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Mitt Romney is the only Republican presidential hopeful gaining ground in South Carolina, the former Massachusetts governor’s internal polling shows. An October poll taken for the campaign shows Romney in second place in South Carolina with 20 percent support of likely Republican primary voters. Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee is first with 24 percent. The State was given a confidential copy of the poll Monday by the Romney campaign. The poll comes on the heels of another, not so optimistic external poll that claims Romney’s Mormon faith and his recent endorsement by the chancellor of Bob Jones University...

DENVER - Even her surgeon calls her a miracle. Shannon Malloy was critically injured Jan. 25 when a car crash slammed her into the dashboard. Her skull separated from her spine, although her skin, spinal cord and other internal organs remained intact. The rare condition is known as clinically as internal decapitation, and it left her with no control over her head.

Although simple in concept, the complexity of the internal combustion engine is mind-boggling. Most of the time we take it for granted when we turn the ignition key, shift into gear and step on the gas, but a marvel of mechanics, managing thousands of little explosions each minute, keeps us traveling smoothly down the highways and byways and streets where we live. This video gives us an animated look at a virtual engine, from bare block to ignition. The inline-four engine is made by Deutz, an independent German machine manufacturer. See every component: casted this, braided that, spinning this, machined...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Militants linked to Hamas and Fatah have agreed to work together to end the internal violence that has plagued Gaza, the Palestinian prime minister said Wednesday, after two days of gunbattles between the rival groups. Nine Palestinians, including five children on their way to school, were wounded in a gunfight in Gaza City. Each side blamed the other for triggering it. Then, Hamas militants attacked the funeral procession in southern Gaza for a Fatah gunman killed Monday, setting off two bombs and opening fire. Fatah gunmen dropped to the ground and returned fire. Three bystanders...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2006 – Afghanistan's recently selected top 31 leaders from the Ministry of the Interior and Afghan National Police met Jan. 7 and 8 on how to increase security, fight internal corruption and eradicate poppy production. With the theme "building internal security for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," the conference provided a forum for senior officers to exchange ideas on issues affecting the MOI and ANP, as well as hear from senior representatives in the international community. Acting Minister of the Interior Zarar Ahmad Moqbil opened the session stressing the importance of seizing this moment in history...

Embattled Greensboro Police Chief Resigns 10 minutes ago Greensboro Chief of Police David Wray has announced his resignation. In a letter dated Monday morning, Wray said events of the past several months created controversy and hurt his ability to lead the force. Assistant Chief Tim Bellamy was named acting chief effective immediately, according to City Manager Mitchell Johnson. Wray has dealt with allegations of a unit in his department targeting officers with investigations based on race. Johnson is reviewing a report concerning the accusations. Scheduling of officers has also caused unrest in the department. Johnson last month told Wray he...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An internal CIA report reportedly criticizes ex-CIA chief George Tenet and several other former and current CIA officials for not dealing effectively with Al-Qaeda before the September 11 attacks. Tenet, who resigned in July 2004 after seven years at the top, was censured for failing to develop and carry out a strategic plan to take on Al-Qaeda in the years before the attacks, two people familiar with the report told The New York Times. The highly classified report, put together by Central Intelligence Agency inspector general John Helgerson, described systemic problems at the CIA before the 2001...

When I was a boy, my parents used to enjoy a comedian named Ronnie Graham. One of his jokes was, "The other day a cat came up to me and said, 'How do I get to Carnegie Hall?' and I said 'Practice, man, practice.' This other cat came up to me and said, 'Meow.' He was a real cat." We talk a lot in our movement about spiritual practices. I am a Religious Science Practitioner; the root word of Practitioner is practice. But why do we practice? Ernest Holmes said that a central concept of our movement is "Perfect God,...

A panel of 36 distinguished public policy experts and scholars—ranging from Nobel laureate Milton Friedman to Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey—has selected the Internal Revenue Code as the No. 1 item on this year’s Human Events list of the Ten Most Harmful Government Programs. The programs elected by our judges don’t just cost money, they also attack our values and corrode the spirit of liberty that makes America the greatest nation. As in previous years, we initially asked our judges to nominate programs for the list. The judges were then sent ballots listing...

