Free Republic

This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people...

ATLANTA -- Developers of a $2 billion coal-fired power plant won an appeals court ruling Tuesday in their battle with environmentalists, but more court action will likely be needed before the path is cleared to build Georgia's first new coal plant in more than two decades. A panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge's 2008 ruling that said plans for the south Georgia plant should have regulated carbon dioxide emissions. Environmentalists who had hailed the lower court ruling last year as a precedent-setting decision were dismayed. "We are very disappointed that the Court rejected other important...

ATLANTA, GA—VICTOR ABILES GOMEZ, 20, OMAR MENDOZA-VILLEGAS, 19, and GERARDO SOLORIO REYES, a/k/a “Gera,” 23, all illegal immigrants from Mexico, have been sentenced to federal prison on hostage-taking and related charges, arising from the week-long kidnapping and abuse of a drug dealer. United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the case, “This case demonstrates the danger inherent in the illegal business of drug-dealing. All of these drug dealers—captors and victim—have now been sentenced to federal prison. Fortunately this violent episode did not spill over to innocent members of our community.” DEA Atlanta Field Division Special Agent in Charge Rodney...

Do those who carry a gun for self defense belong here? (photo of prison cell) Agree to disagree. Live and let live, right? This is the attitude of most people in Atlanta today about controversial topics. We all can disagree and yet still get along. Does this philosophy hold up when applied to the "gun control" debate? I think not. It does from my side of the argument. I carry a gun every day. I enjoy shooting guns, and I am competent at doing so. I also view my gun as a necessary tool that might save my life or...

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2009 – The best way to show deployed troops you care, says Cody Anderson, is to send them prepaid international phone cards so they can call home to their friends and loved ones. Today, Anderson, 54, of Mineral Bluff, Ga., is wrapping a four-and-a-half-week personal sojourn, walking back and forth from the U.S. Capitol to the White House to raise awareness about the troops and encourage people to donate phone cards for them. Yesterday, Anderson’s walking shoes were showing signs of his 1,000-mile personal walkathon as he plodded back and forth between the two national icons, passing...

MACON, Ga. — H. Averett Walker used hot money to turn Security Bank from a sleepy Southern lender into a regional powerhouse. Darrell D. Pittard used hot money to jump-start his brand-new MagnetBank, allowing it to lend hundreds of millions of dollars even though it did not have a single drive-up window or even a customer with a checking account. It is a formula being replicated at banks across the United States. Rather than simply wooing local customers, they have turned to out-of-state brokers who deliver billions of dollars in bulk deposits, widely known as “hot money,” from investors nationwide....

Three Republicans on the House panel that oversees the Census Bureau have asked fellow GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota to end her plans to boycott next year’s count. Reps. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia and John Mica of Florida issued a statement saying every elected representative has a “responsibility” to encourage participation in the 2010 Census. “Boycotting the constitutionally mandated census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” they stated. . . . . . McHenry, Westmoreland and Mica – no fans of Acorn – pointed out an “unfortunate irony”...

At the link if the procession carrying the body of SFC John Beale from Falcon Field, Peachtree City GA to the Cannon-Cleveland Funeral Home in McDonough, GA on June 11, 2009. The procession crossed three counties but the turnout was amazing all the way as we saluted our hero who gave his life in defense of freedom. God bless SFC Beale and be with his family. This is a longer video so you will need more tissue.

A Waffle House employee is suing the Gwinnett County Police Department over what he says was an unprovoked encounter with an officer who stunned him with a Taser. The department’s internal investigation records reveal that the officer used the weapon like a toy with tacit approval from two superior officers. Daniel Wilson, the 22-year-old waiter, spoke publicly about the encounter Wednesday at his attorney’s office in Snellville. The incident has already resulted in the arrest of Cpl. Gary Miles, 33, and the resignations of Sgt. Christopher Parry and Sgt. Joey Parkerson. None of the officers could be reached for comment...

July ushers in new Ga. laws By GREG BLUESTEIN ATLANTA The beginning of July ushers in a slew of new laws in Georgia, including a measure that seeks to celebrate the Confederacy while also honoring a civil rights leader, new rules praised by abortion opponents and a pair of laws long sought by prosecutors. Those measures and dozens of others are set to take effect on Wednesday, the first day of July. And while some of the new laws aren't among the most high-profile legislation, many are the result of hard-fought legislative battles that could have profound impact. Prosecutors groups,...

