Free Republic

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) stated that the recent actions by Russia’s Vladimir Putin are further confirmation that Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) “was right” he said that Russia was America’s top geopolitical foe when he was running for president back in 2012, remarks that were criticized by then-Vice President Joe Biden. While discussing Russia ordering troops into areas of Ukraine that they recognized as independent and Russia possibly moving more troops into the country, Lieu said, “[T]his action by Putin further confirms that Mitt Romney was right when he called Russia the ‘number one...

Babies 'can tell friend from foe' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:01pm GMT 21/11/2007 Babies as young as six months old are able to tell friend from foe, according to a study that suggests our sense of right and wrong develops long before formal teaching. Social animals, including humans, need to be able to rapidly distinguish whom they can trust from those they cannot in order to cooperate, thrive and survive. Babies seem to know the 'good guys' from the bad Indeed, it could be that it is part of our nature to know the difference between right...

Rocked by Aids, Zulu kingdom now faces even worse foe: incurable TB Doctors fear fresh fight with South African health chiefs for cash to battle new strain Chris McGreal and Tugela Ferry Wednesday September 13, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The first clue to the hidden killer stalking villages in the Zulu kingdom revealed itself at a small rural hospital long besieged by epidemics. Doctors at the Church of Scotland hospital in Tugela Ferry were already grappling with the onslaught of Aids and its partner in death, tuberculosis. But some relief appeared to be in sight when, after years of criticism...

Chávez rolls into Damascus to charm another US foe Albert Aji in Damascus Thursday August 31, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, said yesterday he and Syria would "build a new world" free from US domination. "We have decided to be free. We want to cooperate to build a new world where states' and people's self-determination are respected," Mr Chávez said after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, at his presidential palace in Damascus. "Imperialism's concern is to control the world, but we will not let them despite the pressure and aggression," the...

MOSUL, Iraq — The Soldier medics of Company A, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, play a dual role in the Army. They are on the front lines of the war on terror, stacking up on houses with Infantry Soldiers, providing overwatch in the air-guard hatches of Strykers, living with the line platoons, and performing numerous Soldier tasks required by their chosen profession. Over the past months, Sgt. Eric Syfrett, Spc. Derek Bartholomew, Spc. Micheal Bosch, Spc. James Johns, Spc. John Teale, Spc. William Trevathan and Pfc. Jesse Garcia have treated casualties under enemy fire, treated gunshot wounds, performed preventative medicine...

The coming economic crisis. Unemployment. Health care for the poor. The almost 1,500 dead soldiers. The almost 100,000 dead Iraqis. Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. The Christian Conservative takeover of our nation. The missing 9 billion. The missing weapons of mass destruction. The impending invasion of Iran, and Syria. The total failure to protect us on 9-11.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Environmental charities are exaggerating the threat of climate change in an attempt to raise more money from public donations, according to a report by Oxford University academics. The charities, including WWF-UK, the world's biggest independent conservation organisation, claim that a quarter of the world's species are facing extinction by 2050. However, the report says that this is a "woeful misrepresentation of the underlying science". Many species said to be at risk - including the red kite and the Scottish crossbill - are not facing imminent extinction, according to the report by four academics from the biodiversity research group at Oxford's...

Jan. 28, 2004--Earlier today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit legal watchdog group, sent a letter to President Bush asking that he call upon the White House Counsel to investigate Vice President Cheney's confirmation of leaked classified information in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News on January 9, 2004. Federal law prohibits leaking classified information. Confirming information that has already been leaked is also prohibited. In his Jan. 9th interview, Mr. Cheney referred his interviewer to a story that appeared in The Weekly Standard's November 24, 2003 issue. The story, written by Stephen F. Hayes, discussed...

Mail arrives, telling me that by going to Mexico I have sold out, fled, abandoned the United States. I’m a coward, some of my correspondents say, and a traitor, just like Lord Haw Haw, Kim Philby, Jane Fonda. I’m probably a devotee of Quisling. (Actually I’ve never quizzled in my life.) (OK, OK, I’m sorry.) Anyway, they’re upset, which is irrational. They think that just because I went to Mexico, I left the US. They don’t understand. I didn’t leave the United States. It left me. It was a bait-and-switch operation. I signed on to one country, and they slipped...

