Free Republic

Here’s the news The Battle for Main Street, Hometown, U.S.A: Sept 29, 2008, Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd committed an act of domestic, economic terrorism. Don’t wait for the claim of responsibility from their organization known as ALL SPENDA. Obama Bin Phonein will not call that in, he does not want us to get a fix on his position. We should expect the release of tapes demonstrating that Bin Phonein is still alive, it’s all Bush’s fault and that all American’s will pay dearly on April 15th 2009. The follow up attack of April 15th is being conducted under the...

WHEN IS JOHN McCAIN ACTUALLY GOING TO JOIN BATTLE WITH HIS OPPONENTS IN THIS CAMPAIGN? I have grown so discouraged with John McCain's inaction; his seeming lack of commitment; his refusal to take the fight to the enemy in this Presidential Campaign, that a few moments ago I submitted the comments below to his Official Campaign Website. For all I know they may be deleted and totally disregarded by the operatives at his end. But they relect my true feelings at this juncture.

Shifting Battleground Since the polling team last surveyed likely voters in August, a lot has changed. The number of battleground states has shrunk — from 19 to 14 — as Alaska, Georgia, North Dakota and Montana returned to their Republican roots. In August, Obama led in the 14 states by 3 points. Now McCain leads in those states by 2, and the underlying political landscape has shifted a bit as well. In August, by a 7-point margin, more voters identified themselves as Democrats. Now, in the battleground states, the Democratic advantage in party identification has shrunk to 2 points.

One of the members of the crew of a ship in the Black Sea Fleet, upon his return to Sevastopol is interviewed by a reporter regarding the battle with Georgian cutters off of Abkhazia on 10 August. This is currently leading the news in the Ukraine. The story suggests he is being interviewed by a kpunews reporter. "We took up station guarding the opposed landing on the Abkhaz shore when all of a sudden four high speed targets were detected. We sent out an IFF signal and the targets didn't react. Receiving a command from the flagship, we got into...

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2008 – Army and Air National Guard members from California and North Carolina are supporting firefighting efforts in Northern California today following a state active-duty call-up by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a request for airborne firefighting assets by the Interagency Fire Center. The governor's office reported yesterday that a "swarm of dry lighting cells over the last 16 hours sparked nearly 400 new fires across the state, spanning from Monterey and Fresno counties to the Oregon-California border." Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency June 22 for Monterey and Trinity counties. The governor made similar declarations for...

SACRAMENTO - Guarding against a unilateral move by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to build a revised Peripheral Canal, key lawmakers have inserted special provisions in the state budget to prevent an end-run around the Legislature and voters. Schwarzenegger's top water advisers maintain they have no intentions of independently launching a new north-to-south delivery system. But, the state has already initiated exploratory environmental studies for four different conveyance options. Even the Legislature's own attorney, in a recent opinion, concluded that the Department of Water Resources "has the authority, without further legislative or voter approval, to build a conveyance facility, commonly referred to...

KOBE, Japan - The world is losing momentum in the battle against global warming, the U.N. climate chief warned on Saturday, urging environmental ministers from wealthy nations to revive the effort by setting clear targets for reducing greenhouse gases. The ministers gathered in the western Japanese city of Kobe for a three-day meeting as evidence mounted that rising world temperatures have been taking a toll on the earth at a faster rate than previously forecast. The officials from the Group of Eight countries, joined by representatives from other countries including China and other organizations, were to lay the foundations for...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, conducted training with their IA counterparts at Patrol Base Red May 15 to prepare the IA Soldiers for joint patrols. The Soldiers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, are stationed at PB Red along with the Iraqi company from 6th Battalion, 25th Brigade, 6th IA Division. “We’re currently training the IA in basic soldiering skills,” said platoon leader and instructor 1st Lt. Christopher Domenico, adding the Soldiers are right out of the Iraqi basic training environment. “They do know good skills. They can...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Moqtada al-Sadr's militiamen Tuesday battled troops in four Iraqi cities on Tuesday, including the capital, as the hardline Shiite cleric threatened a countrywide campaign of civil revolt. Heavy clashes broke out between Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters in the southern oil city of Basra, killing at least seven people and wounding 48, and in Kut and Hilla, both south of Baghdad, officials said. As evening fell, Mahdi Army fighters fought with Iraqi and US forces in their Sadr City bastion in eastern Baghdad for the first time since last October, a security official and witnesses told AFP. Troops...

