Free Republic

See how many support prez eligibility bill now. U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, has become the sixth co-sponsor of a proposal by Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., that would require documentation of eligibility from presidential candidates. She has joined Reps. John Campbell, R-Calif.; John R. Carter, R-Texas; John Culberson, R-Texas; Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; and Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, in support Posey's H.R. 1503 plan. The bill's provisions are simple: "To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee's statement...

Bulgarian motorsport officials will meet Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone next week as they aim to try to secure a grand prix from 2011. The Bulgarian Motorcycling Federation's (BMF) grand prix organising committee chief Rumen Petkov has been invited by Ecclestone to the German Grand Prix. The BMF have two projects for a circuit and want Ecclestone's opinion, with the town of Pleven being a likely venue. Bulgaria has already signed a deal to host MotoGP motorbike racing from 2012. The country is also on the provisional schedule for the 2010 World Rally Championship. "We submitted a plan a few...

A Tale of Three Communities: Jerusalem, Elephantine, and Lehi-NephiBefore the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians in 586 BC, inhabitants of Judah, or the Jews, as they came to be known, centered their religious life around the priestly activities of the Jerusalem temple. Their temple-centered religion changed, however, with the invasion and takeover by the Babylonian Empire. In advance of the looming crisis, many prophets exhorted the citizens of Judah to repent and be preserved from possible destruction. Jere-miah (see Jeremiah 7:1—15; 11:1—17) and Lehi (see 1 Nephi 1:4, 13) were among them. Both Lehi and...

For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them. (Psalm 44: 3)

NEW DELHI, India - Three people have been killed in religious rioting in southern India between Muslims and Hindus, police said Friday. Widespread violence broke out in Mysore Thursday after somebody threw a dead pig into the compound of an under-construction mosque, city police commissioner Sunil Agarwal told CNN. More than a dozen people were injured in the clashes, he said.

It is well known that John Adams had imagined that July second would be the day that future generations of Americans would remember as their day of independence from England, the nation's birthday, if you will. It was, after all, on the second that it was proclaimed "(T)hat these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." But it was two days later that...

The other day Iris Evans, the Finance Minister of Alberta, gave a speech to the Economic Club of Toronto. And right at the end she suggested that parents ought to be prepared to make some economic sacrifice in order to be at home with their young kids. “When you’'re raising children,” she said, “you don’t both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise.” For some reason, David Swann, the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, felt this warranted an official statement from him. Can you guess what it said? Okay, stand well back:

Please excuse the vanity. This is a serious question I have. I am seriously distressed at what is going on in our country. I know that I am too into politics, which makes it worse. To some extent seeing the fall of this country and the current administrations push towards socialism is really stealing some of my joy in life. I know there are obsessive political type on FR who feel the same way. How do you deal with it?

What prior administration does the Obama administration most resemble? In its early days, there is a surprising contender: that of Richard Nixon. Helen Thomas sounded the theme in an interview with CNS News that followed a Robert Gibbs press conference: The Following a testy exchange during Wednesday's briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press. "Nixon didn't try to do that," Thomas said. "They couldn't control (the media). They didn't try. "What...

Massachusetts' Liberals are celebrating the 4th of July weekend by planning to pass legislation to ban public access to firearms training. Since no one in MA can go to their chief of police to beg for a MA LTC without completing training, this is another way to ban firearms ownership in MA without violating Heller. They are undoubtedly laughing it up over this one on Beacon Hill. Pay attention. This is part of Obama's test plan to end private firearms ownership in the U.S. (Patrick was reportedly on the team that helped train ACORN to "win" the 2008 election).

As diplomats prepare for the G8 Summit, many are working toward a resolution to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran. There is one country working hard to prevent new sanctions, the United States. Apparently Europe feels that Iran's continued development of its nuclear weapons program, its crackdown on their own people and the arrest of British Diplomats is worthy of new sanctions. President Obama's myopic pursuit of his engage the Islamist terrorist regime policy is making him reluctant to upset the Iranian government, with new sanctions. Its Neville Chamberlain time in the oval office:

HENDERSON, LA (WAFB) - Bass, catfish, and perch make for a great fish fry down on the bayou, but lately, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has found sharks in inland waters of the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp. Most people have a preconceived notion that sharks are found in the ocean. While that's certainly true, sharks are also being found among the beautiful cypress trees in the waters of the Atchafalaya. "Well, I guess this is a swamp, shark that lives in the swamp," said Mike Walker with Wildlife and Fisheries. "You could call it a swamp shark." Walker has...