With 15,000 to 20,000 people in attendance, the Atlanta Tea Party on April 15 was a resounding success. Hoping to match or surpass the success of their peaceful and well-organized Tea Party in April, organizers of the July 4 Atlanta Tea Party had planned for a family-friendly Independence Day event that would accommodate a very large crowd of Tea Party Patriots. The Atlanta Tea Party would have included musical entertainment, face painting, jumbotron televisions, food vendors and speeches from talk show hosts and grassroots activists. The celebration would have brought thousands of potential shoppers into an economically depressed area and...

ALBANY - The Dougherty County Commission voted unanimously Monday to reject all bids on the construction of a new Public Works building, including LRA Constructors Inc.'s low bid of $650,390, after County Attorney Spencer Lee recommended such action based on constitutionality issues. Lee outlined for the Commission the reasons for his recommendation, noting that a 2008 disparity study conducted by BBC Research & Consulting of Denver found that a system calling for minority-based participation quotas and "good-faith" efforts was unconstitutional under existing federal law. "This board needs to take action on matters like these based on the latest disparity study,...

Victim was hit in the head with a handgun By KATIE LESLIE The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday, June 29, 2009 Another Georgia Tech student was robbed at gunpoint early Monday, making him the 13th person to be mugged near campus since February. The robbery occurred at 1:15 a.m. in the Home Park neighborhood between the northern edge of Georgia Tech campus and Atlantic Station, according to Atlanta Police Department Spokesman Officer Otis Redmond. The student, whose name has not been released, told police he was approached by males in a dark SUV, with at least two of the robbers armed with...

ATLANTA, GA—CHAUNSAY BECKWITH, 46, of Tucker, Georgia, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Marvin H. Shoob to serve nearly 5 years in federal prison on a charge of health care fraud. United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said of the case, “Hyperbaric chambers have a number of legitimate medical uses, as varied as helping burn victims and scuba divers in their recovery. This defendant turned a hyperbaric chamber into a scheme for generating over a million dollars in fraudulent claims. Health care fraud raises the costs of health care for everyone, and those responsible for such fraud...

NEW YORK (AP) - Regulators on Friday shut down five small banks, boosting to 45 the number of failures this year of federally insured banks. More are expected to succumb in the prolonged recession. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the failed banks: Community Bank of West Georgia, based in Villa Rica, Ga.; Neighborhood Community Bank, located in Newnan, Ga.; Horizon Bank in Pine City, Minn.; MetroPacific Bank in Irvine, Calif.; and Mirae Bank in Los Angeles. Community Bank of West Georgia had $199.4 million in assets and $182.5 million in deposits as of May 15. Neighborhood...

David Limbaugh speaks at 9 AM & 10:45 AM. Lt. Col. Oliver North will speak at 7 PM.

South Carolina tourist campaign for neighboring states, www.scnextdoor.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday, June 26, 2009 A former mayor found sitting naked and holding a beer at a Rabun County campsite told police he wasn’t the same naked man seen walking around earlier. Mark Musselwhite, 43, said he was hot and had been in the creek, according to a Georgia Department of Natural Resources incident report. He apparently didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. Musselwhite, of Gainesville, was arrested last weekend after being confronted by state DNR authorities. He was charged with public indecency. “He told me he was the ex-mayor of the city Gainesville and he was...

President Obama may restrict his reaction to the nationwide tea party movement whereby tens of thousands of people are objecting to the spending spree on which the U.S. government has embarked under his leadership, but some of his supporters are taking more direct action: using an easement agreement to cancel a July 4th event scheduled on private property in Atlanta. Jason Lee at the American Thinker blog describes the situation that has developed for the 20,000 people expected to meet in Atlanta on July 4.There, organizers had been working since March with officials to set up the tea party event...

ATLANTA TEA PARTY TO JOIN WITH COBB FOR METRO-WIDE TEA PARTY JULY 3RD Suwanee, GA. - The Atlanta Tea Party was forced to cancel it's Independence Day celebration in Gwinnett, after losing it's location due to the objection of Gwinnett Place Mall (a Simon company.) we are joining forces with the Cobb for a large metro-area Tea Party on Friday, July 3rd, at 6 PM. The event is at Jim Miller Park at 2245 Callaway Road in Marietta. For information on the event, contact Cobb organizer Ben Mihalski at 770-726-7188 or visit http://www.cobbteaparty.com/ ."

