Free Republic

Al Sharpton's newest role - full-time anchorman - is now a reality. The New York City-based black activist, preacher and former presidential candidate launched his MSNBC-TV talk show, "PoliticsNation," on Monday, August 29, six days after the network tapped him for the 6-7 P.M. (EST) weeknight slot vacated in July by Cenk Uygur. The announcement wasn't unexpected. Sharpton frequently had substituted for Uygur. And MSNBC's parent company, Comcast Corp., for years has been a generous donor to Sharpton's nonprofit group, National Action Network (NAN). The elevation of Sharpton, with a long history of demagoguery and financial chicanery, to top-tier...

Al Sharpton to Join MSNBC As a Host; He's a Perfect Fit for Network By Ken Shepherd Created 07/21/2011 - 12:11pm When MSNBC shuffled Ed Schultz up to the 10 p.m. slot they placed left-wing blogger and radio host Cenk Uygur (pronounced jenk you-gur) in the 6 p.m. Eastern time slot that Ed vacated as an interim host. But Uygur has been curiously absent from his dinnertime perch since early July, with the Rev. Al Sharpton filling in but not explaining why Uygur was out. Yesterday MSNBC announced that Uygur had officially left the network and today the New York...

Al Sharpton may have mellowed - but he still won't apologize for the Tawana Brawley debacle. A quarter-century later after he whipped up racial tensions over the incendiary case, Sharpton still stands by a story that the courts of law and public opinion long ago ruled a hoax. Pressed on CBS' "60 Minutes" to explain why he never apologized for accusations that proved false, Sharpton said, "I don't know that." "I have thought about that a million times," Sharpton said. "I just don't believe they treated that case fair." Back in 1987, 15-year-old Brawley claimed she had been abducted and...

DURHAM (WTVD) -- Police say former Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Mangum was arrested again overnight. Authorities say Mangum was arrested Saturday night and is being charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit robbery and inflicting serious injuries. Mangum is being held at the Durham County Jail with no bond. She will make her first apperance in court on Monday. Police have not released any further information on the arrest. snip

FOX has learned that the Richmond, VA campaign office of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) was shot at overnight.

My wife just told me that Eric Cantor is speaking about a gunshot through his window...sorry, that is all I know right now

A coffin was placed on a Missouri Democrat’s lawn, another in a string of incidents against lawmakers after their vote Sunday on a health care overhaul. Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) had a coffin placed “near his home,” a spokesman said Wednesday evening.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is warning that some of his Democratic colleagues are being threatened with violence when they go back to their districts — and he wants Republicans to stand up and condemn the threats. The Maryland Democrat said more than 10 House Democrats have reported incidents of threats or other forms of harassment about their support of the highly divisive health insurance overhaul vote. Hoyer emphasized that he didn’t have a specific number of threats and that was just an estimate. TheFederal Bureau of Investigation, Capitol Police and sergeant at arms briefed Democrats behind closed doors today...

At least 10 House Democrats who voted Sunday for health care overhaul have received violent threats to their lives or property, party leaders said today. Connecticut Democrat on health reform: "More action and correction" coming soon.Several members have faced death threats and harassing phone calls while others have experienced vandalism at district offices or their private homes. In one case, a gas line was cut outside the Virginia home of Rep. Tom Perriello's brother after a conservative activist posted the address online, mistakenly thinking it was the congressman's house. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating.

Updated: 4:55 p.m. U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother received a threatening letter in the mail on the same day that someone apparently severed a gas line at the home in Ivy. Two conservative Tea Party activists posted the address of the home on the Internet on Monday, mistakenly believing it was the home of the congressman. One of the activists urged others to “drop by” and “express their thanks” for Perriello’s vote in favor of health care reform. Tuesday evening, Perriello’s brother’s family smelled gas and discovered the propane line of a gas-powered grill on their screened-in porch had been...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressman who was spat on by a protestor on Capitol Hill says he is declining to press charges, but turns out the Capitol Police say they made no arrests.</p> <p>Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver was making his way through a group of angry protestors when the incident occurred. It was one of several ugly incidents in a day of protests against President Barack Obama's health care overhaul measure, which faces a House vote on Sunday.</p>

A video has surfaced this evening of the incident today involving civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and Tea Party protesters on Capitol Hill.Rep. Lewis has alleged that he was called a n***** by the protesters. Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), who was walking with Rep. Lewis, says he heard the word n***** fifteen times.Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) claims "It was a chorus" of people yelling "n*****."The video, filmed by Marooned in Marin and posted at YouTube, shows Reps. Lewis and Carson walking together, with Rep. Cleaver several yards behind as they fight their way through the Tea Party patriots...

