Free Republic

Much has been said about last weeks exchange between Senators Al Franken and Joe Lieberman. Franken's refusal to give Lieberman a few moments to finish his thought was a breach of Senate etiquette, where being polite on the chamber's floor is more important than party differences. Throughout his Senate Campaign, Franken was portrayed as a bit of a jerk, short tempered, scathing tongue and someone who went around looking for an argument. After some good behavior during his first few months, Franken is proving that his reputation of being a real a**hole is entirely accurate.

Right Side News reads from Douglas Hagmann's website about Mumbai and Minneapolis. The only difference between the two is the passage of TIME. Mumbai is headed here and sooner or later, we will be hit hard and fast by Islamic terrorists. What are we doing now to stop them? When will our government wake up and call these terrorists by name and stop banning the terms from their own dictionary? Policital correctness has the potential of killing hundreds and perhaps thousands of innocent Americans. The Third Jihad and other films all warn of the inevitable attacks in the US, such...

The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in "a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." They say they want to encourage dialogue via these billboards. Great. I'll start. The billboard says that Islam is "the way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham,...

Muslim Brotherhood-linked group putting up Islamic supremacist billboards in Minneapolis The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in "a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." They say they want to encourage dialogue via these billboards. Great. I'll start. The billboard says that...

... The detention of the Virginia men — ranging in age from late teens to mid-20s — [who went to Pakistan for jihad] would have prompted soul-searching no matter when it occurred. But it comes after a series of disturbing cases that already had terror experts speculating about a trend. There were the November shootings that took 13 lives at Fort Hood, with murder charges pending against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born Muslim and an Army psychiatrist. There was the arrest of Najibullah Zazi, born in Afghanistan but the seeming model of the striving immigrant as a popular coffee...

A parcel of land here that sold for $12,000 two years ago now costs more than $20,000. The price of a nice pair of men's shoes has gone up from $20 to $50. The reason: pirates. The influx of millions of dollars in ransoms has changed life in this coastal Muslim community, driving prices up and creating a schism between the pirate haves and have-nots. As piracy ramps up again with the end of the monsoon season, the lifestyle of the pirates _ big houses, fast cars and easy drugs _ is decried by both religious leaders and ordinary villagers....

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) ― Sarah Palin is bringing her book tour for "Going Rogue" to Minnesota. The former Vice Presidential Candidate and former Alaska Governor will sign copies of her new book at the Mall of America. Palin burst onto the national political stage last year after giving a speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Now Palin brings hundreds of her admirers out to get a glimpse of this maverick of a politician. The excitement surrounding her book tour hits the Twin Cities on Monday. "She seems more real world ... not an average politician," said Jason...

More than a dozen Lutheran congregations in Minnesota have vowed to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) after a vote in Minneapolis this summer to allow gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships to serve as clergy. The fifteen churches will join a new denomination called Lutheran CORE and leave the ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the world. The leaders of Lutheran CORE say the ELCA has moved too far away from the Bible. "Many ELCA members and congregations have said that they want to sever ties with the ELCA because of the ELCA's continued movement away...

The recruits gather in scorching desert hideouts in Somalia, use portraits of President Barack Obama for target practice, learn how to make and detonate bombs, and vow allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Training camps in the lawless nation of Somalia are attracting hundreds of foreigners, including Americans, and Somalis recruited by a local insurgent group linked to al-Qaida, according to local and U.S. officials. American officials and private analysts say the camps pose a security threat far beyond the borders of Somalia, including to the U.S. homeland. In interviews with The Associated Press, former trainees gave rare details on the...

Reminders of last summer’s tornado are still evident at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis. A red scaffolding setup stands next to one of the limestone walls of the historic, 82-year-old church at 333 S. 12th St. At the peak of the roof, still more scaffolding — complete with a Les Jones Roofing banner — surrounds the tornado-damaged steeple. A 176-foot crane towers over the house of worship, which stood in the path of the Aug. 19 twister as it swept through south Minneapolis. The tornado inflicted $300,000 worth of damage to the church, but repairs are going well and...

The 13-year-old son of John and Tara Farrell and a 12-year-old friend were walking in Brooklyn Park one August night when a Cadillac Escalade sped up and the driver ordered them inside. The man drove to his nearby house, sat the frightened boys on a curb and slapped handcuffs on them. Only then did they learn that they had been placed under citizen's arrest by off-duty Minneapolis police officer Tony Adams, whose doorbell had been rung earlier by someone who fled and who had heard from neighbors that teens might be breaking into vehicles in the area. The Farrells, who...