Paris — On the July day American troops killed Saddam Hussein’s sons Qusai and Odai in the northern Iraqi city in Mosul, a senior NBC News producer called his usual intelligence and military sources trying to learn more about the raid. As his best CIA source gushed about the American victory, the producer says he noticed a news bulletin on the television behind him: the Eiffel Tower, that great symbol of French grandeur and artistic prowess, had caught fire. “So I asked him, ‘Hey, do you guys know the Eiffel Tower’s on fire’?” the producer said. “He was silent for...

LONDON - Critics of a U.S.-backed plan to build a pipeline transporting Caspian Sea oil to Western consumers are urging the World Bank (news - web sites)'s private investment arm to delay a decision on whether to help finance the $3.6 billion project. Environmentalists and human rights groups contend the pipeline, which would carry crude from Azerbaijan to Turkey's coast, endangers villages and wildlife in its path, and could spark conflict in a region already seething with ethnic tensions. The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's Washington-based private investment arm, was to have made a decision this week on lending...

Undoubtedly, Saudi Arabia is at a crucial point in its U.S. relationship. As per most Americans, Saudis do not fit the friendship category; there are wide disagreements on the US-Saudi Arabia relationship, especially dealing with the "terrorist factor." It is not strange that 15 out of the 19 terrorists of Sept. 11 were from Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the most "wanted man" by the U.S., Osama Bin Laden, is also a Saudi. In addition, the continuous proofs linking Saudis financially supporting Hamas, makes for not just a suspicion, but a certainty. Additionally, continuously, it is reported that Saudis encourage anti-American feelings...

We are at war. It is against an enemy that will never negotiate a peace. The question is whether our generation will have the endurance to fight it out. True, these are the sort of things being said by George W. Bush and John Howard. Not surprisingly, many people take the attitude that if Bush and Howard are for it, they are against it. Both have shamelessly exploited security concerns for partisan political purposes. Bush did it in the 2002 congressional elections when he unfairly painted the Democrats as weak on the war against terror. Howard tirelessly tries to back...

Last week, attacks on three separate housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were undertaken by suicide bombers believed to be part of the al Qaeda terror network. The attacks, excluding the suicide bombers, killed twenty-five people including eight Americans. Saudi foreign policy advisor Adel Al-Jubeir was quick to jump on the airwaves to condemn the attacks. Al-Jubeir said, "Our hearts go out to all who have lost loved ones." In a statement, Al-Jubeir also said, "We will fight the terrorists and those who support them, with determination and vigor on all fronts." Ever since the attacks of September 11, 2001...

News in Science 2/4/2003 Caterpillars fling faeces afar to fool foes [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s822336.htm] [photo] Above: a skipper caterpillar lays down a silk guy-wire for its leaf shelter. Below: adult skippers make some more (Pics: M Weiss, C Williams) Caterpillars shoot their faeces more than a metre from their homes to protect themselves from predators, an American ecologist has discovered. Dr Martha Weiss of Georgetown University in Washington, wondered if animals gain an evolutionary advantage by developing sophisticated strategies to manage their waste. In the current edition of Ecology Letters, Weiss reports on experiments with...

Irish actor Pierce Brosnan seems to have put production of the next James Bond movie into fast forward mode and has even recruited former United States Presdient Bill Clinton for a role.According to press reports production on the next James Bond movie could start as soon as the end of the summer following the success of Bond 20: 'Die Another Day' [co-starring Halle Berry, John Cleese and Madonna] 'Die Another Day' was the most successful Bond ever raking in over 400 million pounds UK worldwide and producers are eager to get Pierce (49, formerly of 'Remington Steele' fame) back into...

Johannesburg (CNSNews.com) - The Earth summit appeared headed for the compost pile on Tuesday as environmentalists, led by Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), held their noses and declared the conference had been "hijacked" by the United States. "Betrayal," they cried. Richard Navarro, chaiman of FoOEI, stated that instead of "protecting the environment and fighting poverty and social destruction," the summit was "hijacked by free market ideology, by a backward-looking, insular and ignorant U.S...." FoEI lamented that the summit failed to stop the "tide of damage caused by the neoliberal economic ideology..." Navarro also blamed "global corporations that help keep...