Free Republic

Andrew Sullivan: The truth about civil marriage - why it is the essential criterion for gay equality - is that it alone explodes this core marginalization and invisibility of gay people. It alone can reach those gay kids who need to know they have a future as a dignified human being with a family. It alone tells society that gay people are equal in their loves and in their hearts and in their families - not just useful in a society with a need for talented or able individuals whose private lives remain perforce sequestered from view. This is why...

By now, Sekou Jackson is used to the questions: Why does he need to leave a work meeting to pray? Don't black Muslims convert to Islam in jail? Why would you even want to be Muslim? "It's kind of a double whammy to be African-American and Muslim," said Jackson, who studies the Navy at the National Academy of Science in Washington. "You're going to be judged." Jackson's struggle may have gotten harder when the FBI raided a Detroit mosque Wednesday, saying its leader preached hate against the government, trafficked in stolen goods and belonged to a radical group that wants...

Armed Forces hits recruiting goalsMilitary Recruitment Hits 35 Year High 10-19-09 Last Update: 7:47 pm Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - For the first time in 35 years, all branches of the military met their recruiting goals for 2009. The Army had more than 70,000 people sign up; the Navy had close to 36,000; the Marine Corps got 31,000 new recruits and the Air Force came in with close to 32,000. The high unemployment rate, coupled with increased education costs, is at the heart of the successful recruiting campaign. Recruiting tactics haven't changed. Recruiters still work hard to reach people, especially at high...

THANKS to a mix of patriotism and high unemployment, every one of our military services exceeded its recruiting goals for fiscal year 2009. That's the good news. The bad news is that, after eight years of indecisive war and ravaged personal lives, the Army's losing the experienced officers and NCOs it needs to train and lead those new recruits. The Army's tough. But after years of voices crying wolf for political purposes, there's real trouble looming on the personnel front. I joined a broken Army after Vietnam. I don't want to see an Army resembling that one again. Yes, we...

A small East Bay school district's effort to protect children of nontraditional families from being bullied has sparked a lawsuit from an out-of-town Christian legal group and a campaign to recall three school board members. On one side are parents who believe the Alameda Unified School District board's decision to authorize a lesson in the so-called Caring Schools Community Curriculum violates their rights to teach their children about sexuality issues on their own terms and will indoctrinate their children into what they call the homosexual lifestyle. On the other are parents who believe the curriculum's Lesson 9 is vital for...

San Francisco -- A San Francisco group billing itself as "the best in LGBT media" is claiming hundreds of public schools in California have signed up to show its films and use accompanying discussion materials. One film features a boy "coming out" by wearing his mother's bikini. Another film incorporates Native American spiritualism to cast LGBT (lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender) persons as "two-spirit" people. The films and school materials are being distributed by Youth in Motion, a partnership between Frameline and Gay-Straight Alliance Network. YIM can be accessed here (warning: may contain offensive content). The films are accompanied by...

Supporters of Harvey Milk want the Governor to sign legislation soon declaring a Harvey Milk Day here in California. Opponents say that move would "send the wrong message to children by endorsing homosexuality and lionizing a man with a controversial personal history." Randy Thomasson with SaveCalifornia.com was even more plain in his opposition:. "Harvey Milk was a terrible...

SNIPPET: "Since 9/11, the general focus on prison radicalism in the media and in government has been on the process of certifying imams and literature available to inmates. Fully understanding the impact of this phenomenon, however, requires a historical look back at Islam in prison. The seeds of jihad were planted in the prison soil by men like Warith Deen Umar long before we were attacked in 2001. Having spent 26 years working in New York 's Department of Correctional Services, I have witnessed this process of radicalization first-hand. Sometimes it was monitored; sometimes a recruitment cell was infiltrated. As...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2009 – July was a boom month for military recruiting, with more than 15,000 young men and women entering the active-duty force, defense officials reported today. July recruiting and retention numbers released today show across-the-board successes, with a new high school graduation class among the recruitment-age population seeking career opportunities. “In tougher economic times, youth are simply more willing to discuss options with recruiters,” said Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy. “And when they learn the facts, they see the advantages.” All four services met or exceeded their July active-duty recruiting goals, officials...

Jumping Jailhouse Jihad!!! 90% of U. S. Converts Are African Americans - - 60% Converted in Prison Cells by Paul L. Williams thelastcrusade.org CNN reports that more than 25% of the Muslims in America are converts who have embraced Islam in the wake of 9/11.The report conveys the impression that Islam now attracts adherents from all religious, social, economic and racial backgrounds through interviews with recent converts - - both white women - - Allison Poole, formerly a Southern Baptist, and Barbara Cartokuke, a lapsed Roman Catholic. Ms. Poole claims that Islam has heightened her religious awareness since she...

