Free Republic

The Obama administration has turned down a request from Texas to run its Title X family planning program, funded with federal taxpayer dollars, without funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The adminsitration sent a letter to inform the Texas Health and Human Services Commission of its intent to deny a request to extend the Medicaid Women’s Health Program if Texas complies with its law banning contractors “that perform or promote elective abortions or affiliate with entities that perform or promote elective abortions.” Earlier this year, Texas yanked about $64 million in funding from Planned Parenthood and directed the funds to...

Texas is its own place. Known for oil, cowboys, cattle, and distinguished swagger, it is the kind of place to which newcomers adapt rather than one which bends for newcomers. Not surprising for a place that used to be its own country. Thus the oft’ spoken motto, “Don’t mess with Texas.” Yet Texas is a big place, and phrases like “remember the Alamo” and “Texas proud” resonate from Galveston beaches to Amarillo plains. And that’s a good thing, because right between those beaches and those plains, a fight is brewing that’s winnable, but which requires some backbone. Case in point:...

According to the survey, which was released Monday, 28 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support Perry as their party's presidential nominee, with Romney at 21 percent. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at ten percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who's making his third bid for the White House, former Godfather's Pizza CEO and radio talk show host Herman Cain, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, all at seven percent. The poll indicates that Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is at four percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at three...

September 18, 2011 "We have had several Texas presidents, but none so deeply, intensely Texas as this guy would be." Man, Rick Perry is freaking out the New York Times. Gail Collins is all: You think of Rick Perry, you think of Texas. And more Texas. Perry the cowboy coyote-killer, the lord of the Texas job-creation machine, the g-dropping glad-hander with a “howdy� for every stranger in the room. He barely exists in the national mind outside of the Texas connection.And Maureen Dowd is all over the place talking about Perry with references to an obvious and old Hollywood movie....

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (UPI) -- The Texas execution of a Mexican national puts the United States in violation of international law, the U.N. human rights chief said Friday. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said federations like the United States have a responsibility to ensure that individual states "respect the international responsibilities assumed by the country as a whole." ...."I am very disappointed that neither the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles nor the governor took steps open to them to prevent this breach of the U.S. obligations under international law from occurring," Pillay said.

GENEVA (AP) -- The U.N.'s top human rights official says the U.S. breached international law when it executed a Mexican citizen.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says the United States breached international law by executing a Mexican national. Navi Pillay, in a statement Friday, said he deeply regrets the execution of Humberto Leal Garcia, after a last-minute 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court denied him a stay of execution Thursday night. "The execution of Mr. Leal Garcia places the U.S. in breach of international law," said Pillay, who is currently on official mission in Mexico. "What the state of Texas has done in this case is imputable in law to the U.S. and engages the United States' international...

Obama And The U.N. Trying To Delay Texas’ Execution Of Humberto Leal John G. Winder, The Cypress Times July 4, 2011 Leal is a Mexican national who kidnapped, raped and murdered a 16-year old girl WASHINGTON, DC – The Obama administration has gone to the Supreme Court to seek a delay of the execution of convicted kidnapper, rapist and murderer Humberto Leal. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has written a letter to Texas Governor Rick Perry asking him to commute Leal’s death sentence. In 1994 Humberto Leal, a Mexican national, viciously abducted, raped and murdered 16-year old...

AUSTIN — The Department of Public Safety would be given the power to establish driver's license and insurance checkpoints along state roads as part of a broader border security bill introduced Thursday. The checkpoint provision is part of a bill that supporters say would crack down on drug cartels and human smuggling rings operating in Texas. It would require that every person booked into prison in Texas have their citizenship checked. It also would increase criminal penalties for gang and cartel members and increase fines for drug crimes. “We want to have a package that's focused on solving our unique...

In the war on terror, add a trucking service center in Texas to the front lines. On Thursday, the FBI arrested Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, a 20-year-old Saudi student studying in Texas. The investigation began more than three weeks ago, on Feb. 1. A company flagged Aldawsari’s purchase of phenol, which can be used to make explosives. On that same day, Con-way (CNW) also alerted the agency after detecting a suspicious package in its Lubbock, Texas service center. Today the company issued a press release detailing its involvement in the investigation after it received the package: Based on training and experience,...

