Free Republic

WESLACO, Texas - In the Rio Grande Valley, an area known for both blended cultures and intense U.S. patriotism, National Guard soldiers recently back from Afghanistan are taking stock of President Bush's plan to use their ranks to patrol the Mexican border. Bush has promised that 6,000 National Guard troops would help out to secure the border. The deployment would last two years, with no clear end date, according to a Pentagon memo obtained Friday by The Associated Press. "This is one battalion that can always be counted on," said Maj. Albert Lara. "Military service is a big tradition in...

SPLIT, Croatia (NNS) -- Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe Adm. Harry Ulrich presented a Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously, to the family of Chief Watertender Peter Tomich during a solemn ceremony aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) May 18. Retired Croatian Army Lt. Col. Srecko Herceg Tonic received the award on behalf of Tomich. Tonic is the grandson of Tomich's cousin John Tonic. Tomich and the elder Tonic immigrated to the United States from what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina on the Croatian border. Commander, Enterprise Carrier Strike Group Rear Adm. Ray Spicer said it was an honor and privilege to help deliver...

Schism fears revived as San Francisco church's election for a new bishop includes three candidates who live with gay partnersIT IS not an election that would normally attract world attention, but when a few hundred Christians gather to choose a new Episcopal Bishop of California today, millions around the globe will be watching. The reason is simple. Three of the seven candidates are gay or lesbian, and live openly with their same-sex partners. If one of them wins, the victory could well fracture the Episcopal Church in America and trigger a schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion to which it...

Face recognition technology that could revolutionise security systems worldwide has been developed by computer scientists at Sheffield Hallam University. The new specialist software can produce an exact 3D image of a face within 40 milliseconds. Similar systems that have been trialled have proved unworkable because of the time it takes to construct a picture and an inaccurate result. The ground-breaking invention, by experts in the University’s Materials and Engineering Research Institute (MERI) was tested by Home Secretary Charles Clarke on a recent visit to Sheffield. It could be used for tighter security in airports, banks, and government buildings and ID...

'Right-wing' radio, TV guys split on control of U.S. ports Limbaugh, O'Reilly favor deal, while Savage, Hannity oppose ------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 24, 2006 4:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Rush LimbaughThe heated issue of turning operating control of six major U.S. ports over to a state-sponsored company based in the United Arab Emirates is splitting some of the biggest names in American broadcasting, including Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly who favor the transfer, and Sean Hannity and Michael Savage who oppose it. "I have been a profile in courage on this story," declared Limbaugh on his national radio show yesterday....

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do When your church splits, it can feel as painful as a divorce. By Matthew Paul Turner When I was 19 years old, my dad looked me in the eyes and told me we were leaving our church. My sisters and I looked at each other and smiled. We didn’t even have to say anything out loud; all of us knew exactly what the others were thinking: Finally we’re leaving this hellhole. I’ve been through divorce three times. It wasn't marriages that split up; it was my churches. Each time was different; each taught me...

Iran crisis talks expose west's split with China · Europe seeks Tehran's referral to security council · Major obstacles remain in row over nuclear weapons Ewen MacAskill and Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow Tuesday January 17, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Differences between the west and Russia and China were exposed yesterday during a meeting in London to discuss strategy for tackling the crisis over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme. After seven hours of talks Britain, France and Germany announced they are to seek Iran's referral to the security council at a meeting on February 2 and 3 of the UN's...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Palestinians' ruling Fatah Party overcame a split Wednesday that threatened to hand victory to Hamas militants in parliamentary elections next month, submitting a unified list of candidates. But chaos reigned in Gaza, undermining efforts by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to show that he has taken control after Israel's summer pullout. Israel began enforcing a no-go zone in northern Gaza, firing shells and threatening to shoot anyone who approaches the border — an attempt to stop Palestinian rocket fire. A 14-year-old Palestinian boy was slightly wounded by a shell fragment, Palestinian doctors said. Fatah-affiliated gunmen...

WASHINGTON - In 1990, hardly a Spanish-speaking person could be found in California, Mo., population 4,106. That's not the case anymore. Today, Mexican immigrants are almost two of every 10 residents. They account for nearly 40 percent of the workers at the area's largest employers, three meat-processing plants.

