Free Republic

In the 15 states that are likely to decide who controls the White House and the Senate in 2013, Hispanic voters will represent the margin of victory. For the Republican Party, the stakes could not be greater. Just eight years after the party’s successful effort to woo Hispanic voters in 2004, this community — the fastest-growing group in the United States, according to census data — has drifted away. .Although Democrats hold the edge, Republicans have an opportunity. We also have a record of winning Hispanic voters in certain statewide and national elections. Here are four suggestions on how Republican...

It’s no surprise that the Democratic National Committee meeting in Chicago on Friday will include briefings on jobs and health care, issues critical to President Obama’s re-election. But “Jewish messaging” will be the third topic presented to top party donors and fund-raisers, according to a schedule obtained by The New York Times. The session, led Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the committee’s chairwoman, and Ira Forman, the Obama campaign’s director of Jewish outreach, underscores a real but unexpected challenge for Mr. Obama. While Jewish voters generally still give the president high marks, some Jewish donors — a major fund-raising constituency for Mr....

This report confirms what Karzai reported yesterday while he was also channeling Woodsy Owl and accusing NATO of not giving a hoot. In recent months, Secretary of State Clinton and others have expressed hope that parts of the Taliban who are open to "dialogue" might be split off from their more outwardly "extreme" brethren. But as always, "war is deceit," and the Taliban can be expected to exploit the opportunity to gain legitimacy, perhaps even emerging at some point as a Hizballah-like "political party" that also happens to function as a state-within-a-state with its own armed forces. (The move toward...

An explosive, must-read interview brings sunlight to our counterproductive "outreach" programs. The case of the missing Somali men from Minneapolis highlights the failure and the absurdity. The nearly six-hour interview I conducted earlier this year with a top Department of Justice official on the condition of anonymity brought forth a number of revelations about serious problems within the U.S. governmentÂ’s homeland security and law enforcement community.Last Thursday, I reported here exclusively at PJM on a DOJ memo dated March 31, 2010, from Assistant Attorney General David Kris to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler. The memo effectively ended the prosecution...

This video is animated with o7jimmy singing a-cappella! Window example videos were used and the spiritual song is, You Can Have It Too!

After World war 2, leftists in the U.S. State Department and the Office of Strategic Services/Central Intelligence Agency aggressively funded and promoted European Socialist parties as a supposed counterweight to communism. As most European Socialist parties were controlled or infiltrated by socialists anyway, this simply succeeded in pushing Europe, as a whole, even further to the left. Today the U.S. State Department is actively helping to network "moderate" young Muslims organizations, as a counterweight to radical Islam. Much of this work is being done through the Alliance for Youth Movements, "a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, connecting, and supporting digital...

A prison minister is reaching out for the third time to child-actress-turned-troubled-celebrity Lindsay Lohan, who has battled DUI, felony grand theft, and drug charges. In his latest letter to the “Mean Girls” star, Marty Angelo, who himself was arrested in 1980 for two counts of cocaine possession, said he is “saddened” to see her face yet another formal charge. “Lindsay, I am speaking to you today as not just a prison minister and friend of your father but as a person who has traveled down the same road you are on,” writes Angelo in a letter released Thursday. “I know...

Powerful worship song, He is jealous for me Loves like a hurricane I am a tree Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by Glory And I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me

The messages appear when the sky is clear: Trust Jesus. God Forgives. U + God = :) With the heavens as their pulpit, pilots Jerry Stevens and Keith Poeschl deliver their sermon from a bright-yellow crop duster dubbed ``Holy Smoke.'' ``These are God's love letters to his children,'' explains Stevens, 68, a retired aviator who started the sky writing mission 12 years ago when living in Boca Raton. Since then, Stevens has taken Poeschl, 33, under his wing, teaching the novice pilot the art of skywriting. There are now two versions of the Holy Smoke -- one stationed in Fort...

