Free Republic

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's a good news update on a home ransacked and spray painted by a pair of teen burglars in northwest Houston. While the burglars are now in custody, community members and Marines stepped in to help the homeowner -- a 93-year-old World War II veteran. The Marines quickly marched into the defaced home of WWII veteran Elbert Wood, eager to help. "It's important that he knows we're here for him and that we're always his brothers," Major Roberto Rodriguez said. The presence of these local Marines is just one example of the outpouring of support for Wood...

2013 is ‘The Year of Cleopatra’ and ‘The Second Coming’. Michelle Obama’s new wig is a throwback to the the Cleopatra look that is supposed to be registering raves. “Conservatives have long joked that the national press corps see Barack Obama as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Newsweek—at least what’s left of it, an online product for tablets and e-readers—made it official.” (Newsbusters, Jan. 18, 2013). Like the last sting of the scorpion before death, Newsweek gave its parting shot trying to immortalize Obama as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Portraying Obama as the Good Lord above...

After already successfully bidding on a few weapons, Saul Silva was ready to call it a day when spontaneity struck. Caught in the moment, he spent $300 on what he called a "conversation piece" - a M72A3 antitank rocket-launcher. "I mean, who else has this?" Silva said, cradling the launcher as another thought sprang to mind: "My wife's probably gonna kill me." The launcher was one of more than 100 firearms auctioned off from the private collection of Bill James, founder of The Arms Room in League City. The auction, mostly firearms and weapon accessories, included 19th-century rifles, swords, and...

It was May 10, 1970, in Se San, Cambodia. Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr. and his platoon were ambushed by a large enemy force. The 22-year-old rifleman from Ellwood City, Pa., charged the enemy position, killing several soldiers, and then attacked an enemy flanking force, drawing fire away from his comrades. As the enemy retreated, a grenade landed near Sabo and a wounded American soldier. Sabo picked it up and threw it, while shielding his comrade with his own body. The grenade blast badly injured Sabo, but he continued to charge the bunker. Crawling toward the enemy stronghold, Sabo was...

In a brazen criminal scheme to defraud taxpayers, one of the highest-ranking officials in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to helping embezzle more than $500,000 from the federal government. Over three years, James Woosley and at least five other ICE employees scammed the agency by fabricating expenses for trips that were never taken and for hotel, rental car and restaurant expenses that did not exist, according to court records. His son, also named James Woosley, and live-in girlfriend, Lateisha Rollerson -- both ICE employees -- allegedly ran the scam out of the...

The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined local ministers and Houston Congressman Al Green at a news conference on Thursday to call for an end to Stand Your Ground-type state laws across the nation and an end to gun violence. The presentation at the Metropolitan Christian Methodist Episcopal Church came one day after George Zimmerman, a central Florida neighborhood watch captain, was charged with second-degree murder in the February fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The teen's death had sparked an international outcry for the arrest of Zimmerman, 28, who was questioned then released from police custody the night of the incident...

A picture is worth a thousand words.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court refused last-day appeals from convicted killer Jesse Joe Hernandez, clearing the way for his execution Wednesday evening for the 2001 beating death of a 10-month-old boy he was baby-sitting at a home in Dallas. The high court ruling came about two hours before the 47-year-old Hernandez, who previously was convicted of a child sex offense, could be taken to the Texas death chamber for lethal injection. The justices' order was brief and did not include an explanation for their decision. The execution would be the fourth this year in Texas. Ten-month-old Karlos...

HOUSTON - Security camera footage from a well-known gay bar has played a key role in a hit-and-run investigation of a former Houston City Councilman, who is now a conservative talk show host, Local 2 Investigates reported on Wednesday. A Houston man reported to police that KTRH talk show host Michael Berry plowed his SUV into another car outside T.C.'s Show Baron Converse near Fairview in the Montrose area about 11 p.m. on January 31st. Tuderia Bennett, of Galena Park, told Houston police that he was working as a bouncer at the front door during a popular cross-dressing 'drag show'...

