Free Republic

7/27/2009 - COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) -- Iraqi air force 2nd Lt. Omar AlNuaimi became the first Iraqi to complete the Air Force Aviation Leadership Program upon his graduation from aviation training July 24 here after three years of training. The Iraqi airman earned his pilots wings with his fellow student pilots of Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training Class 09-12. "It feels great (to graduate)," Lieutenant AlNuaimi said. "Since the Iraqi air force was founded and until this moment, we haven't had students who have graduated from the U.S. It's been great and wonderful to be trained and get...

STENNIS SPACE CENTER — History will be made here again Wednesday when the last scheduled main engine test of NASA’s space shuttle program occurs. Provided conditions are right, NASA engineers and others will gather on the testing grounds for the 2 p.m. event. The test is scheduled to run for 520 seconds, bringing a close to 34 years of testing space shuttle engines in South Mississippi. The first space shuttle mission was launched in 1981, but years of preparations came first. The first space shuttle main engine test occurred at Stennis in 1975. Since 1981, NASA has flown 126...

SACARMENTO, CA - A national "Tea Party Express" tour (website: www.TeaPartyExpress.org ) will conduct a series of 35 tea party rallies across the country 35 days from now. The "Tea Party Express" will rally Americans to oppose the current policies of higher deficit spending, higher taxes, bailouts and quasi-socialistic government policies. Starting in California on August 28th, the caravan will travel eastward towards its final destination of the massive 9/12/09 Taxpayer March on D.C. The "Tea Party Express" is a project of the Our Country Deserves Better Committee, one of the nation's largest conservative political action committees. What started out...

The keel for the new National Security Cutter Stratton — which will be a sister ship of theCutter Berthoff, seen here on her builder’s trials — was laid Monday at Northrop GrummanShipbuilding in Pascagoula. PASCAGOULA — First lady Michelle Obama will serve as the sponsor of the third National Security Cutter, Stratton. Officials celebrated the ship’s construction Monday as the U.S. Coast Guard and Northrop Grumman laid the ship’s keel at the Pascagoula shipyard. Rear Adm. Ronald J. Rábago announced at the ceremony that Obama will serve as the Stratton’s sponsor and she will attend the christening ceremony at...

PASCAGOULA -- First lady Michelle Obama will sponsor the Coast Guard's third Legend-class national security cutter, which is about 25 percent complete at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's Pascagoula yard, officials said Monday. In August 2007, the Coast Guard awarded Northrop Grumman a $285.5 million contract to construct the Stratton. The 418-foot cutter, WMSL 752, is named in honor of Dorothy C. Stratton, the first female commissioned officer in the Coast Guard. Stratton served as director of the SPARS, the Guard's women's reserve, during World War II.

STENNIS SPACE CENTER — Forty years ago today, millions of Americans huddled in front of television screens to watch two U.S. astronauts walk on the moon, after getting there courtesy of a rocket engine that would become part of South Mississippi history. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to reach the moon’s surface — a feat that, even in these high-tech times, seems incredible. America listened as Eagle, the Apollo 11 lunar module, settled down on the moon and Armstrong made his announcement: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Memories of that late-night event, and...

Getting ready for the crowds. The Biloxi Town Green is all set and ready for the folks to express their views about the 0bama administration. It is hard to judge the attendance since there was a constant flow of people into and out of the event. Drivers on Highway 90 (bottom of image) were encouraged to "Honk for Liberty". There was a constant din of honks and thumbs up. Now that is an abortion I can support! Harrison County Supervisor, Connie Rocko, encouraged the crowd to 'get passionate', to get others involved, to ensure that everyone we know is registered...

JACKSON, Miss. – The estranged wife of former U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering claims in a lawsuit that the Mississippi Republican had an affair that ruined their marriage and derailed his political career. Leisha Pickering said in the lawsuit filed this week that her husband and the woman dated in college, reconnected and began having an affair while he was in Congress and living in a building where several Christian lawmakers reside on C Street near the U.S. Capitol. Chip Pickering is the third Republican with ties to the building at 133 C Street SE to find his personal life making...

Those of you who watched the beginning of the All Star game last night will have noticed that, when President Obama threw the first pitch, the camera shot was a close-up that made it impossible to see whether his pitch was on target. I found this odd, and so did Andy McCarthy. I'll make an educated guess that this was done at the insistence of the White House to prevent embarrassment in case Obama's pitch was a poor one. To be sure, the White House ultimately could not prevent everyone from seeing a bad pitch (YouTube and all of that),...

