Free Republic

Islamists' Catch-22 Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. Try a little thought experiment. What would have happened in this country during the Cold War if the Soviet Union successfully neutralized anti-communists opposed to the Kremlin’s plans for world domination? Of course, Moscow strove to discredit those in America and elsewhere who opposed its totalitarian agenda – especially after Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s excesses made it fashionable to vilify patriots by accusing them of believing communists were “under every bed.” But what if the USSR and its ideological soul-mates in places like China, North Korea, Cuba, Eastern Europe and parts of Africa had been...

5. John F. Kennedy, Jr.- July 16, 1999 Jfk2 John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of the 35th president, died along with his wife Carolyn Bessette when their plane crashed into the Atlantic en route to Martha’s Vineyard. Kennedy was piloting his Pipier Saratoga II HP on a dark and hazy night when the crash occurred. It is believed that Kennedy, who had not yet been qualified for instrument flight rules conditions, was likely disoriented by the conditions.

ATLANTA - Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, has died. She was 51. King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said. Martin Luther King's daughter Yolanda Denise King, Jan. 19, 2007.

I began this column last week with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which harsh treatment was deemed warranted for congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military. It turns out to have been a paraphrase of our 16th president's attitude toward those who engage in such behavior, rather than a direct quote. I regret the error and should, instead, have used the following, verbatim excerpt from a letter President Lincoln wrote in June 1863, as Robert E. Lee's army was on the march north to the fateful battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Lincoln...

Harold Ford Jr. might be coming to a classroom near you, at least for some lucky Vanderbilt students. The Nashville university announced today the five-term former congressman has taken a position as a visiting professor of public policy. Ford will teach a seminar called "Foundations of American Political Leadership," starting next week. "Vanderbilt is a world-class university, and I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to teach at this wonderful place," Ford said in a news release. Numerous attempts to reach him this afternoon were unsuccessful. Ford, a Memphis Democrat, held the Ninth Congressional District seat in the...

Alexander's term expires soon, but the challenge is formidable NASHVILLE -- If U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. decides to run again for the Senate in 2008, he'll find a different political landscape. And it could be less hospitable, political experts say. Even so, the Memphis Democrat's loss by only 2.7 percentage points -- 49,935 votes -- to Republican Bob Corker last month would still leave him a viable candidate to take on Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., whose first term ends in two years. Ford said he hasn't made his mind up yet about what he'll do when his 10-year career...

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. -- Republican Bob Corker attended church services here Sunday morning, then rallied supporters in Morristown and Knoxville before heading to a late-night Nashville rally with Sen. John McCain or Arizona. Across East Tennessee over the weekend, Corker heard a polite earful from voters sick of the sharply negative TV ads of both campaigns and their national parties. Corker agreed, disavowing some of the ads aired against Democratic rival Harold Ford Jr. by the national Republican Party. He said in Morristown that if he wins Tuesday's U.S. Senate election, he wants to examine what Congress can do to curb...

Bob Casey has an interesting relationship with the NAACP. He’s currently a member, which is fine. But that doesn’t really exempt him from skipping out on their events, like a candidate forum. The other three statewide candidates where there. But he claimed he was too busy with Senator Barack Obama in Pittsburgh. The only trouble is that Obama was in California. The man who’s schedule is tightly held secret had something else going on. More important than trying to earn the black vote. And if you’re going to lie about where you were, why would you lie with a very...

WASHINGTON -- The director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State says the IRS should examine the use of a church today for Harold Ford Jr.'s rally with former president Bill Clinton in Memphis. "This sounds like the manipulation of a church for a clearly partisan, political purpose," Barry W. Lynn said Tuesday. Lynn is both a minister and a lawyer. His organization warned Tennessee churches in September of potential violations of the tax code involving political advocacy. "In the last seven days of a U.S. Senate campaign, I think it is positive that we are having...

People who are not familiar with Memphis and Shelby County politics might be a little put off with how we do things in this corner of the State. It may surprise some that the best place to have your campaign headquarters is at an early voting location. That way you have a place to stage your buses and be on hand for anyone who might want to vote. Deep in Ford Country Harold Ford, Sr. likes to use the Pyramid EV location located at 3rd and Beltz. It is right across the street (Beltz) from the Ford campaign center and...

