Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - With a newly robust endowment burning holes in its not-for-profit pockets, National Public Radio is in the midst of a major expansion. But NPR's ambition has stirred anxiety within the public radio system over how to preserve the character and financial viability of local stations in the ever larger shadow of the national production service they created more than 30 years ago as a modest support operation. NPR, a member organization governed in part by local stations, is pumping $15 million into its news division over the next three years, using interest from a recent bequest...

LOS ANGELES (Talon News) -- After being recently named the subject of several complaints of racism and discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Los Angeles-based chapter of the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood now faces another formal complaint with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Justice Department. The group is being charged with actively campaigning for and supporting Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry. Lively & Ackerman law firm filed their complaint with the Department of Justice on August 25, 2004 alleging several electioneering violations by Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles, California. Since the group is a tax-exempt...

PHILADELPHIA -- Last week, Sen. John Kerry was interviewed on MTV's Choose or Lose, during which he was asked predictably useless questions, such as, "Are you cool?" and "What musical and cultural movements interest you?" It was, nevertheless, interesting that his answer to the former was as muddled as the Massachusetts senator's view on a host of other things. And it was comically surreal to hear a Beacon Hill Yalie deem hip hop respectable poetry -- Kerry sailed with the Kennedys, who quoted Aeschylus, and he admires 50 Cent? There is, however, no comedy in the way young people are...

<p>Federal election officials proposed new rules Thursday that could sharply curb the activities of private political groups intent on influencing this year's presidential election.</p> <p>Although the action by the Federal Election Commission is not final, it drew objections from non-profit groups allied with Democrats who fear that continuing legal uncertainty will dampen their fundraising.</p>

Rock The Vote, a movement begun by the late Patrick Lippert, will honor The Dixie Chicks for "their enduring commitment to preserving and protecting freedom of expression" this February 7th in Hollywood. Following the controversy that surrounded them last March, the Dixie Chicks partnered with Rock the Vote in July 2003 and launched Chicks Rock, Chicks Vote, an initiative to engage and empower young women to become active in the political process by voting. Sheryl Crow will join N*E*R*D and the Black Eyed Peas as performers at the show, which will be held at the world famous Hollywood Palladium. Rock...

View Current Signatures   -   Sign the Petition To:  The Internal Revenue Service of the United States. Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have been making over 10 million dollars per year in donations over the last 5 years. On their website, it is shown that your donation will go to help the animals, but it has been discovered otherwise. Peta has been granted a tax-exempt status on all donations they receive. To be eligible for 501(c) (3) tax exemption, a group must be organized and operate exclusively for charitable purposes. Its activities cannot be illegal,...

Even before the Sept. 11 attacks and the crackdown that followed, American Muslim leaders generally had come to believe they had made a mistake. In 2000, they made their first unified endorsement in a presidential race, backing George W. Bush. Many thought he would take a harder line against Israel, and, based on statements he made while campaigning, would protect the rights of immigrants facing deportation. Muslims say they were disappointed on both counts. Now, feeling the additional sting of being scrutinized in the domestic hunt for terrorists, they are mobilizing to express their anger at the polls in 2004....

In June, Pacifica Radio's Los Angeles station, KPFK-FM, hosted a thirty-hour marathon of Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn's anti-Semitic "Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekend."  It was the first time this once-annual program appeared for almost a decade. It had been banned by station management in 1993, after a long, hard-fought pressure campaign to remove it.  Afrikan Mental Liberation Weekend typically includes claims that the Jews disproportionately participated in the slave trade and persecuted blacks; in the past, he responded to criticism by calling the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League a "psychotic, idiotic, European Jew."   He has regularly played tapes by Nation of...