Free Republic

Continuing an unbelievable journey in 2022 highlighted by unbridled creativity, unforgettable shows, and uncontainable shared energy, Red Hot Chili Peppers reveal their second full-length studio album of the year, Return of the Dream Canteen, available in stores and on all streaming platforms via Warner Records today. Return of the Dream Canteen blossomed during the same sessions that yielded the group's chart topper Unlimited Love—which landed at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart back in April. It not only marked their second #1 career bow on the chart, but it also remains the biggest rock album of the year. This...

In response to Spotify’s newly launched Hate Content and Hateful Conduct public policy, women’s advocacy group UltraViolet is calling on the streaming service to widen its net beyond R. Kelly and XXXTentacion, which were the first acts to see their music removed from promotional playlists. UltraViolet, a national organization working on a range of issues including reproductive rights, healthcare, economic security, violence and racial justice, published an open letter Monday to Spotify head Daniel Ek, applauding a recent decision to pull Kelly and XXXTentacion’s music from playlists and algorithmic recommendations. However, the group is also imploring that the policy be...

Bush criticises Vermont senator’s spending plans and attacks GOP rival for failing to correct a man for saying Barack Obama was ‘not even an American An energised Jeb Bush has said Bernie Sanders is the “front runner” in the Democratic presidential race as he used a Republican rally to rail against the Vermont senator’s proposals. Bush told the Mackinac Republican leadership conference Sanders is the leading Democrat in a nod to recent polls showing the senator has taken the lead from Hillary Clinton in the crucial early voting state of Iowa. It was not all niceties, however. Bush proceeded to...

A Wisconsin school district is apologizing after middle school students were shown a video that featured Hollywood celebrities pledging to be a servant to President Obama.“I pledge to be a servant to our president,” Demi Moore said in the “I Pledge,” video shown Wednesday at Hudson Middle School. The video was part of a number of Peace One Day activities, an international event to build peace awareness. The students were also invited to make their own pledges after viewing the video. But there was a big problem – the video conveyed the idea that Americans should serve the presidency instead...

Obama reelection campaign manager Jim Messina emceed an event for Obama campaign volunteers Sunday night that was headlined by a rock singer convicted of sexual battery on a college student in 1990.The popular rock group The Red Hot Chili Peppers played a concert at the House of Blues in Cleveland last night for about 1200 Obama for America supporters who volunteered time at Obama phone banks. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:...On Sunday, the Cleveland Heights woman joined 1,200 Obama volunteers at the House of Blues to hear the band play a 45-minute set that included its anthem, "Under the Bridge,"...

About 12 hours after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,the Red Hot Chili Peppers gave it away, gave it away, gave it away… for Obama campaign volunteers at Cleveland’s House of Blues. As Cleveland’s Plain Dealer writes,the band performed a special 45-minute concert for 1,200 liberal-minded music lovers. Tickets were free, provided a would-be concert-goer had worked in an Obama phone bank. A video montage of Obama speeches paved the way for Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, and Josh Klinghoffer’s set. In between hits like “Under the Bridge” and “Can’t Stop,” Kiedis urged the audience to...

JOHN Howard doesn't know a lot about American rapper Snoop Dogg, but he knows enough to back the decision to refuse him an entry visa to Australia this weekend. Speaking on Melbourne radio station 3AW yesterday, the Prime Minister said the reasons for banning Snoop Dogg from Australia were sound. The singer and actor was due to perform and present an award at tomorrow's MTV Music Video Awards in Sydney, but was refused a visa this week, following a string of convictions for firearms and drug offences in the US. On those grounds, Snoop Dogg failed the character test that...

Thanks to the New York Times, we now know the dreaded torture methods the sadistic CIA used on captured Al Qaeda big shots shortly after the 9/11 attack. I warn you: Reading this column any further will subject you to unvarnished brutality. According to a front-page article in the Times on Sunday, Sept. 10, Pakistani authorities captured Abu Zubaydah, Al Qaeda's personnel director, a few months after the terror attack five years ago. Zubaydah, wounded in the confrontation, was turned over to American authorities and whisked away to Bangkok, Thailand, where FBI interrogators began questioning him. According to unnamed sources...

Early in the second hour of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' mammoth new double album, the guy who once yelped, "I want to party on your pussy!" whisper-sings a gentler, though not unrelated, proposition: "All I want is for you to be happy/And take this woman and make you my family." The delicate "Hard to Concentrate" is the most vulnerable Peppers tune ever -- a full-on marriage proposal from Anthony Kiedis, with Flea's muted bass and John Frusciante's layered guitars slow-dancing over Afrobeat hand drums. The twenty-eight-song, box-set-length Stadium Arcadium isn't a middle-aged concept album about trading in your tube...

DALLAS - A woman accused of suffocating her 5-month old daughter by using chili powder as a thumb-sucking remedy was convicted of manslaughter Sunday. Angela DiSabella, 21, of Irving, was sentenced to seven years in prison for the 2004 death of her daughter, Kira. DiSabella had been charged with capital murder. Jurors convicted her on the lesser charge after nearly 11 hours of deliberations. According to an affidavit, DiSabella told police she put chili powder on Kira's thumb after getting the idea on the Internet. Police said the child was malnourished and had chili powder in her throat and on...