Free Republic

Throughout the Iraq war, one of President Bush's loudest Democratic critics has been the longest-serving member of the Senate: Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. *** Yet the octogenarian lawmaker's voice was quavering as he spoke, his regal bearing a bit unsteady. It was another indication that all is not well with Byrd, an institution within an institution, who turned 89 in November after winning a ninth Senate term. The war debate now unfolding in Congress is tailor made for Byrd, fusing his three celebrated Senate roles: Appropriations chairman (the legislation on the table is a spending bill); resident constitutional...

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said in the Senate Thursday she and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., will introduce legislation to end authority for the war in Iraq. The bill will propose Oct. 11, 2007, as the expiration date for the congressional resolution that authorized President George W. Bush to use force in Iraq. That resolution was approved Oct. 11, 2002. "The American people have called for change, the facts on the ground demand change, the Congress has passed legislation to require change," said Clinton, a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. "If the...

The Democrats have done their worst, and now George W. Bush must do his best. The Senate's 51-47 vote to require the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within a year, effectively telling al Qaeda and its terrorist allies that if they can tone down the noise for a year the Shi'ites and Sunnis can get on with killing each other in the name of Osama, Mohammed, Allah or any Muslim notability of their choosing. The moderate Muslims everyone here says he wants to help can drop dead (and many of them will). "Nothing good can come from this bill,"...

West Virginia Mountaineer players pose after winning the championship round of the National Invitation Tournament.

The E-mail records prove that MoveOn.org has, for the past two years, knowingly and willfully allowed its Action Forum to be used as a gathering place for vicious anti-Semites and other bigots.

Posted by Tim Graham on October 2, 2006 - 11:34. Late on Friday night's edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," former Bush administration aide Ron Christie, author of "Black in the White House," pressed host Chris Matthews on the suggestion that if Republican Sen. George Allen's alleged racial slurs in the 1970s are a character flaw, what about the Democrats re-electing Senator Robert Byrd, a former Klansman, this fall? Matthews protested in a lecturing tone that "everyone knows about it....It's been raised a thousand times on his record." After claiming he was not defending Byrd, he told Christie: "The guy's 90 years old. Give...

West Virginia GOP senatorial candidate John Raese slapped back at Senator Robert Byrd’s reference to Raese’s deceased father in a West Virginia public television profile which aired Thursday night. In a transcript of the program obtained by the Raese campaign Thursday afternoon, Byrd says, “(Raese’s) father was my friend. I think his father would have been … somewhat ashamed. His father would be supporting me today I feel if he were alive.” Raese fired back, saying, “It is Senator Byrd who should be ashamed for smearing my father – and my family by extension – when he knows my father...

There should be a political “glass house alert” because partisan stone-throwing on race has become a shattering game of catch. Democrats are dancing euphorically as they watch Republican Virginia Sen. George Allen’s downward spiral since referring to one of his rival’s campaign supporters as “macaca,” — an apparent European racial slur likening to monkeys those from South Africa. The focus on this has been staggering with Allen’s once robust lead now reduced to five points in front of Democratic challenger and former Reagan Navy Secretary James Webb.

Klan holds rally at GettysburgGETTYSBURG, Pa. - About 30 Ku Klux Klan members proclaimed hatred for blacks, Jews, gays and Latinos as they stood behind barricades at the Civil War battlefield where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. Gordon Young of the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan also called Saturday for the U.S. to pull its troops out of Iraq and use them to patrol the Mexican border to stop illegal immigration. The World Knights obtained a permit in July for the two-hour demonstration. The National Park Service granted it under the group's First Amendment rights to free...

IN the last few years, it has seemed that perhaps America's long-buried history of blackface is being allowed to peek out of the closet. Bob Dylan named his most recent studio album "Love and Theft," after Eric Lott's landmark 1993 study of the form; and in his curious 2003 film, "Masked and Anonymous," Dylan even got Ed Harris to "black up" for a scene. Spike Lee also explored the subject in "Bamboozled," and competing biographies of Stepin Fetchit joined "Where Dead Voices Gather," Nick Tosches' meditation on the minstrel superstar Emmett Miller, on bookshelves. "Old Dan Tucker," the opening track...