EXCLUSIVE: A 23-year-old pre-med student who "got caught up with friends who were pulling him" toward homosexuality is well and undergoing Christian counseling, his family says. But a gay activist who created a Web site to locate the "missing" man says Bryce Faulkner's silence speaks volumes, claiming that the young man's religious parents are controlling his every move in an effort to "cure" him of his homosexuality. Debra Faulkner, of El Dorado, Ark., denied the Web site's reports that her son was forced against his will to undergo reparative therapy for homosexuality at Exodus International, a nonprofit Christian organization that...

A group committed to establishing an international Islamic empire and reportedly linked to Al Qaeda is stepping up its Western recruitment efforts by holding its first official conference in the U.S. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global Sunni network with reported ties to confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Al Qaeda in Iraq's onetime leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It has operated discreetly in the U.S. for decades. Now, it is coming out of the shadows and openly hosting a July 19 conference entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam," at a posh Hilton hotel in a suburb...

"We're here, we're queer, get used to it . . ." See VIDEO and PHOTOS below -- (Go to link)

Family advocates are outraged by a prom held at Boston City Hall that was open to children apparently as young as 12 featuring crossdressers, homosexual heavy petting, suspected drug use and a leather-clad doorman who teaches sexual bondage classes. Children from middle schools and high schools across Massachusetts on May 9 attended a Youth Pride Day event ending with a prom inside of Boston City Hall sponsored by the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Youth, or BAGLY, a group seated on the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino issued a proclamation welcoming homosexual and...

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2009 – May was a banner recruiting month for every military service, but especially for the Marine Corps, which topped its active-duty goal by 42 percent and its Marine Corps Reserve goal by 12 percent, Defense Department officials announced today. The Marine recruiting successes represent a particularly high point among across-the-board recruiting successes in which every service met or exceeded its May active-duty goal, officials said. The reserve components reported similar progress. The three components that fell short of their projected May goals did so because only because they already have reached 112 percent of their...

WASHINGTON, June 9, 2009 – A soldier wounded last week during an attack at a recruiting office in Little Rock, Ark., that claimed a fellow soldier’s life expressed no bitterness today at his attacker, and said the incident has done nothing to dampen his desire to serve in the Army. Army Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, spoke publicly about the incident for the first time since he was gunned down outside an Army recruiting office June 1. He is recovering from gunshot wounds to his neck, back and buttocks. Army Pvt. William Long, 23, was killed in the attack. He was...

The day before he died, U.S. Army Pvt. William Andrew “Andy” Long floated the Buffalo River with his sister, Vanessa Rice. If he had his way, she said, the pair would have gone skydiving. “I’m so blessed to have had that day with Andy,” Rice tearfully told guests at her brother’s funeral Monday at Harlan Park Baptist Church in Conway. “My brother meant the world to me. Andy loved to be outdoors, to travel, and he couldn’t wait to get to Korea to serve his country.” The service was followed by a burial with full military honors Monday at the...

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...

Freepers: I need your help. As you are aware, the terrorist attack in Little Rock, Arkansas, resulting in the murder of Pvt Long, and wounding of another garnered alot of controversy by the inaction of our President, and the mediablackout compared to the Tiller shooting.Now there is another outrage. A muslim fanatic crashed the memorial service where the National Anthem, a prayer for PVT Long were just being completed. Please go to YouTube.com, (click the link in the header), and sign up if you have to. Don't let the anti-Americans and anti-semites on Youtube take up for this gross disrespect...

A recruiter who left Google last year says that the company had maintained a "do not touch" list of companies including Genentech and Yahoo, whose employees were not to be wooed to the Internet search giant. That revelation could be significant in light of this week's disclosure that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies conspired to keep others from stealing their top talent. Although Google declined to comment on the list or other aspects of the investigation, Palo Alto attorney Gary Reback, who has been involved in a number of high-profile...

Steven Emerson warns: radical Muslims serving as chaplains in American prisons [Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: It should be noted that back in the Middle East, the very troops U.S. General Dayton is training and arming could very well end up in joint teams with Hamas gunmen if Egyptian-PA plans are implemented. General Dayton swears that these Palestinian recruits talk-the-talk and he adamantly refuses to think through what might happen to this "moderate" American trained fighting force when they are mixed with highly motivated radical Hamas gunmen who talk-a-very-different-talk. General Dayton may swear that by some miracle his "moderate" Fatah...

