Free Republic

Via Telephone 1:32 P.M. EDT Q Once again, we are thrilled and honored to have with us the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Mr. Vice President, welcome back. As always, great to have you here. THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, good afternoon, Rush. Q All right, question: Is the President -- are you and the President, the administration aware of the dissatisfaction on the whole issue of illegal immigration that exists not just within the Republican base, but within the country at large? THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes, we are, I think, Rush. In my travels out around the...

May 18, 2006 Dear Mr. Speaker: On May 15th, I outlined to the Nation a comprehensive immigration reform initiative with five objectives. As part of my first objective to secure our Nation's borders, I ask the Congress to consider the enclosed requests for an additional $1.9 billion for the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security, which is in addition to supplemental funding requested on February 16th for the Global War on Terror and the consequences of Hurricane Katrina. This additional amount is offset by a $1.9 billion reduction in the amount requested on February 16th for the Department of...

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. It's nice to see so many members of Congress at this end of Pennsylvania Avenue. (Laughter.) And you've come for a really good reason. This is a good day for American workers and families and businesses. You have passed a bill that will keep our taxes low and keep our economy growing. And I'm really pleased to be able to sign this vital piece of legislation. Thank you for your leadership. (Applause.) I'm glad you're here, and so is the Vice President. I'm proud...

DELAND -- County Councilman Bill Long was arrested early this afternoon on a domestic violence charge after he was accused of striking former domestic partner Patrick Fulton and then damaging Fulton's DeBary home, a Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman said. An aggravated stalking complaint also has been referred to the State Attorney's Office by deputies. Long, 43, was arrested at about 2:20 p.m. and taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach for processing, the spokesman said. Bill Long Patrick Fulton The arrest grew out an incident the night before that began when Long is accused of striking...

State Farm Insurance Co., the largest home insurer in Florida, is seeking to boost premiums by an average of about 70 percent, the company said today. Meanwhile, an Ormond Beach firm headed by former state Sen. Locke Burt will be taking over thousands of Allstate policies

DAYTONA BEACH -- A thundering blast and black smoke shooting skyward jolted a cyclist from a tranquil afternoon ride. Steve Sliwa stopped his bike, jumped through some hedges and spotted an elderly woman trapped in a burning car in front of her home near Champions Drive. Steve SliwaMerry Banks' burned car sits near her home in LPGA International. Banks backed the car into a power company box, and it caught fire. Passer-by Steve Sliwa pulled her from the car as it burned. Banks was not injured. Merry Banks, 88, had lost control of her sedan as she was backing out...

MADRID - World No. 3 Maria Sharapova has demanded women players receive equal prize money as men. "I believe women are strong, bold and powerful and deserve to be treated the same as men," the 19-year-old Russian told a news conference on Thursday. "There has been a long debate about equal prize money but these things take time. If we keep pushing we'll eventually get there." Of the four grand slam tournaments, Roland Garros and Wimbledon still have a differential in prize money between the men and the women, although the French Open will pay the men's and women's singles...

DAYTONA BEACH — The unemployment rate in Volusia and Flagler counties has fallen to historic lows, leaving employers scrambling for workers. In March, the rate was 2.8 percent in Volusia and 2.6 percent in Flagler, both lower than the statewide rate of 3.1 percent, the state Agency for Workforce Innovation reported today. The March unemployement figures for Volusia and Flagler counties are the lowest ever recorded and reflect an exceedingly strong job market locally and statewide. But some counties had even lower jobless rates. Walton County, in the Florida Panhandle, had the lowest number -- 2 percent. And 12 other...

DELAND — A man who is accused of allowing his mother's dead body to decompose inside her house so he could continue to cash her Social Security checks is being sought by DeLand police. An arrest warrant was issued for Robert Eugene Bea, 50, after police discovered a woman's decomposed body inside the home at 411 West Voorhis Avenue in DeLand on March 24. Police believe the woman is Bea's mother, Veronica Bea, and that he was aware she had died but had not told anyone. It is not clear how or when she died but police said there were...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi authorities arrested five suspected terrorists linked to February’s deadly attack on the world’s largest oil processing facility, a security official said Tuesday. One of those arrested is on the country’s list of 36 most-wanted terrorist suspects, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. He did not identify that suspect. Militants driving two vehicles packed with explosives tried to enter the Abqaiq oil processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia on Feb. 24. Guards opened fire on the vehicles and they exploded, killing the two suicide...

