Free Republic

Workers World newspaper in the past has supported the candidates of Workers World Party running for national office in the U.S. presidential elections and who have put forward a revolutionary socialist program. This time we are taking the unusual step of endorsing the candidacy of Cynthia McKinney because these are unique times and this is a unique candidate.

One day Americans are moaning about the harmful impact of cheap oil and the next they're grousing about the harmful impact of expensive oil. Which one is it? As a disreputable sort, I freely confess to having a fondness for oil. Actually, I have a mild crush on all carbon-emitting fuels that feed our prosperity. But I'm especially fond of cheap oil. For many years, those who spread apocalyptic global-warming scenarios have warned me that a collective national sacrifice was needed to save the world. One option, we were told, was to make gas artificially expensive, forcing our ignorant, energy-gobbling...

July 12, 2008 - Rapper Rosa Clemente accepts the VP slot for the Green Party.

Bill Phillips spent nearly 50 years in the US oil and gas industry; most of his career was with the Phillips Petroleum Company. Bill is a descendant of Frank Phillips. Frank Phillips, along with his brother Lee Eldas (L.E.) Phillips, Sr., founded the original Phillips Petroleum Company in 1917 in Bartlesville, OK. Do you remember Phillips 66 gas stations? Phillips Petroleum Company merged with Conoco, Inc. in 2002 to form the current ConocoPhillips oil company. As you prepare to cast your crucial ballots this Fall, please think long and hard about the far-reaching, cumulative effects of the US political philosophies,...

Controversy has always been Cynthia McKinney's trademark. This election season, she may have finally found her perfect political home. Last weekend, the 53-year-old former Georgia congresswoman clinched the Green Party's presidential nomination; 35-year-old hip-hop artist and activist Rosa Clemente will be her running mate. A firebrand politician best known for her impolitic statements during her more than 20 years in public life, McKinney has had a mixed electoral record as a Democrat in her district in recent years. After 10 years in office, she was upset in 2002 by fellow Democrat Denise Majette, re-elected in 2004, and ousted again in...

...Senator Reid and House Speaker Pelosi have both stated that they will not allow drilling legislation to proceed, although they are both aware that the legislation now has enough support to pass both houses. Senator Reid yesterday acknowledged that only 80% of the Senatorial Democratic Caucus opposed lifting the moratorium. If that were the case, then that would mean that the legislation would have close to the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster. The argument of Reid, Pelosi, Obama and several other congressional leaders has shifted in the past few weeks from an attitude that we cannot drill to...

Democratic Senator Richard Durbinof Illinois declared, “We can’tdrill our way to lower prices.”When it comes to domestic oil production, the Democrats and their Green/Left supporters are all singing from the same deranged hymnal. In May, one of the choir leaders, Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois declared, “We can’t drill our way to lower prices.” Never mind that 85 percent of America’s Outer Continental Shelf is off-limits to oil and gas exploration. Forget that the offshore areas that John McCain and George W. Bush want to open to exploitation might contain 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 07/15/2008 Pelosi on Gas Prices: ‘It’s the Economy, Mr. President’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders today held a news conference with economic experts following an economic forum this morning. At the forum, five national economic experts endorsed Democrats’ call for the President to immediately release a small amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce energy prices for American consumers. Below are selected comments by the Speaker on energy: “The President said today that he would not support the release of the oil...

In the Rockies today, a lawsuit is filed to stop energy leasing on Colorado's Roan Plateau, the public gets more time to weigh in on a change in national parks' gun policy, and the BLM rounds up hundreds of horses in Nevada. Ten environmental groups have sued the Bureau of Land Management to keep energy leases on Colorado's Roan Plateau from being auctioned off on Aug. 14. The leases are opposed by hunters and anglers who said wells present a danger to the plateau's wildlife habitat.Groups sue to stop energy leases on Colorado plateauA proposal to change gun policy in...

Imagine a society where simply speaking out of turn or saying the "wrong thing" was openly discussed as a crime against humanity, and where sceptics or deniers of the truth were publicly labelled "criminals", hauled before the press and accused of endangering humanity with their grotesque untruths. Imagine a society where even some liberals demanded severe restrictions on freedom of movement; where people campaigned for travelling overseas to be made prohibitively expensive in order to force people to stay at home; and where immigration was frowned upon as "toxic" and "destructive".