WASHINGTON -- During his visit to Indonesia next month, President Barack Obama will give a speech that will include themes of democracy and development, and U.S. outreach to Muslim communities around the world, said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, on Thursday. At a White House briefing to preview Obama's Asian travels, Rhodes said the President would arrive in Indonesia from India on Nov. 9. In his speech to the Indonesian people the following day, Obama will also speak about pluralism and tolerance in Indonesia, which, while the world's largest Muslim-majority country, is "host to a broad

House Democrats are touting their work during the August recess, claiming their members held 1,800 district events to promote their accomplishments and bash Republicans.The frenzied pace is a response to the growing sentiment among the political class that the Democrats’ majority is in danger this November. The party hopes to argue that the doomsday predictions in Washington do not reflect the reality across the country, where they say their candidates are gaining traction.

Recently, Senator John Kerry introduced a bill in the Senate intended to create a two-way professional exchange program that would allow young Americans to work in Muslim countries and citizens of those countries to live in the US. Forgive my cynicism but our government has expended massive resources in the form of money, manpower, and bureaucracy in order to track down terrorists. Multiple arrests recently of homegrown terrorists illustrate the dangers of shipping young Americans off to Muslim countries. Furthermore, many of the 9/11 terrorists were in the US on student visas. Does the Department of Homeland Security really need...

KABUL, Afghanistan - A group of servicemembers from the International Security Assistance Force Volunteer Community Relations Program here donated more than 300 bags of food, clothes, toys and other supplies Thursday to a local Afghan Refugee Camp during a Humanitarian Aid mission. The team of volunteers, led by U.S. Air Force Chaplain (Maj.) Michael Goecker, ISAF chaplain, collected hundreds of supplies donated by ISAF members and U.S. volunteers to give to local Afghan orphanages, camps and families in an effort to help with their state of living and support the ISAF Counterinsurgency plan. “We receive the donations from private organizations...

Lawmakers across Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans, were surprised to learn recently that the Obama administration has made reaching out to Muslim nations a top priority for the space agency NASA. They will probably be more surprised to learn that administration officials told the Middle East news organization Al Jazeera about it before they told Congress. Rep. Pete Olson, the ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, got a call from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on June 28, the day the White House released its new long-term plan for the space program. "He ran down some...

It's been a year since President Obama addressed the Islamic world in Cairo, his most visible gesture to a people, culture and religion he believes the Bush administration antagonized unnecessarily. But, according to a new poll, the Muslim world has not exactly grasped his extended hand. In fact, Muslims have lost confidence in Obama over the past year, the poll found. And in Egypt, the Arab bellwether nation where Obama chose to deliver his speech, the U.S. standing today is worse than during the final year of the Bush administration.

  Story by Senior Master Sgt. Jessica D'Aurizio PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Zormat District in Paktya Province is considered a very dangerous area, according to Afghans that live in eastern Afghanistan. But this did not stop the Air Force Medical Embedded Training Team at Forward Operating Base Lightning and their Afghan national army counterparts at FOB Thunder from setting up a free medical clinic and addressing some concerns of the Afghan villagers, May 18.Each month, the joint AF and ANA medical team travels to a designated village to provide medical care as part of a village medical outreach mission....

During World War II Nazi Germany tried to rally support in the Arab world, often trying to find common ground in anti-Semitism. The extent of the Nazi propaganda in Arabic has been revealed in a book titled Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World. Historian Jeffrey Herf based his book on wartime broadcasts in Arabic that were transcribed by the American embassy in Cairo. Thousands of transmissions were sent from 1939 to 1945.

ORLANDO, Fla. – A newly released LifeWay Research survey of 1,004 Protestant pastors found only 3 percent of their churches served as the primary sponsor of a church plant (new congregation) during the previous 12 months, and only 14 percent gave financial support in partnership with other churches to help start new congregations. However, a second study completed in partnership with Leadership Network revealed more churches open than close yearly. Only in recent years has the annual number of new churches in the United States outpaced the annual number of churches closing their doors. Twenty-eight percent of the congregations participated...

