Free Republic

ATTORNEY General Eric Holder's decision to send the radical Islamic terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks to New York City for trial is horribly misguided. This public-safety mistake will further endanger our city and the lives of New Yorkers. New York City has always been in the crosshairs of terrorists seeking to attack our nation. Our city likely will always be the No. 1 terrorist target, but yesterday we had another bulls-eye placed on our backs, inviting yet another terrorist attack. The trials for these murderous terrorists are expected to be long and drawn out -- perhaps taking years, thanks...

California's newly minted budget deal was threatened late today after the Assembly Republican leader said he would withhold GOP votes because of an emerging Democratic proposal to release thousands of prisoners to home detention and county jails and create a commission to review criminal sentences. In an e-mail to his colleagues titled "Budget Double-Cross?" GOP leader Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo said the budget agreement with Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger clearly ruled out "early prisoner releases." Moreover, he said leaders had agreed to tackle the prison issue in August after the main budget bills had been approved. Votes...

Chunks of this city's rich and eclectic architectural history tumble to the ground every few days, piece by piece, forever lost in the rubble. Neo-Baroque and Art Deco treasures deteriorate at an alarming rate. Every three days, there are two partial or total building collapses in Central Havana alone, according to architectural experts. No official figures are available. "Buildings are standing by sheer luck," said architect Jose Antonio Choy, president of a Cuban nonprofit organization devoted to the conservation of Havana's modern architecture. In September, after Hurricane Ike's lethal 41-hour odyssey across much of the island, authorities reported 67 buildings...

On Jan. 10, 2008, it was 22,000. This past New Year's Eve, it was 15,000. Two weeks ago Friday, it was 8,000. Now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration – looking down the barrel again at a massive budget crisis – is talking about letting 38,000 inmates out of prison before their time is up. Proposals 1 and 2 never got off the ground when the governor's budget writers eventually found the money to keep the prisons full. More recently, the administration never followed up with legislation to enact the early releases corrections Secretary Matt Cate announced on April 24. The latest...

SNIPPET: "Fourteen years ago today Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway." SNIPPET: "A final note - Aum Shinrikyo operatives, on the order of the cult's leader, underwent flight training in Florida. There is no evidence that they made any attempts to use this training. It is just an odd, disturbing coincidence."

After two fatal tower crane accidents last year, New York City instituted a series of reforms to increase safety and oversight in the construction industry, including requiring a 30-hour class for crane operators and other workers on the safest way to raise and lower a tower crane. But some sessions of the city-mandated class are being taught by a union official who has admitted that he helped unqualified people, including organized crime figures, get into his union, according to sworn testimony and investigative reports. He and other union officials helped some of those men secure licenses to operate smaller cranes...

NEVER-BEFORE-REVEALED TERRORIST TRAINING VIDEO EXPOSES 35 COMPOUNDS ON AMERICAN SOILBy Steve Foley - Posted on February 9th, 2009 Press Release from the Christian Action Network “Act like you are his friend. Then kill him.” – Sheik Muburak Gilani explaining how to kill American infidels Washington, DC—Christian Action Network will show Homegrown Jihad at the Landmark Theater in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2009, at 7:30 pm. There is no charge to attend the viewing. Copies can also be obtained at www.christianaction.org. The American public was never supposed to know. The 2006 Justice Department document that exposes 35 terrorist training compounds...

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations. The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany. The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order...

A military judge has refused the Obama administration's request to delay proceeding for 120 days in the case of a detainee held at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is accused of planning the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship, an al-Qaeda strike that killed 17 service members and injured 50 others. The decision throws into some disarray the administration's plan to buy some time as it reviews individual detainee cases as part of its plan to close the prison. The Pentagon may now be forced to withdraw the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a...

WASHINGTON -- If you're a criminal and you're not entitled to be in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wants you out of the country. Napolitano wants what she calls "criminal aliens" off American streets. She is looking at existing immigration enforcement programs to see if taxpayers are getting the most bang for their buck. "That sounds very simple, but it's historically not been done," Napolitano said, speaking to reporters and senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Thursday. About 113,000 criminals who were in the U.S. illegally were deported last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The agency...

