Free Republic

1. I hope this is just coincidence and not due to something in the water. These events all took place within about 30 miles either side of I-35 along the 100 mile distance from Austin to Waco, Texas: * November 5, 2009: The massacre at Fort Hood by a muslim traitor. 13 killed, 3 * A 1993 raid by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the subsequent siege by the FBI ended with the burning of the Branch Davidian ranch outside of Waco, Texas in McLennan County. David Koresh, 54 adults and 21 children were found...

Thanks to GVnana for bringing this excellent Tea Party Rap Song to my attention http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM8WJ9NhJ0Y

Big crowds fill Indian Spring Park during a Tea Party Express rally Thursday. (Rod Aydelotte photo) The Tea Party Express national tour drew the attention of Fox News Channel and an estimated crowd of more than 2,000 people when it stopped in Waco on Thursday afternoon. Mark Williams, vice chairman of the Tea Party Express and a radio talk show host, said the Waco event had more supporters than any other tour stop, excluding the tour’s send-off rally Aug. 28 in Sacramento, Calif. Tea Party Express, a bus tour traveling the country to rally opposition to high taxes, government spending...

Woo hoo!! The Tea Party Express to rally today in San Antonio and Waco!! We have a Tea Party in San Antonio at 11:00 am this morning at the Alamo and another at 5:00 pm in Waco!! Then it's all aboard for Dallas!! Woo hoo!! Thirty-five cities, thirty-five tea parties in sixteen days!! Be sure to check the tour schedule and join us when we get to a city near you: TeaPartyExpress.org!! And if you are going to DC for the big March on Washington and National Tea Party on 9/12, you won't want to miss our National Freeper Convention!!...

Just got a missive — unguided missile? — from my pal Ted Nugent saying he’s been fired by the Waco Tribune-Herald, which has new owners as of a couple of weeks ago. I’ve contacted Carlos Sanchez, the editor of the Trib, and asked for his response, which I’ll post below when I receive it. (For now, click here to read his comments as published in the paper today.) Nugent’s email to me: Just been fired from Waco Trib. Now they will have to rely on their other New York Times Best Sellers, and array of clever and diverse journalists to...

Thirty-six years ago, Cox Enterprises announced the purchase of the Waco Tribune-Herald from the Harlon Fentress family. A new era was born, and as with any new era, great debates have been inspired due to opinions expressed by various publishers. Cox Enterprises has well served the broad Waco community — brought the news into the new century — and its legacy will long endure. The Fentress family owned and operated the Trib for 50 years before the Cox sale. Its long and successful ownership was created by honest and fair reporting, expressing opinions on hot issues generally homogenous with the...

TEHRAN (June 19, 2009)-- Iran’s supreme leader took issue Friday with U.S. claims about human rights violations in his country in the wake of a bitterly contested presidential election, and cited the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco as he questioned whether U.S. officials even “know what human rights are.” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned protestors of a crackdown on massive street demonstrations. He said protesters would be "held responsible for chaos if they didn't end" days of massive demonstrations. He blamed Great Britain and Iran's external enemies for trying to foment unrest, and said “the worst...

Saying movie twists facts, Film Commission denies it a state rebate, but filming will go on Movie producer Emilio Ferrari vowed last week to move ahead with his $30 million screen depiction of the deadly 1993 clash between federal agents and Branch Davidian cultists, even though the Texas Film Commission says the project could taint Texas’ image and is unworthy of taxpayer support. The movie, Waco, would be the first feature-film treatment of the 51-day federal siege of David Koresh’s Central Texas compound that led to the death of four federal agents and more than 80 cult members. Ferrari, whose...

DALLAS – Poking through antiques stores while traveling through the Texas Panhandle, Bill Waters stumbled across a tattered old ledger book filled with formulas. He bought it for $200, suspecting he could resell it for five times that. Turns out, his inkling about the book's value was more spot on than he knew. The Tulsa, Okla., man eventually discovered the book came from the Waco, Texas, drugstore where Dr Pepper was invented and includes a recipe titled "D Peppers Pepsin Bitters."

