Free Republic

PIERRE, S.D. (KTIV) - Saying "voters want change", South Dakota State senator-elect Eldon Nygaard, of Vermillion, has made a change, too. He's now a Republican. Nygaard served in the South Dakota House from 2006 to 2010 as a Democrat. But, in a statement, Nygaard said he believes he can better-serve his constituents in Pierre as a Republican. "I firmly believe that I can represent my District's needs in Pierre more effectively as a member of the Republican Party. My past four years in the House have been marked by a bi-partisan approach to working for my district and the people...

The white Southern Democrat...is sliding nearer to extinction. ...The carnage...was...brutal in the Deep South, where...one white Democrat survived across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. SNIP "Right now in most of Dixie it is culturally unacceptable to be a Democrat...," said Dave...Saunders, a campaign strategist... SNIP Democrats...lost at least 19 Southern House members and...senator Blanche Lincoln...the most conservative Democrats...four-term Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia and 10-term Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi couldn't withstand the wave. It also snared ...veterans...John Spratt of South Carolina,... 14-term chairman of the House Budget Committee, and 14-term Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia. When the...

Activists seek to oust GOP legislative leadersBy John O’Connor Updated: Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010 07:02 AM COLUMBIA - Conservative activists are stepping up their efforts to oust legislative leadership, launching a petition drive to replace the House speaker and change Senate rules for seniority-based chairmen. The effort raises questions about where Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley's allegiances lie -- with the insurgents with whom she is politically aligned or with legislative leadership with whom she has pledged to work? The focus of the conservative activists is House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and the State...

Desmond Tutu says by bringing int'l artists to perform, TA Opera House "advances Israel's fallacious claim to being a 'civilized democracy.'" Talkbacks (23) Cape Town's renowned opera troupe has rejected a call from retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to cancel a performance in Israel scheduled next month. The opera's managing director Michael Williams said in a statement Wednesday that the opera would not take a political position and cut cultural ties with Israel or the Palestinian territory. Tutu, who earned a Nobel Prize for his peaceful opposition to apartheid, urged Cape Town's renowned opera troupe not to tour Israel until...

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—The Republican Party is poised in the coming election to remove the vestiges of Democratic control from state governments in the heart of the South. In Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, the GOP appears likely to win every state elected office as well as take or strengthen control over legislatures. Republican sweeps in these states would give the party control over the redrawing of congressional districts after the 2010 census, and enhance its ability to raise funds and campaign for Republican candidates in the 2012 races. White conservative voters in the South have been turning to the GOP...

The Republican Party is set to defeat Democrats in the upcoming state governments in the heart of the South and will completely dominate the election this time. It is expected that the Republicans will win in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama and will win every state elected office. If the Republican manages to win these states, they would get the power to redraw the congressional districts after the 2010 census. It will allow the Republicans to raise more funds and launch aggressive campaign for the Republican candidates in the 2012 races. White conservative voters in the South are set...

Shortly after 10 o'clock on a crisp Saturday morning two weeks ago, 75 folks solemnly clutching small American flags and digital cameras assembled in a grove of young pines at a modest farm in the Zion community, tucked into in the soft hills west of downtown Rockingham. Their objective was to honor five forgotten Union soldiers who died in a skirmish only days before the end of the Civil War. Until now, the solders' remains have lain in hand-dug graves marked only by small piles of white stones for 145 years, their identities unknown. The event, sponsored by the Richmond...

The American flag, which Robert E. Lee had defended as a soldier, flew at half mast in Lexington, Virginia.

Sometimes these blasphemy death threats come from crankish jihadi sympathizers who’d never have the stones to actually do anything about it. And sometimes they don’t. The Virginia man who warned on a radical Islamic website that the creators of the cartoon series “South Park” will be targeted for death for their caricature of the Prophet Muhammad has been arrested on charges that he provided material support to the terrorist organization Al Shabab, federal officials said Wednesday. Zachary Adam Chesser, aka Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, admitted to federal agents that he attempted on two occasions to travel to Somalia to join Al...

