Free Republic

The issue of race is the longest-lasting cleavage in American politics. It is also perhaps the least understood. The open exploitation of racist sentiment by vote-hungry politicians was for centuries a durable American tradition. More recently, race has assumed a subtle, often unspoken form during campaign season, as Republicans have sought white votes by slyly associating their Democratic opponents with controversial black figures like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, or with topics--welfare, crime, federal funding for "midnight basketball"--that many voters identify with African Americans. Now, with Barack Obama inching closer to the Democratic nomination, race looms yet again as a...

Staff Sgt. Ricardo Hamlin, an Atlanta native, and an Iraqi worker guide a concrete barrier into place in a northern Baghdad neighborhood, March 23. The barriers serve to cut off exit avenues for criminals trying to stage an attack against Coalition or Iraqi forces. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Elvyn Nieves. BAGHDAD — In an effort to reduce the possibility of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks between barriers that have been moved or destroyed, Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, have recently been conducting barrier maintenance here. While replacing broken barriers during an...

KHADRA, Iraq, Feb. 6, 2008 – Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, wiped the sleep out of their eyes at 4:30 a.m. Jan. 27. They donned their nearly dry uniforms and looked out of their sand-bagged windows, hoping to find that it stopped raining sometime during the night. Citizens man a checkpoint in Khadra, Iraq, Jan. 27, 2008. Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers with Company C, 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, operationally attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, conduct combined traffic-control-point operations with local citizens and Iraqi National Police while concrete...

Real ID and Reality by: Amanda Busse, January 23, 2008 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has conceded in its battle with state officials to implement secure state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards as part of the REAL ID Act of 2005. DHS recently announced plans for a 73 percent reduction in the cost of putting the identification system in place, and an $80-million grant to assist in the procedure. The reduction brings costs down from an original estimate of $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion. The REAL ID laws were a top a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission after...

CAMP LIBERTY — Since arriving in theater, Company A, 526th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), has been providing barrier movement and emplacement support throughout the greater Baghdad area. Recently, the company was tasked with another mission of significant importance. The new task also involved concrete barriers; however, these barriers are not your ordinary highway dividers one finds on the roads in the United States. The barriers that are used in Iraq are a lot bigger. In fact, there are several types of barriers all with different heights, lengths, widths, and even shapes. Some...

Concrete Barriers Safeguard Adhamiyah Residents in Baghdad Temporary walls keep out vehicle-borne explosives By 2nd Brigade Combat Team 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs BAGHDAD, June 6, 2007 — The thick chains attaching the “T-Wall� barrier to the crane shuddered as the slab of heavy concrete was lifted into the air. The crane operator worked his control stick, first swinging the barrier through the air, and then slowly lowering it into place.As the 14,000 pounds of concrete settled onto the ground with a grinding crunch, the project to secure a neighborhood in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah District behind miles of protective barriers...

With housing and factories weak and consumers tiring, exporters are giving the U.S. economy a boost even as trade tensions mount. The rest of the world continues to expand at a brisk pace, fueling demand for American goods. The Institute for Supply Management said last week that its March manufacturing exports index rose 1.5 points to 55.5, the best since November. Though exports remain a small part of the overall U.S. economy, they have helped soften the blow from a housing slump that has pared growth in each of the past two quarters... Yet the benefit to the U.S. economy...

KIRKUK, Iraq, April 6, 2007 — U.S. soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, with the assistance of G Company, 3-7 FA soldiers, have delivered several concrete barriers to traffic checkpoints in the Khabbaz region near Kirkuk. "The barriers will make the drivers reduce their speeds through here, as well as provide extra protection for the soldiers from any attacks," Capt. Qais Aswad Bunyan The barriers were set up at three Iraqi army’s 1st Strategic Infrastructure Battalion checkpoints to improve security for Iraqi soldiers manning their posts. The 1st Strategic Infrastructure Battalion received the barriers...

