Free Republic

A lot of cultural commentators are confused these days. They believe that people’s views on same sex marriage are solely a reflection of their religious beliefs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, some things could be further from the truth – like saying that Al Sharpton has integrity or that Dan Savage has class. But you get the point. The same sex marriage debate is about politics. To call it a religious debate is to miss the point entirely. Your stance on same sex marriage should vary depending on whether you consider yourself to be a conservative, a...

If George Zimmerman is not arrested in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin soon, the Rev. Al Sharpton will call for an escalation in peaceful civil disobedience and economic sanctions. Sharpton would not say the efforts would be taken against the city of Sanford specifically, but he has been critical of the police department's handling of the case. (SNIP) "I will speak about how the National Action Network will move to the next level if Zimmerman isn't arrested," Sharpton said, who founded the organization. He added that it was the Martin family and lawyers who first asked him to get...

Over the weekend came the exciting news that West Virginia officials have been so diligent in their work that the state now has saved $1 billion — at least on paper. “West Virginia is already reaping benefits from recent efforts to rein in public retiree health benefit costs, officials say: They expect to shrink the projected funding shortfall further, by more than $1 billion, and a Wall Street credit rating agency appears ready to praise the state’s handling of its last major liability,” reported Lawrence Messina of the Associated Press. Now $1 billion might not seem like much in other...

It’s a regular feature of the 2012 GOP presidential debates — that moment when Newt Gingrich takes a deep breath, then proceeds to rip the insipid moderator and the conflict-and scandal-mongering press. Both Thursday and in numerous debates before, the former House Speaker’s stance suggested a candidate harboring deep bitterness toward the media ... The reality is very different. The same candidate who on Thursday decried “the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media” shows another face to the cadre of reporters who follow his campaign day-to-day. It’s not unusual for Gingrich to chat with reporters, off-the-record,...

The Daily Show's John Oliver does a fantastic segment on liberal hypocrisy featuring Froma Harrop, the president of the National Conference of Editorial Writers.

..... Heath and Deborah Campbell, the New Jersey parents of three children with Nazi-inspired names, lost custody of their fourth child 17 hours after he was born, the Express-Times of Lehigh Valley, Pa., reported. Hons Campbell was taken into custody by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services late Thursday night after the doctor who delivered the baby called the agency, the paper reported. “There’s no legal binding court order. It’s basically a kidnapping, but they use different terms,” Heath Campbell told the Express-Times. The Campbell family stepped into the spotlight in December 2008 when a ShopRite grovery...

Under one proposal the Assembly passed Tuesday, homeowners acting in self-defense would be immune from criminal or civil liability of they kill someone who is unlawfully in their residence, vehicle or workplace. The bill requires a court to presume that the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent harm to the person being attacked or another person when the attack happens at the defender's home. "The citizens of this state, they just want to feel secure in their homes," said the bill's sponsor Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah. "They just want the ability to protect themselves without the fear of...

In previous debates, the adviser explained, Perry had tried to abide by time limits, leading some observers to say he seemed passive and withdrawn. Perry intended to make sure that didn't happen in Las Vegas. It didn't. The Las Vegas debate was Perry's fifth, but the first one in which Perry really showed up to play. That doesn't mean he won, doesn't mean he was particularly likable, doesn't mean he always had cogent answers. But it does mean that Perry, on the verge of being completely written off as a candidate, gave himself a chance to get back in the...

Full text of Michele Bachmann’s remarks, as provided by her office, in response to President Obama’s speech tonight: Unfortunately, it seems, every time the President speaks, his policies have cost the American people jobs and future prosperity. Tonight the President under the veil of one of the most sacred deliberative forums, a joint session of Congress, delivered another political speech where he doubled down on more of the same policies that are killing the economy. Mr. President, what among your proposals was new? What here hasn’t already been tried and failed before? While the President’s speech comes on the heels...

