Free Republic

Debra Medina (R), candidate for Texas Governor, addresses illegal immigration and the fact that D.C. has announced the deportation of 37,000 illegals from other states through Presidio, TX. Current Gov. Perry sends handwringing letter to Janet Napolitano while border sheriffs are left trying to devise ways to block the 37,000 from swarming back over the border into TX, further destroying the economy.

Fort Hood soldier returns home to Wis. Updated: Friday, 27 Nov 2009, 12:54 PM EST Published : Friday, 27 Nov 2009, 12:53 PM EST LODI, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin soldier injured in the Fort Hood shootings spent Thanksgiving with his family, reminding all of everything they have to be thankful for. Army Reserve Specialist Grant Moxon was shot in the leg when Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire Nov. 5, and three of Moxon's friends died. Moxon told WISC-TV in Madison the memories are still raw, and Thanksgiving at home means a time to recover emotionally as well as physically....

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Bloomberg Uses Ft. Hood Murders To Push Gun Control   Thursday, November 26, 2009   In another transparent attempt to undercut the Second Amendment fresh on the heels of his hidden-camera attack on gun shows, Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has alleged that the multiple murders that took place on Ft. Hood recently could have been prevented by changes in federal gun laws. In an ad in the Washington Post on Monday, Bloomberg’s group claimed that the Ft. Hood murder suspect’s “gun purchase could have been key to the...

WASHINGTON — After several years of fighting the U.S.-Mexico border fence, a coalition of Texas elected officials is working with the Obama administration on ways to improve border ports and facilitate trade while fighting drug smuggling. The Texas Border Coalition's involvement with policymaking comes after a bitter tangle with the federal government over construction of the fence that Congress and the White House approved, but border business leaders and human rights groups opposed. “We've got to work together,” said Chad Foster, Eagle Pass mayor and the coalition's chairman. “But that is where the wheels came off the cart — when...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's decision to shift the production of Army trucks from Texas to Wisconsin after 17 years caught Texas' elected officials by surprise, raising questions about overconfidence, a loss of political clout and the impact of economic incentives provided to the winning company by Wisconsin's Democratic governor. Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry and the 34-member Senate-House delegation are rallying to salvage a deal for BAE Systems that could be worth $2.6 billion and sustain 10,000 direct and indirect jobs around the sprawling truck manufacturing plant in Sealy. But as one Democratic operative puts it: “That's like having...

By Jason Embry | Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 04:14 PM The high command of Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign is encouraging supporters to participate in something called Operation Intervention, which is an effort to convert supporters of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison before the filing period begins Dec. 3. The goal of this operation seems to be convincing Hutchison not to run. In a Saturday memo to “interested parties,” Perry consultant Dave Carney wrote, “Between now and the filing period December 3rd, I would like to ask you to engage in Operation Intervention by reaching out to Hutchison supporters...

11/25/2009 - FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (AFNS) -- Susan and Joseph Kosek are thankful for many things. This Thanksgiving they're especially thankful for tourniquets, helicopters, "battle buddies" and scores of doctors and medics across the globe. They're also thankful for the mine resistant ambush protected vehicle that absorbed most of the blast from a 35-pound improvised explosive device meant to kill their daughter. "Wendy called me a few hours after she was brought to the Green Zone and said, 'I want to talk to Dad,'" Mrs. Kosek said. "We didn't' know the extent of the injuries and neither did she."...

Kay Bailey Hutchison said Wednesday that she made a mistake by supporting the initial $700 billion bailout of the nation’s financial industry and would change her vote if she had the chance. Hutchison said the implementation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program was flawed and the money wasn’t being used by banks to lend money to small businesses and prospective homebuyers. “If I had known how TARP would be spent, I would take it back in a heartbeat,” the senator said during a taping of WFAA’s (Channel 8) Inside Texas Politics. “They spent money not on helping the housing industry,...

Country music legends Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, most famously known for their song "All the Gold in California", have released their first new album in 5 years entitled Pilgrimage. Nineteen (19) songs and stories comprise this stellar CD with several tracts paying homage to the late great Man in Black, Johnny Cash. The CD is available for purchase from their website for only $9.99 + S&H. If the low price is not incentive enough, they have included 5 re-recorded versions of classic hits that you can download for free ... The three brothers recently performed a song from...