Attorney General Eric Holder, left, kisses former Attorney General Janet Reno, right, as she is presented with the American Judicature Society 2009 Justice Award during a ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, Friday, April 17, 2009

WACO - Central Texans joined together Wednesday to show their support for President Obama's proposed budget plan. With Obama's budget plan close to being voted on by Congress, the reaction from some local residents was nothing short of a quick signature.

On the final day of the Branch Davidian siege in 1993, aerial FLIR (Forword-Looking Infrared) film was shot by the FBI that seemed to show automatic weapons fire directed into the burning buildings. Former Senator John Danforth, under the direction of acting Attorney General Eric Holder, conducted a 14-month, $17-million investigation that exonerated the government of any wrongdoing. This documentary raises serious questions about Mr. Danforth's report. Review: The F.L.I.R. Project

SOF EXPOSES BATF CORRUPTION IN IRAQ Posted by SOF Editor on February 18th, 2009 3 Comments Printer-Friendly NEED A DEFINITION FOR OBAMA’S CALL FOR “RESPONSIBILITY�Amid the orderly transfer of power, our new Chief Executive has issued a call for responsibility. As is the case with most of his public statements, his meaning is not clear. However, if he means holding government officials accountable for their actions, a novel and great idea, it is something that we can all embrace. It is particularly true of those officials within agencies with a long and well documented history of abuses of entrusted...

The mother of infamous Branch Davidian sect leader David Koresh has been stabbed to death, and Koresh's aunt was in custody on a murder charge yesterday. Bonnie Clark Halderman, 60, was found Friday at the Texas home of her sister, Beverly Clark, in a rural area near Chandler, Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt said. "It's still under investigation, and we really don't know what the motive was," Nutt said. In 1993, a standoff at the Branch Davidians' compound outside Waco ended when the complex caught fire and burned to the ground, killing Koresh and nearly 80 of his followers.

U.S. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder was prepared to be bombarded during his Senate confirmation hearings Thursday with a host of questions about a variety of topics, including his role as acting attorney general during a special investigation into the 1993 Branch Davidian debacle. While he fielded questions about waterboarding terrorist suspects and the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, Senate Judiciary Committee members didn’t get around to asking about the Branch Davidian investigation. Former Attorney General Janet Reno recused herself from a special investigation that was conducted by former U.S. Sen. John Danforth into how the fire started in...

The mother of the notorious Waco sect leader David Koresh has been found stabbed to death at the house of a sister in Texas, police say. Bonnie Clark Halderman, who was in her sixties, was found dead at the home of Beverly Clark who has been taken into custody pending a court appearance. Police say they have no idea of a possible motive for her death.

The chasm between those who want President-elect Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate to verify his eligibility to hold the nation's highest office and those who simply support the Democrat is widening. "The Constitution means what we today decide it means," opined one participant on a new WND forum that offers readers an opportunity to express their opinion on the birth certificate dispute.

I have very few details for this post, other than the information provided by our FRiend GrannyK. We'll have more information as it may become available. Longtime FReeper "Waco" was taken to the hospital this evening and we are requesting prayers for his recovery. "Waco" is 70 years young and has been at it here at FRee Republic since the Clinton years, so you know that he has got some fight in him! God bless our dear Friend and his family ~ please keep them in your prayers.

Conservative pundit and author Ann Coulter declared that Barack Obama’s “civilian national security force” would likely result in “a lot more Waco raids.” The reference was to the February 1993 raid by federal agents on the Branch Davidian ranch near Waco and the subsequent siege, which left 86 dead, including four agents. During Coulter’s appearance on Bob Grant’s radio show on Nov. 5, Grant played a portion of Obama’s July 2 speech in Colorado: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, the Mandarin of Talk Radio, with talent on loan from G-d, at the cutting-edge of societal evolution, with half his brain tied behind his back — just to make it fair,...

