Free Republic

Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Sunspots are plentiful nowadays A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past. They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer. This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they...

More state governments defy congress and reject Real ID By Ryan Paul | Published: April 09, 2007 - 03:43PM CT The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted last week to block implementation of the federal government's controversial Real ID act. Since New Hampshire Governor John Lynch does not intend to veto the Real ID rejection bill, it will pass if approved by the state senate. Characterized by New Hampshire Representative Sherman Packard as "the worst piece of blackmail to come out of the federal government," the Real ID Act creates a set of uniform standards for state-issued ID cards, and...

9/11: Book Reassesses Giuliani's Role ... In what ways?The dumbest decision he made was to put the [city’s emergency] command center in the World Trade Center even though his principal security advisers urged him to put it elsewhere. His own emergency-management director, Jerry Hauer, wanted it to go where [current New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg has now put it: in Brooklyn ... If he had, he could have managed the crisis much more capably ...... There’s also a whole chapter about radios. It took until March of 2001 for the fire department to come up with new radios. And...

Giuliani will miss firefighters event By Richard Perez-PenaNew York Times News Service       John McCain will be there, as will Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and half a dozen other presidential candidates. But when firefighters hold a candidates' forum today in Washington, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the contender most closely identified with their profession, will not attend.       In the past several days, a private tussle over Giuliani's participation — he was out, then in, then out again — has turned into a public spat with the International Association of Fire Fighters. That, in turn, has...

FireFightingNews.com Firefighters Blast Giuliani Over 9/11 March 9, 2007 New York - The International Association of Fire Fighters union accused Republican presidential contender Rudolph Giuliani of committing egregious acts against New York City firefighters after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The union, which says it wants its 260,000 U.S. members to know the "real story" of the former New York mayor, said Giuliani sought to curtail search-and-recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site less than a month after the attacks that claimed the lives of 2,752 people, including 343 union firefighters. "Mayor Giuliani's actions meant that firefighters...

Updated:2007-03-05 14:55:26 Giuliani Estranged From His Children Some Say Personal Problems May Hurt Prospects CBS News NEW YORK (March 5) -- It doesn't look like Rudy Giuliani's two children will have a role in his presidential campaign. According to press reports, the GOP frontrunner's third marriage has alienated his son, Andrew, 21, and daughter, Caroline, 18, from their father. Giuliani's 21-year-old son, Andrew, told the New York Times that he would be too busy working on his golf game to participate in his father's presidential campaign. "There's obviously a little problem that exists between me and his wife," the younger...

During her CPAC Q&A session, Ann Coulter said: Question: "What do you think of Governor Romney's candidacy for the presidency?" Ann's reply:"I think he's probably our best candidate." "I think it is fair to say, and this is coming from someone who supported Pete DuPont, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Steve Forbes so it's not like I won't go for an underdog." "But I think we have to be serious about this. I think our choice is among Gingrich, Giuliani, McCain, and Romney. And Giuliani is very very liberal and when this country gets to the point (and I have a...

Politics Draft questions cloud Giuliani’s chances (AP) Rudolph Giuliani in his consulting offices in New York in 2005. Bill Sammon, The Examiner Feb 28, 2007 9:04 PM (1 day ago) Current rank: # 1 of 19,016 articles WASHINGTON - If this presidential campaign is anything like the last, John McCain’s Vietnam service will inevitably be contrasted with GOP rival Rudy Giuliani’s avoidance of a war that he opposed. “Any suggestion that he was dodging the draft is totally, factually inaccurate,” said a senior Giuliani campaign adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the...

February 15, 2007, 6:00 a.m. Giuliani’s Electoral DownsideThe social issues aren’t just a primary problem. By Ramesh Ponnuru Rudy Giuliani doesn’t seem to have any tepid supporters on the Right. His fans are dogged in explaining his virtues to their skeptical peers. Steven Malanga recently wrote an essay for the City Journal’s website making the case for Giuliani as a conservative exemplar. He runs through an impressive list of the mayor’s conservative accomplishments. He adds this closing thought: “And if social and religious conservatives fret about Giuliani’s more liberal social views, nevertheless, in the general election such views might...

Death for dollars? Ukrainian infants likely killed to harvest stem cells Rebecca Grace - AFA Journal OneNewsNow.comFebruary 17, 2007 Evidence from a video obtained by the BBC points to the stomach-churning possibility that healthy babies born in a Ukrainian maternity hospital were taken their mothers and then murdered so that large amounts of stem cells could be harvested from their brains and bone marrow. A spokesman for the hospital denies it is connected in any way with the use of stem cells -- but one Ukrainian couple never saw their newborn daughter again after being told all was well and...