AP source: Census worker hanged with 'fed' on body By DEVLIN BARRETT and JEFFREY McMURRAY (AP) – 59 minutes ago WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official says the word "fed" was scrawled on his chest. The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. Investigators have said little about the case. A law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official says the word "fed" was scrawled on his chest. The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. Investigators have said little about the case.

New York activist Al Sharpton is of course the latest to join the Proposition 8 parade. In a speech over the weekend, he questioned why churches that backed the ban on gay marriage aren't focusing on bigger issues such as violence and poverty. From the Southern Voice website: From the pulpit of Tabernacle Baptist Church on Sunday, Rev. Al Sharpton called out the Mormon Church and other conservative faiths for mobilizing to support Proposition 8 to ban gay marriage in California while refusing to be as involved in any other social concerns. “It amazes me when I looked at California...

A man told today how he was shot three times in a London street for wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt. Dube Egwuatu was buying a mobile telephone top-up card in an off-licence when the gunman confronted him and glared at the top, which carries an image of the Democrat US presidential candidate underneath the legend 'Believe'. The man then launched into a tirade of racist slurs, shouting 'I f***ing hate n*****s' and urging 36-year-old Mr Egwuatu to leave the shop with him.

A GERMAN teenager accused of engraving a swastika into her hip and blaming the injury on right-wing militants has gone on trial in eastern Germany. The 18-year-old, known only as Rebecca K., had last year been hailed as a local hero when she reported saving a five-year-old from being pushed and shoved by four neo-Nazi youths, risking her own safety and subsequently being attacked herself. ... "We have often had cases where individuals fake a chargeable offence, but this one is extraordinary," said Lutz Hasselmann, spokesman for the district court of Hainichen, near the eastern city of Chemnitz.

There are major new developments today in the case of a supposed beating of a student from Athens Middle School. Charges are being filed against 13 year old Melanie Bowers by Athens ISD through the Henderson County District Attorney's office for filing a false report, said AISD officials today. Bowers claimed earlier this week that she was beaten and threatened - with killing and rape, no less - by a group of students at Athens ISD last Friday, for creating a protest sign saying, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration." After Melanie's accusations, administrators reviewed school survellience videotape...

'NOOSE' PROF A PLAGIARISTM STOLE STUDENTS' WORK AT COLUMBIA February 21, 2008 -- The black Columbia University professor who last fall found a hangman's noose pinned to her office door plagiarized the work of another faculty member and two students, according to a school investigation released yesterday. The plagiarism probe was already under way last year when a 4-foot twine noose was discovered on the door of psychology and education professor Madonna Constantine's office, officials at the university's Teachers College said.

ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday weighed in on the raging debate inside the Democratic Party over former President Bill Clinton's advocacy on behalf of his wife's campaign, with two choice words for the former president: "Shut up." On ABC's "The View," Sharpton said voters are hearing "race charges, race-tinged rhetoric" in the Democratic primary campaign, and called on the former president to cease. "I think it's time for him to just be quiet," said Sharpton, who was a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. "I think it's time for him to stop. As one of the...

Glenda Brawley and Ralph King want to press New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to re-examine the November 1987 incident, which a state grand jury ultimately concluded was a hoax, the Daily News reported. "New York state owes my daughter...."

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- Twenty years after her allegations of a racially charged rape became a national flash point, Tawana Brawley's mother and stepfather want to reopen the case, a newspaper reported Sunday.</p> <p>Glenda Brawley and Ralph King want to press New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to re-examine the November 1987 incident, which a state grand jury ultimately concluded was a hoax, the Daily News reported.</p>

A student at George Washington University recently complained that swastikas were scrawled on her dormitory door. Thanks to cameras hidden by university police, they have a suspect: The student who filed the complaint. I was shocked but not surprised, just as I am shocked but not surprised when, with thousands of cars on the road, some get into accidents. Similarly with the recent upsurge in national attention to swastikas, nooses and other racial vandalism in public places, I am shocked but not surprised that at least one case of racial-ethnic vandalism turns out to be phony. The young woman's sad...

