Free Republic

Names and flags have been removed from statehouses and street signs across the US, but at the stone-etched Georgia monument, no one is able to claim victory Exactly a century ago this holiday weekend, more than a dozen men climbed to the top of a mountain outside Atlanta, pulled on white hoods and lit a 16ft, kerosene-soaked wooden cross. It marked the rebirth of Ku Klux Klan, and Stone Mountain became the Klan’s spiritual home.

After factoring in family reunifications, the actual number of migrants could exceed 10 million, and some believe that Germany's Muslim population is on track to nearly quadruple to an astonishing 20 million by 2020. N24 television news reports that up to 50% of the asylum seekers arriving in Germany have gone into hiding and their whereabouts are unknown by German authorities. "It cannot be that offenders continue to fill the police files, hurt us physically... and there are no consequences. ... We are losing control of the streets." — Tania Kambouri, a German police officer. "We are not excluding anyone,...

Kirsten Gillibrand is a bagman. She was handpicked by the Hillary Clinton/Chuck Schumer-corrupt-NY-Democrat-machine back in 2008 when then President-elect Barack Obama nominated Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, leaving her senatorial seat empty. In some dirty back-door deal, this nobody was made Senator. They wanted a vassal, a beck and call girl. That’s Gillibrand. You see, here in deep blue New York, we hold ceremonial elections that mean nothing. The Democrat machine runs this state like its own private fiefdom, a la Tammany Hall. No one had ever heard of Gillibrand. Seven years later, we still haven’t heard of her....

BERLIN - German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the founder of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement for slander after he compared the justice minister to Hitler's head of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. At a rally in Dresden on Monday, which German media said drew about 8,000 people, Lutz Bachmann said Social Democrat (SPD) minister Heiko Maas was the "worst spiritual fire raiser" since Goebbels and Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler. Von Schnitzler was a television commentator in Communist East Germany who strongly criticised Western governments and media. The comment is the latest in a series of provocative remarks made at the regular rallies...

As Obamacare enters its third year of implementation, CBS News points out what we've been highlighting for months -- the 'Affordable' Care Act continues to be a promise-breaking misnomer for millions of consumers:

Civil War historian Dr. Brian Steel Wills will present a thought-provoking lecture entitled “Flying in the Face of History, The Confederate Flag Controversy” Nov. 5 at 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Kingsport Center for Higher Education. The Civil War conflict was arguably the most important and influential event in the history of the United States. The bitter harvest of the ordeal lingers regarding the banner that is generally referred to as the Confederate flag – one of many different flags used by the Southern armies during the Civil War. The use of the flag and its changing meanings...

Attorneys for an Albemarle County-based civil liberties advocacy group are challenging the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles’ order to revoke specialty commemorative license plates bearing the Confederate battle flag. The Rutherford Institute’s legal counsel filed a petition Wednesday in Brunswick County Circuit Court asking for a review and reversal of the divisive ruling to recall the plates issued to 1,600 members of the state’s division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Gov. Terry McAuliffe called for the change earlier this year when the flag fell into controversy following a racially motivated shooting in June at a South Carolina church, calling...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The University of Louisville apologized to the school's entire Hispanic community Thursday after a photo surfaced showing President James Ramsey among a group of staffers at a Halloween party dressed in matching stereotypical Mexican costumes. They wore bushy mustaches and sombreros, and rattled maracas as they posed for the photo. Ramsey's chief of staff, Kathleen Smith, issued a statement expressing "deep regret" over the incident. "We made a mistake and are very sorry," she wrote, adding that the university pledges to train staff and engage with the campus over diversity and racial equality issues. "This event shows...

Among the things that make America great are grilled cheese, free speech and Beyoncé. But another quality that many often take for granted is the rich mix of cultures that make up this unique country. Immigration has been a highly debated topic in the media and politics. And though some candidates have candidly expressed strong opinions for and against it, there’s no doubt that immigration has profoundly impacted American culture for centuries. The Melting Pot is a place where you can find a Vietnamese supermarket around the corner from a Ukranian diner; a Mexican quinceañera party next to an Indian...

