Free Republic

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he opposes a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico. Speaking to hundreds of New Hampshire voters at a private reception Saturday afternoon, the Texas governor says a fence would be ineffective and take too long to build. The comments, which produced one angry shout, expose a rift with some conservative voters over Perry's immigration record. Tea party activists in Texas have been particularly upset by his steady opposition to the fence. He also signed a law giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition for Texas universities.

Designers insist Tejas will belie all sceptical questioning Ajai Shukla / Bangalore April 04, 2011, 0:22 IST With the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) entering service with Indian Air Force squadrons, the designers of this indigenous fighter have explained why they believe this will be the world’s premier light fighter. The Tejas Mark-II, to be developed by 2014 and roll off production lines by 2018, will perform 40 per cent better than the current fighter. After which would come the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, the AMCA, which the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) says will be a “fifth-generation plus”...

The head of India's Aeronautical Development Agency yesterday revealed key details of the roadmap for development of the proposed indigenous medium combat aircraft (MCA) in an interview with Flight Daily News. ADA will complete a feasibility study on the MCA by the end of 2011. The study will be submitted to the Indian government and air force, and discuss key aspects of the programme, says PS Subramanyam, programme director at the ADA. The study will consider several areas: the number of MCA prototypes, prototype timelines, funding, and production schedules for the final aircraft. "The MCA will be in flight trials...

Troubled Tejas edges toward service By Greg Waldron India's Tejas light combat aircraft is about to enter service more than two decades after it was conceived to replace the country's ageing MiG-21s Few of the aircraft that will perform at Aero India have inspired as much opprobrium - or pride - as Hindustan Aeronautics' Tejas light combat aircraft. After an agonising development process, the long-delayed fighter is finally approaching Indian air force service. Throughout its long history, the Tejas has had no shortage of critics, but if all the Tejas models that adorn the offices of India's aerospace industry mean...

India's homegrown fighter jet, the Tejas, has finally been cleared for operations but analysts say any celebration of India's entry into an elite club of military hardware producers is premature. Initial operational approval for the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) has taken 26 years -- the result of endless developmental delays, technological hiccups and massive cost overruns. First conceived as a direct replacement for the Indian Air Force's (IAF) ageing fleet of Russian-made MiG-21s -- tagged "flying coffins" for their abysmal safety record -- the LCA was hyped as a milestone in India's bid to reduce its dependency on military...

LCA Tejas Falls Short of Earlier Expectations Nov 24, 2010 By Asia-Pacific Staff New Delhi As India’s homegrown Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Tejas) nears critical initial operational clearance next month, Indian air force officials say the aircraft will fail to meet performance requirements laid down by the service for the limited-profile Mk.1 platform. According to an Indian air force source associated with the long-delayed indigenous fighter program, when the Tejas passes this milestone in December, it still will not be the fighter the air force had agreed to accept for limited squadron service. Performance specifications that the Aeronautical Development Agency...

Eurojet pips GE in LCA engine bid Ajai Shukla New Delhi September 20, 2010, 23:35 IST Europe has an edge over the US in the tightly-fought contest to sell India a next-generation engine for the homegrown Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA). Informed sources have told Business Standard that when the bids were opened last week, European consortium Eurojet bid $666 million for 99 EJ200 engines, against US rival General Electric, which quoted $822 million. Both engines had been earlier adjudged technically suitable to power the Tejas Mark-II. Therefore, according to the ministry of defence’s procurement rules, the vendor offering the...

U.S. Industry Hit By LCA Clearance Problem May 17, 2010 By Staff Correspondent NEW DELHI India is turning to Europe for support of the naval version of its Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), after its initial choice of the U.S. was stymied by an inability to gain the requisite approvals from Washington. India selected Lockheed Martin as the winner of a bid for consultancy work on its naval LCA, but failure to secure U.S. State Department licensing approvals — at least in a timely fashion — now has resulted in EADS being in negotiation for the work. This is not the...

Tejas crosses milestone, test-fires combat missile Ravi Sharma * Not an accuracy test, there being no target * Achieved against heavy odds BANGALORE: The programme to weaponise the indigenous fly-by-wire Light Combat Aircraft Tejas crossed a major milestone on Thursday with a close air combat missile being flawlessly test-fired from the aircraft. Taking off from INS Hansa, the Naval air station in Vasco (Goa), Prototype Vehicle 1 piloted by the Chief Test Pilot of the National Flight Test Centre Group Captain N Harish, reached an altitude of 6.5 km and a speed of 0.6 mach before the R73 E Russian-made...

