Free Republic

Two people confront Madison protesters who are using a war memorial as a work station.

PHOENIX -- A sometimes loud crowd reaction this past week to a legislative hearing has led to the banning of a Hispanic civil rights leader from the Senate -- and his arrest Thursday after he went to see his legislator. Senate President Russell Pearce confirmed Friday he told the Senate sergeant at arms to bar the leader of a group that was being "rowdy' while watching a committee hearing on a TV monitor in an overflow room. But the Senate president said he did not learn until later that person he banned was Salvador Reza. Reza was arrested Thursday when...

......The Capitol's north wing became a protester service center. Donated food laid out on tables fuels the villagers. ...morning begins with breakfast cereals and bagels. Later in the day, tables are stocked with tortilla chips, specialty breads and vegan bakery items from a coffee shop. Gallons of soup and chili arrive from a cafe, cheese spreads from several sources and thousands of slices of pizza from a restaurant. "We teach at the high school and work in community farms and with small businesses," said Mermaid Cafe owner David McKercher. "When the teachers are in trouble and the health profession is...

MacIver Institute @MacIverWisc Madison, Wisconsin, USA The Free Market Voice for Wisconsin. We are a Wisconsin based think tank that believes in free markets, individual freedom and responsible government. http://www.maciverinstitute.com Getting reports that protesters have entered the offices of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, a couple of blocks off the square.6 minutes ago

US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who decried violent political rhetoric after last month’s fatal shooting rampage in Tucson, said today he regrets urging union workers at a rally in Boston on Tuesday to “get a little bloody.” “I strongly believe in standing up for worker rights and my passion for preserving those rights may have gotten the best of me yesterday in an unscripted speech,” the Somerville Democrat said in a statement released this afternoon. “I wish I had used different language to express my passion and I regret my choice of words." Capuano was referring to remarks he made...

Protesters demanding the ouster of their new unity government in Tunisia are also now calling for 'Death to the Jews.' A local source who spoke exclusively with Israel National News on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution warned this week “the situation is not getting better for the Jews,” Tunisians took to the streets Sunday demanding the ouster of the country's prime minister, Mohammed Ghanoucci, whom they denounced as part of the former regime, toppled three weeks ago.

Mika Brzezinski learned a life lesson this morning: look before you leap to defend liberals . . . At the top of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough referenced the hateful emails he and Mika had received from the left and the similarly ugly signs held by Wisconsin union protesters. Mika reflexively defended the vileness, saying that people were "hurting and really don't feel like they're being heard." Aww. But later, the show rolled video of some of the Wisconsin signs, including one with crosshairs on Gov. Walker, another calling him Hitler, one accusing him of rape, and of course that great...

CNN in a news flash is reporting that several Libian towns have "fallen" to protesters, in a wave moving west to east, and that there are now reports of govt/protester clashes coming from Tripoli...

What is happening in Wisconsin is disturbing. Protesters have jumped on the Egypt bandwagon, claiming that “Cairo has moved to Madison,” which trivializes the real brutality and lack of openness of the Mubarak regime, and claims a moral standing for the unions that they simply have not earned. The issue is that the state faces a $137 million budget shortfall (in the short term, and about $4 billion over the long term), and the government unions have negotiated benefit packages for themselves that are no longer sustainable. Something has to give, but the unions and Democrats are working together to...

Lots of news stories and blog posts about the teachers unions taking over the Wisconsin State Legislature yesterday and how the Democrats went into hiding to avoid what I suppose is their sworn duty. In reality they did not just hide, they fled the state. This is right out of the Democrat’s playbook. If they win an election … they WON. Don’t you remember what President Obama said two years ago? When the legislative and executive branches were held by Democrats, the mantra was “we won, deal with it.” After the elections last November, the tide turned. Republicans took control...

The streets were crowded with families, friends and citizens, all giving them a proud welcome – except for one tiny group of local muslims who taunted them with banners and jeers, calling the soldiers rapists, murderers and baby killers. Police protected them from angry locals but five of the protesters were later convicted of abusive conduct and harassment.