SALT LAKE CITY — Despite being heralded by his defense team as a poster child for civil disobedience in the same vein of historical figures like Gandhi or Rosa Parks, a judge on Tuesday rejected any such comparison for Tim DeChristopher and said the rule of law must prevail. "I am at a loss to see how we are going to govern ourselves if it is (going to be) by personal point of view," Judge Dee Benson said in delivering DeChristopher's sentence of two years in prison.

"...This man who was raised by leftists in a disfunctional family, despising every principle upon which this great nation was founded is like a culmination of all our national sins, embodied in one very real individual. He has a plan for America and it makes fictional stories like The Manchurian read like Disney..." (continued)

"...This man who was raised by leftists in a disfunctional family, despising every principle upon which this great nation was founded is like a culmination of all our national sins, embodied in one very real individual. He has a plan for America and it makes fictional stories like The Manchurian read like Disney..." (continued)

The civil rights hero who introduced President Barack Obama at a political fund-raiser in Washington Monday night, Ernie Green, pleaded guilty in 2001 to a federal misdemeanor tax violation after becoming enmeshed in an investigation into illegal foreign money given to Democrats in the 1996 election. Green gained prominence as one of the Little Rock nine--nine black students who desgregated that city's Central High School in 1957. He later served as an assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter and won a Congressional Gold Medal from President Bill Clinton, who was a longtime friend of Green....

A century and a half after the opening shots of the U.S. Civil War, nearly four in 10 Southerners say they still sympathize with the Confederacy.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Scots-and-the-American-Civil.6750042.jp IN May, 1864 a young Glaswegian by the name of Bennet Graham Burley stared at the dark, dirty water rising up through a grille and flooding over the floor of his cell and considered his alternatives, neither of which were good. He could remain in this dank, filthy cell in the Union prison on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware

Union officials have a long history of propagating tragedy to enforce their pro-union agenda. Big Labor is able to accomplish this effect as efficiently and discretely as any other special interest group. Currently, these union tactics are being used excessively in California. The deaths of two workers have given union officials the opportunity to exploit misfortune to progress their deceitful agenda. Union officials’ reaction to these deaths would be acceptable if the legislation and comments made about the tragedies coincided with their recommended policy. The first incident of union deception is the proposal of “The Fair Treatment for Farm Workers...

Jordan's social cohesion is quickly unraveling, local experts warn, following violent demonstrations in the kingdom and an obtuse government response to public demands for change. One protester was killed and 120 wounded in the bloodiest demonstrations yet to take place in the kingdom since popular protests began sweeping through the Middle East in January. (Snip) A demonstration organized last Friday in Amman by "March 24 Youth", a grassroots group demanding dissolution of the lower house of parliament and constitutional reform, turned violent as supporters of King Abdullah II pelted the reformists with stones, leaving 30 injured.

Not just the 16 new GOP governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and across America fighting for new powers. Others include: Chamber of Commerce billionaires, Koch brothers, Forbes 400, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform — which now has 97% of House Republicans and 85% of the GOP Senators signed on his “no new taxes” pledge — the Tea Party and Reaganomics ideologues.

A lot has already been said about the Administration’s decision to intervene in Libya. What sounded like a support operation to enforce a no-fly zone has since revealed itself to be an offensive operation led and conducted almost entirely with U.S. assets and command. “Despite the White House attempts to make this look like it’s a huge coalition effort — obviously it required coalition political support — but for now the U.S. military is not only in the lead but conducting almost all military operations, with only minor participation from the French, as you mentioned, even some British fighters over...

Apparently our President doesn’t seem to think the situation in Libya is bad enough for us to help out. According to a Washington Post story, Obama is preparing the military to act “potentially rapidly” if the situation in Libya deteriorates. My question to the president is how much more would it need to deteriorate? Some are already calling for the U.S. to recognize the provisional government, which could potentially help end this quicker. While I don’t think we should be preparing to invade or even commit ground troops, pending a full on humanitarian disaster, I don’t think a few predator...

