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Raisinet Theory on Immigration The political obfuscation of the phrase "back of the line".... Consider hundreds of people waiting in line for a new hit movie. They've been waiting outside the theater for hours in the cold pouring rain. Along come a bunch of people who sneak in the back door of the movie theater and sit down in front of the big screen. The manager of the theater knows that it's unfair, but instead of kicking them out and making them get in the back of the line outside in the rain, he stipulates that as punishment for cutting...

Mitt Romney is an intelligent man who sometimes seems eager to find bushel baskets under which to hide his light. Romney faults Rudy Giuliani for opposing the presidential line-item veto. But Giuliani doesn't, unfortunately. The facts -- not that they loom large in this skirmish -- are: When in 1997 Bill Clinton used the line-item veto, with which Congress had just armed him, to cancel $200 million for New York state, Giuliani harried Clinton all the way to the Supreme Court. It agreed with Giuliani that the line-item veto was an unconstitutional violation of the "presentment" clause. Today, Giuliani says,...

Tucked away on Seattle's Portage Bay, a sleek, 85-foot speedboat sat idle for years — save for an annual jaunt to maintain its engine. The Navy paid $4.5 million to build the boat. But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either. Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted? Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill...

A woman left infertile after cancer treatment says she feels "distraught" after losing a five-year legal battle to try to become a mother using her own embryos. Natallie Evans had mounted a "last chance" appeal to keep the six frozen embryos, which were fertilised by her ex-partner. But the European Court of Human Rights ruled that her rights to become a mother did not outweigh the rights of her ex-boyfriend, Howard Johnston, not to become the father of her children. Ms Evans, 35, from Melksham, Wiltshire, and Mr Johnston, 30, from Cheltenham, embarked on IVF in 2001 after she was...

How do I create a tagline? Couldn't find directions anywhere. Thanks!

Vatican has adopted a tougher line with Islam By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent (Filed: 18/09/2006) At first sight, there may seem to be little divergence between Pope Benedict XVI's approach to Islam and that of his predecessor. The present Pope, a scholar who has made an extensive study of the faith, is clearly keen to promote understanding between Christians and Muslims and has many personal contacts. At his inaugural Mass as Pope in April last year, he made a point of welcoming Muslim leaders. In reality, however, Benedict XVI has adopted a far more cautious approach than the late John...

Israel to triple force on Lebanon front line By Tim Butcher, Adrian Blomfield in Tyre and Harry Mount in New York (Filed: 10/08/2006) Israel vowed yesterday to expand the ground war in Lebanon to try to deliver a knockout blow to Hizbollah, amid warnings that the conflict could last at least another month. The decision by the security cabinet after a six-hour meeting in Jerusalem increased the pressure on major powers struggling to win agreement on a United Nations resolution to end the four-week-old conflict. Israel plans to triple the size of its ground forces "Plans by defence minister Amir...

First Rail Line Into Tibet Opens With Environmental Warnings LHASA, Tibet, July 6, 2006 (ENS) - With the opening of the new railway line through the Tibetan Plateau on Saturday, and the increased number of travelers expected to visit the area as a result, WWF and its wildlife trafficking monitoring arm, TRAFFIC, are calling for conservation measures to protect the world's largest and highest plateau. Billed as the highest railway in the world, the final stretch of the Qinghai-Tibet rail line opened Saturday, running over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from central China to the Tibetan capital Lhasa. Environmental groups are...

GOP dares Pelosi: Sign on the line By Josephine Hearn U.S. House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gestures as she speaks during a taping of 'Meet the Press' at the NBC studios in Washington, DC May 7, 2006. NO SALES NO ARCHIVES REUTERS/Alex Wong/Meet the Press Freshman Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry (N.C.) wants to help House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — well, sort of. McHenry has prepared an ethics complaint for Pelosi to file against a fellow Democratic lawmaker, Rep. William Jefferson (La.), who is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegedly having received more than $450,000...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (May 5, 2006) -- There are no pencil-pushers at 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. There are only extra trigger-pullers. The Darkhorse battalion, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 in Fallujah, is making it a point that no one gets a free ride. Everyone earns their campaign ribbons. Administration clerks are pulling convoy security. Legal assistants are truck drivers. Everyone gets outside the wire and everyone earns their combat pay. Some Marines never thought they’d see the field, even before arriving at their first duty stations. Lance Cpl. David Reister was told at his military occupational specialty school...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2006 – The Pentagon Channel has added video podcasting to its line of products that distribute the channel's military news and information to the nation's men and women in uniform. "We work hard to communicate with the men and women of the department around the world," Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said. "I am pleased that we are using video casting and other increasingly important technologies to reach our global audience with all the news and information available on the Pentagon Channel." The channel's video podcasting line-up includes: "Around the Services in Brief," the daily...