It was the basketball game for the ages. On Monday night, the Duke University Blue Devils survived a desperate, last-second shot by the underdog Butler University Bulldogs to win the NCAA men’s basketball championship. It was a great game-a classic “David and Goliath” matchup, given that Duke has appeared in eight championship games under head coach Mike Krzyzewski, and that Butler had never even made it to the Final Four. You may hear folks talking about the game for some time. When you do, you can add to the conversation by revealing an interesting fact: Basketball was invented more than...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, the moderate Santa Maria Republican running for lieutenant governor, opened his speech to party convention delegates Saturday afternoon by acknowledging the discomfort many of them have with him for supporting new taxes, among other votes he has taken. When he walked into the room, he said, a delegate greeted him by saying, "Hey Abel, I think you're with the wrong party." "And I looked at him, and I said, 'I'm not with the wrong party, I'm with the right party. Let me tell you why.' " Maldonado, who spoke after the room had somewhat emptied following...

The LifeWay Christian Store on South State Street in Salt Lake City has a shelf of LDS literature. These are books, however, that probably not one Mormon in a million will ever read. Basically, they are "defense manuals," handbooks for helping Protestants deal with this ambitious, upstart religion that's out to perform a baptism for every soul who has ever set foot on earth. Last Monday, I spent about an hour thumbing through the books on the Mormon shelf at LifeWay. The books range from "kind and honest" to "kind of honest." The best remind me of the volume "I...

AUSTIN – A bent to conservatism and family makes Hispanics a promising pool of votes for Republicans, but the party's targeting of illegal immigrants has withered its attraction. Regardless, Gov. Rick Perry has fared relatively well, perhaps because of his anti-Washington rhetoric and his careful immigration stance, a recent poll indicates.

Last month, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her senior staff privately met in Washington, D.C., with a select group of Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organizations. Among the mix were three organizations directly associated with an outlawed terrorist entity — the Muslim Brotherhood. Secretary Napolitano spent an hour and a half briefing them on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) counter-radicalization and anti-terrorist programs. The intensive briefings spanned two days (January 27 and 28) and were called by the DHS. Although there is no evidence of an exchange of classified information, this meeting was the beginning of an Obama administration...

The Obama administration's efforts to find common ground with congressional Republicans ran into two pockets of resistance Tuesday: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner. At a closed-door White House session, Pelosi expressed skepticism over an administration proposal to offer tax breaks to business that create new jobs. And Boehner urged Obama to abandon much of the Democrats' current agenda on the ground that it's killing jobs by creating uncertainty in the markets. The White House session with congressional leaders was supposed to be a step toward bipartisanship, with a focus on jobs. But Pelosi made it...

Pastor Rick Warren, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) ,and Valerie Jarrett Warn Against Stereotyping Muslims Pastor Rick Warren, left, shakes hands with Yusuf Islam, best known by his former name Cat Stevens, after speaking at the convention. [Pic in URL] Ahmed Mohamed Staff Writer Washington — More than 30,000 Muslims from across America attended the 46th annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) July 3–6 in Washington, where they heard calls for building bridges of understanding and for increased involvement in community service programs. The ISNA meeting is described as the largest annual gathering of Muslim Americans. Also...

This video is arranged with a short instrumental medley of the hymns; Softly and Tenderly, Lord I’m Coming Home! Also with an animated hummingbird!

Animated tropical puffer fish with a inspiring message!

President Obama continued his outreach to the world's Muslims today, sending greetings to pilgrims to Mecca. .... "Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions," Obama said in a statement. "During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand...

You notice he's not going to Ft. Hood to build bridges to our troops or kissing the wounds of our brave soldiers.

The day after he was elected then President-elect Barack Obama sent Anti-Israel adviser Robert Mally to reach out to Syria. WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Presidential-elect Barack Obama has promised to improve U.S. relations with Egypt and Syria. Aides said Obama had sent senior foreign policy adviser Robert Malley to Egypt and Syria over the last few weeks to outline the Democratic candidate's policy on the Middle East. The aides said Malley, who served in the administration of President Bill Clinton, relayed a pledge from Obama that the United States would seek to enhance relations with Cairo as well as reconcile with...