(CNN) -- The liberal environmentalist Green Party nominated former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as its presidential candidate Saturday. Cynthia McKinney represented a suburban Atlanta, Georgia, district for six terms as a Democrat. Cynthia McKinney represented a suburban Atlanta, Georgia, district for six terms as a Democrat. McKinney, 53, held off three rivals to win the party's nomination during its convention in Chicago, Illinois. She picked journalist and activist Rosa Clemente as her running mate.

For those voters who think Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are too conventional, the Green Party this weekend named former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Georgia, its 2008 presidential nominee. At the Green Party's nominating convention Saturday in at the Chicago Symphony Center, McKinney received 313 out of 532 votes cast in the first round of balloting. "I am asking you to vote your conscience, vote your dreams, vote your future, vote Green," McKinney told the convention's 800 or so attendees. "A vote for the Green Party is a vote for the movement that will turn this country right-side-up again." McKinney, a...

The U.S. Green Party, which captured far less than 1 percent of the vote in the last presidential election, chose former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney as its 2008 presidential candidate on Saturday. McKinney, 53, will be joined on the ticket for the November election by vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop artist and activist. McKinney received 313 out of 532 votes cast at the party's nominating convention in Chicago, party spokesman Scott McLarty said. In 2004, the Green Party drew 119,859 votes, or 0.1 percent of the total, finishing in sixth place behind the two major parties and three...

In the breathless weeks before the Oregon presidential primary in May, Martha Shade did what thousands of other people here did: she registered as a Democrat so she could vote for Senator Barack Obama. Now, however, after critics have accused Mr. Obama of shifting positions on issues like the war in Iraq, the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants, gun control and the death penalty — all in what some view as a shameless play to a general election audience — Ms. Shade said she planned to switch back to the Green Party. “I’m disgusted with him,” said Ms....

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Two environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn new federal regulations that grants permission to oil companies working in the Chukchi Sea to disturb the polar bears and walrus that live there. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, challenges regulations issued last month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that allow "incidental takes" of the animals, meaning permission to disturb or accidentally harass them as long as such actions do not result in physical injury or death. Tuesday's lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Environment,...

Americans still say protection should be a priority over the economy, but nearly three in four favor offshore drilling. With the U.S. economy mired in a slump, Americans still believe saving the environment is more important than fixing the economy, according to a new poll released Thursday. But consumers are more closely divided on the issue than they have been in the past. According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll, 49% of Americans say protection of the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of curbing economic growth. That compares to 44% of those surveyed who said the economy...

You would think that this story is right out of science fiction. But the facts appear to be that the US Democrat-controlled Congress intends to destroy the Republican middle class with $11 per gallon gasoline. The Democrats’ base -- wealthy white “limousine liberals”, and very poor people -- won’t be harmed, but the families who live in suburbia will be devastated. The multi-millionaires like billionaire Senators John Kerry & Jay Rockefeller, financial speculator George Soros, filmmaker Michael Moore, and actors George Clooney & Meg Ryan can easily pay for their auto and private jet fuel. Poor people are forced to...

SOURCE Video, charts, audio, and text at the site.

First, it was cow gas that was wrecking the environment. Then gas-powered lawnmowers. Now, it’s fireworks we’re supposed to worry about. Fireworks, it was reported this week, are helping ruin both the Earth and our health. Where most of us looked up at the sky last night and saw red, white and blue, some people, it seems, saw only the first. Fireworks, some scientists are warning, are toxic, and you know what’s next. All those “ooohhhhhhhs” and “aaahhhhhhhhhhs” will soon be “booooos” and “baaaaaaaaahs.” Except that people, many people, have had enough of “Enough.”“No matter what you do, something is...

(CNSNews.com) - A Consumer Reports survey reveals that Americans are blaming Congress for high gas prices, which are compelling them to make shifts and sacrifices in their consuming habits. The Auto Pulse Survey, conducted by Consumer Reports National Research Center, showed that 77 percent of consumers single out the government's failure to implement an effective energy policy as a root cause for high gas prices; 75 percent of consumers blame oil companies; and 70 percent blame foreign oil producers. When asked about actions the federal government could take to reduce fuel costs, 81 percent want to allow more drilling in...

A recent Consumer Reports survey as reported on the Fox News Channel indicated that 77 percent of Americans blame Congress for our oil price crisis. This implies that the Democrats’ attempt to shift the blame to oil executives, OPEC and oil speculators did not work. Seventy-four percent of likely voters, according to a recent Zogby poll, support oil drilling in U.S. coastal waters. And yet the Democrats blocked legislation in the Senate and the House several times within the last few weeks. Congressman Lynn Westmoreland has gotten 183 of his congressional colleagues to sign a simple petition that says, “I...

