Free Republic

With Newt Gingrich breaking out of the pack as the conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina, he came under attack Friday from an old friend and colleague in Congress, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Santorum had largely avoided political attacks against Gingrich, whom he once considered a political mentor. But on Friday, the glove came off as Santorum took the former House speaker to task for being insufficiently conservative on climate change, free markets and health care. "Conservative alternatives don't go out and attack the capitalist system as he has done. Conservative alternatives don't promote...

Poisoned cat-meat stew is suspected to have been used to kill a billionaire in southern China. Police have detained a local official in Guangdong province in connection with the sudden death of Long Liyuan on 23 December. The official, Huang Guang, is suspected of adding a toxic plant to the stew at a restaurant where they were eating. A police statement said the two were involved in a dispute after Mr Huang allegedly embezzled money from Mr Long. Mr Huang, an agriculture official in Bajia, took Mr Long, who ran a forestry company, to visit a piece of woodland on...

Natalya Murakhver, a New York food writer and mother of an 18-month year old daughter, loved her premium brand orange juice -- the "100 percent pure" and "not from concentrate" kind that comes in the colorful carton and tastes consistently delicious. That is, until she said she learned from her first-time moms group that there's a "secret ingredient" in all premium orange juices that companies are not required to put on their labeling. Now, after writing Whole Foods, she refuses to buy her favorite, "365" juice, amid uncertainty about its contents. "One of the moms said she had read about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840uysdm924 Peter Schiff slices and dices Obama's bogus speech in Kansas.

Chicken jerky treats may be to blame for dozens of new reports of mysterious illnesses and some deaths in dogs, prompting a renewed warning for pet owners by the Food and Drug Administration. At least 70 dogs have been sickened so far this year after reportedly eating chicken jerky products imported from China, FDA officials said. That’s up from 54 reports of illness in 2010. Some of the dogs have died, according to the anecdotal reports from pet owners and veterinarians. FDA officials say they have not been able to find a cause for the illnesses. Extensive chemical and microbiological...

MADRID: An Al-Qaeda suspect plotted to poison tourists’ water supplies to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, a Spanish judge said Saturday as he remanded the man in custody. Abdellatif Aoulad Chiba, a 36-year-old Moroccan, had gone so far as to obtain manuals on poisons, toxins and explosives on jihadist websites, the judge said. Police swooped soon after the suspect appeared to be saying farewell to his wife. Chiba’s online comments on jihadist websites “expressed a clear desire to carry out an attack against ‘infidels’ by poisoning human water supplies”, he said in a written ruling. The online comments...

A McHenry County man has pleaded guilty to obtaining a deadly puffer-fish poison for use as a weapon. Authorities say Edward F. Bachner IV wanted to use it to kill his wife and collect on a $20 million insurance policy.

The Chinese government has sentenced Gao Yanjun, a butcher from the northern city of Jinzhou, to life in prison -- and four others to up to 15 years in prison -- for illegally adding poisonous, industrial-grade nitrates to meat products they sold, in order to enhance their color and texture

GOP: Pelosi 'A Potent Poison'Published on May 21, 2011 by Staff Reporter WASHINGTON, D.C. (USA) OfficialWire News Bureau Although Democrat Nancy Pelosi is no longer House speaker she is still "a potent poison" and the focal point in many Republican attack ads, an official said. Pelosi lost her position as speaker in January but National Republican Congressional Committee members see her as a divisive figure and potential threat should the Democrats take back the House, Politico reported Friday. "She's still a potent poison in the minds of Republican and independent voters. I can't imagine they want her back as speaker....

SNIPPET: "RIYADH: A suicide bomber lightly wounded a senior prince largely credited for Saudi Arabia's anti-terrorism campaign when he blew himself up just before going into a gathering of well-wishers for the Muslim holy month of Ramazan, the state news agency said Friday. It was the first known assassination attempt against a member of the royal family since Saudi Arabia began its crackdown on al-Qaeda affiliated militants eight years ago following the September 11 terror attacks in the United States." SNIPPET: "It said the prince, who is the son of Interior Minister Prince Nayef, was discharged from the hospital and...