Guest speaker Dr. Clifford L. Fry will speak at the Town Hall on Health Care sponsored by the Harris County (Houston, TX) Conservative Congressional Campaign. Dr. Fry is the Executive Vice President of RRC, Inc. an economic policy consulting group in College Station, Texas. A native Texan, Dr. Fry received his Ph.D. in Economics from Texas A&M University in 1972. He is a former Chairman of the Department of Finance at the University of Houston. He has also published a variety of research papers in leading finance and economics journals. In addition to his position at RRC, Dr. Fry has...

LAREDO, Texas - A U.S. program that offers trusted trucking companies speedy passage across American borders has begun attracting just the sort of customers who place a premium on avoiding inspections: Mexican drug smugglers. Most trucks enrolled in the program pause at the border for just 20 seconds before entering the United States. And nine out of 10 of them do so without anyone looking at their cargo.

University of North Texas students have voted down a referendum that would have allowed same-sex couples to be elected as the school's homecoming court starting in 2010. The University of North Texas Student Government Association released the results Monday on its Web site. The referendum was defeated by a vote of 2,836 to 2,059, with 13.5 percent of the student body casting ballots. Get Denton County news and resources If the referendum had passed, UNT would have become one of the first universities in the country to allow same-sex couples to run for homecoming court beginning in 2010. Unlike some...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2009 – The leaders of the Pentagon’s review board on the Fort Hood, Texas, rampage reported for duty here today to begin their 45-day investigation to what led to the mass shooting, a Pentagon official said. The Nov. 5 shooting at Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Center left 12 soldiers and one Army civilian dead and 30 others injured. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced Nov. 19 that the initial review board will be headed by former Army Secretary Togo West and former Chief of Naval Operations Vern Clark. West and Clark met with their staff, which consists...

Rise in kidnappings prompts more who cross regularly to seek training Security training companies in Texas and elsewhere, bolstered by an alarming increase in kidnappings and violence in Mexico, are finding a new niche in clientele: Americans and Mexicans living, visiting and working across the border. “Mexico has been very good for business lately,” said Dan Johnson, who holds a senior position for consulting and training with ASI Group, a Houston-based private intelligence and global risk-management company. Mexico is often seen as the kidnap capital of the world, with the State Department reporting in an advisory for travelers that dozens...

How nine Houston men were assaulted and robbed in the ranchlands of Mexico MEXICO CITY — Like generations of Texans, nine Houston hunters traveled each autumn into northeastern Mexico's wildlife-rich ranchlands for a few uninterrupted days of shooting game, far removed from the workday world. But that ended abruptly last month after the men were rounded up, robbed and terrorized by well-armed marauders. The nine were wrapping up an afternoon of white-wing dove hunting about 100 miles south of the Rio Grande when a dozen men, armed with assault rifles, roared into the grain field in pickup trucks. The businessmen,...

MATAMOROS — Mexican newspapers are reporting the death of a Brownsville woman after a Mexican army soldier in Matamoros accidentally misfired his weapon Lizbeth Marín Garcia, 36, was pronounced dead early Saturday morning at the Alfredo Pumarejo General Hospital. According to various newspapers including El Diario, El Bravo and Contacto, Marín was inside a friend’s house at approximately 11 p.m. Friday at the corner of Primera and Solernau streets when a stray bullet went through a window, through the couch where she was sitting and struck her in the back piercing a lung. The shot was an accidental misfire from...

The defense attorney for the Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood reportedly has said his client will probably plead not guilty and that an insanity defense is possible. "I anticipate that the plea will be not guilty," Retired Army Col. John Galligan told ABC News. Maj. Nidal Hasan will be confined until his military trial, initially staying in a hospital where he is recovering from gunshot wounds, the attorney said. Hasan has no feeling from the chest down and has limited movement in his arms. When asked if he would enter an insanity plea for Hasan,...

Is Congress, behindhand on Barack Obama's deadlines on health care and cap-and-trade legislation, and flummoxed by the failure of the stimulus package to hold unemployment below 10.2 percent, prepared to address the immigration issue next year? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says it better be. The current situation, she told the Center for American Progress on Nov. 13, "is simply unacceptable." We need a "three-legged stool," with provisions to strengthen enforcement, legalize some illegal immigrants and improve "legal flows for families and workers." Ironically, the push for legalization in 2006-07 resulted instead in stronger enforcement measures. Some 600 miles of...

Cedar Creek, Texas (CNN)– Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Thursday that he hopes Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison remains in the Senate and acknowledged that he has spoken with her about challenging Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary. Barbour, head of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), would not elaborate on his conversation with Hutchison, but did say he personally hopes Perry wins another term. "I would just hate to lose Kay Bailey in the Senate," Barbour said at a news conference during the RGA's annual meeting. "She has been a great senator. I would just hate to lose a great...

