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BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) ― Flying the Confederate flag has long been controversial in Southern states but now it's causing a heated debate at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minn. Three seniors who displayed the flag will not be allowed to attend their graduation ceremony Wednesday evening. "It was sitting like that in the parking lot," said Justin Thompson, as he held a Confederate flag that was hanging from a pole inside a pick-up truck bed. On Tuesday, three seniors, each with a rebel flag on the back of their pick-ups, parked at Kennedy High School. "I'm just a country type...

Over the last few months, celebrations for Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday have drawn attention to the Kentucky native's life and his legacy as president. But the 200-year anniversary of another Kentucky president's birth, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, is receiving mixed reviews. "I'll say it this way - winners write history," said Ron Bryant, a Lexington historian writing a book on Davis. "We need heroes, we need villains. Lincoln became a hero and Davis a villain." Davis was born in what is now Todd County, Ky., in 1808, one year before Lincoln. Davis served as the only president of the 11...

US says Iraqi rebel head is an inventionTina Susman in Baghdad July 20, 2007 IN MARCH, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared killed, and his purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV. On Wednesday, Omar al-Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq, was declared non-existent by US military officials, who say he is a fictional character created to give an Iraqi face to a foreign-run terrorist group. In reality, said Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner, an Iraqi actor has read statements attributed to al-Baghdadi, who has been identified since October as the leader of the group,...

Rebel against America, Chavez urges Russia By Carl Schrek in Moscow Last Updated: 1:59am BST 29/06/2007 The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, called on Russia to challenge America's superpower status yesterday as part of a growing revolution against the "tyranny" of Washington. Hugo Chavez brandishes a sabre presented to him in Moscow Arriving in Moscow for what is believed to be an arms-buying spree, the extreme Left-wing Latin American leader urged Russians to revive the thinking of the founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin. "They don't want Russia to keep rising," he said, referring to America. "But Russia has...

Rebel MPs wreck Australia's tough immigration plans By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 15/08/2006) A revolt by backbench MPs forced the Australian government to abandon a controversial immigration law yesterday. The legislation would have meant that asylum seekers were sent to a detention centre on the remote South Pacific island of Nauru while their applications were processed. Opponents said that asylum seekers, including women and children, would be kept behind razor wire for months or years in a refugee equivalent of Guantanamo Bay. John Howard, the prime minister, had to take the humiliating step of withdrawing the legislation, knowing that...

My back yard backs onto a pond with a park on the other side where for over 25 years the local July 4th fireworks have been set off. I have an annual party and the best seat in the house. This past July 4th I was with some of my guests down by the pond when a plain clothes cop hollers across the water at me and my guests that if we cross his yellow police line set up at the park entrance he would arrest us. I hollered back, just keep your barricade out of my yard, and that...

Chechen rebel leader Sadulayev killed By KAZBEK VAKHAYEV, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago The Chechen rebel leader was killed in a special police operation in his hometown on Saturday, authorities said. Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev was killed in his hometown of Argun, a city nine miles east of Grozny. The press service of the Moscow-backed Chechen prime minister confirmed Russian media reports of his death. The Interfax news agency quoted Muslim Khuchiyev, a minister in the local administration, as saying that police acted on a tip, tracked down Sadulayev and killed him when he offered resistance. Further details of the operation...

DUBAI, Dec 31 (Reuters) - A little-known Sunni rebel organisation says it has abducted nine Iranian soldiers to pressure Tehran to free imprisoned members of the group, Al Arabiya television said on Sunday. A caller speaking for the Jundollah (God's Soldiers) said the soldiers were seized near Iran's border with Pakistan, and demanded the release of 16 group members, the satellite television channel said. Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment. In July, the group said it beheaded an Iranian security agent it had abducted the previous month. Iran's remote southeastern areas on the border with Pakistan have seen...

Iraqis in former rebel stronghold now cheer American soldiers By Oliver Poole in Tal Afar (Filed: 19/12/2005) In the low-slung concrete buildings of Tal Afar, a city built on dirty sand and mud, George W Bush sees the potential for military success in Iraq. In recent weeks it has been one case study the American president has consistently cited in order to buttress the rhetoric that the insurgency, and the killing, can be ended. Tal Afar was the site of the largest military operation of 2005, when 8,000 US and Iraqi troops reclaimed it from armed groups. It has since...

