Free Republic

Calling solitary confinement "torture," California prisoners and advocates are asking the United Nations to investigate the segregated housing of gang members at prisons throughout the state. "We have California treating several thousand prisoners in much the same way the U.S. government treats enemy combatants held in Guantanamo," said Peter Schey, an attorney representing hundreds of inmates. Schey, who announced the petition at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday alongside prisoners' relatives, said solitary confinement was devastating to the physical and mental health of prisoners and was likely to increase their risk of committing more crimes upon release. The...

Gore: 'Our democracy has been hacked' By Daniel Strauss - 03/13/12 10:18 AM ET Al Gore said on Tuesday that America's democracy "has been hacked" and advocated for the use of digital tools to improve the government. Speaking to the high-tech crowd at the South by Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas, the former vice president said that social media and digital technology should be used to "change the democratic conversation." "Our democracy has been hacked," Gore said, according to CNN. "It no longer works, in the main, to serve the interests of our people." He also urged the audience...

TAMUNING, Guam – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney picked up nine more delegates Saturday, winning unanimous backing at the Guam GOP convention. Republicans on the tiny Pacific island decided to shun traditional paper ballots and all 215 eligible to vote at the convention backed Romney with a show of hands.....

Ordinary people are not putting enough pressure on governments to deliver a legally binding deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the U.N.'s climate chief said. "There is not enough well up from the bottom up. I don't see millions of citizens demanding climate action," Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said at a lecture on Friday. "The reality we have to deal with is the process is very slow and the urgency is every day growing. The only way out is to continue to push on the government side but we can't depend 100...

Gaza Strip - Palestinians tried to block the U.N. chief from entering the Gaza Strip and flung shoes at his armored convoy on Thursday, the second day of Ban Ki-moon's mission to the region. About 40 relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for a range of violent attacks gathered at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel. Some swung their signs and wooden sticks at Ban's convoy in protest. Three of them threw slippers at his car and another hurled a boot — an insulting gesture. Speaking to reporters, Ban thanked the people of Gaza for their "warm...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Okay, first things first… that is pronounced FOO-cue. Got that? Good. (Although let’s be honest, that’s not how you WANTED to pronounce it!) Suzanne Marques reports from this little hamburger gem (1634 Cahuenga, Hollywood, 90028 323-464-3858) that mixes big American beef flavors with Japanese inspired sauces and toppings. Take the “Lucky Burger” for example. Your typical all-beef patty, American cheese, onion, pickles and bun…but this one has a wasabi mayo and Fuku sauce. Or the “Karai” — one spicy burger topped with pickled cucumbers, avocado cream, and habanero kabyaki. Hot! And if you don’t like beef,...

Newt Gingrich tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer he would consider Mitt Romney to be a potential running mate (VIDEO). The interview is very much in keeping with Gingrich’s “keep it classy” campaign theme so far — and he treaded lightly, sounding neither overly enthusiastic about a VP Romney nor overly displeased with the idea. But why did he take the bait at all? He could just as easily have remained indifferent, have answered with a simple, “I’d have to give it thought.” He won’t win over Romney supporters — and he significantly owes his own surge to the appetite for an...

MSNBC has a new addition to its staff — Sen. John McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain. On his Wednesday program, MSNBC host Thomas Roberts introduced McCain and asked her to address her back-and-forth with presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. “Can you believe that?” McCain asked. “Former Speaker of the House I’m getting in fights with, I can’t believe it.” In a specific incident addressing some remarks McCain made about his presidential bid, Gingrich said, “How would she have a clue?” “I think he’s delusional,” McCain said. “And him calling me clueless I think is so sexist...

That's right. The "Republican take" was none other than uber-ditz Meghan McCain. TOTALLY! Among her pearls of wisdom: "Mitt Romney is, like, the most experienced candidate. He will be the nominee, and it's time that people learned to just deal with it." "We are going through each nominee one at a time like when you're...speed dating". "Herman Cain has never held public office before, and I find that, like, so disturbing". "Romney...Mitt..Romney...the best...Romney...." (ok I skipped the rest because I couldn't take it)

When Barack Obama draws criticism from Republicans and conservatives, it’s about as much of a breaking news flash as Dog Bites Man. We begin to move into Man Bites Dog territory, however, when a mounting wave of unrest comes from his own left flank – a scenario which has not only come to pass, but shifted into a significantly higher gear this past week. One of his latest detractors is found coming from the sector which would normally contain his biggest cheerleaders. This just in from Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast. More dispiriting news, this time about the White...

