Free Republic

Just hours after reports that embattled Democratic Dolton, Illinois Mayor Tiffany Henyard was under investigation by the FBI, multiple local businesses were said to be raided by local police. On Tuesday, FOX 32 reported that six individuals have spoken to the FBI about Henyard’s conduct, including business owners, a former village employee and one or more public officials. One complained of difficulties renewing his business license, claiming to suffer from harassment, a raid on his business and being shut down by Dolton police. The U-Haul rental and trucking business owner believed it was retaliation after he refused to donate to...

A Minneapolis City Council candidate held a June fundraiser featuring the scion of a Somali political family whose patriarch was known as a ruthless warlord whose clan-based militias intercepted food shipments and attacked U.N. peacekeepers. The late Mohamed Farrah Aidid was a key player in a 1990 coup, after which Somalia’s government collapsed in 1992 amid famine. His son, Hussein Farrah Aidid, spoke at a fundraiser for Nasri Warsame, a DFL candidate running against Council Member Aisha Chughtai. Warsame’s law-and-order campaign was hampered by a fracas that broke out during the Ward 10 DFL endorsing convention after Warsame supporters took...

ATHENS — The considerable fanfare surrounding a fresh round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine at Istanbul yesterday risks fizzling fast — and if you are among the thousands still trapped in the besieged Ukrainian city (at least for the moment) of Mariupol, it probably already has. That is because the real power broker in this mess, Vladimir Putin, has shot down an incipient humanitarian aid mission to the city that forces under his command have largely destroyed. The idea for said mission started with a Greek proposal, to which France glommed on and Turkey too, but Mr. Putin...

11 years ago today, a cartoonist in Seattle posted this cartoon:Draw Mohammad Day went viral! Two would be assassins even tried to mass murder a Draw Mohammad event. They found out the hard way what happens when you mess with Texas. My favorite Draw Mohammad drawing is the chalk outline of where those two guys got greased.

Solomon Samuel Simone (aka RAZ from CHAZ or CHOP) is the proclaimed warlord of CHAZ, the multi-block area located in Seattle. Raz hates America but owns multiple guns, luxury automobiles, millions in real estate.More importantly, Raz is supported by the Islamic government in Dubai.The leader of CHAZ, Warlord Raz Simone was previously identified running guns in the newly formed country in the center of Seattle. Today we have more on RAZ thanks to the work of Yaacov Apelbaum.Raz the warlord, doesn’t only run guns, he owns guns. Raz owns a couple of handguns, which were somehow ‘restored’ through a special...

Raz Simone, the self-appointed ‘warlord’ of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), blames a hacker for “old” tweets, after users found decade-old homophobic posts – similar to what once happened to MSNBC host Joy Reid. Simone, a rap musician and activist, has risen to prominence as a leading figure in the CHAZ experiment, and his newfound status has brought with it new scrutiny of his record. This week, some right-wing outlets delved deep into his digital footprint and allegedly dug up some unsavory tweets from 2010 in which a homophobic slur was used. The screenshots of the now-deleted tweets have...

a cancel notice may soon be coming for Raz Simone, the “warlord” of the radical Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, Washington as old homophobic tweets from his Twitter account have surfaced that appear to be legit based on various web archive websites (language warning)

When last we left CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle—which wants you to know that it is not the U.S.A.—its residents had suffered a major setback. Homeless people CHAZ invited over for dinner swiped all their food. CHAZ is a secessionist urban micro-state with no farms or ranches (they’re vegan anyway) so it cannot feed itself. It’s also firmly against the police. One of its demands to Seattle’s mayor is to defund the police or resign. Power abhors a vacuum. Into the vacuum created by the absence of law enforcement in CHAZ has stepped a warlord.

A prominent Obama administration trade advisor is one of the central players in a series of scandals and ethical rows that have reportedly placed him in cahoots with corrupt Congolese warlords and other questionable figures. Kase Lawal, an oil mogul with longstanding ties to the Clinton family, was appointed in 2010 as a member of Obama’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Since his selection to the trade board, Lawal has become enmeshed in a pact to purchase large quantities of illegal gold from a violent Congolese warlord, according to a U.N. investigation and various reports. The crooked gold...

The election of a Sudanese warlord accused of genocide to the United Nations Human Rights Council is now virtually guaranteed, since he has the full backing of the world body's African delegation. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Omar Al-Bashir -- its first ever for a sitting head of state -- for crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in Darfur. Yet, his regime is set to take its place on the panel, in the latest bizarre appointment to make a mockery of the UN's human rights credibility, according to critics. It's like putting “Jack the Ripper in...