When the upswing in commodity prices eventually makes its way throughout the food system in mid-to-late 2011, food prices are sure to spike with levels potentially reaching those of 2008, announced U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) economist Ephraim Leibtag at the agency's annual Outlook Forum. And if conditions escalate rapidly, there is also the potential for food riots and other civil unrest. The USDA is predicting a 3.5 percent increase in food prices in 2011, which is about twice the overall inflation rate but less than the 2008 increase, according to a recent Reuters report. In 2008, food prices rose...

Canada and the U.S. signed an agreement that paves the way for either nation to send troops across each other’s borders during an emergency. Some question why the Harper government has kept silent on the deal. Neither the Canadian government nor the Canadian Forces announced the new agreement, signed Feb. 14 in Texas. The U.S. Northern Command publicized the agreement outlining how its top officer, Gen. Gene Renuart, and Canadian Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, head of Canada Command, signed the plan, which allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency....

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Two former presidents - one Republican, the other a Democrat - will chair a new national institute to promote civility in political discourse in the city where U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was severely wounded in a shooting rampage that left six dead, officials announced Monday. The National Institute for Civil Discourse will be run by the University of Arizona. Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton will serve as its honorary co-chairmen. "Our country needs a setting for political debate that is both frank and civil, and the National Institute for Civil Discourse can make...

President Obama and Harry Reid have used their appointment powers to stop the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' investigation into the New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case. (Don't miss James Poulos' PJTV interview with von Spakovsky and J. Christian Adams from CPAC.) For a while, at least, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was investigating the Justice Department’s race-based decision to dismiss the New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case — a case DOJ had effectively won. But now President Obama and Harry Reid have used their appointment powers to stop the investigation. Never mind the incontrovertible (and mounting) evidence that...

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION FLIGHT ADVISORY GPS Testing CSFTL GPS 11-01 January 20-February 11, 2011 February 15-February 22, 2011 Brunswick, GA The Department of Defense will conduct GPS tests on January 20th through February 22nd, 2011. During testing, the GPS signal may be unreliable or unavailable. A. Location: Centered at 304906N/0802811W or the location know as 105.25 degrees and 52.1 NM from the SSI VOR. B. Dates and times: GPS testing is scheduled on January 20th through February 11th, 2011 from 0000-0245 UTC daily and February 15th through February 22nd, 2011 from 0000-0245 UTC daily. These tests may not be concurrent...

(CNSNews.com) - In a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day address, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said education is “the civil rights issue of our generation” and the “only way” for young people to pursue the American dream. “I’m just convinced education is the civil rights issue of our generation and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us. If we want our young people to have a chance to enter the mainstream of society and pursue the American dream, they can only do that through education,” he said at National Action Network’s Martin Luther King, Jr. day...

For a decade, from the election of Bush 43 forward, the Left has lied and cheated as it tried to return to power. Al Gore made a mockery out of the American electoral system by being a spoilsport over Florida, which Bush indeed won by 537 votes. Dan Rather forged a document to try to derail Bush’s re-election. Twice Democrats stole U.S. senators from the Republicans. After voting to support the war to get by the 2002 election, many Democrats quickly soured on the war. The profane protests were cheered by liberals who misattributed “dissent is the highest form of...

After witnessing the effrontery of Barack Obama against the states and our constitution, it is apparent this man has come here for the sole purpose of fomenting a civil war. From day one of his campaign he has made efforts to position himself as a parallel to Lincoln. From his campaign announcement in front of the Illinois state capitol where Lincoln served (with a Lincoln banner behind him), to his announcement of Biden as his running mate (in front of a Lincoln banner), from his quoting of Lincoln (in specious contexts) to his insistence upon swearing in on the same...

After witnessing the effrontery of Barack Obama against the states and our constitution, it is apparent this man has come here for the sole purpose of fomenting a civil war. From day one of his campaign he has made efforts to position himself as a pseudo-Lincoln. From his campaign announcement in front of the Illinois state capitol where Lincoln served (with a Lincoln banner behind him), to his announcement

A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago. The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way. The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksburg in what historians say was a turning point midway into the Civil War.

