Free Republic

Since Fred Thompson officially entered the presidential playoffs, I have been fascinated by some of the criticisms of him by the media, and even by some Conservatives. You know the main card played against Thompson has been the lazy card. Lazy? No, Thompson is laid back; he is not a rah-rah kind of person. Frankly, I enjoy that about him. I have worked with many rah-rah types and many laid-back types as well. Give me the steady, calm, laid back person any day. Another criticism of Thompson has been that he has offered no specifics on any of his ideas....

For years, the vast majority of politicians in the main parties have avoided having honest public conversation about the extent and consequences of immigration. The fear of appearing racist, or giving any ground to the arguments of the far right, has left most MPs and commentators in Pollyanna territory - extolling the economic and cultural benefits of immigration and glossing over problems. That has done the nation no favours, because the consequences of rapid social change have been scarcely studied, let alone addressed. And it has increased many people's distrust of the political universe, as the gulf between their own...

WASHINGTON -- The terrorist network al Qaeda will likely leverage its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the U.S. The declassified key findings, to be released publicly on Tuesday, were obtained in advance by the Associated Press. The report lays out a range of dangers -- from al Qaeda to Lebanese Hezbollah to non-Muslim radical groups -- that pose a "persistent and evolving threat" to the country over the next three years. As expected, however, the findings focus most of their attention on the...

BULID THE FENCE NOW! ENFORCE THE LAW NOW! DEPORT THE BUMS NOW!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

(06-30) 04:00 PDT Cardenas, Mexico -- Gonzalo Rodriguez has an unenviable task as the boss of a major oil field -- ripping out a large part of the pumping and compressing machinery that collects the output from scores of wells. "Unfortunately, we don't need this capacity anymore," he said. "This isn't like the old days, and they aren't coming back." Like much of Mexico's giant oil production apparatus, this area, known as the Bellota oil field, is in an apparently unstoppable decline. At current extraction rates, the nation has only 10 years of proven oil reserves remaining. And as Mexico...

GROESBECK, Texas — A Central Texas woman was recuperating at a Temple hospital after she reported being run off a rural road, kidnapped and then raped and beaten by her abductors, authorities said. The 18-year-old woman was in stable condition Thursday following surgery. She had walked and crawled a half-mile to find help after her abductors left her for dead along a highway early Wednesday morning, authorities said. "She spent more than two hours in hell," Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson said. Wilson said Javier Guzman Martinez, 17, and Noel Darwin Hernandez, 22, both of Mexia, had been arrested for...

NEW CITY, N.Y. -- The laborer who raped and murdered a suburban housewife in her bedroom after being hired to clean a backyard deck was sentenced Monday to life in prison without chance of parole. The sentence was imposed after the victim's husband, Daniel Nagle, said Douglas Herrera Castellanos "beat, cut, raped, sodomized and strangled the greatest love of my life and the mother of my two children." The sentencing came on what would have been the 13th wedding anniversary for Nagle and his wife Mary. Nagle, looking at Herrera, told him, "I hope that you wake up every single...

From last night's successful event in Little Rock, the brave patriotic crew of Minutemen head today for stops in Memphis and Nashville. Then it is on to Birmingham, Atlanta, Greensboro, Richmond, and finally to D.C. to present their message to the President and Congress. I will be giving a report from Lyman Stucky in the pace car when I can reach him. If any of you can join any leg of the trip, they welcome your participation. Also, please keep hammering the press with the message. I was on radio this morning in Abilene talking about the caravan and...

NEW CITY, NY — Mary Nagle's family wept yesterday as the jury foreman pronounced Ronald Douglas Herrera Castellanos guilty of raping and murdering the New City mother inside her bedroom last April. Herrera, 30, faces a maximum term of life in prison without parole when he is sentenced May 15 by state Supreme Court Justice William Kelly. The foreman, Matthew Kerewski, declared Herrera guilty of all 15 felony charges, including seven counts of first-degree murder and single counts of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse in the sexual mutilation of the 42-year-old woman on April 29. The jury of seven women...

