Free Republic

Mohammed Weiss Rasool was an Afghani who immigrated to the United States and got a job as a police officer. And then he did what you would expect him to do. Weiss Russell (he has changed his name from “Weiss Rasool,” the name under which he was convicted), is currently employed as a Financial Management Analyst in the IRS Deputy Chief Financial Officer’s office. In 2008, Russell/Rasool was prosecuted for his role in tipping off Abdullah Alnoshan, a close associate of al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and a friend of Russell’s from their mosque. According to the Justice Department’s Statement of...

DULUTH, Minn. -- Minnesota wildlife researchers will keep trying to collar and study newborn moose calves in 2015 even though things haven't gone well during the first two years of the effort. Last May and June, researchers put GPS collars on 25 calves just hours after they were born. But 19 of them either were abandoned by their mothers and had to be rescued, or their collars fell off or stopped working, leaving only six calves to be studied. By August, those six had been eaten by predators, mostly wolves. "It's frustrating. But we need to persevere," said Glenn DelGiudice,...

How bad is it for Democrats in North Carolina? Even Sheriff Andy Taylor is taking a beating in the polls. Andy Griffith - star of the Andy Griffith Show, a Manteo resident and noted endorser of Democratic causes and candidates - has seen his approval ratings plummet, according to a poll published Tuesday by Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling. The Democratic pollster found that Griffith's approval rating has fallen 25 points since 2008. Griffith has been a closer for Democrats, an unimpeachable saintly figure who fills his rare political spots with folksy charm and obvious references to his role as a...

Even fictional sherriff Andy Taylor is feeling the political heat on Democrats this fall. The polling firm Public Policy Polling on Wednesday released a poll showing that the Manteo, N.C. resident, who has long endorsed Democratic candidates and causes, is down 25 points in favorability in just two years. In June of 2008 Griffith, 56 percent of state residents had a favorable opinion of him, versus only 9 percent with an unfavorable one. That's a net 47 point favorability. Fast forward two years, and this week, 44 percent of residents have a favorable view of Griffith, while 22 percent responded...

No thongs allowed! A North Carolina town that the mayor called "Mayberry with a beach" has banned swimmers from wearing thongs as swimsuit bottoms, reports Fox news. The town is actually Kure Beach, North Carolina, but the mayor has likened it to the town in 1960s American classic TV show "Andy Griffith" and wants to keep the barely there bikini look off the beach. He wants old-fashioned family fun and that means too much skin is not allowed. "You can do what you want to in your own space," said Mayor Dean Lambeth, "but for public decency, keep it off...

MOUNT AIRY- Dating Barney Fife doesn’t insulate you from crime. Nor does living in the the town that was the template for the for fictional hamlet of Mayberry. Betty Lynn, who played the bumbling deputy’s sweetheart on “The Andy Griffith Show” in the 1960s, was sitting outside a Lowes Foods store after shopping and getting money out to pay for a cab home Sunday when a man snatched her wallet with about $130 in it and ran off. Lynn is 83 but still a force to be reckoned with. “I jumped up and started yelling, ‘Thief! Thief! and ran after...

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will begin issuing Choose Life license plates on July 1, 2009, using the 481 pre-paid applications submitted by State Senator Ken Cuccinelli. Anticipating fabulous demand for the Choose Life plate, DMV and plate sponsor Richmond Coalition for Life encourage Virginia citizens who have not applied to apply directly on the DMV website starting July 2. The Richmond Coalition for Life (P.O. Box 17902 Richmond, VA 23226-7902) will however receive pre-paid applications, review them for completeness, and submit complete applications to DMV after the first week of July. The Choose Life Team expresses grateful appreciation...

Frum's embrace of various liberal positions doesn't make him a dummy, or an unskilled writer, or someone who should be excluded from a necessary conversation among self-identified conservatives about the direction of their wayward movement. It just makes him rather hubristic to envision himself as a general giving marching orders, or as a pope issuing excommunications, to a movement he no longer has much use for.

Hear all the news with great commentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPf20N52dk

Two cousin companies bet the fast-expanding market for animal RFID chips will extend to humans before long Under the federally supported National Animal Identification System (NAIS), digital tags are expected to be affixed to the U.S.'s 40 million farm animals to enable regulators to track and respond quickly to disease, bioterrorism, and other calamities. Opponents have many fears about this plan, among them that it could be the forerunner of a similar system for humans. The theory, circulated in blogs, goes like this: You test it on the animals first, demonstrating the viability of the radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs)...

