Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Radiation from nuclear plants damaged in Japan's earthquake is unlikely to reach US territory in harmful amounts, US nuclear officials said Sunday. "Given the thousands of miles between the two countries, Hawaii, Alaska, the US Territories and the US west coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity," the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said in a statement. "All the available information indicates weather conditions have taken the small releases from the Fukushima reactors out to sea away from the population," the statement read. The office also said it sent two boiling-water reactor experts...

Editor’s Note: Mr. Gonzalez has penned the following open letter to Rep. Nancy Pelosi calling into question Pelosi’s refusal to engage in the democratic process through open debates. October 12, 2010, 11:24 am Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, I write you because a large number of your constituents, myself included, are tired of your leadership. As Speaker of the House, and representative of California’s 8th Congressional District, you have failed to offer a satisfactory explanation for many of the political choices you have made. Even your most ardent supporters are at a loss to defend your escalation of the war in Iraq...

PARIS (AFP) – Big volcanic eruptions have had a cooling effect on Earth's climate, but the Icelandic event is too small to provide any such respite from manmade global warming, scientists said on Friday. The benchmark cooling event of the past 20 years was in 1991, when Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. It cooled Earth's surface by 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next year, enough to offset the impact of greenhouse gases from 1991 to 1993. A smaller cooling episode occurred in 1980, when Mount St. Helens in the US state of Washington blew its top,...

The next wave of swine flu has arrived, and Mexicans are bracing for an outbreak that may be even larger than the one here last spring that became a pandemic.

WASHINGTON - A Democratic Congress is poised to heed President Bush's call to help save the economy, but may not give him much else after a State of the Union speech that recycled many of the administration's past initiatives. A lame duck president called again for immigration reform, an end to lawmakers' pet projects, control of Social Security spending and making tax cuts permanent. Democrats have rejected those Bush initiatives before. And, in a sign that the dominant political battles will not be in Congress, many in the House chamber kept an eye during the speech on Sens. Barack Obama...

WASHINGTON - That age-old stereotype about dangerous women drivers is shattered in a big new traffic analysis: Male drivers have a 77 percent higher risk of dying in a car accident than women, based on miles driven. And the author of the research says he takes it to heart when he travels — his wife takes the wheel. “I put a mitt in my mouth and ride shotgun,” said David Gerard, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher who co-authored a major new U.S. road risk analysis. The study holds plenty of surprises. The highway death rate is higher for cautious 82-year-old...

SACRAMENTO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spent Monday trolling the Capitol for political support, dropping in on old Democratic friends and allies to wangle more money for transportation projects and to build momentum for his plans to take over Los Angeles public schools. Villaraigosa's most surprising ally was not on the calendar, but his presence was palpable. The Democratic mayor has found plenty of common ground in recent months with California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The two have struck an improbable relationship that could yield a windfall for Los Angeles and boost the fortunes of two of California's most...

Israel turned to the United Nations Security Council Monday demanding the world body condemn the suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv that killed nine people. The Council was already set to convene Monday to discuss Palestinian demands that Israel be condemned for military actions in Gaza two weeks ago, and Israel is hoping to turn the tables by using the opportunity to pass a decision condemning the Palestinians. Under instructions from Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman asked the Security Council to condemn the attack. Israel also turned to the United States and to European members of...

PSYCHO RUMOR GOING AROUND... ...that Cheney is resigning tomorrow. Remember: I said psycho.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is unlikely to commit to cutting emissions in the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol, fearing it would retard economic growth, but analysts say the government is waking up to the threat of climate change. China, now the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States, recently unveiled a five-year economic plan that stresses sustainable rather than breakneck growth, an acknowledgment of the environmental and social costs of its economic success. And not without reason. China has 20 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, according to the World Bank. They are typically...

October 25, 2005--Fifty-three percent (53%) of Americans now say that getting U.S. soldiers home as soon as possible is more important than making sure "Iraq becomes a peaceful nation enjoying freedom and democracy." This is the first time that a majority of Americans have held that view. The Rasmussen Reports survey also shows that just 38% insuring a peaceful and free Iraq is the top priority. A month ago, 47% said getting the troops home was more important while 43% focused on finishing the mission.

