Free Republic

One of the BEST ways to stop vote fraud is to volunteer as an Election Judge, Clerk, or Poll Watcher. I need help in Clear Lake, Texas for the Houston Mayoral Runoff Election on December 12, 2009. You MUST be a registered voter who lives within the city limits of Houston to qualify. This election is for practice. When you have the training, you can go on to become an Election Judge, Alternate Judge, or Poll Watcher in a precinct where fraud is expected. There are over 50 precincts just in the Houston area where fraud has been a problem....

A top Senate Republican lashed out against lawmakers of both parties for supporting legislation that would audit the Federal Reserve, accusing the bipartisan group of “political pandering” to populist anger. Sen. Judd Gregg, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, says he’s worried that politicians on Capitol Hill are sacrificing the Fed’s historic independence because the Fed has become unpopular during the economic crisis. “This move to bring the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy under the control of Congress is a grave threat to our economy. Congress has demonstrated time and again its inability to manage the nation’s fiscal...

by JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV Posted on November 20, 2009 at 12:56 AM WYLIE - A canister of pepper spray is now at the center of a Wylie dispute after a North Texas man found out what most people don't know, anyone who carries it can face a felony. Jason Simpkins admitted he looked suspicious when a Wylie officer stopped him while he was driving his truck with a jet ski inside his lawn mowing trailer. It happened early on the morning of August 22. "I didn't have a problem with it at first," Simpkins said. "I gave him my...

Amateur fossil hunters Jamie and Jonathan Hiscocks were looking for dinosaur remains in East Sussex, UK, when they instead found tiny spider webs trapped inside a piece of ancient amber. Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier inspected the amber, which was assigned an age of over 100 million years. He concluded that spiders back then were able to spin webs just like today’s garden spiders.The amber-encased webbing formed concentric circles like those that contemporary orb-weaver spiders manufacture. Also evident were “little sticky droplets along the web threads to trap prey,� Brasier told the Daily Mail. He added, “You can match the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2009 – The director of a Muslim veterans organization said he welcomes Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’ announcement today of a Pentagon probe into the attacks at Fort Hood, Texas, calling it a matter of national security. Qaseem Ali Uqdah, executive director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, and a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, credits military leaders with establishing a climate that’s prevented any backlash against Muslims servicemembers since the Nov. 5 shooting. Gates announced a sweeping review today that will look into events leading up to the rampage that left 13 people...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today announced the Defense Department will conduct a broad review of the Nov. 5 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting that left 13 dead and dozens injured. Former Army Secretary Togo West and retired Navy Adm. Vernon Clark, former chief of naval operations, will head the initial 45-day review, which will inform a follow-on investigation expected to last four to six months. “The shootings at Fort Hood raise a number of troubling questions that demand complete but prompt answers,” Gates said during a Pentagon briefing. “It is prudent to determine immediately whether...

DALLAS - Dallas police are looking for Tony Romo – not the football player, but a man they believe has robbed multiple area businesses. Police suspect 21-year-old Anthony Elias Romo is one of two men responsible for at least 10 robberies since August 15, including one at the Azteca Meat Market on Forest Lane and one at the Big C Grocery on Irving Boulevard.

Austin man has been charged with killing and gutting a deer in a North Austin greenbelt area. Justin Martindale, 27, is charged with illegal hunting. An affidavit says he headed out in October, dressed in camouflage clothing, after baiting a deer in the Walnut Creek greenbelt behind his apartment. The affidavit says Martindale shot a white-tailed buck with a compound bow, then gutted and quartered the animal. The Walnut Creek greenbelt is city-owned property.

The Great Rift Valley extends some 4,000 miles southward from Syria north of Israel, through the Gulf of Aqaba, through Ethiopia, and all the way to Mozambique in southeast Africa. It harbors a giant fault, which has been under investigation as a model for sea floor spreading. A recent geologic event rent a gaping crack through the desert of Ethiopia, causing safety concerns for locals. These crustal plate motions may foreshadow rifting events further north in the Great Rift Valley...

