Free Republic

John R. Lott Jr. is a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland Philadelphia had 406 homicides in 2007, and, at 28 per 100,000 people, it also had the highest murder rate of any major city in the United States. No wonder Philadelphians want things done. Recently, the city focused on a new tragedy, the murder of a 12-year police veteran and father of three, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, by three bank robbers with long, violent criminal records. To Gov. Rendell, Mayor Nutter, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, and freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, the solution is simple: more gun control....

ABOUT 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed by most that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shootings were African-American. Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as is constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns? The answer is that that is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and...

It's time for Philadelphia leaders to understand that lawlessness by the city government is one of the many factors contributing to the city's culture of crime and violence. The lack of respect city officials have shown for the laws of Pennsylvania by passing illegal gun-control ordinances sets a tone for residents that honoring the rule of law is optional in this city. When the City Council passed and Mayor Nutter signed a package of gun-control bills that limits the ability of law-abiding citizens to purchase and possess firearms, they brazenly declared themselves independent from the laws of the commonwealth. It...

Nutter defiantly signs five gun laws Council's measures appear to fly in the face of state law and legal precedent. The NRA says it will sue. By Jeff Shields Inquirer Staff Writer Mayor Nutter likened himself and City Council members yesterday to the band of rebels who formed this country as he signed five new gun-control laws that defy the state legislature and legal precedent. "Almost 232 years ago, a group of concerned Americans took matters in their own hands and did what they needed to do by declaring that the time had come for a change," Nutter said as...

A Philly Tax Cutter Can Mayor Nutter cure the city’s cancer? With 380 homicides recorded already this year, a spate of recent cop shootings, and one particularly gruesome cop killing that led to a nationwide manhunt, Philadelphia is among America’s most dangerous big cities. The crime issue dominated this year’s mayoral race, which Michael Nutter, a blunt and sometimes histrionic former councilman, eventually won. But while crime gets the most attention, Nutter’s success as mayor will ultimately rest on improving the city’s dysfunctional economy. Notwithstanding the glitzy renaissance taking place in its center, Philadelphia is an economic basket case. The...

Mayor Michael Nutter Tells ABC News He Would Have Quit Church if His Pastor Made Such Remarks. Sen. Hillary Clinton's most prominent African-American supporter in Pennsylvania says that had he been a member of Sen. Barack Obama's church, he would have left because of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery and controversial sermons. "I think there's no room for hate, and I could not sit and tolerate that kind of language, and especially over a very long period of time," said Philadelphia's newly elected mayor... "If I were in my own church and heard my pastor saying some of those kinds...

It didn't take John Walsh and a national TV show to start finding Philadelphia's Most Wanted. Just a week after Mayor Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey released a list of 150 of the city's most violent felons, 21 have been captured. Five were wanted for rape, eight for robbery with a gun, and eight for aggravated assault with a gun. All were found locally. None made it to the ranks of the popular America's Most Wanted. "I'm very much encouraged," Ramsey said last night of the 14 percent dent in the number of suspected felons on the lam...

Mayor Nutter yesterday said he would enforce new city gun-control laws even without state authorization to do so - setting up a possible legal and political showdown between the state and the new mayor. At the first regular meeting of the new City Council yesterday, Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller introduced the same package of gun-control measures that languished last year while the state legislature refused to authorize them.

With Bill Clinton at his side, Philadelphia Mayor-elect Michael Nutter last night endorsed the presidential candidacy of the former president's wife, saying that she understood the challenges facing urban America. Nutter's endorsement came during a fund-raiser/rally for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign that attracted about 1,000 people to the Electric Factory. The mayor-elect told the crowd that he had come to his decision after talking several times with the Democratic presidential front-runner and determining that "her priorities are the right priorities for Philadelphia." "It's time for cities and metropolitan areas to take their prominent place in America again," he declared....

Paris - Less than a week before the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Algeria, an Algerian minister said that Sarkozy owed his electoral victory to Israel and "the Jewish lobby," the French daily Le Figaro reported Wednesday. The comments by Minister for War Veterans Mohammed Cherif Abbes were made in an interview published earlier this week in the popular Algerian daily El Khabar. "You know the origins of the French president and those who brought him to power," Cherif Abbes said, referring to the fact that Sarkozy's mother is of Greek Sephardic Jewish descent. "Did you know that...

