Free Republic

‘YOU CAN’T JUDGE A MAN THIS WAY’: That’s what Obama supporter Ruby Hale says she tells people at church in tiny Rowe, Va. “I am convinced he is a Christian.” WHITEWOOD, VA. -- The isolated towns of Virginia's Appalachian coal region are home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines that date back generations. Yet voters here who eagerly pushed Democrats into the Senate and the governor's office are resisting Barack Obama. Some Americans say Obama's race and uncommon background make them uncomfortable -- here those people include Democratic precinct chairmen and get-out-the-vote workers. Many Americans receive e-mails falsely...

The candidate of change, the shining proponent of a "new way" in national politics, says that you aren't allowed to bring a sign to his rally. So much for the right of free political speech. To add insult to injury, this rally was held at the publicly funded University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. So, now the government is lending the weight of its authority to squelch free speech. So, where is the hew and cry about this unAmerican activity? Did the media even note this heavy-handed policy? But, it is all true nonetheless. The rally was held and...

ABC’s Sunlen Miller, Matt Jaffe, and John Berman Report: The rain pouring down, his jacket off, his white dress-shirt clinging to his body, Barack Obama played to a crowd in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1964. Obama and his running mate Delaware Sen. Joe Biden took the stage at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., before a crowd of 10,000 to 20,000 people who had been waiting hours in the mud to see them. The weather in northern Virginia has been awful the last couple of days. And not long after Joe Biden’s introduction, just...

Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks during a campaign rally in the rain at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, September 27, 2008. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Reader Ron e-mails that the Obama campaign has issued a decree banning all signs at a rally today at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. It is a public campus on public property.The local newspaper, the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star is up in arms: NOT ALL COUNTRIES guarantee their citizens the right to virtually unbridled freedom of speech. The United States does. Would someone please tell the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama? And the dozing guardians of liberty at the University of Mary Washington?Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, is scheduled to speak at a rally at the...

The University of Mary Washington is scheduled to hold a rally with both Obama and Joe Biden at their historic Fredericksburg, Virginia campus on Saturday, September 27, at 5:15 PM. The university's bookstore is selling 1,000 Obama / Biden t-shirts at their bookstore starting today (Friday). T-shirts have the university's logo on the front and has the words " Obama was there, Biden was there, I was there, UMW 08 " on the back. Cost: $9.99. Profits from the t-shirts go to the university's bookstore. The idea for the campaign slogan t-shirt came from the university's bookstore manager, Kathy Underwood,...

Some great rope line video from Joe Biden's recent Ohio swing, where he was asked by an anti-pollution campaigner about clean coal -- a controversial approach in Democratic circles for which Obama has voiced support, particularly during the Kentucky primary. Biden's apparent answer: He supports clean coal for China, but not for the United States. "No coal plants here in America," he said. "Build them, if they're going to build them, over there. Make them clean." "We’re not supporting clean coal," he said of himself and Obama who do, on paper, support clean coal.

CASTLEWOOD, Va. – In his first visit to Southwest Virginia, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, speaking at the United Mine Workers’ annual fish fry here on Saturday, was quick to tout his ties to coal. “I hope you won’t hold it against me, but I am a hard-coal miner, anthracite coal, Scranton, Pa.,” Biden said. “It’s nice to be back in coal country. … It’s a different accent [in Southwest Virginia] … but it’s the same deal. We were taught that our faith and our family was the only really important thing, and our faith and our family informed...

CASTLEWOOD, Va. — Delaware Sen. Joe Biden joined Va. Gov. Tim Kaine and Rep. Rick Boucher as guests of union coal miners at the 13th annual fish fry at the Russell County Fairgrounds on Saturday.

Sen. Barack Obama better not mess with his running mate Joe Biden's guns...or else. In an out-of-nowhere attempt to re-assure a southwestern Virginia labor crowd about gun owners' rights, Biden -- who regularly scores "F" ratings from the National Rifle Association -- warned Obama that if "he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem."

Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware sent a stern message to his boss, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois to keep his hands off Biden's guns.As reported by ABC News and Fox News this afternoon, Biden was trying to reassure rural Virginia voters that they have nothing to fear about losing their Second Amendment rights under an Obama administration.From ABC:"I guarantee you Barack Obama ain't taking my shotguns, so don't buy that malarkey," Biden said Saturday at the United Mine Workers of America's annual fish fry in Castlewood, Virginia. "Don't buy that malarkey. They're going...