Link only, due to copyright restrictions: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090716/NEWS/90716027/-1/Nletter03/Ex-Miss.-politician-s-wife-sues-alleged-mistress?source=nletter-news

Alligator, Mississippi has a new mayor. For thirty (30) years, Robert Fava has served as the tiny town’s mayor but a new day has come. Tommie ‘Tomaso’ Brown is Alligator’s mayor. In a town that is mostly Black, and with the only three businesses operating, and all owned by Whites, Mr. Brown’s win has made history. Tommie Brown said he ran on a platform of “change.” Mr. Fava said he ran on a platform of “30 years of dedicated service.” Mr. Brown promised the residents of Alligator a swimming pool and a recreation center. Mr. Fava said he was also...

ELLISVILLE (AP) — Newton Knight still haunts the Piney Woods and swamps of southern Mississippi, 140 years after the Civil War. --------------------- snip Knight eventually took a former slave who helped him during the war as his second wife and started another family, siring white children with his legal wife, Serena, and children of mixed ancestry with Rachel. He lived with his black family much of his life after the war. “He’s in this hostile environment, across the color line — the worst sin imaginable — living openly and having children, posing in pictures with his African-American children and...

JACKSON, Miss. -- A federal appeals court has thrown out a $70 million settlement brokered by convicted former lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs. The settlement involved a dispute between the Republic of Venezuela and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. Scruggs, a chief architect of the multibillion-dollar tobacco settlements of the 1990s, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for conspiracy in one bribery case and mail fraud in another. In a July 9 ruling, a three-member panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that a district court in Mississippi erred when it declined Venezuela's appeal of the...

A tiny Mississippi delta town has elected its first black mayor after the white incumbent, unopposed for 30 years, faced a young challenger inspired by President Barack Obama's feat in winning the White House. In a shock result in Alligator (population 220), Tommie “Tomaso” Brown, 38, defeated Robert Fava, the mayor since 1979, owner of the general store and once his opponent’s boss, by 37 votes to 27. Mr Brown’s surprise victory was a milestone for Alligator, which is named after the curving lake nearby rather than the alligators that once occupied it. Although the only three businesses in the...

BILOXI — President Barack Obama and two big name governors — one involved in a recent sex scandal and another who announced her resignation — may not attend the National Governors Association meetings here this week. But as several states are still without a 2010 budget, many will come seeking strategies for infrastructure, education, energy and information about the federal stimulus funds, emergency management and other issues, all of which will be highlighted at the conference. The convention begins Friday, but at the end of last week, NGA officials said they weren’t expecting Obama to attend. The commander-in-chief is always...

A rally to re-assert states' rights and other freedoms will be held in Biloxi MS during the National Governors' Conference. Any Freepers that can, please join us and bring your friends. A Tea Party all day Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th. Food (Shed's BBQ), live music, vendors and speakers both days. The plans are still being finalized. Sponsored by the South Mississippi 9/12 Groups. Location: Biloxi Town Green 710 beach blvd Biloxi, MS

Haley Barbour emerged victorious this past week. While states nationwide were issuing IOUs, the Mississippi legislature actually passed a balanced budget albeit kicking and screaming from the pressure levied on them by Governor Barbour. This may be viewed historically as Governor Barbour's second greatest accomplishment of his term (the first being of course the response to Katrina). It will likely further serve to raise his stock among conservatives in the 2012 Presidential conversation. Remember where we came from before the Special Session. The Billy McCoy-led House wanted $0 hospital assessment on Medicaid. Governor Barbour got $60M that will increase to...

People from Mississippi are fat. With an adult obesity rate of 33%, Mississippi gobbled its way to the "chubbiest state" crown for the fifth year in a row, according to a new joint report by Trust For America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Alabama, West Virginia, and Tennessee aren't far behind, with obesity rates over 30%. In fact, eight out of the 10 fattest states are in the South. The region famous for its biscuits, barbecue and pecan pies has been struggling with its weight for years — but then again, so has the rest of the country....

Time is running out for the legislatures in Arizona, California, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania to solve budget gaps. The last time Indiana missed its deadline for passing a budget and had to shut down the government was during the Civil War. But on Monday... Indiana is one of five states -- along with Arizona, California, Mississippi and Pennsylvania -- bracing for possible shutdowns this week as time runs out for lawmakers to close billion-dollar gaps in their fiscal 2010 budgets. Of the 46 states whose fiscal year ends today, 32 did not have budgets passed and approved by their governors...