Gov. Rick Perry on Monday defended efforts he once made to have girls vaccinated against the HPV virus that can lead to cervical cancer. "I've always though HPV was an issue of life," Perry said in Dallas. The governor was responding to a reporter's question about the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's decision to stop requiring that immigrant girls and women seeking green cards get the HPV, or human papillomavirus vaccine. Two years ago Perry, in the face of extreme opposition, ordered a HPV vaccination program in Texas. He said it would have had an opt out provision....

Gov. Rick Perry's campaign, not too surprisingly, pounced on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's comment on Meet the Press that if Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner deserves to be fired, members of Congress do, too. "Senator Hutchison finally admitted that she is part of the problem with the out-of-control spending in Washington," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner. "After supporting record deficits, bailouts and earmarks during her more than 16 years in Washington, most Texans would agree with the Senator's statement, 'We shouldn't keep our jobs either.'" Hmmm. Doesn't that contradict Perry's old standby that Texas is better off if Hutchison stays in...

Students at Al Soonobar School greet Soldiers with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, Nov. 18, in Jaber Mohamed Village, Iraq. Photo by Spc. Lisa A. Cope, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). COL ADDER — U.S. Soldiers here delivered supplies and stuffed animals to students at the Soonobar School in Jaber Mohamed Village, Nov. 18. Lt. Col. Clinton Moyer, chief of civil operations with the 36th Sustainment Brigade out of Temple, Texas, has worked with the school's staff and the local community for roughly a year to build a new school.Moyer, a Clearwater, Kan., native, said the new school...

Perry has seemingly begun to build a case of grievances against the federal government. His primary points: -Current administration is “hell-bent” on socialism Washington is now actively punishing Texas through it policies -Health Care Bill would eat up Texas’ $9 billion rainy day fund in 1.5 years -Cap and Trade would cap the entire southern economy Texas may have to reassert 10th amendment protections I will not pretend to know whether Perry is sincere or if this is simply positioning himself for the upcoming primaries. But that’s not the point… certainly these statements indicate the mood of many of the...

A woman accused of holding down a child while her husband sexually assaulted the girl — an act captured on video — pleaded guilty in a Travis County courtroom Friday and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Mariana Garcia's punishmentfor two counts of aggravated sexual assault was part of a plea bargain with prosecutors. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Charges are pending against Garcia's husband, Adrian Navarro, 30. Garcia, 24, showed little emotion during the proceedings before state District Judge Bob Perkins. At one point, prosecutor Joe Frederick asked her whether Navarro is her...

The Yemeni-American imam who's been under renewed scrutiny after the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, preaches against alcohol, birthday parties, black magic and extramarital sex. He also supports armed struggle — jihad — against the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has encouraged extremist insurgents in Pakistan and Somalia. None of that sets Anwar al Awlaki, 38, apart from other militant Sunni Muslim clerics — and even many mainstream ones — in the Middle East. Awlaki uses digital means to spread his views, however, through a blog, lectures on YouTube and Facebook pages with more than 1,000 fans....

Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison have agreed to a debate before their hotly contested Republican gubernatorial primary next spring. Officials at KERA-TV (Channel 13) said Friday that both candidates accepted a Jan. 14 debate in North Texas. The primary is March 2. KERA says Hutchison might ask for the debate to be reset if it conflicts with a Senate vote on health care reform. The hourlong debate will include an audience and questions from journalists. It will be distributed to all TV and radio stations in the state.

Fort Hood Texas Shootings Free Republic Archives PART IIORIGINAL Fort Hood Archives... If you create a new thread, feel free to post a link to it here as well. If you post a link, you don't have to ping it to me..just take my name out of the ping field. The last time it filled my ping box pretty fast. My thanks to ALL who helped create the previous thread. Our prayers Continue...... Fort Hood's Fallen HeroesBy Freeper La Enchiladita...

November 13, 2009 at 1:09 pm On local Houston radio 2 days ago a private from Ft. Hood called into the AM talk show on 950AM. Since then the host has verified just to be sure that the man was indeed an injured soldier so as not to be fooled. Anyway, the private was with some others that were not critically hurt in a ward. He called in to offer the “difference” between the visit from President Bush vs the visit from President Obama. As you stated, no one knew President Bush was coming, he just showed up. WITH NO...

