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It is difficult to screw up an appearance at Ground Zero on September 11th. You have to be either completely oblivious or completely indifferent. It is a signal feat of idiocy. And yet Barack Obama accomplished it. John McCain and Obama visited Ground Zero together. Obama and McCain entered the site. But while McCain took the time to shake hands with uniformed firefighters and a construction worker with an American flag helmet, Obama ignored them and stood around. But he wasn’t done yet. Both McCain and Obama brought roses to place on the makeshift 9/11 memorial. Obama casually tossed his...

I bet each person living in New York City on September 11, 2001 can recall where they were and what they were doing when the terrorist attacks occurred. These assaults ruthlessly murdered close to 3,000 people within hours. If you weren’t directly affected, you knew someone who was. Our sense of security was severely damaged, so we stayed home glued to the television set. Many were in a state of shock, others outraged. We saw the posters, pictures and flyers of the “missing”. We suffered for weeks following, hoping for one survivor, out of the rubble that once was the...

A patch of land in Ventura County's Los Padres Forest where the ground heated up to 812 degrees Friday continues to puzzle firefighters and geologists after a month and a half of monitoring. "It's a thermal anomaly," said Ron Oatman, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. Firefighters first responded to the hot spot a month and a half ago, Oatman said. There were no visible flames, but they created a containment line about 2 feet wide and monitored the two-acre plot. Because the smoke was not going away, the containment line was widened to about 30 feet Friday, he...

My bill, HF 498, known as the Castle Doctrine, is needed to clarify what law-abiding citizens can do to protect themselves and others in life-threatening situations. Contrary to what its critics say, it's a common-sense bill. Citizens have a right to protect themselves from criminals and to use deadly force when necessary. I'm concerned the current paranoia about guns has given law-breakers an edge. A few days ago, Don Samuels, a Minneapolis City Council member

BAGHDAD — Soldiers continue searching around the clock for their missing comrades throughout southern Baghdad Thursday. Although the 2nd Brigade Combat Team “Commandos,” 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) troops are sometimes trucking supplies out to their brothers and sisters in arms, they mainly rely on the 1st “Warriors” Air Cavalry Brigade’s aerial assets to get the job done, said Staff Sgt. Darren Larson, a brigade supply noncommissioned officer for 2-10th Mountain. “I know everybody down range really appreciates everything (1st ACB) is doing. We couldn’t have done it without (them),” he said. “(They’re) probably, by far, one of the biggest...

United they stood, not for glory, but because they were a band of brothers. Nobody was watching them, and no glory awaited them. They stood because they were men of honor and dignity. Lesson from the past.

The hole in the ground that could connect Africa with Europe By Fiona Govan Last Updated: 1:03am BST 10/04/2007 Laden with fishing gear Mohammed Ahrare strolled past a rusting scaffold frame rigged with weights and pulleys on a cliff-top outside Tangier and set up his rod at his favourite fishing spot. The 16-year-old tilted his head at the insignificant looking structure and said with a certain amount of pride: "That is a very important spot. From there they will build the tunnel that will link Morocco to Spain." He gazed wistfully across the choppy waters where the coast of Spain...

BAGHDAD, Feb. 22, 2007 — Like any advancing society, the roads in Baghdad are like the arteries of a heart, pumping vital supplies and equipment throughout the city. Similarly if troops can't travel on the roads, the heart stops beating. Insurgents have preyed on that fact by placing deadly roadside bombs along routes used by all, making driving on the roads increasingly dangerous. "It's going to put pressure on the bad guys, because we're out there all the time, and they know we're going to be looking for them," Sgt. Eric Meinhardt, a squad leader with Battery B. But in...

Fulgurites! The second is the world record holder.

When the towers first fell and, in practically the same moment, so many turned to imagining their replacement, I was appalled. Later, when I started to write about the site, I avoided proposing designs of my own, both because they were banal and impracticable—I thought it would be cool to flood the bathtub—and because I felt such activities were beyond the scope of a responsible critic. I would often say, however—as I think I wrote or at least implied here once—two things: that the ultimate form of the reconstruction was unimportant as long as the process to achieve it, from...

SIERRA VISTA — A lot of lives were changed that day. Jennifer Wojtanowski’s was one of them. “You can watch 9-11 coverage on TV all you want, but until you are actually there, you have no idea what it’s really like,” Wojtanowski said of her experience at Ground Zero. “The smells, the sounds, the family members. It was just overwhelming.” As a 19-year-old who had just gone through her initial military training, Wojtanowski was assigned to the New York Army National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division at the time of the attacks. Now, five years later, the 24-year-old vividly recalls the...

JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister declared Monday there would be no cease-fire with Hezbollah guerrillas, saying "we will not give up on our goal to live a life free of terror." His Security Cabinet approved widening the ground offensive. Although Israel suspended most airstrikes on south Lebanon for 48 hours, its warplanes struck deep inside the country early Tuesday. They hit an area that is a stronghold of Hezbollah guerrillas, witnesses said. Warplanes also hit Hezbollah fighters battling with soldiers near the border as the guerrillas fired mortars into Israel. The cutback in Israeli airstrikes and a pause by the...

Foxnews Alert!

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (July 13, 2006) -- Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley and his family spent the afternoon July 13 sharing the Stanley Cup with II Marine Expeditionary Force wounded warriors. Wesley brought the fabled hockey icon to the Wounded Warrior Barracks to raise spirits and pay respect to veterans of the current War on Terrorism. Amid a crowd of excited sports fanatics and combat veterans, the silver trophy was brought in and given a place of honor so all could gaze upon the 114-year-old artifact, touched by hundreds of National Hockey League legends. “I’ve been a...

German Archeologists to Excavate Salt Men's Burial Ground in Iran Jun 20, 2006 Following the visit of two Iranian archeologists to Germany and Austria, the condition for a joint cooperation between Iranian and German archeologists was prepared and a team of archeologists of Bochum Mining Museum of Germany is to come to Iran to carry out excavations in Chehr Abad historical salt mine, the burial ground of the discovered famous salt men in Zanjan province. After signing a memorandum of understanding between Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) and Germany's Bochum Mining Museum and defining the budget for this...

Killing ground Published: Saturday, June 03, 2006 PURPLE SPRINGS, Alta. - Buried deep below a shallow southeastern Alberta valley, punctuated by wind-swept sand dunes, vast grassland and aging cow manure, lies evidence of a slaughter that took place 2,500 years ago. What was once little more than leased Crown land now doubles as a precious archeological dig, which, with each turn of the trowel, is teaching University of Lethbridge researchers what one of Alberta's few known bison kill sites can tell us about our past. Listening to archeology professor Shawn Bubel tell the story of how a roaming herd met...

WASHINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Friday urged Russia to reconsider its decision to honor its commitment to sell Iran the Tor-M1 air defense missile system. "We would hope that Russia would take a second look at this issue," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news briefing. Russia said earlier in the day that it would fulfill a contract to supply its sophisticated Tor-M1 air defense systems to Iran. "Russia has signed a contract with Iran for the supply of Tor-M1 close-range air defense systems to Iran," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. "The contract will...

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 5, 2006) -- A distinctive beating is heard overhead as two attack helicopters circle ground forces patrolling the western Al Anbar Province of Iraq. The slim, grasshopper-like powerhouses and barrel-chested gunships belong to the pioneers of close air combat support, the Gunrunners of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 269, Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. Both the AH-1W Super Cobra and the UH-1N Huey, are organic to the squadron. The aircraft, as a team, are capable of distributing massive amounts of firepower to both ground and air opposing forces. The Gunrunners returned to...

4/13/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA -- “It’s so frustrating to come under attack, and see another one of our soldiers hurt,” said “AJ,” a Joint Terminal Attack Controller who supports the U.S. Army infantry in Iraq. “This time one of our guys lost a leg and several fingers,” said the major. “But it could have been worse if the Strike Eagles hadn’t arrived on the scene.” While hundreds of F-15E sorties fly through the Iraqi skies in any given week supporting troops on the ground, this recent mission stands out in two 336th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron crews’ minds as particularly memorable....

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, April 3, 2006) – The Iraqi army has proven that they're trained and capable of protecting the Iraqi people, and their nation recognizes that, according to Multinational Division – Baghdad Commander Maj. Gen. James Thurman in a teleconference with the Pentagon press corps March 31. Thurman assumed command of MND-B on January 7, 2006. He leads Coalition operations, which include U.S. forces and those from the Republic of Georgia, Macedonia, Estonia and about 33,000 Iraqi security forces. As the 4th Infantry division arrives at the 90-day mark in theater, Thurman pointed out key strategies and successes...

Overview To better understand the distribution of shaking and damage that accompanied the great 1906 earthquake, seismologists have constructed new computer models to recreate the ground motions. The simulations show how ground moved on the two sides of the San Andreas fault and how seismic waves radiated away from the fault to produce the shaking. The earthquake, which began 2 miles offshore from the City of San Francisco, ultimately grew to cause shaking and damage along more than 300 miles of the San Andreas Fault. The movies and snapshots available here portray the shaking over a 155 mile by 70...

