Free Republic

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tried to slam conservative media, claiming they will not report on the corruption investigation of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez. The Mexican president mistakenly claimed that conservative news outlets would provide cover for Menendez because he was a “Republican… from Texas.” The statements came during his Monday news conference where the Mexican politician briefly discussed the case. Video “These news outlets from the right, conservatives, are not going to say that they found gold bars,” Lopez Obrador said. “The Republican Senator Bob Menendez from Texas, he has always been against us. They are not going...

<p>The photograph, published last week in Pakistani newspapers, was stunning. It showed a magnificent mountain goat, with huge, symmetrically spiral horns, nestled on a rock and surrounded by breathtaking snowy mountains, with a man kneeling and smiling behind it.</p> <p>It took a few seconds to realize that the animal, a wild Astore markhor, was dead. The caption described the man as an American hunter who had paid a record $110,000 to shoot it on a tourist expedition to Pakistan’s northern Himalayan region of Gilgit-Baltistan.</p>

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, returned home to a rousing welcome in Texas on Saturday after his attempt to derail Obamacare with a shutdown of the federal government led to sharp criticism of his tactics as reckless and futile. "After two months in Washington, it's great to be back in America," Cruz joked in speaking to a crowd of about 750 people in a packed downtown San Antonio hotel ballroom. Cruz was greeted with an eight-minute standing ovation in an appearance organized by the Texas Federation of Republican...

Michael Stravato for The New York TimesBruce Labay, a businessman in El Campo, Texas, on Friday. Mr. Labay expressed his supportfor Senator Ted Cruz by attaching plastic foam cups to a fence.HOUSTON — Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and the face of the angry right, has been criticized, lambasted and lampooned for putting the nation through a 16-day government shutdown and the prospect of a financial default. Bloomberg Businessweek put him on its cover as a mad hatter who defines how “crazy is the new normal.” Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from New York, has said Republican leaders...

Culpeper (United States) (AFP) - There was no mistaking the muscular roar of the big radial engine as the most famous trainer to come out of World War II soared above this rural Virginia town. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the North American T-6 Texan, the big tandem-seat warbird in which countless pilots from dozens of countries honed their flying skills. This weekend, some 30 Texans will set off from Culpeper, 70 miles (115 kilometers) outside Washington, and fly up the Potomac River, over the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery, to mark a unique aeronautical milestone.

After being carried through the streets of London in a flag-draped coffin aboard a gun carriage, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest this morning in St. Paul's Cathedral. But the big story of the day wasn't Maggie. No, it was a 19-year-old Texan who stole the show from the deceased Iron Lady. With a poise reminiscent of the elder Thatcher, Amanda Thatcher, Margaret's granddaughter, delivered a reading from Epistles that has the British media agog. Amanda, who lives with her mother in Texas, chose a rather militant passage that calls on believers to "put on the...

The telegenic Texan took two steps forward sitting in the “center chair” on Fox Monday evening. One step backward too alas, but more about that in a bit. Gov Perry was relaxed and alert as he fielded a variety of questions. He smartly used his answers to remind conservatives why they should consider him. This is a man who is a quick study and a formidable politician. Instead of just Texas this and Texas that he pointed out that the Lone Star state all by its lonesome is the 13th largest economy in the world. A nice way to pivot...

Has anybody tried this near Perry and watched his response, I often wonder, would he pass the test ... How to Determine whether or not a person is a true Texan

you. Let me begin by thanking Dr. Solomon Frager and Aron Hirtz for helping us organize this press conference today. We are indignant that certain Middle Eastern leaders have discarded the principle of direct negotiations between the sovereign nation of Israel and the Palestinian leadership, and we are equally indignant that the Obama Administration’s Middle East policy of appeasement has encouraged such an ominous act of bad faith. Simply put, we would not be here today at the precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama Policy in the Middle East wasn’t naïve, arrogant, misguided and dangerous. It must...

NEW YORK — When George W. Bush left office, countless pundits proclaimed — if not in so many words — that it would be a chilly July in Dallas before Americans sent another Texan to the White House. And sure enough, that argument is prominent in discussion of Gov. Rick Perry's potential presidential bid. But with Republicans still searching for a front-runner, and Perry flirting with a run, Texas fatigue may prove less enduring than predicted. "Why not? Listen, anything's better than Obama," said Philip Ragusa, the Republican chairman in Queens, just across the river from Manhattan, where Perry headlined...