When stories are told about African poverty, race often seems to play a large part. Based in Senegal, Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly (previously featured here for his work in DR Congo) traveled to South Africa earlier this year and visited one of a growing number of squatter camps populated mostly by Afrikaners - white South Africans - to document their stories and help show that, despite the fact that impoverished blacks in the region far outnumber whites, poverty is a human issue, not necessarily racial. O'Reilly: "While most white South Africans still enjoy lives of privilege and relative wealth, the...

"This is Gregg Hall, founder of True Reporting On Gulf Oil Spill - Please pass this page on to everyone you know who wants the most real and true information as it happens."

Video producer was on one of six vessels involved in raid PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine video producer recalled hearing shots amid the chaos that broke out as Israeli troops raided the aid flotilla he was on that was attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Scott Hamann of South Portland arrived in Maine late Friday night, five days after the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli troops, resulting in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists. In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Hamann said troops that landed on the boat he was on fired high-powered paintball guns and threw...

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 rattled the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu early Friday, briefly triggering a tsunami watch for the region, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck just after 4 a.m. local time and was centered 300 miles (485 kilometers) northwest of the capital, Port Vila, at a depth of 22 miles (36 kilometers). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning for Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, but canceled the alert about an hour later. The center's duty geophysicist...

South Korea deploys troops in border zone to ‘punish’ North Friday, May 28, 2010 By Iftikhar Gilani PANMUNJEOM: An eerie tension is building up on the border between South and North Koreas as the South is amassing troops to take punitive action against the communist North. The tension is also threatening future of Kaeseong, a joint industrial zone, which has often been touted as a model for Pakistan and India to build cooperative relationship along the Line of Control (LoC). The tension runs high after a North Korean submarine torpedoed a 1,200-tonne South Korean ship, killing over 50 sailors. It...

All 169 people on board were feared killed when a passenger plane overshot the runway in southern India and crashed early Saturday, an official said.

I would also remind any Conservative that America is in the hole it is today because we have forgotten so much of our history. We are right to demand that our representatives remember the founding documents, we are right to demand these documents be taught in school. Again, how is studying the Confederacy any less important? Is not the essential question right now, on so many issues, NOT States rights? And what was the fight from 1861-65 over again? Yes, States rights.

The veiled threats against the Comedy Central show's creators should be taken very seriously. 'South Park" is hilarious, right? Not any more. Last week, Zachary Adam Chesser—a 20-year-old Muslim convert who now goes by the name Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee—posted a warning on the Web site RevolutionMuslim.com following the 200th episode of the show on Comedy Central. The episode, which trotted out many celebrities the show has previously satirized, also "featured" the Prophet Muhammad: He was heard once from within a U-Haul truck and a second time from inside a bear costume.

Baltimore Sun: It's not even that the terrorists have won, it's that wannabe terrorists have won. A group called Revolution Muslim, which by most accounts seems less a terrorist cell than, metaphorically speaking, a couple of guys living in their parents' basements, managed to scare Comedy Central this week into censoring South Park for mocking their religion, or rather, the ban in some quarters of depictions of the prophet Muhammed. The Anti-Defamation League, which has tracked the New York-based Revolution Muslim, says the group has no more than about a dozen members, is known mainly for spouting anti-Semitism, handing...

(CNN) -- Based on the hundreds of e-mails, Facebook comments and Tweets I've read in response to my denunciation of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's decision to honor Confederates for their involvement in the Civil War -- which was based on the desire to continue slavery -- the one consistent thing that supporters of the proclamation offer up as a defense is that these individuals were fighting for what they believed in and defending their homeland. In criticizing me for saying that celebrating the Confederates was akin to honoring Nazi soldiers for killing of Jews during the Holocaust, Rob Wagner said,...

A big anniversary is drawing extra tourists to the battlefields of Appomattox. One hundred and forty-five years ago Friday, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederacy at Appomattox, bringing the Civil War to an end. Crowds gathered to re-live the historic moment at the Appomattox National Historic Site. Actors are playing the part of townspeople to help visitors understand what the area was like in the 1860's. Friday's events have attracted visitors from across the U.S. Some drove from as far away as Oregon and California. "We had about 400 people out here on Thursday. It was nice. Don't know...