LAS VEGAS -- An unemployed graphic designer who told investigators that he found making ricin an "exotic idea" pleaded guilty Monday to possessing the deadly toxin in a hotel room here. Roger Bergendorff, 57, also pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge. (A second weapons charge was dropped.) He could face up to 20 years in prison at his Nov. 3 sentencing, though prosecutors are recommending that he serve a little more than three years. Bergendorff reportedly fantasized about harming people with the poison -- he had sketched an "injection delivery device" disguised as a pen -- but never carried...

Are Americans being deliberately poisoned by the United States Government? As far-fetched as that may sound, evidence is clearly mounting that would indicate that there is an insidious plot underway that threatens the health of every man, woman and child living in America. In two stories that have floated under the radar for the last couple of years, Congress and health authorities have been working together to pass laws that would sicken the populace and perhaps endanger their very lives. First, there was the Energy Independence and Security Act, passed by Congress in 2007, a provision of which made it...

YANKTON, S.D. (KTIV) -- It's happened in places like Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky. Hundreds of birds mysteriously found dead. Folks in Yankton, South Dakota, thought they were being added to the list after hundreds of dead birds were found there on Monday. Turns out the unpleasant feathered discovery has a solid explanation. They were poisoned. Some had thought 200 starlings found dead in Yankton's Riverside park had frozen to death. But they were actually poisoned on purpose, by the US Department of Agriculture. Many of the European Starlings discovered by a passerby, were laying on the ground or frozen in...

An environmental group that analyzed the drinking water in 35 cities across the United States, including Bethesda and Washington, found that most contained hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen that was made famous by the film "Erin Brockovich." The study, which will be released Monday by the Environmental Working Group, is the first nationwide analysis of hexavalent chromium in drinking water to be made public.

WASHINGTON — In most administrations, "leaks" of classified information precipitate presidential ire. Nearly all such unauthorized disclosures are the consequence of disgruntled government employees deciding that a "leak" is the best way to stop some activity they have decided should not continue. To justify their unlawful actions, they call themselves "secret whistle-blowers." The so-called "mainstream media" love them. Most American presidents do not. That's what makes the current commander in chief's reactions to a whole series of "leaks" so unusual. President Barack Obama doesn't seem to be concerned at all. President Ronald Reagan was infuriated by the publication and broadcast...

Don't eat the seafood and stay out of the Gulf! This is one of many independent testing reports on the Gulf's condition as it relates to human life.

Any culture’s religious ceremonies can seem strange to outsiders: For example, take the indigenous Zoque people of southern Mexico. To ask their gods for bountiful rains during the growing season they head to a sulfur cave where molly fish swim in the subterranean lake. They then toss in leaf bundles that contain a paste made from the mashed-up root of the Barbasco plant, which has a powerful anesthetic effect. When the stunned fish–which the Zoque people consider a gift from underworld gods–go belly-up, people scoop them from the water and bring them home for supper. This fishy protein helps them...

Kim Jensen of Laguna Beach, CA recently discovered that her cat had become violently ill from chewing on the carcass of a gopher that had been poisoned by her neighbor’s rodent repellent. Jensen is suing the city for $950.25 in vet bills because she claims her neighbor, Bill Martinez took the poison, which is city property, “for his personal use.” In an article by Claudia Koerner in the Orange County Register, Jensen explains her actions, saying, “‘The city needs to be responsible for its employees,’ Jensen said, adding it stings that her tax dollars may have in part funded the...

Girl attacked in 2008 acid throwing, determined to get education. Family in danger from relatives of acid throwers. Afghan girls attending the Totia Girls School in Kabul were attacked with an unidentified poisonous gas. The spokesman for the education ministry, Asif Nang, said that it was part of a series of attacks against schoolgirls. "We were in our classroom when I smelt a bad smell. Our teacher walked outside the class to find out whether the smell is just in our classroom or everywhere at school," Farida, a 12-year-old schoolgirl being treated at the local hospital, said. "When she found...