Police in Wisconsin are trying to determine why a Minneapolis cab driver jumped from his cab before it crashed, and why his passenger ran from the scene. Baldwin police say a Blue and White cab crashed into a light pole and then hit a parked car in the Greenfield Elementary School parking lot around 6:40 p.m. Sunday. Responding officers found the driver, Abdi Mohamed Askar, 38, lying on the sidewalk. People who witnessed the crash followed the passenger when he ran away. Police caught up with him two blocks away and arrested him for leaving the scene of an accident....

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Authorities unsealed terrorism-related charges Monday against eight defendants they said recruited young Somali-American men to return to their homeland to fight for an Islamist militant group. The charges said men were recruited in Minneapolis mosques to fight for al-Shabaab, which the United States accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of Africa nation. In all, authorities have charged 14 people with recruiting, training or financing travel for young Somali immigrants in Minneapolis, which is home to some 50,000 Somalis. About 20 young men, all but one of Somali descent, have left the Minneapolis area since...

Note: The following text is a quote: Terror Charges Unsealed in Minnesota Against Eight Defendants, Justice Department Announces The Justice Department announced that terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants. According to the charging documents, the offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab. Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and...

Federal authorities are expected to announce charges against eight more people today in a long-running investigation into how perhaps dozens of young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia. It will be the most significant and public move to date in the case. Charges against the eight people will be announced at a joint FBI-U.S. Attorney's Office press conference in Minneapolis on Monday afternoon, a source said. Some, if not all, of the individuals will be charged with providing material support to terrorists, the source said. Many of those charged have already...

The FBI is worried a group linked to al-Qaeda is training up a new generation of terrorists. They're thought to be targeting young Somali immigrants, radicalising them to carry out attacks on their home country and possibly the US in the future. The grey high rise flats in Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis, are clustered together and are home to hundreds of Somali immigrants. It's not clear why teenagers like these are giving up their comfortable lives in America and returning to their war torn homeland. But over the past three years, authorities believe 20 young Somali men have gone back to fight...

Chong Vang and her husband Chao Lor were on their way home after leaving a Laundromat at 41st and Lyndale Avenue North in Minneapolis early Monday evening when they were confronted by two robbers, one armed with a gun. "The one that came first came to my side of the door and the other pointed a gun at my husband," Vang said. The man with the gun took Vang's husband into an alley nearby. "When the guy pointed a gun at me all I had on my mind was just like take anything you want. Don't do anything to me...

SNIPPET: "The third article, titled "Al-Shabaab Recruiting in the West," takes a comprehensive look at what we know about the group's efforts to recruit fighters in the United States, and in other Western countries. The final article concerns the efficacy of the Somali president's recent diplomatic efforts in Minneapolis, Columbus, OH, and Chicago."

Minneapolis police are looking for a group of teenagers who attacked at least three men. The attacks happened just minutes apart in south Minneapolis early Thursday morning. One man trying to break up a fight became a victim himself, right in front of his young son. It was about 6:30 Thursday morning when Dr. Mani Mokalla was walking his 6-year-old son to the bus stop. He stumbled on a man being beaten up right on the sidewalk. "I basically inquired, 'What's going on, what are you guys doing?' And they said for me to mind my own business, and I...

What's different about voting in Minneapolis this year? You get to rank three candidates in each election contest. That's ranked-choice voting, the system the city is launching for municipal races. So in the 11-person mayor's race, you may rank one candidate as your first choice, another as your second, and a third as your final choice. "It's a lot less confusing than it sounds once somebody explains it," Nancy Harrington, who rarely misses an election, said at an informational workshop at Webber Neighborhood Center last week. But there are some pitfalls to avoid. Think of the grid of candidates and...

St. Paul, Minn. — Members of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minneapolis decided to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after a 96 percent vote by members on Sunday. The decision to leave came after the ELCA Church-wide Assembly vote on Aug. 21 in Minneapolis, that allowed gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Before the ECLA's decision, gay clergy were allowed to be ministers only if they were celibate. Some church members object to the new policy, saying it goes against Scripture. The St. Paul's congregation's council set a policy in October 1990 that...

One of few dissidents in the crowd, Fightin Words's Walter Hudson attended President Obama's September 12th rally for health care reform at the Minneapolis Target Center. Impressions from the event and a breakdown of the president's arguments in this week's podcast.