Hosni Mubarak can count on at least one loyal supporter. Coptic Christian leader Pope Shenouda wants the anti-Mubarak protesters to stand down. He has two inarguable reasons to stick with the dictator: fear and experience. Even if the Muslim Brotherhood doesn't take over, there is every reason to believe that a democratically elected Egyptian government will become more Islamist and more hostile to the country's roughly 8 million Christians, who are overwhelmingly Copts. As a horrifying premonition, the Copts need look no farther than democratic Iraq, where the ethnic cleansing of Christians is still unspooling, slowly but inexorably. It's an...

Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is throwing the book at dozens of people arrested during recent political demonstrations — a major shift in city policy that has him pressing for jail time in types of cases that previous prosecutors had treated as infractions. Some of the activists arrested, including eight college students and one military veteran who took part in a Westwood rally last year in support of the DREAM Act, face up to one year in county jail. Trutanich's aggressive stance is the latest episode in the city's decades-long legal struggle over the rights of protesters.

<p>FRANKFORT (AP) - Hundreds of demonstrators braved freezing temperatures outside the Kentucky Capitol on Tuesday to protest to a bill aimed at jailing illegal immigrants.</p> <p>"It's senseless," said Panama native Vivian Marin, who now lives in Kentucky. "It's senseless," said Panama native Vivian Marin, who now lives in Kentucky. "Kentucky is a very diverse state. If we allow for a bill to pass here similar to the one in Arizona, it would be a tragedy."</p>

A video has surfaced showing the love progressives have for conservatives like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and talk show host Glenn Beck. As hundreds of left wing activists protested a meeting held by the Koch brothers last Sunday, cameras were rolling and individual activists were asked what they would do with Clarence Thomas and other conservatives. The activists questioned responded by calling for impeachment of Thomas, sending the African-American conservative back into slavery and hanging both him and his wife. One woman challenged Glenn Beck to a duel with her Glock pistol. Others called for the execution of Fox...

CAIRO (Reuters) – Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, throwing petrol bombs, wielding sticks and charging on horses and camels, assaulted demonstrators in Cairo on Wednesday after the army told the protesters to go home. Anti-Mubarak protesters hurled stones back and said the attackers were police in plainclothes. The Interior Ministry denied the accusation, and the Egyptian government rejected international calls for Mubarak to end his 30-year-rule now. This apparent rebuff along with the appearance of Mubarak supporters on Cairo's streets and their clashes with protesters -- after days of relatively calm demonstrations -- complicated U.S. calculations for an orderly transition...

Vowing to "die on Egyptian soil",  an embattled Hosni Mubarak digs-in...as his supporters go on the offensive Having pledged not to run for re-election this fall, Hosni Mubarak is drawing a line... and although   Iranian shill Mohamed ElBaradei says that won't cut it, the Egyptian president seems intent to retire on his terms- Army tanks seen moving as protesters confront one another; Egyptian military calls for end of protests: "Your message has arrived, your demands known." Pro-Mubarak demonstrators were tearing down anti-Mubarak banners that have decorated Cairo's Tahrir Square for three days Wednesday afternoon. Tanks on the periphery of...

Curfew-defying protesters continue 7th day of anti-government demonstrations calling for Mubarak's removal; Al-Jazeera network says 6 English-language journalists arrested, subsequently released. Around 250,000 protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square Monday afternoon as anti-government protests continued for the seventh day, the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera reported. Protesters ignored the state-imposed curfew which began at 3 p.m. as a coalition of opposition groups called for a million people to take to the streets Tuesday to demand the removal of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the clearest sign yet that a unified leadership was emerging for Egypt's powerful but disparate protest movement.

In case anyone needed convincing that the crisis in Egypt puts the United States in an extremely complex and difficult position, one need only watch Egyptian Opposition Leader ElBaradei describe the brutal, freedom-depriving dictatorship of President Mubarak and then compare that to this video where some protesters reveal exactly what they would do if they were granted freedom. It seems like for the United States not to choose sides, at least for now, may in fact be the wisest decision. CNN reporter Nic Robertson hit the streets and interviewed Egyptian protesters who did not hold anything back with their revelations...

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (Reuters) – About 1,000 chanting protesters rallied on Sunday outside a California resort where conservative lawmakers and business executives met for a political strategy session hosted by billionaires Charles and David Koch. About two dozen police officers in riot gear lined up in front of the Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa in the upscale desert town of Rancho Mirage to keep the protesters away from the gated entrance. ... Another group, some dressed in hazardous material suits, tried to encircle the resort with yellow caution tape in a symbolic effort to "quarantine" the meeting, but they...