Free Republic

A Dallas woman has been searching for her granddaughter who ran away from home at age 14 in 2010 and ended up mistakenly deported to Colombia after giving Houston authorities a fake name. She remains in Colombia today. It’s a nightmare for Lorene Turner, who looked daily for her granddaughter, Jakadrien, until Dallas Police helped her discover that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston deported her, despite taking her fingerprints and despite the fact she spoke no Spanish

Rima Fakih's beauty pageant sash declares that she is Miss USA, but journalists want to find other labels for her. Questions about Fakih's ethnic and religious identity have been nearly as frequent as questions about photos of her dancing against a stripper's pole. "I'd like to say I'm American first, and I am an Arab-American," Fakih said. "I am Lebanese-American, and I am Muslim-American." Fakih, 24, was born in Lebanon, but her family moved to New York when she was 7 years old. She later moved to Michigan, where she went to college. The rarity of a woman born in...

WASHINGTON, March 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States Commission on Civil Rights announces that it will hold a public hearing on this investigation on April 23, 2010. This meeting is open to the public and the media. DATE AND TIME: Friday, April 23, 2010; 9:30 a.m. ET PLACE: 624 9th St., N.W. Room 540 Washington, DC 20425 The Commission will hold a hearing regarding an incident on Election Day 2008 at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania polling place involving members of the New Black Panther Party. The hearing will collect facts related to civil charges brought by the Department of Justice and...

BRISTOL, Va. – Nineteen-year-old Keshia Canter handed three burgers, fries and milkshakes to a car-load of Tuesday afternoon customers at the Hi-Lo Burger’s drive-though window. A lady sitting in the backseat leaned forward, between the two men in front, and handed her a leaflet: “Women & Girls” it said across the top. “Even though nothing is showing, you’re being ungodly,” Canter recalled the woman telling her. “You make men want to be sinful.” Canter was wearing boots pulled up over jeans, a pink zebra-print shirt with a black jacket zipped up over it. She has blond hair, dark eye make-up...

Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Monday he regretted comments comparing people who take public assistance to stray animals, but the incident continued to draw fire. In a phone interview, Bauer said he regretted the remarks "because now it's being used as an analogy, not a metaphor. "Do I regret it? Sure I do. I wouldn't have to be taking this heat otherwise." In a speech at a town hall meeting in the Upstate, Bauer revisited instructions he said his grandmother had given him when he was a small child. Bauer said his grandmother, who was not highly educated, had...

Washington (CNN) - In a move that could help position him in the political center by sharpening his credentials on fiscal discipline, President Obama will announce in Wednesday's State of Union address that he's proposing to save $250 billion by freezing all non-security federal discretionary spending for three years, according to two senior administration officials. The senior officials said the budgets of the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs along with some international programs would be exempt from the spending freeze. "We are at war, and we're going to make sure our troops are funded adequately," said one...

ATLANTA — The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a new report. The shift was fueled not by white flight from public schools, which spiked during desegregation but has not had much effect on school demographics since the early 1980s. Rather, an influx of Latinos and other ethnic groups, the return of blacks to the South and higher birth rates among black and Latino families have contributed to the change. The new numbers, from the 2008-9 school...

The anxiety and anger have been building all year. In March, a national coalition of Islamic organizations warned that it would cease cooperating with the F.B.I. unless the agency stopped infiltrating mosques and using “agents provocateurs to trap unsuspecting Muslim youth.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A school resource officer had to go to the hospital Tuesday after an 8-year-old student attacked him with a pen. The incident started at Dupont-Hadley Middle School where some students and staff said they saw the boy kicking a dog. SRO Randy Fowler caught up with the boy at his nearby home, and placed him in handcuffs. That's when Fowler said the boy's mother, 31-year old Rachel Swafford, pushed her son inside and scuffled with the officer.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - More than seven in 10 Americans think Sarah Palin is not qualified to be president, according to a new national poll. Seventy-one percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday morning believe the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee is not qualified to be president, with 29 percent saying she does have the credentials to serve in the White House. Republicans appear split, with 52 percent saying she's qualified and 47 percent disagreeing with that view. The poll indicates that about half of the country, 51 percent, has an unfavorable...

http://www.tomoveanation.com/2009/10/yep-theres-rep-for-that.html Half of the things this video says are actually GOOD qualities to have in a representative and the rest are taken out of context. Liberals don't understand real American values. We need to make a response video using Dim congressmen. Unfortunately, being old fart, I don't possess the requisite knowledge of computers to pull it off. I'm posting this in the hopes that someone here will.