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton complained on Tuesday that the Democratic presidential candidates have been less than forceful in speaking out about recent hate crimes and the policies of President Bush's Justice Department. The New York-based reverend was in Washington with Martin Luther King III and other activists to discuss a march next week at the headquarters of the Justice Department, which they contend has taken no serious action to prosecute a spate of recent noose-hanging incidents following the Jena Six case. Sharpton said he was upset those issues weren't discussed last month at a debate among the Democratic candidates....

When OJ went on trial for murder, and the evidence was presented, no reasonable person could believe in his innocence. The contest between society and a killer was rebilled, however, into a contest between white society and a successful black man, and he was acquitted. (He was later convicted civilly, but never paid the money awarded to the Goldmans.) When the Duke students were arrested for rape, the case was presented as rich, white kids taking advantage of a poor black woman, who turned out to be a scoundrel.

Brent Bozell's culture column this week deals with Opie & Anthony's sick XM shock-jock routine about raping Condoleeza Rice (and raping Laura Bush "to death.") You may not be shocked, but Al Sharpton made no attempt to express his outrage at the XM sickos in defense of this black woman, despite how this routine is so much worse than the Don Imus "ho" comment... Rev. Al Sharpton showed up to debate May 15 on the CNN Headline News program "Showbiz Tonight." But he didn't say a single word against Opie and Anthony or one word in defense of Condi Rice....

anti-Semitic riots in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section erupted after 7-year old Gavin Cato, a black child, was accidentally killed by an out-of-control car driven by a Hasidic Jew. Within three hours, a black mob had hunted down and killed an innocent rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum. Sharpton fanned the flames of racial hatred by publicly announcing that it was not merely a car accident that had killed Gavin Cato, but rather "the social accident of apartheid." He organized angry demonstrations and challenged local Jews -- who he derisively called "diamond merchants" -- to "pin their yarmulkes back and come over to...

Said he will go down as greatest civil right leader of the "late 20th century."

HER name is Crystal Gail Man gum. She is the woman who falsely accused three Duke University students of rape. Yesterday, the attorney general of North Carolina came forward and flatly declared the three young men "innocent of these charges." That means their accuser is a liar. Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum. It is the policy of the news media not to publish the names of rape accusers on the grounds that they should not have to fear public shame for coming forward with word of a horrifying personal violation. That is a noble policy. But it needs a...

n condemning radio show host Don Imus’ use of the term “nappy headed hos” to describe African-American basketball players, Al Sharpton said, “What is any possible reason you could feel that this type of statement should be forgiven and overlooked?” Sharpton also said that Imus’ show should be terminated from CBS and MSNBC. These are indeed questions that should be asked about Sharpton himself, and the Al Sharpton Show. Al Sharpton has as much right to talk about racial and ethnic tolerance as former Klan leader David Duke. ...Perhaps someone should take Don Imus to task for what he said,...

If George Allen turned up on Good Morning America to protest an incident of alleged anti-white bigotry, what are the odds the GMA host wouldn't mention Allen's macaca moment? I'd say they'd be a Dylanesqe "Love Minus Zero." But when GMA aired a clip this morning of Al Sharpton expressing his outrage over Don Imus' recent comments about the Rutgers women basketball players, not a discouraging word was heard about Sharpton's history of racially-charged statements and actions that go far beyond the former senator's gaffe. View video hereGMA CO-HOST CHRIS CUOMO: Now leaders in the African-American community are targeting Imus...

NEW YORK - Civil rights activist Al Sharpton said Monday he is seriously considering a run for president. "I don't hear any reason not to," Sharpton, 52, said in an interview during an urban affairs conference sponsored by another civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "If we're talking about the urban agenda, can you tell me anybody else in the field who's representing that right now?" Sharpton asked. "We clearly have a reason to run, and whether we do it or not we'll see over the next couple of months." Sharpton mounted a long-shot bid for the White House...