As I noted yesterday and many times in the past, the four Muslims caught trying to blow up New York synagogues and U.S. planes converted to Islam in prison, where the Muslim chaplaincy is controlled by CAIR, ISNA, and an alphabet soup of extremists and jihadists. Today, Bill Warner points out that the men met at Masjid Al-Ikhlas, a Newburgh, New York mosque, whose imam is Salahuddin Muhammad, a New York prison chaplain. Hello . . .? Yet, authorities refuse to do anything to this guy. And they continue to refuse to overhaul the Muslim prison chaplain system and who...

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2009 – All 10 active-duty and reserve military components met or exceeded their recruiting goals in April, Defense Department officials announced today. For the second consecutive month, the Marine Corps added the highest percentage of active-duty members. The Corps’ goal was to add 1,018 new Marines. It exceeded that number by 43 percent, adding 1,666 new Marines. The Army National Guard led the reserve components when it exceeded its recruiting goal of 4,029 new Guardsmen by 11 percent, adding 4,474 soldiers. “The economic downturn, rising unemployment, and the scarcity of civilian jobs has made military recruiting less...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2009 – All 10 active-duty and reserve military components met or exceeded their recruiting goals in March, with the Marine Corps adding the highest percentage of active-duty members, Defense Department officials announced today. The Army Reserve led the reserve components, and all four active departments met or exceeded their March retention goals. “Recruiting continues to be strong in all military departments,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Data published on the Defense Department Web site shows that the Marine Corps goal was to add 1,411 new Marines, which it exceeded by 43 percent, recruiting a total of 2,017....

The FBI is taking a close look at a video that uses slick production and anti-American messages to get young men interested in terrorism. The Feds are trying to figure out how legitimate and significant this video is. At one point in the video, the narrator praises the men who've left the west to fulfill an obligation in the holy war. The 30 minute tape shows Somali and Ethiopian troops fighting in July 2008. Terrorist groups like Al Shebab, are using gunfights like this to lure young American men to join their cause. "This is really shocking that those guys...

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2009 – Defense Department officials today announced across-the-board recruiting and retention successes in February, with every service meeting or exceeding its active-duty, reserve and National Guard goals. The statistics reflect solid recruiting performance during a month that Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman noted is traditionally a slow recruiting period. Both the Army and Marine Corps, which are in the midst of growing their forces, exceeded their February goals. The Army led active-component recruiting, signing on 324 more soldiers than its 6,000-soldier goal for February. The Marine Corps, with 1,752 new accessions, topped its monthly goal by a...

Staff Sgt. Daren Stewart remembers driving down a rural road in Arkansas and thinking how easy it would be to jerk the wheel and flip his car into a ditch. The 27-year-old Iraq war veteran says he wasn’t suicidal. He just figured that injuring himself was the only way he could get any time off from his job as an Army recruiter. “I would rather spend three years straight in Iraq, without coming home, without a break, than ever be a recruiter again,” said Stewart, who recruited in Hot Springs, Ark., from 2005 to 2008.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2009 – All active duty U.S. military services and reserve components met or exceeded their January recruiting needs, Defense Department officials reported today. The Army signed up 9,658 new active-duty soldiers, 107 percent of its target number of 9,000 enlistees. The Navy signed up 2,948 new active-duty sailors, 100 percent of its target number. The Marine Corps signed up 3,720 new active-duty Marines, 109 percent of its target number of 3,406 enlistees. The Air Force signed up 2,600 new active-duty airmen, 100 percent of its target number. The active Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy also...

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Feb. 5, 2009 – The Defense Logistics Agency hired 91 college students with disabilities under the federal government’s Workforce Recruitment Program in 2008, more than any other federal agency. The jointly sponsored Defense and Labor department program matches students with disabilities with internships at government agencies or private-sector companies. Since it started in 1995, about 4,500 students have participated, and more than 350 of them have been interns at DLA, officials said. The Army hired the most WRP interns from 2004 to 2007, Famia Magana, director of DLA’s Equal Employment Office, said. With 86 hires in...

Armed forces exceed recruiting goalsBy Robin Acton TRIBUNE-REVIEW Saturday, January 24, 2009 Syd Richardson always knew she'd join the military. After exploring her options, learning about all of the service branches and talking to friends who are serving, the 17-year-old Norwin High School senior enlisted in the Army National Guard. A $20,000 signing bonus helped her to make a decision. "I signed up because I wanted to serve, but I'm really glad I did it because I won't have to worry about money," said Richardson, who leaves Aug. 31 to begin basic training in Jackson, S.C. "I'm guaranteed a job....