Some might call it criminal. Imagine if a Presidential candidate like John McCain or Barack Obama proposed giving North America’s oil to communist China. It would be the end of their career in politics. Americans would be furious. And yet that is exactly what our Congress has been doing now for several years. The U.S. government is forbidding drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Eastern seaboard on the Continental Shelf. Meanwhile, China is preparing to tap into the same oil pockets with Cuba’s cooperation. China will actually be able to pump several oil pockets in...

This week I want to do something a little different. Although my Winning the Future message has always been directed at all Americans, whether they consider themselves Republicans, Democrats, or independents, today I am directing my message specifically to Democrats. And my message is this:The American people have spoken. Are your leaders listening?Over 1.1 Million Americans Call on Congress to "Drill Here, Drill Now" We really had no idea, just 35 days ago when we first posted the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" petition here, that we would provide the spark that has ignited a fire among frustrated, struggling...

To their everlasting horror, the global-warming alarmists have discovered that ExxonMobil advertises with the Washington Nationals. This act of free enterprise cannot go unpunished, so the global-warming alarmists have initiated a campaign to educate the Lerner family and baseball-supporting public in the hope the Nationals will end their relationship with ExxonMobil. It is unclear whether the global-warming alarmists walked to the ballpark from their homes, took mass transportation or drove there in an automobile. That, of course, is often the rub with the global-warming zealots. They talk a good game if it concerns you, your neighbor and the person down...

Dear Member of Congress: In recent weeks, there has been much discussion about access and federal oil and natural gas leases, and I thought it helpful to provide you with information on this matter. The criticism of the oil and natural gas industry is that it seeks greater access to our nation’s resources under federal lands when companies already own many leases that are allegedly sitting there, undeveloped and producing nothing. There are now even calls for oil companies to be denied new leases, if they have “unexploited” leases. To many, this criticism may sound reasonable. However, these claims of...

Environmentalists have contended for decades that if gasoline, heating oil and natural-gas prices rose high enough, Americans would clamor for energy alternatives. Well, each fuel sets a record almost daily, and Americans are clamoring — for more gasoline, heating oil and natural gas. A new Rasmussen poll finds two-thirds of Americans favor more offshore drilling, as opposed to just 18 percent who oppose it. Drilling is backed by 57 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of unaffiliated voters. Even liberals think environmental concerns must take a backseat to more plentiful, less expensive fossil fuels, 46 percent to 37 percent. Last...

President Bush and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain both recently proposed an end to the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. What's really needed, though, is a moratorium on worthless suggestions from politicians for lowering gas prices. GOP leaders like Bush and McCain are rolling out their own nonsensical non-solutions to the energy crisis after the Senate this month beat back an equally ridiculous attempt at gas-pump pandering by Democrats. Their bill would have hampered investment in new supply by imposing a shortsighted windfall-profits tax on oil companies, and it might have set off a trade war by allowing...

The Sierra Club, one of the nation's largest and most politically-active environmental organizations, announced this evening it would endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president. The announcement was not a surprise: the group's executive director, Carl Pope, had hammered the presumptive GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), for months over his missed votes in the Senate and his support for nuclear power subsidies as a way to address global warming. This week Pope criticized McCain for announcing he supports lifting the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. Tomorrow, Pope will speak at an event in Cleveland, Ohio with Leo Gerard,...

I’m back and I have had enough of the Democrats (Communists), Obama, and their mouthpiece, the mainstream media. The high cost of oil, gasoline, and natural gas can be laid squarely in the lap of the Democratic Party (the Communists). They have repeatedly grilled the top CEOs of the largest oil companies in America attempting to blame them for setting the price of oil and gas. Threatening a windfall profits tax (someone explain what a windfall profit is) to taking over the industry. This is the usual tactic of guilty people to deflect attention away from them. They know nothing...

A recent telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters nationwide by the polling companyTM, inc. on behalf of FamilySecurityMatters.org shows that by nearly a 4-to-1 margin, Americans favor increasing domestic oil drilling (77% support; 18% oppose). Moreover, 61% of respondents strongly backed tapping into U.S. oil reserves, and majorities from every demographic group surveyed backed domestic drilling, including 91% of Republicans, 73% of Independents and 67% of Democrats.