A real estate company whose owners have contributed heavily to Democratic causes apparently used articles and content on conservative blogs to justify bringing about pressure to shut down an Atlanta tea party protest scheduled for the Fourth of July — an event that organizers estimated would attract 20,000 people. The apparent plot was uncovered when blogger and radio talk show host Andrea Shea King noticed an unusual amount of traffic coming to her site earlier this month. On Jun 16, Andrea Shea King emailed me, questioning a heavy burst of Sitemeter traffic coming from simon.com. She included screencaps of the...

ATLANTA, GA—Frederick Barton, 48, of Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Thomas W. Thrash to serve over six years in federal prison on a charge of wire fraud, for having fraudulently diverted approximately $2 million from several clients and investors. United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said, "Among other frauds, this so-called securities professional stole nearly the entire life savings of an elderly client with Alzheimer's. His purposeful targeting of such a vulnerable victim appropriately resulted in a longer sentence. The prison sentence imposed today provides a measure of justice to all of the defendant's victims,...

ATLANTA, June 23 (UPI) -- Atlanta police said Tuesday they're investigating yet another armed robbery of a Georgia Tech student. The latest robbery occurred overnight at an apartment complex just south of the campus. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported there have been 10 armed robberies, nine targeting students, since Feb. 7 in neighborhoods surrounding Georgia Tech. One student was shot and wounded. None of the incidents occurred on campus, the newspaper said, which means they fall under the jurisdiction of the Atlanta Police Department. The newspaper said in the latest robbery, an unnamed graduate student was walking home at the Centennial...

On Tuesday, sources told News 4's Nigel Robertson that a state vehicle is missing and was tracked down, not to the Appalachian Trail, but to the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta. Sources told Robertson that a federal agent spotted Sanford in the airport boarding a plane. Robertson was told that the governor was not accompanied by security detail.

With as many as 20,000 people in attendance, the Atlanta Tea Party on April 15 was one of the largest and most successful Tea Parties in the country. The Atlanta Tea Party on July 4, 2009 had been expected to be just as large. Unfortunately, plans have changed. Simon Property Group has forced the cancellation of the Atlanta Tea Party. The Atlanta Tea Party was forced to cancel its Independence Day celebration in Gwinnett, after losing its location due to the objection of Gwinnett Place Mall (a Simon company.) The Tea Party had been scheduled to take place in the...

David Limbaugh, Lt. Col. Oliver North, Lt. Col. Steve Russell, Dr. Ergun Caner, Donald Wildmon and Jonathan Krohn will be speaking next week in Cumming, Georgia. Come to see them if you are nearby.

ATLANTA -- A robber held-up a Georgia Tech student at gunpoint early Tuesday morning, the latest in a string of armed robberies on or near the campus.The gunman confronted the Tech graduate student about 1:00 a.m. on Luckie Street in downtown Atlanta as the victim walked to his apartment.The robber demanded everything the student was carrying. A neighbor who saw the incident stepped out of her unit at the Centennial Street apartments and began screaming for help.The robber got away with a pack of cigarettes.One neighbor complained to Channel 2 Action News reporter Ryan Young that the string of robberies...

Kenney and Lorber told police that they were confronted by two men who jumped out of a black sport-utility vehicle while a third suspect remained inside the SUV. Lorber was able to escape the gunmen, but Kenney, whose leg is in a cast, was not. “I said, ‘I don’t want any trouble,’” Kenney told WSB radio. “So I laid down, emptied my pockets and he grabbed everything I’d emptied out.” The suspects took Kenney’s glasses and Blackberry, Polite said. Polite described the suspects as three black males, one about 6 feet tall, wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and a...

Two recent government actions, one legislative and one judicial, have called into question our society's willingness to protect its youngest and most vulnerable members. A hate crimes bill (H.R. 1913 and S. 909), dubbed by critics the "Pedophile Protection Act," has already passed the House and is up for vote in the Senate. The bill earned its unofficial name when Democrats rejected an amendment to exclude pedophiles from legal protection.