A more assertive Environmental Protection Agency is demanding that Texas tighten its pollution rules, drawing the ire of companies and some of the state's political leaders. At the heart of the dispute is an EPA threat to void some of the state's air-quality regulations, which it says break federal law. The agency also is studying whether oil refineries -- of which Texas has many -- emit dangerous amounts of toxins. Texas is the top carbon-dioxide-emitting state in the nation. State regulators say they have built a system that simplifies the permitting process, for example by regulating emissions from entire facilities,...

An Illinois woman is charged with a hate crime for berating a Muslim woman about the Fort Hood shooting and then pulling at her headscarf. The charge could lead to three years in prison: justice or prosecutorial overkill? In the days after the Ft. Hood shooting, mosques around the country bolstered their security in anticipation of a backlash from Americans angry about a Muslim man alleged to have killed American soldiers on their own turf. Since then, only one alleged hate crime against Muslims has been directly tied to the Fort Hood rampage. Two days after the rampage by an...

A hardware store clerk in Nacogdoches, Texas used his handgun to fend off a knife wielding criminal. Police say that a man in the Cason-Monk Hardware store on the 300 block of Commerce St became upset and was asked to leave. The man reportedly left, only to return armed with a knife, which he used to threaten the life of a store clerk. The clerk is said to have grabbed a handgun, causing man to flee. The clerk, who didn't have to fire a shot, was unharmed. Police are seeking the suspect, who was described only as a Caucasian male...

Note: The following text is a quote: Dallas Resident Uriel Palacios Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison for His Role in Cocaine Trafficking and Money Laundering Conspiracy Related to Mexico's Gulf Cartel DALLAS—Uriel Palacios, 23, of Dallas, was sentenced this morning by Chief U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater to 360 months (30 years) in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Palacios pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and one count of conspiracy...

More than 1,000 illegal immigrants awaiting trial for serious crimes in one major U.S. county were instead deported by federal immigration authorities and freed in their home countries. The released offenders include at least 128 murderers, more than 400 child rapists and molesters, some 300 charged with aggravated assault and dozens more accused of sexual assault, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and other grave felonies. The offenders’ newfound freedom came courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that provided a one-way ticket home after bail was posted in their state criminal case. This sort of voluntary deportation to...

One of the BEST ways to stop vote fraud is to volunteer as an Election Judge, Clerk, or Poll Watcher. I need help in Clear Lake, Texas for the Houston Mayoral Runoff Election on December 12, 2009. You MUST be a registered voter who lives within the city limits of Houston to qualify. This election is for practice. When you have the training, you can go on to become an Election Judge, Alternate Judge, or Poll Watcher in a precinct where fraud is expected. There are over 50 precincts just in the Houston area where fraud has been a problem....

A top Senate Republican lashed out against lawmakers of both parties for supporting legislation that would audit the Federal Reserve, accusing the bipartisan group of “political pandering” to populist anger. Sen. Judd Gregg, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, says he’s worried that politicians on Capitol Hill are sacrificing the Fed’s historic independence because the Fed has become unpopular during the economic crisis. “This move to bring the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy under the control of Congress is a grave threat to our economy. Congress has demonstrated time and again its inability to manage the nation’s fiscal...

by JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV Posted on November 20, 2009 at 12:56 AM WYLIE - A canister of pepper spray is now at the center of a Wylie dispute after a North Texas man found out what most people don't know, anyone who carries it can face a felony. Jason Simpkins admitted he looked suspicious when a Wylie officer stopped him while he was driving his truck with a jet ski inside his lawn mowing trailer. It happened early on the morning of August 22. "I didn't have a problem with it at first," Simpkins said. "I gave him my...

Amateur fossil hunters Jamie and Jonathan Hiscocks were looking for dinosaur remains in East Sussex, UK, when they instead found tiny spider webs trapped inside a piece of ancient amber. Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier inspected the amber, which was assigned an age of over 100 million years. He concluded that spiders back then were able to spin webs just like today’s garden spiders.The amber-encased webbing formed concentric circles like those that contemporary orb-weaver spiders manufacture. Also evident were “little sticky droplets along the web threads to trap prey,� Brasier told the Daily Mail. He added, “You can match the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2009 – The director of a Muslim veterans organization said he welcomes Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’ announcement today of a Pentagon probe into the attacks at Fort Hood, Texas, calling it a matter of national security. Qaseem Ali Uqdah, executive director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, and a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, credits military leaders with establishing a climate that’s prevented any backlash against Muslims servicemembers since the Nov. 5 shooting. Gates announced a sweeping review today that will look into events leading up to the rampage that left 13 people...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today announced the Defense Department will conduct a broad review of the Nov. 5 Fort Hood, Texas, shooting that left 13 dead and dozens injured. Former Army Secretary Togo West and retired Navy Adm. Vernon Clark, former chief of naval operations, will head the initial 45-day review, which will inform a follow-on investigation expected to last four to six months. “The shootings at Fort Hood raise a number of troubling questions that demand complete but prompt answers,” Gates said during a Pentagon briefing. “It is prudent to determine immediately whether...

