Free Republic

Arizona Sen. John McCain faced withering criticism from conservatives in Republican presidential primaries for backing a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. But Thursday, McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling for an immigration plan including visas to bring employees to California's Silicon Valley and the state's agricultural fields. McCain's broad immigration pitch – coming at a global competitiveness roundtable of California technology executives – stood out from a far more cautious tone he had adopted earlier in the primary season.

National Guard troops, some of them armed, will for the first time help patrol the PATH trains, Homeland Security officials told NewsChannel 4. The patrols will start Monday. This past summer, investigators uncovered a plot to bomb the path trains. Officials said there's no new specific threat, but as a precaution a surge of armed National Guard troops will begin random patrols at path stations next week. "You might see a National Guardsman walking along the platform with a Port Authority police office," said New York state Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Michael Balboni. "You might even see bomb-sniffing dogs."...

LOS ANGELES -- Demonstrators demanding a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants rallied around the nation Tuesday, hoping to spur Congress to act before the looming presidential primaries take over the political landscape. From Phoenix to Detroit, hundreds of people carried American flags in the streets. Organizers say immigrants feel a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from getting pushed to the back burner by the 2008 presidential elections. "If we don't act, then both the Democratic and Republican parties can go back to their comfort zones and do nothing," said Angelica Salas, director of...

A worldwide investigation has uncovered an al-Qaida loyalist's plan to blow up the PATH train tunnels under the Hudson River, thwarting a terrorist conspiracy the FBI called "the real deal," authorities said Friday. The alleged mastermind has been arrested. "The individuals were moving forward," said Special Agent Mark J. Mershon, assistant director of the FBI's New York office. They "were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attack and then acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks." Mershon identified the plan's mastermind as Assem Hammoud, a 31-year-old Lebanese citizen...

They have been known to spend a billion dollars in an afternoon, hire their own retired executives for six-figure consultant deals, hand out 22 percent pay hikes, lease land, fix bridges and pay for $300,000 parties. All in secret Operating in a governmental twilight zone, they work mostly behind closed doors, immune from state and federal open public meeting rules even though their decisions affect millions of people. "They operate without transparency or accountability," said New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. The mysterious people in question are the 12 commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who...

An event of this consequence is very hard to understand." The event former Congressman Lee Hamilton was describing earlier this week is September 11, 2001. But of course September 11 itself is not hard to understand. They came, they killed. For many people this is sufficient understanding of 9/11. They believe the job now is simple: Resist and stop more of their killing. However, unlike the proponents of apocalyptic Islam, most normal people in time seek a degree of understanding, even of an enemy who fights by the rules of pre-civilization. Mr. Hamilton, the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission,...

Despite attempts by Democrats to stifle free and open discourse, "The Path To 9/11" aired last night, and again last night. Instead of succumbing to threats from Democratic senators and President Clinton, ABC allowed Americans to make up their own minds about 9/11. Some Democrats feel that the mini-series unfairly blamed the Clinton administration for allowing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to fester unchecked. But the shrill tone of Democratic objections to the docudrama belies Freudian under-currents of very real fear that Americans might know the truth: The Clinton administration was too distracted to take action against al-Qaeda -- too...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Monday, Sept. 11, 2006 1:53 p.m. EDT Lewinsky Clip Pulled From 'Path to 9/11' Editing changes made by ABC to the first part of its miniseries "The Path to 9/11" were cosmetic and didn't change the meaning of scenes that had angered several former Clinton administration officials, a spokesman for the former president said Monday. As for Clinton, he didn't bother watching the movie that angered so many people who once worked for him. "He made the choice that most Americans made," said Jay Carson, Clinton Foundation spokesman. "Of a fictionalized drama version of Sept. 11 or...

The Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean, as well as Commissioner John Lehman, were George Stephanopoulos’s guests on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, and they both spoke out strongly in favor of the upcoming miniseries “The Path to 9/11” As the discussion ensued, John Lehman brilliantly offered the following:if you don't like the hits to the Clinton administration, well, welcome to the club. The Republicans have lived with Michael Moore and Oliver Stone and most of Hollywood as a fact of life. Yet, maybe the finest moment of Sunday’s program was the following statement made by ABC’s George Will during...