DAYTONA BEACH -- When NAACP president Cynthia Slater was arrested at Black College Reunion by sheriff's deputies earlier this month, a top ranking officer of the Daytona Beach Police Department tried to come to her rescue. Lexie Williams, deputy police chief, ordered a sheriff's sergeant to "unarrest" Slater, but the sergeant refused, according to a sheriff's report obtained Friday by The News-Journal. The report details Williams' apparent anger when Slater, a popular activist, was handcuffed on State Road A1A on April 1. Deputies said she interfered with a traffic stop. She was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without...

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's wallet just bulged a little more. With lawmakers ready to negotiate an already-flush budget, economists said Wednesday the state will bring in nearly $1 billion more in taxes than had been projected earlier. The increase -- which comes on top of a similar $3.2 billion jump in November -- immediately touched off speculation about how lawmakers should use the money as they draw up a new budget during the coming weeks. One possibility: Setting aside at least part of the money to help offset a $1.7 billion deficit in the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Without help...

The local NAACP president was arrested Saturday afternoon on misdemeanor charges after an altercation with deputies after she attempted to hand a flier to the driver of a car involved in a Black College Reunion traffic stop. Cynthia Slater, president of the Volusia County-Daytona Beach Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the past six years, was charged with two counts of resisting an officer without violence, disorderly conduct and obstruction of a street. But Slater and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office have very different views on what occurred on North Atlantic Avenue during the...

New York Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson is suing former girlfriend Laurel Roszell for $97,000 for child-care payments he made for Heather, a 16-year-old child he fathered but kept secret, the New York Daily News and New York Post reported Tuesday.

A wealth of data show strength By LARRY KUDLOW Columnist Despite the grim picture the mainstream media continue to paint about just about everything, there’s one thing they just can’t taint: This U.S. economy remains very healthy.It’s always amazing to listen to conventional demand-side economic pundits who try as hard as they can to minimize the excellent performance of the American economy ever since lower marginal tax-rate incentives were put into place almost two-and-a-half years ago. The latest chant is that a warm winter has artificially stimulated consumer spending and that a day of reckoning marked by a housing-price crash...

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Please sign this freedom of speech petititon. Blame the Joooooooooooos. So said Ahmadinejad here ...... Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also lashed out at the offending newspapers, which have carried the drawings in the name of freedom of expression, as "prisoners of a bunch of blood-sucking Zionists." If you think the cartoon uprisings, or the riots in France and Australia are isolated incidents and diconnected, keep drinking the Kool- Aid, because that is where you will wind up -- dead. These are dry runs for the really big shoe. Connect the Islamic dots.Hamas Leader Khaled Mash'al at a Damascus Mosque:...

This is the space where I get to crow about the frightening precision of my Super Bowl prediction. Where I get to remind everyone that I guaranteed the Steelers would win the title after they beat the Colts. That they were the only championship-caliber team among the final four. That they would dismantle the Broncos in Denver and waylay whomever the NFC sent at them.snip I've never felt so empty being right. I feel dirty. I wish I'd been wrong. The Steelers did not deserve to win this game. They were not the better team. O'Connor was right. Seattle was...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95. Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared. "To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said. Lewis,...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Monday reported quarterly profit surged 27 percent, capping a record year dominated by soaring oil and gas prices. Net income in the fourth quarter was $10.71 billion, or $1.71 a share, compared with $8.42 billion, or $1.30 a share, a year earlier.Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.65 per share. Analysts, on average, expected $1.45 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.Crude oil prices rose about 40 percent last year, driven up by tensions in oil-producing countries like Iran and Nigeria and tight supplies.Exxon's fourth-quarter...