Free Republic

A cell phone application that will help illegal immigrants find water and key landmarks as they cross into the United States is an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds and an irresponsible use of technology, critics say. The Transborder Immigrant Tool , the brainchild of three faculty members at the UC-San Diego and a colleague at the University of Michigan, is a software application that can be installed into a GPS-enabled cell phone. In addition to helping immigrants locate water and landmarks, it also could alert them to Border Patrol checkpoints. And to make the trek a little less arduous, it...

PHOENIX (AP)—Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter(notes) insists he meant no harm toward Latino players when he referred to them as “impostors” while discussing the number of African-Americans in the major leagues. Hunter’s original comments were made two weeks ago in one of a series of USA Today roundtables about baseball and published in Wednesday’s editions.

The ultimate fall from grace, a Federal grand jury is about to indict John Edwards, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively. In another shocker, close sources say Edwards' estranged wife Elizabeth could help send the former presidential candidate to jail!

A Guided Tour of John Edwards and Rielle Hunter's Future Love DenBy Maureen O'Connor The National Enquirer says John Edwards proposed to Rielle Hunter and is buying a $3.5M beach house. Now that we've found the real estate listing, a guide to the custom mahogany cabinetry (that's yuppie for "marital bliss") that lies ahead. The Enquirer's print edition included two photos from this listing with Bald Head Island Real Estate (which is, according to its website, the only real estate firm serving the North Carolina beach community), which is the only Bald Head property currently listed for $3.5 million. Since...

"In or about September 2006, using my video camera, I authored a personal video recording that depicted matters of a very private and personal nature," Hunter wrote in an affidavit filed Thursday.

The John Edwards scandal is not just about sex, argues Toby Harnden in Washington. It's about why Americans have lost trust in the political class. Even judged alongside the caddishness and sexual misdeeds of politicians through the ages, John Edwards will take some beating. Just when it seems that the pretty boy former Senator and 2004 vice-presidential candidate can sink no lower, a fresh revelation emerges. We now know that Edwards cheated on his cancer-stricken wife by having an affair with Rielle Hunter, a New Age loon he met in a New York bar and then employed as a campaign...

John and Elizabeth Edwards Legally Separated In Tell-All-Book, Ex-Edwards Aide Says Couple Discussed How Cancer Would Help in the Polls By JAMES HILL, NADINE SHUBAILAT and LAUREN SHER Jan. 27, 2010 With John Edwards' electrifying U.S. Senate win in 1998, it was his wife Elizabeth Edwards who captivated the nation. A strong, smart, resilient woman, she became one of her husband's greatest political strengths. "He was young and good looking and charming [and] his wife did not fit Hollywood's central casting of what a political wife should look like. She was a little bit heavy-set. She was an attorney in...

Another day, another scandalous political book being leaked to the press. I’m going to wager that after the Going Rogue deluge, followed by the Game Change deluge, the country may not have much more attention to give to the bad behavior of our pols…particularly John Edwards. Nevertheless, here’s the latest dirt on Edwards courtesy of his former aide Andrew Young, the guy who initially took responsibility for Rielle Hunter’s baby. Someone over at the WSJ blog ‘Washington Wire’ apparently managed to snag an early version of Andrew Young’s upcoming Edwards tell-all ‘The Politician.’ Other juicy bits from the book have...

Rumors have been circulating for several days through Charlotte’s Eastover neighborhood that former U.S. Sen. John Edwards bought a home here for his admitted former mistress, Rielle Hunter. And now the National Enquirer is reporting in its Dec. 21 issue that Edwards has, in fact, bought a house here that the Charlotte Business Journal has identified as a residence on Providence Road. Edwards, the vice presidential nominee on the 2004 Democratic ticket and a presidential candidate last year, saw his political career derail after details of the affair emerged. In late 2007, the Enquirer first reported claims from an...