{This is a follow-up to a string posted yesterday about Officer Andrew Cohen, the San Francisco policeman who has been suspended for making allegedly racist videos. There is more to this story than meets the eye, to say the least.)In other San Francisco news: For those not in the area, the San Franciso media is in a frenzy over a concocted scandal about a series of satirical videos made by a SF policeman as part of a morale-boosting program. The videos are described as being "racist," "offensive to women," "insensitive" and so on, but it's all a bunch of LLLies....

100 dead as Russia routs rebel gang By Carl Schreck in Moscow (Filed: 15/10/2005) Russian security forces claimed yesterday to have routed Islamist rebels from the southern city of Nalchik, a day after gunmen stormed government buildings and the airport in an assault in which more than 100 people died. Soldiers and police were last night searching for the remnants of the rebel force, which was said to number about 150 men drawn from the ranks of Chechen separatists and their local sympathisers. The body of a dead gunman lies in front of a police station Shots were reported as...

Uganda rebel leaders named as world's most wanted men By Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent (Filed: 08/10/2005) Five commanders of a vicious rebel army of kidnapped child soldiers led by a brutal self-proclaimed mystic are officially the world's most wanted men, according to the International Criminal Court. The court, based in The Hague, has issued its first arrest warrants for the five members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a shadowy cult responsible for a two-decade campaign of terror in northern Uganda. Joseph Kony's forces have kidnapped 20,000 children The wanted men are the LRA's elusive leader, Joseph Kony, a 44-year-old...

Manse: One Man's War by Wilton Earle During the Civil War, Manse Jolly served as a Confederate Cavalry Scout in the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee.  But it was not until the war ended, and he returned to his farm in South Carolina, that he became famous as a hero of the Confederacy…and infamous as an outlaw.         In “Manse”, author Wilton Earle has employed extensive research to bring to life a complex man, and evoke those years of turmoil called Reconstruction when the Confederate States were a defeated nation occupied by the United States Army.                   Manse...

Civil War mystery may be solved by modern technology. (PRWEB) June 28, 2005 -- One of the mysteries of American Civil War lore may have finally been solved. The famous rebel yell, long known to have an unnerving effect on Union soldiers in the American Civil War, has just been examined by the History Publishing Company. Using as its core base, the only known yell by a living Confederate soldier recorded early in the Twentieth Century, History Publishing Company, through the use of sound technology, has emulated the sound of a company of soldiers charging a Union line. “The effect...

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A black doctor has offered $50,000 to a Southern heritage group to buy the naming rights to a Vanderbilt University dormitory at the center of a legal fight over whether it should be called Confederate Memorial Hall.

To find out how much Southern blood your language shows, simply choose the words you use below, then press "Compute My Score!" at the end. The alphaDictionary will compute your score and tell you where you're coming from: are you speaking Bubbaese or are you a Yankee Doodle Dandy? http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html How do you pronounce Aunt?

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi commandos backed by U.S. troops killed 84 militants in a battle to seize a training camp north of Baghdad, one of the highest guerrilla death tolls in the country's nearly two-year-old insurgency. Baghdad's Interior Ministry said the dead included Arab and foreign fighters. Seven police commandos were also killed in the clashes on Tuesday in a deserted region 160 km (100 miles) northwest of Baghdad, where sporadic fighting continued. "Special forces in the Interior Ministry attacked a training center ... and had a fierce battle with the terrorists, killing 84 of them," Sabah Kadhim, a...

London 24.02.05 | The image of failed coupster Hugo Chavez is taking a proper battering these days. For the first time since his ascent to Venezuela's presidency some of the world's most powerful media outlets have been publishing articles that show a reality heretofore thought to be gross exaggerations or desperate ranting of a dislocated opposition. We have been denouncing the authoritarian streaks of lieutenant colonel Chavez to no avail. Things are changing though. The capture in Venezuela of Peru's official security apparatus boss Wladimiro Montesinos was taken very lightly by the international community. It was considered an isolated event....

Howard Dean, rebel firebrand turned Democratic Party head 1 hour, 19 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AFP) - Howard Dean, the outspoken medical doctor whose run for the Democratic presidential nomination last year spectacularly flared and burned out, surprised fans and foes alike by taking the leadership of the Democratic Party. As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he assumes responsibility for a party much-chagrined after ceding two presidential races and control of Congress to rival Republicans, and unsure how to define itself to voters. Branded a radical leftist by his opponents and distrusted by the party's powerful Washington old guard, Dean...

The coming economic crisis. Unemployment. Health care for the poor. The almost 1,500 dead soldiers. The almost 100,000 dead Iraqis. Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. The Christian Conservative takeover of our nation. The missing 9 billion. The missing weapons of mass destruction. The impending invasion of Iran, and Syria. The total failure to protect us on 9-11.

