Free Republic

With confidence and zeal, Ephren Taylor riveted audiences at mostly black churches with a list of his impressive accomplishments and an uncanny business sense. He had the blessing of top clergy as he gave financial seminars from the pulpit on Sundays, promising rock-solid investments — only many of the churchgoers said they haven't seen a dime.

Brown was thought to be in for a tough reelection race, in part, because his party was decimated in the state last cycle. Democrats lost five House seats, the governor's mansion and failed to pick up the open Senate seat in Ohio last November. But a new survey by Public Policy Polling showed Brown with a comfortable lead over his potential challengers. Former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell trails Brown by 51-33, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor (R) loses to the Democrat, 50-31 and former State Sen. Kevin Coughlin (R) trails by a similar deficit. State Treasurer Josh Mandel (R) and...

Twitter BReaking news - RIP Elizabeth Taylor. Several news organizations confirming.

At the Conference of Bishops Academy on January 6, 2011, Dr. Walter Taylor was asked to give a presentation on the concerns of those "troubled by the use of the Bible in Churchwide 2009 documents and decisions." He presented 11 points outlining "what did not happen" at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. (Pr. Tony Metz listed these on his blog, "The Bible Is God's Word - Lutheran Style." I contacted Dr. Taylor to be sure these were accurate, and they are.) His 11 points: 1. What did not happen: adequate use of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. 2. What did...

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

Thanks to JamesTHarris for putting this clip up on Youtube. Sit back and enjoy a Fleebagger Meltdown even though it is painful to listen to...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 — Seven years ago this month, President Bill Clinton's economic advisers told him Mexico was hours away from economic default and perhaps chaos on the streets. Mr. Clinton ordered an unpopular multibillion-dollar bailout, over the objections of Congress, but with the support of a prominent Republican governor, George W. Bush of Texas. When Argentina barreled toward a similar default in recent weeks, it was Mr. Bush who had to make the bailout call — and his decision was to let Argentina suffer the consequences of its own economic mismanagement. His aides argue that the circumstances were somewhat ...

A Democratic candidate from Mississippi has said he voted for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, in the most extreme example of the current midterm campaign of a ostensible ally of Barack Obama distancing themselves from the president. Congressman Gene Taylor represents a district which voted heavily for Mr McCain in 2008. As a conservative Democrat, he has however been re-elected easily 11 times. But after winning Mississippi’s 4th district by a massive 49 percentage points in 2008, his seat is now in danger from Republican challenger Steven Palazzo, who has consistently attacked the incumbent for voting with...

Conservative Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.) said over the weekend that voted against his own party when he went to the ballot box to vote for president in 2008. Taylor told the Sun Herald of South Mississippi that he chose Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president over then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)

A Democratic lawmaker signed onto a Republican petition to repeal healthcare reform. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) signed onto a discharge petition drafted by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), Taylor's office confirmed. His office would not offer any additional comment. Taylor is the first Democrat to sign onto the petition, a reflection of the tough electoral climate facing Democrats this fall, especially over healthcare reform. “Adding Rep. Taylor to the discharge petition is a significant step towards repealing Obamacare,” said King. “Rep. Taylor is the first Democrat to sign the discharge petition, and it is my hope that his decision will...

A shortage of spaces in long-term care facilities for veterans will mean an unlikely reunion at an Ottawa hospital room this weekend for a group of Canadians and Americans whose lives intertwined 30 years ago during the Iran hostage crisis. John Sheardown, who was the Canadian Embassy’s chief immigration officer in Iran during the hostage crisis, is hobbled by an injured hip, suffering from dementia and unable to get a bed in a long-term care facility for veterans. So when his former colleagues gather to mark the 30th year since they took six U.S. officials into their homes and helped...

The dictionary defines a troubadour as ”one who composes or sings verses or ballads.” History has been littered with them. Some better than others. But to dismiss James Taylor or Carole King as merely troubadours would be like saying a Ferrari is merely a car… a Lear Jet is merely an airplane. Few recording artists have sold more records. Even fewer songwriters have had a greater impact on the lives of the boomer generation. (Click to see details about the amazing reunion concert and how it turned into the hottest tour of the year).

