Free Republic

CHICAGO (WLS) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the state of Illinois missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters as part of a new federal overseas voting law. Cris Cray, Director of Legislation at the Illinois State Board of Elections, says not all of Illinois' 110 jurisdictions were compliant with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE). The law requires every state to mail their absentee ballots 45 days prior to Election Day to overseas troops, government employees and other Americans who want to vote from...

The second largest city in the United States played host on Saturday to the second largest ‘One Nation Coming Together' rally. Attendance at the event was buoyed by the well publicized presence of leftist actor Danny Glover and Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Covering the event for Firedoglake , David Dayen estimated the crowd which gathered at L.A. City College at around 1,500. Parking does not seem to have been a problem. Dayen reports that the "labor-heavy crowd" included representatives from the SEIU, AFSCME, UAW and numerous other unions. Also in attendance were representatives of Organizing for America, Alliance of Californians...

Our countries Flag-on the ground, spray painted-treated like dirt. That is how these people feel about our country. Is this what Obama, the Democrats, Jerry Brown and Pelosi are defending and fighting for?

we need to fundamentally restructure our economy and re-establish popular control over the private corporations which have distorted our economy and hijacked our government. That’s a long-term job, but one we should start now.

Hobbes, Locke, and Cicero be damned. President Obama single handedly overturns Natural Law. Friday evening President Obama addressed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. At around 22:30, he incorporates part of the preamble of The Declaration of Independence, removing "Creator". "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..... endowed with certain unalienable rights, life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" After President Obama says "created equal...", there is a long pause during which he scowls and blinks several times. For once, he may actually have opted to not read something that was on the...

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express have roared right through the latest round of Republican Party primaries this week, rattling the party establishment and terrifying the Democrats. For those of you who are trained in the fastidious ways of the British ‘liberalism’ and are therefore shocked and can’t think why the American Right is gaining such strength, here’s the reason: Barack Obama. Americans are waking up to the fact that they have elected a man as president who is every inch an exotic creature. Which was rather fun at first. The problem is, America is discovering that Mr Obama...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has expressed a willingness to ban protesters from burning the Koran as the modern day equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.The Supreme Court has ruled burning the American flag in protest is protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.Breyer spoke to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America today:But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer...

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- The City of Beaverton has expanded the scope of a celebration that started out as a party for Mexico's Independence Day. The city on Friday announced they were broadening the festival to recognize National Hispanic Heritage Month for the "Year of the Bicentennial" in the Americas as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico all marking 200 years of independence over the month. It was scheduled for September 16 at 6 p.m. at Beaverton's City Park. Earlier this week, controversy erupted when radio commentator Lars Larson interviewed Beaverton City Commissioner Betty Bode to ask why the city was officially...

Our beloved president has expressed bewilderment at recent polls showing large numbers of Americans doubt his commitment to Christianity. Because we hate to see our president even a wee bit flummoxed, let's help him out. Do most Christians you know choose to decorate their Christmas tree with smiling images of Chairman Mao, who murdered at least 50 million of his countrymen, as well as signed photos of transvestite Hedda Lettuce? Well, that's the very special holiday magic the Obamas decided to hang on their tree for their first White House Christmas, courtesy of famed Barney's designer Simon Doonan. Maybe we're...

America has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks. And if that phenomenon were to become a widely held perception, the analysis said, it could damage relations with foreign allies and dampen their willingness to cooperate in "extrajudicial" activities, such as the rendition and interrogation of terrorism suspects. That is the conclusion of the three-page classified paper produced in February by the CIA's Red Cell, a think tank set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet to provide "out-of-the-box" analyses on "a...

Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor. By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN In a commentary on the shrill Republican silence in the face of the "Obama is a Muslim" nonsense, Slate’s John Dickerson wrote that "with so much traffic on the low road in American politics, you'd imagine a politician or two might take the high road simply to beat the congestion." Well, New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg continues to take the road less...

