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Sounds cool!

Imagine terrorists using new technology to trick planes into crashing into buildings. It may sound like a Die Hard movie, but the premise, which involves “GPS spoofing,” troubles our nation’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Spoofing became a big deal when University of Texas professor Todd Humphreys accepted a challenge a few years ago from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use this method to commandeer one of the agency’s drones via a GPS device. Much to their astonishment, he was successful.

“It’s easiest to understand GPS spoofing by comparing it with GPS jamming,” Humphreys told the Observer. “Jamming attempts to prevent the use of GPS, whereas spoofing attempts to fool the GPS unit into reporting the wrong position

When Ted Cruz refused to endorse Donald Trump in his Republican National Convention speech, he channeled his ideological opponent, Ted Kennedy, whose bitter primary fight with Jimmy Carter made him dodge the opportunity to raise hands with his opponent. It cost Carter the 1980 election, and might do similar damage to Trump.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz waged a bitter battle for the 2016 GOP Nomination with Donald Trump, being one of the last candidates standing. He and his wife were attacked by Trump over her looks, Goldman Sachs loans, accusations that his father had ties to Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy assassination. Cruz also gave as good as he got.

While many other prominent Republicans stayed home from the RNC in Cleveland, Ohio, Cruz showed up. But if Trump felt that the conservative firebrand would kiss his ring, he was badly mistaken. Cruz delivered a very lengthy speech where he encouraged people to vote their conscience, rather than vote for the GOP nominee.

Earlier that day, Trump twice used aerial vehicles (his personal plane and his helicopter) to buzz Cruz’s rally. In the aftermath of the speech, Heidi Cruz had to be escorted by Virginia delegate Ken Cuccinelli from the convention hall, ostensibly for her own safety. Ted Cruz was booed.

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It’s not too different from the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy waged a bitter primary fight against incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Kennedy struggled from the gate, and Carter built a powerful lead. Then Kennedy mounted a furious comeback, narrowing Carter’s lead going into the convention.

Carter desperately needed a show of unity at the DNC that year to take on popular GOP challenger Ronald Reagan. Kennedy received a prime time speaking role at the convention. But if Carter wanted a warm embrace to unify the party, he didn’t get it. Kennedy’s speech barely mentioned Carter. And the Massachusetts Senator deliberately ducked Carter, who followed him around the stage but failed to get hands raised together. Carter’s reelection chances, and the rest, were history. Carter is still bitter about that snub, blaming Kennedy for his loss.

Trump claims that it was “no big deal” at a post-speech tweet, but that same tweet also blasted Cruz for not “honoring the pledge.” Trump came out to try and pry media cameras away from the Texas Senator. New Jersey Chris Christie went on CNN to slam Cruz, calling it “political suicide.”

Trump tweeted that he saw the speech, while his campaign manager insisted there would be an endorsement. It’s the Melania Trump plagiarism all over again, where mistakes are made, lies are told afterwards about who is responsible, and the story hangs around and incredible excuses are made (like the My Little Pony), wasting an effectively partisan Mike Pence speech.

What will happen next? Ted Cruz is headed for my congressional district in West Georgia, where he will campaign for State Senator Mike Crane, backed by the Club for Growth, who is seeking an open Congressional seat in a bitter primary against West Point Mayor Drew Ferguson, favored by local GOP elected officials. It will be the first test of how Republicans will react to Cruz’s non-endorsement. We’ll find out later in November whether Cruz did the same damage that Kennedy was able to do 36 years ago.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu.

So I contacted Alex Nowrasteh for that policy perspective. He's the immigration policy analyst for the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. We met at the Association for Private Enterprise Education annual meeting in Las Vegas in the Spring of 2014.

I'm not sure how many have connected Boston with Valley Springs, California.

But would Romney boost economic liberty if he were to become president?

Let me know if you think this is a good analogy.

One reason is due to the stumbles of others. Whether it is mangling American history, or being clueless about foreign policy, or forgetting one of three agencies to be cut, the other candidates wilt under the bright lights. In the onslaught of debates, Newt Gingrich has consistently shown a grasp of the facts, the historical context, great one-liners (like buying Greek bonds if Obama wins).

Another factor is experience. Outside of Ron Paul, Gingrich has about as many years in national office or leadership roles as all of the others combined.

Race was a problem for Newt Gingrich early, as he labeled Obama "the food stamp president" while the media saw that as a signal for coded racism. Gingrich was able to neutralize that, at least among Republicans, with those professional Lincoln-Douglas debates with Herman Cain.

Finally, Gingrich has put his early mistakes behind him. Expensive charge accounts and lavish trips aren't smart moves in a slow recovery, but these goofs are not illegal, and now they're old news.

To get past these cases and look at what a lot of voters did, I look at the 2006 U.S. election, when several African-American Republican candidates ran for statewide office. I examine three pairs of statewide elections to see if there is any drop off from the white GOP candidate to the black GOP candidate. The study also looks at four states from the same region where there was a white GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate as well as a white candidate for the the state’s governor mansion.

I don’t mind all of the criticism of my column so much. In fact, I posted it here so I could get some media-free feedback on this idea. I like to see the free-wheeling exchange of ideas, and the humorous digs.

I’m not sure what a troll is, but I had forgotten that I had “joined” on March 3, 2010. I must have been responding to some comment about another article. When I registered today, I was surprised to see that I already had an account.

You’ll be pleased to know I get paid next to nothing to post on Yahoo News, so don’t worry about me making a ton of $ by posting this here.

I take it that you have the power to have me blocked for posting an opinion about Rick Perry. I didn’t realize that was the “wrong” answer. For a site titled “free republic,” it’s not the opinion I expected.

If you block me, that’s your call. So be it.