Free Republic

This is a personal account linking efforts to suppress scientific publication about climate science and policy by then-Senator (later vice president) Al Gore and his staff.1 In those efforts, an individual working closely with Senator Gore and his staff made false and damaging statements about my behavior as a scientist. I filed a libel suit against the individual. The suit was settled when he issued a retraction and apology to me that included a statement that members of Senator Gore’s staff had made “similar state- ments and insinuations” to those that he retracted.

"We, who are willing to support this new strategy, and give General Petraeus the time and support he needs, have chosen a hard road. But it is the right road. It is necessary and just. Democrats, who deny our soldiers the means to prevent an American defeat, have chosen another road. It may appear to be the easier course of action, but it is a much more reckless one, and it does them no credit even if it gives them an advantage in the next election. This is an historic choice, with ramifications for Americans not even born yet. Let's...

Let me get this straight. You allow one of the largest terrorist organizations in the world to set up shop throughout your country. You permit them to completely take over the entire southern third of your country and you claim to have seen nothing. You allow the terrorists to build sophisticated, fortified bunkers and you did not see any heavy equipment building them. You allow the Hezbollah terrorists to move into many of your towns and villages, including the complete takeover of one of the largest neighborhoods in Beirut, where they proceed to build numerous, complex command and control centers...

Hizballah Brings out Iranian Silkworm to Hit Israel Navy Corvette DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Analysis July 15, 2006, 1:37 PM (GMT+02:00) The disaster that overtook one of the Israeli Navy’s state of the art warships, Ahi-Hanit, was thoroughly planned in advance by an enemy which managed to take Israel’s military commanders by surprise. It has shocked Israel’s military to a degree comparable to the profound effect on US forces of al Qaeda’s 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Aden. The Saar-5 class corvette, with a crew of 61 seamen and a 10-man helicopter crew, was hit Friday, July 17 at...

Southern Beirut heavily damaged by Israeli air raids PM - Friday, 14 July , 2006 18:18:00 Reporter: Rania Abouzeid MARK COLVIN: I'm joined now from the Lebanese side of the border by reporter Rania Abouzeid, Rania, first of all, where are you? RANIA ABOUZEID: I'm in Beirut at the moment. MARK COLVIN: And what kind of damage have you been able to see, I know that movement, of course, is fairly limited. RANIA ABOUZEID: Well, actually I was in the Beirut's southern suburbs this morning just surveying the damage after a (inaudible) of (inaudible) air raids today. The damages are...

CHENEY FIGHTS BACK Wed Nov 16 2005 18:56:46 ET Excerpts As Prepared For Delivery Tonight by Vice President Cheney THE VICE PRESIDENT: "As most of you know, I have spent a lot of years in public service, and first came to work in Washington, D.C. back in the late 1960s. I know what it’s like to operate in a highly charged political environment, in which the players on all sides of an issue feel passionately and speak forcefully. In such an environment people sometimes lose their cool, and yet in Washington you can ordinarily rely on some basic measure of...

In the Name of Allah, most Compassionate, most Merciful My first seventeen years have been a bit different than the youth experienced by most Americans. I grew up on an extremely rural goat ranch in Western Riverside County, California, where my family raises on average 150 to 200 animals for milk, cheese, and meat. My father is a halal butcher [a butcher who slaughters in an Islamic manner -ed.] and supplies to an Islamic Food Mart a few blocks from the Islamic Center in downtown Los Angeles. My father was raised agnostic or atheist, but he became a believer in...

Stem cell research is again a hot political issue. Scientists, biotech companies and patients' groups continue their public relations campaign to force President Bush to change his funding policy. On Monday Sen. John Kerry accused the president of "sacrificing science for ideology and playing politics with people who need cures," adding that treatments "could be right at our fingertips" were it not for "the stem cell ban." Sadly, this rhetoric utterly distorts the president's policy, ignores the weighty moral issues involved and seeks electoral advantage by cruelly exploiting the hopes of patients and their families. We need to set the...

BOSTON - It was the campaign that seemed to have everything. A rented mainframe computer and a sophisticated telephone voter list when typewriters and index cards were still common. A legion of eager volunteers, including a bike-riding boarding school student named Caroline Kennedy. Plenty of cash, celebrity supporters and a compelling first-time candidate: John Kerry. But in the end, the 1972 Democratic campaign for Congress in the Fifth District of Massachusetts, stretching from the gritty old mill towns of Lawrence and Lowell to the upscale suburbs of Lexington and Concord, lacked one big thing: voters. Mr. Kerry lost to his...

BANGOR, Maine, Sept. 23 -- It had been a pretty glum day for Spec. Brian Parker, who along with the other members of his National Guard unit said goodbye to their families and departed on a charter flight for a long-term stint in Iraq. But then, on a refueling stop here, a familiar figure boarded the plane. "We were down when we left our families," Parker said, giving a thumbs down. "But then we heard Air Force One was here. It's a good morale boost." Thursday's Question: Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi delivered a speech to a joint meeting of...

