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Federal receiver J. Clark Kelso today rejected the state's resistance to turning over as much as $8 billion to improve prison system health care, accusing Attorney General Jerry Brown of misleading a federal judge about the state's ability to cough up the money and renewing his demand that state officals be held in contempt. Brown, representing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang, had told the court last week that forcing the payment would disrupt the state's already precarious finances. He made his plea a day after the Legislature failed to approve a bill that would have provided bond money...

ON THE ROAD TO BERLIN OWING to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn't arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore. By the time we got there the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping and artillery fire, and the occasional startling blast of a mine geysering brown sand into the air. That plus a gigantic and pitiful litter of wreckage along miles of shore line. Submerged tanks and overturned...

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. Here, in Normandy, the rescue began. Here, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny, in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but forty...

Video - Memo to Mr. Obama: This is the America your preacher damns. We ARE the good guys and sometimes, when talking doesn't work, you just have to go kill the bad guys. Learn your history.

Today is the 64th anniversary of D-Day. Two items for you to commemorate. 1) First, read Ronald Reagan’s unforgettable Pointe du Hoc speech on the 40th anniversary. 2) Watch this brilliant video produced last year by The Combat Report on how today’s media would have covered the 1944 Normandy invasion.

WASHINGTON -- Sixty-four years ago this week, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came on the radio and implored Americans to "devote themselves in a continuance of prayer invoking thy help to our efforts." The "effort" of which he spoke was Operation Overlord, the D-Day landing of 150,000 American and Allied troops at Normandy. The risks were so great that Winston Churchill told the people of Britain: "The invasion has been launched. The result is with God." FDR described it as "a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity."...

THE HISTORIC INVASION ON THE BEACHES OF NORMANDY TO SAVE THE WORLD FROM THE NAZIS Encyclopædia Britannica tells the story of the Normandy Invasion through the spoken recollections of veterans who fought it, the newsreels that brought the news home, and the written words of historians who have dedicated years to studying the great campaign.

Crumpled map solves mystery of German gun behind D-Day massacreLast updated at 17:03pm on 4th January 2008A baffling mystery of the D-Day landings was solved by an amateur historian - after he found a crumpled map at a fair in Stockport.  Experts have long disputed the location of the main Nazi gun battery which caused carnage on Omaha Beach, in terrible scenes which were recreated for the Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan.  The Germans had built a decoy gun emplacement overlooking the area while the location of the real guns which blasted the beach, where 2,000 men lost their...

On the evening before D-Day, Eisenhower left SHAEF headquarters at 6 PM and traveled to Newbury where the 101st Airborne was boarding for the invasion. To the last moment Ike's air commander Leigh-Mallory saw only tragedy from the air assault, predicting hundreds of planes and gliders would be shot down by German artillery and aircraft. Ike remained just as committed to the idea that the risk needed to be taken. Ike arrived at 8 PM and did not leave until after 11 PM when the last C-47 was airborne. In My Three Years with Eisenhower Captain Harry C. Butcher says,...

Dedication of New Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center Set for June 6, 2007 Sixty-three years after Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to turn the tide of World War II in Europe, a new visitor center at the Normandy American Cemetery in France will open in June 2007 to tell the story of the 9,387 Americans buried there and put the D-Day landings and follow-on battle in Europe in perspective as one of the greatest military achievements of all time. The $30 million visitor center will be dedicated and opened to the public on June 6, 2007 during...

I love robots. What we see of them today is the embryo of our future mecha-overlords. This particular model for instance, has already learned some martial arts moves. The ‘HRP-2 Promet’ of Kawada Industries is able to perform a little routine of bojutsu (the Art of the Staff)… or perhaps it is the rarer Bonote (the ‘Art� of� the Stick’). I, for one, am unfamiliar with both. And also, that’s not the point. The Promet is a prototype, designed for “outside and human/robot cooperative” task experiments. HRP-2P is 154 cm in height and weighs 58 kg including batteries. It has...

WHITTIER -- Armed only with his Bible and his faith, George Barber survived the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944. Fifty-six years later, as the only surviving chaplain from that horrendous battle, he delivered the opening prayer at the dedication ceremony for the D-Day Museum in New Orleans in 2000, joining celebrities Tom Hanks, Tom Brokaw, Steven Spielberg and others. On Friday, Barber, 90, died at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier. Born Aug. 26, 1914, he was 27 in October 1941 when he joined the 11th Horse Calvary the youngest chaplain on active duty in all the branches of the...

Just wondered if any other Freepers besides myself were going to France in six weeks to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. This has been in the works for me for over a year, and as a general goal for the last twenty years. Ever since Ronald Reagan spoke at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in 1984, really. Part of the motivation is that this will undoubtedly be the last such gathering of American veterans who actually participated in the assault. As such, it will be the last occasion to honor this extraordinary group of Americans and...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. Welcome to "Warrior Wednesday" Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Well, I just got my packet of info concerning the 60th Anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France by Stephen Ambrose Tours, Inc. I was suprised that the tour is a CRUISE! Not only that, I think that the $8,000+ is pretty steep, even for such noble guests and luxuries that you will be treated to no doubt. However, I was wondering if it were possible to get together a FreeRepublic.com group of history buffs/patriots/veterans and maybe go over and make things more fun and less expensive for us. I have never been to Normandy, but I heard it was alot...

There have been many duplicate threads lately. A search is easy to do, but is not 100% foolproof, nonetheless, it is very effective. The Free Republic search feature only looks at words in the title (words from within the article will not work). That is why it is imperative to use the original title. To avoid having duplicate posts, prior to posting an article, search a keyword from the title only. The main search page can be found here:SEARCH The best method to search is to pick a key word or two from the title. If the article you are...

Hitler's Sea Wall Is Breached, Invaders Fighting Way Inland; New Allied Landings Are Made All Landings Win-- Our Men Are Reported in Caen and at Points on Cherbourg Peninsula-- Big Air Armada Aids-- 10,000 Tons of Bombs Clear the Way--Poor Weather a Worry-- All Landings Win; Sea Wall Broken-- Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, Wednesday, June 7 --Allied forces continued landings on the northern French coast throughout yesterday and "satisfactory progress was made," headquarters announced today. United States Rangers and British Commandos formed part of the assault forces, the third invasion bulletin said. "No further attempt at interference with our...