Barbara Ann Radnofsky,Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state. The amendment declares that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." But the troublemaking phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B: "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Architects of the amendment included the clause to ban same-sex civil unions and domestic...

Our high-benefit/high-tax model no longer works, especially compared with low-tax states like Texas. In America's federal system, some states, such as California, offer residents a "package deal" that bundles numerous and ambitious public benefits with the high taxes needed to pay for them. Other states, such as Texas, offer packages combining modest benefits and low taxes. These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right. It's not surprising, then, that there's an intense debate over which model is more admirable and sustainable. What is...

Easiest to find video on her site. Great interview with The Judge! She is one ballsy intelligent determined Conservative and just what we need here in Texas! I'm becoming more and more impressed with her knowledge and poise and less so w/ Gov Perry and Senator KBH - the old dogs mouthing a rubber message. Medina is pushing hard for fighting the Feds with NULLIFICATION and INTERPOSITION while interjecting that GUN RIGHTS and PROPERY RIGHTS are the foundation of freedom!

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

She sounds off on Ron Paul, health care, and, of course, liberty. BY MATT SNYDERS Michele Bachmann is a regular fixture on the cable news circuit. When it comes to print, however, she takes a more measured approach; she declined a phone interview with the New York Times last month, insisting on a Q&A via email. She gave City Pages the same deal. Here's what she had to say: City Pages: Your appearance with Rep. Ron Paul surprised some folks. At first blush, it would seem the two of you might come down on very different sides on a lot...

HOUSTON — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to allow additional DNA testing requested by a Mexican national condemned for the gruesome killing of a 16-year-old girl in San Antonio. Thirty-six-year-old Humberto Leal, from Monterrey, Mexico, wanted more testing to try to clear him of the May 1994 bludgeoning death of Adria Sauceda. Her body was found on a dirt road not far from a party they both attended.

EL PASO, Texas -- The widespread violence in Juarez is affecting a lot of things in El Paso, including the UTEP athletic program. The basis of UTEP's athletic teams are formed by recruiting student-athletes from across the state and country to study and play in El Paso. And now many of them, especially their parents, are now expressing concern about what is going on across the border. UTEP's campus is located just a few football fields away from Juarez, where thousands have been murdered this year, and that is not easy to hide. "I just recruited a girl from Sweden...

Brownsville, TX (The Weekly Vice) - Anthony Carrazco, a 19-year-old Brownsville man was jailed Thursday after he allegedly went door-to door trying to sell marijuana until he knocked on on the door of a cop's house. According to police, Carrazco knocked on the doors of several apartment residents until he reportedly knocked on the wrong person's door. Investigators say Carrazco went up to an officer’s door and tried to sell him three ounces of marijuana. The deputy grabbed his badge and placed Carrazco under arrest. Police reportedly found Carrazco in possession of a 9MM handgun, a scale, and three ounces...

CNN is now claiming that Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, is a conservative. On November 10, 2009, CNN Special Investigations Correspondent Drew Griffin called Hasan “conservative,” [Rush] and now that talking point is being spewed again on today’s front page online story. The story, about Hasan’s search for a wife, discusses how two imams told CNN “about [Hasan’s] conservatism.” The story also mentions Hasan’s “conservative” clothing choices.

The Canadian Press VANCOUVER — SNIPPET: "Khaled Nawaya, a flight instructor, was arrested by Canada Border Services agents when they found $800,000 in gold coins and other currency in his car and pockets on Oct. 6, as he crossed into Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver." SNIPPET: "He'd been living in the U.S. since he was 17 and had gained approval for permanent residency in Canada. Besides the gold, Canadian agents found a ring bearing the insignia of Hezbollah, which has been listed as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government since 2002. They also seized 9/11 conspiracy theory-themed DVDs and a...