WANTED:Facts and info on Palin poop snooper Joe McGinniss. Please, do not threaten. Just The Facts, Ma'am.If you have seen this man in the residential area of Sarah Palin's neighborhood in Wasilla, Alaska, please, report if he is found to be peeking or peeping into Piper's bedroom from a house that resembles this. Ultra Palin-Hater, and author with peccable ethics, Joe McGinnis is attempting to outdo some of his previous sleeze journalism after moving next door and inhabiting a house 15 feet from Sarah Palin's household of children and grandchildren. Evidently, he was lured by a Palin hatin' neighbor....

NEW YORK (AP)—A woman has come forward as a defense witness in the sexual assault case against Lawrence Taylor, saying the 16-year-old girl who accused the NFL legend of rape never had sex with him, according to a statement from the woman confirmed Friday by Taylor’s attorney. The 23-year-old woman said in a sworn statement that she accompanied an alleged pimp and the 16-year-old girl to a hotel outside New York City where Taylor was staying. She said the teenager returned to the car with $300 in cash and said: “It was weird … we didn’t even have sex.” “He’s...

Scott Rigell, running as the favorite of the GOP establishment in the Republican primary in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, donated $1,000 to Barack Obama, according to opensecrets.com, a research group that tracks money in politics. “Rigell was one of the highest Obama donors in the zip code,” Scott Taylor told HUMAN EVENTS. Taylor, a former Navy SEAL and local business owner, is also running in the Republican primary. Taylor, whose campaign slogan is “Send a SEAL not a RINO,” said, Rigell "didn’t even vote in the Republican primary, and then gave $1,000 to Barack Obama on March 10,” 2008. “In...

Former Giants great Lawrence Taylor was arrested today for allegedly raping a woman at a Rockland County hotel, authorities said.

Scott Taylor was a Navy SEAL, he bravely served his nation in the jungles of South America and in the deserts of Iraq. Scott was wounded during a combat mission in Iraq in 2005 and Medivac’d out to safety. Scott Taylor knows first hand what it means to fight and bleed for one’s nation.

One of the first houses built in Taylor is for sale for just $1, but there's a catch. Taylor officials will sell the house for one dollar, but the person buying the home, located at 21528 Northline Road between Pardee and Allen roads, must move it by the end of May. The two-story home was built in 1926. The city wants to use the property to expand Heritage Park. Taylor purchased the foreclosed home under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which allows the city to acquire foreclosed-upon homes and either remodel/repair and sell the dwellings or demolish them. Patrick Depa, Taylor’s...

I first have to admit to the fact that I am a total and complete pop culture drop-out; I have never seen an episode of "Sponge Bob", I didn't know what "I'd hit it." meant for the longest time and I really hadn't a clue about who Paris Hilton was, nor what she had done to become so incredibly famous. A word to the wise, DO NOT google Paris Hilton and if you do, make sure the kids are out of the room. Anyway, my daughter, who is 8 years old, came home from a playdate signing Taylor Swift songs....

NFL Hall of Famer busted for leaving scene of car accidentNFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor was busted last night in Miami after he left the scene of an accident, according to police. The 50-year-old former NY Giant great was charged with "leaving the scene of accident/property damage" by the Florida Highway Patrol just before 10 p.m. According to the FHP, officers responded to a report of a hit and run on the Palmetto Expressway at 103rd St. just after 6:30 p.m. The officers searched the next exit and found Taylor driving a white car that matched the description of...

AS EVERYONE scrambles to predict a possible future outlook for war-ravaged Afghanistan, the negative variables continue to mount. The Taliban have boldly stepped up their attacks in the power vacuum created by the failed August elections and the countrywide apathy in anticipation of the upcoming Nov. 7 presidential run-off vote. October was by far the deadliest month of the war with 50 Allied soldiers killed, including yet another Canadian. The daring assault against the United States guest house in the fortified centre of Kabul last Tuesday — coincidental with an equally brash attack against the posh foreigners-only Serena Hotel —...