Rodham Allegedly Received Fraudulent Loan as Payment for Securing Pardon Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced last week that it filed a formal request with the U.S. Department of Justice, calling for a criminal investigation into the reported activities of Hillary Clinton and her brother, Anthony D. Rodham, former President Clinton, and Vonna Jo Gregory, former owner of the carnival company, United Shows International. Recently released court documents provided new details concerning a scheme involving Anthony Rodham, who allegedly received $107,000 in fraudulent loans from United Shows International as compensation for securing a...

Even as his poll numbers were beginning to mount last month, allowing him to catch and surpass Republican Bob Corker and to cast his net wide for Democrats of all stripes, Congressman Harold Ford Jr. still reserved the right to make an exception.

Ithaca Street Re-Naming Aims To Honor Dr. King Erin Billups A group of Ithaca residents want to rename a well-known street to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but some residents say it's too much of burden. Since 2004, members of Ithaca’s Circle of Recovery, a group of young minority men, has been working with other supporters to change State Street, to Dr. King Street. They say it's a way for the city to recognize its minority population and Dr. King 's message of hope. "We need something to be proud of and especially young people, because they feel very,...

NASHVILLE— Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. called his Republican opponent Bob Corker a "wimp" on Tuesday for not agreeing to more debates. The candidates had an awkward meeting at the Nashville City Club in which Ford encouraged Corker to add a Knoxville debate to the three already scheduled. Corker responded that "we may have to talk about that," adding that he is looking forward to debating Ford in his hometown of Memphis. The other debates are scheduled for Nashville and Chattanooga, where Corker was mayor from 2001 to 2005. "We're the Volunteer State; we're not the wimp state,"...

In between daily doctor's appointments for the VOLConWife and more football games than most people could stand, more than a few people spoke with me this weekend about the U.S. Senate race. My conclusion? Harold Ford is galvanizing Republican support for Bob Corker. Two areas that each voter mentioned in regards to their newfound support for Corker were 1) Ford's poor choice to film one of his negative ads against Corker in a church and 2) Ford's money pipeline from out-of-state sources. On the former issue, I wasn't sure at first how Ford's use of a church to attack a...

NASHVILLE -- Democratic senatorial candidate Harold Ford Jr. charged Friday that opponent Bob Corker's new statewide TV ad saying that Ford voted against reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act is a "lie." The Memphis congressman's remarks followed a news conference at the Tennessee Vietnam Veterans Memorial here where he and about two dozen military veterans announced formation of a Veterans for Ford group. Ford rejected claims by Republican Corker that he has a "weak record in protecting America," including the charge in a new Corker TV ad that Ford voted against renewing the Patriot Act. The anti-terrorism law originally passed following...

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Memphis, the Democratic nominee for a U.S. Senate seat, attended the Celebration Tuesday, where he was introduced by announcer Chip Walters as "one of the reasons we're having a horse show tonight." Ford had originally been scheduled to present a class award on Friday night, and was on his way to the Celebration grounds just as a dispute between trainers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture shut down Friday night's show. "I think everybody was disappointed," Ford told the Times-Gazette just as Tuesday night's show was starting. He said he'd been aware of some...

John Ford says he's financially strapped, but the indicted former state senator is still living the high life, a lawyer argued Thursday. Ford applied for tags for a new, $80,000 Mercedes on the very day he filed court papers seeking a reduction in his court-ordered child support. Then, about four weeks ago, Ford bought a $40,000 BMW, said government child support attorney Joe Little. All the while, Little told a Juvenile Court judge, Ford has missed child support payments month after month and hidden bank and tax documents that detail his true income. "He has thumbed his nose at your...

Congressman Harold Ford Jr.'s success or failure in his bid for the U.S. Senate seat may hinge on records: his family's and his own. Ford, 36, is an East Coast-educated, African-American Democrat from a prominent and embattled political family trying to become the first black elected senator in a predominantly Republican state. He has been characterized by the Republicans as an out-of-touch, liberal "Washington insider" and by some Democrats, including some members of the Congressional Black Caucus as "too conservative." Ford and supporters said he's neither, he's just a different type of Democrat -- the type who can admire...

State Sen. Steve Cohen won Thursday’s Democratic primary in the Ninth Congressional District. With all precincts reporting, Cohen had 23,570 votes. Nikki Tinker, who conceded about 10:30 p.m., was second with 19,132. She was followed by Joe Ford Jr. with 9,329, Shelby County Commissioner Julian Bolton with 8,050 and Ed Stanton with 6,920. Mark White easily won the Republican primary, collecting 12,013 votes to Tom Guleff’s 2,927 Cohen and White will face independent candidate Jake Ford in the November general election for the seat left open by U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s bid for the U.S. Senate. Jake Ford is...