From The Times November 7, 2007 Ron Paul raises $4.3m in a day on the back of notorious terrorist Tom Baldwin in Washington Guy Fawkes, a 17th-century English mercenary and terrorist who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament, is an unlikely figurehead for a US Republican presidential candidate. But Ron Paul is neither a run-of-the-mill Republican nor a typical presidential aspirant. His supporters announced yesterday that they had smashed Republican fundraising records by hauling in a total of $4.3 million (£2 million) for his campaign from more than 37,000 donors over the previous 24 hours. And they...

Nutter leads Republican mayoral hopeful Al Taubenberger 74 percent to 8 percent among registered voters, and 83 percent to 8 percent among likely voters. (For details, visit www.thenextmayor.com) "In all the 15 years I've been polling, I've never seen a major-party candidate in single digits two weeks before an election," said Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College. The widest margin in a Philadelphia election for an open mayoral seat over the past 56 years came in 1991, when GOP candidate Frank Rizzo died during the campaign. Democrat Ed Rendell beat replacement candidate...

Michael Nutter, a reformist candidate who was given no shot of winning just a month ago, yesterday captured the Democratic mayoral nomination and is all but certain to become the next mayor of Philadelphia.

Chaka Fattah was born to Russell Davenport and Frances Brown on November 21, 1956, under the name Arthur Davenport. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother soon remarried to a man she met at a national conference on black power in 1968. Following this conference, his mother decided to change her name to Falaka Fattah, to acknowledge her African ethnicity, and Arthur she renamed Chaka Fattah.

In an editorial appearing Sunday, the Philadelphia Inquirer will endorse former City Councilman Michael Nutter for the May 15 Democratic primary election. The newspaper's editorial calls Nutter "the most promising package of achievement, persistence, smarts and vision."

Republican calls president 'derelict' in duty: 'This is not Ellis Island, this is an invasion' Author Pat Buchanan says President Bush should be impeached for failing to stop the invasion of illegal aliens across the U.S. border with Mexico. "I think he's committed an impeachable offense in refusing to enforce the immigration laws and in failing to uphold the Constitution by defending the states against this invasion," Buchanan told radio talk-show host Curt Smith this weekend on National Public Radio stations in upstate New York. "When you have 6 million people apprehended on the border and several million got in...

The "Siri Thesis" Unravels - by Inside the Vatican staff In our confusing times, many otherwise faithful traditional Catholics have denounced and broken with "conciliar Rome," including the "conciliar Popes." But that has not ended the confusion... "It has been very well observed that there is no such thing as an impartial historian. Every man who sets out to trace the development of life, whether in politics, religion, or art, is bound to do so with some theory in his mind... The historian, or the theologian, who is most nearly impartial is not he who has no view, but he...

If you were to ask Diane Wilson, who has done 7 long-term fasts, "What do I need to do to fast?" her response would probably be, "Just Stop Eating!" But if that still leaves you with more questions on fasting, here are some "fast tips". How long am I supposed to fast? We ask anyone who wants to take part in the fast to dedicate at least 24 hours. Any additional days are great. And if you are interested in long-term fasting, we recommend 2 weeks or more. Where should I fast? You can join us in fasting in Washington,...

Could actor Tom Cruise be even less popular than a mass murderer? Respondents in a poll said they’d rather spend the night with deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein than the "Mission Impossible” star. Stuff Magazine asked readers who among four personalities they would least like to share a camping tent with overnight. Cruise took the prize with 41 percent, with Saddam trailing at 39 percent. Sportscaster/celebrity reporter Pat O’Brien got 15 percent and actress/comedienne Kathy Griffin, 5 percent. It’s been a bad few weeks for Cruise. He recently "won” an unwanted Razzie award at a ceremony acknowledging the year's worst...

In the wake of his hunting accident where he sprayed a companion with birdshot, Vice President Dick Cheney is being urged by an animal-rights activist to abandon hunting and take up a less violent sport. Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has written Cheney a sarcastically toned letter to that effect, hoping this "brush with tragedy" will convince him to rethink his recreational activities. "May I recommend that you put down your guns and pick up a tennis racket instead?" writes Newkirk. "The risks to your fellow tennis participants would be minimal – at...