ALBANY - GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Weld is sailing into uncharted waters in New York Republican politics: He's making a major run to line up the backing of the tiny Libertarian Party. Weld confirmed to the Daily News last night that he would "definitely be interested" in winning the Libertarian line "'Libertarian' is not a bad word in my lexicon," he said, noting one of his favorite expressions is: "I want the government out of your pocketbook and out of your bedroom." Asked about the party's opposition to the war on drugs, Weld said he'd back medical marijuana, but added,...

20 EU states warned to toe Brussels line By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 05/04/2006) The European Commission launched a barrage of legal proceedings against more than 20 member states yesterday, demanding that they obey EU laws on everything from energy monopolies to subsidies for airlines. Fearing for the health of the single market after an outbreak of protectionism in various countries, the Brussels commission challenged a French decree blocking foreign ownership of firms in 11 "sensitive sectors", from cryptology and arms to casinos. The decree, which came into force on Dec 31 last year, was part of the policy...

Thousands line Phoenix street in protest march Thousands of supporters of immigrant rights march to the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl in Phoenix. Many said they were most incensed by what they see as punitive immigration reform proposals, especially one approved by the House in December that would make unlawful presence in the United States a felony. (Phoenix, Arizona-AP) March 24, 2006 - One of the protesters in a big march in Phoenix says immigrants are "here for the American Dream." Police estimate at least 10,000 people joined the rally calling for more "humane" changes to immigration laws. A...

A memorial illustration for Trooper Steven R. Smith of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

It is an incontestable fact that no kind of fortress, wheresoever placed, however strongly manned, however expensively constructed, and however numerous its garrison, has ever given permanent security to a State-has seldom indeed given it even temporary protection. Moreover, a fortress once invested is certain to fall, unless a relieving field-army can beat the besiegers away. We read in the history of one generation of the "virgin" fortress of Ingoldstadt or of Metz, but when we open the records of another generation, we find that its pride has bitten the dust. In some cases a very small fort in a...

Rice will take tough line with Europe on 'prison plane' flights By Philip Sherwell and Kim Willsher in Paris (Filed: 04/12/2005) Condoleezza Rice, the United States Secretary of State, will urge European governments to back off in the continuing row over alleged secret terrorist detention camps in Eastern Europe and clandestine CIA "prison plane" flights. Dr Rice, who begins a four-country European tour tomorrow, is preparing a "robust" defence of American treatment of terror suspects, as Washington belatedly comes out fighting on the controversy, senior European diplomats told the Sunday Telegraph. Condoleezza Rice: No apologies for tactics Although Dr Rice...

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...

Remote front line in the war on bird flu In a small laboratory in a Budapest suburb, scientists are developing a vaccine which could prevent a global pandemic Daniel McLaughlin in Pilisborosjeno Sunday October 30, 2005 The Observer The road from Budapest meanders through forested hills and quiet villages, before reaching a neat yellow building guarded by an old man in a boiler suit and a barking alsatian. This is the unlikely front line in the global war against bird flu. At this laboratory, Hungary is leading the fight against the H5N1 virus, which has arrived in Europe after killing...

WASHINGTON - The Senate approved a bill Tuesday to raise the homeland security secretary from last to eighth place in the presidential line of succession, just after the attorney general. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, passed without objection just before the chamber adjourned. The companion House bill, sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., is pending before the Judiciary and Government Reform committees. If the bill also passes the House, the order of those in line to assume the presidency if President Bush is unable to serve would be: _Vice President Dick Cheney _House...