Battle for the £4 million sea fortress By Richard Savill Last Updated: 1:36am GMT 07/03/2008 With armour-plated walls rising defiantly from the sea, No Man's Land Fort has held out against invaders since it was built to repel Napoleon III 150 years ago. Now, however, the Solent fortress is under siege for the first time and could be facing its most determined enemy yet - estate agents. The fort, which has been converted into a hotel, has been put on the market by administrators. However, Harmesh Pooni, 42, who claims he is the rightful owner of the Grade II-listed building,...

** EXCERPT ** (CNN) — Likely GOP nominee John McCain said Sunday that beating an energized Democratic party in a fall election fight would be “an uphill battle all the way.”The Arizona senator told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week that he “can out-campaign them, and I can out-debate them, and I can out-perform them” but conceded that he had his work cut out for him in the months ahead.“…We've got to reunite the party, and we've got to re-energize the party. And I'm prepared to do that. We've got plenty of time. But I won't waste a day,” said...

McCartney and Mills' divorce battle to continue By Nick Allen Last Updated: 4:34pm GMT 15/02/2008 Sir Paul McCartney’s estranged wife Heather has criticised him for turning down a request from an autograph hunter as their divorce battle moved towards a bitter conclusion at the High Court. Heather Mills smiles as she leaves court The Beatles fan approached Sir Paul with an original version of the 1968 White Album as he prepared to enter Court 34 where the proceedings are being held in private. But, apparently Sir Paul turned him down, explaining he was sorry but he was not allowed to...

Ringgold City Council is facing potential legal action based on its 2005 decision to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the Ringgold Depot Civil War Memorial. The Southern Legal Resource Center notified the city Feb. 11 by letter from SLRC chief trial counsel Kirk D. Lyons that it will face legal action unless it replaces the battle flag within 10 days. According to Roger McCredie, Southern Legal Resource Center executive director, the letter puts the city on notice that its clients, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and its local Joseph McConnell Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp...

BASTOGNE, Belgium, Dec. 21, 2007 – Standing next to the killing field where he once found himself face-down in the snow surrounded by the dead and dying, Ted Paluch said his return wasn’t as emotional as it once was, especially having visited three other times. Emotions begin to overcome Malmedy massacre survivor Ted Paluch after he presented a wreath to remember 84 U.S. soldiers executed in World War II. To Paluch’s right is Fabien Steffese, curator of the Baugneze 44 Historical Center, which recounts the tragedy. Photo by Ray Johnson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. His resiliency and...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 6, 2007 – Violence in Iraq has dropped significantly in recent months, but it’s still too soon to declare the home stretch in U.S. operations here, the commander of Multinational Force Iraq said today. Army Gen David H. Petraeus cited significant security progress during a roundtable with reporters at the Multinational Task Force headquarters at Camp Victory. Following the roundtable discussion, the general spent an hour with visiting Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Weekly attacks in recent weeks are roughly 60 percent of the levels they were in June, Petraeus said. High-profile attacks are down 60 percent from...

I wasn't born at the time of the Vietnam war... I am from the Reagan-Bush Sr generation. This video is my tribute to the previous generation who fought and bled there, and who often thinks that they are ignored by the new generation.

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition forces killed about 80 Taliban fighters during a six-hour battle outside a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the latest in a series of increasingly bloody engagements in the region, officials said. Also Saturday, suicide bomber wearing an Afghan security uniform detonated his explosives at the entrance to a combined U.S.-Afghan base in the east of the country, killing four Afghan soldiers and a civilian, officials said. The battle near Musa Qala in Helmand province — the world's largest poppy growing region — is at least the fifth major fight in the area since...

Doctors battle to save 'human pin-cushion' By Richard Spencer and Juliet Turner Last Updated: 5:47pm BST 25/10/2007 Doctors in China have saved the life of a woman who had 26 pins and needles inserted into her body when she was a child in an apparent attempt to change her sex to a boy. The objects were discovered when the 29-year-old woman, named in local papers as Luo Cuifen, went to hospital for a check-up after she started experiencing blood in her urine. They had penetrated vital organs such as the lungs, kidney and liver, while a needle in her brain...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2007 – An eight-hour battle this morning in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province ended with another defeat of the Taliban by Afghan forces. A combined force led by an element of 205th Afghan National Army Corps advised by coalition forces was on a combat patrol near a small village in the Meian Nashin district when more than 30 enemy fighters attacked from multiple compounds and fighting positions using small-arms fire. The Afghan-led force repelled the attempted ambush with small-arms and crew-served-weapons fire. As the insurgents continued to reinforce their positions with additional fighters, the ground commander requested coalition close-air...

