Free Republic

Health Reform: To hear Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tell it, what people think regarding what the president and Congress do is irrelevant — or worse, immoral. The Democrats' leader in the U.S. Senate, who will be in the fight of his political life back home in Nevada next year, accused Republicans of Civil War-era racism in opposing the multitrillion-dollar big-government health care revolution Congress and the president have planned. "Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'Slow down, stop everything, let's...

When Americans evaluate today's political landscape, most feel something between impotence and disapproval. So, while citizens shake their heads or shrug at the mainstream media's “top tier” presidential candidates, it is extraordinary how many are becoming overjoyed about one lesser covered candidate. Tens-of-thousands have joined the appropriately named Ron Paul Revolution, joining Meetup.com groups, putting up signs, and crossing states to attend rallies. Congressman Ron Paul's genuine message and untarnished record of promoting individual liberty for everyone, a free-market economy of wealth and abundance, and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace and free trade, has attracted vast support from diverse...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian village was left baffled Thursday after its lake disappeared overnight. NTV television showed pictures of a giant muddy hole bathed in summer sun, while fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo looked on disconsolately. "It is very dangerous. If a person had been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival. The trees flew downwards, under the ground," said Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official interviewed by the channel. Officials in Nizhegorodskaya region, on the Volga river east of Moscow, said water in the lake might have been sucked down into...

MEXICO CITY - For soccer-mad Mexicans, it was bad enough that their team was eliminated from the World Cup on Monday. More heartbreaking was the fact that the blow was delivered by the United States, which many Mexicans see as an arrogant, domineering neighbor. ''It hurts us here,'' said José Luis Luviano, 21, punching his chest. Tears melted the Mexican flags painted on his cheeks. ``There has to be an end to this disgrace where [Americans] treat us like rats and idiots.'' Millions of Mexicans, including President Vicente Fox and most of his Cabinet, watched Mexico's dreams of advancing in...