Free Republic

ABOUT 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed by most that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shootings were African-American. Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as is constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns? The answer is that that is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and...

Many African-Americans Have A Gene That Prolongs Life After Heart Failure ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2008) — About 40 percent of African-Americans have a genetic variant that can protect them after heart failure and prolong their lives, according to research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions. The genetic variant has an effect that resembles that of beta blockers, drugs widely prescribed for heart failure. The new study offers a reason why beta blockers don't appear to benefit some African-Americans. "For several years a controversy has existed in the cardiovascular field because of conflicting reports...

Even as he fends off Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nomination contest, Senator Barack Obama is already turning his attention to the general election, and to an ambitious plan to reshape the American electorate in his favor. Bringing new voters to the polls "is going to be a very big part of how we win," said Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, in an interview. "Barack's appeal to independent voters is also going to be key." Hildebrand said the campaign is likely to turn its attention and the energy of its massive volunteer army this fall on registering African-American...

In 1995 Obama stated: "These are mean, cruel times, exemplified by a 'lock 'em up, take no prisoners' mentality that dominates the Republican-led Congress" and "that white Americans couldn't care less about the profound problems African-Americans are facing." http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/archive/barackobama/ -snip- "This doesn't suggest that the need to look inward emphasized by the march isn't important, and that these African-American tribal affinities aren't legitimate. These are mean, cruel times, exemplified by a 'lock 'em up, take no prisoners' mentality that dominates the Republican-led Congress. Historically, African-Americans have turned inward and towards black nationalism whenever they have a sense, as we do...

President Bush showed the world that it isn't words, but actions, that truly make a difference. Millions throughout Africa would agree. Mr. Bush recently completed a historic visit to the African continent; a trip he described as "the most exciting, exhilarating, uplifting trip" of his presidency. During his visit, we saw pictures of the president dancing, celebrating and attending ceremonies with heads of state. But the real story is not about just this one trip; it is about the commitment the president made to Africa and what the United States has been quietly accomplishing throughout the continent over the past...

SUMMARY: He says: "Who in their right mind, if they were African-American or Hispanic or Asian-American, if they were gay or lesbian, would join the Republican Party?" Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean came under attack for speaking out against conservative gay men and lesbians as well as Republicans of color. "They can't become more diverse," Dean said Tuesday at a speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Who in their right mind, if they were African-American or Hispanic or Asian-American, if they were gay or lesbian, would join the Republican Party?" The Log Cabin Republicans issued a statement Wednesday against...

In some ways, Barack Obama's speech on race last week was as brilliant as it was nuanced. But for all its rhetorical beauty, it was also an enormous step backward and, in the end, a rather self-serving call for more discussion about racial grievance in a country that has already done way too much talking. Until last week, so much of Obama's appeal lay in the fact that he was not asking us to talk about the racial divide. Instead, he offered himself as a living and breathing symbol of racial reconciliation; his very origins pointed to the goal of...

When Democrats contemplate the apocalypse these days, they have visions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton slugging it out à la Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter at the 1980 convention. The campaign's current trajectory is, in fact, alarmingly similar to the one that produced that disastrous affair. Back then, Carter had built up a delegate lead with early wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, and several Southern states. But, as the primary season dragged on, Kennedy began pocketing big states and gaining momentum. Once all the voting ended and Kennedy came up short, he eyed the New York convention as a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Barack Obama's speech last week, hastily prepared to extinguish the firestorm over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, won critical praise for style and substance but failed politically. By elevating the question of race in America, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate has deepened the dilemma created by his campaign's success against the party establishment's anointed choice, Hillary Clinton. In rejecting the racist views of his longtime spiritual mentor but not disowning him, Obama has unwittingly enhanced his image as the African-American candidate -- not just a remarkable candidate who happens to be black. That poses a racial dilemma for...

Even though Barack Obama has "moved on" from the messy association that he has recently been forced to explain to man who had been his pastor for 20 years, it is clear - the voters haven't. There are legitimate questions being raised about a relationship that spans a generation and the beliefs of a man who has on multiple dozens of occasions issued some of the most vitriolic, bigoted, racism imaginable in America today. No doubt one of the most infamous video moments recently unearthed was Jeremiah Wright's use of what he cleverly believed to be a cute play on...

WASHINGTON -It is already easy to imagine the Republican attack ads against Barack Obama. They open with video of his wife, Michelle, saying she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult lifetime" because of her husband's presidential candidacy. Cut to the Illinois Senator explaining that he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin because it is a "substitute for true patriotism." Then flash a clip of Obama explaining that his Caucasian grandmother was a "typical white person" because she uttered racial epithets and was afraid of black people. Finally, the coup de grace, pictures of Obama's...