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. -- Ed Bryant called on supporters in the pro-life, home-school and other conservative groups to help turn out a large vote for him in Thursday's Republican primary, warning that GOP control of Congress is at stake. "Go out and go the extra mile for this campaign and make sure we finish in first place. We're going to win. Carry the message out there that we literally could lose control of the United States Senate if we don't win in Tennessee. "And we won't win in Tennessee -- we'll lose this race to Congressman Ford, the Democrat -- if...

MEMPHIS — The fight over Ophelia Ford's removal from the state Senate isn't over, even though a majority of senators voted for it, a federal judge said Tuesday. In granting a request from Ford to block appointment of an interim replacement by the Shelby County Commission, Judge Bernice Donald said she must decide if the Senate's decision to remove Ford was proper. "There may be no vacancy for the county to fill," Donald said. Ford won a special election to the Senate by 13 votes last year, but senators decided in April to overturn those results, citing evidence of two...

May 7--In the competitive race to fill the Senate seat of departing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R), likely Democratic nominee Harold Ford continues to trail all three potential Republican opponents. Representative Van Hilleary now leads Ford 47% to 38%. Representative Ed Bryant leads Ford 44% to 36%. And Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker leads him 43% to 39%. Those numbers are little changed from our previous Tennessee election poll. Since the beginning of the year, the gaps between Ford and the Republicans have widened. Hilleary does a bit better among conservatives than Bryant or Corker. All four candidates are viewed...

1. If the election for United States Senator was held today, whom would you support Robert Menendez, the Democrat or Tom Kean, Jr., the Republican? Tom Kean Jr. 34% Robert Menendez 32% Undecided 34%

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. told a crowd of about 150 supporters in Knoxville Tuesday that the country's long-term security depends on reducing dependency on foreign oil. On the second day of a four-day statewide bus tour to formally announce his bid for the U.S. Senate, Ford said the United States should invest in new technology, hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels. Ford, a Democrat speaking to the party faithful at the Foundry in World's Fair Park, said party affiliation means less to voters than the ability to "get things done." "Running for the senate isn't about left and right anymore,...

The infamous North Memphis precinct where ballots were cast in the names of dead voters no longer exists. The Shelby County Election Commission has dissolved Precinct 27-1, consolidating it with an adjoining precinct. And all the 27-1 poll workers are barred from working future elections. "On its face, someone committed an illegal voting act,'' said commission Chairman Greg Duckett. "Until it's resolved ... we as a body felt it was important that no one affiliated with that ward and precinct works for the organization.'' A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe is in its fourth month following reports that someone used...

NASHVILLE -- After nearly two years of campaigning, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Memphis made his candidacy for the U.S. Senate official today, filing qualifying papers at the Tennessee secretary of state's office at 11:56 a.m. The filing ends months of lingering speculation in some quarters on whether the five-term congressman would really leave his safe Democratic 9th District seat to make the uphill run for the other side of the U.S. Capitol. Still, Ford is only the second of the five major Senate candidates of both parties to file the documents to enter the race, with the qualifying...

Was the matriarch of a Memphis political dynasty a white woman who married into a black family? Or was she a black woman with a white forefather buried in her lineage, a past shared with millions of black people?And why does it matter?Vera D. Ford The race of Vera Ford, the paternal grandmother of U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., came up when Harold Jr. declared she was white while campaigning for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee. His statement, first reported in December in a USA Today profile of the congressman, surprised many longtime Memphians who knew the Ford family and...

Motley Fool A Dubious Sign of the Times Tuesday March 7, 3:17 pm ET By Tim Beyers I've long wanted to own stock in New York Times (NYSE: NYT - News) for several reasons. I love the paper. I'm a big fan of About.com. And then there's sentimental angle: I'm a New York native. But there's one big reason why I'm not buying the stock. A check of the proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday reveals that chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and CEO Janet Robinson both received hefty bonuses despite meeting less than 60%...

Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. apparently was given quite a chilly reception in his annual state-of-the-Times address..... Newspaper Guild members have already had to give up their raises for the year to rescue their embattled healthcare coverage, and 500 employees are losing their jobs. Floyd Norris, a business columnist, was said.... to be particularly intense in grilling Sulzberger on why (Pinch) would not give back his hefty million-dollar bonus this year to save jobs. "He kept ducking [the question]," ......"It was lame, lame, lame."

