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A recent study suggests that the arrival of primitive moss-like plants 470 million years ago could have triggered a series of mini ice ages on Earth. Researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Oxford tried to explain how the first land plants could affect the climate about 450 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. During the Ordovician Period, the planet witnessed a gradually cooling climate that led to a series of mini ice ages. Scientists believe that the global cooling was a result of a reduction in carbon levels in the atmosphere. The findings published in Nature Geoscience show...

The United States was about to announce a deal that would put a stop to North Korea's uranium enrichment program when it was announced that the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, had died, a senior U.S. official told CBS on Tuesday. The Obama administration, according to the official, was due to announce that the U.S. would make a large donation of food aid to North Korea, and in turn North Korea was to announce the suspension of its controversial uranium enrichment program.

It was the leadership skills of the rulers and not the bondage of slavery that motivated the labourers to toil hard in building the ancient Egyptian pyramids, claims a top leadership guru. Indonesia-based Arthur Carmazzi will soon come out with a book arguing how the leadership skills of the rulers of Egypt were responsible for building the giant structures regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. "Various researches have already shown that the labourers were not slaves. It was more about getting work done through leadership skills, rather than by slavery and exploitation. Even today we look...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) — The riots in Cairo are the result of United States policy gone bad. In fact, we — you, me, U.S. taxpayers — are to blame. Strategic policy, I am not speaking of. Political policy, I am not speaking of. Nor am I talking about defense policy or other such foreign relations. The uprising in Cairo is about U.S. tax dollars supporting farm programs that wreak havoc on food prices worldwide.

Decades of autocratic government and a lack of free elections are, of course, the main drivers of the political upheaval in Egypt. But did the sinking dollar and skyrocketing food prices trigger the massive unrest now occurring in Egypt — or the greater Arab world for that matter? In addition to Egypt, the people have taken to the streets to varying degrees in Algeria, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Yemen. Local food riots have even broken out in rural China and other Asian locales. While the mainstream media focus on the political aspects of this turmoil, they are overlooking the impact...

Obama's First-Year Approval At 57%, Poll Shows January 18, 2010 Only one president in modern times has ended his first year in office with lower job approval -- viewed as an average for the year -- than the rating with which President Obama is concluding his year. Bill Clinton. In the Gallup Poll's measures of job approval since the 1950s, Clinton's average approval during his first year was 49%. With an average first-year approval of 57%, Gallup reports today, Obama has tied Ronald Reagan for the second-lowest first-year average. It's important to remember in this context that both Clinton and...

Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) issued the following statement regarding the postponement of a full Committee briefing on information related to the Fort Hood shooting: Here's the full text: "Due to the high visibility of the issues surrounding the tragic event at Fort Hood, the President has instructed the National Security Council to assume control of all informational briefings.

For those interested in such things. Freepers that have farm experience are aware of how efficient diesel tractors are. I put five gallons in mine and bush hog all summer. Here is a link to some guys that convert vehicles to tractor power and have gotten as much as 50mpg from a full size pickup! http://www.shadetreeconversions.com/

Obama's defeat of the heir apparent in his own party and his victory over the much-vaunted Republican machine is a remarkable achievement that owes a lot to his instinct for marketing When the book is written on this election, it should not be titled "The Making of a President," but "The Marketing of a President." Barack Obama's campaign is a case study in marketing excellence. True, it was always going to be a Democratic year. An unpopular war, an incumbent Republican president with rock bottom approval ratings, and many Republican incumbents retiring from Congress as a result all meant that...

SACRAMENTO -- Dozens of newly minted Republican voters say they were duped into joining the party by a GOP-hired with a trail of fraud complaints stretching across the country. Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters. Some said they were told that they had to become Republicans to sign the petition, contrary to California initiative law. Others had no idea their registration was being changed. "I am not a Republican," insisted Karen Ashcraft, 47, a pet clinic manager and former Democrat from...

How do people think that the next VP of the United States of America, Sarah Palin, should handle thie stuff about Trig being not her's but her 16year old daughter's baby? I think it should be addressed very soon and she should spell out the allegations so that all know what the left is busy working on. Then I would suggest she laugh it off with a remark like 'I dont know it sure felt like I had a baby." In short point out the absolute absurdity of these people and not dignify any of it with anger Any other...

BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont. The Brattleboro Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put the controversial item on the Town Meeting Day warning. According to Town Clerk Annette Cappy, organizers of the Bush-Cheney issue gathered enough signatures, and it was up to the Select Board whether Brattleboro voters would consider the issue in March. Cappy said residents will get to vote on the matter by paper...

BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont. The Brattleboro Select Board voted 3-2 Friday to put the controversial item on the Town Meeting Day warning. According to Town Clerk Annette Cappy, organizers of the Bush-Cheney issue gathered enough signatures, and it was up to the Select Board whether Brattleboro voters would consider the issue in March. Cappy said residents will get to vote on the matter by paper...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq has given Iran a two-month ultimatum to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs or face all-out war, according to an audiotape posted on the Internet Monday. "We give ... the leaders of Iran a period of two months to stop all forms of support to the rejectionists of Iraq, and stop direct and indirect interference in the affairs of the Islamic state," said a voice attributed to the group's leader Abu Omar Al Baghdadi

Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says Lewis Libby told him over lunch that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA. The date of their lunch, July 7, 2003, is at the heart of the obstruction and perjury case against Libby. That's because it is several days before Libby says he learned from a reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Fleischer also testified that Libby told him it was "hush-hush." He testified under an immunity deal he reached with prosecutors. Fleischer sought the deal because he discussed Plame with reporters. Libby's attorneys plan to...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Disturbing statistics on the number of Hispanics who daily go hungry in America was released at a press conference on Wednesday by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). The national Hispanic civil rights group found that nearly one in five people lack nutritious food. NCLR officials said in a press release that increasing federal nutrition assistance programs would help decrease the growing "food insecurity" faced by 19.6 percent of Latinos in America. "Lack of access to resources is forcing far too many Latino families into choices no one should have to make, such as between...

McCain starts to feel fallout from Iraq By Philip Sherwell in New York, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:28am GMT 17/12/2006 The popularity of John McCain, the decorated Vietnam veteran and strong contender for the Republican 2008 presidential nomination, is being undermined by his support for the Iraq war. As he took his undeclared White House campaign to Baghdad, among a congressional delegation to Iraq, the Arizona senator called for the deployment of up to 35,000 more US troops and made clear that he opposed a timetable for withdrawal. John McCain with other United States senators as they met Nouri al-Maliki...

Commentary - I continue to be astonished by the strength of the Toll party movement. Over a year ago, we were privately admonished by local leaders in San Antonio for publishing the work of Terri Hall and the San Antonio Toll Party. We felt they had something to say. The Toll Party “Tipping Point” occurred when State Representative Carter Casteel was defeated at the hands of anti-toll candidate Nathan Macias. That is when everything changed. Think about that: An established state representative is taken out by anti-toll activists who knocked on thousands of doors spreading their message. The Trans Texas...

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon. To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration. (snip) Interviews with scores of...

1967 TYRONE GARNER 2006 Defendant in landmark sodomy ruling was not motivated by politics The key civil liberties victory for gays was 'fight against all odds' Tyrone Garner, whose arrest in violation of Texas sodomy laws led to a challenge before the Supreme Court and an eventual victory that struck down such statutes across the country, died after a lengthy illness, friends said Wednesday. He was 39. Garner, who died Monday of meningitis in a Houston-area hospital, was openly gay but not politically active when he chose to fight his arrest in court, said his lawyer, Mitchell Katine. "He was...

TMZ has learned that Mel Gibson went on a rampage when he was arrested Friday on suspicion of drunk driving, hurling religious epithets. TMZ has also learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department had the initial report doctored to keep the real story under wraps. TMZ has four pages of the original report prepared by the arresting officer in the case, L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee. According to the report, Gibson became agitated after he was stopped on Pacific Coast Highway and told he was to be detained for drunk driving Friday morning in Malibu. The actor began...

LAHORE: The vast Amazon rainforest is on the verge of being turned into desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world’s climate, alarming research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year. Geoffrey Lean and Fred Pearce, writing for The Independent on Sunday, quote studies conducted by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre in Amazonia as concluding that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down. “Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences,...

Advocates who say black Americans should be compensated for slavery and its Jim Crow aftermath are quietly chalking up victories and gaining momentum. Fueled by the work of scholars and lawyers, their campaign has morphed in recent years from a fringe-group rallying cry into sophisticated, mainstream movement. Most recently, a pair of churches apologized for their part in the slave trade, and one is studying ways to repay black church members. The overall issue is hardly settled, even among black Americans: Some say that focusing on slavery shouldn't be a top priority or that it doesn't make sense to compensate...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Appearing before a religious conference earlier this week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) told the audience that as a child attending Sunday school she would baby-sit the children of migrant workers so that their older siblings could join their parents at work. "I was fortunate that at an early age, through my church, I was given the opportunity to expand my horizons," Clinton told the 600 adults and teenagers attending the Sojourners "Covenant for a New America" conference. Politically, the story served two purposes for the New York Democrat. It allowed her to promote a developing...

The June 27, 2006 Associated Press (AP) article titled “Scientists OK Gore’s Movie for Accuracy” by Seth Borenstein raises some serious questions about AP’s bias and methodology. AP chose to ignore the scores of scientists who have harshly criticized the science presented in former Vice President Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” In the interest of full disclosure, the AP should release the names of the “more than 100 top climate researchers” they attempted to contact to review “An Inconvenient Truth.” AP should also name all 19 scientists who gave Gore “five stars for accuracy.” AP claims 19 scientists viewed...