Regardless of what Obama thinks or says, Muslims consider him a Muslim. In the Muslim world, one is automatically a Muslim if the father is a Muslim, and Obama's birth father was descended from Kenyans who adopted Islam from Arab invaders in Africa. No matter what religion Obama claims publicly, he is still considered a Muslim in the Muslim world. Even if his father was not an active practitioner, Obama's Islamic inheritance and his public endorsement of Islam make him a useful Muslim. He can proclaim to be a Christian, and even attend a church, and still be considered a...

In describing Islam, many political commentators use words like radical, political, extremist or militant as qualifying adjectives or they use the words Islamism or Islamo-fascism in order to specify their cirticism of the political side of Islam and to carefully exhibit no hostility toward Islam as a religion. This approach caters to the prevailing political orthodoxy by implying that there is an overwhelming majority of Muslims devoted to the good religious Islam with only a small subset of extremists fighting for the bad political Islam, which Muslims themselves don’t necessarily endorse. We call this the “two Islams formula.” Politicians love...

KABUL – President Hamid Karzai chose a powerful warlord accused of rights abuses as one of his vice presidential running mates on Monday, hours before leaving for meetings in Washington with President Barack Obama and Pakistan's president. The selection of Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a top commander in the militant group Jamiat-e-Islami during Afghanistan's 1990s civil war, drew immediate criticism from human rights groups.

China's Economy 'No Miracle' 2008-12-30 Far from steering China through 30 years of economic reform toward an economic miracle, a former top official says the Communist Party has greatly damaged the country's economic development, drawing parallels with what the warlords were able to achieve in 1927. In the fourth part of a series commemorating 30 years of economic reforms in China, Bao Tong, former aide to ousted late premier Zhao Ziyang, says there is no need to thank the Communist Party for China's economic miracle: Part 4. An Early Death, Prosperity, and Hymn-Singing The whole point of the reforms was...

Extremist militias could be defeated within three years, Canadian says KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Afghanistan's insurgency can be defeated within two or three years, a top Canadian commander said yesterday, offering a more hopeful view of the situation than other suggestions that Canadian troops would keep fighting for two decades. Colonel Steve Bowes, commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, said the extremist militias that plague rural Afghanistan could be eliminated much faster than previously estimated if international donors help the country recover from years of war. "It could take two years, best-case scenario," Col. Bowes said. As he spoke,...

MOSCOW - The killing of top Chechen rebel Aslan Maskhadov leaves the insurgency largely in the hands of Shamil Basayev, the most brutal of the warlords — a development that could undermine any chance of peace even as the slain leader's son disputes who his father's successor will be. On Wednesday, there was uncertainty over what the death might mean, with Russia facing the fundamental question of how much an insurgency depends on its leaders. Russia hopes the Chechen insurgency might be hobbled, with a series of militant leaders systematically eliminated over the years. The Chechens might suffer diplomatically too,...

The death of Shamil Basaev has highlighted acute challenges in financial footage of the Chechen resistance. There is no definite answer to the question of the utmost importance. Who’s going to run the financial route to fighting Chechnya? Via this route the money gathered by brothers in faith from worldwide has been supplied to Chechnya so far. The task of finding a suitable candidate able to step into the vacant position of the main resistance financier is rather a challenging one due to some suspicions. They are linked to habitual theft of the money on its way to the ordinary...

In the wake of the Democrats’ unexpectedly widespread, far-reaching loss in the recent election, many strategists and operatives in their party have come to the conclusion that what the Democrats need to do in order to regain power is to stress their recognition and appreciation of the role that “moral values” play in American society today. A story has surfaced that suggests Democrats dine more frequently at Applebees restaurant, so they can experience the casual, down-to-earth atmosphere of “real” America, where values-driven Americans spend their time. At a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Democratic warlord James Carville went...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A renegade Afghan warlord has been arrested and brought to the capital by the central government, just weeks after his troops clashed with militiamen loyal to a powerful regional governor, officials said. Amanullah, a Pashtun warlord who goes by only one name, was brought to Kabul on Friday from the western city of Herat, said Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai. Ludin said Amanullah agreed to the transfer, but officials speaking on condition of anonymity said he had little choice and was essentially being kept under arrest. "He does not have the freedom to go...

Two Universes - “Tyranny,” and “Freedom.” “Why did the Founders not treat freemen, slaves, women, Indians and non-Christians as equal to Christians?” I hope the following [fantasized] answer is reasonable enough to answer the question, or at least suggest one. ============================== Some believe parallel and overlapping universes exist in the same space. Sometimes they are separate while in other times they mingle, overlap or bump. We live in our three-dimensional universe, while others creatures live in universes with more or less than three dimensions. Because all we know are our three dimensions, imagining what a six dimensional universe looks like,...