Free Republic

Breaking AP Wires: Michael Jackson suffers major heart attack in Los Angeles...listed in critical condition...

We have recently heard many shocking stories of brutal killings and ruthless violence related to drug cartels warring with Mexican and US officials. It is approaching the fever pitch of a full blown crisis. Unfortunately, the administration is not likely to waste this opportunity to further expand government. Hopefully, we can take a deep breath and look at history for the optimal way to deal with this dangerous situation, which is not unprecedented. Alcohol prohibition in the 1920’s brought similar violence, gangs, lawlessness, corruption and brutality. The reason for the violence was not that making and selling alcohol was inherently...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kADXWXgxKJk New projections from Ron Paul as his prominence in the mainstream media continues to increase.

Workers World newspaper in the past has supported the candidates of Workers World Party running for national office in the U.S. presidential elections and who have put forward a revolutionary socialist program. This time we are taking the unusual step of endorsing the candidacy of Cynthia McKinney because these are unique times and this is a unique candidate.

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.—High on prescription drugs and four days without sleep, Michael Berke raced his Harley to the megachurch where he'd found a home. He barged into the church office, cursing loudly and wearing a mesh shirt printed with profanity. In his hands he held a picture of a woman with long, red hair and pouty lips. "This is who I used to be," he said. "And this" — he gestured to his breastless chest, bald head and red goatee — "is who I've become." He was born a man. After a lifetime as a social misfit, he had transformed...

NEW YORK - Former President Carter, who already has a book coming out this fall about his post-White House years, is working on a memoir about his mother, Lillian, to be published next spring by Simon & Schuster. "Jimmy Carter has inspired millions. Its a great opportunity to meet the woman who inspired him," David Rosenthal, executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster, said Thursday in a statement. The Lillian Carter book, currently untitled, is a "loving, admiring, wry homage" to the activist and former Peace Corps volunteer widely known as the down-to-earth "Miss Lillian." According to Simon...

Al Gore is both leading the fight against climate change and coming back from political oblivion ONCE he was the nearly man of American politics, but this weekend Al Gore, Bill Clinton’s former sidekick, made it clear he was back, no longer just a politician but a phenomenon: the first global green celebrity. As the Live Earth concerts rolled out around the globe, each blessed with Gore’s presence, either live or on giant screens, it became clear that the failed presidential candidate has metamorphosed into a prophet. In an interview with The Sunday Times before yesterday’s Live Earth concert at...

PHOENIX — Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington trotted out an aide dressed as an alien 10 years ago to spoof the frenzy surrounding mysterious lights in the Phoenix sky. Now he says he saw the lights himself, and believed from the start that they were extraterrestrial. Now a pastry chef and business consultant, Symington said he did not acknowledge his own encounter at first because he did not want people to panic. The former governor, who faced fraud charges at the time, also said he did not need the additional problems such an admission would have created.

MIAMI Republican Representative Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, will not make a speech and appearance before the Miami Rotary Club in Miami Thursday after threats were reported. However, it’s still not known whether the congressman, who called Miami a “Third World country” has cancelled his trip to Miami altogether. The manager of the restaurant where Tancredo was to speak, The Rusty Pelican on Key Biscayne, said Wednesday that the owners didn’t want him to appear on Thursday in order to keep up the integrity and reputation of the business. The manager also said staff members objected to working the party where...

An ethnic studies professor from the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill, received a standing ovation last night from a crowd of more than 200 New School students after blaming the 2001 World Trade Center attacks on America's support of Israel and its sanctions against Iraq in 1996. In a two-hour speech at the New School titled "Sterilizing History: The Fabrication of Innocent Americans," delivered without notes, Mr. Churchill traced what he called a pattern of mass murder as American foreign policy from the time of the country's inception to the events of September 11, 2001, which he said the country...