'PATH' MISSED REAL 9/11 STORY September 8, 2006 -- FIRST things first: ABC's miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which will air Sept. 10 and 11, is a stiff. For those well-versed in the infuriating details of the missteps and missed opportunities in pursing al Qaeda between the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and the attack five years ago, there is nothing new here. SNIP Of course, the question obsessing everyone today is: Does the movie misrepresent events, conversations and policies of the Clinton administration? Yes and no. Ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's anger is unquestionably justified....

I am currently capturing Michael Medved's interview of the creator/producer of Path to 9/11. If anyone would like to hear it, tell me how to make it available.

"Liberals" are urging ABC to censor its planned mini-series, "The Path To 911," stating, "Accounts of advance screenings indicate that this program places primary responsibility for the attacks of 9/11 on the Clinton administration while whitewashing the failures of the Bush administration." Our Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." I don't see an exemption made for "advance screenings" by leftists. Remind you of the Islamist reaction to the Danish cartoons? Birds of a feather... If the Left doesn't like it, then it doesn't get shown? Is this what we've...

Senate Dems: Cancel ABC 9/11 Movie Urging him to cancel the grossly inaccurate upcoming miniseries "The Path to 9/11," the Senate Democratic Leadership on Thursday sent the following letter to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger. *snip* The text of the letter, signed by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin, and Senators Debbie Stabenow, Charles Schumer, and Byron Dorgan, is below. Mr. Robert A. Iger President and CEO The Walt Disney Company 500 South Buena Vista Street Burbank CA 91521 Dear Mr. Iger, We write with serious concerns about the planned upcoming broadcast of The Path...

Shocking /sarc

"The Path to 9/11" is looking a lot like "The Reagans, Part II." Bill Clinton loyalists are demanding wholesale changes to the upcoming miniseries -- and while ABC is making some snips, the alterations, insiders say, may not please the Dems. Net found itself in the middle of a media maelstrom Thursday as the 9/11 mini came under attack from a slew of interest groups, former Clinton administration aides and the Democratic Party. As for specific criticisms -- and changes -- the original mini contained a scene in which then-National Security Adviser Sandy Berger declines to give the CIA authority...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2006 -- Moving frequently is not always beneficial to military spouses’ careers, but RE/MAX officials hope to help change that. RE/MAX, an international realty company, announced “Operation RE/MAX” on Aug. 14, during opening ceremonies of the 2006 RE/MAX International Conference of Broker/Owners and Managers here. This program assists military spouses in developing careers in real estate, which a recent American National Standards Institute survey indicated as one of the top five careers suited for military spouses. “A career in real estate is ideal for many military spouses,” Dave Liniger, RE/MAX co-founder and chairman of the board,...

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2006-- Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc. announces today that its BIS-WDS(TM) Prime has been installed for live, passenger screening operation at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's (PANYNJ) Exchange Place PATH transit system station in Jersey City, New Jersey as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Rail Security Pilot Project's two week field demonstration of promising advanced technologies that detect explosives and other large weapons used to injure passengers or damage facilities and equipment, and that pose serious potential threats to the nation's rail systems. Brijot's product -- which provides full-motion,...

Federal law enforcement officials tell ABC News a plot designed to use 15 to 20 suicide bombers on one commuter train as close to Sept. 11 as possible was well underway. The specific target was the PATH commuter trains that run in a tunnel under the Hudson River into New York City. "This is a plot that would have involved martyrdom, explosives and certain of the tubes that connect New Jersey with lower Manhattan," said Mark Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI New York Field Office. "We're not discussing the modality behind, beyond that." But law enforcement officials say the...

WASHINGTON — FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms smashed an Al Qaeda terrorist plot to attack New York City's underground transit link with New Jersey, law enforcement officials said Friday. Eight suspects — including an Al Qaeda loyalist arrested in Lebanon and two others in custody elsewhere — had hoped to pull off the attack in October or November of this year, federal officials said. But federal investigators working with their counterparts in six other countries intervened.

