Free Republic

We encourage our readers to circulate the following in its entirety. Instead of speaking for (or about) the Obamas, we will let them and their church speak for themselves. Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], “Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” page...

Obama's Black Identity Politics is Consistent With Jeremiah Wright’s Hate SpeechIf anyone believes that Barack Obama “just found out” about Jeremiah Wright’s vicious anti-American hate speech, we have a bridge in Brooklyn we would like to sell them. As shown by Obama’s own book Dreams From My Father, Obama’s deep involvement in Black identity politics–replace that with “White identity politics” to envision sheets, hoods, and burning crosses–is entirely consistent with his widespread involvement and association with racists, anti-Semites, and Catholic-haters. The bottom line is that Obama is not one of us and, by “us,” we mean mainstream America. To begin...

Go, Hillary! That’s my battle cry. Hillary Clinton needs to hit our Texas primary hard on March 4 — or kiss her campaign for the presidency goodbye. Barack Obama has taken the delegate lead, with some big states still ahead for forthcoming primaries. At this point, the polling experts — who are starting to look like polling amateurs — expect Hillary to take Texas. If so, she will follow other women who have gained crucial political momentum in Texas, such as Ann Richards in recent times and Miriam “Ma” Ferguson in the 1920s. And on the GOP side, the state...

Flags Make Way From Iraq to America's Front Yards Mar 19, 2007 BY Spc. Susan Blair An American flag blows in the wind in Northern Iraq. After the flag is lowered by a paratrooper from 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, it will become available to purchase through the units Family Readiness Group. Photo by Spc. Susan Blair NORTHERN IRAQ (Army News Service, March 19, 2007) - Since paratroopers of the 73rd Cavalry Regiment's 1st Squadron set foot in Iraq, they've raised and lowered a new flag every hour on the hour. Each flag has then become available for purchase through...

Part One of Three (A Photo Essay) 31 December 2006: Baghdad, Iraq To enter Iraq with US forces, journalists normally travel through Kuwait. This time I flew from Singapore to Kuwait, where I toured military facilities critical to maintaining war-fighting equipment, then to Qatar to continue exploration of the same, and finally back to Kuwait to enter Iraq. I plan to spend the entirety of 2007 with our troops at war, until sickness, wounds or worse send me home, or the military tires of my presence and catapults me over the wire. Having spent most of 2005 in Iraq, I...

MANY AMERICANS have been wondering why so many Iraqis are willing to fight for militias and terrorist groups but not for the American-backed government. Look at it from their perspective. Would you stake your life on a regime whose existence depends on Washington's continuing support? Given our long, shameful record of leaving allies in the lurch, that has never seemed to be a smart bet. We have been betraying friends since our first overseas conflict, against the Barbary pirates who captured ships off the African coast and enslaved their crews... Something similar could have been said about U.S. conduct after...

Cats and dogs protect kids from stomach bugs 11:43 15 September 2006 NewScientist.com news service Matt Kaplan Pets can protect their young owners against common stomach bugs, according to new research. Jane Heyworth at the University of Western Australia in Crawley, and colleagues found that incidences of gastroenteritis – commonly called stomach flu – were significantly lower in young children living in homes with pets, than those living without. For six weeks, the team closely observed 965 children aged four to six, noting incidences of nausea, diarrhoea, and vomiting. Children that had a cat or dog in their household were...

Austin, Texas ­- With one day remaining for candidates to withdraw from the race and have their names not appear on the ballot, candidate Michael Badnarik's principal campaign committee, Badnarik for Congress, has asked Democrat Ted Ankrum to withdraw from the race. "While Mr. Ankrum is definitely a nice guy, that is not enough to win over the Republican incumbent," says campaign manager and committee treasurer Allen Hacker. Hacker expects that the Democrat, who has no party or Political Action Committee support, hasn't raised even $75,000.00 and is very unlikely to break $100,000.00 in the entire campaign. A recent appeal...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Jim Snoddy and other NASA engineers didn't just go to the drawing board or a warehouse when they needed ideas — and parts — for America's next lunar rocket. They went to space museums. Facing tight deadlines and uncertain budgets as it works on President Bush's plan to send astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars, NASA is both cannibalizing and analyzing pieces of its glory years, namely the Apollo program that first put humans on the lunar surface in 1969. Snoddy, a manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, has been removing valves and...

Israel humbled by arms from Iran By Adrian Blomfield in Ghandouriyeh (Filed: 15/08/2006) Abandoned Hizbollah positions in Lebanon yesterday revealed conclusive evidence that Syria - and almost certainly Iran - provided the anti-tank missiles that have blunted the power of Israel's once invincible armour. After one of the fiercest confrontations of the war, Israeli forces took the small town of Ghandouriyeh, east of the southern city of Tyre, on Sunday evening, hours before a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations took effect. Israeli soldiers hold a Israeli flag after returning from Lebanon At least 24 Israeli soldiers were killed in...