Red shoulder hawk animation singing a Christian song, This Little Light of Mine! Song sung by Revski - o7jimmy!

HERAT, Afghanistan, Oct. 20, 2009 – Men, women and children from villages near here came to a cooperative medical engagement near Camp Zafar to receive medical care Oct. 6 through 8. U.S. and Italian medical personnel apply lotion to an Afghan child’s face during a cooperative medical engagement near Camp Stone, Afghanistan, Oct. 7, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Marc I. Lane  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Afghan soldiers and civilian medical personnel, with the assistance of Italian, Spanish and U.S. forces, treated more than 300 people every day of the event. The Afghan army sent...

What Nick Vujicic lacks in stature, he makes up for in faith. Vujicic, a 26-year-old man born without arms or legs, spoke about hope and faith in Jesus Christ to approximately 5,000 people at the Salt Palace Convention Center on Saturday night. Vujicic is using his unique situation to spread the message of being born again in Christ. An Australian native, Vujicic now resides in California where he runs his Christian ministry Life Without Limbs. “The world sees something special in a man without arms and legs,” Vujicic said. “I love being able to be used by God.” People’s reasons...

And in a big way. A lot of you have seen the great ads produced by a group called Catholics Come Home. The ads, evidently, are working. And spreading. From the Los Angeles Times: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is home to nearly 1 million Catholics. On a typical Sunday, less than 137,000 can be found in church. Now, using a strategy straight from the secular playbook, its leaders hope to lure back those who have drifted. The diocese and nearly a dozen others across the country are preparing to air several thousand prime-time TV commercials in English and...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military is bungling its outreach to the Muslim world and squandering good will by failing to live up to its promises, the nation's highest-ranking military officer wrote Friday. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there is too much emphasis on telling the U.S. story and not enough on building trust and credibility. "We hurt ourselves and the message we are trying to send when it appears we are doing something merely for the credit," Mullen wrote in an essay published in a military journal. "We hurt ourselves more when our words...

Sacramento, Calif., Aug 26, 2009 / 01:31 am (CNA).- Hoping to encourage at least 100,000 non-practicing Catholics to return to church, the Diocese of Sacramento is preparing a “come home” advertising campaign for this December and January. At Mass over the next several weeks, church leaders will outline the program and ask parishioners to help pay for the ads. The ads are produced by the Catholics Come Home project."There's a large number of people who have left the church and are waiting for an invitation to come back," Msgr. James Murphy, vicar general of the diocese, told the Sacramento...

Sacramento Catholic leaders hope TV commercials will achieve what the diocese has struggled to do for years: bring lapsed Catholics back to the church. In a series of feel-good commercials promoting the church, diocesan leaders are reaching out to Catholics who may not have attended church in years. It is the first time in recent memory the Sacramento Diocese has launched an advertising campaign. "There's a large number of people who have left the church and are waiting for an invitation to come back," said Monsignor James Murphy, vicar general of the diocese. "This is their invitation." The Sacramento Diocese...

"The questions [people are asking] have changed quite significantly in the past 30 years," he told me. "It used to be, 'Is there a God?' and now it's 'What I know about God I don't like.' Their biggest complaint is that God acts in morally inferior ways compared to us." Not only that, but the God who appears in the Bible is especially offensive. The God who gets communicated to the young sounds vengeful and angry and over-anxious to consign people to hell, plus he gets all wrought up about divorce, homosexuality and whether people sleep together before marriage --...

by Debra Medina, Republican candidate for Governor of Texas It’s a shame isn’t it, that Republicans continue to ignore Hispanics especially here in Texas? The writing has long been on the wall that unless the GOP begins to better work with Latinos, the GOP will continue to lose races and be a minority party. It is equally important, of course, for the Latino community to realize that true political identity will be achieved only through participation in all national party structures - Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, etc. We are not all the same and we shouldn’t all be attracted to...

It took a couple of pints of Shock Top ale, but eventually Danyelle Price knew what she wanted to ask her pastor about the book of Psalms...Price, 31, was sitting in the Tavern bar with about 20 members of an after-church gathering called Austin Inklings and hosted by Immanuel Church. Like several other groups in Austin, the Inklings pair drinking with spontaneous dialogue about faith. Price said she thinks such groups should be called "Christians like beer, too."