Sunday, January 22, 2005 Confederate Funeral For Mother of Local Southern Civil Rights Leader Anna Belle Edgerton's beliefs were as controversial in life as they were in death. Her son, H.K., a self proclaimed Southern civil rights activist and former head of the Asheville NAACP proudly carries the confederate battle flag at her funeral. He said, "I want people to understand that this is our flag, this is our Southland...even though folks don't wanna tell that story." The service was supposed to be held at Hill Street Baptist Church but waiting on the steps were the Board of Deacons who...

US Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had hoped to replace George W. Bush as president yesterday, instead sat in the cold and clapped as the Republican began a second four-year term. Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin patted Senator Kerry on the back shortly before the inauguration Senator Kerry had hoped would be his. As Mr Bush delivered his inaugural address, Senator Kerry, about 10m away on the steps of the US Capitol, joined other lawmakers and the crowd in repeated applause. Senator Kerry looked relaxed, at times wistful. He frequently smiled, able to hide any disappointment over what...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Leftist “militants” ushered in the new year in Colombia in true form: Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) murdered 17 peasants, including 6 women and 4 children, who were gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve. When I say “true form,” I mean FARC was practicing the art that the extreme left has mastered, perhaps invented: terrorism. On this New Year’s Eve, the FARC was proving it believes the “end justifies the means,” as it is the grotesque, disfigured child of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and, yes, even Hitler -- remember, he was a National Socialist (Nazi). FARC is...

For the past 25 years when Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, why did Saddam Hussein not use those weapons of mass destruction against the US or Israel, or hand them over to the Al-Qaeda terrorists or the terrorists in the west bank, even though during the past 25 years, on and off, the following were done which angered and humiliated Saddam Hussein (1) Israel destroyed Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactors in the 80s (2) Through the Iran-Contra scandal, the US supplied arms to Iran in the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s (3) In the 90s, the US ousted Saddam...

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!

9 French troops and a U.S. citizen were killed when Ivory Coast fighter planes bombed a rebel position in the north of that country. The French have hit back, destroying 5 Ivorian helicopters and 2 bombers near the capital city of Yamoussoukro. Ivorians aren’t happy with France’s reprisals. Angry mobs are rioting, looting French properties, and yelling “Everybody get your Frenchman!” and “French go home!” Well, well, well, isn’t France’s criticism of the U.S. Coalition presence in Iraq a bit like the pot calling the kettle black? Listen to the French government’s words, as reported by the BBC: President Jacques...

Remembering its shameful inaction in Rwanda a decade ago, the international community has warned of genocide in Darfur and threatened sanctions against Sudan. Unfortunately, these symbolic steps will not stop the violence in Sudan, and in fact they may exacerbate it. < snip > The international community has repeatedly exacerbated ethnic conflict through what I call the "moral hazard of humanitarian intervention." By threatening to intervene against states that use excessive force, we increase the prospects of rebellion and armed secession -- and thereby encourage them. < snip > In Bosnia 10 years ago, the head of U.N. peacekeepers complained...

Islamic fighters tighten control of rebel city Four months after the US failed to pacify Falluja, religious laws rule the stronghold of Iraq's insurgency Rory McCarthy in Baghdad Saturday September 11, 2004 The Guardian (UK) Islamic militants in Iraq are strengthening their grip on the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, four months after American commanders struck a ceasefire deal that was supposed to pacify the city and return it to government control, residents said yesterday. Militants have imposed religious law on communities, issuing edicts and executing those accused of spying and even stealing. US patrols no longer enter the city, 40...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces launched operations in three Iraqi rebel strongholds on Thursday, killing nearly two dozen insurgents in a town near the Syrian border and bombing targets in Falluja for the third straight day. Troops mounted a major offensive in Tal Afar, a suspected haven for foreign fighters about 60 miles east of the Syrian border in northern Iraq (news - web sites), and went into the tense town of Samarra north of Baghdad, as well as keeping up pressure on Falluja, west of the capital, through air strikes. The fighting in Tal Afar killed 22 insurgents and...

Air strikes target army of rebel cleric Sadr By Adrian Blomfield in Baghdad (Filed: 11/08/2004) American aircraft struck the Iraqi holy city of Najaf last night, hours after military vehicles toured its streets calling for militants to leave the city or die. As fighting raged in Shia strongholds across the south, US troops trying to recapture the centre of Najaf called in air strikes against Shia militiamen who have taken up defensive positions in the city's cemetery. An Iraqi boy brandishes an American weapon in Najaf After dusk, US warplanes flew sorties over the city, the spiritual focal point of...

