Free Republic

Can we talk? Lynchburg's dialogue on race and racism Lynchburg News & Advance Saturday, June 2, 2007 To delve into the thicket that is the question of race relations in America is always a dangerous undertaking. It’s a loaded topic that cuts to the core of who a person is and how he perceives he fits in American society - or doesn’t. But as the face of America changes before our eyes, it’s a topic that needs to be addressed. Race has been a boil since the very first African was brought to Jamestown in 1619 and sold to the...

THE IRISH IN AMERICA By John Francis Maguire, 1868 CHAPTER XXIV. The Know Nothing Movement--Jealousy of the Foreigner--Know Nothings indifferent to Religion--Democratic Orators--Even at the Altar and in the Pulpit--Almost Incredible--The Infernal Miscreant--A Strange Confession THE KNOW NOTHING movement of 1854 and 1855 troubled the peace of Catholics, and filled the hearts of foreign-born American citizens with sorrow and indignation. They were made the victims of rampant bigotry and furious political partisanship. There was nothing new in this Know Nothingism. It was as old as the time of the Revolution, being Native Americanism under another name. Its animating spirit...

I have mixed feelings when I see my predictions of what would come to pass in the case of the 6 wannabees who planned to attack Ft. Dix and kill as many soldiers as possible. A look at what's out there in the media and on the web tempts me to do something more rewarding-such as watching "The Re-birth of Mothra" !

My catechism teacher, Sister Mary Lou Petrillo, was a smart and scrappy nun who drilled into us the basics of Catholicism without demeaning other Christian churches or religions. Too bad Sister Mary Lou isn't available to teach a few intensive lessons on tolerance to the campaign people of presidential candidate John Edwards. Within the last few weeks, two bloggers for the former North Carolina senator resigned after being hit with criticism from conservative Catholic organizations angered by past anti-Catholic remarks the bloggers posted on the Web, according to CNN. Melissa McEwan and Amanda Marcotte quit after groups like the Catholic...

The President is correct -- the U.S. is too dependent on foreign sources of energy, a necessary and vital component to national security. Government policies should do more to promote domestic energy production in all its forms, including but not exclusively related to motor fuels. The fact of the matter is that the country is over 70% self-sufficient when we consider total energy (coal, nuclear, hydro, renewables, gas, etc). Although much of that dependence relates to oil, the U.S. does not import nearly as much from the Middle East as some suggest. As energy expert Daniel Yergin recently pointed out...

WASHINGTON -- The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks -- including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and putting more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer -- according to Pentagon officials. Foreign citizens serving in the US military is a highly charged issue, which could expose the Pentagon to criticism that it is essentially using mercenaries to defend the country. Other analysts voice concern that a large contingent of noncitizens under arms could jeopardize national security or reflect badly on Americans' willingness...

Farmers and ranchers live in an ocean of numbers. And like the tide, the numbers - pigs-per-litter, gain-per-pound, bushels-per-acre, dollars-per-bushel - can't be held back; they keep coming and keep adding to our nation's food story. The U.S. Department of Agriculture swells the tide with annual, quarterly, monthly, biweekly, weekly and daily reports. The data are the dots by which all in agriculture and food steer. The steering is about to get harder. Two late August USDA reports confirm that 2006's big numbers won't be big enough for American food producers. At first blush, the first report, the Outlook for...

ISLAMIST fanatics attacked us and yearn to destroy us. The Muslim civilization of the Middle East has failed comprehensively and will continue to generate violence. The only way to deal with faith-poisoned terrorists is to kill them. And the world's only hope for long-term peace is for moderate Muslims - by far the majority around the globe - to recapture their own faith. But a rotten core of American extremists is out to make it harder for them. The most repugnant trend in the American shouting match that passes for a debate on the struggle with Islamist terrorism isn't the...

The Democrat Party died yesterday in Hartford, Connecticut. Present when this venerable institution breathed its last were a minority of the Democrats in the Nutmeg State. The Party was the child of the Republican-Democrat Party, and the Anti-Federalist Party. It leaves no known descendants. However, political parties sometimes spawn children many years after their deaths. Is that verdict too harsh? The leaders of the Democrat Party in Washington, New York, and elsewhere, are not admitting even to a serious illness. It’s difficult to conduct a proper Irish wake when on-lookers insist on prodding the deceased to sing and dance. These...

August 03, 2006, 9:03 a.m. A Compromised Plan By The Editors Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, both Republicans, are making a last-ditch effort to bridge their party’s divide on immigration and pass a bill this year. We agree that the country, and the Republican party, would benefit if a sensible immigration plan were passed soon. The Pence-Hutchison plan isn’t one. The pro-amnesty Republicans have responded more favorably to the plan than the enforcement-first Republicans, and both sides are reading the plan correctly. Its central component is to allow illegal immigrants to continue...

