Free Republic

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil prices surged to a record above $70 a barrel on Monday as one of the biggest storms in the United States churned through the Gulf of Mexico, forcing major oil producers and refiners to shut down operations. U.S. crude oil futures jumped nearly $5 a barrel in opening trade to touch a peak of $70.80 a barrel, surpassing last week's $68 high to the highest frontmonth price since the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) began trading contracts in It later traded up $3.94 a barrel, or 6 percent, to $70.07, more than recouping losses on Friday,...

Ben and Jerry's founder pays for PR firm for mother of fallen son by Mark Hand PR Week Worldwire 19 Aug 2005 Bush: vigil outside President's ranch CRAWFORD, TX - The PR firm working for Cindy Sheehan as she protests outside President Bush's ranch in Texas campaigning over the death of her son killed in Iraq has been paid for by Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. The 24-hour media attention being lavished upon Sheehan owes as much to the professionals supporting her as it does to the emotional impact of her story. Fenton Communications is assisting...

Many commentators have written about the protesting, anti-war mother who has decided to camp outside the President’s Crawford ranch and create a publicity spectacle for herself and the anti-war movement by exploiting the death of her son, Casey, in Iraq. Too many of those same commentators seem to feel the need to qualify their essays by explaining how they ‘understand the pain’ of the ‘grieving mother’. Yet, Cindy Sheehan’s actions do not mesh with those of a ‘grieving mother’ but those of an anti-war activist, so qualifying what she is doing only aids-and-abets her callous display self-serving emotionalism at the...

I lost a son in Iraq and Cindy Sheehan does not speak for me. I grieve with Mrs. Sheehan, for all too well I know the full measure of the agony she is forever going to endure. I honor her son for his service and sacrifice. However, I abhor all that she represents and those who would cast her as the symbol for parents of our fallen soldiers. The fallen heroes, until now, have enjoyed virtually no individuality. They have been treated as a monolith, a mere number. Now Mrs. Sheehan, with adept public relations tactics, has succeeded in elevating...

LONDON – In America and Britain, the grief of parents who lost sons or daughters in Iraq has become a potent political weapon - much more so than in other recent wars. In my view, these moms and dads have been badly let down by both sides of the war debate. The war's authors have offered little justification for the sacrifices made by loved sons and daughters in Iraq, which has allowed the families' raw grief to fester into public anger - and the war's opponents have sought cynically to exploit the families' sorrow for political ends. Currently, Cindy Sheehan...

Manorialism, commonly, is recognized to have been founded by robbery and usurpation; a ruling class established itself by force, and then compelled the peasantry to work for the profit of their lords. But no system of exploitation,including capitalism, has ever been created by the action of a free market. Capitalism was founded on an act of robbery as massive as feudalism. It has been sustained to the present by continual state intervention to protect its system of privilege, without which its survival is unimaginable. The current structure of capital ownership and organization of production in our so-called "market" economy, reflects...

This excerpt, from MSNBC, doesn't get anywhere near the meat of the book - where Fuhrman shows how Michael's inconstent statements, and the timeline of the morning that Terri collapsed, raise a lot of questions - and suspicions. Read the book.

Today, RFC Legislative Director Peggy Birchfield is participating in the release of the fifth annual Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Secretary Rice, along with Ambassador John Miller, the Secretary's Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons, will brief the media and Non-Governmental Organizations on the contents of the 150-country report. This year's focus will be on forced labor trafficking. The report's findings are a continued effort to increase global awareness and to encourage all countries to act to stop all forms of human trafficking, which is the second largest criminal industry in the...

A Russian woman has been charged with smuggling her 18 year old niece into the USA with a phony visa,then forcing her into prostitution. This case is just a drop in a very large bucket ! Click to read heart-burning details.

PHOENIX - State senators approved yet another measure Tuesday designed to crack down on illegal border crossers, but with a twist: This time they also want to go after the companies that hire them. The underlying legislation makes even more services legally off limits to illegal entrants than Proposition 200, which was approved by voters in November. For example, if HB 2030 becomes law, only citizens and legal residents could get adult education classes and subsidized child care. And students at state universities and community colleges would have to pay the higher tuition normally charged to out-of-state residents. But senators...