Beloved TV star Andy Griffith is reportedly fighting for his life after breaking his hip in a fall. The 80-year-old actor had hip surgery on September 5 and has been in hospital in Los Angeles ever since, where he's being monitored for heart problems, according to reports that have not been confirmed by his publicist. Griffith is a high-risk patient because he has suffered from heart problems and underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2000. A source tells the Globe, "He's in a lot of pain right now, but he's just trying to tough it out so he can get...

Starting October second, Alabama motorists will have a choice in the standard license plate: the"Stars Fell on Alabama" tag or the new "God Bless America" tag. Governor Riley used the fifth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks to unveil the design of the "God Bless America"tag Monday. The ceremony was held at a Prattville fire station and was attended by more than 50 law enforcement officers and firefighters. The new tag features a waving American flag in the background and "God Bless America" across the bottom. Riley says it's a simple statement, but it has guided the country for...

Saw this on the road in Orlando the other day: I think my brain overloaded trying to figure it out. I'm glad to see that the Vols are conceding long before the season starts this year. But seriously, what ARE they thinking?

Web Site Files Complaint Against Google Mar 17 6:36 PM US/Eastern By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writer SAN FRANCISCO Google Inc.'s mysterious methods for ranking Web sites came under attack Friday in a lawsuit accusing the online search engine leader of ruining scores of Internet businesses that have been wrongfully banished from its index. The civil complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose by KinderStart.com, seeks to be certified as a class action representing the owners of all Web sites blacklisted by Google's Internet-leading search engine since January 2001. KinderStart, a Norwalk-based Web site devoted to information about...

AMAZON NOW LETS CUSTOMERS "TAG" ITEMS: Tags for An Army of Davids include "Heh," "Indeed," and, of course, "Puppy Blender."

MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. (Feb. 1, 2006) -- To many, it is just another piece of the uniform. Each morning, Marines slip shiny identification tags over their heads and tuck them beneath their olive-drab undershirts without giving them a second thought. But, every now and then, these iconic military symbols come up in conversation, along with all the myths and rumors that accompany them. So what really is the story behind dog tags and the myths that accompany them? The first recorded use of such tags came from the battlefields of the Civil War. Many soldiers feared if they were...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Authorities in Los Angeles said Sunday they will begin tracking inmates in the nation's largest jail system using new radio-linked wristbands to pinpoint their location within a few feet. Los Angeles County plans to spend $1.5 million to tag about 1,900 inmates in one unit of the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, beginning early next year. If it works well, the program may be expanded to the 6,000 inmates at the county's central jail and then to other facilities, said Marc Klugman, chief of the sheriff's department's Correctional...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The state slogan "Heart of Dixie," a source of pride to some and embarrassment to others, is disappearing from more Alabama license plates every year. One-third of the groups that promote distinctive and collegiate license plates now choose to leave the slogan off their tags. The standard state license plate still has "Heart of Dixie," but it's reduced to letters one-sixteenth of an inch high and it's placed in the bottom corner of the tag where it's barely visible to passing motorists.

In its ongoing effort to improve support to troops in the field, the Defense Department is testing radio-frequency identification technology, Alan Estevez, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for supply chain integration, said here today. RFID tags contain microchips that, when scanned, send out a unique identification signal. Tagged items can be added quickly to inventory databases and can even be wirelessly tracked for short distances. Tags contain license-plate data that says this data equals this item, said Estevez. For a national retail chain using the tags, it might be a box of disposable diapers. "For us, it may be a...

I wanted to know what a "Lurker" was. I Googled the tag and came across this website... The Lurker: " Lurker does not participate in normal forum discourse, but he's out there...watching, reading every message. Generally, he is quite harmless. In fact, his silence usually reflects a natural reticence rather than any sinister motives. He is content to let the other people haul the conversational freight and, if a fight breaks out he will observe quietly. Occasionally, however, some mysterious impulse drives him to de-lurk and attack. Other Warriors regard his unexpected assault as an ambush, and invariably turn on...