WASHINGTON – Back in the 1940s, it was the train schedules that caused folks to gripe about the big headache of assembling the judges of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from their far-flung states. Sixty-five years ago, as today, there was talk of splitting the vast 9th Circuit into two courts, which might make judges' travel easier and their caseloads lighter. A judicial giant But for the first time in a long while, the idea has gained momentum as House Republicans attempt to push through a plan that would split California and the other Western states...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Republican chairman and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced their opposition Wednesday to a House GOP move to fast-track a break-up of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. House Republicans are including a split of the San Francisco-based court, which covers nine Western states, in a budget-reduction bill that could win House approval as soon as Thursday and would be immune from Senate filibuster. The 9th circuit measure was not in the Senate's version of the budget bill, and opposition from key senators could keep it out of the final version of...

WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Thursday included a break-up of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a budget bill that would be immune from Senate filibuster, drawing complaints from Democrats. "It does not have the support to pass both houses of Congress, so House Republicans are seeking to stifle debate and the democratic process by inserting a controversial measure into the expedited budget process," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. The House Budget Committee included the measure in a $54 billion deficit-reduction bill that is expected to get a House floor vote next week....

Six nights of riots in Paris ghetto split Chirac cabinet By Henry Samuel in Clichy-sous-Bois(Filed: 03/11/2005) The French government was reeling yesterday after six nights of rioting which have exposed a split in the cabinet over how to deal with poverty and immigration in the dilapidated Paris suburbs. As authorities cleaned up the debris of another bout of violence, including the wrecks of 250 cars burned out on Tuesday night, both the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, and the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, put off foreign trips to deal with the rioting. Youths on the Paris estates have promised ‘40...

Democrats split over position on Iraq war Leaders want to stay the course, voters call for exit strategy By Peter Baker and Shailagh Murray Updated: 10:48 p.m. ET Aug. 21, 2005 WASHINGTON - Democrats say a long-standing rift in the party over the Iraq war has grown increasingly raw in recent days, as stay-the-course elected leaders who voted for the war three years ago confront rising impatience from activists and strategists who want to challenge President Bush aggressively to withdraw troops. Amid rising casualties and falling public support for the war, Democrats of all stripes have grown more vocal this...

Blacks and Jews Split – again – over Farrakhan by Makebra M. Anderson NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – A prominent Jewish leader’s insistence that African-American leaders distance themselves from the Millions More March organizer Minister Louis Farrakhan is more likely to stir up more anti-Semitism rather than soothe frayed relations between Blacks and Jews, says Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons. He was reacting to criticism from Abraham H. Foxman, national director of Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In a letter addressed to national Black leaders, Foxman said it is unacceptable that mainstream African-American leaders would participate in a march whose conveners...

"If we were not so used to it, we would find it odd for the government to collect money from young workers and give it to the old (mostly workers' parents)." -- Robert Barro The headline that Business Week put on Robert Barro's column quoted above was "Why Private Accounts are Bad Public Policy." And the headline that the Washington Post put on a story that referred to Barro and others was Conservatives Splitting on Social Security. Is that the real story? I would describe Social Security as a program with a dubious economic rationale and very large costs. As...

One Sunday this past November, President Bush’s chief strategist Karl Rove went on the talk show circuit to discuss the possibility that 2004 would be depicted by historians as being a realigning election. A little over three months later, with the nation fixated on Social Security reform, his opinions seem remarkably prescient. According to Wikipedia: “[A realigning election is one] in which geographic bases of power for each of the two parties [are] significantly altered, resulting in a new political power structure and status quo. It is generally believed that a realigning election happens only after a shift in partisan...

Democrats Split on Electoral Strategy in the South BY BILL WALSH Newhouse News Service WASHINGTON -- As former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean took the helm of the Democratic National Committee a week ago, he declared he would make the party competitive in all 50 states, including in the South. It was a bold promise for a party that has not won a single Southern electoral vote in the past two presidential elections. To Southern ears it sounded all the more unlikely coming from Dean, who famously remarked early in his failed presidential bid last year that...

PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro – Montenegro proposed a final split from Serbia on Tuesday, suggesting that the two former Yugoslav republics recognize each other as sovereign states. If accepted by Belgrade, the deal would abolish what little has remained of the Serbia-Montenegro union, established in 2003 under European Union auspices as a successor state to the already truncated version of the former Yugoslavia. Once part of the six-republic Yugoslav federation, Serbia and Montenegro stayed together when four others seceded in the early 1990s. Relations between the two deteriorated over the years. Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has sought to retain the union...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc., whose shares have almost quadrupled in value over the last year on the success of its iPod music player, on Friday said it set a 2-for-1 stock split, and its shares rose almost 4 percent. Shares of Apple have been on a tear as iPod sales have soared with the introduction of less-expensive versions of the music player. The stock has been the best performer in the Nasdaq 100 index and the wider S&P 500 index over the past 12 months. Apple is also one of the most expensive stocks among the...