Free Republic

Steven Senne/Associated PressThe Cincinnati medal. A gold medal that was created for George Washington and presented to the Marquis de Lafayette was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Manhattan on Tuesday for a record $5.3 million, and will remain in France after residing there for 183 years. The enameled patriotic badge was bought by the Fondation Josée et René de Chambrun at the Château La Grange, Lafayette’s historic home 60 miles east of Paris. snip... The medal will be available to the public by appointment at Chateau La Grange “as soon as Sotheby’s gets it there,” he said, adding that “the...

A gold and enamel medal that once belonged to the American Revolutionary hero the Marquis de Lafayette goes on auction here Tuesday, and could fetch as much as 10 million dollars, experts said. The medal being sold by Lafayette's descendants was given to the Frenchman in 1824 by relatives of America's first US President George Washington, when Lafayette was 67 years old. The gift was made a quarter-century after the death in 1799 of Washington, who as a general led US troops to victory in their battle for independence against Britain. -snip-

NEW YORK - "Lafayette, we are here." So said an aide to "Black Jack" Pershing when the American general and his troops reached France in 1917, joining the Allies' war against Germany. It was payback for the service rendered by the Marquis de Lafayette to the fledgling United States in its war for independence 140 years earlier. But "le temps marche," as the French say — time marches on. Memories fade. And while hundreds of American counties, cities, squares, streets and schools bear the name Lafayette, how many people today could identify the Revolutionary War hero? "Not many," says Richard...

Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between America and France? Like Rick and Louis in "Casablanca," the two countries are reaching a new, post-Iraq-invasion appreciation of each other – long overdue, and due mostly to France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy. It started with his different – for France – attitude toward the United States. (Former French President Jacques Chirac would never have vacationed stateside, let alone in New Hampshire, the way Sarkozy did this summer.) And it's being followed up with encouraging changes in foreign policy. For decades, Paris has prided itself on its separateness from Washington....

h A revolt in an undeveloped colony on the fringe of civilization, led by a big landowner and slaveholder with little education or military experience, brought to success by help from France in its feud with the British colonizers. That's how a cynical European might have described the American Revolution. Jay Winik's new account of the period takes a different view in American Revolution presented as source of worldwide political changes ever since "The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800" (Harper Collins, 659 pages, $29.95). He feels that history may never have seen a group...

Adam Leonberger | Senior Photographer People in period dress are present during the announcement of events in Lafayette that will commemorate Marquis de Lafayette's birthday. The Greater Lafayette community is coming together this fall to celebrate the 250th birthday of the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was a French statesman who inspired the names of Lafayette and West Lafayette. The community is arranging 24 events throughout the fall to commemorate his birthday. The Marquis de Lafayette Celebration Committee Chair Ramona Lawson said the birthday is an important milestone in the Lafayette community. "It's another opportunity for our community to come...

More than 200 demonstrators supporting the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war gather to protest a Lafayette hillside display of more than 3,000 crosses representing U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.

Activists on both sides of the Iraq war debate converge on hillside to wage a war of words, with little resolution - More than 200 supporters of the Iraq war and the troops fighting it descended Thursday on the crosses in Lafayette -- long a lightning rod for local anti-war protesters. Supporters waiting for a national support-the-troops caravan to stop in the city stood at the base of the hillside blanketed by crosses, and some shouted at cross organizers who stood on the hill.The parent of a soldier killed in Iraq removed his son's name from one cross."Using our son's...

MARTINEZ -- Accused killer Scott Dyleski engaged in sado masochism, talked about beating and breaking the necks of children and was curious about how the human body would function without certain organs, his girlfriend testified Thursday. A visibly uncomfortable Jena Reddy, 18, told jurors in Contra Costa Superior Court that Dyleski didn't admit to killing his Lafayette neighbor Pamela Vitale in October but didn't deny it either. After Vitale was killed, Dyleski had scratches on his face and his right hand and arm were swollen, she said. She added, however, that she was the source of scratches on his back...

But we Americans seem to have short memories. What else could explain the fact that we, generally speaking, so-often lambaste the French, calling them “cowards” for not allying themselves fully with us in every instance? We constantly throw in their faces the fact that we came to their rescue in World Wars I and II. And we’ve all heard the jokes: “Surplus French military rifles for sale. Never fired. Dropped once.”

Today, March 15, 2006, marks the 225th anniversary of one of the most decisive battles of the American Revolution. The battle of Guilford Courthouse was fought on March 15, 1781, in a small hamlet in North Carolina. It was considered the largest, most hotly-contested action of the Revolutionary War's climactic southern campaign. The British, led by Gen. Charles Cornwallis, defeated the Americans, but at a large cost to their army. Cornwallis would then return to Virginia and eventually capitulated to the Americans on Oct. 19 of that same year. In the battle of Guilford, there was a young soldier of...