WASHINGTON - The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy. The former vice president's movie — replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets — mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press. The AP contacted more than 100 top climate researchers by e-mail and phone for their opinion. Among those contacted were...

Jimmy Carter: Recovering Racist, Still a Bigot By Julia Gorin Jimmy Carter has been called everything from a humanitarian, to a crack pot, to the ultimate pacifist. But a look into his past reveals a shoe that fits better than all of these. It's a story told to me by an acquaintance from Watertown, NY, a place situated way upstate, well north of Syracuse. The acquaintance had heard it from two barflies who were there the night in 1975 that Jimmy Carter passed through town in his first New York appearance during the "250-day 1975 portion of the presidential campaign,"...

"Politics Wasn't First on List of NY Sen. Clinton's Career Picks" PURCHASE, N.Y. (AP) _ She's a former first lady, a United States Senator, and a potential 2008 presidential candidate. But to hear Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton tell it, all of that pales in comparison to her real childhood dreams. "I wanted desperately to be an Olympic athlete,"....

LONDON -- Westminster Abbey has implicitly criticized churches that opened their doors to the filming of "The Da Vinci Code" last year by denouncing the thriller as "nonsense" that should be exposed by Christians. The abbey barred the filmmakers from its premises in June, saying that the best-selling Dan Brown novel on which the film was based was "theologically unsound." But Lincoln and Winchester cathedrals cooperated with the Hollywood adaptation, as did Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. The film -- starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Sir Ian McKellen -- is expected to be one of the blockbusters of the year...

Opinion Journal story embargoed til 12:00m.

I found this not so cut up video of the poor old woman disarmed and evicted by force from her home on Sept. 7th, 2005, by the California Highway Patrol. “There’s a mandatory evacuation” (words from the CAHP on the video). Obviously, they used force to enforce it, and not just in this instance. http://www.ktvu.com/news/4936363/detail.html Now let’s move forward by one day. (Sept. 8th, 2005, ABC World News, Reporter Bob Woodruff). “Police and National Guard find themselves in a very difficult position tonight to try to carry out an order to force people from the city without actually using force....

If you owe Child Support and other charges under child support title YOU are NOW on the FBI/Homeland Security Terrorist Watch List.... "...The Terrorist screening center is an FBI operation which maintains a constantly updated watch list of people suspected of being terrorists, or terrorist associates...."

Supreme Court rules cities may seize homes HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON - A divided Supreme Court ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth conflicts with individual property rights. Thursday's 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas....

Thousands of girls and boys were raped and tortured, and many were murdered, in Canada's aboriginal boarding schools, most of which shut down in the 1970's. The unchecked criminal violence suffered by these girls and boys has become a major cause of rampant child prostitution and other serious social ills among several generations of Canada's First Nations (Native/indigenous) peoples. This violence is called genocide.

LONDON, England -- Workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than a person smoking marijuana, a British study shows. The constant interruptions reduce productivity and leave people feeling tired and lethargic, according to a survey carried out by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard. The survey of 1,100 Britons showed: Almost two out three people check their electronic messages out of office hours and when on holiday Half of all workers respond to an e-mail within 60 minutes of receiving one One in five will break off from a business or...

The one thing that international bankers don't want to hear is that the second Great Depression may be round the corner. But last week, a group of ultra-conservative Swiss financiers asked a retired English petroleum geologist living in Ireland to tell them about the beginning of the end of the oil age. They called Colin Campbell, who helped to found the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre because he is an industry man through and through, has no financial agenda and has spent most of a lifetime on the front line of oil exploration on three continents. He was chief geologist...

US tells India, drop dead March 28, 2005 A friend, usually upbeat about India-US relations, sent me an angry mail over the weekend after President George Bush called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the evening of March 25 to inform him that the US had decided to supply F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an interview to The Washington Post, "dismissed concerns" about the fallout of the American decision. The mail reads: "lovely easter gift to india from the us. moral: proliferate nukes, threaten us interests everywhere, be terror hub, and get rewarded...

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) - Harleigh Marsh was tough enough to scrape ice from the frozen deck of a Navy aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic. Smart enough to strip and rebuild a cockpit. And responsible enough to maintain survival gear for pilots. So when he found himself homeless six years ago, he figured he could handle it. Like many of the estimated 500,000 veterans who will become homeless at some point this year, Marsh had the "Army of one" mentality that the armed forces demand. "When a squadron or something needs you, you don't ask questions. You never say no....

