Free Republic

Three months after Hurricane Katrina, the Sun Herald described in a front-page editorial “Mississippi’s Invisible Coast.” It spoke of the fact that the further removed in time we were from Katrina, the less attention outside news reports paid to the plight of our region and its people, and the more it seemed history was being rewritten in a way that would render South Mississippi no more than a postscript to the greatest natural disaster to befall the nation. Already the trend had begun for the national media to cover South Mississippi’s part of the story with an add-on phrase...

VENICE (Reuters) - Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion of U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore's latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," which premieres at the Venice film festival on Sunday. Blending his trademark humour with tragic individual stories, archive footage and publicity stunts, the 55-year-old launches an attack on the capitalist system, arguing that it benefits the rich and condemns millions to poverty.

If one asks what does President Obama’s Green Jobs czar Van Jones (assuming he still holds the position as of this being read) and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) have to do with each other, the answer is both nothing and everything. Jones was not a part of CAC, but in the history of Barack Obama’s association with and leadership of CAC we see exactly why Van Jones was made an unconfirmed czar overseeing the expenditure of $30 billion dollars of the people’s money as we also see the active hand of President Obama. Before the last election, effort was...

Except for a fourth-quarter interception, Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor had a decent day in Ohio State's season-opening win over Navy. He passed for one touchdown, ran for another and made a deft option pitch to Daniel Herron for another score in a 31-27 victory. More noteworthy, however, were the words printed on Pryor's eye-black patches: Mika under his right eye and Vick under the left. Mika referred to Pryor's sister, he said. Vick was a nod to Michael Vick, the NFL quarterback who served 18 months in federal prison for his involvement in a dogfighting ring. He is back...

For the third time in the last decade, the U.S. Air Force is looking at using commercial aircraft as bombers. This time around, it's mainly a matter of cost, with the next generation heavy bomber likely to cost over a billion dollars each, and only carry 30 tons of bombs or missiles. The idea of militarizing 747s first started gaining traction three decades ago, as cruise missiles showed up and many air force analysts did the math and realized that it would be a lot cheaper to launch these missiles from a militarized Boeing 747. The freighter version of the...

Yes! Yes! Oh let me taste your tears, DUmmies! Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! Mmm-yummy! Mmm-yummy!Yes, the sweet tears being shed by the DUmmies and KOmmies over the loss of Van Jones are quite tasty. In case you haven't heard, self-admitted former COMMUNIST Van Jones resigned overnight. And now the entire leftwing blogosphere is in a state of deep mourning over his loss. This is just the first big disappointment in store for them this week since in a few days, their beloved Barack is sure to toss their sacred Public Option under the van. You can see...

I've shared plenty here about feral dogs; I have heard people here use the word "feral" because so many of Detroit's strays learn to survive long-term on their own. Feral, used in this sense, means they have reverted to a wild state, as from domestication. Our world feral comes from the Latin root fera, or "wild beast," but it also has a connection to another Latin word, feralis, literally: belonging to the dead. I've seen "feral" used to describe dogs, cats, even goats. But I have wondered if it couldn't also be used to describe certain houses in Detroit. Abandoned...

Downing Street has hit back at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for attacking the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber. President Obama and the US Secretary of State fuelled a fierce American backlash against Britain, claiming Abdelbaset Al Megrahi should have been forced to serve out his jail sentence in Scotland – but a senior Whitehall aide said their reaction was ‘disingenuous

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Watching Joe Biden on Thursday, it was hard not to feel just a little wistful about what might have been. Delivering a report on the first 200 days of the administration's recovery act at the Brookings Institution, the vice-president was not only coherent and convincing, he was downright circumspect at times, cautioning himself against going out of his brief and even, at one point, declining to elaborate. "One thing I've learned," he demurred on health care strategy, "Never step on the boss's lines." Meanwhile, in Alaska, the former governor and erstwhile national typhoon Sarah Palin was conducting...

LONDON (AP) - Authorities arrested 90 people after racially charged violence erupted between a group protesting Islamic extremism and counter-demonstrators in the central English city of Birmingham, police said Sunday. The clashes erupted Saturday when a rally by the English Defense League ran into counter-demonstrators including anti-fascists and youths of South Asian descent, West Midlands Police said. About 200 people were involved in the clashes in downtown Birmingham, police said. Television footage showed masked or hooded youths throwing projectiles and running from riot police through the diverse city's downtown area.

