Free Republic

I am in the process of uploading all my outlines and notes for the Gospel According to Matthew. In the process I must first convert my word files to pdf, while editing them to be more presentable. Converting them to a pdft makes it easier to get the file to work in the blog. Not all of the outlines will be the same, since the original files were created over a span of a couple of years from 2006 to 2008 using a couple different programs. I originally did them as I prepped for my Study Nights and Sermons I...

Semi-official Fars news agency in Iran has published an outline of the expected nuclear agreement between Iran and Western powers. The most notable aspect of the deal is that "all economic, financial and banking sanctions against Iran will be terminated for good on day one after the endorsement of the deal." Iran currently faces economic pressure from several different sources. The United Nations began sanctioning Iran in 2006, after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the Islamic Republic was ignoring restrictions on developing nuclear weapons. The United States then began sanctioning the country in 2011, and the European Union...

The Veterans Affairs Department has been able to maintain most operations amid the government shutdown, but Secretary Eric K. Shinseki warned Congress on Wednesday that it will soon have to halt payments to more than five million beneficiaries. Mr. Shinseki said that by next month he will likely run out of money to cover disability and pension payments to veterans and surviving spouse, and will also have to halt GI Bill payments for education expenses. “Before the end of the month, the mandatory account will not support payments in November — even though I will have checks lined up to...

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Wednesday that he hopes to appoint judges to the international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri by the end of the year. In the report to the Security Council, Ban said the tribunal would not be established until the U.N. had an estimated $35 million to fund its operations through the first year, as well as an additional $85 million in pledges to pay for the following two years. The Security Council approved a resolution in May to establish the tribunal...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2007 – The war on terrorism has cost $545 billion to date, the department’s top budget official said today. Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas told reporters in the Pentagon that Congress has appropriated $452 billion for the war on terrorism via emergency supplemental budget measures. Another $3 billion has been appropriated for Operation Noble Eagle, the mission providing a combat air patrol over the continental United States and security at airports that started after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she said. The comptroller said DoD is asking for another $93.4 billion as part of the...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2006 – Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld briefed media in the Pentagon yesterday. Following is Casey’s opening statement: “It's been about three and a half months, I think, since I've been back here, and I just wanted to give you an update of where I see us in the mission here and then take your questions. “I think it's no surprise to anyone that the situation in Iraq remains difficult and complex. “What makes for that difficulty, complexity, a couple of things. One, since the elections...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., seemed to enjoy usurping courtesies by stepping forward to introduce Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., at a press conference Monday. "I'm the leader," Frist said to Burns as Burns was about to introduce the GOP's point man in the Senate. Frist's leadership skills will be tested during September as he has an ambitious agenda for legislation before Congress goes home at the beginning of October to campaign for the midterm elections Nov. 7. Frist said he hopes to get through conference committees and on to President Bush bills dealing with port security, the congressional response...

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 29, 2006 – The top U.S. general yesterday told the Afghan people they have made huge strides and that Afghan forces are now helping protect the country. In a news conference here, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke on several issues affecting Afghanistan. “Last night I had the privilege of having dinner with General Bismullah Khan (chief of the general staff of the Afghan National Army) and with several of his staff and several of the deputy ministers of the Ministry of Defense,” he said. “I found that setting to be...

CAMP PENDLETON -- Attorneys for the so-called "Pendleton Eight" are getting their first look at the government's evidence against their clients. A 250-page Pentagon report shows maps, diagrams, photos, and statements about an alleged incident in Hamdania, Iraq, in which military investigators say seven Marines and a sailor took an Iraqi civilian from his home, shot him and then tried to cover it up. Tuesday, the attorneys questioned the credibility of the Iraqi accusers, asking why it took the victim's family four days to report the death. Attorneys also said confessions were coerced, and that military members were not given...

NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin unveiled a new evacuation strategy for New Orleans on Tuesday that relies more on buses and trains and eliminates the Superdome and Convention Center as shelters. "There will be no shelter of last resort," Nagin declared. The mayor, facing a runoff election May 20, has been widely criticized for failing to get the city's most vulnerable residents out of town as Hurricane Katrina approached. The Superdome and Morial Convention Center became a scene of misery for days after the Aug. 29 hurricane as thousands of evacuees, many of them ill or elderly, languished with...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2006 – U.S. servicemembers and federal employees stationed overseas need to act quickly to request absentee ballots for this year's primary and general elections, a Defense Department official said here yesterday. This year, U.S. citizens will elect 34 senators, the entire House of Representatives, 37 state governors, and hundreds of state and local officials. Primaries begin in March, and the general election is Nov. 7. To participate in their home states' elections, servicemembers and overseas citizens need to complete a Federal Post Card Application requesting an absentee ballot, said Scott Wiedmann, deputy director of the Federal Voting...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2006 – U.S. efforts to help Iraqis set up an enduring democratic government will key on three critical areas this year, President Bush said here today. "History has shown that free nations are peaceful nations," Bush said in remarks to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "And by helping Iraqis build a lasting democracy, we spread the hope of liberty across a troubled region." The United States will focus on political, security and economic elements, Bush said, to further assist Iraqis to establish democracy in their country. "On the political side, we will help Iraqis consolidate...