Full line of credit used up, Democratic Party chairman says Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Democratic Party chairman says the party has used up its $150,000 line of credit, an Arkansas News Bureau columnist reports in today's editions. State Democratic Party chairman Jason Willett told columnist David Sanders that the party has reached its credit limit and described it as an "investment" in the future of the party. He added that the money is being used to further the party's efforts in winning back the governor's office next year, and...

Members of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Black Caucus have become seemingly desensitized to racial slurs. The Caucus did not even blink when the extreme Left’s new champion, Howard Dean, made prejudiced statements right before their very eyes. From Dean’s comments, it seems he believes that a Black person’s place is to be cleaning toilets at a hotel in which whites stay. According to the Washington Times, On Feb. 11, the day before he was elected party chief, Mr. Dean asked, at a meeting of the DNC Black Caucus, "You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people...

Four Israeli kids were killed and 30 wounded today by a Palestinian homicide bomber. The young Israelis’ crime? They were waiting in line to get into a nightclub in Tel Aviv. This is the Palestinians’ idea of “peace?” According to the BBC, Alon Kotler, a paramedic who treated several of the wounded told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that rescuers had found "young people lying on top of each other, most of them moderately to seriously wounded". What happened to the “truce” the Palestinian Authority (PA) agreed to with Israel at the summit in Egypt on February 8? What has the...

Big-Money Contributors Line Up for Inauguration President Bush wants to lower barriers to building nuclear power plants, and the lobby that promotes nuclear energy could not be happier. To show its thanks, the group has given $100,000 to help pay for his inauguration. "He's a big supporter," said John E. Kane, chief lobbyist for the Nuclear Energy Institute. "Our donation is just a small way of supporting him." The nuclear energy industry's contribution is part of a record-breaking outpouring of corporate cash to next week's inaugural festivities. At least 88 companies and trade associations, along with 39 CEOs and top...

EXCLUSIVE Hook sues for new hand-out Suing ... Hamza       By JOHN ASKILL LOATHED cleric Abu Hamza is suing benefit chiefs from his jail cell — for stopping cash over his alleged terror links. Hook-handed fanatic Hamza, 47, claims he is owed thousands of pounds over nearly three years — despite his family getting £1,000-a- week hand-outs. A jail source said: “He has a cheek.”      Hamza already gets this lot...   Rent-free £500k house for wife and eight children  £2million from the taxpayer to fund 7-year legal fight against deportation  Bed-linen changed daily plus help to...

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!

Ahoy, mateys, Rosie O'Donnell's going full steam ahead--her cruise line for gay and lesbian families has launched on its maiden voyage. The first cruise of R Family Vacations, a new company backed by the comic and gay-rights advocate, set sail Sunday from New York for a seven-day cruise to the Bahamas. O'Donnell was on hand in Manhattan Sunday to celebrate the first of several gay family friendly vacations planned by R Family Vacations. According to the R Family Website, the cruise is a seven-day adventure that will take its 2,100 passengers from New York to Florida to the Bahamas and...

Taliban leader on the line By Hamida Ghafour in Kabul (Filed: 09/07/2004) Mullah Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader who has eluded capture for three years, has been contacted by Afghan intelligence agents on a satellite phone carried by a captured aide. The brief conversation ended abruptly when Omar appeared to become suspicious and disconnected the call. He has ignored follow-up attempts to contact him. Omar, who recently told an interviewer that al-Qa'eda and Taliban figures maintained communication by "traditional" means, is believed to change his whereabouts frequently. Abdullah Laghmanai, the intelligence chief in the southern province of Kandahar, said contact...

Kerry Cancels Speech, Honors Picket Line Saturday June 26, 2004 10:46 PM By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer BOSTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry may cancel plans to speak to the U.S. Conference of Mayors rather than cross a police officers' picket line. Kerry spokesman David Wade told reporters Saturday afternoon that Kerry would not give his scheduled Monday morning speech because of protests at the conference. Later, Wade said the campaign was monitoring the situation and still hadn't decided whether he would speak. ``He's never crossed picket lines in his time in public life,'' Wade said. Boston...