Gina and Bob Fesmire come across as the average couple next door, taking care of the home front in jeans and sweatpants, struggling to stay one step ahead of a hectic Silicon Valley life. But they didn't realize how crazy life could be until last month, when Gina Fesmire launched the site www. downingstreetmemo.com on a whim. The site, which has become a bona fide phenomenon, features secret British documents on the lead-up to the Iraq war, first leaked to the press in England. The site has drawn 700,000 visits since the site went up May 11 with the goal...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not expected to propose any increase in school funding when he releases his updated 2005-2006 budget plan later this week - despite strong political temptations to do otherwise. Schwarzenegger, who has taken a pounding for months from the state's powerful education lobby over his spending choices, is likely to put any extra money into highway projects and debt reduction, according to lawmakers and administration officials. Education activists, who can take some credit for the governor's recent drop in the polls, said Schwarzenegger is making a big mistake by not putting more money into...

I hope mr. limbaugh is correct: Schiavo: Awakening A Sleeping Giant by David Limbaugh It is just possible, contrary to my original thoughts, that the tragic Schiavo case will not usher in a slippery slope toward euthanasia but cause a double-barreled backlash against both the "Culture of Death" and judicial activism. To be sure, the legal precedent established in this case, at least in Florida, represents an affirmative devaluation of human life and opens the door to further troubling scenarios, involving the state-sanctioned murder of the inconvenient, based on "quality of life" assessments. But I sense in this nation a...

Alongside U.S. 59, several miles north of the Loop, sits the appropriately named 59 Gun Range. Run-down homes, vacant lots and a fireworks emporium line its block. Immediately adjacent is Pancho's Mobile Homes, a makeshift sales lot marked by a hand-painted sign, where dented trailers teeter on cinder blocks like derailed train cars. In the smoky gun shop, which forms the lobby of the range, a wispy teenager with long, oily hair and a dimwitted but lively gaze drawls about the thrills of gun recoil. His sidekick affirms with a crooked smile. At one of the shadowy shooting lanes, Marie...

N Korea says it blew up mountain North Korea has given an explanation for the huge blast last Thursday which prompted speculation that it was a part of a nuclear test. The country's foreign minister, Paek Nam Sun, said the blast was the deliberate demolition of a mountain as part of a hydro-electric project. His remarks were in response to a call for information by the visiting UK Foreign Office minister, Bill Rammell. North Korea had said absolutely nothing about the incident until now.

<p>In a packed auditorium last week, a top adviser to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and two of her deputies tried to explain to an anxious crowd exactly what the governor has in mind for the future of public health care in the state.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - After a weekend of soul-searching, Arnold Schwarzenegger is preparing to pass up a historic shot to oust Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in California's first gubernatorial recall election, sources close to the actor said Monday.</p> <p>While the Republican Hollywood actor has made no final decision, Schwarzenegger appeared ready to put family concerns ahead of his political aspirations.</p>

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (AFP) - A top US intelligence official has predicted that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could launch a pre-emptive strike into Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq ahead of any US-led military action against his country, and could also attack Israel. The forecast, made Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of Defense Intelligence Agency, introduces an element of unpredictability into current war plans that, as widely reported, call for US troops to use Kurdish areas of northern Iraq as a staging area before a thrust toward major oil field around the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. Since the end...

A new mood of moral rectitude is targeting French self-indulgence, Harry de Quetteville reports from Paris France's reputation as the European capital of libertinism is at risk after a complete ban on pornography being shown on television was proposed last week. Proposed, not acted upon. How much do you want to bet this will be "stuck in committee" for a while? - IvanA crusading movement with leading members at the heart of the centre-Right government has called for centuries of self-indulgence - from the Moulin Rouge nightclub to more recent swingers' clubs - to be rolled back in favour of...