THREE EMPLOYEES OF US EMBASSY IN FRANCE BEING TREATED FOR POISONING AFTER OPENING MAIL - POLICE

This .. I know is an odd question and I couldn't figure out exactly how or where to post it so-o-o "You Won"! 8) A lot of folks DO look upon squirrels as a pest but I kinda get a kick out of watching them. I have never seen a squirrel eat a back-yard mushroom .. until today! I don't know what kind of mushroom this would be but I guess that it is the typical, growing over buried, dead wood type that grows in forested areas. (my home is in a 'forest') I walked around looking for a 'dead...

Bret Michaels has suffered what doctors call a "warning stroke," or a transient ischemic attack, according to his Web site. The rocker, 47 -- who is still recovering from a brain hemorrhage -- was "readmitted to the hospital this week after suffering numbness on the left side of his body, predominately his face and hands," according to a statement posted on his site. While undergoing tests -- including an MRI and CT scan -- doctors also discovered he has a hole in his heart.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - If the April 1 death of a Tacoma woman was due to hemlock poisoning, it would be the first such fatality in 11 years in the state, the Washington Poison Center said. Sakha Keo, 55, apparently put hemlock in a salad she ate, thinking it was something else, said Annie Waisanen, a Pierce County medical investigator.

In her new memoir, former first lady Laura Bush writes that she, her husband and the American delegation may have been poisoned at the 2007 G-8 summit hosted by Germany. German federal investigators as well as the kitchen staff at the Grand Hotel Heiligendamm refute her account. Steffen Duckhorn still remembers well the day Laura Bush thought she might die. He was feeling a bit worked up because he had heard that President George W. Bush, who was attending the G-8 summit in June 2007 in Heiligendamm, Germany, wasn't feeling well. Duckhorn had cooked for the president, and Bush was...

The former first lady Laura Bush has opened a diplomatic can of worms by writing in her new book that she and her husband may have been poisoned during a state visit to a G8 summit in Germany in 2007. The passage of Spoken From the Heart in which she discusses the incident amounts to the first time that the idea has been floated that George Bush's illness at the summit may have been the result of poisoning. The then US president succumbed to a stomach complaint, as did his wife and several members of their entourage, during a three-day...

Bret Michaels's health has taken a turn for the worse, PEOPLE has learned: After an excruciating headache late Thursday night, the star was rushed to an undisclosed hospital where doctors discovered he suffered a massive subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding at the base of his brain stem), according to a source close to the situation. Michaels, 47, is currently in critical condition. "After several CAT scans, MRIs and an angiogram, [doctors] decided to keep Michaels in the ICU and are running several tests to determine the cause. [It] will be touch and go for the next few days while he is under...

For the first time, compounds that protect against ricin poisoning have been identified by French researchers. It's hoped the research could lead to an antidote for the poison, which is a thousand times more toxic than cyanide. Banned under chemical weapons conventions, ricin became infamous when a modified umbrella-gun containing a poisoned pellet was used to kill Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in 1978. Although not as potent as synthetic nerve agents, ricin is obtained from a natural source - the castor bean - so could potentially be more easily obtained by terrorist groups. Research has been undertaken into an antibody-based vaccine and...

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Two weeks removed from an emergency appendectomy, Bret Michaels was rushed to the hospital on Thursday night where it was discovered the rocker had suffered a massive brain hemorrhage, a rep for the rocker confirmed to Access Hollywood. The 47-year-old "Rock of Love" and "Celebrity Apprentice" reality star is currently listed in critical condition. "After several CAT scans, MRIs and an angiogram, [doctors] decided to keep Michaels in the ICU and are running several tests to determine the cause. [It] will be touch and go for the next few days while he is under intense observation,"...

Bret Michaels was rushed to the hospital late Thursday night after suffering a massive hemorrhage near his brain stem, this according to People.com. Michaels is reportedly in critical condition at an undisclosed hospital. According to the report, Michaels was suffering from excruciating headaches earlier in the day. According to the report, Michaels underwent several tests -- including CAT Scans and MRIs. The report claims it was determined Michaels suffered from a "subarachnoid hemorrhage" -- bleeding at the base of his brain stem. Earlier this month, Michaels was rushed to the hospital after experiencing stomach pains -- he ended up having...