CLINTON, N.J. (AP) -- In a wooded area up a dirt road off an interstate highway, Jamie Cap peers down the sight of his new shotgun at a target about 40 yards away. He adjusts the angle by nudging a toggle switch, then fires. An ear-shattering report echoes off the trees and nearby cars, and Cap is pushed back a few inches by the force of the blast. He turns and nods his head - the only part of his body he can completely control....

WASHINGTON — After several years of fighting the U.S.-Mexico border fence, a coalition of Texas elected officials is working with the Obama administration on ways to improve border ports and facilitate trade while fighting drug smuggling. The Texas Border Coalition's involvement with policymaking comes after a bitter tangle with the federal government over construction of the fence that Congress and the White House approved, but border business leaders and human rights groups opposed. “We've got to work together,” said Chad Foster, Eagle Pass mayor and the coalition's chairman. “But that is where the wheels came off the cart — when...

Friday is a travel day for me, so be aware that comment moderation will be slow and sporadic. I just have time to get in word about the upcoming launch of the WISE mission, slated for December 7. NASA is planning a media briefing next Tuesday (November 17) to discuss the mission, which is designed to scan the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, spotting perhaps hundreds of thousands of asteroids and studying a wide range of stars and galaxies.The technology is fascinating in and of itself. WISE will image the entire sky in the infrared, using detectors kept below 15...

Democrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided by a count of absentee ballots. The Associated PressDemocrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided...

Former Congressman Duncan L. Hunter was kind enough to interrupt his extended Idaho vacation once more to answer a few questions and put his two cents in on the issues of the day. He and Lynne had their daughter-in-law and grandkids join them in Idaho over the Halloween weekend. He also extended his vacation plans for another week or so. After 28 years in the US House, then writing a book, he certainly deserves to enjoy his family, the R&R, and the hunting and fishing opportunities this weeks long vacation has afforded him. Hunter mentioned his son Duncan D. could...

There's TRUE hope.

OSSIPEE, N.H. – A New Hampshire deer hunter has accidentally shot himself in the right hand while trying to lift his loaded rifle into a tree stand using a rope tied around the weapon. A state conservation officer says a branch or stick apparently got stuck in the trigger of Robert Lapointe's .50-caliber muzzleloader, setting it off at around 1:45 p.m. Saturday. ... ..Lapointe is expected to survive, but "shouldn't have been doing what he did."

As a Marine lieutenant in Iraq in 2004, Duncan Hunter was poised for an assault on Fallujah when the order came down from Washington to pull out instead. It was the kind of top-down military decision — which in this case had to be reversed when security in Fallujah later deteriorated — that Hunter hopes will not be repeated in Afghanistan. Now, five years later and a freshman congressman from California, Hunter is in a much better position to have his voice heard. As an Iraq war veteran, he has been enlisted by the House Republican leadership to help make...

HUMAN INTELLIGENCE IS IMPORTANT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, it is important, obviously, to have what is called human intelligence. That is, when a group of terrorists are planning to bomb an embassy or do something else that takes life and property, it is good to know ahead of time what is going to happen, because this is not a big military operation where, by national technical means, that means by satellite overheads and other things, we can see...

Congressmen: get aid to fight guerrillas The Ledger, June 25, 1983 Washington - Nineteen congressmen, eight of them just back from Central America, urged President Reagan on Friday to "hang tough" in his demand for another $110 million from Congress this year to help fight communist guerrillas in El Salvador. Elsewhere, Senate Democratic Whip Alan Cranston of California, a candidate for the 1984 presidential nomination, said he would introduce legislation designed to avert "the danger....that Ronald Reagan will want to send troops to El Salvador." Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said that the amount should be increased to $300 million and...

This interview is a first in a series of weekly interviews that former Congressman Duncan Lee Hunter will be conducting with bloggers and media types in order to help get his message out to the American people and to his former colleagues in congress. That message is that we must all fight to derail the foolishness, cowardice and socialism that is being pushed by the Obama administration, the democrats, as well as by some republicans; an agenda that threatens to undermine the very foundations of our Republic. Mr. Hunter is currently finishing up a book on Iraq and Afghanistan wars....