An eerie calm prevails at the FleetCenter By David R. Guarino Thursday, June 24, 2004 With convention construction already $5 million over budget and three days delayed due to a picket line, all was amazingly quiet inside the FleetCenter yesterday - 33 days from DNC D-Day. Convention organizers and Mayor Thomas M. Menino say construction's on schedule. But, to the naked eye, the FleetCenter is far from ready for Sen. John F. Kerry's big event. Workers have taken out seats to make room for the convention stage and steel has been added to the ceiling to help light the ceremonies....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Even as administration officials continued work to finish Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's revised budget due out next week, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez warned the Republican governor Thursday not to cut too deep. "Make no mistake, we are going to fight very hard for the things that we believe in," said Nunez, D-Los Angeles, at a noontime press conference. "We will tell the governor of those things that we really want in this budget, what we think is important and socially responsible. And the governor can tell us how he plans to see that the revenues are there to...

The catastrophe that extinguished the dinosaurs and other animal species, 65 million years ago also brought dramatic changes to the vegetation. In a study presented in latest issue of the journal Science, the paleontologists Vivi Vajda from the University of Lund, Sweden and Stephen McLoughlin from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia have described what happened to the vegetation month by month. They depict a world in darkness where the fungi had taken over. It´s known that an asteroid hit the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous Period. It left a 180 km wide crater and...

YELLING at kids can cross line if personal By MARLON MANUEL The Atlanta Journal-Constitution All parents have disciplined by decibel at one time or another. More than 90 percent yell at their kids, threaten to spank them, swear at them, call them names or threaten to kick them out of the house, said family researcher Murray Straus, concluding what adults have known forever: "Children are frustrating." But there's a huge difference between verbal venting and verbal abuse. A DeKalb County grandmother crossed that line when she yelled vulgarities and threatened her 13-year-old granddaughter, and it landed her in jail. "Please,...

During the Civil War, Old Bridge supplied the Union troops with salt hay to feed their horses. The Mason Dixon Line — the symbolic border between the Union and the Confederacy — passed through New Jersey, geographically separating southern New Jersey from northern portions of the state. The town of Kearney was named for Philip Kearney, a one-armed military general who led many successful battles against the Confederates before being killed in battle. These and many other facts, some little-known, some not, are revealed in a new exhibit titled "Our Long Endurance: The Story of New Jersey in the Civil...

Critics fight border power line Say TEP link to Nogales will mar forest area By Mitch Tobin ARIZONA DAILY STAR With the nation's power grid suddenly in the spotlight, Tucson environmentalists vow they'll sue to pull the plug on a 66-mile power line proposed between Sahuarita and Nogales. Tucson Electric Power says its $70 million project will improve the reliability of electrical service in Santa Cruz County. Past blackouts there and the area's dependence on a single transmission line prompted the Arizona Corporation Commission in 1999 to mandate construction of another link between Nogales and the Western power grid. TEP...

The Saudi Press Agency reports that Egypt and Jordan have inaugurated a partially underwater pipeline that will allow Egypt to supply energy-strapped Jordan with 2.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year. The pipeline runs almost 250 kilometers across the Sinai Desert to the Red Sea, and then continues 15 kilometers underwater to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. The pipeline is scheduled to be extended in the coming years to northern Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Cyprus, and Europe. Egypt has potential gas reserves of 70 trillion cubic feet and hopes to become one of the world's top 10 exporters...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House, attacked by critics for a now-retracted line about Iraq seeking uranium from Africa in President Bush's State of the Union address, has gotten some surprising support from former President Bill Clinton.</p> <p>"I thought the White House did the right thing in just saying 'we probably shouldn't have said that,'" Clinton told CNN's Larry King in a phone interview Tuesday evening.</p>

SEATTLE - Some of the nation's largest companies, struggling to provide expensive health insurance to employees, are targeting obesity as a way to reduce their bottom lines. According to an estimate by the Washington, D.C.-based Washington Business Group on Health, a lobbying firm, obesity costs companies more than $12 billion per year. This cost is due to higher health insurance costs, paid sick leave, life insurance and disability insurance. “Obesity has a devastating impact on the health of employees and, by extension, on their employers,” explained Vince Kerr, a physician and Director of Health Care Management at Ford Motor Company,...