ATLANTA, GA—WILBERT STALLINGS, 45, of Conyers, Georgia, was sentenced to prison today by United States District Judge Julie E. Carnes on the charge of conspiring to violate civil rights by breaking into a private residence to search for drugs without a warrant. United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said, "Breaking into a private residence without a warrant or provocation is the ultimate violation of our constitutional right to be secure in our homes. Indeed, it is the very definition of lawlessness. Thankfully, the vast majority of police officers understand that their badges and guns do not grant them authority to...

Defense: By a narrow margin, a House subcommittee has voted to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line. The future of American air dominance and the fate of the world's most capable fighter hang in the balance.On May 30, with North Korea huffing and puffing about nuclear war, the first of 12 high-tech U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jets landed at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It was just days after North Korea unnerved the region by detonating a nuclear device. There were reasons the F-22 was deployed to Japan. The stealthy, radar-evading fighter jet is...

A new internet data map offers a first-of-its-kind, county-level look at HIV cases in the U.S. and finds the infection rates tend to be highest in the South. The highest numbers of HIV cases are in population centers like New York and California. However, many of the areas with the highest rates of HIV—that is, the highest proportion of people with the AIDS-causing virus—are in the South, according to the data map, which has information for about 99 percent of the nation's counties. HIV infection rates are higher in African-American communities, and high minority populations in the South help explain...

I am putting together a team of politicos to disrupt and derail the newly announced campaign of ex-Gov. and hopeful Roy Barnes. If you want to participate please ping me.

ATLANTA (AP) -- Eric Mongerson's kids couldn't meet his partner of two years, much less join the couple for ice cream. His friends couldn't cheer on the children at concerts or Little League games. The divorced dad spent thousands of dollars fighting an unusual ban imposed by a county judge in 2007 that kept the three minors from having any contact with his gay friends or partners.

Regulators on Friday shut down three small banks, pushing this year's tally of failed banks to 40.

38, 39, 40. First National Bank of Anthony, Kansas Southern Community bank of Fayetteville, Georgia Cooperative Bank in Wilmington, North Carolina

The unemployment rates in eight states hit record-highs last month and only two -- Nebraska and Vermont -- did not report increases. The Labor Department says 48 states and the District of Columbia saw employment conditions deteriorate last month. The fallout from the longest recession since World War II, was the worst in Michigan. Its unemployment rate rose to 14.1 percent. The eight states that set records are: California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. The West region reported the highest jobless rate at 10.1 percent. The last time any region had a rate of...

ROSWELL, Ga. — A Georgia liquor store clerk credits his police officer son with giving him two life-saving gifts — a cell phone and a gun. Joseph Wescott says the phone he slipped into his shirt pocket stopped a knife to his chest when a robbery suspect attacked him at the store in a northern Atlanta suburb. He then reached under the counter for the .40-caliber handgun and shot the man. "The knife that he had looked like it was about 10-foot long," the 67-year-old Wescott exclaimed. When the suspect lunged at Wescott, he fell back and the knife struck...

AUGUSTA, GA—Edmund A. Booth, Jr., United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced that a federal grand jury returned a 32-count indictment against ten individuals charging them with Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine and Cocaine Base over a fourteen-month period. Booth stated that the indictment stems from a lengthy investigation of the drug organization operating in what is commonly referred to as the Smallworld or Southside area of Augusta, located in and around the Dogwood Terrace Government Housing Complex.. Booth noted that the defendants have been charged with conspiracy as well as drug distribution and firearms charges. Those charged...

Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed to 9.7 percent in May -- the highest rate ever recorded in Georgia, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. The jobless rate was up 0.5 points from a revised 9.2 percent in April, 9.2 percent in March and 9.2 percent in February. The May jobless rate also was up 3.8 percentage points from 5.9 percent at this same time last year. Georgia’s unemployment rate remained above the national rate of 9.4 percent for the 19th consecutive month. “Georgia’s record unemployment rate of 9.7 percent is a stark reminder that the road to economic...

ROSWELL, Ga. — A Georgia liquor store clerk credits his police officer son with giving him two life-saving gifts — a cell phone and a gun. Joseph Wescott says the phone he slipped into his shirt pocket stopped a knife to his chest when a robbery suspect attacked him at the store in a northern Atlanta suburb. He then reached under the counter for the .40-caliber handgun and shot the man. "The knife that he had looked like it was about 10-foot long," the 67-year-old Wescott exclaimed. When the suspect lunged at Wescott, he fell back and the knife struck...