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is joining Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., in publicly declaring that the attack on Fort Hood is likely an act of Islamist terrorism. Cornyn wrote a letter to President Barack Obama today urging the White House not to let "political correctness" get in the way of investigating the Nov. 5 massacre that left 13 people dead and more than 30 wounded.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is warning parents across the state that violent Mexican cartels and transnational gangs are actively recruiting Texas youngsters in schools and communities. These criminal organizations are luring teens with the prospect of cars, money and notoriety, and promise them that if they are arrested, they will receive light sentences. The gangs are responsible for massive drug deals and related slayings, and authorities say that they will often use youths in their crimes because juveniles are typically treated with more leniency by the criminal justice system.

Police say the man came into the D and A game room on Westheimer at noon Monday, pulled a gun and demanded money from the manager. As the man was leaving, the manager pulled out a gun and shot him. He later died at a hospital. No one else was hurt. Police tell us the manager will not face any charges.

Molecular biologist Michael Behe described a system made of several interacting parts, whereby the removal of one part would disrupt the functioning of the whole, as irreducibly complex. Both creation scientists and intelligent design proponents highlight examples of irreducible complexity in their studies. The very structure of these systems--with their interdependent parts working all together or not at all--demands design, not chance. Nevertheless, a team of evolutionary molecular biologists think they may have refuted irreducible complexity. They recently studied the parts of a particular cellular machine involved in protein transport, claiming that it was actually reducible to its component parts...

DALLAS—Standric Choice, 36, a former Dallas Sheriff’s Deputy, was sentenced today to 180 months (15 years) in federal prison, to be followed by eight years of supervised release, for his role in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. In March 2009, Choice pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, possessing a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, and possessing with the intent to distribute in excess of 500 grams of cocaine while...

DALLAS—Joseph Kelly Lara, 41, who once used the pseudonym “Nick DeAngelis Mancuso,” was sentenced today by Chief U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater to 240 months (20 years) following his guilty plea in June to one count of securities fraud, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Judge Fitzwater also ordered that Lara forfeit personal property consisting mainly of computer equipment and other electronics, and ordered Lara to pay restitution of $1,058,365. Lara, most recently a resident of Carrollton, Texas, has been in federal custody since his arrest in July 2008 on charges outlined in...

SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 16, 2009 – Five months ago, Army Lt. Col. Tim Karcher was in Sadr City, Iraq, commanding the 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, and preparing to complete the hand-off of the volatile region to the Iraqis. Army Lt. Col. Tim Karcher and his wife, Alesia, leave a physical therapy session at the Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio, Nov. 6, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Heather Graham  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Today, he is relearning how to walk. On June 28, Karcher was on his way to...

Commissioner Bassett said the measure failed because of lack of a motion Live Oak County commissioners decided this week not to ban recreational shooting on lots in a subdivision where residents had complained. Commissioner Jim Bassett said the measure failed Monday for lack of a motion. Officials had gathered response from residents in Lake Meadows Subdivision during a public hearing Oct. 15. “It was overwhelming among the residents that they want to keep it the way it was,” Bassett said. Shooting has been a contentious issue in Lake Meadows, where one couple sued two neighbors for shooting at target berms...

Republicans in 5 state races may find new fights on their right flanks WASHINGTON— Canyon Clowdus thinks Americans “have less freedom and pay more taxes than ever.” “We need more John Wayne and Jesus in Washington,” the Marble Falls rancher and businessman declares. Clowdus is just the kind of grass-roots activist that national Republican leaders sought to fire up in the Tea Party movement that has spread across Texas in energetic rallies and heated town hall confrontations. Now, the 40-year-old Army veteran is seeking to unseat an incumbent congressman whom he calls a profligate spender. Just one problem: Clowdus, an...

McALLEN — There were no doctors, no patients or even a floor at a medical office on the city’s south side, but to Hidalgo County’s largest hospital system it was reputedly worth lease payments of $8,000 a month. The lease allegedly was a sham contract given to disguise an improper kickback to Eugenio Galindo, a McAllen doctor, a whistle-blower contended among his allegations in a lawsuit he filed accusing South Texas Health System of Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Galindo is one of seven Rio Grande Valley doctors whom the U.S. Department of Justice, which joined in the suit at the...