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2006 – Growing up "green" with a pair of Army parents and moving around the world influenced a West Point cadet's decision to give military life a whirl. Cadet Sgt. Philip S. Bucci, a second-generation West Pointer, said his military parents influenced his decision to attend the academy. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "Dad graduated from West Point in 1977, and Mom was an Army nurse," recalled Cadet Sgt. Philip S. Bucci, who has just completed his second year at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. "I've always...

4/28/2006 2:30:00 PM Discovery of a Cemetery to Unveil People’s Migration Path Discovery of an ancient cemetery in Mazandaran Province connects the lives of its dead to those buried in Kharand cemetery in the nearby city of Semnan. Tehran, 28 April 2006 (CHN) -- Discovery of a 3200-year-old cemetery in Zarin Abad near Sari in Mazandaran province, revealed the migration path of those who were buried in Kharand historical cemetery in the nearby city of Semnan. Prior to this discovery, it was believed that cultural domain of the Kharand nomads only covered an area between Semnan plain and low heights...

While lawmakers in Washington debate whether to forgive illegal immigrants their trespasses, a small but increasing number of local and state law enforcement officials are taking it upon themselves to pursue deportation cases against people who are here illegally. In more than a dozen jurisdictions, officials have invoked a little-used 1996 federal law to seek special federal training in immigration enforcement for their officers. In other places, the local authorities are flagging some illegal immigrants who are caught up in the criminal justice system, sometimes for minor offenses, and are alerting immigration officials to their illegal status so that they...

Border Forts Part of Iraqi Path to Self-Governance Thirty-nine of the 45 planned border forts have been completed; they will also serve as a location to train border police. By Claude D. McKinney Gulf Region North U.S. Army Corps of Engineers SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq, April 11, 2006 — Each completed border fort along the Iraq-Iran border brings the security of Iraq closer to its goal of self-governance. There are centuries old histories of conflict between the people occupying the lands along Iraq’s northeastern mountains and the placement for each of the 45 planned border forts was determined by identifying the...

Iraqi Troops Ride Recon Off the Beaten Path Iraqi soldiers at Al Kasik learn motorcycle riding techniques for use in base reconnaissance and forward convoy scouting. By U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Mark Woodbury Multinational Security Transition Command — Iraq AL KASIK MILITARY TRAINING BASE, Iraq, March 8, 2006 — Iraqi soldiers at Al Kasik are embracing a new mode of transportation for use in base reconnaissance and forward convoy scouting. The soldiers here are learning proper on and off-road motorcycle techniques from coalition forces that will allow them to access areas they could never reach using conventional vehicles.Before...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2006 – The Iraqi National Police Commando Division is on track to replicate other elite national police units, the division's American training commander said during a briefing from Iraq today. "We think that the future is to take them to a true national police force, to where they're badge-carrying and qualified officers enforcing the Iraqi rule of law," said Army Col. Jeffrey Buchanan, commander of the 2nd Brigade, 75th Division, likening the force to the Italy's Carabiniere or France's Gendarmerie. "That's the future. That's not where we are right now." To date, the division has been operating...

Walker discovers 5,000-year-old log path on moorFind to shed new light on Neolithic man Emma Dunlop FOR 5,000 years one of the world's oldest ever footpaths has remained a hidden secret, locked deep beneath the earth in South Yorkshire. That was until walker Mick Oliver quite literally stumbled across it while one day traipsing across Hatfield Moor, near Doncaster, shortly after it was re-opened to walkers in October last year. "I looked down and I could see a straight line. I thought, that's unusual, maybe it's a bog oak – a fossilised tree – so I'll go and have a...