First squadron of LCA 'Tejas' to be placed down south By ANI Wednesday May 23, 04:41 PM By Sudhakar Jagdish New Delhi, May 23 (ANI): The first squadron of the indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) named Tejas will be deployed down south in Tamil Nadu, when the first batch of the 20 fighter aircrafts are expected to be inducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2009-2010. The IAF is zeroing on three places Thanjavur , Sulur and Tiruchirapalli for its possible deployment highlighting the new strategic concerns in Indian establishment 's regarding country's security, particularly with the growing...

-snip- All who oppose laws cracking down on illegals must purge all baseless, slanderous reflex cries of racism from their arguments. I know that the vast majority of illegals in America are from Latin America. But in many places (like Farmers Branch, for example), so are the vast majority of law-abiding, English-speaking immigrants who are part of what make their communities and our country great. They are welcomed with open arms by Mr. Barletta, Mr. O'Hare and all of us who want tougher immigration laws. This is not racial. It is behavioral. And as long as the federal status quo,...

... "The main message should be to get along," said Lorena Tule, a 16-year-old immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico, who walked out of a Dallas high school Monday to protest the fence proposal. "We definitely need a path to legalization for those who are here," she said. "President Bush needs to be clear about that with President Fox."... "I don't believe somebody should be allowed to come into our country and get ahead of the line, the citizenship line," Mr. Bush said Thursday, with Mr. Fox at his side. "I think a program that will work is somebody working on a...

Was Texas built on ethnic cleansing? Assertions in book by an Oklahoma history professor might rile proud Texans. By Mike Cox SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN Sunday, November 20, 2005 Last summer, while I was visiting my bookseller friend Felton Cochran in his San Angelo bookstore, he picked up a copy of the fall University of Oklahoma Press catalog and with clear disdain showed me a blood red photograph of a Comanche chief wearing a U.S. Cavalry hat with a star on its crown. The "X" in the word "Texas" had been superimposed over the Indian's face in red ink. "Have...

For all of her secret life as the wife of a soldier in Santa Anna's army, Patty Tristan has tried to adhere to one policy. No camping in the mud. There was no such luck this weekend, when Tristan and more than 200 other people gathered at San Jacinto Battleground State Historical Park to recreate the 1836 victory that gave Texas its independence from Mexico. The battle re-enactment was cancelled after a thunderstorm Saturday morning was capped by a lightning strike to the 570-foot tall monument in the middle of the park. Lightning, static electricity and 100 pounds of black...

Let's state this simply: If it weren't for San Jacinto, The Alamo would not be drawing crowds this weekend. In fact, nobody would remember the Alamo. Yet compared to the Alamo, San Jacinto is the Rodney Dangerfield of battlefield sites. The $100 million epic now at the theaters does conclude by showing Sam Houston's victory over Santa Anna seven weeks after the slaughter in San Antonio. But the movie doesn't bother to mention the venue. If Sam Houston and his men had lost at San Jacinto, the Alamo would be a footnote in Mexican history books. The victory at San...

Carter, a DRT member, ran the shrine's $5.2-million budget and 86 employees. The daughters aren't behaving very sisterly. Custodian of the Alamo for 99 years, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas is a group of women whose politics can be as contentious as the 1836 battle that led to the fall of the Shrine of Texas Liberty. Last week, it unceremoniously fired one of its most active and visible volunteers. Kathleen Carter, the DRT's face at the Alamo since May 2001, was relieved of her position as chairwoman of the Alamo Committee on Friday after a meeting of the...

Germans are America’s big ethnic secret. No people and no culture has contributed more to what the United States is and is becoming. In the nation’s ethnic tangle, no root runs deeper than German America. As a scattered community only fitfully conscious of its own existence, none has more successfully pursued wealth, power and intellectual influence. And as a philosophical force in US politics — a whole political mindset — none has greater potency. Germany as a European state may have lost her way, the German language may struggle to keep its world grip, but the German spirit is alive...

It's litter in any language 12/06/2002 By KIMBERLY DURNAN / Dallas Web sites The popular "Don't Mess With Texas" anti-litter campaign hangs its hat on Texas pride and the state's rough-and-tumble image, but translated into Spanish, the famous phrase loses its kick. A state-funded survey showed that some Texas Hispanics who spoke only Spanish or were bilingual did not associate anti-littering with the phrase "Don't Mess With Texas." The survey revealed that young, Hispanic men admitted being the biggest litterbugs. "There are certain phrases that don't make sense in another language," said Darah Waldrip, spokeswoman for the campaign. "The...