ARLINGTON, Texas (March 6, 2006) -- Marines from Recruiting Station Fort Worth participated in a recent ground breaking ceremony for a military veteran’s memorial to be constructed at Veterans Park in Arlington, Texas. The recruiting station provided a color guard, including members Sgts. Fernando Duran, William Lemoir, Chris Simms and Robert Bell. All four are recruiters assigned to the station. Also on hand for the ceremony were RS Fort Worth’s Commanding Officer, Maj. William Gray and Sgt. Maj. Mitchell Nared. The memorial project is scheduled to be completed in late spring 2006.

Iran refuses to give ground over nuclear 'research' By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 04/03/2006) European Union negotiators yesterday walked away empty handed from talks with Iran two days before its nuclear programme is due to be discussed by the United Nations nuclear watchdog. The eleventh hour meeting was attended by a senior Foreign Office official, the French and German foreign ministers and the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, at Iran's request. Iran's Ali Larijani listens to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana The Iranians reiterated their demand to be allowed to continue "laboratory research" into uranium enrichment, a...

3/1/2006 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- When launched in 2010, a football-field-in-length demonstrator radar antenna, weighing more than 5 tons, will serve as the forerunner for the future of America's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in space. Administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate here, the innovative space-based radar antenna technology, or ISAT, program focuses on developing systems to deploy extremely large (up to 300 yards) electronically scanning radar antennas flying 5,700 miles above the Earth's surface and providing improved ground target detection to the warfighter. "These huge antennas will enable the revolutionary performance...

/24/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- High over Iraq, an E-8C Joint STARS aircraft surveys hundreds of miles of the country at a time, looking for insurgent activity, controlling those situations and taking action if needed. The aircraft's crew ultimately keeps ground troops safer by communicating with convoys and directing air power to quell the enemy. The Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System mission has two parts. The first is to radio relay with convoys throughout Iraq. Through radio and a text-messaging system, convoys can contact Joint STARS for help. Air National Guard Maj. Thomas Grabowski, senior...

/8/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Ensuring that pilots and ground forces are aware of one another’s intentions, limitations and capabilities is a full-time job. That responsibility falls into the hands of three people assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Ground Liaison Office, or GLO. Comprised of one Airman and two Soldiers, the GLO provides a conduit of information between the Air Force and the ground combat units it supports. “We stay up-to-date on strategic and tactical operations and provide that information to the planners within the 332nd AEW,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Patrick McCormack, 332nd...

AL ASAD, Iraq -- The people of Iraq voted in a general election to decide on a permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly, Dec. 15. Throughout the country, Marines, Soldiers and Iraqi Security Forces provided protection so Iraqis could vote in secure locations. One of the important roles in providing security for the elections was that of the female U.S. service members who searched female Iraqis at voting stations. Marines from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Al Asad eagerly volunteered to play a part in history and help the women of Iraq secure rights for themselves in a free society....

Credentials of Va. Journalists Pulled NORFOLK, Va. — The military this week revoked the press credentials of a Norfolk newspaper writer and photographer who were reporting from Kuwait, saying they had violated ground rules by photographing battle-damaged military vehicles. Denis Finley, editor of The Virginian-Pilot, wrote a letter Friday protesting the Army's confiscation of the badges that allowed reporter Lou Hansen and photographer Hyunsoo Leo Kim to interview and photograph service members. "Yes, they signed an agreement, but the Navy brought them to the site and allowed them to take pictures," Finley said in an article the paper published Friday....

Jews and Evangelicals explore the boundaries of their relationship at New York conference. At the end of his presentation last week in a panel titled "Christian America?" Rev. Richard Cizik, an Evangelical lobbyist in Washington, was confronted with an unexpected question: Does he believe Jews go to heaven? Caught off guard, Cizik, who is vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, said his practice was to "do my best to avoid answering that question because it leads us to a place where we don't necessarily need to go." The question — prompted by the 2002 declaration...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Security guards wrestled a man to the ground in a Wal-Mart after he cut in line to get laptop computers that were on sale Friday, a television station reported. The man started arguing with people inside the store, WFTV-TV in Orlando reported. He then started fighting with the guards, the station reported One man told WFTV that the laptops were being thrown into the air and people rushed toward them, collapsing on each other. Another man described the scene as crazy. Orlando police and Orange County sheriff's officials didn't return phone messages seeking comment. The store's manager...

