Free Republic

Full title: Coast Guard suspends search for five missing fishermen after crab boat sinks in the Gulf of Alaska on New Year's Eve The search for five missing crew members of a sunken fishing vessel in Alaska has been suspended after all leads had been exhausted and the chance of survival was considered, Coast Guard officials said. The Scandies Rose, a 130-foot crab fishing vessel from Dutch Harbor, sank around 10pm on Tuesday night with a total of seven crew men on board.... Rescue crews arrived to the scene around 2am Wednesday, but were embattled with headwinds up to 60pmph...

In the final desperate days of campaign 2008, as their shot at the White House slipped away, John McCain and Sarah Palin railed against the Los Angeles Times. The Republicans insisted the newspaper had a secret video that would prove Barack Obama consorted with leftists. Ever since, it has become an article of faith in outposts of the political right that the hidden “Khalidi video” includes absolute proof that the 44th president has a warm embrace for radicals and those who hate the state of Israel. The latest resurrection of the Khalidi video mythology came this week courtesy of Breitbart.com....

One great insight from the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter is that, “the first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie,” and the fuss and furor over drilling in ANWR illustrates the point. Do Utopians lie, yes? Do they have to lie, yes ? Why? The sugarplums dancing in their heads can’t be defended in any other way. Of all the arguments against drilling in ANWR, perhaps the most ingenuous is that there is not enough oil to bother with. According to Richard Pombo, representing the 11th Congressional District of California: Texas has 4.9 billion barrels of proven...