Qatar Court Jails Russians Over Chechen Killing Wed Jun 30, 6:37 AM ET By Andrew Hammond DOHA (Reuters) - A court in Qatar sentenced two Russian spies on Wednesday to life imprisonment for killing a Chechen rebel leader in the Gulf state and said Moscow was behind the assassination. Judge Ibrahim al-Nisf said the two men, Anatoly Belashkov and Vassily Bogachev, acted on orders from Moscow. "The Russian leadership issued an order to assassinate the former Chechen leader (Zelimkhan) Yandarbiyev," he said. "The plan was discussed at Russian intelligence headquarters in Moscow." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied the two...

Rise of a judicial dictatorship Pat Buchanan (archive) May 16, 2004 | Print | Send When the Warren Court handed down its most famous decision, Brown vs. the Board of Education, on May 17, 1954, this writer had a ringside seat at a high school in the inner city of Washington, D.C. While the Catholic schools had been integrated since 1948 by Cardinal Patrick O'Boyle, D.C. public schools remained segregated. But when the new school year began that fall, desegregation was dramatic, swift and peaceful. Hopes for success were high. The first sign of social change one saw, hitchhiking to...

A terrorist by any other name is still a terrorist, but don't expect that objective reality to be recognized or even mentioned by many politically correct media organizations. These media outlets are supposed to be "reporting" the news, not censoring it, editorializing it, or re-inventing it. Unfortunately, rather than stick with the facts, these organizations are busy engaging in an euphemism war the likes of which would make any communist or fascist propaganda chief proud. So let's get one thing clear folks.... These people are TERRORISTS, not "rebels", "insurgents", or "militants." These organizations are TERRORIST Organizations, not "Islamic movements", "Islamic...

Haitian Uprising Brings Together People Who Once Were Enemies By Michael Norton Feb 10, 2004 Associated Press Writer PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Some helped Jean-Bertrand Aristide win the presidency. Others helped oust him in a 1991 coup. Haiti's bloody revolt has brought together people who were once mortal enemies. The rebel leader in the largest city under the militants' control, for example, was part of a gang that was attacking Aristide opponents and setting fire to their homes just a year ago. Today Wilfort Ferdinand, 27, is the rebel-appointed police chief of Gonaives, where his militia on Thursday led an...

In the gloom of this holy Christmas night, a cold sleet fell. It was not a night for man nor beast but yet here they were. Huddled upon the banks of this frigid river, 2000 men contemplated their bleak fate. The past few months had gone very, very badly. Their hopes had been crushed time and again. The noble experiment in Liberty which had begun with such promise, had by this time deteriorated to the point where every day was a battle just to survive. Defeat after defeat, at places like Long Island, Harlem Heights, Fort Washington and White Plains...

India's young brides rebel against the dowry demand By Phil Reeves in Delhi 10 October 2003 A new and unlikely front has been opened in the battle by young Indian women against illegal dowry demands, this time within a bastion of religious and cultural conservatism, Varanasi on the Ganges. The ancient holy city, where devout Hindus traditionally go to die, has become the venue of a high-profile and decidedly contemporary confrontation between a media-savvy young woman and a man whose family she accuses of illegally demanding money for her hand. In May, Nisha Sharma, a 21-year-old computer software engineer, became...

I just saw the the new Luther movie. OUTSTANDING!!!! I'm not a big fan of Hollywood in general, and historic (or mis-historic) movies in particularly, because they ALWAYS seem to fudge on historic facts, but this movie is a real exception. I've read the two best biographies of Luther (Bainton's "Here I Stand" and Oberman's "Luther: Man Between God and Devil") and this movie while a summary--to keep it movie length--is ROCK SOLID historic. At the same time its a moving compelling story....that keeps your interest. A buddy who saw it with me thought the film was only 1 1/2...

STRONGHURST, Ill. -- A Saturday football game between the Longwood campus of the Chicago International Charter School and Stronghurst Southern in Henderson County was forfeited because of a dispute over a Confederate flag.Longwood is an almost all African-American school on Chicago's South Side. The school had arranged to play a road game against Stronghurst Southern as a form of cultural exchange.The game was forfeited, however, because of Stronghurst Southern's ritual of carrying a Confederate flag onto the field after each touchdown by one of its players.Stronghurst Southern's nickname is the Rebels, and the school's mascot is dressed as a Confederate...