Lance Brown dissects and dismantles the Obama EPA's latest attack on the Lone Star State. Here’s some advice for the Environmental Protection Agency: Don’t mess with Texas.Furthermore, don’t mess with our nation’s most affordable and reliable forms of energy, either.After declaring greenhouse gases hazardous earlier this year, the EPA plans to use the Clean Air Act to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from emitters of all sizes beginning January 2011. The EPA’s plan has been widely criticized for being too burdensome and expensive, so the EPA attempted to downsize the plan with a “Tailoring Rule,” targeting only the largest emitters.In...

LA MARQUE — A 56-year-old woman fended off an armed attacker in a Walmart parking lot in La Marque, pulled a pistol and put at least one hole in the assailant's fleeing vehicle, La Marque police said today. The woman, whom police declined to name, struggled with a man trying to take her car shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, Detective Danielle Herman said in a written statement. The woman, a concealed handgun permit holder, managed to grab a pistol from the car console and pointed it at the man, who fled to a silver or gray SUV driven by an...

New Black Panthers come to protest Texan who shot 2 blacks burglarizing a neighbor's home - they were very unwelcome. Compelling video as their attempted speech making was shouted down.

On December 4, 2007 in Pasadena, TX (suburb of Houston) Joe Horn, 61, shot and killed two men that had burglarized his neighbor's home on November 14, 2007. The black version of the KKK, the Black Panthers, decided to hold a march. It was not well-recieved. Thanks to Gina Miller for the video link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDpzezRZ1wI&feature=related

A panel of experts ruled her claim the Obama administration was planning to introduce "death panels" was chosen as the most misleading statement of 2009. Palin, 45, made the claim on her Facebook page at the height of the debate over President Obama's plans to reform the US health care system. She wrote: "My parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide whether they are worthy of health care." But the website PolitiFact.com found that there were never any plans to introduce so called "death panels"...

http://www.youtube.com/v/7Nxm2v1owLc?f=user_uploads&app=youtube_gdata&autoplay=1

Fiercely independent and thoroughly horrified at the blatantly unconstitutional explosion of federal tyranny into every aspect of our lives, Texans are set to march on the state capitol in droves on Saturday. They will be delivering a million-strong petition to their elected officials based on the 10th Amendment, demanding an immediate constitutional confrontation with Washington. If they are turned away or their concerns inadequately addressed, organizer Gerry Donaldson says they "will be forced to call for a vote for secession." This will not be the last time a state openly defies Obama's treasonous war on the Constitution. Donaldson, who runs...

A 74-year-old man shot and wounded a teenager who attempted to carjack him with a knife early this morning in southwest Houston, police said. The 18-year-old male suspect was wounded in the abdomen and was caught by police after he tried to run away following the shooting. He was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital in fair condition. No other injuries were reported. Police have not released the suspect's name because no charges have been filed against him, but investigators said that he will mostly likely be charged with aggravated robbery. The shooting happened outside a home in the 10900...

The Republican base is behaving like a guy who just got dumped by his wife.If conservatives don't want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments. It's been a week now, and I still don't know what those "tea bag" protests were about. I saw signs protesting abortion, illegal immigrants, the bank bailout and that gay guy who's going to win "American Idol." But it wasn't tax day that made them crazy; it was election day. Because that's...

For the first time in years, more Americans than not say the country is headed in the right direction, a sign that Barack Obama has used the first 100 days of his presidency to lift the public's mood and inspire hopes for a brighter future. Intensely worried about their personal finances and medical expenses, Americans nonetheless appear realistic about the time Obama might need to turn things around, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. It shows most Americans consider their new president to be a strong, ethical and empathetic leader who is working to change Washington. Nobody knows how long...

I am offended, just like an old-fashioned feminist. So, I’m sure, is Mother Gaia herself. Offended, because Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just officially declared carbon dioxide (CO2) to be a poison. (Sigh.) You can’t even expel air anymore without ticking off our PC commissars. Did you know you can die from drinking too much distilled water? Or from breathing too much pure oxygen? Oxidation products actually kill people — they cause a huge variety of fatal diseases. The only solution is to stop breathing. All the molecules of life are also molecules of death. The old medicos used...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 34% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-two percent (32%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +2 (see trends). On the Generic Congressional Ballot, it’s all tied—39% for the Democrats, 39% for the Republicans. Most voters continue to believe that the financial and auto bailouts were a bad idea, but the Political Class disagrees. Sixty percent (60%) now believe the federal government has too much power and too much money. The Presidential...