DALLAS - Dallas police are looking for Tony Romo – not the football player, but a man they believe has robbed multiple area businesses. Police suspect 21-year-old Anthony Elias Romo is one of two men responsible for at least 10 robberies since August 15, including one at the Azteca Meat Market on Forest Lane and one at the Big C Grocery on Irving Boulevard.

Austin man has been charged with killing and gutting a deer in a North Austin greenbelt area. Justin Martindale, 27, is charged with illegal hunting. An affidavit says he headed out in October, dressed in camouflage clothing, after baiting a deer in the Walnut Creek greenbelt behind his apartment. The affidavit says Martindale shot a white-tailed buck with a compound bow, then gutted and quartered the animal. The Walnut Creek greenbelt is city-owned property.

The Great Rift Valley extends some 4,000 miles southward from Syria north of Israel, through the Gulf of Aqaba, through Ethiopia, and all the way to Mozambique in southeast Africa. It harbors a giant fault, which has been under investigation as a model for sea floor spreading. A recent geologic event rent a gaping crack through the desert of Ethiopia, causing safety concerns for locals. These crustal plate motions may foreshadow rifting events further north in the Great Rift Valley...

Barbara Ann Radnofsky,Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state. The amendment declares that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." But the troublemaking phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B: "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Architects of the amendment included the clause to ban same-sex civil unions and domestic...

Our high-benefit/high-tax model no longer works, especially compared with low-tax states like Texas. In America's federal system, some states, such as California, offer residents a "package deal" that bundles numerous and ambitious public benefits with the high taxes needed to pay for them. Other states, such as Texas, offer packages combining modest benefits and low taxes. These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right. It's not surprising, then, that there's an intense debate over which model is more admirable and sustainable. What is...

Easiest to find video on her site. Great interview with The Judge! She is one ballsy intelligent determined Conservative and just what we need here in Texas! I'm becoming more and more impressed with her knowledge and poise and less so w/ Gov Perry and Senator KBH - the old dogs mouthing a rubber message. Medina is pushing hard for fighting the Feds with NULLIFICATION and INTERPOSITION while interjecting that GUN RIGHTS and PROPERY RIGHTS are the foundation of freedom!

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

She sounds off on Ron Paul, health care, and, of course, liberty. BY MATT SNYDERS Michele Bachmann is a regular fixture on the cable news circuit. When it comes to print, however, she takes a more measured approach; she declined a phone interview with the New York Times last month, insisting on a Q&A via email. She gave City Pages the same deal. Here's what she had to say: City Pages: Your appearance with Rep. Ron Paul surprised some folks. At first blush, it would seem the two of you might come down on very different sides on a lot...

HOUSTON — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to allow additional DNA testing requested by a Mexican national condemned for the gruesome killing of a 16-year-old girl in San Antonio. Thirty-six-year-old Humberto Leal, from Monterrey, Mexico, wanted more testing to try to clear him of the May 1994 bludgeoning death of Adria Sauceda. Her body was found on a dirt road not far from a party they both attended.

EL PASO, Texas -- The widespread violence in Juarez is affecting a lot of things in El Paso, including the UTEP athletic program. The basis of UTEP's athletic teams are formed by recruiting student-athletes from across the state and country to study and play in El Paso. And now many of them, especially their parents, are now expressing concern about what is going on across the border. UTEP's campus is located just a few football fields away from Juarez, where thousands have been murdered this year, and that is not easy to hide. "I just recruited a girl from Sweden...

Brownsville, TX (The Weekly Vice) - Anthony Carrazco, a 19-year-old Brownsville man was jailed Thursday after he allegedly went door-to door trying to sell marijuana until he knocked on on the door of a cop's house. According to police, Carrazco knocked on the doors of several apartment residents until he reportedly knocked on the wrong person's door. Investigators say Carrazco went up to an officer’s door and tried to sell him three ounces of marijuana. The deputy grabbed his badge and placed Carrazco under arrest. Police reportedly found Carrazco in possession of a 9MM handgun, a scale, and three ounces...