Free Republic

Turnout will drop compared to Obama's two elections, but she's about to roll out a policy platform aimed directly at African-American voters.Barack Obama didn't need to do much—almost anything—to win record turnout from African-American voters. Hillary Clinton will need to pull out all the stops to score just a fraction of that support. An exaggeration? Black political leaders don't think so. "Make no mistake, there will be some drop-off," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose comments echoed those of other influential African-American Democrats. Indeed, black leaders concede it will be nearly...

Ron Paul, libertarian hero, three-time presidential candidate and father of senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that his record will only help his son, who is currently running for president himself. "It probably helps more than it hurts," the former Texas congressman said on Ora TV's "PoliticKING," when asked whether his particular brand of politics would "hurt or help" Rand Paul. The elder Paul also said he believes his son has had a better time than he did overcoming an independent-minded bent, and that he has worked well within the establishment, unlike his father. "McConnell has endorsed him...

On April 27, 2015, Baltimore erupted into what was arguably the worst urban rioting in a major U.S. city since Los Angeles in 1992. Scores of buildings were looted and burned and at one point, so many buildings had been torched that the city ran out of fire equipment to put the fires out and had to summon surrounding county fire departments. The governor of Maryland called in the National Guard, and the Mayor of Baltimore introduced a night-time curfew for the next five days. The causes and course of the riot are both familiar and long-standing, but add in...

Racism is a difficult discussion to have, especially when people do not have an understanding of what racism is, how it works and who it is perpetuated by. Here are nine truths that we need to accept about racism if we want to have honest conversations. Can Black People Be Racist? “There is an element of whites who are nothing but cold, animalistic racists. That element is the one that controls or has strong influence in the power structure. It uses the press skillfully to feed statistics to the public to make it appear that the rate of crime in...

Conservative, tough on crime policies around the country could hold the wave back only just so long. Building prisons, forcing middle class people to sit for jury duty and sending criminals away to do virtually all their sentences had been policies in New York that worked for twenty years. But that was then and this is now. Even New York City, the national leader in reducing crime, has now fallen into Democrat/Communist hands and crime is surging back. Across the nation, cities run by Democrats have been reaping what they have been sowing. Their essential inability to lead or administer...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)BALTIMORE —One of the men fatally shot over the weekend has a well-known and notorious father. Ronnie Thomas III, 22, is the son of the star of the DVD "Stop Snitching," put out in 2004 in Baltimore to discourage witness cooperation. Baltimore's homicides rarely happen in isolation, but are often connected to some other incident, like a long-running grudge, payback, rivalry or retaliation. It was a weekend cookout at Belair Road and Sinclair Lane that ended early Saturday morning with the city's 41st and 42nd homicides in the month of May. One of the two men killed was Thomas. Thomas'...

The Congressional Black Caucus is the most ridiculously corrupt part of an already corrupt Congress. A study two years ago found that a third of black congressmen had been named in an ethics probe during their careers. 5 of the 6 members under review by the House Ethics Committee that year were CBCers. In 2009, every single member of Congress under investigation was from the same old gang. Like the Clinton Foundation, the CBC exists to trade money for influence. The Caucus takes in tens of millions from major corporations and spends it on parties for its members and funnels...

Baltimore Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby in the Spotlight Again, Pumping Up a Crowd at a Venue That Might Surprise You May. 30, 2015 8:08pm Dave Urbanski Since pressing charges against six Baltimore police officers in connection with the death of Freddie Gray, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has been in the news quite a bit for other reasons. She was interviewed by Vogue and got invited onstage by Prince at his concert for Gray. Then she said her Twitter account was hacked after questionable “favoriting” of anti-cop posts; and a video surfaced of her appearance on “Judge Judy” from 2000. But on...

Earlier this month the anti-cop protests, which certainly contain a lot of genuinely upset people, took a bit of a blow to their collective reputation when the #CutTheCheck movement broke out on social media. It highlighted the fact that at least some of the protesters in Ferguson, Baltimore and other locales were not only bussed in, but were being paid for their social activism. Hired protesters with the Black Lives Matter movement have started a #CutTheCheck hashtag and held a sit-in at the offices for the successor group to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in Missouri...

On and off the campaign trail in the Carolinas, voters say they have ‘no hard feelings’ toward Hillary Clinton. They say the opposite about Republicans.Bryan Burns could not make up his mind. Here was this African-American voter in khaki shorts, a v-neck T-shirt and black-rimmed eyeglasses, browsing shops at the Crabtree Valley Mall, on a swelteringly hot Friday in the not-yet summer of the American south. And there was Hillary Clinton, who needs to win the minds of exactly this kind of voter, a 30-year-old Virginia native who has spent the last decade living in North Carolina, a state that...

