Free Republic

Russian president Vladimir Putin gave an interview to the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation, which ran the interview on state-run television network Russia 24. During the interview, Putin Western countries’ plans to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, as well as the current state of Russia’s military-industrial complex. The Russian president also announced his plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of neighboring Belarus. Meduza shares the most important parts of Putin’s remarks.There are threats, of course. We know about plans to supply weapons to Ukraine, including a million shells. Is that a lot or a...

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- The KCBS newsroom received calls Friday afternoon reporting an unusual and unpleasant smell in San Francisco. Most of the callers reporting the odor were in the city's Sunset and Richmond districts. A city spokesman said the sewage treatment plant didn't report having any problems and that everything appeared to be functioning normally. A Public Utilities Commission spokesman did say that he smelled something unusual in the Civic Center area. The stench could also be smelled for a time in the financial district.

In the past few days, an image of Barack Obama depicted as Heath Ledger's Joker character from the movie The Dark Knight has been posted around streets and freeways in Los Angeles and is also doing the rounds on the internet. With the caption "socialism" at the bottom, the image is supposed to be a not-so-complimentary piece of street art, a radical take on the president's ubiquitous "Hope" poster by Shepard Fairey. There is no doubt that the image is creepy and makes the president look sinister. But is it, as some have claimed, "dangerous", "mean spirited" or indeed "racist"?...

Chapter two of the Cuyahoga County corruption probe opened Wednesday with a new round of early morning raids focusing on a new cast of characters. The scope of the investigation, which has already shaken the foundation of county government, has clearly widened. Wednesday's raids took aim at contracts involving the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority and MetroHealth Medical Center, two publicly funded agencies that serve the housing and health-care needs of the area's poor. FBI, IRS and U.S. Housing and Urban Development investigators searched the agencies and the homes of CMHA Director George Phillips; former hospital Vice President John J. Carroll,...

For many African American Muslims, the fallout from the horrendous crime of Sept. 11, 2001 was not entirely new. The U.S. government's response was a bit of déjà vu for those, like me, who were civil rights activists in college during the 1960s and 70s. The only difference is that now we face a higher level of intensity. Our phones were wiretapped in the '60s and '70s and now our email is also being scrutinized. Our activist organizations were spied on then and now our places of worship are also under surveillance. Four decades ago, paid government agents and informants...

The president is holding a live press conference in the Rose Garden @ 10:30 (eastern) to make very public his desire that we DRILL. He will ask Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling in coastal US waters.

Bush may have done a service to us all. The eight years gave us lay offs and unemployment not seen since the great depresion, wars and attrocities commited in the name of advancing american multi corporate agenda and white Christianity, we saw the rich get richer and the poor become even more poor, we heard slogans such as jobless recovery, strategery, modern economy, trickledown effect Ad nauseum. The values of Bush are the values of the capitalist system, another word for fascism. the eight years of Bush proves capitalism is a failed system. We see more debt, unemployment and 100...

The only truly critical factor affecting the earth is overpopulation. To make things it is an ignored topic because of political correctness. We will rid the earth of all its resources, and thereby eliminate humanity.

Firstly - apologies for this not being a news story but I really wanted to ask this question! As you know, in the UK we have universal healthcare. A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with a conservative American tourist outside Buckingham palace (we were both spectators at the London Marathon event). I was telling him about a hospital visit I had had recently and he replied that he had originally been opposed to socialised healthcare - until he suffered from chest pains at Heathrow, an ambulance arrived within six minutes. Basically what I wanted to ask...

The Pope Kissing the Koran Below is a photo (see link below) of the Pope at the end of an audience with Patriarch Raphael I of Iraq, where the Pope "bowed" to the Muslim holy book, The Koran, presented to him by the delegation, and kissed it. Did the Pope, who in fact is the supposed "infallible" voice of the Roman Catholic Church not remember what The Koran has to say about Jesus and the nature of God? Did he not know how The Koran demotes Jesus the Messiah to "only a messenger of Allah" status? "O people of the...