MOBILE, Ala., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The city of Mobile, Ala., is contesting a judge’s $3,000 award to a man arrested for flipping off a cop who later sued the city. The favorable decision for Addison DeBoi, 56, of Mobile, which was rendered by District Judge Michael McMaken, was the subject of an Aug. 7 Fox News Channel talk show segment titled “Is it legal?” during which host Bill O’Reilly labeled the judge a "pinhead," the Mobile Press-Register said. The judge, in making the award, wrote that legal precedent holds that police officers should have a “thicker skin” than someone...

Mass Grave Sheds Light on Europe's Bloody History By David Crossland in Berlin Europe's soil is blood-soaked from centuries of fighting but rarely yields mass graves from battles that took place before the two world wars. One such grave has now been found near Berlin with over 100 soldiers who died in the 1636 Battle of Wittstock. Archaeologists say they can learn much from the skeletons which show terrible wounds. An archaeologist gently uncovering a row of skeletons in the mass grave found in Wittstock near Berlin. Archaeologists in Germany are examining a mass grave containing the skeletons of more...

High-flying John Travolta is in an uproar over an airport near his $8 million home in Florida. Travolta contends he was lied to(!) by owners of the Greystone Airport near Ocala, Fla., because they didn't want him to land his Boeing 707 there. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the new Mrs. Edna Turnblad claims that Greystone owners James and Christine Garemore falsely told Travolta that they couldn't accommodate his jumbo jet. It's so tough owning your own plane! Travolta says he used to use the Greystone airport all the time, but in 2006, the Garemore's changed the airport's master record...

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces battled Iraqi police and gunmen Friday, killing six policemen, after an American raid captured a police lieutenant accused of leading an Iranian-backed militia cell, the military said. Seven gunmen also died in the fight, a rare open street battle between American troops and policemen. Washington has demanded the government purge its police force of militants, and U.S. and Iraqi authorities have arrested officers in the past for militia links. But the Bush administration said in an assessment Thursday that progress on that front was "unsatisfactory." The lieutenant was captured before dawn in eastern Baghdad, but the...

Palestinians flee as Lebanon army set to storm camp By Nazih Saddiq 40 minutes ago About 160 Palestinians fled a refugee camp in north Lebanon on Wednesday as the Lebanese army prepared to launch a final assault against al Qaeda-inspired militants holed up inside. Troops have been battling Fatah al-Islam fighters at Nahr al-Bared for nearly eight weeks in Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war. A total of 205 people have been killed. The army seized all the militants' positions on the outskirts of the camp last month but refrained from entering its official boundaries. A 1969...

In Memoriam: Custer's Last Stand, June 25, 1876 Private William Slaper : «Each man had secreted himself behind a slain horse. » Lieutenant Charles DeRudio: “The horses were laying as if to suggest a barricade.” Lieutenant Luther Hare: “The evidence on the Custer field indicated very hard fighting.” __ Reno court of Inquiry: “In regard to the severity of the fighting on General Custer’s battlefield, did you see any evidences that there was hard fighting there, or the contrary? Lieutenant Godfrey: “I think there must have been a very hard fighting. Reno court of Inquiry: “You think there was a...

Imagine it's June 7, 1944, the day after the D-Day invasion. You pick up your newspaper. There's no mention of Normandy on the front page, and only a brief reference to it in a roundup story on an inside page.

LOS ANGELES Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told U.S. mayors Saturday they must take the lead in battling global warming and creating an economy based on "clean" technology. Schwarzenegger said California and other states are "not waiting for Washington" before promoting legislation to protect the environment by reducing greenhouse emissions blamed for climate change. "Washington is just a little dot on the map. You are making up America. So we don't have to wait for Washington to get aboard," Schwarzenegger told the 75th annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which made the environment one of its top agenda items. The...

The Army is developing the most expensive and complex weapons system in its history, but it's based on some very questionable concepts. The Army bought what has become one of the Pentagon's most costly and problem-plagued weapons programs during a post-Cold War identity crisis. Locked in a political battle for taxpayer dollars with the Air Force and Navy in the late 1990s, when the military embraced a questionable vision of warfare fought from a distance with sensors and precision munitions, which obviated the need for ground troops that could result in politically costly deaths, the Army turned to industry to...