LAFAYETTE TRIP TO BE RE-ENACTED An official delegation representing France released the following statement: The frigate "Hermione" in which La Fayette navigated to join George Washington in 1780 will again cross the Atlantic in 2009 to come to Boston May 20, (Lafayette Day); New York (July 4); and Annaplois (July 14). The frigate is rebuilt in the same city of Rochefort, with the same tools, the same scales, the same wood. The ship and the "La Fayette Trip" symbolize Fraternity, Liberty, and Democracy, all the values of the Century of Lights still alive today that we must strongly promote. As...

The destruction and despair wreaked by hurricanes Katrina and Rita were unprecedented. So was the generous response of the residents of south Louisiana. They came from all walks of life. Mechanics, sales clerks, bus drivers, business owners, college students, schoolchildren. They came from every neighborhood, some alone and some with family. [. . .]Rarely has this region been more mobilized, more unified, more sure of what needed to be done. This was a chance to put that much-talked-about and often-practiced Cajun hospitality into high gear. What took place, on every level, was extraordinary — enough to make Acadiana volunteers The...

One hundred sixty-four years before American-led Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy to liberate France from the Germans, French troops landed in Newport, R.I., to help liberate the American colonies from the British. With the powerful British Navy controlling the coast, the French Army, led by Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, count of Rochambeau, marched inland on its way to meet George Washington's army and fight the British in Yorktown, Va. They won -- securing American independence -- but 5,000 Frenchmen died in battle. "There were more Frenchmen killed at Yorktown than American revolutionaries," said Serge Gabriel, a...

There was an appalling lack of historical perspective in the House debate Friday night on the Murtha Resolution. It called for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq (to a safe haven from which they could return). What would have happened to the United States, had France held a similar debate in 1781? Let’s set the stage. The American Revolution was then four years old. French officers and soldiers under the leadership of General Lafayette, had fought along side General Washington. The French fleet under Admiral de Grasse had recently entered the conflict, and blocking the mouth of the...

ABOARD USS CLEVELAND, Arabian Sea (NNS) -- Members of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 1 are currently leading a group of six coalition ships conducting maritime security operations (MSO) in the North Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman. The strike group’s flagship, USS Tarawa (LHA 1) and the amphibious transport dock USS Cleveland (LPD 7) are joined by the guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79). The French ships Var (FS 608) and Lafayette (FS 710), and the Pakistani frigate Badr (PNS 181) round out the coalition task group. MSO are part of ESG-1’s regularly scheduled deployment to the U.S. 5th...

MARTINEZ, Calif. (AP) - A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the murder case against a woman defended by prominent lawyer Daniel Horowitz, whose wife was slain over the weekend. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Laurel F. Brady cited excessive news coverage of the homicide of Pamela Vitale when she dismissed jurors in the case of Susan Polk, who is accused of stabbing her therapist husband. "Ladies and gentlemen, it would have been hard to miss, despite my admonitions," Brady told the jury. "I have reached the conclusion at this juncture that it is not possible to continue the...

LAFAYETTE, Calif. - The wife of prominent defense attorney and TV legal analyst Daniel Horowitz was found slain in the couple's San Francisco area home, police said. Horowitz called 911 Saturday evening to report that the body of his wife, 52-year-old Pamela Vitale, was in the entryway of their home in an upscale neighborhood, police said. The woman's identity has not been confirmed by authorities, but "based on what we know, it's believed to be the wife of Daniel Horowitz," said Contra Costa Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. Authorities would not release details of how the victim died, but said it...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Sept. 8, 2005) -- Whether made of artillery shells or triple-stacked anti-tank mines, insurgent-made improvised explosive devices continue being a leading cause of casualties throughout the country – including innocent civilians. The members of 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, North Carolina-based Marines and Sailors who are conducting counterinsurgency operations in western Iraq’s turbulent Al Anbar province, have themselves suffered four losses at the hands of these terrorist devices. On the desert battlefield’s frontlines, young men like Lance Cpl. Robert A. Belaire work to ensure that no more of their fellow warriors perish at the hands of a roadside...

I am just stopping by as a Freeper who doesn't get in here too much to pause for just a moment and share with all of you a view from close-in to the Katrina disaster, since its impact on all our lives here in Louisiana has been profound and not all of you may be seeing everything we do. First of all; I live in Lafayette, Louisiana which is located some 160 or so miles due west of New Orleans on I-10. We were not severely touched by the winds and other foul weather that came ashore with Katrina at...