No to Amnesty ! No to a Guest Worker Program for Illegals!

Pence-Hutchison “Compromise” Induces Illegal Aliens to Leave By Letting Them All Stay Plan Compromises the Security of the Middle Class by Putting Business in Charge of Immigration Policy Washington, DC—In a desperate effort to “get something done” on immigration before the end of the congressional session, two normally sober members of Congress have hatched a plan that is vague on details when it comes to securing America’s borders and protecting American workers, while containing specific promises to millions of illegal aliens. The plan offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) would require that the...

The Minutemen border-watch group is coming to New York to demand that the federal government tighten security at our borders – and to promote an eye-opening new book co-authored by Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist. President George Bush once referred to Minutemen volunteers as "vigilantes," but the book promises to give the group "a chance to respond, and to change the nature of the illegal immigration debate in the process,” according to a release from the group. "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders" is written by Gilchrist and "Unfit for Command" co-author Jerome Corsi. The book hits stores nationwide on...

"There are jobs that just simply aren’t getting done because Americans won’t do them." —President George W. Bush, Cleveland, Ohio, March 20, 2006 [1] The twenty-first-century slave trade involves an organized effort to bring into the United States an underclass of uneducated, impoverished illegal immigrants who will work for below-market wages for companies that plan to commit employment tax fraud and violations of labor and immigration laws. No slave trader may actually go to Mexico or other Hispanic countries to capture workers and force them in chains to come to America to work in sub-standard conditions. Yet, we have termed...

In an eleven minute Video News Blog, the Full Disclosure Network™ presents "the news behind the news" the last day of the National Council of La Raza convention in Los Angeles on July 11, 2006. This video reveals the goals of the multi-national Corporate sponsors and the National Council of La Raza. COMMON GOALS So what do multi-national Corporations have in common with the National Council of La Raza (non-profit social,activist groups)? Full Disclosure™ discovered what may be the answer to that question when participants at the NCLR convention described the exciting prospect of nurturing, cultivating and encouraging the populous...

WASHINGTON - the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will announce Friday the first details of a "diplomatic plan" international for the Middle East, indicated to AFP a high person in charge for the State Department.Mrs. Rice, who prepares to go in the area, "will have something to say this afternoon", declared the person in charge American."We are working in a diplomatic plan which would tackle the violence to which we attend and the roots of this violence", it added. "It will be an international effort".According to the American chain NBC, Mrs. Rice tries to organize a meeting of...

The war over immigration reform among conservatives continues, and, as in most wars, truth has been one of the first casualties. Those who disagree with the hardening positions of people who would adopt more restrictive policies or with people who favor less restrictive measures are attacked as know-nothings, traitors or handmaidens of evil forces out to destroy the America we live in. Many conservatives reacted angrily to the way the Bush administration tried to demonize opposition to the president’s quasi-amnesty and guest-worker proposals when they were first introduced. Critics at the time were characterized as racists or “nativists” more interested...

Karl Rove on 'Fairness' "We need to work together, which will require making tough choices to get a bill that is not perfect, but is meaningful, and fair and comprehensive" ... Karl Rove, speaking to La Raza, 11 July, 2006 The definition of ‘fair,’ (always a dangerous concept when viewed from a political-power, bureaucracy-entrenched perspective), appears to have taken a sharp left, anti-sovereignty, extra-Constitutional turn as seen through the eyes of the Bush administration and the majority of American ‘leadership’ in Washington: Being ‘fair,’ according to Karl Rove and his powerful and growing ilk, appears to include: * Having the...

WASHINGTON -- Tighter borders and workplace enforcement alone will not solve the country's problem with illegal immigration and may make the situation worse by driving millions of people deeper in the shadows, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said Wednesday. In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of the Bush administration, the Cuban-born Gutierrez backed the Senate's comprehensive approach combining border security and new employer enforcement measures with a plan that gives many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. "The more this issue becomes one of enforcement only, we are driving them (illegal immigrants)...

Tancredo Expresses Disappointment at Pence’s Immigration U-Turn Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) 23 May 2006 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Chairman of the 97-member House Immigration Reform Caucus, expressed disappointment at Rep. Mike Pence’s policy shift on immigration reform. At a Heritage Foundation speech this afternoon, Pence presented what he called “a rational middle ground… between amnesty and mass deportation” that turns its back on a enforcement-first strategy, grants rogue employers amnesty, and would in effect reward illegal aliens for breaking the law. “Mike Pence is making the same mistakes that the President has, using the straw man of...