It occurred to me, as I waited longer inside the venue to get a seat than I had waited outside to get in, this entire experience stood as a perfect metaphor representing the very health care system Obama was there to promote. Here was an event open to the public, free of charge, which attracted enormous demand and provided seemingly inexplicable barriers to access which did not serve the interest of those attending. Presumably, during any other event, patrons of the Target Center would be free to roam the arena and corridors as they saw fit, take their seats at...

My home state of Minnesota has lots of lakes, bitter cold, and Lutherans. Over 150 years ago, Scandinavians targeted this state and its climate, perhaps because it resembled their homeland. Ironically, the fathers and grandfathers of today's Lutherans left Sweden back then because they saw corruption and bad doctrine within Lutheranism in Scandinavia. But these Lutheran immigrants built Bible-believing churches for future generations. No doubt they would be crushed at such a culmination of apostasy in recent years. Wednesday, August 19, was an average day. It was cool with not enough humidity to stir up a storm. No unusual weather...

ABBA-MAZING VIDEO! ... Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: It shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. (Jeremiah 23:19)

ome things are not up for a vote. Some things we as creatures do not have the right to even think we can change. We as creatures have forgotten our place. Instead of prostrating ourselves face down on the ground before God, Our Father and Our Creator, in humble obedience and prayer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—as a shrinking “sideline” denomination—decided to continue its in-your-face unfaithful and disrespectful conduct toward God, Our Maker, ignoring all interventions, warnings and signs. The ELCA put God’s Word and all of its teachings on the natural order, marriage and family up for a...

A Gentle But Firm WarningSalt and Light (Hat tip to Christopher Schwinger for this commentary) John Piper has a most interesting post at his blog. It is on the tornado that unexpectedly hit downtown Minneapolis last Wednesday. It hit the convention center and the church across the street. It hit at 2pm. That was the exact time the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ECLA) was going to dicuss “Consideration: Proposed Social Statement on Human Sexuality.” So what you say? They were going to tackle the issue of “whether practicing homosexuality is a behavior that should disqualify a person from the...

Much of the damage may be gone but there's a lot of blame left behind after a tornado touchdown in downtown Minneapolis. The storm struck the cross at Central Lutheran Church. Crews spent Thursday removing it from the steeple. Some bloggers say what happened to the church is a reaction from God to what's going on across the street. John Piper the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, wrote in a blog: "the tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin." Nearly 2,000 Lutherans from...

Some things are not up for a vote. Some things we as creatures do not have the right to even think we can change. We as creatures have forgotten our place. Instead of prostrating ourselves face down on the ground before God, Our Father and Our Creator, in humble obedience and prayer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—as a shrinking “sideline” denomination—decided to continue its in-your-face unfaithful and disrespectful conduct toward God, Our Maker, ignoring all interventions, warnings and signs. The ELCA put God’s Word and all of its teachings on the natural order, marriage and family up for a...

Here’s the church… Where’s the steeple?The inverted Cross atop Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis dangled from the steeple on Wednesday following a rare downtown twister as the ELCA Churchwide Assembly was in legislative session across the street at the Minneapolis Convention Center.Things that make you go, hmmm…Countless spiritual souls over the ages have commented on seeing God in all things. So, how about manifestations of physical evils found within nature, or, as the American justice system calls them: Acts of God… Perhaps a lesson from the fig tree — re-reading Mark 13: 5-6, 28-29 — occured Wednesday on 3rd...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ― The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for the counties that include Minneapolis and St. Paul, and says it has received a report of a tornado just north of downtown. The weather services say it received reports of the tornado at 2:11 p.m. Wednesday. Radar shows the storm is moving north at about 20 mph. It reportedly damaged a downtown church. The tornado warning covers central Anoka County, northeastern Hennepin County and western Ramsey County. It remains in effect until 2:45 p.m. Electric Fetus reported on their Twitter page that their building sustained damage and...

By its sixth hour sitting on a deserted tarmac, Continental Express Flight 2816 had taken on the smell of diapers and an overwhelmed lone toilet. What should have been a 2 1/2-hour trip from Houston to Minneapolis had moved into its ninth hour, and the 47 passengers on board had burned through the free pretzels and drinks handed out early in their Friday night flight from Houston. It took 12 hours and a new flight crew for Flight 2816 to complete its journey. Passengers on another flight that had been diverted to the airport in Rochester, Minn., because of storms...