A member of the Ford family has joined the race for Tennessee's Ninth District congressional seat, running, of all things, as an outsider. Joe Ford Jr., son of the Shelby County commissioner, filed Friday to run as a Democrat. A Los Angeles resident who left Memphis for college, Ford is moving back to the Ninth District to "give back to the community," he said. Ford, 32, who practices entertainment and contract law, said he brings real-world experience and is not a career politician. "I think a lot of things wrong with politics in Memphis and the state of Tennessee and...

Kurita Makes a Stand in Memphis U.S. Senate candidate Kurita wants looked over, not overlooked By Oliver Staley, Memphis Commercial Appeal The quiet campaign of Rosalind Kurita for U.S. Senate came Friday to Memphis, where she repeated her message that she's very much in the race and that she, not U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., is the Democrat best poised to beat a Republican opponent in the general election. While the national media, and much of the state media, have treated Ford as the presumptive nominee, Kurita, a state senator from Clarksville, is fighting to be heard. "If I can...

As Bob Casey, Jr. continues his campaign to win the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, folks should begin to take note of his expanding partnership with left wing groups and individuals that are openly hostile to the Catholic Church's teachings on faith and morals. For instance, tomorrow night, Casey is headlining the annual Human Rights Campaign gala in Philadelphia. The Human Rights Campaign is a radical homosexual activist organization that has collected and donated $100,000 to his campaign. He has also received the endorsements and financial support from: People for the American Way ($10,000), George Soros ($4,200), Hillary...

John "Junior" Gotti, who insists he quit the mob family run by his late father, the "Dapper Don," watched jury selection start yesterday at his racketeering retrial in Manhattan. One prospective juror was quickly disqualified: a former supervisor of the FBI's organized crime squad. The most serious charge facing Gotti is the 1992 kidnapping of radio host Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group, who allegedly was targeted by "Junior" Gotti because of his on-air rants against the late John Gotti.

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Jan. 17, 2006) -- Six-year Navy veteran, Petty Officer 3rd Class Christopher D. Baird, was presented the Thomas A. Christensen Jr. Award Dec. 16, for “going above and beyond the call of duty,” according to the award citation. The Cordell, Okla., native, a corpsman with 2nd Dental Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, was selected from three contestants – one from each MLG. The Thomas A. Christensen Jr. Award is presented to a dental technician in recognition of significant contributions to the Navy and the Fleet Marine Force. Baird is one of 15 Sailors to...

Note: This article may seem pedantic, but it is aimed at those who are not “insiders” on the history of the Middle East.I keep hearing the phrase, “It’s their land,” regarding Palestinian claims to Israel. Terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad publicly assert that their aims are to reclaim every inch of Israel as part of a proposed Palestinian homeland. Unfortunately, these ownership claims are echoed by “activist” groups like the International Solidarity Movement and the Palestine Solidarity Movement, both with throngs of naïve followers on U.S. and European college campuses. The followers are too eager to take these...

Free Republic is a longtime hangout for me and sometimes things get pretty interesting. The current big story has all the complexity and treachery of a Russian novel.In October of 2004, a Freeper who goes by the handle of MD4BUSH began making posts on Free Republic urging Republicans to "play dirty" in the 2004 election. MD4BUSH represented himself as a staunch Republican. He lured another poster named NCPAC into his confidence and then posted alleged private "freep-mails" between the two. MD4BUSH baited  NCPAC into discussing sexual rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. When MD4BUSH brought the exchanges to the attention of the...

The jailed son of late mob boss John Gotti neared freedom on Monday after a judge agreed to release him on $7 million bond, less than a week after declaring a mistrial on the bulk of his racketeering case. Under bail conditions approved by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, John A. ``Junior'' Gotti would be released from a federal lockup in lower Manhattan, but remain under house arrest in his home on Long Island until a possible retrial early next year. Gotti, 41, was still in custody Monday as paperwork was finalized. His lawyers said he could be home with...

The U.S. Senate is scheduled today to decide whether to clear the way for the most odious, anti-American piece of legislation in memory: S.147, the "Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act." Incredibly, as things stand now, more than 61 Senators are expected to vote to begin a process that would ineluctably unravel the United States as a nation.