SNIPPET: "Kabul, 21 April (AKI) - At least 12 female students were hospitalised in Afghanistan on Wednesday after inhaling a poisonous substance sprayed at a school in northern Afghanistan. The 12 students of the Fatima Zahra Girl School, and a teacher and an assistant were mysteriously poisoned, Hamayon Khamush, director of the hospital in Kunduz city, was quoted as saying by Xinhua." SNIPPET: "To defend their ideology, Taliban militants have attacked girl students with gas and acid." SNIPPET: "In May last year 90 girls were hospitalised in Kapisa province, north-east of the capital, after someone sprayed toxic chemicals in the...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said Sunday information he received as a member of the House Armed Services Committee showed there was no plot. The five Muslim soldiers who were connected to a translator training program had been detained in December while the Army investigated. "The investigation revealed that there was not an effort to poison food," Wilson said. The probe also showed the men had not been disloyal. Four of the soldiers were discharged from the Army for petty crimes, Wilson said, and the fifth was returned to his National Guard unit in Virginia.

The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences. It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat. Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more...

ive soldiers at Fort Jackson, S.C., have been investigated on suspicion of making threats against fellow servicemembers, but officials have found no substantive evidence of misconduct, U.S. military spokesmen said early Friday. The Christian Broadcasting Network, founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, has reported that soldiers were suspected of plotting to poison the food supply at the Army base. The report said the soldiers were part of an Army translation program that includes Arabic speakers. Army investigators have been conducting a probe since December, but "we have not found any credible information to substantiate the allegations," said Christopher Grey, a spokesman...

Five soldiers have been arrested on charges of trying to poison the food supply at South Carolina's Fort Jackson. Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, says the ongoing investigation began 2 months ago, leading to the arrests. The 5, detained in December, were part of an Arabic translation program called "09 Lima" and are all reportedly Muslims. Grey says the Army is taking the allegations, "extremely seriously," adding at this time, "there is no credible information to support the allegations."

CBN Exclusive: Five Muslim Soldiers Arrested at Fort Jackson in South Carolina CBN News has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas and are in custody. The five men were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base. The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson. A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators suspect the "Fort Jackson Five" may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, DC area Muslims that traveled to...

Jealous woman killed lover with poisoned curry A jealous woman who killed her lover by poisoning his curry is facing a life sentence after being convicted of his murder. Lakhvir Singh, 45, was said to have killed Lakhvinder ''Lucky'' Cheema, 39, because she could not bear the thought of his marriage to another woman. He had been due to marry Gurjeet Choongh, 21, on Valentine's Day last year. But on January 27, they both became violently ill after eating leftover curry which had been in the fridge of their home in Princes Road, Feltham, west London. Within hours, Mr Cheema...

If your dog has pains caused by arthritis, hip displasia or spinal stenosis (what we humans call lower back pain) and the veterinarian prescribes the drug Previcox (firocoxib) by Merial, take your dog and get out of the vet office as fast as you can. As many as 22,000 dogs taken by their owners to the vet in order to alleviate pains caused by non-life threatening arthritis were poisoned by the administration of this drug - and consider this FDA report is dated 2006. I only found out about this AFTER I gave my Giant Schnauzer two tablets of Previcox,...

CHICAGO – Almost three months have passed, and the Chicago Police Department appears no closer to solving one of the most bizarre acts of fan-on-fan violence in recent memory. One that left Pittsburgh Steelers fan Zack Heddinger blind, and local authorities searching for a group of Chicago Bears fans that allegedly poisoned him. The frustrating search for clues began a few days after Heddinger passed out at South Loop bar Kitty O’Shea’s, and was taken to Rush University Medical Center following Chicago’s Sept. 20 win over Pittsburgh at Soldier Field. After drinking alcohol that was allegedly offered by a Bears...