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) says he would be "very surprised" if he ended up running for president. He is in his second term as governor and became the head of the Republican Governors Association after South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford stepped down following his admission of an extramarital affair. On CBS's "Face the Nation," Gov. Barbour said that the $787 billion fiscal stimulus package passed earlier this year is "far too expensive." The Obama administration argues that it will save or create 3.5 million jobs over two years.

BEDFORD – The Republican party needs to rebuild itself from the bottom up, said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour last night before addressing a gathering at a New Hampshire State Republican Committee reception. "You're in the White House for eight or 12 years, you become a top-down party, I don't care if these are Republicans or Democrats. When you get out, you're liberated to rebuild your party from the bottom up," he told reporters before a reception at at C.R. Sparks, which was closed to the press. Barbour assumed chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association yesterday, following South Carolina Gov. Mark...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has assumed the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association, CNN has learned. Barbour immediately takes over as head of the national Republican campaign organization following South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s announcement he was leaving the post. Sanford acknowledged Wednesday that he had an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina. “The news revealed today hurts all of us who have gotten to know Governor Sanford over the years and so it is with regret that the RGA accepted Governor Sanford’s resignation as chairman,” Barbour said in a statement obtained by CNN that will be distributed Wednesday...

Southern barbecue is a must-have item on the set of “Live with Regis and Kelly” — after Brad Orrison finished taping his segment for today’s morning show, two smoked pork shoulders disappeared off the set. Orrison, his sister, Brooke Orrison Lewis and brother, Brett, were in New York for the taping of the show’s grilling contest, “Live’s Ultimate Hometown Grill Off” Wednesday and showed host Regis Philbin and his wife, Joy, (subbing for a vacationing Kelly Ripa) how he makes pulled pork sandwiches at The Shed BBQ and Blues Joint near Ocean Springs. “After it was over and the...

OCEAN SPRINGS — Little is known about whale sharks or why they come to the northern part of the Gulf by the hundreds in June and July, within 30 miles of the Coast. But they do. And biologists from USM’s Gulf Coast Research Lab took what they do know about the giant, docile animals from the data they have collected and went whale shark hunting last week. They were successful beyond their wildest expectations, placing satellite tags on three and measuring and documenting several more. Shark biologist Eric Hoffmayer and research assistant Jennifer McKinney, along with a German videographer...

KABUL, June 16, 2009 – The first Afghan officer to train in the United States in nearly 50 years earned his silver Air Force wings in a June 12 ceremony at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss. Col. Roger Watkins, 14th Flying Training Wing commander, presented pilot wings to Lt. Faiz Mohammed Ramaki upon his completion of the Aviation Leadership Program there. The USAF Aviation Leadership Program is a scholarship for USAF flying training that includes English language training, 25 hours of flight screening in a civil aircraft, such as a Cessna 172, 335 academic and ground training hours and about...

JACKSON, Miss. | If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white-male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour - the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor - the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes as the 61-year-old Mr. Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Mr. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors...

Not that long ago, owning a metropolitan newspaper guaranteed a seat at the civic table, immediate respectability and, given that many papers were near-monopolies, a press practically capable of printing money. Now it seems that the dollar that buys you a copy on a newsstand may buy you the whole organization behind it. And it doesn’t help that the last three big sales involving metropolitan newspapers — the Tribune Company, the Philadelphia papers and The Star-Tribune in Minneapolis — all ended in bankruptcy. It appears that The Boston Globe may be put in play by its owner, The New York...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour — the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor — the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes, as the 61-year-old Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states, but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors...

I'm not sure about posting Fox/AP, so I'll leave this blank.

ABERDEEN, Miss. (AP) - An Olive Branch man who admitted making threats against President George W. Bush has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Sharon Aycock sentenced Neal Allan Thomas on Thursday after he pleaded guilty in January to a charge of threatening Bush on the Internet site MySpace.com. After the 21-year-old's attorney cited a psychiatric report showing his client has mental problems, the judge recommended a medical facility where Thomas could get treatment while being held. Thomas was indicted Sept. 18, 2008, after someone turned him into the Secret Service.