Time has taken its toll on the Mexican bayonets, but their rust-pocked remains still hint at a lust for blood. The balls Santa Anna’s men loaded into their muskets fared better. Still round, they glisten like sinister grapes. A grenadier’s badge gleams as proudly as it did when, 173 years ago today, Texans struck the winning blow for freedom at San Jacinto. Today, these and more than 400 other artifacts — fruits of a recently completed archaeological project near the famed battlefield — are helping fill the gaps in the oft-told story of Sam Houston’s routing of the Mexican military....

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Texas fits the Department's profile of potential domestic terrorism described in their newly released report titled, " Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment". Islamic extremists' acts of domestic terrorism were recently given the dignity, by Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and President Obama, of being classified as man-made disasters, and abroad, the "war on terror" has been reclassified as an "overseas contingency plan". But an entire non-Islamic class, or perhaps by extension entire states, according to the report, are not afforded such considerate and cordial titles if...

ARLINGTON – Police Detective Tommy Le Noir remembers the alarm that gripped this city in 1996 after two young women were found strangled in the bathtubs of their east Arlington apartment complex. "There was a lot of fear in the community and in the Police Department," Le Noir said. "The fear is that you don't want this to happen again. At that time there was some incredible panic in those apartment complexes. People moved out in masses. It was just an incredible time." Tuesday night, almost 13 years after the crimes, the state plans to execute 35-year-old Dale Devon Scheanette...

From the day President Bush took office, the long knives were out for him - in ways they will not (and should not) be out for President-elect Barack Obama. The chattering class saw Dubya as a walking style crime in a cowboy suit. They hit Bush for everything - for the way he mangled syntax, for the books he read, because he worked out too much. Note now that the buff Obama is taking office, stories gushing about Obama's daily workouts flood the channels. Oh, yes, and the same people who belittled Bush for sending troops to war even though...

From the day President Bush took office, the long knives were out for him - in ways they will not (and should not) be out for President-elect Barack Obama. The chattering class saw Dubya as a walking style crime in a cowboy suit. They hit Bush for everything - for the way he mangled syntax, for the books he read, because he worked out too much. Note now that the buff Obama is taking office, stories gushing about Obama's daily workouts flood the channels. Oh, yes, and the same people who belittled Bush for sending troops to war even though...

A would-be robber invaded an East Texas home while the homeowner fights to keep him and his son alive. The home invasion happened in the 4500 block of FM 2204, east of Kilgore, around 7:00 this morning. Gregg County officials say an armed man entered the home in search of money, but left empty handed. Tuesday afternoon, the homeowner showed KLTV 7 LaKecia Shockley step by step how he survived his home invasion. "I slammed him into this wall here and I think that's when we fell on the floor. I wasn't going to let go of him. I had him...I wasn't...

Confronted with a pistol and bound with duct tape, the owner of a northwest Harris County store decided not to quietly submit and hope his attacker would show mercy. The businessman worked himself free, got his own gun and killed the robber in a shootout, sheriff's deputies said. The incident happened about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when a man walked into the cellular phone store in the 12000 block of Veterans Memorial Drive near Antoine, pulled out a gun and tied up the owner, sheriff's detectives said. "He (the robber) was in the process of trying to disable the surveillance equipment...

A 19-year-old man accidentally shot and killed himself Tuesday morning while he was attempting to rob a Grand Prairie home, authorities said. Cameron Sands, 19, of Fort Worth kicked in the door of the house and then shot himself in the stomach as he pulled a gun out of his pants to shoot the homeowner, Grand Prairie police said. The homeowner was not injured.

When a renegade Mormon sect was looking for a quiet place to live out its polygamous beliefs, it made a Texas-sized mistake when it picked this state to move to. Texas responded by raising the age at which children can legally get married with parental consent, and law enforcement agencies immediately put the sect in its crosshairs. The result was raids this month that left 463 minors in state hands or foster care. With judges saying they will hear abuse cases individually, the sect's practices are sure of thorough legal scrutiny. "They made a big mistake when they came here,"...

Thousands waited outside the Flour Bluff entrance to Naval Air Station-Corpus Christie, expecting a confrontation with the members of the Westboro Baptist Church members, but they never came. The crowd instead showed support for U. S. Soldiers.