<p>Passengers streamed past these PATH turnstiles at the World Trade Center by the tens of thousands until Sept. 11. Now they're part of a 2-month-old challenge for Port Authority engineers. Only one train had been trapped by the rubble.</p> <p>Four out of seven cars were covered in rubble. Liquor bottles survive on the shelves of the Commuter Cafe, but the bar and concourse outside it on the PATH level are hardly fit to reopen for business.</p>

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2005 – Military retirees or annuitants who have relocated or changed their banking information after Hurricane Katrina must contact the Defense Finance and Accounting Service as soon as possible, DFAS officials said. Officials recommended any of three ways to report the changes: Call (800) 321-1080 Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. Have current address, banking data and beneficiary information available when calling. Use the myPay Web site, https://mypay.dfas.mil, to update mailing and banking information. Customers can change their financial institution and designate direct deposit as the method of delivery. To establish a...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Aug. 19, 2005) -- Family tradition, especially in the military, is something a lot of people value, honor and pass on to future generations. One Bridgewater, N.J., native here is continuing a family tradition dating from World War I. Sergeant Brittany L. Greenhalgh, intelligence communicator, G-2 Section, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Headquarters Group, II MEF (Forward), followed in the footsteps of her family’s heritage and enlisted in the military shortly after graduating from Bridgewater-Raritan High School in 2000. “My family’s military history sparked my interest in the military,” she said. “I have three grandparents that were active...

Up to the Challenge A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released after last night’s speech by President Bush shows a very positive response to his message. 74 percent had a “positive reaction” to Bush’s speech. 63 percent now feel Bush has a “clear path” for Iraq, compared to 56 percent before the speech.

The explosion that just occurred on the PATH train at Journal Square is apparently not terrorist related. While hundreds of commuters panicked, thinking it was gunshots or a bomb, apparently it was just kids setting off a stink bomb. Police arrived with guns drawn, and confusion ensued, but the matter is now being straighened out.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A senior al-Qaida operative lived in New Jersey and posed as a student while conducting surveillance of financial institutions as possible targets for a terror attack, according to a published report. The operative, identified by U.S. officials in Washington as Dhiren Barot, 32, entered the United States on a student visa, The Record of Bergen County reported in Thursday's editions.

Violence finally forced US to follow path suggested by Britain last year By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 29/06/2004) A month before the war in Iraq, hundreds of American officials secretly gathered in a Washington auditorium for a "rock drill" - the US military term for a meeting to plan scenarios - to decide how Iraq would be run after the downfall of Saddam Hussein. It included a small band of British officials who had been drawing up options for an international administration in Iraq lasting up to two years, based on previous experiences in Cambodia, East Timor and...

Computers using Microsoft's Windows XP or 2000 operating systems are the target of a new Internet worm that spreads from machine to machine without user intervention. The worm, dubbed Sasser, takes advantage of a flaw in Windows that was patched by a fix issued in mid-April. However, because not all users take advantage of an auto-update feature included in Windows XP and 2000, there are still many systems connected to the Internet that are vulnerable. Sasser attacks a component of Windows called LSASS.EXE, and installs a file called AVSERVE.EXE, which then begins scanning the Internet and local networks for more...

<p>When Democratic political consultant Darry Sragow showed up for the first meeting of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bond-measure campaign, he met an unfamiliar sight.</p> <p>"I look around and say, 'This looks like a corporate boardroom, a lot of guys wearing white shirts and ties,'" Sragow said of the Jan. 14 meeting in the office of veteran strategist Rick Claussen. "It was not a meeting of Democrats. It was, relatively speaking, very corporate."</p>

Paths of Two Lives Cross, With Tragic Results By Allen G. Breed Associated Press Writer Published: Feb 21, 2004 Trudi Nadel settled in behind the reel-to-reel recorder at Insight for the Blind's Studio 4 and clapped the headphones over her ears. For years, she had volunteered several hours a week producing audiobooks for the Library of Congress, working as a producer while others recorded. She still had a strong Bavarian accent, having fled Nazi Germany as a girl. This particular day - May 13, 1983 - the text was a collection of essays by Loren Eiseley. In one, "The Chresmologue,"...

<p>One hundred days is not much time to streamline a massive and entrenched public school system. But that was the bold promise of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he became California's new governor last November.</p> <p>Schwarzenegger still has a long way to go, but after two months on the job, he has taken some notable steps.</p>

While "World Trade Center" signs around the new PATH station startled commuters and visitors this week, a smaller but even more poignant graphic remnant of the past was hiding in plain sight across Church Street. "What has 200 elevators, 1,200 restrooms, 40,000 doorknobs, 200,000 lighting fixtures, 7 million square feet of acoustical tile ceilings, more structural steel than the Verrazano Narrows Bridge — and was built for a final cost of over one billion 1970s dollars?" asks the colorful sign between seven-foot cast-iron posts, outside Century 21, near the corner of Cortlandt Street. "That's right, the World Trade Center." Just...