Next in the firing line? Alexander Chancellor Saturday May 24, 2003 The Guardian There has been a lot of soul-searching in Saudi Arabia, as well there might be. The country's press was full of it after the massacre in Riyadh last week. Had it brought the tragedy on itself? Was it deluded to blame foreigners for it? And why were so many terrorists Saudi citizens? There was a strong temptation to blame the atrocity on foreigners. This was how one columnist put it in the Saudi newspaper Al-Jazirah: "Oh, foreign cave-dwellers, depart our country and go to hell! You have...

Bodies line the route to the palace of fear Inside the marble-floored opulence of the forbidden city ordinary Iraqis were too frightened even to point at Suzanne Goldenberg in Baghdad Friday April 11, 2003 The Guardian All roads to the palace passed by corpses - a mini-van with the fighter who had tried to ram it into US soldiers carbonised at the wheel; the attendant sprawled by the towering arch; the guard lying in the shadow of a golden dome; the body of a middle-aged man rotting in his green BMW near the north gate. These were the approaches to...

That Bug Is No Insect: A New Branch On The Tree Of Life The family tree of life has a newly discovered branch. Genetic studies comparing mitochondrial DNA have revealed that what has long been thought to be the group from which insects arose, the Collembola -- wingless hexapods (or "six legs") commonly called springtails -- turns out not to be closely related to insects after all. Instead, these creatures belong to a separate evolutionary lineage that predates even the separation of insects and crustaceans. The research was carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI)...

US forced to consider 'battle lite' options By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 10/03/2003) Turkey's refusal to allow American troops to be based on its soil has reignited a debate within the US military over the future face of war, giving the "modernisers" a chance to prove that the age of the tank is finally over. The deployment of allied troops in northern Iraq is a crucial element of plans to topple Saddam Hussein. They will be asked to secure the northern oil fields and to engage Republican Guard units that have been deployed to protect Saddam's hometown of Tikrit...

'Long-lost treasure' has a painful punch-line February 17 2003 at 10:16AM San Francisco - It turns out that one of the American West's enduring mysteries - a tale of 16th century sea-borne explorers and a perplexing brass plaque - was a 1930s joke-gone-wrong sprung on an influential University of California professor by a group of friends. Historians believed the hoax for decades, but tests in the late 1970s proved that the small brass plate with old English inscriptions was not in fact the one left by Sir Francis Drake when he sheltered just north of San Francisco in 1579. One...

Putin tells army to take tougher line in Chechnya By Julius Strauss in Moscow (Filed: 29/10/2002) President Vladimir Putin ordered his generals yesterday to draw up new measures to deal with the Chechen threat hours after the rebel republic's leader offered unconditional talks. President Putin: 'Russia will never give in to blackmail' After Russia observed a minute's silence in memory of the Moscow theatre siege victims, Mr Putin addressed the nation. He said: "Russia will never make any deals with terrorists and will never give in to blackmail. "If anyone tries to use such methods against our country Russia will...

CIA Says Iraq Drawing a Line on Attacking U.S. Tue Oct 8, 9:31 PM ET By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA said the probability of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein initiating an attack without provocation on the United States in the foreseeable future was "very low," according to a letter made public on Tuesday. But if he was attacked, the likelihood that Saddam would respond with biological or chemical weapons was "pretty high." The letter, dated Oct. 7, was signed by Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin on behalf of CIA Director George Tenet and sent to Senate Intelligence Committee...

Powell backs British line over Saddam By David Rennie, Charles Clover and Andy McSmith (Filed: 02/09/2002) Colin Powell, the Bush administration's leading sceptic over a war with Iraq, tried to ease tensions between American hawks and European allies yesterday by declaring that the US supported the return of United Nations weapons inspectors. Breaking months of near-silence on the argument that has raged in Washington all summer, the secretary of state also signalled that it was time to release intelligence on Iraq's development of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. His comments, a rebuke to hawks who are against the return of...

Patrick McGovern "The site is very rich archeologically, has been excavated for the last 50 years by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. It has a large palace area with rooms, some of which are thought to have been kitchens for making the food for the palace, with jars of barley and other goods. Also, it has a whole series of tombs in which the burial was done in a special wooden chamber beneath a very large mound. It's almost as if you cut it yesterday and put the structure together. It is the earliest intact human building made of...