In an interview with Todd Gillman, U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco says the antics of a similarly named, slick-talking, lying philanderer probably helped sink his chances of becoming Barack Obama's running mate. The other guy went on television to confess his pecadillos -- guaranteeing his status as a national laughingstock -- just about the time the Obama campaign was considering floating Chet Edwards' name.

One of the dumbest things about the Clark kerfuffle is that because there are so many elements of military service that people respect, the narrow critique he’s offering against McCain seems almost beside the point. I see service mainly as a testament to character and fortitude; others see it as evidence of good judgment, and others as an important lesson for a C-in-C to have (i.e. “experience”) before committing other men to war. So far as I know, McCain has never staked his own wartime ordeal to any one of these, preferring to let voters draw whatever they find most...

Barack Obama just delivered a speech on patriotism in Independence, Mo., hometown of what was once America's most powerful haberdasher, and offered a mild rebuke to Wesley Clark, who took on John McCain's military record the other day in rather scorching terms. And just to make it clear, an Obama spokesman sent out this brief statement as Obama was speaking: "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and, of course, he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark." Obama's speech focused on his own sense of patriotism, quoting Mark Twain (it's good to quote...

Ollie North calls Wes Clark "petty and small"

He says he is — seriously devoted to building and maintaining highways. But he is just as devoted to fencing state government into fiscal straits that make these goals impossible without privatizing highways through tolls. Perry last week said that going full-bore with toll roads is the only way for Texas to build new highways. That’s not so. The history of Texas tells us it’s not. Toll roads have their function without question. But so do bonds. So does a gasoline tax that has not kept pace with inflation. So does a reexamination of how Texas funds highways in general...

NEAR WACO - 15-years-ago Saturday, a huge fire ended a 51-day stand-off near Waco. It all took place at the Branch Davidian Compound. The standoff started with a government investigation into illegal possession of firearms and explosives. The Feds tried to enter the compound and were met with gunfire. By the end of the day, the compound was burned to the ground. 80 people were killed, including 22 children and four ATF agents.

At 5:59 a.m., SAGE telephones the Davidians, notifying them of an imminent tear-gas assault. SAGE reads a message over the loudspeaker, advising the Davidians that they are under arrest and should come out. At 6:02 a.m., two FBI combat engineering vehicles, or CEVs, begin inserting gas into the compound through spray nozzles attached to a boom. At 6:04 a.m., the Davidians start shooting, and the FBI begin deploying Bradley vehicles to insert ferret rounds through the windows. At 6:31, the HRT reports that the entire building is being gassed. At about 7 a.m., RENO and senior advisors go to the...

VALPARAISO, Indiana (CNN) — Hillary Clinton appealed to Second Amendment supporters on Saturday by hinting that she has some experience of her own pulling triggers. “I disagree with Sen. Obama’s assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration,” she began, referring to the Obama comments on small-town Americans that set off a political tumult on Friday. She then introduced a fond memory from her youth. “You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside...

For those of you in the Baylor University area, tonight is your chance to ask Juan Hernandez about his radical, open-borders agenda and his role in the McCain campaign. The event is free and open to the public. Bring your video camera: Dr. Juan Hernandez, author of The New American Pioneers, will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday in Kayser Auditorium on Mexican immigration. His lecture will be based on his notes, “Why are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?”Hernandez, a member of former Mexican President Vicente Fox’s cabinet, will be the final speaker for The Academy for Leader Development and Civic...

As the state's population continues to grow in its urban centers, expansion plans for the highway system continue to be the focus for transportation improvements. The Trans Texas Corridor proposal is aimed to alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality and provide safer traveling for drivers, among other goals. In 2002, Texas Governor Rick Perry released the plan to create the passageway, which spans northeast from Laredo to Oklahoma and is set to total 4,000 miles in the next 50 years. The $140 billion project calls for the incorporation of new toll roads, commuter railways, power lines and gas pipelines, while...