Billions of people could be wiped out over the next century because of climate change, a leading expert said. Professor James Lovelock, who pioneered the idea of the Earth as a living organism, said as the planet heats up humans will find it increasingly hard to survive. He warned that as conditions worsen, the global population which is currently around 6.5 billion, may sink as low as 500 million. Prof Lovelock also claims that any attempts to tackle climate change will not be able to solve the problem, merely buy us time. Given the dire situation we face, he urged...

Searching for 'our alien origins' By Andrew Thompson BBC Horizon Dr Wickramasinghe thinks life could have originated in space In July 2001, a mysterious red rain started falling over a large area of southern India. Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia. But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on. Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to...

Washington – Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record: “If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but...

The standing ovation has finally died down, and Steven E. Jones, a soft-spoken physics professor, finds himself pinned against the stage by some of the enthusiastic fans who packed a University of Denver auditorium over the weekend to see him. A man with a "Got truth?" T-shirt offers Jones a careful explanation for why the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center were operated by remote control. Another quizzes him about the size of the footprint of the Pentagon crash - too small, he says, for the Boeing 757 that "officially" smashed into it on Sept. 11, 2001. "Can...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a devout Shi'ite Muslim, urged the West on Wednesday to turn to God's path and said failure to do would ensure they faced "no good fate." Snip "Those who do not respond to the invitation (to follow God's will), as we said, will have no good fate," said Ahmadinejad, the second non-cleric to be president of the Islamic Republic. "I do not threaten anybody, but the whole universe threatens you. The current of life in the universe opposes you, as it opposes tyranny," he added. snip "The time has passed for the use...

"Democracy is under attack": Gore Sun Aug 27, 3:50 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - Former US Vice-President Al Gore warned an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that "democracy is under attack". The former presidential candidate said television networks in the world's biggest and most powerful democracies must do more to foster debate, which he said was crucial for democracy to flourish. "In my country and others around the world democracy is under attack," the 58-year-old said. Gore, who was also in Edinburgh partly to promote his film and book about climate change, both titled "An Inconvenient Truth", continued:...

Day 1996 photo that they believe indicates Karr was in Atlanta when the 6-year-old girl was killed in Colorado. Gary Harris, an attorney for Karr's father, Wexford Karr, said Tuesday that the photo is of John Mark Karr's three children, along with a newborn nephew. While John Mark Karr is not actually in the photo, family members "have no recollection of him missing a Christmas until the last five years," Harris said. "They know that if his children were there, he would have been there," the attorney said. "They would have remembered it if they all had shown up and...

Ramsey Clark Plans 'Emergency March' to Stop Israel By Alison Espach CNSNews.com Correspondent July 28, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, alongside various anti-war and Muslim groups, has announced plans for a "National Emergency March on Washington" to stop what he described as U.S. funding of the "Israeli war machine." Clark claimed that U.S. funding to Israel, which is battling Hizballah terrorists in southern Lebanon, is grounds for impeaching President Bush. "If we'd acted on impeachment before now, Lebanon wouldn't be subjected to this misery," said Clark at the National Press Club Thursday. "If we fail to...

HEADS UP - BREAKING NEWS - IRANIAN THREAT - BREAKING ON FR . REPORTS FROM IRAN STATE: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has declared he will make an announcement on Wednesday July 19th, 2006 which: "WILL LET THE MOSLEM WORLD AROUND THE GLOBE KNOW THAT AFTER THE ANNOUNCEMENT THEY WILL NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR ARMS OR NUCLEAR CAPABILITY EVER AGAIN"This provides three possible scenarios: 1. Iran is about to nuke Israel. 2. Iran will declare they have nuclear capability with at least four missiles with NUCLEAR warheads (common knowledge in intelligence circles) that can easily reach all of...

Democratic chairman speaks at conference By Philip J. LaVelle UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER July 16, 2006 Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean accused President Bush last night of being weak on national defense and absent in the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. In remarks at San Diego State University, Dean urged activists to fan across the nation – including deep into the heart of Republican-rich “red” states – to tell voters that Bush has failed as president – including in national defense, which Republicans tout as their core strength. Advertisement “There are a lot of things we...