America continues to drink the poison Kool Aid from this administration regarding health care, contrived environmental disasters and financial waste. This must be the season of poison drinks because on Nov 18th, 1978 909 men, women and children committed suicide under the care of pervert, community activist and political manipulator Jim Jones. We all may vaguely remember him as just a wacko cult leader but he was way more! Just how did he gain that much influence over so many people? It was not about sex or religion. It was about POWER Jim Jones had one big goal to create...

BOSTON (AP) -- Six Harvard University medical researchers were poisoned in August after drinking coffee that was laced with a chemical preservative, according to university officials. In an internal memo first reported in the Boston Herald's Sunday editions, the school said the coffee came from a machine near their lab that later tested positive for sodium azide, a common preservative used in labs.

Benign skin growths that erupted on the face of Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko helped save his life after he was poisoned with dioxin five years ago. That's the verdict of doctors who have treated and monitored Yushchenko since an unknown assassin made the attempt on his life by lacing his soup with dioxin during a dinner in Kiev on 5 September 2004. It now turns out that the lumps that grew on his face and body as a result probably saved his life by isolating the dioxin away from his vital, internal organs. They also helped to detoxify the poison,...

Push to fluoridate water in San Jose So far, tooth fairies have had it great in San Jose: The city is the largest in the country that doesn't fluoridate its water. But now a major effort is under way to shed that title. In a push toward better dental health in the valley, advocates have launched a campaign to raise the millions needed to upgrade the city's water infrastructure. Given the controversy that typically surrounds fluoridation efforts, they expect progress to be slow. So on Wednesday backers of the effort brought a top engineer from the Centers for Disease Control...

The Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan., will no longer be selling blue sno-cones after a dangerous mix-up at the refreshment stand, Fox4KC reported. Four people became sick Thursday when a zoo employee accidentally poured a degreasing agent into the sno-cone machine instead of the flavored syrup.

You better put down that glass of bleach and stop eating poison oak, because the California Poison Control System is going away. As the Golden State faces a new multi-billion dollar deficit, the program had to go. Once the cuts go into effect in September, California will become the only state without a poison control service. "To solve our immediate cash crisis, we simply cannot avoid deep and painful cuts in spending. Some of these solutions are things I would never have considered in the past but, unfortunately, our state could be in a worst case scenario if the propositions...

Two towns in Berkshire are suffering a rise in the rat population because vermin have developed near-immunity to standard poisons, pest control experts have warned. The British Pest Control Association (BPCA) is calling on the Government to allow the use of more powerful pesticides to contain Britain's growing rodent population. It is estimated that their numbers have swelled by 13 per cent in the past year to more than 50 million, one for every person living in England. doubled in the past 12 months. Exeter council has seen a 66 per cent rise in vermin call-outs in 2008, while there...

Mark down the date. Tuesday, April 21, 2009, is the moment that any chance of a new era of bipartisan respect in Washington ended. By inviting the prosecution of Bush officials for their antiterror legal advice, President Obama has injected a poison into our politics that he and the country will live to regret.

As humans living in the desert, we often find ourselves sharing our homes with native creepy crawlers like scorpions. According to the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, there are thirty different species of scorpions throughout Arizona. Only one of those, the Bark Scorpion, which can be found in Yuma, produces potentially life-threatening symptoms. "Most healthy adults can manage scorpion stings at home on their own with basic first aid," said Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center Managing Director Jude McMally. "The Bark Scorpion is only one and a half inches long and has more slender pinchers and tail segments...

PORT PERRY, ONT. and TORONTO -- An hour and a half after walking Cally at the nearby park Monday evening, Kim Reeves noticed her poodle was shaking. She jumped in the car and drove Cally to the emergency veterinary clinic in Whitby. "She kept getting worse and worse. It was horrible," Ms. Reeves said. "She was getting non-responsive almost. Her eyes were closed. She was curled up. ... She was just lying there. Her head kept kind of flopping around. She couldn't stand any more." Six-year-old Cally was one of three dogs poisoned by tainted chocolate cupcakes and brownies at...