I got this in my email this morning and was struck by how relevant it remains even today. It may be a clever fakery but it's still pretty good.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The caffeinated, rapid-fire GOP presidential primary is about to ease into a slower pace and a more spread-out map, creating new challenges for Newt Gingrich. February will bring several primaries and caucuses likely to lack the intensity of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. It has only one debate, three weeks from now. And the month contains contests in three states with significant Mormon presences — Nevada, Arizona and Colorado — and in Michigan, where Mitt Romney's father was governor. All these factors could pose problems for Gingrich, the former House speaker who is struggling to...

This cracked me up. Romney SPeaks

Rick Perry weighs in on Rogen, dexterous fowl, and more. FunnyOrDie ~ Bad Lip Reading

DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said he supports a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that includes two separate states, but he did not step back Saturday from his assertion that Palestinians are an “invented” people, an incendiary comment that infuriated one side in the Mideast peace process. The burden to show a willingness to reach a peace accord with the Israelis lies squarely with the Palestinians, he said. “When the president keeps talking about a peace process while Hamas keeps firing missiles into Israel, if we had a country next to us firing missiles,...

NEW YORK (AP) — Brace yourselves for the attack ads. Rick Perry's Social Security plan might cost Florida its entire public education and prison systems. Mitt Romney is the flip-flopper responsible for "Obamacare." Or so declare just two presidential campaign videos on the Web. Going after the president and each other, Republican candidates have been test-driving themes and previewing attack lines online for months, foreshadowing the TV ad war that's all but certain to start soon in Iowa, New Hampshire and other early voting states. With less than three months before voting begins in GOP nomination contests, the candidates' pitches...

Herman Cain, the man who has pulled even in the GOP presidential polls with Texas Gov. Rick Perry was in the governor’s backyard Thursday, signing books in College Station and The Woodlands and giving a speech in Houston. The former pizza executive has climbed from interesting also-ran to top-tier candidate in the last few weeks, buoyed by strong debate performances, a congenial public persona and conservative voters’ reluctance to give their heart to the long-running frontrunner, Mitt Romney. In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, Cain is tied for second place with Perry with 17 percent of the vote. Romney...

When Rick Perry threw his hat into the ring for the Republican presidential nomination, it set off such a collective cringe among liberal Texans that it likely scored on the Richter scale. Being a native Texan with basic respect for modern civilisation means living in a constant state of low-grade humiliation, as the state's size provides an interrupted stream of news stories highlighting the cranks and Bible-thumpers who win state and local offices – but a presidential campaign means exponentially expanding the amount of national and international attention paid to the streak of mean-spirited ignorance that rules Texas politics. With...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential contender Ron Paul likened fellow Texan Rick Perry to a “candidate of the week” on Friday and said his Republican opponent’s poll numbers would fall quickly once voters get to know him better. “He was the one saying, ‘Oh yeah, I’m all for secession,’ and that kind of talk,” Paul told The Associated Press. “The only thing I would advise is looking into him, looking at his record, and not just taking him at face value. Texas has had a lot of changes in these last eight years, not exactly positive either.” In a 2009...

GALVESTON — A jogger on Galveston Island discovered a bag in the surf Tuesday containing 25 bricks of cocaine with an estimated street value of $2 million. The jogger, whose name police are withholding, discovered the bag about 9:30 a.m. near Indian Beach, police spokesman Cpt. Jeff Heyse said. He lugged the heavy bag to his residence and slashed it open to find 25 bricks of cocaine, each weighing 1 kilogram or 2.2 pounds, bundled in plastic wrap and rubber, Heyse said. Recognizing the packages as cocaine from television programs, the jogger phoned police, Heyse said.

Whatever happened to Captain Planet? Apparently he he got fat, drunk and mean. Captain Planet Eats Birds, Kills Children, Burns Planet