Free Republic

There has been many problems with the automated system of the FSSA. Indiana's citizens that are on the various programs (medicaid, food stamps, and TANF) have reported missing paperwork, the lack of face to face contact and unqualified call center operatives. The problems got bad enough that the federal government started watching the program.

WHAT: A new study shows that molecular similarities exist between the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus and other strains of seasonal H1N1 virus that have been circulating in the population since 1988. These results suggest that healthy adults may have a level of protective immune memory that can blunt the severity of infection caused by the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. The study team was led by Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., and Alessandro Sette, Ph.D., of La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, Calif., grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The...

Obama pledges to work with G-20 to regulate markets Press Trust Of India / Washington September 20, 2009, 0:59 IST US President Barack Obama today pledged to work with leaders of the G-20 countries to strengthen the rules governing financial markets and ensure that the global economic crisis that engulfed the world just a year ago does not happen again. . . “At next week’s G-20 summit, we’ll discuss some of the steps that are required to safeguard our global financial system and close gaps in regulation around the world — gaps that permitted the kinds of reckless risk-taking and...

For too long conservatives (those who respect religion, patriotism, and freedom) have had to satisfy themselves with meager success. Conservatives may win an election or pass a bill, but we are starving for real victory. To win real victory we must colonize the left. We must create a conservative socialist party. The only selling point for the left is socialism, so we must detach socialism from the main body of leftist dogma. When a conservative right battles a conservative left we can achieve real, lasting victory. Both sides would espouse our core principles. I support a conservative socialist or populist...

Public Health (from a German Propaganda pamphlet authored by Walter Tießle). "In preserving health, National Socialism is following fundamentally new ways of thinking. In the past, one understood health care as caring for those who were ill. Enormous means were used. And in certain circles, the ill were the model of humanity, at the center of all action and thought. No one made the effort to find the roots of illness, or to consider: "How could we stop illness at its start, or at least limit it as much as possible?" The means used by National Socialism must, of course,...

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Aug. 6, 2009 – As U.S. forces fight insurgents in the southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan, officials are working to protect them with new technology, equipment and vehicles. Soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 5th Brigade, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, equip their common remotely operated weapon station II with an M2 .50-caliber machine gun during training. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Elisebet Freeburg  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. One of the newest tools in their arsenal is the common remotely operated weapon station II, known as CROWS II, which enables soldiers to acquire and engage...

HAVANA – Raul Castro announced Saturday that Cuba will cut spending on education and health care, potentially weakening the building blocks of its communist system in a bid to revive a floundering economy. The former defense minister who took over the presidency last year called state spending "simply unsustainable" and said the cash-strapped government would reorganize rural schools and scrutinize its free health care system in search of ways to save money. But he vowed that the island will not see fundamental change even after he and his older brother and predecessor Fidel Castro are gone. "I wasn't elected president...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is telling participants in an online forum on health care that the current system and its skyrocketing costs are a threat to Medicare. Obama says the Medicare trust fund will be in the red and out of money in a decade unless Washington overhauls the system.

Salaam aleikum, dudes ! I thought I knew a little bit about the Middle East. Boy, was I wrong. Last week, President Obama set me straight. Here's what our president taught me during his Middle-Eastern pilgrimage:

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the...

Geithner Is Overreaching on Regulatory Power We don't need more politics in our economics. The proposal is being offered as a clever political solution to the turf war that might have erupted if the Treasury or FDIC alone were given this quasi-nationalization authority, with no input from the Fed. But the real issue is whether this expansion of regulators' powers is wise.

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, Feb. 2, 2009 – As the Iraqi security forces continue to improve their ability to protect Iraq’s people, a strong judicial branch that can help bring criminals to justice becomes increasingly important. “I think the [Iraqi legal system] is improving,” Army Capt. Ronald Alcala, Multinational Division Center’s rule of law chief, said. Coalition forces have had a huge impact by helping to professionalize the Iraqi forces and providing training on crime-scene management and investigative procedures, he added. The Iraqi legal system places more of an emphasis on testimonial evidence, usually from two or more witnesses, and less...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26, 2008 – American and Iraqi security forces found and seized a rocket-rail system during a combined operation conducted in Baghdad’s Rashid district Dec. 25. U.S. 4th Infantry Division soldiers and Iraqi police discovered the rocket-delivery system while performing a security sweep in the district’s Abu T’shir community, a U.S. military official said. “Combined operations account for many significant finds in the Rashid district,” said Army Maj. Dave Olson, a spokesman for the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. “The 1st ‘Raider’ Brigade continues to teach, coach and mentor the ISF as they provide a safe and secure environment...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel successfully fired the new RAFAEL-manufactured Blue Sparrow medium-range Ballistic Target system Tuesday morning. The system simulates trajectory thermal images and radar cross-section signatures of threats. Military sources said the system will be used in future Arrow Missile systems tests but did not release details as to when or in what context either would be deployed.