The Hawaii State Teachers’ Union (HSTA) is asking Hawaii teachers to ratify a new two-year contract Thursday, April 28, that will reward the HSTA’s upper echelon with the largest salary increases while cutting entry-level Class II teacher pay to $28,357 from the $35,486 won during negotiations last year. A computer assisted analysis shows the contract will allow teachers on Step 1 and 2 on the salary schedule to move up in 2006 after a year stuck at the lower pay scale. Some teachers believe the cut to new teacher pay is the unintended result of Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and HSTA...

While the nation grapples with the mounting problem of illegal immigration,Microsoft Network's "Money Central" advises investors on "how to cash in" on this "wonderful opportunity" ! Click the link to see for yourself.

It's about time we had a serious discussion about Martha Burk. Come on, you know who she is. She's the woman that, in 2002, inanely tried to compare Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters with racial segregation because it is a male-only private club. Never satisfied with the publicity, Martha exploited everything newsworthy to reintroduce her plight to the world via the Op-Ed pages. She tried to marry her cause to other issues in a vain attempt to remain relevant. She lost many supporters when she requested that The Masters be cancelled out of solidarity for the war in...

As a disclaimer to the following, it is important to note that there is a part of mandate in the following, but also a part of research and hypothesis. It is not a Manifesto but the result of manifestations. Criticizing the following is fair and fine, of course, however some critics have for agenda to smear the information and informer in order to cover up their own professional disgraces and not have them addressed as an important issue. Most of these "enemies", however, I feel sorry for, for several reasons: 1. because they spend more on hiding than doing their...

Kofi Annan must have the world's thickest set of industrial-quality earplugs. How else can he block out the cries of Congolese girls raped by United Nations "peacekeepers" sent to protect the innocents from harm? Fifty U.N. peacekeepers and U.N. civilian officers face an estimated 150 allegations of sexual exploitation and rape in the Congo alone. Last Friday, ABC's "20/20" program aired a devastating expose by investigative reporter Brian Ross highlighting some of the worst alleged crimes. The accused include Didier Bourguet, a U.N. senior official from France charged with running an Internet pedophile ring in the Congo. According to ABC...

Kofi Annan must have the world's thickest set of industrial-quality earplugs. How else can he block out the cries of Congolese girls raped by United Nations "peacekeepers" sent to protect the innocents from harm? Fifty U.N. peacekeepers and U.N. civilian officers face an estimated 150 allegations of sexual exploitation and rape in the Congo alone. Last Friday, ABC's "20/20" program aired a devastating expose by investigative reporter Brian Ross highlighting some of the worst alleged crimes. The accused include Didier Bourguet, a U.N. senior official from France charged with running an Internet pedophile ring in the Congo. According to ABC...

On a day meant to celebrate a great man and his legacy, all Americans should be grateful. We should all be grateful for our freedom, for our quality of life, for our neighbors, and for this entire country we call home. Yet every year new outcries of inequality and hatred arise on this day. What a shame for Dr. King’s legacy.

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...

The deputy school superintendent in Fairfield, Conn., said the school system did not sanction a recent "save the rainforests" excursion by second-grade students. He also said media coverage of the event resulted from a "misunderstanding." The Rainforest Action Network asked the second graders to visit JP Morgan Chase Bank, where they had cookies and milk, John Boyle, deputy superintendent for the Fairfield County, Conn., public school system, told Cybercast News Service . "It was never intended as any kind of a demonstration -- protest," he said. The elementary school students visited New York City last week at the behest of...

Adapting the Exploitation Model: Does the US have NO plan, or a NEW plan? What are the Bush administration’s plans in Iraq? On the surface, everything is going badly. The Jan 30th elections are destined to fail, and there are huge structural obstacles to overcome before Iraq can become a stable, peaceful nation. On top of that, the Iraq situation is so closely intermingled with two neighboring crises, in Iran and Saudi Arabia, that it will be exceptionally more difficult to deal with any single problem in isolation. Does the Bush administration have a plan to deal with this web...