AL QAIM, Iraq (Nov. 24, 2005) -- Marines flying AH-1W Super Cobras, soaring through the skies of Iraq, are growing accustomed to using precision guided ordnance, maximizing the damage to their targets while minimizing collateral damage. Since arriving in western Iraq during September, the Gunfighters of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369 have continuously dropped precision guided ordnance on the enemy in support of ongoing operations. The Gunfighters, from Al Qaim, Iraq, dropped their 100th precision-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missile, Nov. 17. “We are destroying target after target in support of ground combat brethren,” said Maj. John Barranco, the officer-in-charge of...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Nov. 9, 2005) – Iraqi and Coalition forces detained terrorists and found more than 1,000 rounds of munitions and explosive-device components this past week in and around Baghdad. Iraqi, U.S. forces nab terrorists After a Task Force Baghdad patrol struck an improvised explosive device northwest of Baghdad Nov. 3, two suspicious individuals were detained. U.S. Soldiers secured the site and notified an explosive ordnance disposal team. Three hours after the initial attack, two suspicious trucks driving with their headlights off tried to flee the area. The trucks drove into tangled wire and two terrorists were quickly...

Diverted by weather to a deployed base housing both airmen and soldiers, the F-16 pilots had the opportunity to see the troops they support from the air. By U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Paul Dean 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs ALI BASE, Iraq, Oct. 28, 2005 — The sky above Balad Air Base, Iraq, was thick with dust and sand when four F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots completed another mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.They were headed to their deployment “home� in Balad when they were eventually diverted here Oct. 17. "There’s no simulator that can teach you...

10/19/2005 - ALI BASE, Iraq -- The sky above Balad Air Base was thick with dust and sand when four F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots completed another mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They were headed to their deployed home at Balad Oct. 17 when they were eventually diverted here. Their mission started early that morning, but it was well past lunch when they traveled in a holding pattern above a dusty Balad. The four F-16 pilots, from the 332nd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, had aerial refueled and were waiting for the sandstorm to pass. But weather forecasters determined the storm...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2005 – Terrorists are testing American will and resolve in Iraq, and failing that test would mean dire consequences for the safety and security of America, President Bush said here today. Delivering remarks at the Pentagon, Bush said that the battle lines are drawn in Iraq, and there is no middle ground. "Either we defeat the terrorists and help the Iraqis build a working democracy, or the terrorists will impose their dark ideology on the Iraqi people and make that country a source of terror and instability to come for decades," he said. Iraqi security forces are...

By Abigail R. Esman World Defense Review columnist "WE WILL NEVER FORGET!" declared the posters taped across the city, the banner strung above the massive hole that once had been the World Trade Center, in the months after 9/11. And for a year, anyway, tourists came to pay respects at Ground Zero while New Yorkers brought flowers to their local fire departments, contributed to funds benefiting the families of those killed, pasted American flags to the windshields of their cars, and somberly marked the eleventh day of every month that passed. But four years later, to walk the streets of...

A prominent Democratic Party pollster Thursday said the reason members of his party have lost major elections in recent years is because they have not "run with conviction." Stanley Greenberg, who currently heads his own research firm, previously conducted polling and offered advice to then-President Bill Clinton, then-Vice President Al Gore, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and South African President Nelson Mandela. Greenberg conceded that the biggest current weakness among Democratic candidates is that they "do not know what they stand for, they don't know their policy direction, they don't know their underlying values, they don't know who they fight...

PORTUGAL: MEDIEVAL MUSLIM BURIAL GROUND UNEARTHED Lisbon, 12 May (AKI) - Skeletons belonging to some 35 corpses have surfaced from a Portuguese excavation site which archaelogists believe could be one of the the largest medieval Muslim burial grounds in Europe. The corpses, found in vaults carved out of the rockface were buried facing due west in the direction of the Muslim holy city, Mecca. The remains were unearthed at the Largo de Candido Dos Reis park, near the northern Portuguese city of Santarem. Local authorities believe the burial ground, discovered by Portuguese archaeologist, Antonio Matias, could extend over an area...

GLOBAL: UN deals with sexual abuse allegations against peacekeepers11 May 2005 17:56:16 GMT Source: IRIN JOHANNESBURG, 11 May (IRIN) - The United Nations has requested funds for hiring additional staff to beef up preventative measures aimed at tackling allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by some UN peacekeepers. In a report to the General Assembly this week, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that the number of claims of sexual abuse and exploitation lodged against UN peacekeepers last year was more than double the number reported in 2003. In March the UN released a report by Annan's special adviser on the issue,...