Some home builders already struggling in Florida's dismal housing market are facing another headache: The Chinese-made drywall they used is causing unpleasant odors and possibly leading to electric problems in dozens of homes constructed during the housing boom.

Removing All Doubt Obama Would Cede Southwest to Mexico American Patrol Report -- December 19 "We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not" Anyone who still doubts that Barack Obama is determined to grant de-facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens should explain to the rest of us why he picked Hilda Solis to be Secretary of Labor. A long-time supporter of la Reconquista, the Mexican takeover of the American Southwest, Solis is also a leader in the movement to silence Americans who speaks out against the invasion, specifically Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly. At a...

By Michael Webster, Syndicated Investigative Reporter Early this month U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Tucson, Ariz. sector and agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were again fired upon with what appeared to be military type automatic weapons by Mexican drug smugglers dressed in military garb. Agents after observing a Flatbed tow truck on the Mexican side of the U.S. Mexican border backed up to the new international border fence. According to witnesses the tow truck backed up on a newly constructed earthen dirt berm which put the truck almost even with the height of the fence. The tow...

Naming his national security team, President-elect Obama acknowledged that the attacks in Mumbai once again emphasized the threat of terrorism and the importance of these picks for “a new dawn of American leadership.” But Obama’s choice for Secretary of Homeland Security, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, has a record of opposing border control to stop the flow of illegal immigrants (and therefore the criminals, gangs, drug smugglers and terrorists that inevitably accompany it). She also opposes any internal controls to detect and prevent illegals from unlawfully exploiting the benefits and privileges of our society. Under Napolitano, “change” for DHS may mean...

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month claimed some 500 casualties, dead and injured. Among the many questions raised by the outrage, there was a purely practical one: Why was the attack so successful? How could so few terrorists claim so many victims? One obvious answer is firepower. Guns were illegal in the hands of both the terrorists and the victims. The victims obeyed the laws, the terrorists didn’t. The police had guns, of course, but instead of protecting people, they stayed away until the massacre was practically over. Gun laws -- surprise, surprise! -- weren’t strong enough to defend...

Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk." As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies. Huckabee said Saturday that his comments came at a time when the public was still learning about HIV and AIDS and promised to do "everything possible to transform...

Figures from program's first 6 months show drop in accidents, tickets By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News Dallas officials believe the city's electronic red-light spies are causing motorists to hit the brakes. Preliminary statistics show that accidents and citations are drastically down at intersections with red-light cameras during the first six months of the program, according to a report presented to the City Council's public safety committee Monday. "Police can't be at intersections at all times, but technology can," said Zaida Basora, an assistant director of the city's Public Works and Transportation Department. In Dallas, nearly 30 percent...

Homeland Security: A bill to protect citizens who report terror threats became law only Friday, yet it's already working to back down terror-supporting bullies. The so-called "Flying Imams" dropped passengers as defendants in their bogus case just days after Congress reached a deal to shield terror tipsters from race-bias suits. The Muslim clerics were kicked off a US Airways flight in November after passengers warned crew members the clerics were behaving like the 9/11 hijackers. Democrats shamefully tried to strip the provision out of homeland security legislation President Bush just signed. It took a former Democrat — Independent Sen. Joe...

A few weeks ago, David Bennett turned off Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades and pulled into a nearly vacant parking lot at Temescal Gateway Park to use his cellphone. When he was finished, he passed a stop sign at Temescal Canyon Road and continued back to Sunset. Then he heard from the state authority that runs the park and other open spaces along the Santa Monica Mountains. "They sent me a letter telling me I didn't really stop," said the Malibu contractor. "They said it was a 'courtesy' letter because they weren't collecting the fine yet." That will change next...

Plane flies despite safety problem Reuters | Tuesday, 12 June 2007 A pilot told nervous passengers travelling with a low-cost Spanish airline that nearly half the seats on their plane were out of use due to a safety problem but it was nothing to worry about, a Spanish newspaper reported. As passengers took their seats on the Lisbon to Madrid flight operated by Vueling Airlines on Sunday they noticed that all but three of the 32 rows on one side of the plane were taped off, according to an El Mundo reporter among the travellers. The captain told them on...