Watching the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright gesticulate like a horny peacock and spew out ignorance, hatred, and bitterness towards America truly inspired my religious faith. Once Wright pointed out that he was “still in Bible country,” I began to “love the hell out of” rich, white people just as much as Wright does. How could so many people not understand that white people have caused all the world’s problems? As Wright pointed out to his congregation, the Bible says it’s so. I’m not sure what verse actually says that, but I’m now betting that rich, white people are responsible for my...

Sometimes, like a Cinderella team marching through March, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign seems nothing short of charmed. It helps that while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has 10 weeks to make Obama totally and entirely unelectable, Obama just has to wait out the clock. But the outside help Obama is getting (some that he asked for, some that he didn't) is the X-factor -- and it means that, even as Obama grapples with perhaps the biggest challenge to his candidacy, he will be the nominee short of something else dramatic happening in the race that's already seen everything. To survey...

Some 50 delegates were reportedly poised to unite behind Barack Obama if he had won by even 1 point in Texas. He lost the popular vote by 100,000 ballots, and now we learn that 100,000 Republicans voted for Hillary Clinton, probably not because of some change in party allegiance but because they thought she would be the easier candidate to beat. This kind of strategic voting often backfires (think Ralph Nader). The Texas crossovers are winners. By helping to prolong the Democratic race, they can claim credit for weakening the eventual nominee, whoever it turns out to be. Obama has...

Planned Parenthood of Idaho officials apologized Wednesday for what they called an employee's "serious mistake" in encouraging a donation aimed at aborting black babies. They also criticized The Advocate, a right-to-life student magazine at the University of California-Los Angeles, for trying to discredit Planned Parenthood employees in seven states in a series of tape-recorded phone calls last summer. The call to Idaho came in July to Autumn Kersey, vice president of development and marketing for Planned Parenthood of Idaho. On the recording provided by The Advocate, an actor portraying a donor said he wanted his money used to eliminate black...

Once again the Democrats seem determined to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. Consider the possibilities after the Pennsylvania primary. Let us assume that Sen. Hillary Clinton wins it. However, Sen. Barack Obama still has a lead in election delegates and a slim advantage in popular votes. There are two courses the party can take. They can leave the final choice to the so-called "superdelegates" whom the party has chosen to represent office holders -- mayors, governors, senators and such like. Having read the polls and noting that Sen. Clinton consistently loses the general election to almost any Republican...

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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here is Bud in Burlington, Indiana. Bud, thanks for waiting, and welcome. CALLER: ... Indiana. Anyway Rush -- RUSH: Wait, what did I say? CALLER: I don't... I couldn't understand, but it was actually communist Bloomington Indiana. So... (silence) Are you still there? RUSH: Yeah, I'm here. CALLER: Anyway, I'd like to really quickly thank you for two things. First off, unlike the so-called moderates who called in yesterday complaining about your recommendation for Republicans voting in Democrat primaries -- RUSH: Yes? CALLER: -- I want to thank you, because I don't know if you're aware of...

Kenyans must share in Obama glory Publication Date: 3/5/2008 Let the world be put on notice that Kenya will share each and every piece of Senator Barack Obama’s success. He owes his ancestry to Kenya, and that is made clear in his book; Audacity of Hope and Dreams from my Father. There are claims from Kosovo that a family is genetically linked to Obama in a distant ancestry. A town in Japan is every time tickled by wins to clean sweeps made by Senator Obama, from Super Tuesdays to Potomac in Democratic primaries. Senator Obama is an exceptional concoction...

Star Jones Reynolds has never been one to mince words. It's no wonder that when Bill O'Reilly's most recent controversial (see also: racist) comments about Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama, were discovered by Media Matters, the TruTV legal analyst was infuriated! O'Reilly, the curmudgeon host of Fox News Channel's 'The O'Reilly Factor,' was talking to a caller that was angry that Obama had said on C-Span that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." The 58-year-old television commentator, who privately settled a sexual harassment lawsuit against him in 2004, responded...

Barack Obama was born 1961 in Hawaii to a white mother, and a Kenyan muslim african father. His father bailed out after a couple years, returned to Kenya, and went on to have other wives and children. A few years later, his mother remarried to an Indonesian businessman, and they moved to Jakarta. Obama attended a few years of Muslim school as a kid, as well as a few years of Catholic school. He was eventually sent to his Maternal (white) grandmother and family in the States, where he lived and went on to school. Facts: 1) Obama's mother is...