WASHINGTON - President Bush nominated conservative appellate Judge John G. Roberts Jr. for the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday night, calling him "one of the best legal minds of his generation." Bush, making one of the most significant decisions of his presidency, said in a televised address that Roberts "has the qualities Americans expect in a judge: experience, wisdom, fairness and civility." The selection of Roberts, a former law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist and an aide in the Reagan White House, won praise from Republicans and skepticism from Democrats. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said...

CUT THE CONSISTENT CONSERVATIVE COURTESY CLASS OF 1976 25TH ANNIVERSARY REPORT Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. '76's College yearbook photo. Classmates from both law school and college remember Roberts as a hard working, earnest, kind, and brilliant person. Roberts, who graduated from the College with a summa cum laude degree in History in just three years, wrote his thesis on British liberalism in the early 20th Century. One of Roberts’ mentors, William P. LaPiana ’74, a pre-law and history tutor in Leverett House when Roberts lived there, recalls Roberts as a “hard working and happy undergraduate who loved studying history.”...

With its large print and simple phrasing, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History (or PIG as it cheerfully calls itself) is a fiery polemic aimed at students besieged by the "stale and predictable platitudes of mainstream texts." It is not a comprehensive history of America, but a kind of thematic one; a lot of liberal icons and shibboleths take a beating, and rightly so in many cases. Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations was an unrealistic scheme. Franklin Roosevelt's rhetoric was filled with dangerous "anti-business zealotry." Lyndon Johnson's Great Society was a failure with terrible consequences. Much of the book,...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Believers must exercise their Christian citizenship beyond the ballot box to halt activist judges and secularist senators who are robbing Americans of their religious liberty, R. Albert Mohler Jr. told a nationwide audience April 24 during “Justice Sunday” at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky. Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was one of several speakers at the event, which was designed to mobilize Christians to action against judicial filibusters, which Democrat senators have used to block 10 of President Bush’s appellate court nominees. In most of the cases, senators objected to the nominees' pro-life views. The...

Friday November 7, 2003 Dear Yahoo!: What church is the Reverend Al Sharpton associated with?Thomas Cincinnati, Ohio Dear Thomas: Alfred Sharpton, Jr., is a minister of the Pentecostal Church with no fixed parish. The Pentecostal Church is an evangelical Protestant movement that emphasizes glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. It was founded in 1901 and has approximately 10 million members in the United States. Pentecostal sermons are noted for their fervor. Sharpton started on his path to religious piety at a young age. An active member of the church since the tender age of 4, the Brooklyn native was dubbed a...

WEBB HUMBLEIt appears that the race for DNC chairman may be winnowing down to two or three candidates, with a number of elected officials urging former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb to press his candidacy harder. Webb's supporters have let it be known that everyone from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to Govs. Bill Richardson and Mark Warner has been speaking with Webb about the DNC election, and promising their support over Howard Dean and New Democrat Simon Rosenberg. Dean is thought by some DNC insiders to have an inside track for the chairmanship, though Rosenberg has been gaining a lot of...

Breaux, 'hottest hire' in D.C., keeps pace By GERARD SHIELDS gshields@theadvocate.com Advocate Washington bureau WASHINGTON -- In joining the powerful Washington lobbying firm of Patton Boggs, newly retired U.S. Sen. John Breaux, D-La., will become the 106th former Congress member active in the lucrative lobbying field. "John Breaux is just the latest of the revolving door and that revolving door is out of control," said Craig Holman, campaign finance lobbyist for the nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog group, Public Citizen. Breaux follows his former LSU Law School roommate U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, who recently took the job of directing lobbying efforts...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Perhaps the only realistic element in the persona of Blackford Oakes, the protagonist of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s spy novels, is that he’s a Yalie. So far as I am aware, even James Bond did not manage to bed the Queen. As for the rest—startlingly handsome, a gentleman’s sense of gallantry, an eminently likeable personality, a temperament forged by a sound, Judeo-Christian outlook and old-fashioned patriotism—well, the odds of finding them in one man, much less a man whom the CIA might in fact hire, must incline to the galactically improbable. Except when set against the life of Blackie’s progenitor....

Barack Obama with Illinois Senate President Emil Jones and other leaders at a 1,500 person rally for the Senator at Liberty Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side on Tuesday, March 9th. Photo by David Katz/Obama forIllinois)   Barack Obama speaks to a crowd at Liberty Baptist Church. (David Katz/Obama forIllinois) OPINION -- "I am a Christian.… So, I have a deep faith. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people....