Today, the United States is expected to formally approve a new "open skies" aviation trade deal with the European Union (EU). The Bush administration has failed to satisfy congressional critics who question the pact's impact on long-standing law and policy limiting foreign control of our airlines. And aviation workers are deeply concerned that this agreement is a down payment on a broader Bush administration strategy to allow foreign control of our airlines and decision making that threatens thousands of American jobs. This is not hyperbole. Led by Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar, key House members in both parties wrote...

Sunday, February 25, 2007I yield to no man in my devotion to multitasking or my aversion to government poking its nanny-state snout into my business, OK? So if I could do something to keep the butt-inski state out of my life, I'd be right there -- especially if I could accomplish another task or two at the same time. But this conservative favors the proposed ban now before the Legislature on using cell phones while driving. I have come to understand the wisdom in Petrula Betsis' definition of multitasking: "screwing up a lot of things all at once." Silly me,...

A man fleeing police at speeds in excess of 120 mph was arrested after crashing into two other cars in separate incidents during a midafternoon chase on northbound state Route 163. The 25-year-old suffered injuries in the second collision near Kearny Villa Road and was taken to a hospital. Two other drivers injured in the crashes also were hospitalized. The incident began about 2:30 p.m. in Hillcrest on Vermont Street, where a woman called 911 to report that her boyfriend had threatened to commit suicide by crashing his blue BMW convertible on a freeway. Police spotted him driving away from...

Scores of criminals might have eluded immediate capture had a controversial new plan to limit Houston police vehicle chases been in effect in the past 18 months, department records show. Police Chief Harold Hurtt's proposal, set for a hearing Monday at City Hall, would restrict his officers from engaging in lengthy pursuits when a fleeing motorist's only known crime is a Class C misdemeanor, such as a traffic violation. That was the reason officers gave for almost half the chases recorded in the past year and a half. Yet when those chases ended and suspects were questioned, 40 percent said...

It was the fourth night after Hurricane Katrina, and something like a thousand patients, doctors and staff were trapped at Medical Center Louisiana in downtown New Orleans, surrounded by floodwaters. Outside, reports were grim. People were drowning in their attics. Inside the hospital, there was no running water, no power, no phones and no Internet. Cell phones didn’t work. Each day the authorities said evacuations were about to begin, but nothing happened. The staff thought they’d seen everything the disaster could bring. Then, in the middle of the night, a pregnant woman dragged herself out of the foul, dark water...

Did you know that in California, child molesters and rapists are a protected class? It's true. Not only are California landlords banned from using the state's Megan's Law database to decline renting their properties to sex offenders, they're not even allowed to warn other tenants that these paroled criminals are now their neighbors. If they do the first, they can be fined $25,000 for housing discrimination. But if they don't do the second, they can be sued for failing to protect tenants against a known danger. Landlords are caught between a rock, a hard place and the California State Assembly's...

America today is The Happy Land of Make-Believe. We’ve become exquisitely adept at ignoring reality when it offends the prevailing cultural ethos. But reality always reasserts itself in the end – often with deadly consequences. Take gender differences. In the Happy Land of Make-Believe, we like to pretend that men and women are interchangeable – physically as well as psychologically. According to feminist dogma, women can be tough and aggressive – men sensitive and nurturing. Hence women firefighters, female soldiers and 5’ 2” cops. In Atlanta, on Friday, reality had the last word. Brian Nichols, a former college football player...

It's not every day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revokes a visa issued to a Swiss-national scholar scheduled to teach at one of America's premier universities. But this has just happened, and it's a good thing too. The Swiss scholar is Tariq Ramadan. He is Islamist royalty – his maternal grandfather, Hasan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood, probably the single most powerful Islamist institution of the twentieth century, in Egypt in 1928. Tariq is a Swiss citizen because his father, Sa‘id Ramadan, also a leading Islamist, fled from Egypt in 1954 following a crackdown on the brotherhood. Sa‘id...

THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE From Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Democratic group crucial to Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign has paid felons — some convicted of sex offenses, assault and burglary — to conduct door-to-door voter registration drives in at least three election swing states. America Coming Together, contending that convicted criminals deserve a second chance in society, employs felons as voter canvassers in major metropolitan areas in Missouri, Florida, Ohio and perhaps in other states among the 17 it is targeting in its drive. Some of the felons lived in halfway houses, and at...

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California governor who made his name playing movie tough guys, is under attack for freeing a record number of "lifers" from prison. The governor has granted parole to 34 convicted murderers and kidnappers in his first seven months of office, an astonishing record compared with his predecessor. Democrat Gray Davis, the former governor, freed only eight life sentence prisoners in his four-and-a-half years in office. The Terminator star turned Republican politician believes, however, that "people can reform and be reformed". But his approach has brought criticism from victim support groups. Harriet Salarno, president of Crime Victims United...

After witnessing a weekend of self-congratulatory festivities marking the January 1st debut of Houston’s MetroRail transit system, the hometown newspaper’s editorial board could hardly contain its exuberance. “Viewed from any angle,” opined the Houston Chronicle, the kickoff celebrations were a sure “sign of good things to come.” To the board, itself a merciless campaigner for rail, the roughly 15,000 people in attendance suggested that a “large helping of crow” was in order for transit critics. Reports from Houston spread quickly causing the Arizona Republic’s editorial page to gloat “critics rail at light rail to no avail.” After all, what...

<p>Gov. Gray Davis may be a lame duck, serving the final weeks before Gov.- elect Arnold Schwarzenegger takes over, but he is still signing laws that will challenge the state's economy for years to come.</p> <p>In a last-minute payback to the public-safety unions that have pumped his campaigns full of cash, Gov. Davis signed two "bust the bank" laws that will lavish pay increases on police and firefighters, and could even threaten the solvency of California cities.</p>

Unified public safety academy launches after one-year in developmentby Pfc. Chris JonesMOSUL, Iraq (Sept. 27, 2003) – A new academy designed to combine training facilities for all public safety agencies throughout Mosul opened Saturday.The Mosul Public Safety Academy will house the training for all public safety occupations in Mosul, including law enforcement, fire fighting, emergency medical assistance, traffic violations, investigations and traffic investigations. Before this academy, public safety training sites were scattered around the city. A unified school ensures all students receive similar, equal training.One year and more than $100,000 was spent building the academy.A host of leaders of...

<p>FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) A police officer who was fired for violating an obscure state law banning smoking among public safety workers plans to fight his dismissal, which was based on an anonymous letter.</p> <p>Wayne Jeffrey, a seven-year veteran of the Fall River force, was fired May 29 after an internal investigation, prompted by an unsigned letter that claimed he smoked tobacco at a party.</p>

<p>Pittsburgh, like other cities, has gotten good at preventing fires. Improved building codes, new sprinkler systems and wide use of smoke detectors have all combined to cut the number of structural blazes. Credit is also due to a well-trained and well-equipped fire department.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In Arizona and Los Angeles, police are replacing law enforcement mainstays such as mugshots and lineups of suspects with technology some call Mr. Potato Head. The photographic database and facial recognition systems, called Crime Capture and CrimeWeb, allow investigators to pick different types of facial features to search databases for criminals. It's not unlike the toy famous for allowing kids to change body parts on a potato, police said. "We've named it Mr. Potato Head in Arizona," said Cyndy Pellien, administrative services officer for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. "You can pick different types of...

KFWB news reporter Erin Kotecki met me yesterday at the Ontario International Airport (ONT) and spoke with SSAF USA LLC president Nick Ashton on the phone. She had been to the airport but really didn't pay that much attention to the amount of glass in the terminal. She acted almost astounded. KFWB news 980 in Los Angeles is running a series today about what would happen if a bomb blast went off in the short-term parking lot, which is only 150 feet from the terminal. The company with which I am associated, SSAF USA LLC, has been raising the issue...

<p>The federal agency set up to oversee airline safety is allowing the Lee County Port Authority to bend a 300-foot security rule by building a parking garage 225 feet from the new Midfield Terminal.</p> <p>The decision by the Transportation Safety Administration has raised concern about public safety.</p>