DURHAM -- A new batch of prosecution information showed that no rape occurred during a Duke University lacrosse party in March and revealed roughly a dozen conflicting statements by the accuser -- who even once told authorities she was not sexually assaulted -- two defense lawyers contend in court documents filed Monday. Lawyers Kirk Osborn and Ernest Conner, representing indicted rape suspect Reade Seligmann, said they needed to know which of the accuser's stories District Attorney Mike Nifong intended to use "in his attempt to falsely prosecute" their client. Osborn and Conner were responding to 536 pages of documents about...

A second exotic dancer who performed at a March 13 Duke University lacrosse team party where a woman says she was raped and assaulted by three athletes made an obscene gesture at a television camera during court proceedings on Tuesday. When Kim Roberts noticed WRAL's camera in the courtroom, she made the gesture and then stuck out her tongue.

DURHAM, N.C. — A third Duke University lacrosse player indicted for his role in the alleged rape of a 27-year-old exotic dancer said Monday that he is "absolutely innocent" of all charges and that the allegations against him "are lies, fabricated...and they will be proven wrong." David Evans, a 23-year-old senior, said he and his roommates helped police search for evidence after the incident was reported. He also answered questions and gave a statement to police without a lawyer present "because I knew I had done nothing wrong." He also said he...voluntarily turned over DNA samples,...and asked to take a...

<p>Brooklyn's Democratic machine forced juvenile offenders from a charity-run criminal rehab to do grunt work on political campaigns this fall, The Post has learned.</p> <p>The young campaigners, all members of Uth-Turn, a nonprofit intervention group headed by disbarred Tawana Brawley lawyer C. Vernon Mason, worked for candidates during the 2005 primary and general election, court documents reveal.</p>

“I read in the Bible, and it’s also in the Torah, that there was some woman a couple thousand years ago who was faced with a moral challenge — a challenge you and other family members have taken up. Her name was Esther. Somebody warned Esther that ‘You’d better not go and bring your issue to the king.’ But she said people are being killed and people are dying. And they said, ‘Well, Esther, don’t say anything because you’ll suffer greatly.’ But somewhere, Esther said in her soul, ‘If I perish, let me perish. I’m going to see then king.’

CRAWFORD, Texas - The Rev. Al Sharpton joined hundreds of war protesters outside President Bush's ranch for an interfaith service Sunday, saying he felt compelled to meet Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who started the rally three weeks earlier. Sheehan had arrived in Bush's hometown on Aug. 6 and refused to leave until she could question the president about the war that has killed more than 1,870 U.S. service members, including her 24-year-old son, Casey. As her vigil drew attention, it also drew crowds, with some people joining her camp, celebrities stopping by to lend her their support, and Bush...

NEW YORK (AP) - Three black men who ventured into a historically white neighborhood early Wednesday to steal a car were chased by a man with a baseball bat, police said. One man was beaten and suffered a fractured skull. The attack happened several hours before dawn in the same section of the borough of Queens as an infamous 1986 beating of three black men whose car had broken down. In Wednesday's attack, Nicholas Minucci, 21, was being charged with first-degree assault as a hate crime, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a...

<excerpt> The Rev. Al Sharpton Jr., the flamboyant Pentecostal preacher, civil rights activist and recent Democratic presidential candidate, will be in Gainesville Saturday as the featured speaker in a get-out-the-vote program. Sharpton has accepted an invitation to speak during a candidate forum sponsored by the Alachua County Democratic Black Caucus in advance of next week's primary election. The free program will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Martin Luther King Center, 1028 NE Waldo Road. "Al brought the house down at the Democratic (National) Convention and said things we as black people want to hear,"...

It was hardly shocking that Al Sharpton was permitted to speak at the Democratic Convention. But a scandal needn't be a surprise to still be a scandal. What is stunning, however, is how his speech has been received. Already, Business Week has hailed him as "the toast of the Democratic Establishment" and the usual nattering-chattering shows are treating him like an elder statesmen of the party. One would call it a rehabilitation, except for the fact he was never habilitated in the first place. Sharpton's re-creation is all the more miraculous - and disgusting - because it came without an...