Latino activists in Sioux City are gathering signatures to protest Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s upcoming appearance at a local school. Trump is scheduled to rally supporters at Sioux City West High School Tuesday evening after school hours. A former student at West, Francisco Valadez, launched the petition drive. He calls Trump a “bully” for his attitudes against immigrants and says he doesn’t belong in Iowa schools. But the Sioux City Schools Superintendent Paul Gausman says the district followed school board policy in agreeing to rent West High to the Trump campaign.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, the German national captain, is taking legal action against a Hong Kong-based company for making Nazi figurines that bear a clear resemblance to him. A member of Schweinsteiger’s management team confirmed the legal action to SID, the sports subsidiary of AFP on Thursday, after a report in the Bild newspaper. The company did produced a Nazi-uniform-clad figurine with a face similar to Schweinsteiger’s and which is named “Bastian”. Contacted by Bild, a company employee Patrick Chan denied selling any figurines based on a footballer, and said it was purely coincidental that the Nazi doll resembled Schweinsteiger.

BRUNSWICK, Maine — Bowdoin College will no longer bestow the Jefferson Davis Award, after the college’s board of trustees voted to approve President Clayton Rose’s proposal to end the practice. The annual cash award to a student of government and legal studies who excels in constitutional law was named for the Confederate president. It was established in 1972 with an endowed gift from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, according to a news release from the college. In 1858, Davis received an honorary degree from Bowdoin College.

A viral photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is making its way across social media, quoting the real estate mogul as saying that if he runs for president one day, he’ll run as a Republican presidential candidate because Republican voters “are dumb.” Yet, the meme has been proven false. Snopes reports that the alleged quote supposedly happened during a 1998 interview between Trump and People magazine. The meme, created anonymously, quotes Trump as saying the following.

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — State officials have confirmed that a monument to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. will be built “above and beyond” the monument that celebrate the heroes of the Confederacy on the gigantic rock at Stone Mountain Park. According the Associated Press and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed off on the project. Park officials said that an elevated tower — featuring a replica of the Liberty Bell — would celebrate the single line in the civil rights martyr’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech that makes reference to the 825-foot-tall hunk of granite: “Let...

The first Latino to be the sheriff of a major city recently announced her re-election campaign with a bit of a twist: Her office would no longer by complying with a federal law that requires law enforcement agencies to hold arrested undocumented immigrants beyond the dates they’re to be released.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Civil-rights leader Myrlie Evers-Williams, Mississippi-born rapper David Banner and a prominent South Carolina lawmaker are calling on Mississippi to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its state flag. About 400 people took part in a change-the-flag rally Sunday outside the Mississippi Capitol. No alternative design was proposed, but rally leaders said the flag is racially divisive. Three men holding large flags with various Confederate emblems watched the rally from a distance across the Capitol lawn. The emblem — a blue X with 13 white stars, over a red field — has been on Mississippi's flag since...

Native American woman leads chant of 'Down, Down USA' during speech at the Million Man March after proclaiming that Muammar 'Gaddafi is still alive' and calling for Obama to pardon a convicted murderer An unidentified Native American woman tried to lead the massive crowd in a 'down, down USA' chant at the Million Man March during her speech She also called for Obama to pardon Native American activist Leonard Peltier who was convicted of killing two FBI officers in 1975 Thousands gathered at the National Mall to celebrate the anniversary of the Million Man March and to call for changes...

The controversy over the Confederate flag is hitting close to home for a Pueblo couple. Police are investigating, after someone burned a flag hanging outside their home, and damaged their property. Police say the Rebel flag hanging in their front yard was burned and the markings KKK were painted on their mailbox and home. Eddie Adkins says he's not a racist, but now he fears for his family's safety. "I'm scared to go to sleep 'cause what if it's my house that gets burned. Pueblo's getting pretty bad," he said.

Spanish singer criticises anti-immigrant comments by US presidential hopeful, and apologises to clowns for comparison The Spanish singer Julio Iglesias has said he will no longer perform in casinos belonging to Donald Trump because of anti-immigrant comments by the US presidential hopeful. “I have sung many times in his casinos, but I won’t do it again. He seems to be an asshole,” Iglesias told the Barcelona-based daily newspaper La Vanguardia. “He thinks he can fix the world forgetting what immigrants have done for his country. He is a clown! And my apologies to clowns.” In June, Trump said in a...

Finland Busts Key Refugee Myth: They Are Mostly Male and Not From Syria The vast majority of refugees arriving in Finland are in fact male adults and not women or children, according to the country’s Ministry of the Interior. The head of Finland's Immigration Services asylum unit, Esko Repo, and communications chief Hanna Kautto told the Finnish news outlet Yle that out of the 19,632 refugees that have arrived in Finland this year, over 15 thousand are adult males. The number of female migrants totals 2,816 and there are also about 2,000 children travelling with adults as well as roughly...