MINNEAPOLIS — Ahmednur Ali's family fled the chaos and violence of their East African homeland Somalia in the 1990s, eventually making their way to Minnesota like thousands of their compatriots. While many of the estimated 32,000 Somalis who settled in the state have struggled to adapt, Ali flourished. By age 20, he had blazed a path to Minneapolis' Augsburg College, where he played soccer, studied political science and aspired to a political career modeled on President Barack Obama's. He was shot and killed last September outside a busy community center where he worked part-time as a youth counselor, and prosecutors...

A lawyer for Adbifatah Yusuf Isse, of one of the Somali men indicted on terrorism charges, says that Isse was persuaded to join the fight by someone at a local mosque. While some say that Salah Osman Ahmed and Abdifatah Yusuf Isse attended the Abubakar Islamic Center in Minneapolis, leaders there say it is not true. For the first time, Imam Sheik Abdirahman spoke out about allegations surrounding the Mosque. "We are hearing a lot of rumors," said Sheik Abdirahman. He has been the Imam at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center for more than 10 years. He says that he...

He was so small and thin that his black slacks bagged in the seat and bunched up on his Puma tennis shoes. The black security uniform shirt sagged on his frame like a throw blanket, leaving the U.S. flag sewed to the shoulder at half-mast on his biceps. Magistrate Judge Susan Richard Nelson asked Salah Osman Ahmed if he understood the charges, that he was being indicted for aiding terrorists and plotting to "kill, kidnap, maim or injure" people in foreign countries. Ahmed's voice was barely a whisper: "Yes," he said, stroking a faint beard. In the second row of...

Pajamas Media | Friday, December 12, 2008 The funeral for Shirwa Ahmed last week in Burnsville, Minnesota, punctuated a growing national security threat metastasizing inside the U.S. — one Homeland Security and law enforcement authorities have quickly taken note of. Ahmed, who killed himself in a suicide bombing attack in Somalia in October, is just one of up to 40 men from the Twin Cities area who have disappeared and are feared to have returned to their homeland for training with the al-Shabaab terrorist group to wage jihad. The FBI is investigating similar disappearances in other major Somali communities in...

A federal grand jury has indicted a Brooklyn Park man of Somali descent on charges of conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization and conspiracy to "kill, kidnap, maim or injure." Salah Osman Amed made his first appearance in federal court in Minneapolis this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Susan Richard Nelson. While the indictment against Amed was unsealed, it was not immediately available after the hearing to provide details. SNIP After the hearing federal officials would not comment whether Amed's case was connected to the investigation into the disappearance of up to 20 local men of Somali descent. It is believed...

His remains lie a few hundred yards from a bustling highway, in a section of the Burnsville cemetery reserved for Muslims called the Garden of Eden. There is no marker. Only dirt and small rocks cover the final resting place of Shirwa Ahmed, who lived most of his life almost as anonymously. But the manner of the 26-year-old Minneapolis man's death has put him at the center of one of the most far-reaching U.S. counterterrorism investigations since 9/11. Nobody knows for sure why Ahmed left Minnesota in late 2007, or how he wound up obliterated in a bomb crater in...

The mother of a 20-year-old Somali man who went missing from Minneapolis says her son has been killed in Somalia. Abayte Ahmed (ah-BYE'-tee ah-med) says through an interpreter that she and her husband have identified their son, Jamal Bana (BAH'-nuh), in a photo showing a dead body in Somalia. Bana's father saw the photo Saturday morning during his daily checks of news reports on the fighting in Somalia. The family has been looking for signs of their son since he disappeared last November. After seeing the photo, Ahmed says she and her husband spoke by phone to someone in Somalia...

For the second time in two days, a Somali man from Minneapolis has been reported killed in his war-torn homeland, a relative confirmed Sunday. Zakaria Maruf, 30, who is believed to have been among the first wave of young Somali men to leave Minnesota for Somalia over the past two years, was killed Saturday in Mogadishu, the relative said. Maruf is the fourth Somali man from the Twin Cities to have died in Somalia since October. The relative said she did not know how Maruf was killed, adding that she learned of his death in a phone conversation with his...

he mother of a 20-year-old Somali man missing from Minneapolis says her son has been killed in Somalia. Abayte Ahmed (ah-BYE'-tee ah-med) said Sunday through an interpreter that she and her husband identified their son, Jamal Bana (BAH'-nuh), in a photo showing a dead body in Somalia. Bana's father saw the photo Saturday while viewing online news. Somali activists believe more than a dozen young men have gone missing from the Minneapolis area during the last couple years—recruited, they say, by radical elements in Somalia. Bana disappeared in November. Ahmed says after seeing the photo, she and her husband spoke...