INDIANAPOLIS - Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) sued the state of Indiana Monday to stop the seizure of its clients' medical records, saying investigators were on a "fishing expedition," possibly to identify the partners of sexually active 12- and 13-year-olds. The lawsuit filed in Indianapolis seeks temporary and permanent injunctions barring Attorney General Steve Carter and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit from searching the private records of clients at 40 Planned Parenthood clinics across the state. Already, the unit has seized records of eight clients from clinics in Bloomington, Franklin and Lafayette, according to Betty Cockrum, chief executive officer...

Boustany, Melancon top vote Tauzin III awaits final tally By PATRICK COURREGES and ANGELA SIMONEAUX Acadiana bureau Southern Louisiana voters Saturday appeared to have decided the last two congressional races in the nation, electing Democrat Charlie Melancon in the 3rd District and Republican Charles Boustany Jr. in the 7th District, giving the Democratic and Republican parties a split of the final two seats available. But the 3rd District race was decided by slightly more than 500 votes out of more than 114,000 cast, and 3rd District Republican candidate Billy Tauzin III is not conceding the race. In the 3rd District,...

Third runner-up endorses Boustany for Congress By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau LAFAYETTE -- The last holdout among candidates who finished out of the runoff in the Nov. 2 election for Louisiana's 7th Congressional District seat announced his intentions Friday. David Thibodaux, a Lafayette Republican who finished fourth in the initial race with 10 percent of the vote, announced his endorsement of fellow Lafayette Republican Charles Boustany Jr. who is running against state Sen. Willie Mount, D-Lake Charles on Dec. 4. "For whatever it's worth, whatever I can bring to the table, it's yours, my friend," Thibodaux told Boustany at...

Jindal backs Lafayette Republican Surgeon Boustany in 7th District runoff By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's newest Republican congressman-elect, said Friday in Lake Charles he is supporting 7th Congressional District Republican candidate Charles Boustany Jr.'s bid to join the state's delegation. Jindal handily won election to Louisiana's 1st District seat in his first run for the post Nov. 2, and spoke in favor of Boustany, a retired heart surgeon from Lafayette, at a Lake Charles Republican Roundtable luncheon. "I'm proud to call Bobby a friend and hope to call him a colleague," Boustany said. U.S. Sen.-elect David...

Boustany driven to enter race Frustration in dealing with issues was spark By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau LAFAYETTE -- Retired heart surgeon Charles Boustany Jr. seems to be getting taken seriously in his first run for public office. The Lafayette Republican's candidacy in the Nov. 2 election for Louisiana's open 7th Congressional District seat has gotten the open backing of major figures in the national Republican Party -- including Vice President Dick Cheney -- hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign money and the targeted opposition of national Democrats. A year ago, Boustany, 48, was still a practicing heart...

In war-struck Lafayette, friendly words for arriving VP By ADAM NOSSITER Associated Press writer LAFAYETTE -- Two young men, graduates of Lafayette High School, were killed recently in Iraq. They got the equivalent of a state funeral from a school, and a town, in mourning. Thousands gathered outside the school to honor the young men. When Vice President Dick Cheney stumps in the easygoing capital of Louisiana's Cajun country, mostly for a local congressional candidate, he will be on friendly ground. And not just among the paid-up audience of fans gathering for a breakfast meet-and-greet at this town's poshest private...

Democrats cite vandalism at Lafayette Kerry office By The Associated Press LAFAYETTE -- John Kerry campaign signs were burned and pro-Bush messages scrawled on windows and a door at the Kerry headquarters, the chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party said Thursday. It was the second act of vandalism aimed at the Democratic presidential nominee's campaign office in Lafayette. Calling it an "an obvious attempt to intimidate our workers, and a misguided attempt to promote the candidacy of President Bush," chairman Mike Skinner said the messages scrawled at the office here included a "huge" W on the front door, and "GWB"...

Mount outlines her views Candidate decries jobs taken overseas By PATRICK COURREGES pcourreges@theadvocate.com Acadiana bureau LAFAYETTE -- State Sen. Willie Mount, D-Lake Charles and a candidate in the 7th District congressional race, said Tuesday she wants to target the tax benefits of companies that send their jobs or money overseas. Mount rolled out her economic plan at a pair of stops in the population centers of the district -- Lafayette and Lake Charles. She said at a news conference at the Lafayette Museum of Natural History that she wants to study the tax structure to to find ways to cut...

SENATE RACE WON'T BE THAT CROWDED by Jim Brown PoliticsLA.com columnist posted January 7, 2004 Following the intense interest in the recent gubernatorial election, the general assumption has been that there will be a number of major candidates vying to fill the U. S. Senate seat being vacated this fall by long time incumbent John Breaux. Not so! When qualification time comes around, you can count the number of major candidates on one hand. Numerous newspaper columns have touted several unsuccessful gubernatorial candidates as sure qualifiers. The columns point to the 1996 race when Mary Landrieu bounced back from a...