Poll: If Jesus were on earth today in bodily form, would he frequent bars and pubs to befriend "sinners"? A Daily Poll

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday urged fellow Republicans to welcome outsiders into the party ranks, not scorn them, as the GOP rebuilds from defeats that left the White House and Congress in Democratic hands. The potential 2012 presidential candidate, addressing a meeting of the Republican National Committee, appealed to members to build bridges to independents and conservative-leaning Democrats that would win converts and, in turn, elections. To move forward at a time when Republican numbers are shrinking in many states, the party should show "respect of those who don't agree with us," Pawlenty said. "Let's make sure that we...

Dearest, Beloved, and Everlasting God; It the past, it has been wonderfully nice to talk to you on my knees in prayer and it has always been a divine blessing to talk to you about the values of life and the fullness of family; my Beloved God Almighty, it has always seemed like you have had such great wisdom and optimism to give throughout the very fibre of my being! I know that it has been years since I actually set down and wrote you a letter through prayer from the heart; yet, I have at times been afraid to...

Exodus Youth, part of the evangelical ministry Exodus International that deals with the issue of homosexuality, is aiming to reverse a "disturbing" trend seen across churches and perceived widely by young Americans – that the Church is anti-homosexual. Homosexuality is a topic that churches are still struggling to address in a culture that is increasingly accepting gay and lesbian lifestyles. It's a struggle that hasn't come across to many Americans in a positive light. "I think for a long time, the church just hasn't known how to talk about homosexuality," said Exodus Youth Director Scott Davis. "They've been very uncomfortable...

My 16 year old daughter made this video to a song she loves by Sarah Kelley, Living Hallelujah! Enjoy...

WASHINGTON, DC – Defying some of his fellow conservative Christian critics, one of the most prominent religious leaders in the country told several thousand American Muslims on Saturday that "the two largest faiths on the planet" must work together to combat stereotypes and solve global problems. "Some problems are so big you have to team tackle them," evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren addressed the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Warren said Muslims and Christians should be partners in working to end what he calls "the five global giants" of war, poverty, corruption, disease, and illiteracy....

Irrespective of race, it seems that nowadays the primary question asked when deciding which party to support is, “What will you do for me (and my downtrodden brethren)?” Looking at the “comments” section of an article about diversifying the GOP, it’s clear that for many African Americans, the answer expected from and assumed of Republicans is: nothing. (One of Asim’s reader’s comments: ” The Republican Party has not done anything in recent time to warrant an AFRICAN AMERICAN caring about it.”) This despite the fact that it was Richard Nixon who signed the first major application of affirmative action into...

Please view the link below; enter a birth date and watch Anthem V1 & V2. http://cervezatecate.com/ Why in the HELL is the RNC not all over this demographic with commercials like this. Hispanics/Mexicans, whomever are ardent conservatives and the RNC has not reached them. These ads run during Friday Night Fights on ESPN. Large waves of southern immigration are changing our politics, and most Republicans believe the most effective way to reach them- which we know doesn't work- is to reward lawbreakers with citizenship and hope for the best. And please don't call us racists or we're gonna cry and...

Islamic Society convention lands appearance from Rick WarrenThe Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America will be holding its annual convention -- the largest yearly gathering of Muslims on the continent -- in Washington, D.C. over the Fourth of July weekend. And while convention leaders are holding out hope that President Barack Obama might make the convention his latest stop in his outreach to the Muslim world, the convention has landed another pretty big fish as a featured speaker.Purpose-Driven pastor Rick Warren has agreed to appear at the convention and be part of its main session discussing the convention's theme --...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party needs to broaden its base rather than move farther to the political right to make gains against President Barack Obama's Democrats, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday. "Let's debate the future of the party. And let's let all the segments of the party come in," Powell, a Republican who served in President George W. Bush's Cabinet but endorsed Obama last year, told CBS's "Face the Nation."