Federal agents assigned to the Department of Homeland Security’s Border Enforcement Security Task Force or BEST, in Laredo, Texas, have seized materials for 33 Improvised Explosive Devices, grenade components, large quantities of assault weapons, rifles, silencers, machine gun assembly kits, bulletproof vests, police scanners, narcotics and cash. On January 27, 2006, BEST task force officers from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Laredo Police Department executed a search warrant at a location in Laredo. The search revealed two completed Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and materials for making approximately 33 more IEDs....

(AP) LOS ANGELES The immigrant day laborers who wait for work on street corners across the United States have families and attend church regularly, and the people who hire them are more likely to be individual homeowners than construction contractors. The first nationwide study of day laborers also found that one in five has been injured on the job and nearly half have been cheated out of pay. The study, the most detailed snapshot to date of the mostly Hispanic and often undocumented immigrants who've become a focal point in the immigration debate, was based on interviews of 2,660 workers...

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists inspired by hatred murdered nearly 3,000 innocent Americans. In response, Congress overwhelmingly passed the USA Patriot Act. Now, before it adjourns for the year, Congress must act again to reauthorize this critical piece of legislation. Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are at work: Their stated goal is to kill Americans, cripple our economy and demoralize our people. The bill to be considered this week is a good one. It equips law enforcement with the tools needed to fight terrorists, and it also includes new civil liberties protections. Members of Congress should put aside the...

WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to consider giving him powers to use the military to enforce quarantines in case of an avian influenza epidemic. He said the military, and perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to take such a role if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection. "If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?" Bush asked at a news conference. "It's one thing...

Tancredo to request al-Qaida nuke briefing Congressman to ask Justice Department for report on 'American Hiroshima' plan Posted: July 13, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON – Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a staunch critic of the federal government's lax immigration and border enforcement policies, said yesterday he would request a briefing from the Justice Department on information it has on plans revealed by WND this week for a nuclear attack on the U.S. by al-Qaida terrorists. Rep. Tom Tancredo Tancredo said he was greatly alarmed by the report and would seek whatever information he could get from the...

Asylum children lose plea to go free THE High Court has rejected an application by four Afghani children to be released from immigration detention, finding the detention was legal under Australian law, even if it broke international human rights conventions. The unanimous decision by the seven judges yesterday found that commonwealth laws trumped Australia's obligations under human rights conventions, and is the latest in a series of rulings that has given federal law clear precedence over agreements such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Refugees Convention. "Whether or not Australia may be in breach of...

Motorists in Northeast Atlanta greeted the arrival of "Bob" the Armadillo this morning. This migratory member of the Dasypodidae family could be the first such visitor in the 285 perimeter's Platinum Triangle. Bob died on the road side, his head pointed north bound to Marietta. Rubber neckers and readers alike can ponder this development. An ever widdening range for this curious digger from the deep south.

Democrats today will present an alternative to the sweeping immigration reform plan announced by President Bush in January. The Democratic lawmakers who will announce the plan at a Washington press conference say the reform is both more concrete than the statement of principles offered by the White House and more likely to appeal to immigrants and their supporters. Among the most significant differences is the Democrats' offer to allow anyone who has been in the country at least five years and worked for at least two to become a legal permanent resident. That would put most of the 8 million...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) today called for Senate support of two bills designed to reduce the burden on immigrants to the United States who send money to family members in their native lands. The Senator made her remarks during the unveiling of a report on these Foreign Remittances entitled "All in the Family." The report was produced by the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington D.C. based organization that focuses on issues affecting the Western Hemisphere. "Unlike tourism dollars and export revenues, these remittances go directly to segments of the general population that need the most help," said Senator Clinton. "This...

COMING TO AMERICA Convoy of illegals tries to run down agents Border officers stop 6 of 12 pickups, 165 aliens found in truck beds Posted: March 22, 2004 5:00 p.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A convoy of 12 pickup trucks crammed with illegal aliens barreled over the U.S.-Mexico border and attempted to run down approaching Border Patrol agents. In the unprecedented move, six of the pickups were stopped, while six escaped back to Mexico, reported the Tucson Citizen. In the vehicles authorities were able to stop, agents found 165 suspected illegals in the beds of the trucks, said Greg Maier,...