JOHNSTON, S.C. - Strom Thurmond High School will keep its Rebel nickname, but the Edgefield County School Board has voted to get rid of the mascot that looks like an old Southern aristocrat. Tuesday night's vote on the compromise left both sides of the argument saying they weren't satisfied. The school board initially voted 4-3 in June to get rid of the Rebel name and mascot. But a petition drive, phone calls and the threat of a lawsuit made the board decide to reconsider the matter. Tuesday's compromise passed 6-1 and will go into effect next school year. The decision...

Remembering a Rebel Oliver Harwood Fought Hard for a Space Station of a Different Design By Lee Dye Special to ABCNEWS.com July 30 — Ollie is dead, ending the long, tumultuous career of a space pioneer of extraordinary skill and courage, although you may never have heard his name. Oliver Harwood first came into my life in the mid-1980s, when I was a science writer for the Los Angeles Times, and he was a senior engineer for the aerospace giant, Rockwell International. He died recently of a heart attack, the only way anyone could have ended Ollie's desperate battle to...

Rebel Philippine troops end mutiny Rebel leaders agreed to give up after hours of negotiations Renegade Philippine troops have agreed to end their mutiny in Manila and return to barracks, the government says. President Gloria Arroyo went on television to announce that "the crisis in Makati is over - 296 soldiers, including 70 officers, are standing down and returning to barracks". The rebel soldiers had stormed a prestigious shopping complex in Manila early on Sunday, demanding the resignation of Mrs Arroyo, whom they accused of corruption. The breakthrough came after several hours of negotiations between the rebels and senior government...

<p>SACRAMENTO - As the slightly wacky anti-tax warrior of California politics, Ted Costa has played the bad boy of Sacramento politics for two decades, relatively unknown and swiping from the sidelines of power as he tried to thwart tax-and-spend politicians.</p> <p>Today, Costa has come in from the fringe.</p>

LAS VEGAS — A tax protester may not sell his book that contends paying income tax is voluntary, a federal judge ruled June 16. U.S. District Judge Lloyd D. George wrote in an order banning the book that Irwin Schiff is not protected by the First Amendment because he has encouraged people not to pay taxes. "There is no protection ... for speech or advocacy that is directed toward producing imminent lawless action," George wrote in support of the preliminary injunction on the book, The Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes. The Internal Revenue Service...

Today, public schools across North America are often faced with rebellious, unruly students. This phenomenon reflects a mismanagement of the school's code of discipline. There is no standard interpretation of discipline within our public education system. Many schools see discipline as something harsh, punitive and old-fashioned. They want school to be a friendly place that is fun and exciting for the students, without rules to stifle individuality. Paradoxically, school can be fun and exciting for students only when they are learning something worthwhile, and when they feel confident because they know their place and are familiar with the rules of...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Afghan rebel commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said he is proud the United States has branded him a terrorist and echoed Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s call for suicide attacks against Americans, according to a statement obtained Sunday by The Associated Press. Calling the United States the "big Satan of the world," Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister, also vowed jihad against U.S. troops in Afghanistan (news - web sites). American forces are combing parts of eastern Afghanistan for Hekmatyar, his loyalists and Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives. "I am thankful to Almighty God that the United States...

For some Georgians, the adoption of a new state flag two years ago to replace the 1956 standard generated feelings of betrayal. Some say it was outsiders trying to impose their will on the state, and in the process dishonor the men and women who fought and gave their lives in defense of their homes. As the designer of the new Georgia flag, I can say forthrightly that nothing could be further from the truth. No one in or out of government asked me to design the flag, no one paid me and I donated the copyright to the state....

<p>MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) --Ask most schoolchildren and they will tell you that Robert E. Lee was a military genius while Ulysses S. Grant was a butcher who simply used the North's advantage in men and material to bludgeon the Confederates into submission.</p>

<p>GULFPORT — Harrison County supervisors won voter support Tuesday for their decision to fly the Rebel flag on a beach display. NAACP leaders were mum on whether a boycott would be called.</p> <p>Harrison County voters approved a nonbinding referendum 58 percent to 42 percent to keep the Rebel flag as part of a display on the Gulfport-Biloxi border.</p>

BILOXI, Miss. - Thousands of soldiers died charging behind the Confederate Battle flag during the bloodiest fighting in American history.Nearly 140 years after the Civil War, the Rebel flag flies at the center of a new war being waged on the Coast and throughout the South.Rhetoric about heritage and hatred has replaced bullets and grapeshot. There's no bloodshed in the current fight, just bitterness.For many, the Rebel flag symbolizes Southern heritage and valor. For many others, it represents slavery, racism and lynchings.Groups on both sides of the debate appear ready to fight relentlessly for their causes.Last year, pro-Rebel flag forces...