Free Republic

For Obama, An Unsuccessful Campaign By PETER BAKER October 2, 2009 COPENHAGEN — President Obama not only failed to bring home the gold, he could not even muster the silver or bronze. A dramatic 20-hour mission across the ocean to persuade the International Olympic Committee to give the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago proved such a miscalculation that his adopted hometown finished fourth of four candidate cities. Rarely has a president put his credibility on the line on the world stage in such a personal way and been slapped down so sharply in real time. While Chicago may have lost...

"Hear our cry, Obama." "Deliver us, Obama." Video at link.

STIFFED by their superstar brother Michael and plagued by decades of bad fiscal decisions, the once-mighty Jackson family is barely scraping by, with one brother stocking groceries, another repairing cars and others living at home with mom while hoping for sister Janet's next handout. They have fallen far from their days as sequin-studded stage stars who could rake in seven-figure paydays for a single performance. Then they were the Jackson Five, the undisputed kings of Motown, a Berry Gordy-led, bell-bottomed global phenomenon.

“Yet these Duke students weren't exactly cherubic.”“All three will probably wind up clerking for Antonin Scalia or better yet, Clarence Thomas, who has his own fabled history of ribaldry.”“The little innocents from Duke will also have plenty of great stories with which to scorch the ears of their grandchildren -- stories about the good old days in intercollegiate athletics where boys could skirt the legal limits of the law while getting a full ride, if you know what I mean.”“If this is what's going on in our schools, is the disgraceful behavior of certain members of the military at Abu...

Group Annouces Support for JeffersonWednesday June 13, 7:02 pm ET By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer Jefferson Backers Claim Justice Department Using Indicted Congressman As a Scapegoat NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Supporters of a Democratic congressman charged with bribery and money laundering harkened to their civil rights days on Wednesday as they denounced the allegations against U.S. Rep. William Jefferson. The group, including ministers and the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, alleged the 16-count corruption indictment was the work of a Republican White House and Justice Department scheming to target black Democratic leaders and shift attention from...

anti-Semitic riots in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section erupted after 7-year old Gavin Cato, a black child, was accidentally killed by an out-of-control car driven by a Hasidic Jew. Within three hours, a black mob had hunted down and killed an innocent rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum. Sharpton fanned the flames of racial hatred by publicly announcing that it was not merely a car accident that had killed Gavin Cato, but rather "the social accident of apartheid." He organized angry demonstrations and challenged local Jews -- who he derisively called "diamond merchants" -- to "pin their yarmulkes back and come over to...

Jesse Jackson Says Organization Will Pay Alleged Rape Victim's Tuition Posted: Apr 15, 2006 Updated: Jan. 7, 2007 DURHAM, N.C. — The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday that his Rainbow/Push Coalition will pay the college tuition for a black stripper who has made rape allegations against white members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team. And the offer stands even if it turns out she fabricated her story. Jackson told The Associated Press Saturday that his organization is committed to making sure the 27-year-old divorced mother of two will never again "have to stoop that low to survive." Jackson has not...

South Africa has seized its first farm - in the clearest indication yet that it is bowing to growing pressure to redistribute land to majority blacks. Black pressure groups and trade unions have been threatening to begin invading farms unless the government moved quickly to redistribute land. Among many of South Africa's 50,000-plus white commercial farmers, this first land expropriation by President Thabo Mbeki's government echoes Robert Mugabe's violent land seizures in neighbouring Zimbabwe where at least 4,000 farmers have been evicted from their land, leading to the collapse of that country's economy. But among blacks dispossessed of their land...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Zimbabwe's national security minister has told the country's last remaining white farmers that they will be jailed if they refuse to abide by a deadline that passed over the weekend for them to leave their farms, according to a newspaper report on Monday. The official Chronicle newspaper quoted the minister Didymus Mutasa as saying police would be "unleashed" to deal with white farmers who ignored the eviction notice. "Those farmers who do not comply with the orders to vacate the land will be dealt with severely," said the minister, known to be close to President Robert...

There has been some recent controversy about Barack Obama's religious background. Mr. Obama has recently issued statements through his spokesmen in the media (i.e., reporters) which express his shock at being questioned about such things. Most of his media spokesmen (i.e., reporters) have then gone on to cite his membership in Chicago's Trinity United Church Of Christ parish as proof that he is just a regular run of the mill American Christian.But a visit to the Trinity Church's website proves that it is not your everyday Christian parish: Trinity United Church of ChristAbout UsWe are a congregation which is Unashamedly...