If a supremely prominent Republican who was John McCain's chief surrogate had gotten into an angry confrontation at a campaign event, do you think the broadcast networks would have promptly let us know his interlocutor was African-American? I do. But none of the broadcast network's morning news shows, at least during this morning's crucial first half-hour, disclosed the African-American identity of the man with whom Bill Clinton got into just such an argument yesterday in Ohio. Not a word of any incident whatsoever at GMA or the Early Show, at least during the first half-hour. Today did mention that Clinton...

President Bush met this morning with President Amadou Touré of Mali in the Oval Office TranscriptThis afternoon President Bush celebrated African American History Month in the East Room Enoy your visit to Sanity Island

Bush calls modern-day noose displays 'deeply offensive' February 12, 2008 16:00 EST WHITE HOUSE (AP) -- President Bush says recent displays of nooses are disturbing, and show that some Americans are losing sight of suffering that African Americans have endured throughout history. Marking African American history month at the White House, Bush says the era of lynching is "a shameful chapter in American history." He says displaying a noose "is not a harmless prank," and that the word "lynching" shouldn't be mentioned in jest. Bush says the noose is a symbol of "gross injustice," and that Americans should agree that...

A broad coalition of black conservatives from across the country are holding a press conference to urge former Governor Mike Huckabee to stay in the presidential race for the Republican nomination until the convention. "Governor Huckabee should not be intimidated to stop his bid for the Republican nomination," states Don Scoggins, veteran GOP activist and ... president of Republicans for Black Empowerment, a DC-based national grassroots organization. The concern of the group is the pressure that is mounting by Republican talking heads to push Governor Huckabee out of the race. The consensus is that Huckabee's campaign was deliberately sabotaged by...

Make no mistake about it: If Hillary Clinton is elected president, her husband will be her rogue co-president, causing constant chaos, crises and conflicts for her new administration. And sometimes, that will be exactly what Hillary wants. Chaos is Bill Clinton’s signature style and he’s not about to suddenly change. No way. Nor does Hillary necessarily want him to be a new Bill. In many ways, his divisive role in her campaign has been carefully crafted by Hillary and her team. It might come in useful in the White House, too. Throughout Hillary’s campaign, Bill has given us an unfortunate...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be competing in the South Carolina Democratic Primary Saturday, but they're also vying for the top prize in another contest: The Oppression Sweepstakes. That's how Michael Jelani Cobb, an African-American historian, describes the surge of venom that recently erupted between the Clinton and Obama camps. The sweepstakes kicks in when two excluded groups find themselves competing for the same prize. He says that took place in the 19th century when the abolitionist, Frederick Douglass and his ally, women's rights' activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, argued over what group should first be...

When Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign first began, there was reason to think she would be hard to beat in a primary. Despite her Iraq vulnerability and assorted baggage, she seemed to have an impenetrable bulwark in the black vote. "Bill Clinton's popularity with blacks has been presumed to carry over to her and help her win the important South Carolina primary ... and other similar Southern primaries," explained Newsweek in November 2006. Newsweek wisely noted that the candidacy of Barack Obama could change that presumption. But, even after Obama joined the race, some Clinton advisers didn't fret. Last January, one...

Aaron Bruns Billionaire Clinton backer Bob Johnson, who founded Black Entertainment Television, said he’s “a little bit insulted, if you will, by Senator Obama letting his campaign imply that Hillary Clinton does not revere what Martin Luther King did for African Americans.� “I think that’s taking it way too far,� he said while campaigning with Clinton in South Carolina. “I think Barack understands clearly what the senator was saying.� Johnson argued that when Clinton said it took action by President Lyndon Johnson to realize the dream of Martin Luther King, she was merely saying that moral change has to be...

Honest, I'm not looking for trouble. Just hanging out on Christmas afternoon, watching the Heat vs. the Cavs on ABC, when a State Farm Insurance commercial comes on. Funny stuff. A guy on a treadmill gets so distracted by a shapely young woman on a hamstring machine that he slips and falls off. A trim man, identified by a screen graphic as Dr. Ian Smith, comes by to help him to his feet, and says this: Go on, laugh. But it's not easy getting back in shape. That's why we created the 50-Million Pound Challenge. It's a new way to...