In this epsiode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program I interview Mike Yost, candidate for U.S. House of Reptesentatives. We play some of the lecture of Bob Basso as Thomas Paine at Kansas State University. We also talk to Kristinn Taylor, co-founder of the Wasington D.C. branch of the FreeRepublic on the resignation of green czar Van jones. We invite you to listen and comment.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor will not be attending Michael Jackson’s memorial at Staples Center on Tuesday. The legendary actress posted the news today on her Twitter page, confirming that she had been “asked to speak at Staples Center” but she could not “be part of the public whoopla.” “I said I wouldn’t go to the Staples Center and I certainly don’t want to become part of it. I love him too much,” Taylor continued. “I just don’t believe that Michael would want me to share my grief with millions of others. How I feel is between us. Not a public event....

The trouble with many of the past ratings of America's presidents is that the "consensus" has been arrived at by academics who act alike, do alike, and think alike. In the view of many, they are suspect of viewing history exclusively through the prism of Ivy League faculty lounge discourse. Alvin Stephen Felzenberg (Ph.D.) — who has taken a fresh and comprehensive look at the nation's chief executives in his book The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game — does not challenge the credentials of the conventional historians. Rather, as he explains in...

Dem blasts Obama's budgetPosted: 06:29 PM ET February 26, 2009 From CNN Congressional Producer Deirdre Walsh (CNN) – Mississippi Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor blasted the budget outline President Obama submitted to Capitol Hill today, saying “I don’t like it…change is not running up even bigger deficits that George Bush did.” “That’s what George Bush did very well. Apparently that’s what President Obama is doing.” Taylor, a conservative “blue dog” who voted against the stimulus bill, noted he was still reviewing the plan but was troubled by the additional amount of spending for many government programs on top of the recent...

More on this later, but wanted to get the name of the 7 dems who voted "no" on the embarrassing porkulus bill in the House. D's No! Bright (AL) Griffith (AL) Peterson (MN) Shuler (NC) DeFazio (OR) Minnick (ID) Taylor (MS) Present: Lipinski (IL) Flood the phones to Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins' offices!!!!

D's No! Bright (AL) Griffith (AL) Peterson (MN) Shuler (NC) DeFazio (OR) Minnick (ID) Taylor (MS) Present: Lipinski

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/January/09-crm-021.html Roy Belfast Jr., A/K/A Chuckie Taylor, Sentenced on Torture Charges WASHINGTON – Roy M. Belfast Jr. was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga today to 97 years in prison for crimes related to the torture of people in Liberia between April 1999 and July 2003, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta for the Southern District of Florida. Belfast, a/k/a Chuckie Taylor, Charles Taylor Jr., Charles Taylor II and Charles McArther Emmanuel, was convicted on October 30, 2008, by...

In an interview with the Taylor Daily Press, State Sen. Steve Ogden revealed a possible new course for the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead of building superhighways across the state, Ogden said, the state may opt to augment the Texas Trunk System, a web of rural highways that includes U.S. 79. The plan would expand those highways to four-lane divided highways, while expanding urban infrastructure with toll roads. “We need to limit that concept to existing highways,” Ogden said of the proposed network of superhighways and tiered rail systems. “I passed a bill last session that did that, but [Gov. Rick...

Taylor used to be a player in Williamson County, with it and Georgetown vying for funds and the attention of passers-through. But no more, and despite what many city officials will tell you, it will not be a player unless something is done to counteract the rapid growth of surrounding communities. What needs to be done is, Taylor needs to forget its past and embrace something residents see as so vile, that when I first arrived here I thought its mere mention was a dirty word. I am speaking of Rick Perry’s Trans-Texas Corridor. The Texas Department of Transportation (another...

Taylor-area residents Dan and Margaret Byfield hope to become the Trans-Texas Corridor’s worst nightmare. The married couple head up two land rights organizations, the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range, that aim to keep rural communities from having land encroached upon by state and federal agencies through eminent domain. Both organizations operate across the U.S., in Wyoming, California, Colorado, South Dakota and Nebraska, but their current main goal is to challenge TxDOT in hopes of completely eliminating proposals for the quarter-mile wide superhighway. Currently they offer advice to residents of small towns and rural communities on how to...

After Miami handyman Glenn Rudge was accused of shoplifting an $8 set of drill bits at Home Depot, he thought he'd settled the matter when he showed his receipt to prosecutors and they dropped the charge.But a few weeks later, a law firm hired by Home Depot began sending him letters demanding first $3,000, then a total of $6,000, implying he'd be sued if he didn't pay it. In an escalating battle against theft, retailers are going after anyone suspected of shoplifting, turning over their names to lawyers and collection firms, who pursue the suspects for stiff penalties and split...

