Free Republic

Karen Hudes – RT’s “Whistleblower” Who Believes World Bank Controlled By Second Species Adam Holland April 22, 2014 Print Friendly Reporters love nothing more than a source with important inside information about the secret operations of a powerful institution. For the public, the word “whistleblower” evokes the individual citizen putting themselves at risk to stop wrongdoing by an employer. It’s a powerful idea – one justifiably lauded both in fiction and fact, and protected and encouraged by a set of federal laws set up precisely to encourage such heroic behavior. But not all whistleblowers are created equal. In fact, there...

In Defense of Diana West By J.R. Nyquist Commentary for 27 April 2014 There is great confusion in our political discourse today. “Former” Communists in Russia are sounding more and more like conservatives. The same might be said of “former” Communists in the United States. Everyone talks a good anti-Communist line. After all, Communism is dead, and only exists (we are told) as an artifact of college life. Most people are focused on Global Warming, multiculturalism or homosexual rights. Nobody seems to notice that Global Warming, multiculturalism and homosexual rights are artifacts of the supposedly “dead” religion (some of whose...

This spring put climate change back on the mainstream media radar. It started in March, when the American Association for the Advancement of Science released a report on climate change titled What We Know to kick off an initiative to raise awareness on the issue. It makes clear that not only is human-caused climate change real and happening, but that we need to take quick and direct action to rein in greenhouse gas emissions to avert likely catastrophe. Now the the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released a grim report acknowledging that global carbon emissions have continued...

A tweet by State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki Thursday night sparked snarky Twitter responses about the diplomacy of a hashtag – but the tweet really is more evidence of a brewing social media Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Jen Psaki ✔ @statedeptspox "The world stands #UnitedforUkraine. Let’s hope that the #Kremlin & @mfa_russia will live by the promise of hashtag"

Let us consider the stories of two Oregon Coast men who enjoy walking on the beach but go about it in dramatically different ways. One man, Matt Love from Astoria, walks on the beach at least five times a week with his 15-year-old husky and has been known to build driftwood forts and plunge naked into the ocean. He just turned 50 and works as a writer, publisher and educator. The other man, Dustin Harris from Lincoln City, walks down Highway 101 and across the beach open carrying a rifle, pistol and a permitted concealed weapon and causes multiple people...

Sunday on CNN´s "Reliable Sources," host Brian Stelter was very critical of former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson´s reporting skills because she has spoken about her experience at CBS News where she witnessed as a common practice the killing of stories unfriendly to the Obama administration. (Snip) Attkisson: I do think, again, that's a campaign by those who really want to controversialize the reporting. I do so you wouldn't listen to it, because if people took the few minutes to do a Google search, you would see the dozens and dozens of stories. I've done that were, in many cases, complemented...

Last week’s standoff at Bundy Ranch is still reverberating in Washington today. According to Kate Sheppard at Huffington Post, Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) has sent a letter to Mary Kendall, acting Inspector General for the Department of the Interior, asking her to investigate whether legislation pushed by the Koch brothers-linked American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been aimed at undermining the agency’s work.Two member affiliates of the Koch-supported Americans For Prosperity (AFP) organization gave their blessing as armed ‘Patriot’ militias showed up to confront agents of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) doing the dangerous, difficult job of removing Bundy’s trespass...

A User’s Guide to Russian Propaganda Submitted by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton on April 19, 2014 – 3:07 pm ESTNo Comment By: Brent P. Western press and media are having trouble distinguishing facts from Russian propaganda. This is understandable – the Russian propaganda machine is a mature and venerable institution that engages in an art that, for better or for worse, the West simply does not practice as often nor as effectively. The intent of this guide is to help those less accustomed to the ways of the Russian government to discern between reporting and propaganda. There are a few simple tell-tale...

...Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday again vigorously denied Western claims that Russian forces were operating in eastern Ukraine. But he also finally confirmed what had long been suspected and that he had repeatedly denied: that the well-armed forces with no insignia on their uniforms that took control of Crimea last month were in fact Russian troops.

Look for a Climate Credit from the State of California on Your April Utility Bill This month your electricity bill will include a credit identified as the "California Climate Credit." Twice a year, in April and October, your household and millions of others throughout the state will receive this credit on your electricity bills. The Climate Credit is a payment to Californians from a program designed to fight climate change by limiting the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that our largest industries put into the atmosphere. This program is one of many developed as a result of landmark legislation called...