New audio has surfaced of the imam behind the controversial mosque near Ground Zero allegedly telling an audience overseas that the United States has been far more deadly than al-Qaeda. "We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non Muslims," Feisal Abdul Rauf said at a 2005 lecture sponsored by the University of South Australia. After discussing the U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Rauf went on to argue that America is to blame for its testy relationship with Islamic countries....

The fight to prevent a Mosque at Ground Zero is not an attempt to restrict freedom of religion. Photo at left from Michael Bloomberg home page.Rather, it is a fight to prevent Islamists from using our cherished freedoms against us to construct a symbol of Islamic "supremacism" in the very local where Islamists shouting "Allahu Akbar" crashed planes into the WTC murdering 3,000 Americans.  Sending my nomination of Michael Bloomberg for American "Dhimmi of the Year" award in advance to Robert Spencer.Islam is not just another religion, it also doubles as a dangerous imperialistic political ideology that seeks to "use" our laws and freedoms against us to gain...

Tweeters, bloggers and Facebook users beware: The state Fair Political Practices Commission is on to you. Online political activity has long been considered a Wild West of unregulated free speech, where everything from YouTube videos to Facebook postings can circulate without any hint of who paid for them. Today, the five-member commission is likely to take an important first step to ending that online party. It's poised to write rules that would require campaigns to follow the same guidelines governing old-world media such as TV commercials and mailers. That means requiring text on online ads that disclose the spots' funders,...

For the first time since the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan 65 years ago, today the U.S. ambassador to Japan will attend the official commemoration ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. The U.S. ambassador has always declined the annual invitation, but this year is different. President Barack Obama decided to acknowledge the event with the presence of a high-level dignitary. As State Department spokesman Philip Crowley explained, Ambassador John Roos will be there "to express respect for all the victims of World War II." Gene Tibbets—the son of Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot who...

Howard Zinn (1922 to 2010) is the left's favorite contemporary historian. As an historian he is a child of the Beardian revolution yet he has for decades been able to straddle that line between legitimate historical observer and anti-American leftist. America's intellectual society, in both the social movement and universities, have looked to him as a paragon of American virtue. He's always been held up as just the right mixture of American leftism coupled with true scholarship. But those of us on the right that have paid attention understand that he is not American in outlook and never was. Until...

The director of "Captain America: The First Avenger," the 2011 summer blockbuster that will coincide with the character's 70th anniversary, says that the screen version of the hero will be true to his roots -- up to a certain point. "We're sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers," said Joe Johnston, whose past directing credits include "Jurassic Park III" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." He's a guy that wants to serve his country but he's not a flag-waver. We're re-interpretating, sort of, what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was."

Who knew? The New Black Panthers are not only racist street thugs who carry batons to polling stations and threaten to kill crakka babies, they’re also rap artists! Verum Serum dug this hit rap CD from the music vault of the New Black Panther Party, here is Philly NBPP leader King Samir Shabazz and his group Coup Da’Ta with ”Damn Rebels.” It’s just as disgusting and obscene as you would expect. Click on Photo for the NBP rap– (Not suitable for work) Here are a few of the lyrics: "I’m a warrior trained by Khallid Muhammad I’m a terrorist trained...

For those who claim that vote fraud isn't a problem, Al Franken's election to the Senate demonstrates not only that vote fraud exists but also that it can alter elections and indeed the laws of the country. Murderers, rapists, and robbers may not be the people we want providing the crucial votes that determine what America's laws should be.

After reading this New York Post report, we hope New York's Mayor is merely confused: "Michael Bloomberg said it would be unAmerican to investigate the mosque [sic] that is planned for construction near where the World Trade Center once stood." We do not ask for an investigation without cause. The Cordoba initiative received its largest donation, $576,312, from Qatar, just prior to the purchase of the Burlington Coat Factory: [On May 17, 2010], representatives of 9/11 [Families for a Safe & Strong America] met with Sharif El-Gamal, owner and CEO of Soho Properties, the corporation that purchased the two buildings...