The media is all aflutter today with reports -- as headlined in the NY Times -- that "all active-duty and reserve forces meeting or exceeding their recruitment goals for the first time since 2004, the year that violence in Iraq intensified drastically...." This is the perfect mainstream media story because it perpetuates two myths: That only the poor and uneducated join the military and that violence in Iraq caused reenlistment problems. This story, however, is a gross exaggeration at best, a lie at worst, premised on the hope that no one would check.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2009 – December was a recruiting success for all active-duty and reserve-component U.S. military services, which all met or exceeded their goals, according to a Defense Department news release issued today. -- The Army signed 860 new active-duty soldiers, 115 percent of its target number of 750 enlistees. -- The Navy signed 2,306 new active-duty sailors, meeting its target number of enlistees for the month. -- The Marine Corps signed 2,392 new active-duty Marines, 113 percent of its target number of 2,116 enlistees. -- The Air Force signed 2,967 new active-duty airmen, meeting its target number...

The Milwaukee Public School System will expand the services provided by its gay-friendly high school and apparently become the nation's first school system to create a gay-friendly middle school. At a meeting two weeks ago, a subcommittee of Milwaukee's Board of Education unanimously approved the Alliance School's proposal to serve sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. The proposal gained unanimous approval from the full board by default when the item was not pulled for further discussion or a vote at last night's meeting. Alliance School lead teacher Tina Owen said the public charter school will begin accepting new applicants eligible for...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2008 – All active-duty and reserve-component U.S. military services met or exceeded their November recruiting goals, according to a Defense Department news release issued today. -- The Army signed up 5,605 new active-duty soldiers, 106 percent of its target number of 5,275 enlistees. -- The Navy signed up 3,082 new active-duty sailors, meeting its target number of enlistees for the month. -- The Marine Corps signed up 1,868 new active-duty Marines, 105 percent of its target number of 1,782 enlistees. -- The Air Force signed up 2,916 new active-duty airmen, meeting its target number of enlistees...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2008 – The Defense Department has launched a year-long pilot program to recruit about 1,000 non-U.S. citizen health care workers and language and cultural specialists for service in America’s military, a senior DoD official said here today. The new program targets people who don’t have “green cards” but do have visas and work permits. Those the military hopes to attract legally live and work in the United States and have capabilities highly valued by the military, Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, told Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service reporters. “These are...

The Somali community in the Metro has become fearful after reports that one of their own was a suicidal bomber. Federal sources say Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in a suicide bombing in northern Somali last month. They also believe he was a recruiter in the Twin Cities for a terrorist network. Government sources believe that as many as 40 young men who knew Ahmed, recently left Minnesota without telling their families. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS talked to Ahmed's family. They said they have not heard from him in weeks. The report was the talk of this busy Somali market on...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2008 – Recruiting successes in fiscal 2008 continued into the first month of the new fiscal year, with all active and reserve components meeting or exceeding their October goals, defense officials reported today. Recruiting remained solid across the board, with the Army leading the effort by exceeding its active-duty goal by 1 percent, its Army National Guard goal by 16 percent and its Army Reserve goal by 10 percent, officials said. The Army signed on 5,324 active-duty soldiers in October, as well as 6,487 National Guardsmen and 3,049 reservists. The Marine Corps topped its October active-duty...

Fremont mayor's campaign apparently broke law by recruiting students on campus for election work Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman's re-election campaign has recruited more than 130 high school volunteers by approaching them on campus in apparent violation of state education law. The mayor's campaign staff recruited students in classrooms at three of Fremont's five high schools, promising college recommendation letters from the mayor himself. They asked students to commit four hours a week to phone-banking, door-to-door outreach and other work like putting up lawn signs and preparing mailers. And many students have signed up. Offering the recommendation letters was legal, but...

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, Oct. 6, 2008 – He hasn’t always been a retention noncommissioned officer. In fact, he admitted he was a little leery at first about guiding soldiers down the path of re-enlistment. After all, he was on his first tour himself, and had no prior training to assume the vital role as retention NCO. Army Sgt. Mark Shamburger of Hattiesburg, Miss., works on a re-enlistment certificate. Shamburger serves as retention noncommissioned officer and equal opportunity leader in Multinational Division Baghdad with the 890th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Carmen Guerrero, Multinational Division...

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 11, 2008 – The Air National Guard has met its fiscal 2008 end-strength goal of 106,700 airmen, the first time it’s met its target end strength since 2003, National Guard Bureau officials announced yesterday. Recruiting and retention combined to produce the achievement. The Air Guard recruited 1,194 airmen in August, 107 percent of its goal of 1,116. To date for fiscal 2008, which ends Sept. 30, the Air Guard has retained 16,518 personnel, 107.3 percent of its goal of 15,390. Air Force Lt. Col. Randy Johnson, chief of Air Guard recruiting and retention, attributed the milestone to...