Evelyn Leopold http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/un_annan_dc;_ylt=Ak8uJ3VvSPKytd39jkRAoTys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ-- UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Terrorism and conflicts across the Middle East will be major global issues in 2006, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a year-end news conference on Wednesday and he also lashed out at the media for its coverage of the oil-for-food program. Annan said he faced getting tough management reform proposals through the U.N. General Assembly and trying to solve the ongoing conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But he said he expected terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and the Middle East -- the slayings in Lebanon, the...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2005 – The U.S. is already on the road to complete victory in Iraq, the president's national security adviser told Sunday talk show hosts today. "We do have a strategy and we think we're making progress" on the president's National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, Stephen Hadley said on "Fox News Sunday." He added that "this is a difficult thing that's being done." Hadley said the subtitle of the strategy, unveiled Nov. 30, defined what the Bush administration considers a complete victory: "Helping the Iraqi People Defeat the Terrorists and Build an Inclusive Democratic State." Hadley said...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2005 – Iraq's security forces are in the fight defending their country and are increasingly taking the lead in operations, the U.S. military commander who oversaw Iraqi training for more than a year said here today. Significant progress has been made in training and equipping Iraqi forces over the last year, and many programs are in place to assist the development of a substantial military institution, said Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq. "To defeat an insurgency requires more than just individual police," Petraeus said at the Center for Strategic...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2005 – The coming year should witness more Iraqi security forces taking on insurgents and securing territory as a lasting democratic system is established, the senior U.S. diplomat told a Senate panel here today. The key to victory over the insurgency in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Senate Committee on Foreign Relations members, is to "clear areas from insurgent control, hold them securely, and build durable, national Iraqi institutions." American servicemen and women are fighting in Iraq "at a pivotal time in world history," Rice said. Efforts to defeat the insurgents "must succeed," she said,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2005 – President Bush today outlined the comprehensive strategy he said is showing progress in the global war on terror and will ultimately lead to victory over extremism. "We didn't ask for this global struggle, but we're answering history's call with confidence and a comprehensive strategy," the president said here during a keynote address to the National Endowment for Democracy. This strategy, he said, involves: Preventing terrorist attacks before they occur. This involves improving homeland defense and intelligence efforts and working with other governments "to destroy the terrorist networks and incapacitate their leaders," the president said. Denying...

As the Spirit and Opportunity rovers continue their extended studies of Mars, NASA's Mars program appears headed for change. The shift will be driven by a variety of factors including technical and budget issues, as well as a "rebalancing" of science objectives. NASA has been engaged since last year in what the agency calls a road-mapping effort to flesh out the details of a Mars master plan that would lead to an expeditionary crew landing on that remote world. One scenario that has been under active discussion is slipping the mission of the mobile, nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) from...

WASHINGTON - An upcoming Homeland Security Department report outlines a dozen frightening if hypothetical scenarios such as a terrorist nuclear attack or spreading plague in airport bathrooms to spur state and local preparedness against security risks. Over the last year, the department has drafted its National Planning Scenarios plan that poses the possibility of credible and destructive attacks — including by nerve gas, anthrax, pneumonic plague and truck bomb. The currently confidential report, requested by a presidential directive in December 2003, will be made public in upcoming months, Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Tuesday. Homeland Security "has developed a...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A top aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger described the administration's plans to reduce California's oil dependence, calling Thursday for more conservation, fuel-efficient vehicles, and hydrogen power. Terry Tamminen, the governor's newly appointed Cabinet secretary, delivered the speech by videotape at a conference on transportation. It was sponsored by Calstart, a consortium of government agencies and private companies, including automakers. Tamminen said drivers should try to conserve fuel in the near-term, with the midterm goal of buying more fuel-efficient cars and the long-term goal of finding cleaner fuels than petroleum, including hydrogen. "Proper tire inflation, using your...