PHYSICAL barriers: Rough terrain precludes a continuous wall and presents huge challenges for those trying to patrol the Mexican border A craggy border canyon in San Diego is difficult to monitor and too rough to handle much of a fence, so the federal government has come up with an idea - it will fill the 230-foot-deep chasm and get the dirt to do it by lopping off the tops of two nearby mesas. By smoothing out Smuggler's Gulch with enough dirt to fill 70,000 dump trucks, the U.S. Border Patrol expects to be able to better patrol one of San...

With several million illegals in the country,we need to take action - but carefully ! Some ideas have surfaced.

BAGHDADI, Iraq (April 12, 2006) -- As a 24-vehicle convoy rolls down the streets, a voice of a Baghdadi police officer can be heard over the intercom saying in Arabic, "It's a gift from God. The Marines are here to help us." The "gift from God" was the engineers of Marine Wing Support Squadron 274. They came to provide force protection to the Baghdadi police by setting up concrete barriers around their station. MWSS-274 functions under the umbrella of Marine Wing Support Group 37 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "The reason for the barriers was to provide protection and diversion,"...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Jan. 13, 2006) -- Cincinnati native, Cpl. Tasha M. Monz is on her third deployment to the Middle East in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, proving the war in Iraq has become yet another major milestone for women in the military. This time around, Monz, assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 8, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (FWD), serves as the battalion commander’s radio operator and often finds herself in volatile areas as her job takes her beyond the camp’s concertina wire and into the streets of Iraq. “I love it,” said the 22-year-old, referring to the weekly convoys...

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's security barrier was a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Eleven days later, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 to condemn Israel and demand removal of the barrier. All twenty-five members of the European Union supported the motion.[1] The EU position would not have been so offensive had it not then undertaken an act of stunning hypocrisy. In August 2004, the EU put out tenders for companies to construct a European separation fence to prevent migration into the EU from countries excluded from...

PALMDALE - The Dickinson family is dedicated to their business, Delta Scientific Corp., and to their new facility at Fairway Park on Avenue O. But their dedication to the security of the United States and U.S. military personnel was front and center at the grand opening of their 125,000-square-foot factory Tuesday afternoon. David Dickinson, senior vice president and son of founder Harry Dickinson, made it clear the family business stands ready to do what it takes to provide barricades strong enough to stop a loaded 18-wheeler moving at 50 miles per hour. "We take our business quite seriously," David Dickinson...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration's top trade official outlined plans Tuesday to break down trade barriers around the world, pitching the benefits of free trade to lawmakers focused on job losses and election-year politics. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said his office, fresh from successful trade talks with five Central American countries, Australia and Morocco, will soon enter negotiations with Panama, several South American countries, Thailand and Bahrain. "Recent U.S. trade agreements have cut hidden import taxes and saved every working family in America as much as $2,000 a year," Zoellick said in prepared remarks to the Senate Finance...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 — An antiaircraft missile, ready for use, sits atop a federal office building near the White House. Devices that test the air for chemical and biological substances are positioned throughout the city. Subway stations are now equipped with "bomb containment" trash bins. A major highway that runs by the Pentagon is being rerouted several hundred yards away. A security wall is going up around the Washington Monument. Day by day, the nation's capital is becoming a fortress, turning a city known for graceful beauty into a virtual armed camp. In response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist...

Dec. 10 — What do you want to know about Nelson Kowalczyk? His photo, physical description, current address and more are available on the official "My Florida" Web site. Why would you want to know anything about Nelson Kowalczyk, you ask? Click past the governor's Hanukkah message and a blurb about the state's "Reach Out and Read" initiative, and you'll also see that he was paroled five months ago after a 26-year prison stint for murder. In the name of public safety, a growing number of states are providing details about felons on their Web sites — similar to the...

Opteron and Itanium: Two Roads to 64-bit ComputingBy Johan De Gelas Friday, July 5, 2002 7:51 AM EDT A flood of articles have already been written about AMD's Opteron, otherwise known as Sledgehammer and Clawhammer DP. Quite a few editorials believe it will become a very popular server and workstation CPU which will force Intel to follow in AMD's footsteps and introduce 64-bit extensions in their current 32-bit x86 line. At the same time, Intel and many industry analysts claim that 64-bit CPUs for the workstation and desktop are more of a marketing gimmick than anything else, at least...