin ice when it announced Oct. 30, with great fanfare, that 640,329 jobs had been created or saved as a result of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Not 640,000, or even 640,300. Six-hundred-forty-thousand-three-hundred-and-twenty-nine. Asked about accumulating reports of phony jobs in phantom districts, Obama told Fox News's Major Garrett that "this is an inexact science." Turned...

Source: Obama to go to Copenhagen climate-change summit Posted: November 25th, 2009 09:25 AM ET resident Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark next month. resident Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark next month. Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark December 9 to attend a global conference on climate change, a senior administration official told CNN Wednesday. The president is also scheduled to be in nearby Oslo, Norway on December 10 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It is not clear if he will go to Copenhagen before or after Oslo.

As American families sit down to their traditional Thanksgiving feasts they will naturally recall the familiar story of the Pilgrims taught to every school kid and, in the process, distort the true character of the nation’s religious heritage. Most children learn that the Mayflower settlers came to the New World to escape persecution and to establish religious freedom. But the early colonists actually pursued purity, not tolerance and sought to build fervent, faith-based utopias, not secular regimes that consigned religion to a secondary role. The distinctive circumstances that allowed these fiery believers of varied denominations to cooperate in the founding...

Obama continues to lose Independents: Disapproval up to 45%, Approval down to 43.8%

I’m glad to say that the hacking into the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University is now hitting hard, and an inquiry is being demanded on both sides of the Atlantic, even though an ordinary Google search for ‘environmentalism’ doesn’t throw up anything on the matter. But, the media are responding! The Guardian (London), 24th Nov., said “It’s no use pretending this isn’t a major blow. The emails… could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced they are genuine… Yes, the messages were obtained illegally… But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look...

In one tidy cover story—The Decade From Hell And Why The Next One Will Be Better—Time sums up the last decade and the one to come. Things were "hell" under George W. Bush, but will be better under Barack Obama. Class dismissed: that's really all you need to know. But just to drive home the Manichean message, Time editor Rick Stengel and Andy Serwer [of Time stable-mate Fortune], who wrote the cover story, appeared on Morning Joe today. Of course there's the inconvenient detail about Barack Obama having been elected in this decade. But not to worry. Serwer explains "you...

Goldmine of black market in Russian data By Charles Clover in Moscow Published: November 24 2009 17:59 | Last updated: November 24 2009 17:59 Gorbushka Market, just outside central Moscow, does a thriving trade in any electronics good you could want: mobile phones, plasma television sets, the latest DVDs, and, if you ask to see them, software peddlers will show potential clients a list of “databases”. These consist of CDs with names such as “Ministry of Interior – Federal Road Safety Service”, “Tax Service” and “Federal Anti-Narcotics Service” and cost about $100 apiece. Each contains confidential information gathered by Russian...

You could call (this) pre-September 11 thinking, except that there never was a time when it would have been sane:((look at this picture) Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq -- the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com. ... Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors -- and he had the bloody lip to prove it. Now,...