JAY CARNEY: I remember we had some discussion during 2012 about well, is it appropriate for the president, the sitting president and candidate, to give interviews with Jon Stewart and others. And the answer was yes, again because the young voters we were trying to reach are more likely to watch The Daily Show than some other news shows. But also, I think if you look back at 2012 and the series of interviews the sitting president of the United States gave, probably the toughest interview he had was with Jon Stewart. Probably the most substantive, challenging interview Barack Obama...

Despite calls for a peaceful dialogue in the document on Ukraine adopted in Geneva, the coup-imposed Ukrainian Foreign Minister said it will not affect the “anti-terrorist” operation in the East of the country and the troops will remain there. Soon after the Geneva document, adopted at a four-side meeting between Ukraine, the US, the EU and Russia, was published, Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchytsa said Kiev is not bound by its recommendations. According to Deshchytsa cited by RIA Novosti, “the troops in the East of the country are carrying out a special operation and can remain where they are.”

Toddlers show racial bias when picking playmates, a study reveals. They also take account of how fairly others behave. Researchers tested the reaction of white 15-month-olds as toys were distributed.Two white adults divided the toys, one equally and the other unequally. Seventy per cent of the toddlers chose to play with the researcher who distributed the toys fairly. But in a second test, when one researcher favoured a white recipient over an Asian one, they picked the ‘fair’ researcher less often, the journal Frontiers in Psychology reports. And the babies are more likely to help those who share the same...

Civil war in Ukraine is unlikely as Kiev’s junta is quickly losing support, according to Jon Hellevig, co-author of the book “Putin’s New Russia." “I don't think there will be any civil war,” Hellevig, a managing partner at the Moscow-based Awara Group, told RIA Novosti. “The Russian people of eastern and southern parts of present-day Ukraine will take over their local governments soon, without large-scale conflict,” said Hellevig, a longtime observer of Russia's development. Pro-federalization protesters in Ukraine’s eastern city of Slaviansk ignored a Monday deadline by the central regime to lay down arms.

The White House is confirming that CIA Director John Brennan was in the Ukrainian capital over the weekend. White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed Russian media reports of the trip to Kiev. Carney says Brennan's visit was part of a trip to Europe. Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is accusing the CIA of being behind the new government's decision to turn to force. But the CIA denies that Brennan encouraged Ukrainian authorities to conduct tactical operations.

On MSNBC last night, host Alex Wagner continued her ongoing “leave the IRS alone” theme with a defense of the organization and its key players that tread into the territory of virtuosity in the art of reversing the spin. Not only, Wagner would have you believe, is the IRS not guilty of anything, not only were conservative groups not harmed or hampered in any way, but in fact it is the IRS who is truly the victim of unjust targeting. They are not the aggressor but the innocent victim, the simple, plainspoken agency that gosh darnit just wants to do...

A group of MPs representing both majority and opposition parties have asked Russia’s Prosecutor General to probe the events leading to the breakup of the Soviet Union. They view possible action against former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. In the letter, signed by two MPs from United Russia, two Communists and one representative of populist nationalist party LDPR, the parliamentarians claim that at the March 1991referendum the majority of Soviet citizens voted that their country should remain united, and therefore the actions of several top officials that led to USSR breakup were unlawful. They also noted that in November 1991 the...

Details:   Having worked in Catholic church music ministry for nearly 40 years — basically his entire adult life — Mike McMahon thought he knew the landscape and his place in it. As a gay person, all was fine as long as he was “discreet.”And that worked for him even in the conservative Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Va., where he was employed for about 30 of those years as music director at several parishes. In that time, McMahon, who has three graduate degrees in theology, also served as president of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, the national body for...

Another day, another opportunity for political propaganda. Today it’s all about the bees.White House Bees to be precise Washington, DC -  A new pollinator garden, a new pawpaw tree, and oat seeds for her South Lawn plot:  First Lady Michelle Obama had a series of  historic firsts and sunny weather on Wednesday afternoon as she welcomed an excited crowd of local school children and members of FoodCorps to the sixth annual Spring planting of her White House Kitchen Garden. Clad in black jeans, a grey t-shirt, a billowy steel-grey anorak and black leather tennis shoes, Mrs. Obama was ebullient as...

North Korea appears to ape Nasa with space agency logo Design looks remarkably similar to that of US space agency, right down to the blue globe, lettering and swooshed ring The choice of a globe as the emblem for North Korea's space agency expresses the country's ideal of peaceful exploration, explains the Korean Central News Agency. The blue rings, it adds, represent satellites, and the constellation of stars shows the desire to "glorify Kim Il-sung's and Kim Jong-il's Korea as a space power". However, the state news agency neglects to mention one glaring thing: the new logo looks a lot...