NEW YORK (CBS) A chilling story you'll see only on CBS 2. There’s been an apparent oversight by the people who ran the World Trade Center. A message that has shocked every person who has heard it. Victims families are beyond outraged. They're speechless. CBS 2's Lou Young has more. “Go upstairs to the World Trade Center mall....” says the recording. Until late Tuesday it was possible to direct dial into a cruel fantasy in which the World Trade Center had never been destroyed. 1-800-234 -PATH. The folks at the 9-11 Coalition of Families were shocked, nearly speechless when CBS...

<p>A NEW DAY, A NEW LIFE: Thelma Stuart, who lost her husband, Officer Walwyn Stuart, on 9/11, waits with daughter Amanda to board in Jersey City.</p> <p>November 24, 2003 -- A PATH train carrying passengers from New Jersey pulled into the World Trade Center station yesterday for the first time since the fall of the Twin Towers - marking a milestone in the recovery of terror-struck lower Manhattan.</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Commuter train service reopened Sunday at the World Trade Center site, marking the first rebuilding project to be completed there and the first time the public is allowed back since Sept. 11, 2001. The first train glided smoothly into the rebuilt station, filled with officials and politicians and uniformed train conductor David McQuillan peering out one of its side windows. "It just feels good," said the 15-year veteran of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the train service connecting the two states under the Hudson River. The station for what are...

<p>November 23, 2003 -- Anyone trying to measure 9/11's impact on New York's economy - and, particularly, its transportation infrastructure - should take a trip to Ground Zero today and witness a truly historic event: the resumption of PATH train service to New Jersey.</p>

PATH arrival at The Pit is solemn triumph By GREG GITTRICHDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER A PATH train, carrying only a conductor and an engineer, zipped under the Hudson River and eased into a bare-bones station at Ground Zero yesterday. The commuter train came to a stop at 1:42 p.m. - weeks ahead of schedule. There was no fanfare. No political speeches. But the moment foreshadowed a significant triumph in the long, hard recovery of lower Manhattan. It also marked a painful moment for some who lost loved ones and consider the disaster site sacred ground. When the seven-car test...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Arnold Schwarzenegger is often compared to Ronald Reagan, another movie star-turned-politician who blazed California's gubernatorial trail decades ago.</p> <p>But Reagan actually had more relevant experience than Schwarzenegger, having spent years as head of the Screen Actors Guild and as a corporate spokesman for General Electric. And unlike Schwarzenegger, he also was a social conservative. Indeed, in the view of most, there are as many differences as similarities between California's two premier actor-politicians.</p>

Work to restore PATH service to Downtown Manhattan is ahead of schedule with resumption of train service to a new temporary passenger terminal at the World Trade Center site expected in November. The PATH Terminal at the World Trade Center served some 67,000 passengers per day when it was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. With resumption of PATH service to Downtown Manhattan as its top priority, the Port Authority forged a unique partnership that allowed contractors to order materials and mobilize for construction even as engineers were completing design work. This collaborative approach, coupled with non-traditional sequencing...

<p>In politics and business, professions teeming with ambitious people, Rep. Darrell Issa stands out for his pursuit of wealth and influence.</p> <p>Hard-working, opportunistic and unafraid to make enemies, Issa seized control of a small car-alarm company and built it into a multimillion-dollar business. Then, with his estimated $250 million fortune behind him, the Republican from San Diego County set his sights on politics.</p>

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 24 Our Busy Solar System Credit & Copyright: MPC, CBAT, Harvard CfA, IAU Explanation: Our Solar System is a busy place. Although the major planets get the most press, a swarm of rocks, comets, and asteroids also exist. The above plot shows the placement of known inner Solar System objects on 2002 July 20. The light blue lines indicate the orbits of planets. The green dots...