The commander of the U.S. military unit responsible for killing elusive al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden — Vice Adm. William H. McRaven — is a San Antonio native and graduate of the University of Texas in Austin. McRaven, 55, earned a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1977, although a campus dean said a computer listing didn't indicate whether the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps member had an interest in the print side of news coverage, broadcast or public relations. A fellow ROTC member recalled McRaven as eager for military service. "He was extremely focused on preparing for special forces details,"...

An apparition of the Virgin Mary has been spotted by residents of a rough Texan city - and they believe it is a sign for them to mend their ways. New Braunfels has a population of just over 50,000 and is notorious for its high unemployment levels, poverty and crime. But the sighting of Mary has raised spirits and renewed the sense of hope, just before Christmas.

Texas, the Lone Star state, is no stranger to American Idol, and this year Texans have a 1 in 4 chance of winning American Idol now that Christopher Golightly has been eliminated from competition and replaced with Tim Urban from Duncanville, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, TX. (click here for the story) No other state has as many contestants as Texas: 6 of the top 24, which is the equivalent of 25%. California and Illinois each have 3; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Florida each have 2; New York, Connecticut, Ohio, and Iowa each have 1. Out of those six from...

If you were born in San Antonio, you might not want to say so out loud. That might be 'racist.' In one of the more bizarre attacks yet in the 2010 race for governor, 1200 WOAI news reports Democrat Farouk Shami, a Houston hair care products millionaire is blasting claims in an ad being run by fellow Democrat Bill White. In his latest ads, designed to build statewide name recognition for the three term Houston mayor, White says he was 'born in San Antonio, the son of schoolteachers.' Shami, during a campaign event in McAllen Thursday night, said that comment...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico emerged from its swine flu isolation Tuesday as thousands of newspaper vendors, salesmen hawking trinkets and even panhandlers dropped their protective masks and joined the familiar din of traffic horns and blaring music on the streets of the capital. There were still signs, however, of the virus that set off world health alarms. A Texas woman who lived near a popular border crossing was confirmed as the 28th person -- only the second outside Mexico and the first U.S. resident -- to die from the virus. Across Mexico, people were eagerly anticipating this week's reopening...

A 114-year-old woman, considered the oldest person in Texas, has died at a Dallas retirement home. Arbella Perkins Ewings celebrated her birthday March 13 with a proclamation from Mayor Tom Leppert and speeches by friends and family. She blew out all 114 candles on her birthday cake. Ewings was born March 13, 1894, the fourth oldest of 12 children whose great-grandparents had been slaves in Mississippi. She married Frank Ewings in 1915, and they moved to South Dallas in 1936, where she worked as a housekeeper until the 1960s. -snip Her only surviving sibling, Annie Lee Perkins, is 103.

I am a long-time poster here, but I have to admit that I never gave Ron Paul serious consideration because (1)many of his most vocal supporters are nuts and (2) he can't hold his own in a debate. But looking at the substance of the man, I finally realized his conservatism is almost exactly the same as mine: He is a small government, pro-life, pro-marriage, constitutionalist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Ron_Paul#Stem-cell_research_regulation If not for his unpopular stance on the futility trying to police the globe, I think he would have had much more support among the GOP's conservative base.There is just no way, now...

DUBLIN, Texas - Another day, another bizarre world record for Jackie Bibby, the "Texas Snake Man." Bibby spent about 45 minutes in a see-through bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes Monday, fully clothed, shattering his own record by 12 snakes just in time for Guinness World Records Day, which is Thursday. A Guinness official certified the record. The snakes crawled under his arms, between his legs and anywhere else they could slither, Bibby said. None bit him. "They can go wherever they want as long as they don't start biting," Bibby said. "The key to not biting is for me to stay...

Some believe that the Southern drawl has expanded to the point where, arguably, more than half of all Americans now glide their diphthongs and hush their R's like modern-day Rhett Butlers. Some professionals who travel around even adopt different regional dialects as they go, knowing it's one of the best ways to get ahead. But other experts believe mass communications and urbanization are cutting away at the distinctiveness of the Southern voice, resulting in a more mono-pitch America.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Texas oilman David Chalmers and two companies he owns pleaded guilty on Friday to paying millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Iraq in connection with the United Nations oil-for-food program. Chalmers, 53, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, just weeks before he was due to go on trial with Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt. Earlier on Friday, Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian oil trader based in Houston, pleaded guilty to smuggling. Prosecutors said Dionissiev, 61, worked with Chalmers to buy Iraqi oil for Chalmers' companies -- Bayoil...