A message in a bottle delivered to a Confederate general during the American Civil War has been deciphered, 147 years after it was written. In the encrypted message, a commander tells Gen John Pemberton that no reinforcements are available to help him defend Vicksburg, Mississippi. "You can expect no help from this side of the river," says the message, which was deciphered by codebreakers. The text is dated 4 July 1863 - the day Vicksburg fell to Union forces.

The Civil War is about to loom very large in the popular memory. We would do well to be candid about its causes and not allow the distortions of contemporary politics or long-standing myths to cloud our understanding of why the nation fell apart. The coming year will mark the 150th anniversary of the onset of the conflict, which is usually dated to April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries opened fire at 4:30 a.m. on federal troops occupying Fort Sumter. Union forces surrendered the next day, after 34 hours of shelling.

The State of Illinois is in dire financial shape with a $15 Budget hole and our state legislature votes on Medical Marijuana, Civil Unions primarily for homosexuals, gambling expansion to give Chicago a casino to run.

Tea party darling Rand Paul says he has assured President Barack Obama that he will engage in "a polite, civil discourse" when he arrives in Washington next month as Kentucky's newest U.S. senator. Paul had made Obama the key figure in his election campaign, criticizing many of the Democratic president's policies and initiatives. Obama reached out to Paul on Tuesday in a telephone call that the Bowling Green eye surgeon described as cordial.

A civil rights complaint has been filed against a woman in Grand Rapids , Mich., who posted an advertisement at her church last July seeking a Christian roommate. The ad "expresses an illegal preference for a Christian roommate, thus excluding people of other faiths,” according to the complaint filed by the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan. "It's a violation to make, print or publish a discriminatory statement," Executive Director Nancy Haynes told Fox News. "There are no exemptions to that."

My subject today is the civil war raging in one of our great political parties, as highlighted in recent primary elections. No, I'm not talking about the split between the Tea Partiers and the Republican establishment (is there a Republican establishment anymore?). I'm talking about the split between two of the core groups of the Democratic Party, as witnessed in the Sept. 14 primaries in heavily Democratic New York (63 percent for Barack Obama in 2008), Maryland (62 percent Obama) and the District of Columbia (92 percent Obama).

Thousands of people have already poured into Washington, D.C. for a Saturday rally organized by conservative radio and television commentator Glenn Beck.SNIPAlthough camping is illegal on the National Mall, hundreds of people are choosing to spend the night on the grassy lawn of the Mall on both sides of the Reflecting Pool. They are doing that to get a better view on Saturday. Police say, as long as people remain awake, they may stay.(Check out the video report of the crowd and Beck's pre-rally visit to the site at the source link. In the video, the reporter says there are...

Move over Wall Street traders -- seems there's a new vampire squid in town. Civil servants? Passage Tuesday of a controversial bill sending billions of dollars to states to shore up payrolls for public school teachers further stoked the debate over whether government employees, their unions and their benefits packages are bankrupting the country. "[The bill] will make the teachers unions happy, but it won't make teaching in schools better," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., at a press conference Tuesday during which he and other Republican leaders criticized legislation earmarking $26 billion in aid for school districts and other state...

NORMAN — A federal judge’s ruling Wednesday in California — and a federal judge’s decision last month in Massachusetts — have made conservative Oklahoma in the middle of the country an unlikely battleground for gay marriage. Longtime Broken Arrow couple Sharon Baldwin and Mary Bishop, who are the named plaintiffs challenging Oklahoma’s Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, said California’s case does not carry any legal precedent in their own case. However, Baldwin said it shows “the tide is turning” and more judges could follow the lead of what has happened in California and Massachusetts. On the other side of the...

Rush Limbaugh has made a brilliant suggestion for a nationwide civil disobedience reaction to the judge striking down the Arizona illegal immigration law: EVERYONE leave your Drivers Licences at home and reply to EVERY official request for identification with "NO HABLO INGLES" and force all law enforcement to arrest you and run down your ID themselves and then take them to court for illegally requiring citizens to identify themselves while looking the other way for illegal aliens. With full participation by ALL CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVES nationwide, the entire legal system can be brought to IT'S KNEES IN ONE DAY. This act...