Republican women convening at the Galveston Island Convention Center this weekend said they are “energized” about the 2010 and 2012 elections and view them as a turning point for the state and nation. Women from across the state, many of whom donned Republican red, gathered Saturday for the third of a four-day convention hosted biennially by the Texas Federation of Republican Women. Highlighting the convention’s agenda during the last few days were keynote addresses by party front-runners Gov. Rick Perry and gubernatorial challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Hutchison addressed the delegation Saturday morning announcing, as expected, she won’t resign her...

Every time I read, view, or hear the latest attempt to portray Nidal Malik Hasan as a “loner” or “victim of racism” or “psychotic” – or (this may be my favorite) someone suffering from something called “PRE-traumatic stress disorder,” I am torn between the desire to scream or laugh.  My internal conflict increases when I hear Chicago Mayor Daley suggest the problem is that Americans love guns too much.  And then there’s the granddaddy of all recent rhetorical absurdities when Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey uttered the incredibly clueless thought: “What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy,...

A total of 15 people were killed in separate incidents in Juarez Friday. State prosecutor's spokesman Arturo Sandoval said a university professor, three women and a 7-year-old boy were among those who were killed.

President Barack Obama vowed Saturday to hold accountable anyone who may have missed "potential warning signs" about the danger posed by Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan. The president's comments, in his weekly address to the nation, came as a lawyer for the Army major said that Hasan had been left paralyzed from the waist down after police shot him to end the slaughter on the Central Texas post. "We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was done with that information," Obama said, according to an advance text...

WASHINGTON — Gov. Rick Perry has been campaigning against Washington, and Washington is returning the favor — no endorsements here. In the back and forth between Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Perry over gubernatorial endorsements, it’s no contest when it comes to the Texas congressional delegation: It’s Hutchison 10 and Perry 0.Ten of the 20 U.S. House Republicans have publicly endorsed Hutchison, and insiders say it is unlikely that any of the remaining 10 will endorse Perry, preferring to remain neutral.Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, who until now has not said what he would do, told the Star-Telegram that...

How do we know that the attack at Fort Hood was an act of Islamist terrorism? Simple, Major Nidal Hassan told us so. You’ve seen reports of a long list of things he did and said along these lines. But what’s most amazing of all is this: Hassan is the first terrorist in history to give an academic lecture explaining why he was about to attack. Yet that still isn’t enough for too many people—including the president of the United States--to understand that the murderous assault at Fort Hood was a Jihad attack. It was reported that the audience was...

The Ice Age has been a longstanding problem for uniformitarian thinking, with many unsolved mysteries. No mere tweaking of today's climate conditions would cause such a catastrophe. A creationist model based on the revealed events of Scripture, however, offers a possible answer...

Hundreds of defendants awaiting trial for violent crimes in Dallas County have been deported by federal immigration officials and then set free in their home countries. The practice goes back to at least 1991 and includes the release of murder, kidnapping and child rape suspects. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they're required to deport illegal immigrants quickly but are now in talks with local agencies who are trying to resolve the problem. Across Texas and the nation, defendants post bail and are immediately taken to immigration facilities, where they volunteer to be deported. Just how often this happens...

In late September, the abortionist at Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, needed assistance, so he asked the center’s director Abby Johnson to hold the ultrasound probe during a dilation and evacuation abortion. Johnson watched as the 13-week-old unborn child attempted to avoid the probe. “I saw a full profile of the baby from head to foot,” she told me. Once the abortion procedure began, Johnson saw the child “crumple” under the pressure of the vacuum and then in an instant the child was gone. The reality of seeing the baby moving struck her as she stood in shock and dropped...

The massacre in Fort Hood, Texas, was an act in the war the Islamists declared some three decades ago against America, the great Satan in particular, and the west in general. At what point in his life Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- 39 years of age, Muslim by birth to a Palestinian-American immigrant family and a psychiatrist serving in the U.S. military -- became in his own mind a loyal soldier of the global Islamist jihad (war) is highly relevant as are other details of his private life in piecing together the psychological profile of this accused mass murderer. It...

