Free Republic

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (Reuters) – About 1,000 chanting protesters rallied on Sunday outside a California resort where conservative lawmakers and business executives met for a political strategy session hosted by billionaires Charles and David Koch. About two dozen police officers in riot gear lined up in front of the Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa in the upscale desert town of Rancho Mirage to keep the protesters away from the gated entrance. ... Another group, some dressed in hazardous material suits, tried to encircle the resort with yellow caution tape in a symbolic effort to "quarantine" the meeting, but they...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 250 U.S. scientists on Thursday defended climate change research against "political assaults" and warned that any delay in tackling global warming heightens the risk of a planet-wide catastrophe. The scientists, all members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, targeted critics who have urged postponing any action against climate change because of alleged problems with research shown in a series of hacked e-mails that are collectively known as "climate-gate." "When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action, it is the same as saying society should never take...

TRENTON, N.J. - The New Jersey Public Defender's Office said Tuesday it won't challenge Gov. Jon S. Corzine's decision to commute the death sentences of eight men now that the state's death penalty has been abolished. The office had questioned whether Corzine had authority to do that because the penalty of life imprisonment without chance of parole didn't exist when the men committed their crimes. But spokesman Tom Rosenthal said legal research has shown that the governor does have the authority. Corzine commuted the sentences Monday as he signed a law making New Jersey the first to abolish the death...

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2007 – Sensational attacks like the March 6 suicide bombing that killed more than 100 religious pilgrims in Karbala, Iraq, illustrate insurgents’ lack of respect for human life, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq told reporters today. Those “Shiite pilgrims were killed in a barbaric manner by thugs with no soul,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said today in Baghdad during his first news conference as the chief of Multinational Force Iraq. Petraeus took command of MNFI on Feb. 10. However, new security initiatives instituted as part of Operation Law and Order should assist in...

Rolling Stones Decry Super Bowl Censorship By DAVID BAUDER Tuesday, February 7, 2006 8:50 PM EST NEW YORK - Nobody turns off the microphone on Mick Jagger without a fight. Censorship of their songs during the Super Bowl halftime show was "absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary," the Rolling Stones said through a spokeswoman on Tuesday. The NFL, which produced the show seen on ABC Sunday night, silenced Jagger's microphone during sexually suggestive passages of two of the three songs the band performed before an audience of 90 million television viewers. The football league, still nervous over the Janet Jackson wardrobe...

AUSTIN, Texas - Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is trying to bully his way through the court system to further his own political ambitions, prosecutors said Tuesday. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle said in court documents that the Republican is "attempting to leapfrog" over the usual court procedures by asking the state's highest criminal court to dismiss all charges against him or to order a trial right away. DeLay was forced to step aside as majority leader after he was indicted on money laundering and conspiracy charges in September. He has been pressing the state's highest criminal court...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel will demand that U.N. investigators who arrived in Israel on Wednesday determine whether the world body employs people who "aid and abet" Palestinian militant groups, a senior Israeli official said. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent the team this week after Israel claimed a Palestinian rocket had been transported in a U.N. ambulance. Although Israel has since backtracked on that claim, it insisted Wednesday that U.N. employees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip assist militants in carrying out attacks. Israeli-U.N. relations have been strained for years, with Israel repeatedly accusing the world body of bias. The...

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) - Condemnation of Iraqi prisoner abuse and the U.S. decision to declare war without U.N. backing dominated discussions Thursday leading up to a summit of European and Latin American leaders. Working in advance of Friday's summit between the regions' presidents, the foreign ministers from more than 55 countries also struggled to define the substance and timing of regional trade agreements. As the discussions moved forward inside, dozens of anti-free trade protesters scuffled with police outside. No injuries were reported. The pre-summit talks come as efforts to establish a broad Free Trade Area of the Americas stretching from...