As the source of media spectacle and late-night jokes, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has provided considerable distraction for the nation as his marital infidelity was made public. Despite the intrigue, character still counts among Americans. The majority of Americans say he should resign, and they also disapprove of his adulterous behavior, according to new opinion polls. A CNN-Opinion Research survey of 1,026 adults released Tuesday found that 54 percent of the respondents said Mr. Sanford should resign from office because of his brazen romantic affair with an Argentine woman, first revealed last week by a South Carolina newspaper -...

Friday, July 3, 2009 Andrew Salmon YEONGJONG ISLAND, South Korea | On their island base in a tense Yellow Sea, black-clad commando squads armed with automatic weapons surge up ladders onto the deck of a training ship, fast-rope down building exteriors and detonate explosives. The Special Sea Attack Team (SSAT), an elite South Korean Coast Guard unit tasked with countering maritime terrorism, is preparing to respond with tougher policies to North Korean shipping in response to North Korea's missile launches and its second nuclear test in May. North Korea fired four short-range missiles into waters off the east coast Thursday,...

LONDON (AP) — British researchers have announced the discovery of a rare original copy of America's Declaration of Independence — just in time for the Fourth of July. Katrina McClintock, a spokeswoman at the National Archives, said Thursday that a researcher accidentally discovered the "Dunlap print," named after a printer, several months ago. The find was announced only after it could be properly catalogued. Edward Hampshire, the National Archives' specialist in colonial materials, said the find was "incredibly exciting." "It is likely that only around 200 of these were ever printed, so uncovering a new one nearly 250 years later...

Friday, July 3, 2009 Another Letter to Jonah Goldberg By Joshua Livestro Dear Jonah, You’re blowing up the conservative movement. We’ve never met, though I have published the occasional article on your website NRO and have met some of your colleagues at various functions over the years. I’ve been known to forward some of your pieces to friends and colleagues. You use humor to great effect, and combine a firm grasp of conservative first principles with an open mind and a combative spirit. You’re a fine product of the American conservative intellectual revolution. You have every right to be proud...

MIAMI, July 2 (UPI) -- Muslims at a Miami mosque say they fear they're being targeted because of their religion following the latest vandalism at their worship center and school. Nidal Hussain, of the Islamic School of Miami, said two of its windows, designed to withstand hurricanes, were broken late Friday or early Saturday, The Miami Herald reported. "The community is pretty upset," Hussain told the newspaper.

By the time you read this, the Obama administration will, no doubt, have bailed out the state of California. How can we be sure? Because it announced, on June 16, that it wouldn’t bail out California. As National Review blogger Jim Geraghty often writes, “All statements from Barack Obama come with an expiration date. All of them.” California, like General (Government) Motors, AIG and Chrysler, will no doubt be labeled “too big to fail” and bailed out. If not by now, then some time in the weeks ahead. That’s unfortunate, because there’s a simple solution to the Golden State’s difficulty....

The sex scandals that have tarnished Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) don’t appear to have much in common. Yet there is one thread that binds them together: Both Ensign and Sanford were members of the famed Republican House class of 1994, as well as its latest casualties. As it turns out, the pressures and demands of political life have inflicted devastating damage not only on the Ensign and Sanford families, but on the families of many of the 71 other freshmen who formed the vanguard of the Republican Revolution. In the 14 years since that star-crossed...

When Jermaine Jackson told NBC's Matt Lauer on Thursday that he wished he could have died in the place of his superstar brother, most people probably shrugged it off as an elder brother grieving. After the many years I spent as a friend of Jermaine's, I can tell you that he really would have given his life if it meant Michael Jackson could live. "I wish that it was me. I've always felt that I was his backbone, someone to be there for him," Jermaine told Mr. Lauer in an interview on NBC's "Today Show." "I was his Aaron and...