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SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Navy minesweeper that got stuck on a reef off the coast of the Philippines will have to be dismantled and removed in sections, a process that is expected to take over a month, Navy officials said Wednesday. The salvage plan is still under review by the Philippine Coast Guard, but it likely means the end for the 23-year-old USS Guardian. “Our naval architecture and salvage experts have reviewed all possible alternatives, and our only supportable option is to dismantle the damaged ship and remove it in sections,” Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Anthony Falvo wrote...

A mother was forced to stand at a police cordon and watch as her 16-year-old son bled to death after he was stabbed to death with "swords" in a busy central London street.The boy, who has not been named, was heard screaming for his life as he was attacked in Lupus street, Pimlico, shortly before 7pm yesterday, eyewitnesses have claimed. He was rushed to hospital where he died from his wounds, becoming the first teenager to be killed in London this year. Scotland Yard have launched a murder inquiry and said that they are keeping an “open mind” on the...

A government watchdog says U.S. taxpayers stand to lose $27 billion from the 2008 financial bailout, up from an estimate of $22 billion made in the fall. A report issued Wednesday by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program says the estimate is higher because of increased losses for the Treasury Department on sales of shares in bailed-out companies. Ally Financial, the former financial arm for General Motors, still owes $14.6 billion of the $17.2 billion in aid it received. The report says taxpayers can expect to lose $5.5 billion on that investment because of the company's...

[Thanks to all Freepers who helped out.]After nearly five hours of heated testimony and debate, a measure that would have required mandatory background checks for firearm purchases from gun shows or private vendors failed to advance in the New Mexico’s House of Representatives. ...One Democratic legislator, Rep. Eliseo Alcon, D-Milan, joined with the committee’s Republican members in voting against the legislation. The other Democratic committee members voted in favor it. ...Note that: ... About 180 people attended the hearing, a turnout so large that debate on the bill was moved to the floor of the House of Representatives, the most...

President Obama has wrapped up his $1.6 million campaign event immigration reform speech in Las Vegas, Nevada. "Now is the time for common sense, comprehensive immigration reform," Obama said. Piggybacking off of a bipartisan immigration reform plan presented by eight Senators yesterday, Obama called on Congress to quickly come up with legislation. "We can't allow immigration reform to get bogged down in endless debate," Obama said. "For the first time in years, Republicans and Democrats seem ready to attack this problem together." Although Obama focused on further enforcement as a top priority for reform, he stressed the need to expedite...

FBI agents raid South Florida office of eye doc tied to gift, prostitution controversy with Sen. Bob Menendez Source link. FBI agents raided the West Palm Beach business of an eye doctor accused in the conservative press of providing free trips and even Dominican Republic prostitutes to New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez — who has denied what he calls the “fallacious allegations.” Agents gathered at the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a contributor to Menendez and other prominent politicians, late Tuesday night to start hauling away potential evidence in about a dozen white vans. The exact focus of the...

The elite media and scores of journalists on the left are outraged today because a group of pro-gun rights activists allegedly “heckled” Neil Heslin, the father of six-year-old Jesse Lewis -- one of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre -- during a Connecticut hearing on gun violence on Tuesday. Here’s the MSNBC clip making the rounds on Twitter: But wait. As Twitchy points out, the original video has obviously been altered and tampered with (fast forward to the 15:05 mark):VideoIt’s abundantly clear that someone at MSNBC doctored the original video in order to (a) push their radical,...

An event this past Wednesday at Loyola University Chicago featuring former Obama administration official Van Jones strayed far from the marketed title of “2013 MLK Celebration,” instead encouraging students to embrace a “new patriotism” and the “ugly-unequal founding” of America. Several students reported that they were compelled by their “environmental sustainability” professor to attend the radical lecture—students who up until that evening told me they had no prior familiarity with Van Jones. One student interviewed said approximately thirty students attended this class.

HUNDREDS of NSW police officers have mounted a series of aggressive raids across western Sydney over the past five days, marking a dramatic shift in the force's response to the city's escalating gun violence. For the first time, senior police say, Sydney's Islamic leaders are co-operating with their investigations, but they warn more help is needed or the community risks losing one of its children to the shootings. While the violence has seen six men shot dead in the past four months, detectives fear a possible escalation through the use of more powerful, military-grade weapons or homemade bombs. Earlier this...

Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel protested what he called the “completely distorted” record on Israel that his critics are promoting in an interview earlier this month with his hometown newspaper. The former Nebraska senator said an accurate assessment would show “unequivocal, total support for Israel.” Yet a decade earlier, the same newspaper–the Lincoln Journal Star–quoted Hagel making a startling accusation against Israel in a Jan. 12, 2003 article. Israel, Hagel declared, was “keep[ing] Palestinians caged up like animals.” Hagel does not elaborate on the claim or explain how Israel keeps Palestinians caged up like animals

CLARENCE, N.Y. (WIVB) - In Clarence, tempers flared as gun-owners met with state officials to talk about the New York SAFE Act. The Clarence library was packed with around 200 people in an area meant to hold 90. Many acknowledged they only turned up to protest. But some, while opposed to the law, just wanted questions answered. The point of the meeting was to answer questions about New York State's new restrictions to gun ownership. And that's why Vincent Dewind was there. "Some came to protest. I came to learn about the law," he said. He by no means supports...

My fellow citizens, the hubris, contempt and felonious disregard for truth, decency and honor by condescending government elitists is breathtaking. At what point will constitutional abuses and treason amounting to High Crimes & Misdemeanors generate your personal outrage? Have you no shame? Is is too much to expect our so-called media organizations to drop the gushing infatuation and public displays of affection during their evening shows, events formerly known as “the evening news”, and actually serve their viewers by showing enough respect to hold elected criminals accountable? Or do you ask, as Hillary cackled before the Senate, “What difference does...

According to Gallup, President Obama is tied with George W. Bush for most unpopular re-elected president since Gallup began measuring presidential job-approval in 1945. In fact, Gallup found that apart from Bush, "every president...has had a higher job-approval rating in the January following his reelection than Obama has." Obama´s approval rating is at 52. Think about it this way--following reelection, President Reagan´s approval numbers beat Obama´s by 11 points, President Eisenhower´s beat Obama´s by 21, and a much-derided Republican President named Richard Nixon

<>Dubai Police called in to finally shut-down bash The Springs in Dubai is known to be a quiet, even sleepy, residential community where in most households children are in bed by 8.30pm. A few days ago, however, residents were up until midnight as 50-odd teenagers decided to hire a villa in Springs 11 for some fun and frolic. Apparently, a teenager decided to ‘rent’ the vacant villa and throw a party for his friends – and theirs. What began in late evening as a small get-together of a handful of teenagers swelled to a 3-bedroom villa playing host to more...

What do my fellow Freepers think about holding gun owners to the same identification standards as voters? Liberals don't think we have a voter fraud issue, I don't think we have a gun owner issue. Make sense?

VOTERS will go to the polls on September 14 in what will mark the longest election campaign in the nation's history. In a speech at the National Press Club Prime Minister Gillard confirmed the election date. The Prime Minister said her early announcement would allow business and consumers to "plan their year". But it was also a challenge to the Opposition to deliver policy detail sooner than it might want. "The benefit of fixing the date now is not just the end of speculation about election timing. It gives shape and order to year," she said.

The House, under the leadership of Speaker John Boehner, has precipitated a postponement in the debt ceiling fight until May. This represents a strategic choice by Boehner to make the Sequester fight, not the debt ceiling fight, the next major engagement. Much of the mainstream media now is accusing Congress of “kicking the can down the road.” They are missing the strategic implications. In retrospect, at the Battle at Fiscal Cliff, Boehner took President Obama to the cleaners. He did it suavely, without histrionics. While Obama churlishly, and in a politically amateurish manner, publicly strutted about having forced the Republicans...

The commander of U.S. Special Operations Command said Tuesday that his unit’s budget would lose $1 billion this year as a result of the defense budget stalemate in Washington. During an annual National Defense Industrial Association conference for special operators, Navy Adm. William McRaven noted that the Defense Department is operating on a continuing resolution, which limits spending to 2012 levels, even as automatic, across-the-board spending cuts called sequestration are set to begin March 1. “The continuing resolution … in all honesty puts a greater constraint on us than sequester

A store calling itself Fearless Distributing opened early last year on an out-of-the-way street in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, offering designer clothes, athletic shoes, jewelry and drug paraphernalia. Those working behind the counter, however, weren't interested in selling anything. They were undercover agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives running a storefront sting aimed at busting criminal operations in the city by purchasing drugs and guns from felons. But the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang. Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF...

For many Americans, Fox News is their “alternative” choice for news. They’ve made it the No. 1 cable news network, largely because they believe its “fair and balanced” promotional slogan? Many even believe Fox leans to the right and provides news they can’t get anywhere else. But is Fox really different from the rest of the media? Or has it been successful merely at positioning itself as different? Would it surprise you to know that individuals at News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, gave nearly six times as much money to Barack Obama than Mitt Romney in the...