MicroSoft is making the Release Candidate for Windows Vista Operating System available to the public at the URL link above. I very recently purchased a new computer which came with Vista, there have been many "gliches" in using this new computer with Vista. I finished installing the Sevice Pack RC about 6 hours ago and I've found significant improvement in the performance and stability of the system. My personal tips: 1) The download is approximately 448MB in size so you you might want to consider your download speed when and if you choose to download this RC. 2) The install...

India's legal system is grinding to a halt By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi Last Updated: 3:00am GMT 06/12/2007 India's addiction to litigation has left its justice system at breaking point with almost 30 million cases pending. Figures published by justice officials revealed that it could take more than a decade to clear the backlog. Around 25 million civil and criminal cases await adjudication in overcrowded magisterial and sessions courts, as do another 3.7 million in 35 high courts across the country. As a consequence, tens of thousands of Indians facing trial are crammed into overcrowded prisons, the majority incarcerated...

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 26, 2007 – About 450 Iraqis are working to get Fallujah’s first sewer system operational by summer. Work is under way to provide Fallujah, Iraq, with its first wastewater treatment plant and collection system. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing this $85 million project, which should be operational in the summer. Some 450 Iraqis are on the construction crew, and that number will soon expand to 700. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. That number is expected to grow soon to a construction force of 700 Iraqis. The $85 million project includes...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2007 – A veteran Air Force combat medic helped to transform the way wounded troops are treated and evacuated during a recent deployment to Afghanistan. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mark A. DeCorte is participating in the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public-outreach program. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Tech Sgt. Mark A. DeCorte recalled the previous practice when unarmed battlefield medics were flown in to treat and evacuate injured servicemembers usually after an area had been cleared of the enemy. However, DeCorte emphasized, “When you have a wounded soldier on...

A plane TU-154 of the Moscow governmental air company Atlant-Soyuz has become the first passenger aircraft in the history of Russian aviation equipped with Global Navigation Satellite System.

Source: Society of Chemical Industry Date: June 25, 2007 Potato Salad May Help the Immune System Science Daily — It has long been known that eating potatoes is good for bowel health, but new research suggests that they may also have a beneficial effect on the whole immune system. Especially if eaten cold or in a potato salad, Anne Pichon reports in Chemistry & Industry. Spanish researchers found that growing pigs fed large quantities of raw potato starch (RPS) had a healthier bowel. Not a surprise, but they also found that RPS pigs had decreased levels of white blood cells,...

WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- Rising student loans offered by private lenders not only have frustrated U.S. lawmakers but left graduates buried under a mountain of debt.

KIRKUK— He downloaded chickens as a member of his high school’s Future Farmers of America club. Growing up, he worked the sun-drenched oil fields of southern Arkansas. He’s no stranger to rolling up his shirt sleeves to get a job done, a quality that is serving him well during his mission as a Soldier in northern Iraq. He’s Capt. Duane Kees, brigade judge advocate, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, who is currently working to instill integrity and legitimacy into a legal system weathered by decades of neglect and distrust in Kirkuk, Iraq. Kees was born in Little...

Our solar system flies through space in the shape of a speeding bullet, according to data from NASA's two Voyager spacecraft. The sun and its planets are known to streak through the void of space at approximately 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) an hour. The system travels within a bubble of solar wind—made of charged particles from the sun—called the heliosphere. The edge of this bubble collides with the Milky Way galaxy's magnetic field at a distance some 200 times farther from the sun than Earth is. A research team led by Merav Opher at Virginia's George Mason University found that,...