Activist calls for widespread reform as community reels from verdict that acquitted Michael Brelo for firing 49 shots at two people in car chase.When Al Sharpton got up to speak at the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland on Friday night, he was given a standing ovation. At what was billed as a “justice and reform revival”, attendees, mostly congregants of the church itself, had been primed by several hymns and scriptural invocations. Their pastor, reverend Jawanza Colvin, introduced the civil rights campaigner as “one of God’s trombones”. Sharpton proceeded to deliver a barn-burning speech that had the assembled on...

On April 23 of this year Michael Brown’s family filed a lawsuit against the City of Ferguson for the wrongful death of their son, Michael Brown Jr. This civil case may not be just another frivolous attempt to gain media attention as is the case with many civil actions these days. I believe this case has a solid foundation and may bring to light some very serious questions concerning the death of Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson. Was implicit bias a factor in Brown’s death? Implicit bias can affect people’s decisions and their behavior...

The Republican Party doesn’t have a lunatic fringe. It has a lunatic center: a core bloc of white voters and officeholders whose extreme conservatism leads them to indulge again and again in outlandish conspiracy theories and, more seriously, proposed and enacted legislation of disgraceful callousness. The past few weeks have offered two striking examples of how dependent the Party’s base and elected officials have become on spouting and trying to enact as legislation their own worst impulses. One involves the American military’s three-month-long Jade Helm 15 combat-training exercises that will get underway in July and spread over various sparsely populated...

Baltimore Cop: No Proactive Policing 5.27.2015 News Sarah Fisher Whilee Baltimore faces record levels of violence, an anonymous police officer told Sean Hannity last night that police will no longer be "proactive." This month there were 35 murders, and 32 reported shootings this past Memorial Day weekend alone. A current Baltimore police officer who chose to hide his identity reacted on "Hannity" tonight, saying that the surge in violence is a "direct result" from the six officers who were indicted by a grand jury in the death of Freddie Gray. "After the protests, it seems like the citizens would appreciate...

Recently, documentary film maker Ken Burns was the commencement speaker at a college graduation. As he spoke he reminded us that liberals are always angry and dissatisfied with America and never pass up a chance to say so. Here are some random thoughts about his speech. Among other subjects in a predictable assortment of tripe, Burns essentially apologized for being White as he stood with a smug, self-assured look while hitting his applause lines. His apology represents a favorite liberal ploy of giving away something that they don’t own. My right to apologize or not apologize for something is mine...

Hours after Baltimore's mayor huddled with police officials to discuss the recent spike in violence, two more people were killed Monday — making May the city's deadliest month since 1999.The two homicides increased this month's total to 35. There have been 108 homicides across the city this year."It's deplorable," said City Councilman William "Pete" Welch. "The shootings and killings are all over the city. I don't think any part of the city is immune to this. I've never seen anything like it."Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is "disheartened and frustrated by this continuing violence, particularly when you think about the progress that...

Last week The Ryersonian reported on an incident that involved two first-year journalism students who were turned away from an event organized by Racialized Students' Collective because they are white. Since then there has been a lot of commentary on the piece and a lot of debate -- a lot of the criticism is valid. There are two sides to the story: 1) the media has a right to attend public events and report on matters that are in the public interest. The student media needs to cover initiatives that are happening on campus so that we draw attention to...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)LINDENHURST, N.Y. (PIX11)– Suffolk County police are investigating a possible hate crime targeting an African-American family in Lindenhurst. Ronica Copes, a resident of the suburban neighborhood, received a letter saying “YOU DON’T BELONG HERE” and other hateful words on Thursday. Understandably so, she was disappointed at the sight of the hateful letter. “Unbelievable but then it’s not…our daily reality, I’ve just never seen it in this form,” Copes posted on Facebook. The writer of the flyer who says “Lidenhurst is 84 percent white” urges Copes in bold capital letters to “LEAVE AS SOON SHE CAN” because “IT WILL BE BETTER...

If you were to guess how much the United States owes Black people in economic damages for slavery, how much would it be? In the part of the “I Have A Dream” speech that no one seems to remember, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared: “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’” While some people would conclude that no dollar amount can...

Rolling Thunder, Biker Gangs and Human Nature.On Sunday in Washington, D.C.,—Memorial Day weekend— the annual “Rolling Thunder” gathering will draw hundreds of motorcyclists to ride together in a steady roar to honor living and dead war veterans, POWs and MIAs. Except for the bikes, it probably won’t resemble the motorcycle club event of last Sunday in Waco, Texas, that left nine people dead and 170 arrested after a high-noon brawl that included guns, knives, chains and brass knuckles. Nor will it be like the chase up the West Side Highway in Manhattan in September of 2013 that left an SUV...