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. By Thomas E. Woods, Jr. Regnery Publishing, 2004. Xv + 270 pgs. Thomas Woods' superb new book has already achieved fame as the first Austrian-inspired book to be on the New York Times bestseller list in many years. It also delivers much more than it promises. Woods offers his book as a guide to "those who find the standard narrative or the typical textbook unpersuasive or ideologically biased" (p. xiv). This suggests that Woods has principally students in mind as his audience; but many others will benefit from reading the book. Woods displays...

(CNSNews.com) - President Bush is moving forward with his plans to create a "Temporary Worker Program" that would allow millions of illegal aliens to remain and work in the U.S. for a minimum of three years with no fear of deportation or other punishment. Advocates of tougher immigration policies believe the president is ignoring the costs and potential dangers posed by illegal immigration. In his final, scheduled, formal press conference of the year, the president criticized current U.S. immigration policy. "The system we have today is not a compassionate system. It's not working," Bush said Dec. 20. "And, as a...

(Washington, DC—November 10, 2004) It wasn't quite "Read my lips," but in the last presidential debate in Arizona, George W. Bush clearly stated that he would not support amnesty for illegal aliens. One week after being narrowly returned to office, the president has reneged on that pledge. Bush has dispatched Secretary of State Colin Powell to Mexico City to open discussions with the Mexican government about the size and scope of amnesty for illegal immigrants and for a massive new guest worker program. "President Bush and Karl Rove have seemingly missed the message of their own, and the Republican Party's,...

Exit polls reveal that President Bush may have miscalculated in endorsing pro-abortion Republican Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter in his primary battle against conservative challenger Pat Toomey. Immediately following his narrow win, Specter was quick to declare his independence from the President and re-assert his pro-abortion credentials. After his November 2 win, Specter repeated the mantra, asserting that if he were to become Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pro-life judges need not apply. Originally believing that a strong GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania could put the state's 21 electoral votes in the Bush column, the President campaigned with Specter and...

One thing we all have to realize is that there is a conspiracy of sorts between the media, poolsters, and both candidates to report close races. Everyone wins. 1. The media wins because ratings are much higher in a close race than a boring blowout. Ever been to a 40-10 football game? Yawn. 2. Pollsters win with close polls because people on both sides frequently check when a race is "close." Been to RCP lately? Only about every 5 minutes. 3. Bush wins because complacency is a winner's biggest enemy. Ever see a loser in a football game come back...

The Redskins are losing their last home game before the election 10-0 right now. Urban legend has it that if they win said game, the incumbent party keeps the White House, but if they lose the challenging party wins. Uh oh. ;-) (in good humor...)

Selected excerpt. But the director of the center, former Iraqi exile Sadoun al-Dulame, says 58 percent of the respondents said they don't care who wins the U.S. presidential election. "But in the end, those who said they care about what happens in America, Kerry [is] in front of Bush," he noted. "22.5 percent said we prefer to see Kerry as the next American president. And those who said we prefer Bush just 16 percent, no more. And, that's a decline for Bush because when we asked the Iraqis two months ago, Bush was in front of Kerry." In a further...

Two weeks before Election Day, the odds that President Bush will pull an upset and grab New Jersey's 15 electoral votes are growing slimmer, a Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers poll shows. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry leads Bush by 10 points, 48 percent to 38 percent, among registered voters and by 13 percentage points, 51-38, among likely voters, according to the survey of 805 registered voters conducted by telephone Oct. 14 to 17. [snip] Among New Jersey voters, Bush polls best with those who feel terrorism is the most important issue in the race, Murray said, "but the terrorism issue is saturated, and I...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry expanded his slight lead over President Bush to three points in a tight race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Monday. The Massachusetts senator held a 47-44 percent lead over Bush in the latest three-day tracking poll, up two points from Sunday. Bush's support dropped one point and Kerry's support rose one point in the new poll.

      NewStandard Home Iraq in Crisis Civil Liberties & Security U.S. Business & Economy News ArticleHouse About to Strip More Civil Liberties in Name of Anti-terrorismby Madeleine Baran (bio) Oct 6 - Civil liberties and immigrant rights advocates say House Republicans are using legislation based on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations as cover to implement a series of troubling, un-related reforms condoning torture, limiting immigration and increasing surveillance of both non-citizens and citizens.The House will vote on the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act this week. Opponents say the Republican leadership rushed the legislation to the floor without much time...

By Brian Braiker Newsweek Updated: 6:04 p.m. ET Oct. 2, 2004Oct. 2 - With a solid majority of voters concluding that John Kerry outperformed George W. Bush in the first presidential debate on Thursday, the president’s lead in the race for the White House has vanished, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. In the first national telephone poll using a fresh sample, NEWSWEEK found the race now statistically tied among all registered voters, 47 percent of whom say they would vote for Kerry and 45 percent for George W. Bush in a three-way race. Removing Independent candidate Ralph Nader, who...