A third Minneapolis Somali man has been killed in his homeland, community leaders said Saturday, his family having learned his fate by stumbling onto a website that contained photos of his bloody corpse. While the body was identified only as that of a "foreign jihadist" or "fighter," a closeup of the face left Jamal Bana's mother with no doubt. The young man had been shot through the temple. FBI officials said Saturday they could not confirm the news. Abdirizak Bihi, a community activist who visited with Bana's mother at her south Minneapolis home Saturday, said that Bana's family learned of...

SNIPPET: "A federal grand jury has indicted a group of Somali-Americans on terror-related charges after more than 20 young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, according to two law enforcement sources. The indictments have yet to be unsealed, but an announcement is expected in the next few weeks. One law enforcement source told FOX News the grand jury already has handed up indictments against at least three people. Among those charged is a man from Minneapolis who went to war-torn Somalia and then, about four months ago, relocated to Seattle, according...

A St. Louis Park man says he was taunted and pelted with rocks after he left the Twin Cities Gay Pride Parade, and the attack was caught on camera. The video has already received 1,800 views after it was posted Monday on YouTube. The clip shows boys and teenagers trailing 37-year-old Adam Schreifels and taunting him after learning he's gay. "We hate fags, disgusting. Just very inappropriate things to be saying," Schreifels said. He says while he was shocked by the comments, he wasn’t scared. "Some of them threw rocks. At first, I got defensive. Then I thought okay, they...

On May 6, 1945, Edward Kennedy, chief of the Associated Press western front staff dispatched the scoop of a lifetime. At General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters at Reims, France, General Gustaf Jodl, German army chief of staff, signed the terms of surrender at 7:41 p.m. central war time. The European Theater of World War II was officially over. Less than 12 hours later, at 8:35 a.m. central war time on May 7, Kennedy's dispatch was released by the New York desk of the Associated Press, and the world went wild with joy. The Minneapolis Morning Tribune ran the headline, "Announcement Due...

He was a slight and sickly teen, nearsighted and, reportedly, confined to a room away from the fighting that raged throughout the city. But the reported death last week of Burhan Hassan, the second Minneapolis man of Somali descent believed to have died in Somalia, has jolted his family and the Twin Cities Somali community. Hassan, who should have graduated from Minneapolis Roosevelt High School last weekend, was reportedly killed in Mogadishu, Somalia's largely lawless capital. He is one of up to 20 local men and boys of Somali descent to have disappeared over the past two years. Their disappearance...

Burhan Hassan's family says he was gunned down in Somalia. Hassan was one of about 20 young men who vanished from the streets of Minneapolis in November, only to reappear as warriors in Somalia. Abubakar Assadique is the mosque Hassan attended. Yesterday, there were prayers there for Hassan, but there are also allegations from Hassan's family: they say the mosque was responsible for the 17-year-old's decision to go to Somalia. They also say that his death may be connected to his decision to return to Minnesota. The mosque denies any involvement in any of the young men's decision to go...

A Somali teenager who vanished from the Twin Cities last fall has met his death in his homeland. The family of Burhan Hassan learned on Friday that the teen died in Somalia. Hassan disappeared from the Twin Cities last November. He's just one of dozens who have vanished, feared recruited by radical elements in Somali. According to Hassan's uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, the family does not know exactly how he died but they think the terrorist group Al Shabab had something to do with it.

Another one of the Somali youths who vanished from the Twin Cities last fall has apparently met his death in his homeland. Burhan Hassan, a studious teenager from Minneapolis, died in Mogadishu and was buried there, an uncle said Saturday evening. "We received a call from those people in Mogadishu. They confirmed the unfortunate news that our son was killed," said Abdirizak Bihi, whose sister is Hassan's mother. FBI officials could not confirm the news Saturday night. Bihi said his sister received a call Friday morning informing her that Hassan had been killed and that he did not die in...

Individuals wearing rainbow-colored sashes at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Pentecost Sunday May 31 will not be allowed to receive Communion, according to a statement released by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Statement from the archdiocese The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has released the following statement. The archdiocese has received word that a group dissenting from the church’s teaching on sexuality will be wearing signs of protest (rainbow sashes) at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Pentecost Sunday during the noon Mass. Those wearing such sashes will not be allowed to receive Holy Communion, since...