Groups opposed to Arizona's tough new immigration law said Tuesday that they were planning "civil disobedience" on July 29, the day the legislation takes effect. Alfredo Gutierrez, organizer with the group Somos America and a former state senator, declined to specify what the "civil disobedience" would be, but emphasized it will be nonviolent. Gutierrez characterized the protests as acts of defiance and hope for the Hispanic community. The groups plan to hold a candlelight vigil at the state capitol downtown, march to a nearby church at 4:30 a.m. for a nondenominational service and then to the federal courthouse, they said....

The gaggle of folks gathered in a conference room at the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center on St. Paul's West Side peppered Thomas Perez, and rightfully so, with questions surrounding some really pressing and thorny social issues of the day. The group — including a county commissioner, a handful of city- and county-prosecutor types and Jose Santos, head of the local La Familia nonprofit and longtime West Side resident — on Wednesday queried the man who heads the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division about racial disparities or inequities in education and mental health services. They also asked him about...

The bipartisan panel investigating allegations that the Justice Department wrongly abandoned a case against the New Black Panther Party plans to issue a new round of subpoenas and call for a separate federal probe following explosive testimony from an ex-Justice official, a commissioner said. As the case heats up, members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights may even travel to South Carolina to track down one witness.

President Obama has cast his role in the civil-rights movement as part of the “Joshua Generation” – those who were tapped to lead the movement after their elders journeyed to the Promised Land. On ABC/Washington Post’s “Top Line” today, we asked Andrew Young -- a legendary civil rights leader who was a close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. -- how that analogy holds up a year and a half into the Obama presidency. “If you'll remember your Bible, when Joshua and Caleb crossed into the Promised Land, it was not easy,” said Young, a former UN ambassador,...

Rev. Jeremiah Wright unleashed a slew of racially charged proclamations at a seminar in Chicago last week, reportedly comparing the United States with apartheid South Africa and claiming the civil rights movement was about "becoming white." The comments were reported by the New York Post, which provided details about a five-day class President Obama's former pastor taught at the Chicago Theological Seminary. In the seminar, Wright reportedly told those in the class they will never "be a brother to white folk," describing racial divisions in the country as entrenched -- as he did as pastor of Trinity United Church of...

BAGHDAD – A U.S. Air Force captain here is working with the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority to allow Iraqi air traffic controllers in Baghdad to monitor and communicate with aircraft flying in airspace throughout the country."Air Force Capt. Kurando Mensen, Air Component Coordination Element-Iraq, inspects a Very Small Aperture Terminal dish at a civilian Iraqi airport, March 17, 2010. The VSAT system will eventually allow Baghdad to monitor and communicate with aircraft flying anywhere in the country. U.S. Air Force photo." The Very Small Aperture Terminal System (VSAT) supports a radio communication instrument allowing remote communication and navigation stations across...

VIRGINIA PUNDIT: A Civil War over health care?By Steve Vaughan Modified: Saturday, April 03, 2010 March 29,2010 A Civil War over health care? President Obama signed the health care legislation he’d fought so hard for into law last week. It was a bit of a disappointment if you believe, as I do, that affordable health care is a basic right that should be available to everyone, as it is in the rest of the civilized world. Because this bill doesn’t really do it. It does make some advances over our present system. It limits insurance companies’ ability to deny coverage...

I've been thinking, how does a person respond to this radical lurch toward socialized medicine and the tyranny that is pushing us where we don't want to go. Tea Parties have been great fun and have been a good way to express one's exasperations with the white house and congress (read Democrats, Leftists, Communist Progressives and the like). But marching and going to rallies will only take us so far, there must be a new level of activism that takes up where speechmaking and rallying left off. As a group, I don't think we're quite ready to start breaking things,...

By QHillyer on Jan. 12, 2010 into Water Cooler Much more on this later. For now, just a heads-up that the Justice Department "responded" to subpoenas from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, concerning the New Black Panther voting intimidation case, by citing (or inventing) seven different grounds to "object to each and every Interrogatory and Document Request" from the Commission......