Yes, polygamy is illegal,as is pedophilia, and old men marrying too-young girls in Eldorado, Texas. But, how did one anonymous voice message from one girl at the Yearning For Zion Ranch instigate Texas Child Protective Services to confiscate 400 children without an investigation? Irony of ironies - A child protective services official, Marleigh Meisner who is overseeing the kidnappings, was also involved in the disastrous rush to judgment at David Koresh's Waco compound in 1993. "In my opinion, this is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved in the state of Texas," said Children's Protective Services spokesman Marleigh Meisner. Meisner...

BELTON - There appears to be no easy way to address the challenges that inflation has brought to the Texas Department of Transportation. “We’ve seen 60 percent inflation over the last five years for transportation projects,” said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman. To look to the federal government for assistance would appear foolhardy at this point as the Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent by 2009. The fund was created in 1956 to ensure a dependable source of financing for U.S. interstates and highways. “The Federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to go into the red very...

When events like the Virginia Tech massacre occur, The Times and other newspapers quickly become forums for people who favor stronger gun-control laws and those who oppose such measures, or who think that we have already gone too far in the direction. The division is so wide that the only common ground you can find is probably in the O.K. Corral. Different folks have incredibly strong opinions both ways. I don't expect this issue to be resolved in my lifetime. Nothing I can contribute to the general discussion will change anyone's mind one way or the other. I hereby -...

At about 9:30 a.m. agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempt to execute arrest and search warrants against David KORESH and the Branch Davidian compound. Gunfire erupts. Four ATF agents are killed and 16 are wounded. An undetermined number of Davidians are killed and injured. Within a few hours, the FBI becomes the lead agency for resolving the standoff. Jeff JAMAR is named the on-site commander. By the afternoon, advance units of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) arrive, and telephone conversations are under way between KORESH, Steve SCHNEIDER, and Wayne MARTIN on one side and the...

"Waco Siege, a fifty-one-day siege by federal agents of the Branch Davidian religious group's commune headquarters outside Waco, Texas, in early 1993. The siege, which began after a botched and bloody attempt on 28 February 1993 to arrest the group's leader, David Koresh, on a weapons charge, ended in the deaths of four federal agents and seventy-eight Branch Davidians. The stalemate ended when U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the use of force on April 19. Soon after federal agents moved, fire engulfed the compound, killing seventy-two, provoking controversy over the use of force in dealing with dissident sects....

Former Attorney General Janet Reno said the U.S. government must be careful to avoid selectively using facts when prosecuting suspected terrorists. Reno, who served as attorney general under President Bill Clinton, said prosecutors often allow prejudices to skew their use of facts. "But what I've discovered (from being a prosecutor and attorney general) is that we get tunnel vision," Reno said. "We want the facts to be something and we wish them into being." Reno made her comments while speaking to an audience of mostly students and professors at the S.J. Quinney College of Law on Tuesday. Her speech focused...

Anyone whose feet are set in concrete against toll roads is going to get run over. Toll roads are here. They are coming. The need is undeniable, as is the rationale in many cases. But you can’t defend toll roads in every instance, and the proposed I-35 toll lanes through Waco sound indefensible. Two concerns present themselves immediately — one about Waco’s self-interest and one about fairness to motorists. First, the provincial concern: The proposed self-contained toll lanes would deliver a lot of travelers through Waco without access and egress to take advantage of what the city offers, even if...

The problem for Hillary Clinton that arises from the incident in which a disturbed man invaded her Rochester, New Hampshire, campaign headquarters is not any kind of physical threat. Clinton is the most carefully-managed and thoroughly-secured presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan, who when he began to show the first signs of the dementia was placed in a sort of protective custody during the 1984 campaign. Clinton is is no greater danger now than she has been in since the start of her campaign; and neither, thankfully, were her New Hampshire supporters, who exited the headquarters without injury. The problem for...

Waco, Texas (AP) -- An 84-year-old woman accused of trying to run over a neighbor amid a land dispute has been arrested. Ester McCullough of Downsville, near Waco, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. Later Monday, she was released from the McLennan County Jail on a personal recognizance bond, a jail spokeswoman said. McCullough could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In May, she drove into her neighbor's yard, knocking over part of a brick wall, then drove into the...