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 06/17/2008 Pelosi: The President Continues to Slow Walk Americans on Energy Independence Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement tonight in advance of President Bush’s speech tomorrow on energy: "The President's proposal sounds like another page from the Administration's Energy Policy that was literally written by the oil industry: give away more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they've already leased. "In just the last year, Congress has promoted energy independence by raising efficiency standards...

Al Gore announced his endorsement of Barack Obama Monday and promised to help the Democrat achieve what eluded him _ the presidency. In a letter to be e-mailed to Obama supporters, the former vice president and Nobel Prize winner wrote, "From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected president of the United States." In 2000, Gore won the popular vote but lost the disputed 2000 election to George W. Bush, who captured Florida and its electoral votes after a divided Supreme Court ended the recount. Since then, Gore has made...

Dems Running on Empty by Sen. James Inhofe What a difference three years makes: In 2005, I led the charge against a massive global warming cap-and-trade bill. It was a lonely battle with few GOP members willing to join me on the Senate floor to publicly oppose it. Fast forward to June 2008: Not only was I joined by dozens of GOP Senators, but nearly 30% of the Democratic Senators rebelled against their leadership and opposed the Boxer Climate Tax Bill. In the end, Senator Boxer only had at most 35 Democratic Senators willing to vote for final passage on...

With gas prices topping $4 a gallon and the idea of tapping into oil under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the Outer Continental Shelf becoming more popular, liberal members of Congress are changing the basis for their opposition to drilling. Opposition to opening up new drilling has traditionally focused on environmental concerns, but the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on June 15 accused oil companies of not using what they already have. When CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked "why not start drilling" in more U.S. areas "that could dramatically increase supply and as a result reduce the...

This started out as an attempt to create a light and humorous, Letterman-esque Top 10 list. But the items on the list, and the drain Americans are seeing in their pocketbooks because of Democrats' actions (sometimes inaction) are just too tragic for that. 10) ANWR  If Bill Clinton had signed into law the Republican Congress's 1995 bill to allow drilling of ANWR instead of vetoing it, ANWR could be producing a million barrels of (non-Opec) oil a day--5% of the nation's consumption. Although speaking in another context, even Democrat Senator Charles Schumer, no proponent of ANWR drilling, admits that "one million barrels...

You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas. It is shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline. All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and...

I think most Democrats in Congress went to college, though there is seldom any outward sign of it. While there, they undoubtedly learned about the law of supply and demand. The demand from China and India is jacking up worldwide oil prices and the federal gas tax increases it further. The Democrats are refusing to do anything about it and are absolute sitting ducks on this issue. They won't allow us to drill our own huge reserves that are located in places where no one has ever been and no one will never go. This week they tried, and failed,...

Bob Kelleher, a former Green who sued the Montana University System for excluding the Green and Libertarian candidates from a gubernatorial debate in 2004, scored an upset victory in the Montana GOP primary race for U.S. Senate. Kelleher, who still maintains his Green beliefs, will be the Republican nominee versus Democratic incumbent Max Baucus. The Montana Green Party does not currently have ballot access. The theme of Kelleher’s campaign was “no more tax cuts until hunger, health, HRDC, and job needs are satisfied and social security, Medicare and Medicaid funds are secure.” Ballot Access News reports that Kelleher apparently raised...

There are RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and then there are RINOs who call themselves Republicans for Environmental Protection. Founded in 1995, REP seeks to save the planet through decidedly un-Republican, big-government socialism. It also annually hands out its "Greenest Republican in Congress" award. This year's co-winner is Rep. Christopher Shays, RINO-4th District, who by sheer coincidence is on REP's "Honorary Board of Distinguished Republicans," along with co-winner Sen. Susan Collins, RINO-Maine. On REP's 0-100 scorecard, Rep. Shays scored 103 for promoting policies that are responsible for today's record energy prices and much more. Out of the other side of...

I’m sipping whiskey for the fourth straight night in Denver, while I and the Libertarians sit in stunned amazement. The Libertarian party (LP) has gone mainstream. They have developed creeping respectability. They may soon risk becoming boring. Not that their convention was boring. Far from it. Being the completely anal retentive ideological purists they are, the seeming invasion from ex-Republicans (Bob Barr) and ex-Democrats (Mike Gravel) made for tense conversations, endless hand wringing, and a lot of late night power drinking as many LP members came to terms with the Gawd awful decision they faced. .... 52% of Republicans and...