Robert Byrd intends to mark the day he becomes the longest-serving U.S. senator next week much as he has the others in the last half century -- by working. "Records are fine," said Byrd, a Democrat who has held a number of Senate leadership posts. "But what's important is what I do for the people of West Virginia. They are the ones who sent me here 48 years ago." At 88, Byrd looks frail and walks with two canes. Yet he remains one of the most respected voices in Congress and a passionate defender of the U.S. Constitution. He evolved...

Per WVAH Fox11 news, Senator Byrd's wife Erma passed away this morning after a long illness.

One of the biggest issues incoming San Antonio police chief William McManus will have to face is the number of recent officer-involved shootings here in San Antonio. Now a controversial picture in response to those shootings has San Antonio police fuming. On the cover of the San Antonio Observer is an image of a San Antonio police officer wearing a computer-generated Ku Klux Klan-style hood. The image of the officer is paired with images of hate - the hood and a handgun. The San Antonio Observer is a paper that describes itself as a voice of the minority community. The...

95-year-old former newspaperman joins political fray to oust Texas congressman ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN (AP) - At his age, Sid Smith's campaign slogan seems obvious: "At 95, who needs term limits?" That's right. The 95-year-old former newspaperman, real estate agent and current artist, who scoots around his hillside home with the help of a cane, is running for Congress in Tuesday's Democratic primary. "I'm the oldest guy in this race," said Smith, cracking that his Dec. 24 birthday makes him "one day older than Jesus." His main goal? Boot Republican freshman Michael McCaul, who won the District 10 seat two years...

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to end a filibuster and moved closer to renewal of the USA Patriot Act. Senators voted 96-3 Thursday to stop debate regarding a compromise on the Patriot Act. All three of the senators who voted to keep debate going were Democrats ... Some aspects of the act were to expire at the end of 2005 but the White House sought to make the bill permanent. Congress gave the act short extensions, the most recent of which will end March 10.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond probably spoke for most blacks and liberals last week when he said the Republican Party is equivalent to the Nazi Party. "The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side," he told an audience at Fayetteville State University. Also last week, a new "scientific study" was released showing Republicans are racist by nature. "The study found supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did," The Washington Post reported.

Hearts of darkness By: RICK REISS - For The Californian Avid readers of the classics know the works of Joseph Conrad. In 1898 Conrad penned the novella "Heart of Darkness" and coined the phrase "going native." This phrase has not lost any of its relevance in the 21st century. The disgraced and convicted former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham now stands as a modern-day icon of the dark-hearted politician who betrays his people. As a former constituent of Cunningham's, I feel betrayed by a man who swore to represent me but chose instead to serve himself. As a Navy veteran I...

A multimillionaire businessman entered the GOP race to challenge Sen. Robert C. Byrd on Wednesday, hoping to deny the 88-year-old incumbent Democrat a record ninth term. John Raese, 55, said he would campaign on a platform touting free enterprise ... a rebirth of capitalism... The National Republican Senatorial Committee heralded the filing by Raese, a former state GOP chairman who has sought office before. Though four other Republicans are running in the party primary, the GOP committee called Raese "the first financially credible opponent Byrd has faced since 1982." Raese's last major foray into election politics came nearly 18 years...

West Virginia will get a boost by the candidacy of former state GOP chair and CEO of Greer Industries, John Raese, (media, coal, steel, etc.) announces his candidacy for the US Senate against Robert C. Byrd. For those solid Conservatives out there, Raese is cut from the Reagan cloth.

Here is some more information on Congressman Bobby Rush, D-IL. From yesterday's Daily Southtown: After urging the slating committee to question Dart's record on supporting minority issues in Springfield, Rush (D-1st), of Chicago, told reporters he found Dart "repulsive." "Dart represents to me a kind of Klansman," Rush said. "One that don't wear a hood over the head but one that has a hood in the head." (Thomas Dart was slated by the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization for the office of Sheriff on Monday.) Klansman? Lovely analogy. Incidentally, I wonder what Bobby Rush thinks of his colleague on the...