I am safe on the plane now. On the way to Los Angeles International Airport this afternoon, I thought I was about to be murdered. In the run-up to a weeklong business trip, I called the car service I've been using for years to pick me up at my home. The driver arrived promptly at 1:30 p.m., the arranged time. The ride to the airport started out just fine. The driver began making small talk. I noticed he had a Jamaican flag on his dashboard, so I asked if he was Jamaican. He said he was, and he asked if...

Last year, more than 7 million American people -- that’s about one in every 32 adults -- were behind bars, on probation or parole. The United States has, for years, imprisoned more people than any other country in the world. Yet, we don’t have the highest literacy rate.... (snip) Inner-city schools fail half of their students, and jobs are removed from communities, replaced with guns and drugs, resulting in incarceration, if you’re lucky; death if you’re not. Nonetheless, many U.S. states have cut their education budgets to compensate for rapid growth in prison populations and prison construction. The misguided priorities...

Indianapolis -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago. In remarks to the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, Nagin said the hurricane "exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class." "And I, to this day, believe that if that would have happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different...

In an interview, Young was asked whether he was concerned that Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close. ``Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood,'' the paper quoted Young as saying. ``But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores.'' Young said he...

Not at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Of nearly 10,000 black students who graduated from Los Angeles County high schools this past June, just 1 percent will attend UCLA, according to NPR's Morning Edition. Why? For many, the culprit is Proposition 209, the 1996 anti-affirmative-action bill backed by former UC Regent Ward Connerly, which made it illegal to use race-based preferences in admissions, employment and contracting throughout the state. When Connerly's term ended in January 2005, his message was clear: Don't bring back affirmative action, according to Black Issues in Higher Education. UC may not be able to...

HAMILTON OPP officers assigned to the native standoff in Caledonia say their bosses have put their public image ahead of officer safety and law and order. Talking for the first time since the volatile land occupation began 100 days ago, the president of the Ontario Provincial Police Association said a meeting is being held tonight in Caledonia so the association can hear the concerns of officers who have been told not to wear riot gear or tactical uniforms when dealing with native protestors, are being sent out without proper back-up and are left wondering if commanding officers and the courts...

A white woman said she was in shock after a black man threw a 10-inch chunk of concrete at her sport utility vehicle in what police were labeling a hate crime. Kim McCandless, of West Islip, was driving to the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa on Monday with her two daughters, a niece and a nephew, all between 7 months and 4 years old, when the concrete struck her windshield. No one was injured. McCandless said she made eye contact with the attacker before he threw the concrete. "I was in shock," she said. "I didn't understand why. Why me, why...

The worst thing said in the case involving rape charges against Duke University students was not said by either the prosecutor or the defense attorneys, or even by any of the accusers or the accused. It was said by a student at North Carolina Central University, a black institution attended by the stripper who made rape charges against Duke lacrosse players. According to Newsweek, the young man at NCCU said that he wanted to see the Duke students prosecuted, "whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past." This is the ugly attitude...

BRITAIN’S most senior policeman Sir Ian Blair is facing a race relations dilemma after the release of figures that reveal almost half the number of people arrested in relation to car crime in London are black. Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has signed off a report by his force’s traffic unit which shows that black people account for 46% of all arrests generated by new automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras. The technology allows car registration plates to be scanned and automatically run through databases to determine whether a vehicle is stolen, uninsured or has not had its road tax paid....

BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics,... Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men. ...These were among the recent findings: ¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly...dropouts.... ¶Incarceration rates climbed in...

Reverend Jackson criticizes hurricane relief efforts, news coverage CHICAGO The Reverend Jesse Jackson is criticizing the news media and the Bush administration, saying they are hampering rescue and relief efforts in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Jackson spoke today at his Rainbow Push Coalition headquarters in Chicago. He says the Bush administration should have had a better emergency plan. Jackson also says the news media have portrayed blacks as looters and refugees, rather than citizens. Jackson returned to Chicago early today from Louisiana -- where he'd transported ten busloads of people out of New Orleans.

Tune to CSPAN now for THE RALLY!