Free Republic

A Miami man accused of shooting up a convenience store in April faced 20 years or more in prison — until he saw the surveillance video being used as evidence against him. The face that Darnell Palmer spotted on the video his defense attorney sent him to review was his half-brother, who resembles him, the Miami Herald reported. The evidence had stacked up against Palmer, attorney Scott Saul told the newspaper. His client frequented the North Miami Beach store, owned a gun and the car used by the shooter was traced back to Palmer's mother. Still, Saul said, Palmer insisted...

The White House says the head of Obama’s initiative for minority males will attend the funeral of a Baltimore man who died after sustaining serious injuries while in police custody. Broderick Johnson, the chairman of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, will represent the administration at Monday’s funeral for Freddie Gray. Johnson is also the Cabinet secretary. Gray is the 25-year-old black man who died a week after an encounter with Baltimore police left him with grave spinal injuries. He is being buried Monday in Baltimore. The White House said Sunday night that Johnson, a Baltimore native, will be accompanied...

In one of the most significant steps of its kind taken by any Administration, President Barack Obama has unveiled a plan which he hopes will lift young minority men out of a persistent cycle of despair and hopelessness into productive lives. Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative will be in the hands of a top-level task force, which the president has appointed “to develop a coordinated federal effort to improve significantly the expected life outcomes for boys and young men of color,” he wrote in a memo outlining his plan. The program will cover not only young African-American men but also...

Barack Obama lets his faith show By: Carol E. Lee December 28, 2010 04:28 AM EST HONOLULU — President Obama’s trip to church Sunday followed a steady rebirth over the past three months in public expressions of his Christianity. Obama has publicly mentioned his “Christian faith” more times in the past three months than he has over the past year. He has more frequently cited passages of the Bible, including repeated references to the spirit of Genesis 4:9 — “I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper” — which was a mainstay of Obama’s 2010 campaign stump speech....

It's honorable and commendable to give freely out of one's own resources to charity, and Americans are the most generous people on the face of the planet. Americans contribute six or seven times more than some of our European counterparts. Charity is reaching into one's own pockets to help someone in need. Is it charity to reach into someone else's pocket to help someone in need? Is the federal government your brother's keeper? Is it charity if the giving is taken from someone else's pocket under the ultimate threat of force?

Barack Obama's Kenyan family erupted in cheers Wednesday, singing "We are going to the White House!" as their relative became the first African-American to be elected U.S. president. KOGELO, Kenya -- The mood was ecstatic in Kenya as Barack Obama, viewed by many as a native son because of his paternal ancestry, was announced the winner of the U.S. presidential contest. As networks projected Obama as the president-elect, people here in the home village of Obama's father, Barack Sr., erupted into celebration. "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" shouted one man, who had stayed up all night, as the results...

Bring on the hate mail. I know I'll be receiving plenty of it from the people who don't want to hear what I'm going to say. To begin with, I'm tired of the hard working people in the United States playing Atlas to those who don't plan beyond the moment or to those who believe that the rest of the world exists to bail them out when they encounter disaster. Government spending of citizens' hard earned tax dollars to bail out every victim of disaster, poor business practice, or persons lacking in motive to overcome adversity has led to a...