Free Republic

There's a persistent truism out there that while Jimmy Carter was an execrable president, he was nevertheless a great ex-president. It's balderdash. He may have done some worthy deeds around the eradication of disease and the building of homes for the homeless. But he was every bit as bad an ex-president as he was a sitting president. It wasn't just his nasty, irritable personality, as described by newsman and AT contributor Peter Chowka here, and former U.S. diplomat Lewis Amselem from firsthand experience as bystanders in random events. It was in his meddling political involvement abroad. Amselem described in his...

SIR Richard Branson tried to prevent the Iraq war in a secret deal with Nelson Mandela. The Virgin boss hoped to send the former leader of South Africa to meet Saddam Hussein and persuade him to go into exile. He even got United Nations chief Kofi Annan's approval for the plan, despite fears that Saddam might kidnap Mandela. A private jet was ready to fly the Nobel Peace Prize winner to Iraq. Branson offered to join him on the peace mission. But coalition forces invaded Iraq just before they went. Branson opposed invasion plans and believed if they could offer...

Sir Richard Branson is seeking a buyer for Virgin Atlantic and has set an end-of-May deadline to save the airline from collapse after a taxpayer bailout proved beyond his reach. The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that the pursuit of a £500m government package has been effectively shelved and that the airline is now focused on securing new private investment in the shadow of potential insolvency.

Video at link ...Interview with Stuart Varney ...

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) -- A company working to send tourists on suborbital flights says it has tested its spacecraft with a crew for the first time. Virgin Galactic says the craft remained attached to a specially designed airplane throughout a six-hour flight over California's Mojave desert Thursday....

Google, Paris Hilton, Ebay, Britney Spears, Internet Marketing Used To Find Steve Fossett By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- September 9, 2007 ...... On September 3, 2007, adventurer Steve Fossett, 63, the first person to fly a plane around the world without refueling in 2006, the first person to fly around the world in a hot-air balloon in 2002 went missing in Nevada. Fosset took off on a solo flight from a private airstrip 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Reno, Nevada. The Bellanca single engine aircraft he was flying failed to return. No one has any idea...

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has committed £1.6bn over 10 years to fight global warming.... will hand over all the profits from the Virgin Group's transport business to support the cause. (snip) [Branson] said the profits from Virgin's train and airline businesses would be invested in efforts to find renewable, sustainable energy sources.