FONTAINEBLEAU, France - After more than 200 years in the family, the gold-encrusted sword Napoleon carried into battle in Italy will be auctioned off Sunday, across the street from one of his imperial castles. The intricately decorated blade is 32 inches long and curves gently — an inspiration Napoleon drew from his Egyptian campaign, auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat said. "He noticed that the Arab swords, which were curved, were very effective in cutting off French heads" and ordered an imitation made upon his return, Osenat explained. The last of Napoleon's swords in private hands, it has an estimated value of at...

EIN EL-HILWEH CAMP, Lebanon - Islamic militants clashed with Lebanese troops at the country's biggest Palestinian refugee camp Monday, threatening to open a southern battle front that could complicate the army's effort to defeat al-Qaida-inspired extremists in the north. Two government soldiers and a militant were reported killed in fighting at the Ein el-Hilweh camp in the southern city of Sidon, which began when the Jund al-Sham group attacked army outposts late Sunday. The assault was seen as an attempt by Jund al-Sham to ease military pressure on an allied Islamic group, Fatah Islam, whose guerrillas have been battered by...

The Battle of Midway was a pivotal naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. It took place from June 4 to June 7, 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, about five months after the Japanese capture of Wake Island, and six months after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor that had led to a formal state of war between the United States and Japan. During the battle, the United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll (located northwest of Hawaii) and destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and a...

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces detained five suspected insurgents yesterday and today and killed about two dozen insurgents after a convoy was attacked in Helmand province May 27, military officials reported. Afghan and coalition forces detained three suspected al Qaeda militants in a raid on two separate compounds early today in the Nadar Shahkot district of Khowst province. Credible intelligence led the forces to the location suspected of housing operatives in the Haqqani network, officials said. The forces searched the compounds for contraband and found two pistols, two AK-47s and four fragmentation grenades. The weapons...

WASHINGTON, May 20, 2007 – Enemy forces attacked elements of 1st Kandak, 1st Brigade, 201st Afghan National Army Corps and coalition forces in the Al Asay Valley of Kapisa province, Afghanistan, close to midnight on May 18, Defense Department officials reported. The ANA and coalition troops, who were on a patrol at the time, returned fire and began maneuvering out of the enemy ambush site, officials said. Enemy forces continued their assault and attempted to reinforce their ambush positions. They also emplaced improvised explosive devices along the route in a failed attempt to trap ANA and coalition forces. Coalition aircraft...

Click here for the video.

A Muslim woman has won her battle with a supermarket in western Sweden which informed her that she could not work there if she chose to wear a headdress. The Ica Kvantum supermarket in Västra Frölunda has now made adjustments to its dress code following criticism from the Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen - DO).

Egypt anchorwomen battle for hijab By Ranyah Sabry BBC News, Cairo Ghada insists she has no political agenda by wanting to wear the veil The last four years in the lives of TV presenters Hala El Malki and Ghada El Tawil have been a continuous struggle brought about by their employers' refusal to implement two court verdicts. It all started in 2002 when the two presenters decided to wear the hijab head covering worn by many Muslim women. But their employers objected and they were excluded from appearing on the state-run TV station where they work. Believing that they had...

Female madrassa students battle Musharraf By Massoud Ansari in Islamabad, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:54pm BST 14/04/2007 They look like ninjas in the morning shadows, and as the sun sets in the woods around their madrassa, they resemble wraiths. Dressed in black from top to toe and wielding menacing bamboo sticks, the young women students of Islamabad's Jamia Hafsa religious school make a fearsome enemy - as the government of Pakistan is finding out. Women students chant outside the Jamia Hafsa religious school For the past three months, they have been in a standoff after President Pervez Musharraf launched a...

Many historians in America are complaining that people are not interested in American History, and not ready to want accuracy. Here is a video about Custer's Last Stand, in words and pictures. Enjoy 6 minutes of accurate American history! (this video was done by a Custer historian) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKeTsG2JpQA