CASTLEWOOD — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, will attend Saturday’s annual fish fry staged on behalf of union coal miners and their families in Castlewood, according to longtime United Mine Workers of America spokesman Sam Church. Biden’s visit could not be immediately confirmed by the Obama-Biden campaign media outlet because Biden’s schedule as of midafternoon Thursday was only posted through Friday.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is getting the endorsement of two unions, the United Steelworkers and the United Mine Workers of America, on Labor Day. Edwards is scheduled to be in Pittsburgh, home of the Steelworkers' international headquarters, for a Monday rally and will accept the endorsements there. "The members of the Steelworkers Union and the Mine Workers union are some of the country's hardest-working, bravest, most courageous workers," Edwards said. "It is their tireless hard work which has helped build a stronger America that benefits all of us. I honor what they do every day." The former senator from...

COAL RUN, Ky. - Sidney Coal Co. President Charlie Bearse was expressing an opinion that many in these mountains secretly share. Problem was, he put that opinion in writing. "It is common knowledge that the work ethic of the Eastern Kentucky worker has declined from where it once was," Bearse wrote to the state mining board. Bad attitudes and drug abuse, he argued, were affecting attendance, "and, ultimately, productivity." Bearse's appeal to the board: Relax an English-only policy in the mines so he could bring in Hispanic workers. U.S. companies are constantly complaining they need migrant workers to do the...

The following message was sent to me, at my request, by Joan Wasserott of the Charlottesville District, a member of the recent Virginia Conference team (led by Rev. Wes Astin, Dean of Chapel and Religious Life, Ferrum College) that visited Israel and Palestine as part of a mission event sponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries. I wanted all of you to have a firsthand report on what they experienced, and I am grateful to Joan for sharing her personal impressions with us. Betty Whitehurst President, Virginia Conference United Methodist Women 1761 Princess Anne Road Virginia Beach, VA 23456...

After the blast of hot air roared over him, Denver Anderson groped blindly through suffocating clouds of smoke to make his way out of the Sago Mine in West Virginia. Twelve of his co-workers died two miles down the shaft in the Jan. 2 explosion. Another, Randal McCloy Jr., is slowly recovering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Now, all Anderson wants to do is get back in. But he's worried the United Mine Workers of America will get in his way. Once the nation's largest and most powerful labor union -- a political and social juggernaut capable of swaying presidents and...

LONDON, W.Va. - United Mine Workers of America president Cecil Roberts and nine others were arrested Thursday during a protest of a federal bankruptcy ruling that will cause thousands of coal workers to lose their medical coverage. Traffic was backed up about a half mile in each direction on U.S. 60 as protesters sat down on the highway. More than 100 others rallied outside Massey Energy's Mammoth operation, said Kanawha County Sheriff's Lt. Bryan Stover. Those arrested were arraigned on misdemeanor pedestrian violations and released on their own recognizance, Stover said. "What we're trying to do is keep this issue...

Sen. Obama The Swing Vote On Environmental Bill VIDEO: Mike Flannery reports. Feb 14, 2005 5:53 pm US/Central CHICAGO (CBS 2) It may be the toughest vote yet for Senator Barack Obama. He is the swing vote on the Bush Administration's Clear Skies Act. The power generating industry claims it would reduce pollution, but environmentalists call that "clear lies.” What was coming out of smokestacks at the coal-fired Crawford power generating plant Monday afternoon contained significantly less pollution than what was pouring out just a few years ago. All sides to the current debate agree on that. What they disagree...

Wheeling, W.Va. --- In the nation's coalfield's Saturday afternoon, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry touted his support for a $2-billion dollar clean-coal technology plan as a part of the nation's energy independence from Middle East oil while at the same time noting his support for hunter gun owner rights to an estimated 15,000-plus audience. Kerry said he would be a president who "believes in science," and will pour $2 billion directly into developing clean coal technology as a part of his strategy for energy independence. "I want a nation that depends on its own ingenuity, not the Saudi royal...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)--The Bush administration has extended a program that provides prescription drug benefits to 50,000 retired coal miners and miners' widows through Medicare. President Bush signed an administrative order Thursday keeping the pilot program going beyond its scheduled June 30 expiration until December 2005, United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said. Under the plan, the Department of Health and Human Services will increase its Medicare reimbursement to the miners' health care fund by $190 million, said Dr. Larry Fields of the federal agency. The additional funding also boosts the government's share of the beneficiaries' drug costs from 34 percent...