Almost all of the HBCUs were created at a time when Southern blacks were excluded from other schools (only four of the HBCUs are outside the South). They turned out doctors, lawyers, ministers and politicians. W.E.B. Du Bois graduated from Fisk in 1888, Thurgood Marshall from Lincoln (Chester County, Pa.) in 1930, and Martin Luther King Jr. from Morehouse (Atlanta) in 1948. ...In fact, a remarkable 40% of all African-Americans with a bachelor's degree in the physical sciences, and 38% of those who majored in math or the biological sciences, attended HBCUs. Conversely, almost no students at HBCUs gravitate to...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In May, Alvin Clavon received a foreclosure notice on the simple, Spanish-style house in South Los Angeles that he shares with his wife and three boys. Clavon bought the place in 2003 with a fixed-rate loan. They painted the walls, fixed the yard and made friends with the neighbors, who let the Clavon boys pick their basil. In 2005, he worked with a mortgage broker to refinance his home with another fixed-rate loan. But on the night before signing, the family was offered an interest-only, adjustable-rate mortgage. Clavon, a 35-year-old executive assistant at a bank, said...

Contact: Jerry Horn, Priests for Life, 540-220-0095 ATLANTA, Nov. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life and niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said today that African American hopelessness documented in a new Pew Research poll is linked in part to the high abortion rate in the black community. The Pew poll, released Tuesday, found that less than half of African Americans believe life will get better for them. "Children are the future. When you destroy your children, you destroy hope," said Dr. King. "The incredibly high number of abortions performed...

A majority of black Americans blame individual failings -- not racial prejudice -- for the lack of economic progress by lower-income African Americans, according to a survey released Tuesday -- a significant change in attitudes from the early 1990s. At the same time, black college graduates say the values of middle-class African Americans are more closely aligned with those of middle-class whites than those of lower-income blacks, the poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found. And 40% of those surveyed said African Americans could no longer be viewed as a single community. The report said that in 1994, 60%...

Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza, National Director, RFFM.org Editor's note: This is the third in a series of columns and articles about the issue of race and race relations in America. In the mid-1970's, after obtaining my degree in social work, I was employed by an organization which attempted to heal dysfunctional families. One thing I soon came to learn was a great deal of those children on our caseload were from single-parent households. Most certainly, there are problems which exist within families where both parents are present. However, by far, my co-workers and I saw a pattern that was...

In a Nov. 1994 interview with the BET's Ed Gordon, Clinton said the following.......African Americans watch the same news at night that ordinary Americans do.I must have missed all the newspaper articles by the WA Post/NY Times and the breathless television coverage by CNN's yacking heads back then.I mean, why would they make this huge deal out of what Bill O'Reilly recently said, but, when it comes to what falls out of Clinton's mouth, it's ignored?It's not like they have an agenda or anything, right?

Color me the last person on the planet to be surprised that the top four Republican presidential contenders bailed on this week's GOP candidate debate at Morgan State University. If there's one thing you can count on in 2008, it's that the person who lands the Republican nomination will care little about those voters with a skin color darker than, say, Carmen Electra's. Rudolph Giuliani made a career as mayor of New York pitting the city's black people against his administration or the law, and now that he has national ambitions, he's far too busy sucking up to the good...

If Bill Cosby walked up to Virginia Smith today, the Roanoke woman would affably extend her hand. Three years ago, Smith would have given him a piece of her mind. She was among blacks who condemned Cosby for calling out the black underclass for its troubling ranks of unwed mothers, absent fathers, disengaged parents, high school dropouts and prison convicts. Smith, 63, was outraged. The entertainment icon was being "uppity," she thought at the time. She stopped watching him on television afterward. "He didn't understand," Smith said last week, recalling her reaction. She was in the camp that believed Cosby's...

Immigration used to be a debate among Republicans. Now the issue survives mainly as a weapon. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney-- who once commented on illegal immigrants, "I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country" -- attacks Rudy Giuliani for not rounding up enough illegal immigrants when he was mayor of New York. Giuliani -- who once said, "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city" -- criticizes Romney for tolerating...

RFFM.org Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza As former New York Yankee Hall of Famer Yogi Berra might say, it sounds like deja vu all over again. Of course, Yogi would be talking about O.J. Simpson, once again, being charged with a violent crime while he sits in the Las Vegas County Jail. Well, Yogi didn't say it, but I did and, to tell the truth, this latest Simpson escapade has not caused me to shed any tears. Most certainly I do not find glee in the fact another human being is deeply troubled, but I have to confess there is...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007McMinnville, OR (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood has caused a national stir with a new abortion center in Aurora, Illinois that it built under the table without the public knowing until the last minute. The abortion business is preparing a new center in Oregon that is already drawing significant opposition because it will target college students.Planned Parenthood has already upset pro-life advocates and African Americans in Portland by choosing to build an abortion center in a predominantly black community.Now the abortion business is headed for McMinnville, a city southwest of Portland that is the home to...

Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney said Tuesday that black voters should consider voting for third-party candidates. Speaking to a sparsely attended Green Party gathering, the Georgia Democrat railed at her party and said black voters should not automatically vote Democratic, as an overwhelming majority now do. "We have to be willing to do something that we've never done before so that we can get some things we've never had before," said McKinney, who is black. During the 2000 presidential election, McKinney said, Democrats "didn't even fight for your right to vote and your right to representation," referring to allegations that...

L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who made history as the nation's first elected black governor, is preparing to campaign aggressively for Barack Obama, and predicted in an interview that the charismatic young candidate could shatter the Republican Party's virtual lock on the South. "He's not race-less," Wilder said of Obama, "but the skin color is of no moment. I don't think he would be an easy target for the Republicans." The unstinting embrace by Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond, could be important in Virginia and other southern states, where his reputation still looms large and the African-American vote could...

European and American countries that enslaved African people and scattered them in the African Diaspora should pay reparations for their slave crimes. This came out at the historic African Union (AU) conference in the Caribbean Island of Barbados, set to tackle the integration of the African Diaspora and the continent. Leading scholars, ambassadors and government ministers from Africa and beyond are examining economic relations and the responsibility of the slave masters in undoing the slave trade damage they inflicted on Africa and her Diaspora. With song and the beating of drums, the African people in the Diaspora of the Caribbean...

Source: Washington University in St. Louis Date: August 26, 2007 Gambling Addiction Assessment Tool Applies Equally For Different Races Science Daily — "With African-Americans and other minority groups having both problem and pathological gambling rates that are 2-3 times higher than Caucasian gamblers, accurate diagnosis is essential to treat gambling addiction," says Renee Cunningham-Williams, Ph.D., a leading gambling addictions expert and visiting associate professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. Unfortunately, as with other mental health disorders, African-American and other minority groups receive disparate care from symptom recognition and diagnosis through treatment. In a first step to...

"Fans at Playmakers Barber Shop in Midtown said they still support Vick, because they feel he is innocent, and that he is a victim of a racist judicial system. "It's bad. I don't condone it at all, but the punishment is too severe, (they’re ruining) a man's career," said barber Dontrell Mapp. Black civil rights leaders said Vick should be given one more chance. "This is what we look for, for people to take a stand for what is right and admit they made a mistake," said Charles Steele, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference." "Vick supporters will rally...

Last year, among the nation's 10 largest cities, Philadelphia had the highest murder rate with 406 victims. This year could easily top last year's with 240 murders so far. Other cities such as Baltimore, Detroit and Washington, D.C., with large black populations, experience the nation's highest rates of murder and violent crime. This high murder rate is, and has been, predominantly a black problem. According to Bureau of Justice statistics, between 1976 and 2005, blacks, while 13 percent of the population, committed over 52 percent of the nation's homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of...

ONE of the songs Elvis Presley liked to perform in the ’70s was Joe South’s “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” its message clearly spelled out in the title. Sometimes he would preface it with the 1951 Hank Williams recitation “Men With Broken Hearts,” which may well have been South’s original inspiration. “You’ve never walked in that man’s shoes/Or saw things through his eyes/Or stood and watched with helpless hands/While the heart inside you dies.” For Elvis these two songs were as much about social justice as empathy and understanding: “Help your brother along the road,” the Hank Williams number...

African-Americans are victims of nearly half the murders committed in the United States despite making up only 13 percent of the population, a report published Thursday showed. Around 8,000 of nearly 16,500 murder victims in 2005, or 49 percent, were black Americans, according to the report released by the statistics bureau of the Department of Justice. Broken down by gender, 6,800 black men were murdered in 2005, making up more than half the nearly 13,000 male murder victims. Black women made up 35 percent, or 1,200, of the nearly 3,500 female homicide victims. Young black men aged between 17 and...

African-Americans are victims of nearly half the murders committed in the United States despite making up only 13 percent of the population, a report published Thursday showed. Around 8,000 of nearly 16,500 murder victims in 2005, or 49 percent, were black Americans, according to the report released by the statistics bureau of the Department of Justice. Broken down by gender, 6,800 black men were murdered in 2005, making up more than half the nearly 13,000 male murder victims. Black women made up 35 percent, or 1,200, of the nearly 3,500 female homicide victims. Young black men aged between 17 and...