Hi, I'm Nick and I am from Illinois. I'm writing on this page because I have been brought up to be very liberal on every issue dominating the upcoming presidential election. I feel like I kind of been brain washed into thinking this way and have this image of every right-winged supporter to be a redneck, gun crazy racist. Now I know that this is sure as hell not the truth, but the real truth for me is that I really do find it hard to agree with a lot of Republican ideals especially when dealing with illegal immigration and...

ARE YOU A COMMUNIST MR. BUSH? YES! I AM!!! This would be the answer if the question had been submitted before the collapse of Soviet Union! That does come out this conclusion for the current Prime Minister of U.S.A.? Simply Mr. Bush today, follows the vision of Stalin and Titos for taking territories from Greece following dance floor their dark drawing! The pseudonym state, nation and the language of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was Stalin’s dream. Stalin and Tito they manufacture then in August 1944 this state "in the frames of Yugoslavian Federation. They rename from VARDARSKA in" Macedonia...

BREAKING NEWS MSNBC News Services updated 8 minutes ago BAGHDAD - Four U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad late Sunday, raising the death toll for American forces since start of the war to 4,000, according to the Pentagon.

I’m a senior citizen conservative and I admit that I am scared of Barack Obama or John McCain, or any other of the candidates of becoming America’s 44th President and thus I will list a synopsis of things that lends to this comment. It is a no brainier that our country is in a mess and primarily we’ve no one to fault but ourselves. I’ll eventually make my point. The nation’s infrastructure is in its worst. Our roads are in disrepair. Our sewer, water, and gas lines are rusting so badly that it puts our health at great risk. Our...

So, with gasolene prices bobbing up and down. And the economy also bobbing! When and what will it take to get rel action n Aternative energy?Nikola tesla(1856-1943) had the answer more then a 100 years ago!That of broadcasting wirelessly eletric power! He even set up a braodcasting tower for this at Wardecylle,Long Island(Now Shoreham, L.I.) But when he mentioned FREE ELECTRIOC POWER to hs financial backer the great Robber Baron J.P. Morga. Whos meatered eletric power intreste would have been ruined. The money was removed and Tesla went into a life long debt!To honor Dr. Tesla in 2005 and 2006...

Four members of the anti-war group Code Pink were arrested outside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Thursday afternoon, following an announcement that they would seek to take over the office. The group’s members had planned to hold a symbolic “Pin the war on the Donkey” demonstration at Pelosi’s office to show their frustration with the Democratic leadership’s inaction on ending the war in Iraq. However, Capitol Police prevented the taping of a drawn donkey to the wall. Code Pink members were crying outside Pelosi’s office. When asked why, Rae Abileah, 24, said she was crying out of...

Former US president Jimmy Carter lashed out at British Prime Minister Tony Blair for being "so compliant and subservient" to the Bush administration in Washington. "I have been surprised and extremely disappointed with Tony Blair's behaviour," Carter told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper as he promoted his new book "Faith and Freedom." "I think that, more than any other person in the world, the prime minister could have had a moderating influence on Washington, and he has not," said the 81-year-old former head of state. He faulted Blair for not having been a constraint on US President George W. Bush's decision...

ST. PETERSBURG -- President Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, yesterday agreed in principle on contentious issues such as the Middle East, Iran and North Korea, but the leaders failed to clinch a key trade deal and clashed over democracy, with Mr. Putin declaring he does not want "the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq." During a 30-minute press conference, notable for the chilly body language between the two presidents, the leaders acknowledged that they do not see eye to eye on a host of issues, but said they agreed that Iran should not acquire nuclear...

So, while many Americans were busy contributing money, clothing and other necessities for hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast residents, what was Sen. Chuck Schumer up to? Raising money off the backs of Katrina's victims — for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. In one of the more cynical tricks we've seen lately, Schumer's DSCC urged visitors to its Web site to sign a petition urging the firing of Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, the focus of much of the criticism of the federal response to Katrina. (Indeed, Brown was summoned back to Washington yesterday as Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W....