A new generation of ground-based telescopes could be up to 10 times the size of existing instruments and have vision 40 times as sharp as the Hubble space telescope.Astronomers have been hailing the plans, as a European project to build an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) enters a design testing phase. An ELT is vital if the pace of astronomical breakthroughs is to continue, say experts. The plans were outlined at the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham. Concepts for ELTs include the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) being considered by the US and Canada; and the Euro50 and Overwhelmingly Large Telescope...

Today, my mother asked me to come see something in their Los Gatos back yard. She took me out to the corner of their large lot (large for Los Gatos, anyway), and she pointed out to me some black, shiny substance seeping out of the ground in patches, and along a line about 10 feet in length. The last heavy rain had made this substance come to the surface. I said "It looks like oil," and she said she thought so, too. I stuck my finger in it, and it was black, slick, and after I'd rubbed it around to...

From Yale to the University of North Carolina, liberal academia is being challenged by a new generation of conservative leadership. Credible tales of professors grading down conservative students have always run rampant. Biased lectures remain the unremarkable norm. One variable has changed, however. Liberal academia lacks its traditionally receptive audience. During the opening weeks of the Iraq war, professors were shocked by the absence of antiwar fervor among their pupils. Leading up to the 2004 elections, record numbers of undergraduates joined the College Republicans and other conservative organizations. Ingenious student protests, such as Berkeley’s affirmative action bake sale and Duke’s...

During Tsunami Remote Viewing primitive tribes in Andaman Nicobar Islands of India Staff Reporter January 02, 2005 Indian Military personnel is finally reaching the remote islands of Andaman and Car Nicobar. There is massive devastation especially in Nicobar Islands. The inhabitants in these islands consists of tribal and non-tribal mainstream population. Thousands of people are dead and the coastal areas just evaporated. The total population before Tsunami of these tribes was approximately 28,000, which accounts for about 9% of the total population of these Islands. The other 91% population consists of mainstream settlers and the military personnel. The rescue teams...

Apartment Said to Have Been Scene of a Kerik Affair An apartment in Battery Park City that former Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik secured for his personal use after Sept. 11 was originally donated for the use of weary police and rescue workers who were helping at ground zero, according to a real estate executive who has been briefed about the apartment. After the cleanup had settled into a routine that fall, the executive said, Mr. Kerik, who was still police commissioner, asked to rent the two-bedroom apartment for his own use. During his use of the apartment, Mr. Kerik...

<p>An apartment near the World Trade Center site, that former Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik used to engage in an extramarital affair with publisher Judith Regan, was originally donated for the use of weary police and rescue workers who were helping after 9-11. One bedroom faced the pit of ground zero... Developing...</p>

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

This is your last chance, Fallujah rebels are told as US prepares ground attack By Toby Harnden in Ramadi (Filed: 29/10/2004) Iraq's government yesterday offered the leaders of rebel-held Fallujah a "last" chance to negotiate as an American military commander described the city as a cancer that had to be dealt with. Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, indicated that time was fast running out for those who were harbouring insurgents there. "This chance could be the last," he said in a statement, imploring "the leaders and notables of Fallujah to use it to find a political solution". But with...

WASHINGTON - Republican leaders, eager to deliver a pre-election victory to President Bush (news - web sites), moved closer to agreement Monday night on legislation needed to extend three popular middle-class tax cuts that are set to expire this year. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley announced that a joint House-Senate conference committee, which will work out differences between the two chambers, will meet on the tax legislation for the first time Tuesday. Officials reported agreement was close on the major provisions of the legislation. Under one optimistic scenario, the conference committee will be able to reach agreement on a...

NEW YORK – While Arnold Schwarzenegger's speech brought electricity to the president's campaign Tuesday night, the California governor is unlikely to do much more for the re-election bid, he said Thursday. Meeting with the California press corps, he also talked about the need to moderate the Republican Party, continued to leave the door open to future events that could allow him to become president, and said how much he enjoyed addressing the American people. "I'd love to go to every state in this country, to every city, to every village, and to tell the people how great this country is,"...

Great young Republican mayor in this town that needs some support. PLEASE consider writing a letter to the editor in support of Mayor Hollon to the Georgetown News-Graphic, which ran this story. You can e-mail it to the publisher at mscogin@news-graphic.com and the copy desk at copydesk@news-graphic.com Prayer challenged at meeting By ERICA OSBORNE Georgetown News-Graphic 8/6/04 STAMPING GROUND — It is a practice that signals the start of every Stamping Ground City Commission meeting. They bow their heads. Then they pray. Now a Scott County resident says Mayor Jared Hollon needs to find a new way to open the...