A reputable poll out of Tennessee this morning shows how mere evidence and facts aren't enough to deter the perseverance of false beliefs. The quarterly Middle Tennessee State University Survey finds that 34% of adults believe that President Obama was born in another country. 47% of Republicans hold that belief. About a third -- 30% -- say Obama is a Muslim. 46% -- and this includes many Democrats and independents -- say he's a socialist. Put aside the socialist finding for a second. The first two claims -- that Obama is a Muslim and/or was born outside the U.S. --...

(CNN) -- Like a lot of people, Anna Owens began using MySpace more than four years ago to keep in touch with friends who weren't in college. Our real-world friendships are often a reflection of who we connect with online, experts say. Our real-world friendships are often a reflection of who we connect with online, experts say. But soon she felt too old for the social-networking site, and the customizable pages with music that were fun at first began to annoy her. By the time she graduated from the University of Puget Sound, Owens' classmates weren't on MySpace -- they...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- For a second time in a few months, a 9-year-old girl took a relative's car on a joyride from police. Police said the girl took her mother's keys early Wednesday morning and drove off with her 1-year-old sister, who was unrestrained in the front seat. The mother woke up when she heard the girl leave the apartment where they were staying, according to police. The mother's boyfriend then saw the car leaving the parking lot of the complex. The mother flagged down a driver, who happened to be an undercover Metro police officer. That officer called in...

The Congressional Black Caucus' growing power has drawn scrutiny. Several members are facing questions from the House Ethics Committee, and two are under federal investigation. Still, the CBC annual conference this week is a chance for black leaders to celebrate their power, and for a younger generation to look toward a bright political future.

In a column published yesterday, Newsmax's John L. Perry wrote that there is a "gaining" possibility that the military will stage a coup to "resolve the 'Obama problem.'" Newsmax has apparently removed the column from its site. Links are now redirected to the homepage, and Perry's author page has no mention of his latest work. You can read the full text here.

MOORESVILLE, NC (WBTV) - Authorities across the country are on the look out for two Iredell County girls -- including one who is 9-months pregnant -- who disappeared with their step-father last week. Janette Hess says her 12-year-old pregnant daughter Keara and 11-year-old Sierra, vanished with their stepfather, Matthew Hess, on Thursday, Sept. 24. Janette Hess said she hasn't seen her daughters since they went to bed on Wednesday around 9 p.m. "It's been a nightmare, I've been living in a nightmare," Hess said.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- Two teenage girls walking home from school in Clarksville had a pistol pointed at them over a bag of oregano. Timothy Ogburn, 19, and two other teenage boys have been arrested on charges they robbed the girls Friday afternoon. Apparently, someone spotted a baggie of oregano in one of the girls' purses and told the boys she had marijuana. Police said a pistol was pointed at the 17-year-old girl and that she gave the trio her purse and said, “Is this what you want? It’s just oregano." Clarksville police said the oregano was a prop used in...

If there's room in your home for just one more, the animal rescue group All About Rescue and Fixin’ Inc. is holding an adoption of black animals Saturday in Putnam County.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Census Bureau said the number of uninsured Americans increased in 2008 to 46.3 million, compared to 45.7 million in 2007. The bureau also said the U.S poverty rate of 13.2% in 2008 was an increase from 12.5% in 2007. This was the largest annual poverty rate increase since 2004, the bureau said. The statistics released Thursday cover the first full year of the current recession. The median -- or midpoint -- household income declined slightly to $50,303. The data underscore the need to revamp the U.S. health-care system, President Barack Obama said, adding that more recent...