(Dec. 26) -- This year’s death penalty bombshells — a de facto national moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade — have masked what may be the most significant and lasting development. For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas. Over the past three decades, the proportion of executions nationwide performed in Texas has held relatively steady, averaging 37 percent. Only once before, in 1986, has the state accounted for even a slight majority of the...

In Joe Horn's now-infamous 911 call reporting the burglary of his neighbor's home last month, there's a particularly disturbing refrain that made many of us cringe. "I'm not going to let them get away with this," the Pasadena homeowner tells the dispatcher several times in various ways in the moments before he shot to death the two burglars, Miguel Antonio DeJesus, 28, and Diego Ortiz, 30. To many of us, Horn's preoccupation with stopping the crime and recovering the stolen property — "a bag of loot," as Horn described it — seemed irrational and vengeful rather than heroic. We agreed...

Video: http://www.breitbart.tv/html/8973.html Background: Protesters clash over Pasadena man who shot suspected burglars 04:00 PM CST on Monday, December 3, 2007 By Taylor Timmins / KHOU.com & The Associated Press Riot police were on the scene in a Pasadena neighborhood Sunday afternoon as a planned protest teetered on the brink of mayhem. Quanell X and his followers planned to meet in front of the home of Joe Horn, the man who shot and killed two suspected burglars at his neighbor’s home last month, in the 7400 block of Timberline for a protest around 3 p.m. But they were met with an...

Texas will almost certainly hit the grim total of 400 executions this month, far ahead of any other state, testament to the influence of the state's conservative evangelical Christians and its cultural mix of Old South and Wild West. "In Texas you have all the elements lined up. Public support, a governor that supports it and supportive courts," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "If any of those things are hesitant then the process slows down," said Dieter. "With all cylinders working as in Texas it produces a lot of executions." Texas has executed 398...

PORT ARTHUR, TX – A store clerk turned the tables on a man trying to rob the store at which she was working at 1701 Memorial Blvd. in Port Arthur Thursday Oct. 26. Port Arthur Police responded to a call that an unwanted individual was at 1629 Memorial Blvd. When police arrived and questioned the man, they discovered the 55-year-old had a warrant for a parole violation. He was placed in custody at that time. Shortly after apprehending the suspect, police learned he had attempted to rob the M&D Food Mart on Memorial. The suspect had pretended to have a...

HOUSTON -- Two people were shot during an attempted robbery at a game room in east Harris County Monday, KPRC Local 2 reported. Deputies said two men tried to rob the Eight Liner Video Game store, located in the 500 block of North Main at East Wallisville at about 5 a.m. The manager pulled out a gun and shot one of the robbers who then fired back, officials said. The second man escaped. The robbery suspect who was shot is expected to survive. The manager, who was shot in the arm, is also expected to be OK. A customer was...

A 14-year-old boy shot and killed a man who broke into his family's home Monday and threatened to kill him and his mother, Police Chief Bryan Smith said. Smith said the man, whose name was not immediately known, confronted a woman as she was carrying groceries into her home shortly before 1 p.m. The man forced her inside and tied her and her son up. Smith said the woman was able to loosen the binding and free her son, who got his father's revolver from a security box beneath a bed. As the man tried to break into the room...

A man suffered injuries when he was struck with an unknown weapon after he reportedly shot at a burglar who was trying to break into his car late Monday. According to the Amarillo Police Department, Michael Ray Howard heard a disturbance in the front yard of his home in the 4800 block of Southwest 57th Avenue about 10:40 p.m., and, when he went outside, he saw a person attempting to break into his vehicle. When Howard approached his vehicle, the burglar displayed some type of weapon, police said, and Howard then fired one shot at the burglar with a handgun....

Fighting back Woman defends herself from attack with gun A 38-year-old woman staying at the Homewood Suites in Wichita Falls turned the tables Tuesday night on a potential attacker in the parking lot. The woman's father said she pulled her .380 automatic pistol on the man, who came up behind her as she was getting sinus medicine from her van about 9 p.m. He gave the following information about the incident: The man asked her, "Do you have anything good in that van?" The woman knew she was in trouble. She told him yes and moved to the front passenger-side...

