Free Republic

Huge mosque stirs protests in Cologne By Harry de Quetteville in Cologne Last Updated: 12:39am BST 25/06/2007 The construction of one of Europe's biggest mosques near to a globally famous Christian landmark has sparked a furious row in Germany. Immigration and integration are hugely sensitive questions in Germany, which is home to a Turkish community of several million. But almost within the shadow of Cologne Cathedral, political correctness has now been replaced by bitter confrontation as the city's Muslims begin to build a 2,000-capacity mosque with twin minarets that will reach 170ft. "Muslims have been here for 40 years, yet...

Have some fun and do something really worthwhile too! Want to have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD! Add them to your Christmas card list now. As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world. Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it. Here's the Address, just don't be rude or crude. ACLU 125 Broad Street 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations...

The country is buzzing about Rush Limbaugh's post-election comments that he felt liberated now that he would no longer have to shill for those who had not earned his unequivocal support. Limbaugh said, "I feel liberated, ladies and gentlemen, because I feel like I don't have to carry the water for people that I think don't deserve to have their water carried." Limbaugh's success as a talk-radio host comes from his incredible talent at analyzing the lay of the land, breaking down the issues of the day for his audience and seeing things that most people miss when sizing up...

BURLESON, Texas (AP) -- A suburban Fort Worth, Texas, school district has halted a program teaching students to attack a gunman if he invades a classroom, administrators said Wednesday. The district will continue to train students in how to respond to life-threatening situations but no longer will show them how to take down an attacker, spokesman Richard Crummel said. Robin Browne, an instructor for Response Options, the security company that provided the training, had recommended that students and teachers "react immediately to the sight of a gun by picking up anything and everything and throwing it at the head and...

This is turning into the gift that keeps on giving. Not only did CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer get totally schooled by the Vice President’s wife last Friday in front of the whole nation, but now he’s actually saying that he was surprised by Lynne Cheney's behavior. On CNN’s Late Edition Sunday, Blitzer set up a replay of the now famous interview with the following (video here): I've been covering the Cheneys for many years, including on a day-to-day basis, when he was the defense secretary during the first Gulf War and I was CNN's Pentagon correspondent. Mrs. Cheney has been...

Okay, we’ve been knocked on our butts by the Foley disgrace. We never expected trouble in that district but it is here. What do we do now? Do we sit sucking our thumbs crying about the MSM and Democrat dirty tricks? I don’t think so and if you are reading this on FreeRepublic, you really don’t think so either. First we need to mentally step back To work effectively we must maintain our composure and start thinking clearly instead. If we can keep a rational approach we can help get control of the political picture. We are fighting people who...

FAR-RIGHT extremists have adopted the tactics of Islamic jihadis by posting videos on the internet in which they threaten to behead British Muslims. The films show balaclava-clad white British men brandishing guns, knives and clubs, calling on all Muslims to leave Britain or be killed. One appears to be a soldier who has served in the Gulf. In one film, a man tells Muslims to "go home" or risk being burned alive. He threatens, "I'll cut your head off", and claims to have "comrades" across Britain who have "had enough". The videos were made after the arrests three weeks ago...

We are living in a crucial time in our nation’s history. We Freepers recognize this and know we must do something. What to do? How do we effectively send the message to our leaders? These become important questions. I’m sure many of us have sent “white mail” letters back to those who have asked us for money. I have done this so many times that I’m actually surprised that these people are still sending me requests for money. I send back empty envelops with demands for toughness on illegal aliens. Nevertheless, these letters run under the radar. We “white mailers”...

Mexican flag burned after week of protests Associated Press Mar. 31, 2006 07:10 AM Tensions over immigration got a little heated Thursday in Apache Junction. A Mexican flag was brought to school by a Hispanic student in response to what he said was a racist remark directed at him the day before. After he and other students raised the flag on the school's flagpole, the newspaper said another group of students took it down and burned it. The burning and ensuing shoving match between the two groups of students happened before most students arrived at the school. The school's principal...