<p>Take an intimate look at Kathleen Blanco Kathleen Blanco: ''She is always the calm at the center of the storm''</p> <p>NEW ORLEANS - Kathleen Blanco is the quiet eye in the storm around her.</p> <p>Dressed in her trademark blue suit, the jacket open to the two-string costume pearl necklace she has used this year because it's large enough not to misplace or leave behind, Blanco is serene, seeming to ignore the undulating semi-circle of television cameras and still photographers whirling about her, some walking backward, others dropping back and swooping back around in front like birds fighting to be in front of a flock. Behind her is a mass of supporters.</p>

<p>Blanco says she is taking on Foster, Jindal John Hill Posted on October 28, 2003 BATON ROUGE - Democrat Kathleen Blanco of Lafayette turned up the heat in the gubernatorial campaign Monday, both on television and in a major speech in which she hinted that Gov. Mike Foster had threatened to withdraw his support of his handpicked successor, Republican Bobby Jindal of Baton Rouge.</p>

<p>LAFAYETTE, N.Y. -- Flying the flag of the Iroquois Confederacy outside LaFayette Junior-Senior High School was supposed to promote racial sensitivity and cultural diversity.</p> <p>Instead, it has evoked resentment and division.</p> <p>"School officials say it's to create integration. What it accomplishes is segregation. It makes the Indians a special class. It makes our kids separate. I thought we were all Americans," said Jean Schneible, who collected more than 100 signatures to protest the flag raising planned Nov. 12.</p>

<p>Saturday's voting in the governor's race leaves us Monday's choices. Thankfully, they are good ones.</p> <p>Although The News-Star's endorsed candidate for governor, former state Sen. Randy Ewing, did not make the Nov. 15 runoff, his supporters and the supporters of other candidates who fell by the wayside Saturday can take great solace from the choices that remain.</p>

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

<p>CANDIDATE PROFILE: Blanco, leading in polls, refuses to fade John Hill Posted on September 1, 2003 BATON ROUGE - Kathleen Blanco looks up from the official document that puts her name on Louisiana's fall gubernatorial ballot: "Kathleen Babineaux Blanco," just as it has appeared on ballots the past 20 years.</p>

BOULDER - A teenager stuck to her story Thursday in Boulder County Court that she was molested by a Lafayette police officer. But the 17-year-old conceded under questioning by the officer's lawyer that she has a lengthy record of minor offenses and does not always tell the truth. The officer, eight-year veteran Gardner Mendenhall, is charged with sexual assault by a person in a position of authority, a felony with a maximum sentence of life in prison. He also is charged with official misconduct, a misdemeanor. Mendenhall denies the charges. The preliminary hearing Thursday was to determine whether evidence is...

The ignorance of political ranter Dick Morris is amazing. In a spiel for the NY Post (07/02/03), which is part of Rupert Murdock’s Evil Empire, he demanded that the U.S. Ambassador to France, Howard Leach, be sacked. Leach incurred Morris’s wrath for daring to suggest that the friction between the U.S. and France, over the Iraq War, is “in the past and now part of history.” Morris insisted that the French had betrayed America by refusing to endorse our invasion of Iraq. What drivel! The truth is the French were right. There were no WMD in Iraq, it was never...

<p>BATON ROUGE - Authorities threw out a nationwide net Monday in their hunt for a man they identified through DNA as the killer of five women in Lafayette and Baton Rouge.</p> <p>An arrest warrant has been issued Monday morning for Derrick Todd Lee of St. Francisville, after authorities confirmed that DNA obtained from him on May 5 positively matched the DNA taken from the body of Carrie Lynn Yoder, the last known victim of a serial killer.</p>

For 18 months the Lafayette Flag Brigade has held a “Rally For America” on the 11th of every month. (see old picture below). Today the California Highway Patrol threatened to arrest us and kicked us off the overpass. SHAME on them. We repeatedly assert our rights to be there and that they were treating us different than the routine protests held by the appeasnicks in Berkeley. The Lieutenant claimed ignorance of that, as it was in a different jurisdiction he asserted. They claim our flag waving was creating a disturbance and slowing traffic. Both sides waved a California Court decision...

<p>LAFAYETTE, La. — Authorities said Monday they believe a woman whose body was found last month in a field near Lafayette was slain by a serial killer responsible for the deaths of three other women.</p> <p>The apparent fourth victim, Trineisha Dene Colomb, 23, was reported missing Nov. 22 after her car was found in Grand Coteau, a small town near Lafayette. Two days later, her body was found about 20 miles away by a hunter.</p>

<p>Republicans believe Vice President Dick Cheney can have the same impact on Louisiana's 5th Congressional District race that the president had in helping his party regain control of the Senate and cement control of the House in the Nov. 5 elections.</p>