Greetings of IMANI (FAITH) President McKinney: May our Divine Creator and Beloved Ancestors find you and the extended family in the best of spirit and health. Welcome back to the land of the original OHLONE people, to what is currently called the “california bay area.” It is so disappointing not to be able to greet you personally this weekend—when WE are commemorating the birthdays of freedom fighters EL HAJJ MALIK EL SHABAZZ (Brother Minister Malcolm X), Mother Yuri Kochiyama and HO CHI MINH—due to a previously-scheduled family commitment. However, it was a pleasure to speak to you briefly after the...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll has shown a very close race between John McCain and Barack Obama. For most of the past week, they have been essentially tied with typically 4% of voters saying they prefer some other candidate and a similar number remaining undecided. A separate survey found slightly different results when third-party candidates were mentioned by name. In a four-way race, Obama earns 42% of the vote, McCain 38%, Bob Barr 6% and Ralph Nader 4%. Given those options, 11% were undecided. Barr and Nader were mentioned as candidates of the Libertarian Party and the Green...

This year, the Constitution Party’s national convention is scheduled for April. The Libertarian Party will convene to nominate its 2008 presidential slate in late May. The Green Party won’t choose its ticket until July. This may not seem unusual (the Republicans and Democrats usually hold their conventions in August or even early September), but third parties and “major parties” face very different sets of obstacles in publicizing their presidential prospects. The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have been the subject of fawning media coverage for close to two years now. They’ve been debating each other on prime time television for...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader selected Matt Gonzalez, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, to be his running mate. Nader, who launched his fourth White House bid last weekend, made the announcement Thursday at a news conference. The Texas-born Gonzalez ran for mayor of San Francisco as a Green Party candidate in 2003 but lost to Democrat Gavin Newsom after a surprisingly close runoff election. Gonzalez, a lawyer, has been largely inactive in city politics since then. When Nader announced his third-party campaign for the president last Sunday, he criticized the top contenders...

SAN FRANCISCO - Progressives will hold their own Presidential debate here Sunday when former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Democrat-turned-Green Rep. Cynthia McKinney and others on the Green Party Presidential ballot Feb. 5 will participate in what is being billed as "A Presidential Debate That Matters." The debate will be held Sunday, Jan. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Herbst Theater/Veterans Memorial Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue. A NEWS CONFERENCE* is scheduled with candidates at 1 p.m., shortly before the debate begins. This is the best, and maybe only, opportunity to conduct interviews. Ex-Rep. McKinney, former Green Party presidential candidate Nader...

College Park, Md. (CNSNews.com) - Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) said her bid for the White House as a Green Party candidate won't hurt Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton's chances for being the first African-American or woman U.S. president, respectively, because U.S. elections have been corrupted. "Basically, what you are suggesting is by participating in the Democratic process the Green Party is going to become, quote, 'the spoiler,' " McKinney told Cybercast News Service at a rally Tuesday at the University of Maryland. "It is impossible to become a spoiler based on past experience when one examines the...

Nader to decide soon on possible presidential run Mon Jan 21, 11:58 AM ET MONTREAL (Reuters) - Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said on Monday he will decide soon on whether to make a another bid for the White House in 2008, eight years after playing a key role as a third party presidential candidate. "I'll decide in about a month," he said in an interview broadcast on CBC Radio's Daybreak show in Montreal. "What I'm deciding on right now is whether we can get enough volunteers, enough financial resources to overcome the huge ballot access obstacles, which you don't experience...

Withdraw from Iraq immediately. Eliminate the No Child Left Behind law. Legalize marijuana. Those were just some of the goals stated by candidates at the Green Party presidential debate Sunday in San Francisco. About 800 people of varying ages, economic backgrounds and political parties attended the "Presidential Debate that Matters" at the Herbst Theatre, where the five Green presidential hopefuls spent more time agreeing with one another than actually debating. "We're not so much against each other as we are for each other," said one of the candidates, Kent Mesplay, an environmental engineer who also ran for the Green Party...

Withdraw from Iraq immediately. Eliminate the No Child Left Behind law. Legalize marijuana. Those were just some of the goals stated by candidates at the Green Party presidential debate Sunday in San Francisco.

Al-Qaida announced Thursday that it would soon release a new video message from American-born member Adam Gadahn that would be the first message from the terror group in 2008. "Coming soon by the will of God, an invitation to reflection and repentance," read a banner produced by al-Qaida's media wing, al- Sahab, and displayed on a militant Web site. An image of the bearded Gadahn wearing a red-and-white checkered Arab scarf appears on the banner.