WASHINGTON - The current market-based system is the best way to regulate the trillion-dollar hedge fund industry although improvements can be made, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday. Bernanke, speaking to a conference on global economics in New York City, said that the current system is superior to increased government regulation. That view is at odds with critics who say large failures in recent years highlight the need for greater supervision. "Thus far, the market-based approach to the regulation of hedge funds seems to have worked well, although many improvements can be made," Bernanke said in remarks prepared for...

Diabetics appear to have been cured with a one-off treatment that rebuilds their immune system, according to a new study. The technique, which uses patients' own bone marrow cells, has freed 14 of 15 patients with type 1 diabetes from their dependence on insulin medication. So far, participants in the trial have gone 18 months without insulin therapy following the procedure, on average. One patient has lasted three years without needing such injections. In patients with type 1 diabetes, which typically strikes in early childhood or adolescence, the immune system appears to erroneously attack cells in the pancreas that produce...

HONOLULU - The military shot down a Scud-type missile in this year's second successful test of a new technology meant to knock down ballistic missiles in their final minute of flight, the Missile Defense Agency said Friday. A ship off Kauai fired a target missile before 9 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time Thursday. Three minutes later, soldiers with the U.S. Army's 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade launched an interceptor missile from Kauai that destroyed the target over the Pacific, according to the agency. The military says it already can shoot down missiles in their last stage of flight by using Patriot...

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2007 – Virtual reality made its way into the operating room last week when an Army doctor performed the military’s first three-dimensional minimally invasive surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here. Armed with a state-of-the-art helmet, Col. (Dr.) Ernest Lockrow, director of the Telerobotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, used the 3-D capabilities to perform a hysterectomy. Minimally invasive surgery, also known as laparoscopy, uses tiny incisions to operate and typically involves a telescopic lens that is connected to a video camera. The operation last week was the first time the military has used the...

Paratroopers, riggers, jumpmasters will make more than 3,200 test jumps. FORT BELVOIR, Va., March 26, 2007 – The Program Executive Office Soldier is testing a new parachute system that the Army plans to use to replace the system in use since the 1950s. The new parachutes address increased weight requirements and provide additional safety benefits. Beginning in 2008, all T-10 parachutes in the Army inventory for more than 50 years will be replaced with the Advanced Tactical Parachute System T-11. Although the T-10 is a proven system, today's paratroopers face increased requirements beyond the T-10's design. Paratroopers are required to...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 – The Afghan government is implementing a new national security system designed to strengthen the country’s security apparatus, U.S. officials reported. The entire National Security Coordination System is to be fully operational by the end of 2008, officials said. The system will improve coordination among Afghan military and law enforcement agencies and enhance regional stability. The system will consist of a National Coordination Center, five Joint Regional Coordination Centers and 34 Joint Provincial Coordination Centers. The centers will provide Afghan army and police leaders with operational information they can use to better-allocate security forces. Current and...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 -- The same global positioning technology that helps fighter and bomber pilots deliver smart bombs with pinpoint accuracy now allows bundles dropped from cargo planes to steer themselves to drop zones. A new GPS-guided “Screamer” bundle from the Joint Precision Air Drop System falls out the back of a C-130 Hercules over Afghanistan Aug. 26. The drop was made from 17,500 feet above mean sea level and was the first joint Air Force-Army operational drop of JPADS in the Central Command area of responsibility. Four bundles were dropped from the Alaska Air National Guard C-130....

Pessin report (Real Media) - Download 212k Listen to Pessin report (Real Media) The U.S. Defense Department says it conducted a successful test of its land-based ballistic missile defense system on Friday.Officials say a missile launched from California intercepted a target missile from Alaska 23 minutes after it was launched on Friday, in outer space somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Before the test, officials said the goal was not necessarily to intercept the Alaska missile, but rather was to gather data about the system's performance. The director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, Lieutenant General Henry Obering, says the exercise...

Education Minister (Labor) Yuli Tamir announced her decision on Monday to fund long school days at kindergartens in public schools – but not in the hareidi preschool system. Tamir told the Knesset Education Committee that the public school system would take priority over non-governmental education associations, most of which are hareidi Orthodox schools. United Torah Judaism (UTJ) Knesset member Rabbi Moshe Gafne responded angrily to the decision, accusing Tamir of declaring “war against the hareidi Orthodox education system.” “The former education minister didn’t do this, [Meretz education ministers Shulamit] Aloni and [Yossi] Sarid didn’t do this,” noted Gafne. He asked...