A group of hard-Left filmmakers and writers from around the world have been using their celebrity to try to coerce the Toronto International Film Festival into banning Israeli films. Their petition, which is filled with misstatement of facts and rewriting of history, describes Israel as "an apartheid regime." It focuses not so much on Israel's occupation of the West Bank since 1967, but rather on Israel's very existence since 1948. It characterizes Tel Aviv, a city built by the sweat of Jews largely on barren coastal land, as illegitimate.

A black education professor who was suspended last year after he joked about shooting his students has filed a race discrimination lawsuit against administrators at California State University, Fresno. Joe Parks, 65, said administrators in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development give him more work than younger nonblack professors. He made the charges in a U.S. District Court lawsuit that he filed without a lawyer. When he complained about the "disparate treatment based on his race and age, the defendants reprimanded him," he claimed in the lawsuit.

Canada added a better-than-expected 27,100 jobs in August, one of the biggest gains since the recession began in the country last fall. But according to Statistics Canada all of the jobs are part-time. The agency said Friday that Canada's unemployment rate edged up to 8.7 percent from 8.6 percent in July, as more Canadians began looking for work.

The election of Barack Obama may actually be the best thing that ever happened to our nation, if he and the liberals don't destroy it first. Increasing evidence appears to indicate a significant shift to the right in this country, since Obama's victory last November. A recent Gallup poll shows that people who identify themselves as conservative outnumber liberals in every state in the Union. Witness the tea parties, the town hall meetings, and the rise in the sale of conservative books. Why the swing to the right? America is finally waking up and realizing that this country elected a...

It is not news that Wall Street is Washington's whipping boy lately. The Fed, Rep. Frank, and Fannie Mae can all relax, because they have pushed their culpability on to nefarious Wall Street bankers. Even though the financial meltdown involves trillions of dollars, the millions in Wall Street bonuses are the real problem. The AFL-CIO and a few high tax Democrats smell blood as well, and wants to impose a $50BB per year tax on stock transactions. While this would be yet another barnacle slowing the ship of capitalism, Sen. Schumer wants to steer us straight into an iceberg with...

ou learn a lot about a president at a funeral. Funerals and memorial services, at least those that are worthy of a presidential appearance, are major events for the nation, demanding a level of eloquence and public stature that tests a president’s communication skills. But they are also intensely human endeavors, revealing something of our chief executive’s character and soul. We certainly learned something about Barack Obama at Ted Kennedy’s funeral — just as we did about Bill Clinton (both good and bad) at funerals during his term and George W. Bush during his. His eulogy was unmemorable, “intentionally understated”...

CHICAGO (STNG) -- A Chicago musician claims that a song he wrote in 1968 was later performed by the Jefferson Airplane rock group, included on a concert recording and subsequently made part of the group's repertoire, without giving him him any credit or compensation. Songwriter Syl Johnson is now suing the California-based band to get that recognition and maybe some financial compensation. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago, Johnson claims "Dresses Too Short," a song he co-wrote in 1968 with Carl Smith, was performed by Jefferson Airplane at a 1969 concert. The song, with the name...

Colorado became a symbol of the changing politics in a region once firmly in Republican hands -- and also of the grass-roots power and energy fueling Barack Obama's candidacy. Today, the state embodies the uneasiness spreading throughout Democratic ranks as Obama struggles with major challenges and the 2010 midterm elections approach. Colorado has been one of the Democratic Party's major success stories. Between 1968 and 2004, Republican presidential candidates carried the state in all but one election. Last year, Obama crushed John McCain in Colorado, part of a broader shift in the balance of political power in the Rocky Mountain...

"First, even as I defended Van Jones (as I saw nothing wrong with his actual performance as green jobs adviser) I will admit that his past statements were beginning to take a political toll on Obama. Day after day liberals were having to endure the next few radical sentences taken out of thirty minutes address or interview from Van Jones. While the statements had nothing to do with green jobs they were effective in making Jones, and to some degree liberals, appear radical. Republicans were beginning to see Van Jones as their party pinata who supplied with more candy every...

Obama choice of Czars in his Shadow Government has cast doubts about his judgement and raises questions about his plans for America that conflict with the Constitution and Bill of Rights.