KINSHASA, Congo -- A U.N.-backed body assigned to curb the sale of conflict diamonds suspended the Republic of Congo from the legitimate diamond trade on accusations the African nation sent millions of dollars in smuggled gems onto the world market. The suspension followed a May 31-June 4 mission to Republic of Congo that found the country was dealing in millions of carats of smuggled diamonds from other African countries. The West African country was sending the gems through the lesser diamond centers of Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates to avoid rigorous controls at the world's diamond hub, Antwerp, Belgium,...

Miami-Dade detectives have detained at least three people in Lee County for questioning in the death of Washington Redskins football star Sean Taylor. Investigators believe the young men learned of Taylor's house through someone who unwittingly set up the burglary by bragging about the football star's wealth. The suspects include a teenager and two men in their 20s who hail from the Fort Myers area.

MIAMI - Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor has died, says family friend Richard Sharpstein. The 24-year-old player was shot in the upper leg, damaging an artery and causing significant blood loss. Family members were concerned that he could have permanent brain damage. Miami-Dade Police were investigating the attack, which came just eight days after an intruder was reported at Taylor's home. Officers were dispatched about 1:45 a.m. Monday after Taylor's girlfriend called 911. Taylor was airlifted to the hospital. Sharpstein said Taylor's girlfriend told him the couple was awakened by loud noises, and Taylor grabbed a machete he keeps in...

The self-described “Land of Many Uses” will likely have several fewer in the coming years as the U.S. Forest Service explores closing 10 amenities in northern Colorado. The Forest Services employs the “Many Uses” slogan because national forests are home to logging, grazing, mining and recreational pursuits, but the point remains that the agency is the steward of public lands along much of the Front Range. The list for closure includes five sites in Larimer and Boulder counties, including the Tom Bennett Campground on the north flanks of the Mummy Range, picnic areas along the North Fork of the Big...

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MIDDLEWEIGHT KINGS GO SLUMMING? by William Dettloff For those inclined to believe that a good big man will beat a good little man every time, the announcement that the middleweight champion is facing a welter or junior middleweight champ moving up is never good news. It means to him that the middleweight is slumming a bit, taking on a man whom he knows he will beat. Alas, many fans feel this way and groan instantly at the news. Unkind words will follow for the middleweight, who, the thinking goes, is most assuredly sinking to new, modern lows...

Hollywood may be debating who to support in the 2008 presidential election, but Dame Elizabeth Taylor already has her woman -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. In a statement on Thursday, the actress said, "I have contributed to Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign because she has a mind of her own and a very strong one at that. I like the way she thinks. She is very savvy and a smart leader with years of experience in government, diplomacy and politics." A spokesman for the 74-year-old actress said she had contributed $2,100 to the New York Democratic senator, the legal limit an...

Beloved TV star Andy Griffith is reportedly fighting for his life after breaking his hip in a fall. The 80-year-old actor had hip surgery on September 5 and has been in hospital in Los Angeles ever since, where he's being monitored for heart problems, according to reports that have not been confirmed by his publicist. Griffith is a high-risk patient because he has suffered from heart problems and underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2000. A source tells the Globe, "He's in a lot of pain right now, but he's just trying to tough it out so he can get...

Even legal experts who agreed with a federal judge’s conclusion on Thursday that a National Security Agency surveillance program is unlawful were distancing themselves from the decision’s reasoning and rhetoric yesterday. They said the opinion overlooked important precedents, failed to engage the government’s major arguments, used circular reasoning, substituted passion for analysis and did not even offer the best reasons for its own conclusions. Discomfort with the quality of the decision is almost universal, said Howard J. Bashman, a Pennsylvania lawyer whose Web log provides comprehensive and nonpartisan reports on legal developments. “It does appear,” Mr. Bashman said, “that folks...

August 27, 2006 -- If there were any doubt that a federal judge's decision earlier this month declaring the Bush administration's warrantless-surveillance program unconstitutional was blatantly political, consider this: Judicial Watch reports that the judge, Anna Diggs Taylor, is an officer and trustee of a group that funds the American Civil Liberties Union's Michigan branch - which was a plaintiff in the case. Indeed, the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan's board of trustees, which includes Judge Taylor, makes all funding decisions for the group - and has given the local ACLU at least $125,000 since 1999. Legal-ethics experts disagree on...