Wait! Don't Buy Microsoft Windows Vista Here's a well-considered list of reasons to wait on buying Windows Vista. Mike Elgan, Computerworld Monday, January 29, 2007 08:00 AM PST Over the next few weeks, NBA star LeBron James will try to convince you to move to Windows Vista as part of Microsoft's massive ad campaign. This is not a review of the Windows Vista operating system. I'm not here to tell you about Vista or what's wrong with it. For an opposing viewpoint, read Windows Vista: 15 Reasons to Switch.And to help you make up your own mind, here's a list...

Dem win lands Schumer a whole new role November 27, 2006 BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist A staple Republican tactic for several years has been to get Chuck Schumer on television. His whiny New York accent exhaling liberal dogma was music to GOP ears. Yet, his omnipresence on TV since the midterm elections has not been cause for Republican jubilation. That's because Schumer, for once, has not been talking -- just beaming. In every televised tableau of victorious Democrats, Schumer's smiling face has been positioned beside the next House speaker or Senate majority leader. He deserved the place of...

CBS News Productions Saddam Hussein shooting an arrow with a crossbow in a video showing him and Iraqi military officers demonstrating low-tech weapons. WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 — As the world worried about Saddam Hussein’s quest for nuclear and biological weapons, he took time out to discuss with his top advisers the merits of a decidedly more primitive arsenal: slingshots, Molotov cocktails and crossbows. In a previously undisclosed video, apparently shot in the months before the American-led invasion in 2003, Mr. Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, beams as military officers display and demonstrate low-tech weapons spread on a table in a ceremonial...

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Considers Moving Troops From al-Anbar Province to Baghdad Major Strategic Shift Considered to Secure Iraqi Capital By JONATHAN KARL Nov. 28, 2006 — - ABC News has learned that Pentagon officials are considering a major strategic shift in Iraq, to move U.S. forces out of the dangerous Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province and join the fight to secure Baghdad. The news comes as President Bush prepares to meet with Iraq's president to discuss the growing sectarian violence. There are now 30,000 U.S. troops in al-Anbar, mainly Marines, braving some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq. At least 1,055 Americans have...

Drunken Swedish moose drowns after fermented apple binge STOCKHOLM (AFP) — A moose that became inebriated after binging on fermented fallen apples in northern Sweden drowned when it fell through the ice of a frozen inlet, Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet reported on Thursday. "The moose appears to have eaten too many fermented apples and become confused out on the ice," Luleaa police spokesman Erik Kummu told local media. Emergency services were scrambled but they were unable to save the four-legged apple thief. For several days prior to the moose's demise, local residents had contacted police after seeing the animal munch its...

Rove: Get Ricketts to D.C. By Don Walton / Lincoln Journal Star / September 24, 2006 Karl Rove finally said what Nebraska Republicans have been waiting to hear. “Let me make it clear,” the White House political strategist told about 150 people at a GOP reception Saturday in the Haymarket in Lincoln. “The president of the United States would like to have Pete Ricketts in the U.S. Senate.” That public affirmation has been high on the Nebraska GOP’s wish list since Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson began using the kind words Bush said about him in a 2005 Omaha speech in...

Writing in Sunday's Washington Post, Marc Ambinder observed, “Both parties have well-financed internal agitators who yank tight the chains of ideological discipline -- think of MoveOn.Org on the left and the Club for Growth on the right ... The Republican base is fracturing around fiscal probity, immigration and cultural issues.” He's right. And it seems the Republican Party committees are actually working around-the-clock to expedite the process. It has been much noted that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has spent millions of dollars against conservative Steve Laffey in Rhode Island. But now, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has...

Sarkozy's reform bill will "stiffen the rules for immigrants in France, establish a sort of quota system and let authorities cherry-pick who gets in - such as doctors, computer whizzes or sports stars." (Independent Online, South Africa) "The bill, which also makes it difficult for immigrants already in France to have their families join them, is expected to go to the [French] Senate for final approval in June." (BBC) Sarkozy himself is the son of a Hungarian immigrant. Promoting his reform proposal, Sarkozy had earlier said that "We can't keep welcoming to France everyone who wants to come and...

Running on an anti-tax theme in a heavily Republican district is seldom a bad idea — a tenet borne out by state Sen. Adrian Smith’s victory Tuesday in the GOP primary for Nebraska’s open 3rd District seat. Smith’s win appears to put him on the fast track to fill the House seat left open by three-term Republican Rep. Tom Osborne, who fell short in his primary challenge to Republican Gov. Dave Heineman. While Democratic officials say they will fight for the open seat, the Republican nominee normally enjoys the initiative in a sprawling, heavily rural district that gave President Bush...

Adrian Smith – Nebraska’s 3rd District Here we have a clear cut race between two Republicans – one is a tax cutter, the other is a tax hiker. State Senator Adrian Smith is considered one of the legislature’s strongest supporters of limited government and earned one of the highest ratings from Nebraskans for Freedom, an anti-tax hike group. A few years ago, when the tax and spenders pushed a huge tax hike through the legislature, Smith helped lead the fight against it -- standing up to the pressure from his own party’s leadership in the process. We could use more...