BILOXI — A VH1 reality show contestant was arrested in Biloxi over the weekend while at the Beau Rivage for its monthly Fan Jam. “Tough Love” contestant Taylor Royce, aka Kelly Jean Stasilli of Scottsdale, Ariz., was booked Saturday on charges of resisting arrest and disturbing the peace at the casino resort. Assistant Police Chief Rodney McGilvary said police were called around 4:30 a.m. after a man complained he had loaned her his cell phone and she wouldn’t give it back. “She acted like a fool and was intoxicated and resisting arrest,” McGilvary said. Police didn’t charge her with...

BILOXI, Miss. — The price of electricity and fuel could rise sharply and economic growth could be stifled in the Southeast and elsewhere in the U.S. under tax proposals now pending in Washington, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Monday. At the opening of an energy conference sponsored by the Southern Growth Policies Board, the second-term Republican said cap-and-trade proposals on carbon emissions being pushed by President Barack Obama's administration would drive up the average Mississippi residential power bill by as much as 50 percent. Barbour also said proposed federal taxes on energy production would drive up the cost of gasoline,...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday that it would allow hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast still living in government-supplied trailers to buy their temporary homes for as little as $1. The government will also provide $50 million to help other trailer residents, whose homes were destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, move into rental or public housing. The assistance comes just days after the official start of the 2009 hurricane season and one month after FEMA announced that it was ending the temporary housing program it started in the aftermath of Katrina. The more than 3,400...

In an effort to put the lingering image of a failed government response to Hurricane Katrina to rest, the Obama Administration moved Wednesday to get about 5,000 Gulf Coast residents out of FEMA trailers through $50 million in housing vouchers and, for those interested, a chance to buy a trailer for as little as $1. A joint plan announced by the Federal Energy Management Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development would make the $50 million in newly appropriated money available on a priority basis to low-income Gulf Coast residents of Mississippi and Louisiana. There will also be...

STENNIS SPACE CENTER — A massive steel structure jutting into the sky not far from Interstate 10 is sending the world a message: NASA is taking the next step in hurtling humans back to the moon. Structural work was recently finished on the giant A-3 test stand. Now, things are moving further along in the construction phase. In April, Steel Erector Inc., of Lafayette, La., put the final steel beam on top of the towering test stand and bolted the beam in place, bearing the signatures of project team members. “We’re now 235 feet closer to going back to...

This is a proposed ballot initiative. The WST group is working with a couple of state legislators to get this on the ballot in the next state wide election. There will be a petition drive required. I'm sure all of you will be more than happy to pass the petition around for signatures. --------------------South Mississippi We Surround ThemWe, the People, of the State of Mississippi, being citizens of the United States, having witnessed the usurpation of our rights by the Federal Government, which were endowed to us by our Creator and the diminishment of the freedoms guaranteed to us by...

Antonio Adams (left) and Walter Pruitt, who rescued two young girls from a partially submerged vehicle Tuesday. Eye-witnesses say a 12-year-old was driving the vehicle when it plunged into a canal on Bartlett Street in Laurel. Thirty-seven-year-old Jermaine Broach of Laurel was arrested and charged with public drunkenness, hit and run, no insurance and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in relation to Tuesday’s automobile accident involving two minors. Broach was a passenger in a vehicle that was driven by Shante Nicole Wilson, 12, before it plunged over an embankment and flipped into a canal with swift flowing...

Interpreting the Constitution is a favorite American pastime. Differing opinions on just one sentence fill libraries to overflowing, and land legal cases in appeals courts and supreme courts from coast to coast.The Ninth and Tenth Amendments in particular are the basis for numerous "soap box" issues, precisely because their language is opaque and widely open to interpretation. Neither grants or denies specific powers; both provide instructions for how to read and interpret the rest of the document. The Ninth Amendment reads: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by...

Brazilian students transit during training at the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School. STENNIS SPACE CENTER — Twenty members of the Brazilian Federal Police have been training at the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School in Hancock County for the past nine weeks. The school trains international security forces in high-level riverine and littoral-craft operations and small-craft maintenance. Officials said the school usually runs 10 courses simultaneously for international security forces of up to 20 countries but focused all of its attention on the waterborne instructor course for the Brazilians. “The reason NAVSCIATTS exists is...

About now, high-school seniors everywhere slip into a glorious sort of limbo. Waiting out the final weeks of the school year, they begin rightfully to revel in the shared thrill of moving on. It is no different in south-central Georgia’s Montgomery County, made up of a few small towns set between fields of wire grass and sweet onion. The music is turned up. Homework languishes. The future looms large. But for the 54 students in the class of 2009 at Montgomery County High School, so, too, does the past. On May 1 — a balmy Friday evening — the white...