Time after time, public murder sprees occur in "gun-free zones" - public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The list is long, including massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School along with many less deadly attacks. Last week's slaughter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas was no different - except that one man bears responsibility for the ugly reality that the men and women charged with defending America were deliberately left defenseless when a terrorist opened fire. Among President Clinton's first acts upon taking office in 1993 was to disarm U.S. soldiers on military...

A cluster of socially conservative Houstonians is planning a campaign to discourage voters from choosing City Controller Annise Parker in the December mayoral runoff because she is a lesbian, according to multiple ministers and conservatives involved in the effort. The group is motivated by concerns about a “gay takeover” of City Hall, given that two other candidates in the five remaining City Council races are also openly gay, as well as national interest driven by the possibility that Houston could become the first major U.S. city to elect an openly gay woman

The Army major charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in last week's shooting rampage at Ft. Hood is paralyzed, according to his civilian counsel. Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, who is recovering in an Army hospital's intensive care unit, is in "extremely serious" condition, retired Col. John Galligan said this morning. Galligan met with his client yesterday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, after Hasan was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Their meeting lasted about an hour. Galligan was joined by an unidentified member of Hasan's family. "He cannot get up and walk," Galligan told a...

Washington (CNN) -- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who had said she would resign her seat to run for governor of Texas, plans to announce Saturday she will remain in the Senate as she seeks the Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination, a Hutchison aide tells CNN. "She will announce tomorrow at the Texas Federation of Republican Women's Convention in Galveston that she will not be resigning her seat before the primary," said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "She is running for governor because she feels it is important to fight on two fronts, for the race for governor...

11/13/2009 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- They had never met face to face, but a chance encounter between the two conjured a touching reunion six decades later at the Randolph Air Show Nov. 7. Retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, a 1st lieutenant at the time, earned his spot in in history flying C-54s and C-47s during the Berlin Airlift of World War II. He earned the nickname "The Candy Bomber" from dropping candy from his aircraft to children below while flying over the American sector of Berlin. "One day I met some kids in Berlin at the fence...

The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood made or accepted wire transfers with Pakistan, a nation used by Muslim extremists as a base from which to raise funds and plan terrorists attacks, a Republican congressman said Friday. Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee, said in a statement that he confirmed through "independent sources" that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan also had communications with Pakistan. "This Pakistan connection just raises more red flags about this case and demonstrates why it's important for Congress to exercise...

Grieving soldiers and families at Fort Hood, Texas, will get a visit from Sarah Palin next month as part of her national book tour, her publisher told Washington Wire. The former vice presidential candidate, whose book “Going Rogue,” will be released on Tuesday, had already agreed to visit the Army base, according to her publicist. She said that after last week’s shooting that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded, an official on the base contacted HarperCollins to say that Palin should stick with the planned appearance. The Dec. 4 event had not been announced publicly or included in a...

Shortly after 9/11, there was a lot of talk about how no one would ever hijack an American airliner ever again – not because of new security arrangements but because an alert citizenry was on the case: We were hip to their jive. The point appeared to be proved three months later on a U.S.-bound Air France flight. The "Shoebomber" attempted to light his footwear, and the flight attendants and passengers pounced. As the more boorish commentators could not resist pointing out, even the French guys walloped him. But the years go by, and the mood shifts. You didn't have...

LEE COUNTY: Federal Bureau of Investigation agents showed up at the house of 61-year-old Dan Ross to find out why he tried to send flowers to the alleged Fort Hood shooter, who Ross calls a 'hero.' Ross is a former Vietnam War soldier and Christian. He says his faith led him to order roses for Major Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood. Ross calls Hasan a hero. "The FBI were the ones who actually killed those 13 people, because they were well informed that this guy was against the United States of America," said...

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said Friday that he would consider running in a special election for the U.S. Senate. "If the opportunity comes up...then I'll go ahead and look at it," Leppert said during a recording of Inside Texas Politics, which airs on WFAA-TV (Channel 8). It was Leppert's first public acknowledgment that he's pondering leaving the mayor's office to run for Senate. As he pointed out, he'd have that chance if Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, resigned her seat to focus solely on running for governor.