<p>President Bush is making a speech at noon. Fox is reporting he will address the criticism aimed at him by the democrats in the past two weeks.</p>

AL ASAD, Iraq (August 20, 2005) -- “I watched it happen. I felt helpless. My friends and I wanted to help out, but I couldn’t go because the fire department, where I’m a volunteer fire fighter, was on stand by. I had to go with the fire department if they went.” This is the beginning of Lance Cpl. Michael Sprung’s story of what became his journey to becoming one of the few and the proud. Sprung, a 29-year-old truck driver with Transportation Support Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 2, 2nd Force Service Support Group (Forward), recalled what happened that fateful September...

Last night, Minutemen supporters gathered privately at the Women's Civic Club of Garden Grove (in O.C.) to hear a discussion lead by James Gilchrist, the founder of the Minutemen Project. About 300 protestors, charging that the Minutemen are a racist group, gathered outside to protest the meeting. When the Minutemen supporters tried to leave the event, at least two of their cars were attacked by dozens of protestors. The protestors hit the vehicles with placards and other objects until one of the drivers gunned his car to get away from the crowd. He was arrested, though I'm not sure what...

Tell George Bush to nominate a new UN Ambassador!4/27/2005Dear Friend, On April 19th, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met once more to consider the nomination of John Bolton as UN Ambassador. In the light of many serious allegations against Bolton that have emerged over the past few weeks, I along with the other committee Democrats urged Chairman Lugar to hold off on a final vote until these allegations could be fully explored. Most observers expected our efforts to fail, figuring that committee Republicans would steamroll Democrats on a party line vote and ram Bolton's nomination through, sending it to...

A woman is slowly starving to death in a Florida hospice. She is under armed guard to ensure that no one offers her water to drink or food to eat. This is all happening under court order. Not a congressional act or the personal intervention of the president of the United States has been able to help her. Is America broken? How could this happen in this country, as the whole nation, the whole world, watches? Oh, the lawyers have their excuses. The high priests in black robes claim to have sympathy but say their hands are tied. This is...

BAGHDAD—Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon yesterday, a carpenter named Dhia saw a group of masked gunmen with grenades coming toward his shop and decided he had had enough. As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia, 35, and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47s and opened fire, the police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said. "We attacked...

United Nations peacekeepers have gone on the offensive against a militia group in Congo, deploying helicopters and killing nearly 60 people in the biggest battle fought by the world body in more than a decade. But criticism of the operation was mounting yesterday when it emerged that up to a third of the dead could have been civilians used as human shields by the group that was the attackers' intended target. The latest hostilities began when a battalion of Pakistani soldiers advanced on the militia base in the Ituri district, the scene of some of the worst atrocities in the...

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and his wife told a crowd of reporters today that they have a faithful, loving marriage, after the mayor accused agents of Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration of spreading false rumors that he had an extramarital affair. "It is difficult to express the kind of anger a father feels in not being able to protect his children from the lies," said Martin O'Malley, a Democrat. "It's hard to defend against this without giving aid to the people trying to push this." Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and his wife Katie O'Malley hold a press conference...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's cotton and rice farmers, who receive more than $500 million a year in federal farm subsidies, are preparing for a fight over President Bush's proposed subsidy cuts. The president proposed a $587 million budget cut in farm subsidies nationwide. That would most affect the state's farmers of cotton and rice, which have a combined acreage of about 1.2 million acres throughout California. Bush proposed a 5 percent reduction in support payments, a new $250,000 ceiling on payments to individual farmers and an end to loopholes that allow some farmers to claim multiple owners of their farm...

Iraqi insurgents resume deadly attacksTONY EASTLEY: In Iraq insurgents have returned to their grizzly trade, killing more than two dozen people, including two US Marines. In the deadliest attack insurgents ambushed a bus and killed 12 Iraqi army recruits. It ended the relative calm that existed during the election last weekend. Election officials meanwhile have released the first results of Sunday's historic election, but have cautioned against attempting to extrapolate nationwide totals from the small numbers. The ABC's Middle East Correspondent, Mark Willacy, is in the Iraqi capital,  Baghdad. Mark Willacy, we've heard reports about the high voter turnout, but...

Poor President Bush, so hated by "the world" and yet so incredibly popular at home. We all know why he's popular - he's a man of his word, he doesn't bend with political winds, he's willing to take the hard road and he means what he says. There's one other president in our hemisphere who resembles him, a man in the middle of another terror war whose inhumanly vicious enemies have tried to assassinate him two times in the past week, adding to a long string of other efforts. And his response has been like President Bush's - to defy...