Democrats said yesterday they will demand that the Bush administration hand over internal legal memorandums written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. while he was a government lawyer -- something the White House has refused to do in the past. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said he broached the topic during a meeting yesterday with Judge Roberts, who replied that any decision about his writings as deputy solicitor general would be made by the White House. Republicans on Capitol Hill said the request is not likely to be granted. Demands for those same documents -- deemed...

Am finalizing, polishing on a book project about PRESSURE that 9-15 year old male children experience, perceive themselves to experience. Would appreciate any experiences you or friends or extended family members have had in this ball park. Am interested in SOURCES, CAUSES, ISSUES, CONTEXTS, of PRESSURE as well as complications, solutions, preventions etc. I think I've fairly covered the waterfront but am assuming that that is unlikely in a thoroughly comprehensive way. Besides, there's so much wisdom amongst my loved-ones hereon, thought I'd risk a rare [for me] vanity and ask. If you know of someone with a story to...

IRS probing possible data security breaches By Caroline Drees, Security Correspondent 32 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether unauthorized people gained access to sensitive taxpayer and bank account information but has not yet exposed any privacy breaches, an official said on Friday. The U.S. tax agency -- whose databases include suspicious activity reports from banks about possible terrorist or criminal transactions -- launched the probe after the Government Accountability Office said in April that the IRS "routinely permitted excessive access" to the computer files. The GAO team was able to tap into the data...

GREENWOOD, Ind. (AP) -- A man angry about his tax debt pointed a gun at an Internal Revenue Service agent during an argument, police said. The man fled the office in a business park without firing a shot about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday after pulling out a handgun. John L. Plemons, 62, of Beech Grove, was arrested about three hours later on charges he was the man involved, police said. The IRS agent suffered a bruised hand in the scuffle, during which he grabbed Plemons around the chest to stop him from firing the handgun, police said. "They turned over a...

Out here, in Los Angeles, we have recently been treated to a colossal hissy fit that had liberals gunning for other liberals. One would think that any right-thinking conservative would happily sit back and watch the blood run in the gutters. But even in a battle royal that pits lefties against their own kind, a fair-minded person can't help taking sides. On one side, you have the knee-jerk liberal editors at the L.A. Times wearing the white trunks or, in this case, at least the white hats. On the other side, you have the idly rich women of the Westside...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Bahamian Minister of Health Dr. Marcus Bethel enjoy a laugh during a speech given by Dr. Perry Gomez, chief of internal medicine and infectious diseases at Princess Margaret Hospital Friday, Feb. 4, 2005, during a news conference on the hospital lawn in Nassau, Bahamas. Clinton, who is on a three-day visit to the Bahamas, toured the Specialty Clinic which houses the AIDS ward and announced at the briefing that the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation HIV -AIDS Initiative would fund the Bahamas programe. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

If you have been spending too much time reading poll numbers after the recent debate in Miami, watching the media launch a full-court press against the American voter to force a turnover in his or her perception of the presidential candidates, then take heart, the news is not all bad. Last night I posted a critique of the Newsweek poll, which I still believe should be considered "advantage Bush," if one goes to the "internal numbers" to get to the truth, since it is likely that Pacific coast voters were over-represented in the polling sample. As of today, several important...

Interesting Newsweek Poll Internal Thursday Interviews Bush 49 Kerry 43 Nader 3 Und. 5 Friday Interviews Bush 54 Kerry 38 Nader 4 Und. 4

The Internal Revenue Service is cutting 218 IT workers in 10 tax processing centers nationwide as it looks to trim costs. The cuts in the agency's IT Modernization and Information Technology Services division, slated to take place by June 1, 2005, will be made in the agency's high-speed printing division, according to IRS spokesman John Lipold. Currently, there are 278 IT employees at the 10 tax processing sites. The affected employees are computer operators, computer specialists and tape librarians who print reports for managers, provide support for those managers and resolve systems problems, Lipold said. The announcement, made yesterday, came...

This is the story of hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign language documents that the FBI neglected to translate before and after the Sept.11 attacks because of problems in its language department - documents that detailed what the FBI heard on wiretaps and learned during interrogations of suspected terrorists. Sibel Edmonds, a translator who worked at the FBI's language division, says the documents weren't translated because the divison was riddled with incompetence and corruption. Edmonds was fired last year after reporting her concerns to FBI officials. She told her story behind closed doors to investigators in Congress and to the...