Taylor Conflicted? The judge who ruled against the government and ruled the NSA terrorist surveillance program unconstitutional may have had an undisclosed conflict of interest. Anna Diggs Taylor also serves as a trustee and officer to an organization that donated $45,000 to the Michigan chapter of the ACLU -- which happened to be one of the plaintiffs in the case (via Hot Air): Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and judicial abuse, announced today that Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who last week ruled the government’s warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional, serves as a Secretary and...

TO end her opinion in American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency — the case that enjoins President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program — Judge Anna Diggs Taylor quoted Earl Warren (referring to him as “Justice Warren,” not “Chief Justice Warren,” as if she wanted to spotlight her carelessness): “It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of ... those liberties ... which makes the defense of the nation worthwhile.”

A judge’s first-year failing-grade opinion. The Honorable Anna Diggs-Taylor probably means well. The lone judge in American history to order a president to halt in wartime a foreign-intelligence-collection program that has undoubtedly saved lives probably sympathizes with the journalists, and others, who are suing to stop the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) in which NSA intercepts foreign-U.S. terrorist communications. She probably feels in her heart the program is wrong, and undoubtedly hears the footsteps of the federal judicial panel moving towards taking this case away from her and consolidating it with others. We can sympathize with her motives, and even share...

WASHINGTON – In a scathing rebuke, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and should be shut down, but legal scholars said federal authorities have a good chance of reversing the decision on appeal. "There are no hereditary kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution," U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of Detroit said in a 43-page opinion blasting the program. Judge Taylor said the program, which President Bush secretly approved after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, violated the rights of free speech and privacy and went...

In our current era of polarized politics, it was probably inevitable that some judge somewhere would strike down the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretaps as unconstitutional. The temptations to be hailed as Civil Libertarian of the Year are just too great. So we suppose a kind of congratulations are due to federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who won her 10 minutes of fame yesterday for declaring that President Bush had taken upon himself "the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself." Oh, and by the way,...

Judge Anna Diggs Taylor takes a rather peculiar view of the First Amendment. (Her view of the Fourth Amenmendment is more easily explicable, though comprehensively wrong, as will be shown in another column). She seems to think that the First Amendment not only guarantees freedom of speech, but immunises people against any consequences of what they say. If people fear that the government might be listening in on their telephone conversations it will make them afraid to speak their mind. Even this problem she addresses the wrong way round, by seeking to suspend the constitutional powers of the President, rather...

Judiciary: Detroit Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has agreed to the American Civil Liberties Union's demands to shut down the National Security Agency's wiretapping program. Terrorists everywhere are cheering. The 73-year-old Judge Taylor, appointed by Jimmy Carter in 1979, has a long history as a radical. In 1964, she helped set up a Mississippi office of the National Lawyers Guild, which Congress in 1950 called the "legal bulwark of the Communist Party." What happened Thursday was nothing less than a judicial disarmament of the U.S. — stripping away some of our most valuable weapons in the global war on terror.

MEL Gibson once had close links to the Australian League of Rights, a Far Right group notorious for its anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews. The Hollywood star's foray into Far Right activist politics in Australia occurred in 1987 when he campaigned for a friend, Rob Taylor, who stood unsuccessfully for the northern Victorian federal seat of Indi. Charles Pinwill, a former Queensland state director of the League of Rights, said he knew Gibson's father, Hutton, and said Gibson was interested in the league's ideas. "They were...

WASHINGTON, DC, MONDAY, JULY 3, 2006--The D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com and the online watchdog Accuracy in Media (www.AIM.org) held a press conference and demonstration Monday at the Washington, D.C., bureau of the New York Times to protest the newspaper's publishing of stories exposing national security intelligence programs. The two conservative groups called for the prosecution of New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Executive Editor Bill Keller and reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau for "giving aid and comfort to al-Qaida." The initial group of 14 FReepers, led by FreeRepublic's National Spokesman Kristinn Taylor, soon swelled to 29 protesters. They...