Air Force Tech. Sgt. James Fisher, who until recently was at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, will send regular dispatches from Afghanistan. Excerpts will run on Sundays in the Star. Find Fisher's blog at http://go.azstarnet.com/kabulHello, I must be going (Jan. 5) My name is Jim Fisher. I am a technical sergeant in the Air Force, assigned to Davis-Monthan, and I'm on my way to Afghanistan. I have been stationed in Tucson for less than a year, but I have family here, and I've been coming here to visit for years. I'm 16 years into a 20-year career (hopefully), and...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A top Taliban commander said Wednesday the group has 4,000 fighters bracing to rebuff NATO's largest-ever offensive in northern Afghanistan, now in its second day. Suicide bombers are ready, land mines have been planted and helicopters will be targeted, Mullah Abdul Qassim, the top Taliban commander in Helmand province told The Associated Press. NATO, meanwhile, announced the capture of a senior Taliban fighter who had eluded authorities by wearing a woman's burqa. Mullah Mahmood, who is accused of helping Taliban fighters rig suicide bomb attacks, was seized by Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint near Kandahar, the alliance...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2007 – Injured American troops should not return home to battle the bureaucracies of a broken outpatient health care system, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here today. Gates’ comments came after surveying repairs at the center’s outpatient facility Building 18, where reported maintenance and administrative problems catapulted the center into the national spotlight this week. Gates toured the facility with Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani. “Like many Americans, I was dismayed to learn this past week that some of our...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan, Feb. 22, 2007 – Long hours of stressful work faced by deployed troops, combined with little privacy and not much free time, can end up taking a mental and emotional toll. Fortunately, soldiers serving in every Brigade Combat Team in the Army will now have a greater opportunity to visit a behavioral health clinic and speak to a trained specialist. Behavioral health used to be a division-level function, but the Army’s adoption of a modular brigade combat team structure changed that, explained Spc. Alex Townsend, a behavioral health specialist assigned to the 82nd Airborne...

PHOENIX — State lawmakers are setting the stage for yet another battle at the ballot over border security and illegal immigration. On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee approved a measure to ask voters to approve a law making it a state crime for someone who entered this country illegally to be anywhere in Arizona. That would include not just public places but even private ones. HCR 2022, which now goes to the full House, would make a first offense punishable by up to six months in jail. But repeat offenders could find themselves facing 2 1/2 years in state prison....

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, backed by American warplanes, battled suspected insurgents for hours Tuesday in central Baghdad, and 50 militant fighters were killed, the Defense Ministry said. Elsewhere, a cargo plane carrying Turkish construction workers crashed during landing at an airport near Baghdad, killing 30 people and injuring two, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Initial reports indicated the plane crashed due to bad weather and heavy fog, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not yet been authorized. U.S. helicopters circled above the Haifa Street area where the battle took...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three more Marines were killed in battle in Iraq, the military said Friday, making December the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops with the toll reaching 106. The Marines, all assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died Thursday of wounds from fighting in western Anbar province, the U.S. military said. Their deaths pushed the toll past the 105 U.S. service members killed in October. At least 2,993 members of the U.S. military have been killed since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an AP count. In violence Friday, a suicide bomber killed at least...

Russia celebrates the 65th anniversary of the counteroffensive beginning in the Second World War on December 5, the Itar-Tass news agency reports. It has been 65 years since the counteroffensive was launched on December 5, 1941 along the front from Kalinin (Tver) to Yelets. Historians consider the 1941-1942 Battle of Moscow to be one of the most outstanding operations in the Second World War and a key turn in the course of the war. The battles continued 200 days and involved over seven million men and officers, 53,000 field guns and mortars, 6,500 tanks and over 3,000 warplanes on both...

/begin my translation Pitched Intelligence Battle Between N. Korea and China PLA soldier killed...led to deteriorating Sino-NK relation (Hong Kong = Yonhap News) Chung Ju-ho = Last October, a PLA soldier was killed while trying to stop N. Koreans from kidnapping Chinese intelligence agents, which shows the intensity of intelligence battle between China and N. Korea. In particular, this incident became a trigger for deterioration of Sino-NK relation. South China Morning Post of Hong Kong and Central News Agency of Taiwan reported on Oct. 17, quoting Informations Center for China Human Right at Hong Kong, that the first anniversary of...

Taking sides in the battle of the 'hobbit' 05:00 09 October 2006 Jeff Hecht The battle among paleaoanthropologists over Homo Floresiensis, popularly known as "the hobbit", threatens to become an epic of Lord of the Rings proportions. The debate rages on over whether the fossil, found on the Indonesian island of Flores, is a separate species or simply a modern human with stunted development. Now Robert Martin at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, US, claims the controversial fossil, discovered in 2004 was really a Stone Age Homo sapiens (modern human) with a mild form of the condition...

U.S. is growing more impatient over militia power BAGHDAD — The U.S.-led coalition said it killed 30 fighters in a battle Sunday with the country's most powerful Shiite militia amid growing American impatience with the Iraqi government's inability to stop militias responsible for escalating sectarian violence. The clash was the second with the Mahdi Army in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Diwaniyah in as many months. Officials from the party of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which heads the militia, denied any of their fighters were killed. A U.S. Abrams tank was seriously damaged when it was hit by...