The ruling stems from the bitter 2007 divorce of Eric Duane Mongerson and Sandy Kay Ehlers Mongerson, who were married 21 years and had four children. In court arguments, Sandy Mongerson’s attorney claimed the father subjected the children to an “array of violent, sexual, abusive and wholly inappropriate conduct” during a trip to Arkansas and contended the father was in a series of affairs with other men while still married. Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards awarded Sandy Mongerson custody of the couple’s three minor children in the final divorce decree, and her ex-husband was granted limited visitation. The...

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday threw out a judge’s order that prohibited children in a divorce case from having any contact with their father’s gay and lesbian friends. The ruling was hailed by gay rights groups who said the decision focuses on the needs of children instead of perpetuating a stigma on the basis of sexual orientation. The state high court’s decision overturned Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards’ blanket prohibition against exposing the children to their father’s gay partners and friends. “Such an arbitrary classification based on sexual orientation flies in the face of our public policy...

Strategy is to avoid attracting attention.Metro counties form major hub for East Coast drug distribution. The man who lived on a quiet cul-de-sac in Forsyth County appeared to be an ordinary guy. He ran a small fencing company. His grade-school-aged children played with others in the subdivision. His lifestyle was simple and unassuming. Neighbors in the Whisper Walk subdivision in Cumming had no idea that Paul Longoria was using his business as a front for cocaine trafficking until authorities arrested him in 2007. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison on felony drug charges a year later in federal...

| Angel Haro-Perez certainly didn't look like a drug lord. Police and federal agents arrested him in December 2007 in a rented house in a lower-middle-class neighborhood about a half-hour's drive from downtown Atlanta. The raised ranch is tucked off the interstate, where billboards advertise $69.99 motel rooms and secondary highways are dotted with strip malls and commercial shipping centers. Inside, agents found air mattresses on the floor, a few changes of clothes, a laptop computer. And $750,000 in cash stuffed in closets. "You'd see this guy on a street corner and you'd say, 'He could barely rub two nickels...

A gathering at an Atlanta elementary school last summer planted the seeds for a cheating scandal. Fifth-graders from five public schools had attended summer classes together at Deerwood Academy in southwestern Atlanta. Then they all had retaken the standardized test each had failed in the spring: the math portion of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, or CRCT. Officials from the five schools came to Deerwood to collect answer sheets from their respective students and send them off for automated grading. But state investigators say the test papers from one group of students apparently took a detour. When the results came back,...

Support this pro-life legislation; To amend the Official Code of Georgia Annotated so as to provide that prenatal murder shall be unlawful in all events and to remove numerous references to such procedures; to amend Title 16, relating to crimes and offenses, so as to make certain findings of fact; to define certain terms; to provide that any prenatal murder shall be unlawful; to provide a penalty; to repeal certain exceptions to certain offenses; to provide for severability; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

June 12, 2009— A Georgia homeowner whose cherished family home was mistakenly demolished said he wants to know how a contracted demolition crew could make such an egregious error. The modest, three-bedroom house at 11 Byrd Trail in Carrollton was built by Al Byrd's father in 1950. Now it's a mangled pile of debris. "It was disbelief," Byrd said of the moment he saw the remains of the house where he and his nine siblings were raised. "It was like a mirage." An Austin-based realty company, Forestar Group Inc., had contracted the demolition of a vacant one-story house at 3050...

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. -- A group of college students said they are lucky to be alive and they're thanking the quick-thinking of one of their own. Police said a fellow student shot and killed one of two masked men who burst into an apartment.Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Jones met with one of the students to talk about the incident. "Apparently, his intent was to rape and murder us all," said student Charles Bailey. Bailey said he thought it was the end of his life and the lives of the 10 people inside his apartment for a birthday party...

On Dec. 4, 2006, a 19-year-old Army private named Ross McGinnis threw himself upon a fragmentation grenade that an insurgent had tossed down the gunner’s hatch of the Humvee in which he was riding during combat operations against an armed enemy in Northeast Baghdad, Iraq. McGinnis pinned the live grenade between himself and the vehicle, absorbing all lethal fragments and damaging effects. That courageous act cost the young soldier his life, but saved four men from serious injury or death. For his gallantry that day, McGinnis, who was promoted posthumously to specialist, was awarded in 2008 the nation’s highest medal...