A poll released from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent national Democrats, found that former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is leading the pack of Republican hopefuls seeking their party’s presidential nomination in Florida. A PPP poll back in March found Romney tied in Florida with a rival from the 2008 Republican primaries, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, with 18 percent each. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was right behind them with 15 percent. Since then, Huckabee has announced that he is not running for president,...

The euphoric scenes that met the death of Osama Bin Laden will not boost President Barack Obama's re-election hopes, according to Alastair Newton, a political analyst at Nomura in London. “The immediate reaction in the US notwithstanding, 'normal business' will soon be resumed in US politics. There will be no change on the fiscal/debt polarization and contrary to some commentators' reaction, definitely no election boost for Obama," said Newton in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. With little or no operational control over al-Qaeda in recent years, Newton believes Osama's death will have little impact on the terror group's ability...

Pity poor Nancy Pelosi -- the House minority leader is stuck in the past. Speaking to a college crowd last Friday, she admonished her audience: "The fact is, is that elections shouldn't matter as much as they do." Of course not. She just lost one. Hmm: Back in 2006, when she became House speaker, she said the election was "an historic [event] . . . for which we have waited for over 200 years." But if that election was consequential, so was last November's, wherein Pelosi was relegated to oblivion. Still raging at the outcome, this week she scolded the...

Libya has become the first country to be suspended from the UN Human Rights Council, after the rest of the world condemned the Gaddafi regime's "gross and systematic violations" of the rights of its people. The UN General Assembly, which comprises all 192 members, agreed to bar Libya from the council, which aims to "strengthen, promote and protect human rights", on Tuesday evening in New York. The measure was accepted "by consensus", a device used if there is no known opposition. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, said: "The world has spoken with one voice". Gaddafi has over the past...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - New York City's bedbug epidemic has spread to yet another landmark in the city that never sleeps -- the United Nations, officials at the world organization said on Wednesday. The pests appeared at places like the Empire State Building and Bloomingdale's before reaching the city's center of international diplomacy on the East Side of Manhattan. The U.N. press office said a bedbug-sniffing dog had confirmed the presence of bedbugs in furniture in the basement of the Dag Hammarskjold Library, where the offices of the team overseeing the U.N. headquarter's $1.9 billion renovation project are housed.

Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids (Oct. 17) -- Walter Schumm knows what he's about to do is unpopular: publish a study arguing that gay parents are more likely to raise gay children than straight parents. But the Kansas State University family studies professor has a detailed analysis that past almost aggressively ideological researchers never had. When one such researcher, Paul Cameron, published a paper in 2006 arguing that children of gay parents were more likely to be gay themselves, the response from the academic press was virulent, to say nothing of the popular press; the Southern...

There is troubling news on this story. Johnathan and Stephanie went to visit their child today. Details are a bit sketchy at this point, but Cheyenne is reportedly losing consciousness, bleeding out of her private parts, and has not gained weight. Update from the Free Baby Cheyenne Facebook Group: “Pirra Milan EMERGENCY PROTEST AT CONCORD HOSPITAL AND DCYF’S OFFICES!!! JOHNATHAN AND STEPHANIE WERE AT A VISIT. BABY CHEYENNE WOULDN’T WAKE UP! THEY CHANGED HER DIAPER AND BLOOD WAS EVERYWHERE! SHE WAS RUSHED BY AMBULANCE TO THE HOSPITAL! THEY AREN’T ALLOWING THE PARENTS IN!!” Update (2:30 p.m.) Baby Cheyenne is currently...

On April 14th 2009, I was filming in the second floor lobby of Keene City hall. According to an unsigned document on the wall filming is prohibited. I was arrested and cuffed over a silver bracelet seen in the background of the video. I dropped to the floor and as they dragged me around the bracelet was cutting into my wrist causing excruciating pain. Eli Rivera, now running for sheriff, found this rather amusing. This video depicts the events that happened before my camera was turned off. A few months later Activist Kurt Hoffman was taken to the same back...

9/11/10 Koran burning at Ground Zero captured on video.

Barack Hussein Obama rules America by manipulating a deep seated shame pattern in all people. Those who let themselves be cast into the image of victims or villains, are fair game for Obama the deceiver. Obama pits class against class, race against race, religion against religion, party against party. Obama is the great divider and his hate, lies and heavy handed tyranny will destroy America unless we wake up. Some people are fed up with Obama's never ending, race baiting and hate filled slander hurled against all who oppose him.. Obama's America is so full of shame that we shake...