Free Republic

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann claims the U.S. has more energy resources than any other country but isn't exploiting them because of radical environmentalists. ... As president, Bachmann said she would unlock those resources and eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency.

As oil prices continue to climb, a backlog of more than 100 offshore drilling plans for the Gulf of Mexico are awaiting approval from the Obama administration, according to federal data. The federal government has not approved a single new exploratory drilling plan in the Gulf of Mexico since lifting its deepwater drilling moratorium on Oct. 12. There are currently 103 plans awaiting review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The information reveals that the Obama administration — not the oil industry — is the culprit for the slowdown of drilling activity in the Gulf. The...

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters Thursday afternoon that the Wikileaks data breach is the result of “a system that provided too many points of access” created in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and that the Obama Administration is working to keep the full scope of the breach from congressional oversight by the intelligence committee. (Snip) Hoekstra said that in past national security breaches, the intelligence committee is historically the first panel in Congress informed about the contents of a breach. But so far, according to Hoekstra,

The brakes have been put on talks between Israel Aerospace Industries and Russia over sales and the joint production of unmanned aerial vehicles, according to Israeli defense sources who wish to remain anonymous. They say the parties are negotiating to build a plant in Russia for the pilotless aircraft to the tune of $300 million to $400 million, as well as the outright sale of IAI-built drones to Russia. Recent news reports have said that IAI and Russia are planning a $200 million UAV factory and that the Israeli company plans to sell Russia an unspecified number of UAVs in...

(NaturalNews) The US government has issued a new report that recommends blocking access to popular websites during a pandemic outbreak in order to preserve internet bandwidth for investors, day traders and securities clearing house operations. The concern is that a pandemic would cause too many people to stay at home and download YouTube videos and porn, hogging all the internet bandwidth and blocking throughput for investment activities, thereby causing a stock market meltdown. This isn't an April Fool's joke. It's all based on a public report issued by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), available from their website at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d108.pdf In...

(IsraelNN.com) The President of the UN General Assembly attempted to prevent Israeli ambassador Gavriela Shalev from addressing a plenary session on Wednesday marking sixty years since the UN adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann tried to cancel speeches to be given by representatives of a “Western Europe and others” group, which is chaired by Israel’s ambassador. In response to the European representatives’ voiced outrage, Brockmann announced that he would add an Arab representative to the list of speakers.

Over the past few years, perhaps no film controversy has inspired more outrage from conservatives than the Walt Disney Company’s handling of the ambitious 2006 miniseries “The Path to 9/11.” In the wake of Michael Moore’s 2004 anti-Bush documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” and the 2003 CBS biopic “The Reagans,” the Disney censorship fiasco has been a frequent bone of contention on right-wing blogs, AM talk radio and other media outlets. In addition to making cuts in its ABC-TV telefilm after complaints from political forces, the company also shelved plans for a subsequent DVD release. --snip-- Now the imbroglio has been revived...

Remember how Barack Obama called Hillary Clinton one of the most secretive politicians in America? That apparently applies to both Hillary and her husband as a team. Archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library have decided to keep the records of Bill’s pardons locked away from prying eyes — such as those of Obama, John McCain, and the media: Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich.That archivists’ decision, based on guidance provided by Bill...

Even the world's most repressive regimes often have laws on the books that pretend to grant citizens certain political rights. What matters is the extent to which citizens are actually allowed to use those rights — you know, in real life. In Michigan, taxpayers are now trying to recall ten state legislators, and in the process testing how "real life" their democratic rights are. The ten targeted solons come from both parties. Prior to their fateful votes to raise taxes against their constituent wishes, taxpayer groups repeatedly warned them that a recall effort would be launched against them if they...

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2007 – Restricting the northward passage of weapons and other enablers of violence from southern Iraq into Baghdad is crucial to stabilizing the Iraqi capital, a U.S. general said yesterday. The flow of “accelerants” into the city works to prolong Baghdad’s instability by replenishing stockpiles of the competing sectarian factions there, said Army Brig. Gen. Edward Cardon, deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. During a conference call with online journalists and military “bloggers,” Cardon said his soldiers are tasked with reducing that flow. He defined an accelerant as “a physical component that facilitates violence and...

LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF NEW YORK (516) 767-4688 http://www.ny.lp.org/ Contact: Richard Cooper, State Chair nylibertarian@hotmail.com John Clifton www.electclifton.org; Michael Sylvia mike@mikesylvia.org www.mikesylvia.org; Eric Sundwall info@sundwall4congress.org www. sundwall4congress.org; Steve Finger 917-623-0652 Finger4Congress@aol.com, www.fingerforcongress.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GOP Tries Blocking Libertarian Candidates Albany, NY 8/31/06 Libertarian Party of New York State Chair Richard Cooper reports that general objections have been filed against both the statewide Libertarian petition and that for Eric Sundwall in the 20th Congressional District. Cooper asks “Are the Republicans and lobbyist John Faso desperate to keep the Libertarians out of the race? They know we won’t hesitate to expose Republicans...

Iran anger at Lebanon aid 'block' By Frances Harrison BBC News, Tehran The international community is trying to clear aid channels Turkey and Saudi Arabia have stopped Iran using their air space to send humanitarian relief to Lebanon, media in Iran have said. Iran's health ministry has been collecting supplies to send to the Lebanese people, the reports said. But the goods had to be sent via Dubai to Syria because of objections by other countries in the region. This may fuel Iranian anger against nations they feel have not done enough to support Hezbollah against Israel. 'Passivity' Iran's Labour...

SAN FRANCISCO A bridge is being built around a rock slide that closed a main route to Yosemite National Park and disrupted business and life in the area, state transportation officials announced Thursday. The company chosen for the project, Teichert Construction, has started moving equipment and bridge parts to Highway 140, which has been blocked since April 29 by 3 million cubic yards of rock and debris. Construction can't begin until the California Department of Transportation gets all the permits needed to move through the Merced River and build on federal forest service land, but officials hope the project will...

My internet connection is via Comcast Cable. For the last few weeks I have not been able to connect to many political websites... namely "www.powerlineblog.com", "www.captainsquartersblog.com", "www.hughhewitt.com" and "www.biglizards.net" (and some others). Be it known that almost any other wiebsite is reachable. I know the problem does not lie in my computer or with the sites themselves. If I take my laptop (which cannot get to these websites from home) to a Panera, Starbucks or my office, it can connect to them just fine. Bottom line... IS COMCAST FILTERING OUT THESE URLs?

Despite acceding to Beijing's censorship requirements, which yielded Google access to the Chinese market, users of Google.cn in China found the site blocked at the government backbone server. Poor Google. Their stock has been hammered downward after missing market expectations on earnings, and they have received no end of grief from all quarters over their long-delayed entry into the Chinese market. Now even that has been problematic. Instead of the higher quality service Google expected to provide by having servers handle traffic for the censored Google.cn site, Internet users in the populous cities of Beijing and Shanghai found nothing but...

Political wrangling and late primaries caused local election offices in at least eight swing states to miss a Sept. 19 cutoff for sending out ballots that would have ensured their timely return from far-flung locales where mail service is slow. Partisan groups vying to get out the overseas vote had begun posting the substitute write-in ballot, which covers federal but not local races or measures, on their own Internet sites out of concern that its distribution to consulates had made it too hard to get. The Defense Department is offering its new help "at the request of both political parties...

SACRAMENTO - Faced with the prospect of vetoing populist bills to raise the minimum wage, protect car buyers and combat the high price of prescription drugs, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday accused Democrats of sandbagging him to boost their own political fortunes. In an interview on Sacramento talk radio, Schwarzenegger lashed out at the Democrat-controlled Legislature for sending him both ``silly'' bills and politically motivated measures. ``I'm trying to do good things for the people, but they try to jam me so they can go back and say to their district: `Look what this Republican governor did' so they...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - A judge has blocked the University of California from raising fees this fall for some law, medical and other professional school students following a lawsuit claiming the hikes are unfair. San Francisco Superior Court Judge James L. Warren issued the preliminary injunction Thursday saying it appears students who sued UC over the fee hikes have "demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their claims." UC, which maintains it must raise fees due to cuts in state funding, planned to appeal, but the ruling was being hailed by students and their lawyers as a...

SACRAMENTO - Sacramento's most powerful Democrat is trying to quietly kill a pair of bills backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would crack down on special-interest influence in the state Capitol. With less than three weeks left in the Legislature's two-year session, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton said Wednesday that he would continue to block the measures, which would temporarily stop campaign consultants from lobbying the politicians they helped put in office. ``They're dead,'' Burton said of the bills. After the bills won support in the Assembly and a key Senate policy committee, Burton redirected them -- against the...

<p>WASHINGTON - Breaking a months-long impasse, the White House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday struck a deal allowing Senate confirmation of dozens of President Bush's judicial nominations (search) in exchange for a presidential promise not to bypass the Senate again this year.</p>