BEAUMONT, TEXAS – Beaumont Police officers responded to the 6000 block of Major Dr. Sept. 15 at approximately 8:37 p.m. on reports of a home invasion. Once officers arrived at the scene, the alleged perpetrators had already been apprehended … by the victim. According to the victim, he was in his residence when he heard a knock at the door. When the door was opened, two Hispanic men allegedly forced their way into the home, brandishing knives. The victim stated that, at that time, the two suspects demanded money. The victim went to the bedroom, followed by one of the...

A Thornton man shot an intruder who tried to break into his home early Friday morning as he was on the phone with 9-1-1 waiting for sheriff’s deputies to arrive. Vincent Llanas called the Milam County Sheriff’s Office at 12:32 a.m. Friday, saying a man was trying to open the door to his home on County Road 433, according to a statement from the department. While Llanas spoke with the dispatcher, the suspected intruder, Joel Warren Simank, 30, of Thornton, broke a window and tried to unlock the front door, according to the statement. Llanas grabbed a .12-gauge shotgun and...

BEAUMONT, TEXAS – At 5:30 a.m. Sept. 9, Beaumont Police responded to a burglary call at a residence in the 6200 block of Yaupon Street. Upon arrival, officers noticed the house appeared to have been hit by gunfire. According to the victim, he awoke after hearing a noise in his home. He grabbed his gun, investigated further and found an intruder in the house. When the suspect saw the victim, he ran. The victim then fired three shots in the house at the suspect. He missed. The suspect ran out of the house and got into a green Ford. The...

SEGUIN — As most families were sleeping soundly early Labor Day morning, a local homeowner shot and killed a man who smashed through the back door of his home. “The homeowners, who were asleep, awoke to a living nightmare,” said Seguin Police Department public information officer Aaron Seidenberger. “A person had broken into their home, and now they were violently struggling to get the suspect to leave.” After breaking into the home at 798 Renee St. at 5:20 a.m., the man made his way down the hallway to the homeowners’ bedroom, where the husband and wife awoke. The male homeowner...

FORT WORTH - An apparent burglary attempt at an east Fort Worth apartment turned violent Monday when a man who lives in the apartment shot at the intruder as many as nine times with the intruder's gun, police said. Despite being shot, the intruder walked out and either drove away or was driven away by an accomplice, said Fort Worth Police Lt. Gene Jones. Jones said a man with gunshot wounds checked into Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital later that afternoon, but police had not said late Monday whether he is a suspect. A Harris spokeswoman declined to confirm that...

MIDLAND, Texas- Directors of the Midland Independent School District discussed the possibility Tuesday of dropping Confederate references at two schools named for Robert E. Lee in response to a parent's complaint. The board directed school officials to consider changing Robert E. Lee Freshman High School's yearbook to something other than "The Confederate." It also asked officials to consider changing the "Dixie" fight song at Lee Freshman and at Robert E. Lee High School. Parent Shay Templeton, who is black, complained after noticing the name of her son's yearbook. She said she wants all references to the Confederacy eliminated from school...

A clerk fatally shot a masked gunman in an exchange of gunfire at an east Dallas convenience store late Tuesday, police said. Anthony Jerome Davis, 17, died at 12:43 a.m. at Baylor Medical Center of Dallas, said Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther, a Dallas police spokeswoman. The shooting occurred at 9:32 p.m. Tuesday in the 300 block of St. Augustine Road, Crowther said. ``Apparently, this man came into the store wearing a mask,'' Crowther said. ``The store clerks realized immediately that they were about to be robbed, so they took cover behind the counters. ``The man said, `Don't run,' and fired...

A home invasion leads to a shootout in East Austin leaving one man dead, two others wounded. It happened on the 6100 block of Duchess in a neighborhood off of MLK Boulevard and Highway 183 just after 2 a.m. Friday. Detectives just took down the crime tape at the house, but they have a mess on their hands with three crime scenes, three people involved and one man dead and two others hospitalized. Neighbors woke up to police dogs, flashing lights and a murder scene. "I only heard gun shots, and then I heard people fighting and I didn't realize...

A man who was part of a group attempting to break into a house is dead this morning after the homeowner took matters into his own hands. The homeowner told police that around 3 a.m. he saw three men trying to kick in the front door of his house in the 2500 block of Summit Creek. He said he got his gun and fired about eight rounds. One of the men was hit several times. He ran off and collapsed in the 1100 block of Summit Crest. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two men escaped. Police...