The military justice system is largely unknown to the American public. Other than an occasional, and usually inaccurate, depiction of a court-martial or other military proceeding on a TV show or movie, most people do not have an understanding of or appreciation for the military justice system. This is not surprising, since relatively few Americans have contact with the military, let alone the military justice system. By any measure, the military justice system compares very favorably to any civilian justice system. The cornerstone of the military justice system is the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Congressionally enacted after World War...

8/14/2006 - ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, England (AFPN) -- The 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron here has streamlined the way its receiving shop conducts business using the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century concept. The material maintenance flight began by assembling a team from the traffic management, vehicle operations and supply offices here. The flight is responsible for receiving cargo from commercial shippers, processing and inventorying the cargo, and distributing it to customers on base. The first step for the team was to draft a value-stream map. Senior Master Sgt. Jude Hebert, the flight superintendent, said a value-stream map...

8/11/2006 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- A dual-mirror system, designed to extend the range of high-energy lasers by receiving and redirecting laser energy, is being tested here. The system, a prototype called the Aerospace Relay Mirror System, or ARMS, is being developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate. The operational version might be suspended from a high-altitude airship at an altitude of 70,000 feet, where atmospheric turbulence, or jitter, is less of a problem for beam quality. For testing, the dual-mirror prototype is suspended 100 feet above the ground using a mechanical crane, to...

Almost two centuries ago, a small band of national patriots joined Texans to launch a battle for freedom and sent a unifying rallying cry through out our nation "Remember The Alamo!" Our nation is being threatened by a new Alamo, and the army is between 12 million and 20 million strong. The army is one that is creeping, walking, swimming and being driven in shadowy caravans across our nation's state borders. Instead of being armed with weapons of violence, this army is simply overwhelming American health care, education, and justice systems by refusing to enter our country legally. But the...

FORT BELVOIR, Va. (Army News Service, Aug. 8, 2006) – The Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF) delivered 500 Body Ventilation Systems to heat-stressed Soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait last month. The portable, lightweight ventilation system will help reduce heat-related injuries, and will undergo one of year assessments by such Soldiers as drivers, military police and machine gunners. Another 1,700 vests will be shipped and issued to Soldiers in similar units and duty positions in upcoming months. “The BVS project is another example of how the Army culture is changing in order to provide warfighter solutions in a timely manner,” said...

A system that provides electricity, refrigeration and water - the three vital elements of emergency situations such as hurricanes and war - has been created by two University of Florida professors. William Lear, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and S.A. Sherif, a mechanical engineering professor, combined a gas turbine power plant with a heat-operated refrigeration system. The cool air from the refrigerator makes the turbine more efficient and powerful, Lear said, while waste heat from the turbine then powers the refrigeration. The engine, which runs on conventional fossil fuels, biomass-produced fuels or hydrogen, also forms about one...

A urologist charged California's prison system $2,036 an hour to treat inmates. An orthopedic surgeon billed the state for 30 hours' work - for a single day. The examples are contained in an audit released Tuesday that found rampant waste in how California's prison health care system spends money on outside doctors, nurses and laboratories. The lax spending practices have cost California taxpayers millions, according to the audit by the state controller's office. Prison health care spending soared from $153 million in 2001 to $821 million this year - an increase of $668 million, or 437 percent. "Waste, abuse and...

Researchers work to shrink technology that harnesses sun's energy to both heat and coolEvery day, the sun bathes the planet in energy--free of charge--yet few systems can take advantage of that source for both heating and cooling. Now, researchers are making progress on a thin-film technology that adheres both solar cells and heat pumps onto surfaces, ultimately turning walls, windows, and maybe even soda bottles into climate control systems. On July 12, 2006, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researcher Steven Van Dessel and his colleagues will announce their most recent progress--including a computer model to help them simulate the climate within...

Asia tsunami warning system ready Most had no warning of the 2004 tsunami until giant waves appeared A tsunami warning system covering the Indian Ocean region is now "up and running", Unesco has said. The UN organisation, which has overseen the project, says the whole region can now receive and distribute warnings of possible tsunamis. The system is in place 18 months after the devastating tsunami of December 2004 that killed more than 200,000. The Pacific region has had a system for 40 years and others are planned for the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean. Work unfinished Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of...