Note: this column contain language that may be offensive to some readers. Ever since self-defacing teenager Tawana Brawley smeared feces all over herself, scrawled "KKK" and "nigger" on her skin, climbed into a trash bag, and blamed it on racist cops in New York, America has been victimized by wannabe victims -- warped publicity-seekers so desperate for attention that they'll fake the hate by any means necessary. Brawley (who now calls herself Maryam Muhammad) is all grown up. But her psychologically stunted heirs continue to soak up public sympathy and squander police resources. Recent media attention has focused on...

A travesty took place in Greensboro on Feb. 6, when Sit-In Movement Inc. presented its Alston-Jones International Civil and Human Rights Award to Al Sharpton. It is joke enough that such an award is named for Skip Alston and Earl Jones, but the presentation of a purported “civil and human rights” award to Al Sharpton pushes irony to its limits. While any meaningful contributions to civil and human rights by Al Sharpton are questionable, there is considerable proof that he sought to deprive people of such rights in the Tawana Brawley rape hoax, which attracted national attention in 1987. Brawley,...

Family Victimized By Hate Crime For Second Time Thomas Family Finds 'KKK' Written On House POSTED: 4:29 PM CST January 22, 2004 UPDATED: 4:35 PM CST January 22, 2004 IRVING, Texas -- Police and community groups are looking into a hate message left at the home of North Texas family. According to resident Betty Thomas, she awoke Sunday morning to find that someone had painted "KKK" on the outside of her home. "I think it's sick that I'm going to have to pack my kids up and move out of my house," Thomas said. The incident marks the second...

NEW YORK (AP)--New York City has agreed to pay $200,000 in damages to Al Sharpton after he was stabbed nearly 13 years ago at a protest where he said police failed to protect him. The settlement, which also covers the Democratic presidential candidate's $7,447.76 hospital bill, came as jury selection was to begin Monday in his decade-old civil case against the New York Police Department. Sharpton claimed police were ``careless, negligent and reckless'' during the 1991 incident, said his lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein. Sharpton, a civil rights activist, was protesting what he considered lenient sentencing of white defendants in the 1989...

Al Sharpton, once labeled a racial polarizer, has recast himself as the soul of the Democratic Party. One rainy fall day, Sharpton paid a visit to Rolling Stone's offices to explain to us why he's running for president and how he fears the Democrats are about to blow it again. A decade ago, Sharpton was one of the most hated men in New York, accused by his critics of stoking racial fury and inciting near-riots. But since then, he has mellowed considerably, trading his track-suit-and-big-medallion look for tailored suits and flashy cuff links. In mainstreaming his appeal, Sharpton is reaching...

A Klein couple who had claimed their house was burned in a hate crime admitted staging the blaze to collect on insurance. Nicholas Gatlin, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to arson and insurance fraud and was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Steve Baldassano. His wife, Tracey Gatlin, also 31, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and received four years deferred adjudication. They also must pay $13,000 in restitution to Allstate, the company that insured the home, Baldassano added. The couple claimed their house in the 9800 block of Tassel Brook was torched...

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State Aug. 21, 2003, 10:02AM Hate crime 'victims' admit to arson scheme By DALE LEZON Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle A Klein couple who claimed their house was burned in a hate crime admitted staging the blaze to collect on insurance. Nicholas Gatlin, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to arson and insurance fraud and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Steve Baldassano. His wife, Tracey Gatlin, also 31, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and received four years deferred adjudication. They also must pay $13,000 in restitution to Allstate,...

Top Stories Photos - APDemocratic presidential hopeful Rev. Al Sharpton responds to President Bush's (news - web sites) State of the Union address during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Black voters in South Carolina should stop settling for "sharing the booth and not sharing the power," the Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday. Sharpton, in Hopkins to speak to the annual banquet of the Lower Richland branch of the NAACP, said Democrats use black voters without sharing the benefits of power. "We've been treated like a political mistress," Sharpton said. "It's 'We want to have fun with you, we want to use you, but we can't take you home, we can't marry you and give you our name.' "And that kind of situation must stop." Sharpton is one of nine...