Free Republic

Less than six hours after he was sworn in as MN's junior senator and two hours after casting his first vote (against an amendment sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act), Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced that he has already co-sponsored his first bill. "As of about a half an hour ago, I became the co-sponsor of my first piece of legislation in the Senate," Franken told a gathering at the AFL-CIO headquarters this evening. "And it's something called the Employee Free Choice Act." The fight over EFCA is highly-charged, and the battle is taking...

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor says she has a "Puerto Rican soul," and that says a lot about her. By her own reckoning, Sotomayor offers more than just a different complexion as the first Hispanic nominee to the high court. Rather, she's long stressed her distinctive ethnic identity, how it's been shaped and — at times — what it might mean for her jurisprudence. "My Puerto Rican soul was nourished each weekend that I visited and played in abuelita's house," Sotomayor told a New Haven, Conn., audience in October 1998, referring to her grandmother. Like other Supreme Court...

Garth A. Wilson, “The Mulekites,” Ensign, Mar 1987, 60 This Jewish remnant plays a greater role in Book of Mormon history than many realize.A serious reader of the Book of Mormon will at some point likely ask himself how much is known about the Mulekites and about the role they played among Book of Mormon civilizations.The thirty verses which comprise the Book of Omni, although written by five lesser-known authors, provide answers to many questions.Just prior to his death, Amaleki completed the Book of Omni by briefly recording the account of King Mosiah’s discovery of the people of Zarahemla—the...

In early July, while most Americans were preparing for a long weekend of celebratory parades, charred meats, and noisy fireworks, Sarah Palin made some plans of her own. The Alaska governor had been the object of endless media attention and assorted calumnies since she became John McCain's vice presidential nominee last August. Now she wanted to try something new. So, on July 3, in a speech delivered from her home on Lake Lucille in Wasilla, Palin told her constituents that not only would she not seek a second term, but she would also be transferring authority to Lieutenant Governor Sean...

At a ramshackle homeless shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, on the south bank of the Rio Grande, a group of men stand in the suffocating heat all day. From behind a low cement wall, they stare across at the country where, until recently, they lived, worked and raised families. ... Manuel Cantero is among the men at the shelter. He's a 54-year-old laborer originally from Nuevo Laredo. For the past 29 years, he lived quietly in Miami, worked odd jobs, married and had three kids. "But work began to get scarcer; my wife got into drugs. They deported me. I lost...

Schwarzenegger, lawmakers express optimism as talks resume to close California's $26B deficit SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Against a backdrop of IOUs and expanding government furloughs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders expressed optimism Saturday that they were moving toward a compromise that could end California's fiscal calamity. Negotiations to close the state's $26.3 billion deficit restarted after two weeks of inaction and partisan bickering. Top lawmakers from both parties said a budget-balancing deal was possible in the coming week. "I would say we're getting very close to a general framework, but there are still outlying questions," said Assembly Minority Leader...

MIDI SITE FOR Lookin' Out My Back Door

“When We Stop Working on America; America Stops Working.” Norma Zager “The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.” Albert Einstein The United Nations must go! However, before I begin my diatribe on the stupidity, ignorance and sheer audacity that is the United Nations, I must begin by telling our readers that writing the postcards has been a cathartic exercise. Many thoughts about upsetting events that plague one in the wee small hours of the morning are lightened through the very process of...

An African news site and an MSNBC broadcaster have delivered new references to President Obama's birthplace as being outside of the United States, even as a controversy has developed over a letter purporting to be from the president claiming Kapi'olani hospital in Honolulu as his birth location. Network correspondent Mara Schiavocampo was reporting on the celebratory atmosphere in Accra, Ghana, immediately prior to Obama's visit to the west African nation today. Interviewing a person who appeared to be a shop operator, she suggested, "Barack Obama is Kenyan … but Ghanaians are still proud of him." The video of the report...

NEW DELHI: Has India blinked in the climate change negotiations? This seems to be the case as at the Major Economies Forum meeting in Italy, India has gone back on some of its key principles -- like a refusal to accept emission caps -- that it held to be non-negotiable till just before the G-8 meet in Italy. In the course of some tough negotiations, India appears to have bent a bit in the face of pressure from industrialized countries, and the biggest compromise at the MEF was to accept that all countries would work to reduce emissions in order...

Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday. The announcement aims to clarify a controversial program that deputizes police to turn over suspects or criminals to immigration authorities for possible deportation. Normally police do not enforce federal law. The law, known as 287(g), took effect in 1996. Most of the participating police agencies signed up under President George W. Bush, whose administration promoted it as a tool...

Federal officials may open a large area of forest and swamp on both sides of Alligator Alley for hunting and off-road vehicles. According to the Associated Press, the National Park Service has proposed establishing over 85,000 acres of wilderness cut by corridors to allow hunters to access remote areas on swamp buggies and ATV's. An environmental review that was attached to the new proposal said the new plan would have a moderately adverse impact on the endangered Florida panther population in the area. The Florida panther typically avoids areas with people.

Fairbanks, AK - Governor Palin has signed House Bill 201 into law. The bill, sponsored by Representative Craig Johnson, changes the expiration date of a concealed handgun permit from five years from the date of issue to the person's birthday. “The right to own guns & use them responsibly is something I and many other Alaskans cherish,” Governor Palin said. “We have to be vigilant to protect the rights of individual Alaskans to own & use guns. I appreciate the work of our legislature in standing up for the Constitution.”

After researching the situation involving the Veteran’s Memorial Cross located in the Mojave Desert and reviewing the Writ of Certiorari, numbered 08-472, the Board of Directors of the Silver Star Families of America met in regular session on July 6th, 2009.

A rally to re-assert states' rights and other freedoms will be held in Biloxi MS during the National Governors' Conference. Any Freepers that can, please join us and bring your friends. A Tea Party all day Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th. Food (Shed's BBQ), live music, vendors and speakers both days. The plans are still being finalized. Sponsored by the South Mississippi 9/12 Groups. Location: Biloxi Town Green 710 beach blvd Biloxi, MS

Fairbanks, AK - Governor Palin has signed House Bill 201 into law. The bill, sponsored by Representative Craig Johnson, changes the expiration date of a concealed handgun permit from five years from the date of issue to the person's birthday. “The right to own guns & use them responsibly is something I and many other Alaskans cherish,” Governor Palin said. “We have to be vigilant to protect the rights of individual Alaskans to own & use guns. I appreciate the work of our legislature in standing up for the Constitution.”

A sobered President Obama delivered remarks outside the Cape Coast Slave Castle in Ghana, Africa today. This video has a portion of those remarks. . . . . (Watch Video)

Liberals ask repeated “What is America's role in the global community?” Before that can be answered one needs to define what is the “Global Community” and what is the cost of being part of it. I can not answer WHAT the global community is, because I do not know. It is a nebulous body of every person on the planet; it has no rules, no constitution and no sense of self. There is no citizenship in a global community and no need for fairness or justice. Nor can anyone define what the Global Community is because such a thing does...

Here is video of President Obama and his family touring the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana today. The castle was used as a slave trading post by the British in the 1600's, and was the last place in Africa many African slaves saw before they were taken away aboard slave ships. . . . . . (Watch Video)

Try this thought experiment. You are the editors and publishers of the New York Times. You believe you have a sacred trust. It’s not to tell your readers what’s going on in the world. Any moron can do that. No, as the “newspaper of record” your mandate is far loftier: you are here to make your readers better people. Every day in every way, you are here to persuade them to ride their bicycles to work and to air dry their smalls. They need to open their pocketbooks on cue for programmes like HeadStart; they need to stop grumbling about...