FORT BELVOIR, Va., June 13, 2006 – A system initially adopted to help the Army Corps of Engineers detect invasive vegetation growing in coastal waterways is giving warfighters an edge in the global war on terror. "Buckeye," a digital imaging system that's installed on an aircraft, gives ground commanders a bird's-eye view of the area in which they're operating, Army Capt. Jed Richards, research and development coordinator for the Army's Topographic Engineering Center here, told American Forces Press Service. Featuring a high-quality digital camera with an extra-large focal frame, Buckeye "looks" nearly straight down from an aircraft and captures images...

USS JOHN C. STENNIS, At Sea (NNS) -- As part of a weapons testing phase, USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) fired both of its new Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) systems at a remote-controlled drone for the first time, June 8. The ship’s two RAM launchers each fired one missile at a BQM-34 Firebee drone, which was about four miles out and incoming and had been launched from Point Mugu, Calif. Both missiles successfully hit the infrared beacons the drone was carrying from its wings. “They gave us a green light on both RAM missiles,” said Stennis’ Commanding Officer Capt....

WASHINGTON - Remember the Department of Homeland Security's "no-fly'' lists that erratically flagged 3-year-old children and dozens of men named David Nelson as terrorists seeking to board commercial airplanes? Well, now privacy experts are warning America to prepare for the "no-work'' list. As Congress debates immigration reform, experts say a little-discussed aspect of the bill, mandatory employee eligibility verification, is likely to have a colossal impact on the lives of every person in the U.S. labor market -- citizen and foreigner alike. "Everyone who wants to work will feel this provision,'' said Tim Sparapani, legal counsel for the American Civil...

--House panel backs budget reductions-- WASHINGTON -- House Republicans yesterday revived their efforts to slash funding for public broadcasting, as a key committee approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs. On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health and education funding approved the cut to the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. It would reduce the corporation's budget by 23 percent next year, to $380...

WASHINGTON — Fairfax County, Va., Police Detective Vicky Armel, who was murdered Monday during a shooting rampage by a troubled teen-ager, had helped people with severe mental illnesses. I know because she helped my son. Four years ago, I rushed my college-age son to a Fairfax Hospital emergency room only to be turned away. Although Mike was delusional and had been hospitalized twice before for treatment of bipolar disorder, a doctor said he was not sick enough — yet. (snip) I was told to bring my son back after he hurt himself or me. Forty-eight hours later... (snip) I have...

Space-Age Drinking Water System Tested The system, originally designed for NASA, may provide a short-term solution to provide residents with clean drinking water. By U.S. Army Sgt. Dennis Gravelle 138th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment DAHUK, Iraq, May 2, 2006 — U.S. soldiers assigned to the 401st Civil Affairs Battalion in Dahuk, Iraq, have found an alternative way for residents to drink clean water in the village of Bendaway. A creek running through a small village in northern Iraq is the only natural source of drinking water for the residents who live there.“We are surrounded by agriculture here,” said John...

BURBANK – Chris James needed help moving a piano and three dozen boxes of records from his music studio, but instead of corralling some buddies he rented a truck and hired day laborers outside the local Home Depot. The two Guatemalan men finished the job in an hour and a half, hauling a piano and wedging a sofa into his condo, then stacking the boxes in a back room, for less than $40. It was first time James hired day laborers but it won't be his last. “Absolutely satisfied,” said James, 31. The No. 1 employers of day laborers, many...

A vision system that helps soldiers plan a route through the chaos of the battlefield will undergo tests on both sides of the Atlantic. The system, called Primordial Soldier, will provide soldiers with a real-time picture of where troops are in relation to each other and a digital rendering of the route they should follow. It is about to undergo trials with US special forces and has been bought by the UK arm of MBDA Missiles. MBDA plans to carry out conceptual research on the system to learn how using such technology affects a soldier's decision-making capability in the field....

In an attempt to tackle gun crime in the UK, researchers from Loughborough University are developing an innovative identification system that will use CCTV cameras to spot individuals carrying concealed firearms. Starting in June, the three-year multi-environment deployable universal software application (Medusa) project aims to develop intelligent software that can detect a person carrying a concealed weapon in real time. While it is difficult to predict if someone is carrying a gun before crime occurs, Professor Alastair Gale, head of Loughborough University's Applied Vision Research Centre and leader of Medusa, said there are a number of cues the CCTV operator...