From woad warriors to cancer-buster 13:09 14 August 2006 Z NewScientist.com news service Phil Cohen The medieval Scottish rebels made famous in the movie Braveheart used dye from the woad plant to paint their faces blue for battle. Now Italian biochemists say this plant could become a promising weapon in the fight against cancer. The researchers have demonstrated that under the right growth conditions woad (Isatis tinctoria) produces astonishing amounts of glucobrassicin (GBS), a biochemical which may account for some of the cancer-fighting properties of related plants, such as broccoli. “It can make more than 60 times the amount found...

Worker from the West July 10, 2006 Are new DNA findings a surprise or just one more piece of evidence for China's early connections? (Courtesy Victor Mair) According to a news report from China, DNA analysis indicates that at least one of the workers who constructed the tomb of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of China, was in fact of west Eurasian ancestry. ARCHAEOLOGY talked to the University of Pennsylvania's Victor Mair about this announcement and its implications for understanding ancient connections between China and the West. A professor of Chinese language and literature in the university's department of East Asian...

There has been an increasing trend towards building DNA databases all over the world. In America there are many states that take your DNA for a misdemeanor crime and also during a traffic stop. There have been DNA dragnets all across America. You are pulled over by a police officer for running a red light and he tells you to swab the inside of you’re mouth. Any authority figure will normally get what he wants if he applies a little pressure. We were taught to obey our authorities from grade school so it is embedded in our psyche. A basic...

PHILADELPHIA - Lil' Kim celebrated Independence Day one day early with her release from a federal detention center Monday morning after nearly 10 months behind bars. The rapper, who was sent to prison for lying about a shootout outside a New York radio station, walked out of the jail looking glamorous in sunglasses and an all-white, cleavage-baring outfit. Carrying a balloon and a bouquet of white roses, she waved to dozens of cheering onlookers _ some carrying signs that said, "Welcome Home, Queen Bee" _ before getting into a silver Rolls-Royce. The car pulled into a nearby parking lot where...

Army wives get phone death threats from Iraq By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 25/06/2006) Wives and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls, believed to include death threats, from insurgents, according to military documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph. The "nuisance" calls have been made with increasing frequency over the past few weeks after insurgents managed to obtain home numbers from soldiers' mobile telephones. The growing number of calls has led to an investigation by the Royal Military Police, which has issued a warning to all soldiers in Iraq to take great care when using...

LEVITTOWN, Pennsylvania (June 6) - A deal is being negotiated that would allow a high school's class president to participate in Friday's graduation ceremony despite concern that he could be targeted by a gang. Tyrone Lewis, 18, had been scheduled to be one of the speakers at the Truman High School commencement ceremony, but police were worried that he could be targeted by a gang from Trenton, New Jersey, because his sister had testified in a murder trial. Lewis had been barred from the ceremony. Dave Truelove, the Bristol Township School District's solicitor, confirmed Tuesday that talks are in progress...

PALOMINAS — For many people, building a barbed-wire fence under the burning Arizona sun would probably be the last way they would want to spend their Memorial Day weekend. Not Minuteman Project volunteer Christie Czajkowski, however. She signed up for the group’s weekend fence-building inauguration almost as soon as she heard about it — even though it meant driving 15 hours from her home in Chula Vista, Calif. “What else am I going to do, go to another beach party?” laughed the 33-year-old baker as she paused from a turn at stringing wire. “No, I need to do something to...

<p>SYDNEY, Australia - Brothel owners in the southern state of Victoria have called for an exemption to a new ban on smoking in the workplace, saying customers like to light up after sex.</p> <p>The Australian Adult Entertainment Industry has written to Victoria's health minister arguing that new laws banning smoking in bars and brothels could push prostitution back into the streets, according to a report in the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper.</p>

From: Mrs.Mable. I am Mrs.Mable Kabila, from Democratic Republic of Congo. There is an imformation I would like you to keep very confidential There is sum ammount of money my Husband Late President Laurent Kabila, deposited in a security company Abidjan Cote d'ivoire for safe keeping. Before he was killed by his Eldest Millitary Son. The squable happened as immediately we returned back from our London trip. My husband married us two.I am the second wife.I will not be able to give you the full details that led to that urgly incidents. The Eldest Son is the current President of...

Dutch told to return land they won from the sea By David Rennie in Zaamslag (Filed: 27/05/2006) A photograph of a grinning boy, riding a toy tractor, has pride of place in the kitchen of Aarnout and Magda de Feijter, the owners of a 148-acre farm in the Dutch province of Zeeland. The picture is of their first grandson, Louis, and the de Feijters have always dreamed that he will one day take over the expanse of wind-rippled flax fields that has been in their family since 1835. The de Feijters on the dyke protecting their farm But there are...