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio, Sept. 10 - As President Bush on Friday leveled one of his strongest attacks on Senator John Kerry's position on Iraq, Kerry advisers said they had agreed on the need to ratchet up their campaign by challenging the president's trustworthiness and leadership skills. Mr. Bush, accompanied by Senator Zell Miller, the Georgia Democrat who delivered a searing critique of Mr. Kerry during the Republican convention last week, traveled by bus through hotly contested areas of two swing states, West Virginia and Ohio, questioning his rival's steadfastness in confronting Iraq and, by implication, terrorism. A day before the third...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 - Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an advocacy group that jolted the presidential race with commercials questioning Senator John Kerry's military service, said it had raised $6.7 million in a windfall brought about by the group's high profile in recent weeks. Several of the largest donors are longtime supporters of President Bush, according to a financial disclosure report filed on Friday with the Federal Election Commission. The largest contributor was T. Boone Pickens, a famous Texas oilman and longtime Republican supporter who was a major political backer of Mr. Bush's father, who gave $500,000 to the Swift...

Clinton’s Former Aide Drops Windfall in the Lap of Bush Campaign DEBKAfile Special Report from Washington July 20, 2004, 2:35 PM (GMT+02:00) Former president Bill Clinton’s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is under criminal investigation and subject to FBI searches of his home and his office since he was caught – probably by hidden cameras – purloining copies of highly classified terrorism documents and his own handwritten notes from a secure reading room at the National Archives in Washington. This event took place, according to the Associated Press, during preparations to testify at the Sept. 11 commission hearings after Clinton...

The Other Rich Mrs. Kerry BY JOSEPH CURL Everyone's had a little time to catch up with Teresa Heinz, but few know much about the first Mrs. John F. Kerry or the campaign issue that could reprise last election's undercurrent of marital fidelity and spousal adoration (think Al and Tipper Gore in that lengthy lascivious liplock). While President Bush coos over Laura, the first lady and constant wife, in every speech, his opponent traded in one multimillionaire wife—in the throes of a dark clinical depression—for another deep-pocketed woman, and then had the Roman Catholic Church annul his 18-year first marriage,...

J. Michael Luttig is one person undoubtedly watching the fast-approaching presidential and congressional contests with keen concentration.His name means little to most Americans, although at this moment Luttig holds an important governmental position. He is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals that supervises the judicial administration of federal law in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina. At the top of the 'short list' J. Michael Luttig mightbecome a Supreme Court justice If a Republican wins the White House and Republicans maintain their Senate majority, Luttig likely will become a Supreme Court justice and thus ...

Here are the links to the first and second installments already posted: Text of the Florida Supreme Court hearing Thursday on the presidential election case (Part 1) Text of the Florida Supreme Court hearing Thursday on the presidential election case (Part 2) LEWIS: Now, is it impossible for this court to apply that to the facts that we have, without doing a change in the law? KLOCK: Yes, Your Honor, because the problem is that you have to create a pile of law to do it. You have to do a number of things. You have to first find that ...

RICHARD: The district court of appeal determined not to continue the count for two reasons. The first reason was that... ANSTEAD: The district court of appeal or the canvassing board? RICHARD: I'm sorry. The canvassing board determined not to continue the count for two reasons. The first reason was that after they had done the initial 1%, three precinct count, they found six votes difference in favor of Vice President Gore. The canvassing board made the determination that based upon that six votes, there was no reason to believe that there would be a change in the result of ...

Text of the Florida Supreme Court hearing Text of the Florida Supreme Court hearing Thursday on the presidential election case, as transcribed by eMediaMillWorks, Inc,: MARSHAL: Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, the Supreme Court of the great state of Florida is now in session. All who have cause to plea, draw near, give attention and you shall be heard. God save these United States, the great state of Florida, and this honorable court. Ladies and gentlemen, the Florida Supreme Court. Please be seated. CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES WELLS: Good morning, and welcome once again to the Florida Supreme Court, ...

ALLAHASSEE, Fla., Nov. 18 — The two sides traded accusations of misconduct and manipulation today in the overnight counting of absentee ballots cast by Floridians abroad, a tally marred by confusion over rules and vastly differing standards from one county to the next. Gov. George W. Bush's campaign accused Democrats of conspiring to knock out as many ballots as possible from members of the military, who were expected to have voted mostly for Mr. Bush. The campaign issued a statement from retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who had campaigned for Mr. Bush, calling it "a very sad day in ...

PAPER: HILLARY AND BILL PLANNING DIVORCE **Exclusive** White House officials are furious that the NATIONAL ENQUIRER is planning to report that Bill and Hillary Clinton are now actively planning to divorce! Next week [12/14] the tabloid will unleash the report with a brutal front page scream exclusive that quotes "family and legal sources". One senior White House official called the paper earlier this week to express his outrage at the devastating story. But compounding the matter is the fact that Bill Clinton's private attorney, David Kendall, who is overseeing much of the president and first lady's private legal affairs, is ...