Dozens of California National Guard recruiters and support staffers were punished or remain under investigation for a variety of offenses that include forging criminal and other enlistment records, The Sacramento Bee has learned.

For nearly two years, the South Florida middle school art teacher forced the boy to have sex in a classroom supply closet. Sometimes, Aaron Mohanlal would call in sick to work, take the boy to his home for sex and drop the seventh-grader back off at school at the end of the day. To keep the abuse secret, Mohanlal bought the 13-year-old a cell phone and created nicknames for their genitalia. When police arrested him, the teacher was caught on hidden video trying to destroy letters threatening the boy if he ever told. Last summer, a Broward County jury convicted...

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2008 – Defense officials today pointed to the 13th consecutive month of recruiting success as a sign that the all-volunteer force, now 35 years old, remains solid. Recruiting and retention statistics for June, released today, show that all services met or exceeded their active-duty recruiting goals. The June figures mark more than a full year of across-the-board recruiting successes. Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said this trend, particularly during a protracted conflict, demonstrates the strength of the all-volunteer force. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed appreciation earlier this week for military...

A U.S. Army simulation game at Summerfest, shut down after complaints to festival officials, was replaced Wednesday by a modified version in which players shoot at still targets instead of virtual human beings. The decision to reopen “America’s Army” was announced late Wednesday afternoon in a joint news release from the Army and Summerfest faxed to the Journal Sentinel on Army stationery. --------------------- This is a followup to an earlier FR post at: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039585/posts

UPDATE: Army shuts down warfare game At the request of Summerfest officials, the U.S. Army on Tuesday removed a virtual urban warfare game that allowed fest-goers as young as 13 to hop into a Humvee simulator and fire machine guns at life-size people displayed on a computer screen. "We're determining it's probably not something that we want to have shown at Summerfest," said John Boler, vice president of sales and marketing, said before the decision was made to request removal of the game, called Virtual Army Experience. The game drew criticism from Peace Action Wisconsin, which called it "totally inappropriate...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2008 – The Army National Guard has been so successful recruiting and retaining citizen-soldiers that officials purposely slowed May enlistments, National Guard Bureau officials reported. The Army and Air National Guard continued a brisk recruiting pace in May that has filled out the ranks of the Guard across the board. A decade-long decline in recruiting doctors, dentists and physician assistants was reversed in 2007, with a 20 percent increase. Recruiters anticipate a 60 percent increase in 2008 as they execute a four-year recovery program for the field. The Army National Guard was at 102 percent of its...

Iraqis gathered in the Hayyaniyah district of Basra, Iraq to answer a recruiting call by the Iraqi army May 29. More than 3,000 Iraqi men from the area turned out for the event though the Iraqi army only had 1,000 positions available. BASRA — Soldiers with the 1st Iraqi Army looked to increase their numbers and support in Basra, Iraq May 29. Operation Charge of the Knights has been successful in rooting out criminal elements and restoring the rule of law to the city as well as increasing local support for the government of Iraq. The increased support for the...

A handful of Code Pink protesters were in front of the center at 64 Shattuck Square May 21 - their usual day of the week - but the turnout was extremely low compared with recent months when hundreds came out weekly to protest the military enlistment site. While the crowd has slackened, Code Pink officials say the weekly protests will continue until the recruitment center leaves town. A Marines spokesman said Tuesday that there are no plans to move the officer selection office from Berkeley. The lease runs until December 2009. Berkeley Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Ted Garrett...

A South Carolina high school principal said he'll resign from his post after the district approved an organization for gay students that conflicts with his religious beliefs. Eddie Walker, the principal of Irmo High School in Columbia, S.C., announced his intention to step down to faculty and students on Wednesday, saying he'll end his tenure following the 2008-09 school year. The decision, outlined in a letter to Lexington-Richland School District 5 officials, said the reason was the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance Club for students.

The principal of a South Carolina public school has announced plans to resign rather than continue his work at Irmo High following a demand to launch a student club to promote homosexuality. "The formation of this club conflicts with my professional beliefs in that we do not have other clubs at Irmo High school based on sexual orientation, sexual preference, or sexual activity," Principal Eddie Walker, who identifies himself as "Class of 2008-2009," told the school community in a letter. His letter said he planned to announce his pending departure to students via the intercom today, but school officials told...