Janet Reno CD in stores now Published: Sept. 18, 2007 at 8:20 PM KENDALL, Fla., Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A three-CD album of historical songs from former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno debuted Tuesday. "Song of America," a 50-tune "history book'" that Reno helped shepherd, is in stores now, the Miami Herald has reported. Reno is listed as an executive producer on the collection, which starts in 1492 with "Lakota Dream Song" and spans 25 eras of U.S. history, concluding with "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning," a song about the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Reno said...

Could high-speed rail service with a stop in the Hillsboro area be a reality by 2020? That is the goal set by the Texas High-Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation (THSRTC) following the final planning and design charrette in Fort Worth. The charrette preceded the 10th annual Transportation Summit held in Irving Tuesday through Friday, August 7-10. THSRTC board members met in Houston in May at the Continental Airlines headquarters for the first of the charrettes. Attending were eight international suppliers of high-speed rail for nine different systems in France, Germany, Korea and Spain. In addition, 14 consulting firms of varying...

(AP) OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma City is marking the 12th anniversary of the bombing that killed 168 people here by reaching out to victims of the Virginia Tech shootings and victims of violence everywhere. Mourners gather each April 19 at the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to observe the anniversary of the bombing, which injured hundreds. Participants will observe 168 seconds of silence, followed by family members reading the names of their lost loved ones. Organizers said attention also will focus on the killings of 32 people at Virginia Tech by a student who then killed himself....

After announcing in February that they hope to renovate the New Mount Carmel property, once home to David Koresh’s Branch Davidian sect, the current occupants say they are hoping Waco and Central Texas residents will pony up the funds for the renovation. “Our plans are big,” said Charles Pace, leader of The Branch, The Lord of Righteousness sect of the Branch Davidians, who maintain and worship on the property at 1781 Double EE Ranch Road in Elk. “But we have to get support. We’d like to get support from local people because it’s not going to be something we can...

In a recent poll, more than 250 college and university history professors placed former President Bill Clinton as the best president of the last quarter entury, Ronald Reagan as the second best, followed by Jimmy Carter and then the first President Bush. (The current president was excluded since his term of office had not yet ended.) The survey also asked the historians to rank the recent Secretaries of State and Supreme Court justices as well as the relative threat to constitutional liberties posed by presidential actions. Dr. Tim H. Blessing, Professor of History and Political Science at Alvernia College, Reading,...

1993 : Federal agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raid the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco, Texas, prompting a gun battle in which four agents and six cult members are killed. The federal agents were attempting to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, on information that the religious sect was stockpiling weapons. A nearly two-month standoff ensued after the unsuccessful raid. The roots of the confrontation between the federal government and the Branch Davidians went back 10 years before the Waco siege. In 1983,...

This movie is moving around the country. They are sometimes having discussions after it. I think that anyone who thinks they know what happened at Waco has another thing coming.

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - The two dozen FBI agents who swarmed Park City Mountain Resort weren't busting anybody Friday. They weren't even armed - unless you count the sharp ends of ski poles. With the temperature near zero, agents hit the slopes - some on challenging runs, others on bunny hills - in an unusual drive to publicize the FBI and perhaps attract a few recruits. Many skiers and Park City regulars were perplexed or even a bit unnerved. Some thought the whole effort was nutty. Jokes were flying about agents skiing on the public dime, but nobody seemed...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>

Discover the truth about the 1993 WACO incident through never-before-seen transcripts of FBI negotiations, tapes, bugged conversations from an undercover agent and rare interviews with some of the few Waco and Branch Davidian survivors.

The city of Cooper City, Fla., has given itself the power to seize residents' personal property in times of emergency. Officials deemed this new law necessary because of what is expected to be a busy hurricane season. But don't worry, they say. The law would never be enforced unless there were no other options – presumably meaning that the city could not persuade private citizens to permit the government to borrow, rent or buy their equipment. Think of it as eminent domain for generators, power tools, trucks and anything else local czars determine they need. Not surprisingly, this plan has...