2012 Watch: Barbour to N.H. @ 1:46 pm by Jeremy P. Jacobs A day after we learned the Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) is heading to Iowa at the end of June, we find out that he also plans to head to New Hampshire. Barbour will headline an event for the New Hampshire Republican Party on June 24, one day before he's in Iowa. There shouldn't be any doubt that Barbour is at least considering a run in 2012.

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - The first African-American Navy Admiral had a very fitting tribute Saturday. He had a ship named in his honor. The USS Gravely, a guided missile destroyer, was christened Saturday morning in Pascagoula. With one swing the U.S.S. Gravely entered the service of the U.S. Navy. His widow, Alma Bernice Gravely described the moment. " You use two hands and you go right where you're said to hit it." Alma Gravely acted as sponsor for the christening. Her husband, Vice Admiral Samuel Lee Gravely , broke through every color barrier as he rose in the ranks of...

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour will headline a Republican Party of Iowa fundraiser in late June, fueling speculation the wildly-popular two-term governor may indeed have ambitions for higher officer. Barbour, 61, will be ineligible to seek another term as governor in 2012, but refuses to speak to his political future, saying only that “You can look for me not to run for re-election.” He will undoubtedly dismiss the candidate-type activity as inconsequential, as spreading the Republican Gospel, but no politician finds themselves in Iowa — the launch pad of every dark horse candidacy — by pure coincidence. Considered a highly effective...

Jason Talley and his two traveling companions had no plans of making a stop in Jones County when they were arrested by Jones County Sheriff deputies on May 14. Now Talley and his friends are going to make a planned trip to the area. This time, Talley and other crew members of motorhomediaries.com, are coming to the area to film a documentary. No date has been set for the week-long visit. “We have been traveling now for six weeks,” Talley said in a phone interview. “We have 60 videos on YouTube that documents our experiences. “It’s ironic to have these...

JACKSON, Miss. -- Seven cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Mississippi. Health officials say the new cases are in Lamar and Jackson counties. Through Wednesday there have been four cases reported in Harrison County, two in Lamar County and one in Jackson County. Health officials say an earlier reported case in Forrest County actually was in Lamar County.

Governors across the country are clamoring for a piece of the stimulus, eager to avoid laying off state employees, hoping to put their unemployed citizens back to work and trying to avoid widespread furloughs as budgets bleed red ink. They know that their citizens want to keep libraries open, teachers in the classroom, cops on the beat and firefighters ready to protect people and property. Except in the South. Southern governors--Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Haley Barbour of Mississippi--have been pressing the case that the federal stimulus bill is a mistake; they argue the emerging Republican...

PHOENIX (AP) - Sixty thousand people are expected to attend the National Rifle Association's annual convention that starts Friday in Phoenix. Organizers say the 3-day event is a celebration of America's Second Amendment rights and a gathering point for opponents of efforts to limit those rights. Friday's speakers include Sen. John McCain, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

Since the Supreme Court's notorious 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which allowed that municipality to seize private property on behalf of the Pfizer Corporation, 43 states have passed laws protecting property rights against Kelo-style eminent domain abuse. Mississippi is not one of those states. But that nearly changed in March 2009 when the Mississippi legislature voted overwhelmingly in support of a proposed law which would have guaranteed that "the right of eminent domain shall not be exercised for the purpose of taking or damaging privately owned real property for private development or for a private purpose;...

Jose Humberto Gonzalez Jose Humberto Gonzalez, the human resources manager for Howard Industries, Inc., was in federal court Thursday to hear the court’s 25 indictments against him. The indictment does not place any blame on the company. Gonzalez was charged with 25 counts of conspiracy and employee verification fraud following an August 2008 ICE raid at the Laurel plant and Ellisville headquarters of Howard Industries, Inc. He made his initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker at the United States Federal Courthouse in Hattiesburg. If Gonzalez is convicted, he could face a maximum of five years...

Frank Melton, the mayor of Mississippi's largest city, died early Thursday, two days after losing a primary re-election bid and days before he was set to stand trial on federal civil rights charges. He was 60. (snip) Trial had been set to start Monday for Melton and a former bodyguard, who each faced two federal civil rights charges related to a sledgehammer attack on a duplex on Aug. 26, 2006, that Melton considered a crackhouse. (snip) He became a fixture in poor neighborhoods, where he would talk to youngsters about personal accountability and hard work. He tried to broker a...