Free Republic

After Pope Francis early in his papacy decried capitalism as "trickle-down economics" — a polemical phrase coined by the left during the Reagan years that Francis frequently borrows — radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh commented, "This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the Pope." Talk show host Michael Savage called him "Lenin’s pope." Pope Francis took such comments as a compliment. "I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended," he told the Italian press. Pope Francis grew up in socialist Argentina, an experience that left a...

A Sanford judge today ruled that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi does not have to answer defense attorneys' questions under oath in a mammoth Internet casino gambling case pending in Seminole County. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. made that ruling this morning.The case involves more than 50 defendants, accused of violating the state's gambling, racketeering and money laundering laws by operating Internet cafes that prosecutors say served as storefront gambling parlors. Each had ties to the non-profit Allied Veterans of the World, a group that provided charity to military veterans but, according to authorities, donated just two percent of its...

Warren H. Carroll, Founding and First President of Christendom College and Chairman of its History Department for its first twenty-five years, died on Sunday, July 17. Aged 79, he received last rites prior to his death in his home. Carroll was in a weakened condition having suffered several strokes in the last several years and was recovering from pneumonia. Cardiopulmonary failure was the official cause of death. A native of Maine, Carroll was a summa cum laude history graduate of Bates College, achieved an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, and attended law school in 1962-64. Between 1955...

There appears to be more fallout as a result of the recent remarks made by GoProud Chairman Chris Barron in which he referred to ACU Foundation Chairman Cleta Mitchell as a “nasty bigot.” Barron later apologized for the remark after raising the ire of newly selected ACU chair Al Cardenas who indicated the possibility that the organization may distance themselves from GoProud. Said Cardenas: “I have been disappointed with their website and their quotes in the media, taunting organizations that are respected in our movement and part of our movement, and that’s not acceptable. And that puts them in a...

NEW YORK -- The NFL fined the New York Jets $100,000 on Thursday for violating league rules when assistant coach Sal Alosi tripped Miami's Nolan Carroll on the sideline during a punt return earlier this month. The Jets were fined because Alosi "placed players in a prohibited area on the sideline to impede an opposing team's special teams players and gain a competitive advantage." The NFL called it a competitive violation as well as a dangerous tactic. Alosi and special teams coach Mike Westhoff also have been cited for public comments accusing other teams of employing similar tactics. "We will...

LAKELAND | Jennifer Carroll has the distinction of being the first black female Republican elected to the state legislature. She made history again Wednesday when she became the state's first black lieutenant governor.

Last Modified: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 11:49 p.m. LAKELAND | Jennifer Carroll has the distinction of being the first black female Republican elected to the state legislature. She made history again Wednesday when she became the state's first black lieutenant governor. Florida's new governor, Rick Scott, called Carroll, 51, a "history-maker and a barrier-breaker" when he announced her as his running mate in September. And while Adrienne Frazier, a teacher at Southwest Middle School in Lakeland, is a Democrat, she agrees that Carroll is an inspiration. "As a black woman, it makes me confident to see someone who is...

<p>Black Democratic leaders from Broward said Republican governor candidate Rick Scott made a smart move by picking a black candidate, state Rep. Jennifer Carroll of Jacksonville, as his running mate.</p> <p>“I don’ t think the Democratic Party can afford to sleep on Jennifer Carroll. They do so at their own peril. She is extremely articulate. She is a seasoned legislator. And she is knowledgeable about the issues,” Thurston said. “Her conservative credentials align with the black church in a lot of regards.”</p>

State Rep. Jennifer Carroll will be announced as Rick Scott’s running mate this morning during a news conference in Jacksonville. A source close to the campaign confirmed to The Times-Union Wednesday night that Carroll, of Fleming Island, is the choice. Neither Scott nor Carroll could be reached for comment. The news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. outside Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Carroll is a Navy veteran and has represented parts of Clay and Duval Counties since 2003. Many politicians from around the area say that politically, the 51-year-old lawmaker makes sense as Scott’s running mate. “I just really think...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Sources told Channel 4 that state Rep. Jennifer Carroll and 20-year military veteran is Rick Scott's choice as number two on the Republican ticket for governor of Florida.

This exclusive interview with Dave Carroll is being published simultaneously with the release and posting of his third and final video in the “United Breaks Guitars” trilogy. The video will appear in this Interview upon its posting on Youtube Tuesday evening. With the posting of this final video of the trilogy, I thought our readers might like to get to know more about the man behind the music. Dave was kind enough to give me an exclusive interview for Grand Rants. I spoke with him following his appearance on “The View” in NYC and as he prepared for a several...

One of the top videos on YouTube last year was “United Breaks Guitars.” The catchy country tune chronicled the misfortune suffered by Carroll, whose guitar was broken by United Airline baggage handlers while he was on a flight from Nova Scotia to a show in Nebraska. The first two videos in the trilogy have been viewed nearly 10 million viewers and have made Carroll one of the fastest rising stars on the music scene today.

Good for thought herein: This month, in 1790, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States achieved an important milestone: the installation of the first bishop, in the first American see of Baltimore. Father John Carroll’s consecration — fittingly, on the Feast of the Assumption, 1790 — marked the Church’s transition from infancy to adolescence in our country. More than being mere Catholic history trivia, Carroll’s tenure as bishop provides important lessons, especially in the realm of civic engagement, for Catholics today. But will we, the holy mother Church’s laity and clergy, continue to ignore these principles of living our...

MAS' Esam Omeish Seeks Virginia Office Campaign Mum on MAS Ties, Radical Omeish Speeches IPT News May 1, 2009 The last time the public got a good look at Esam Omeish, he was resigning from a Virginia immigration panel, claiming that the posting of videos showing him praising Palestinians who chose "the jihad way" to liberate their land was part of a smear campaign against him. Now Omeish is diving into the deep end of smear campaigns, offering himself as a candidate for a partisan legislative seat in Northern Virginia. Omeish is among four Democrats vying to win their party's...

(last paragraph) When that consensus assumes, for example, that World War II was "good," or that the United States arms build-up "won" the Cold War, it protects the militarized economy, the status of the military-industrial elite, the iron lock of incumbents on office. Any reinterpretation of this salvation history, it is feared, would undermine the economy, disempower the elite, unsettle politics - and deprive the citizenry of meaning in an otherwise meaningless world. Voters may want change, but not change at this level. Yet "national security" is bogus - part ghost story with which the nation scares itself at bedtime,...

Late Tuesday night, ESPN.com, citing multiple sources, reported that Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank is pursuing USC coach Pete Carroll according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. According to the story, the Falcons "might be willing to grant Carroll far-reaching responsibilities." The Falcons on Tuesday said they were extending their simultaneous searches for a new head coach and general manager. On Tuesday, the Falcons were granted permission to interview Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. That interview is slated for this week. But the team was denied permission to talk to New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

Jill Carroll's captors appear to be involved in some of the most high-profile kidnappings of Westerners in Iraq during the past two years. A Monitor investigation - including interviews with other kidnap victims, US, Iraqi, and Italian investigators, as well as court testimony in Iraq - ties her abductors, or others close to them, to at least five kidnapping incidents, including Ms. Carroll: [...] The strongest evidence suggests that the same group that took Carroll also abducted Ms. Sgrena, the Italian journalist. In early March, Abu Rasha, the leader of one of the three cells handling Carroll's kidnapping, went into...

The insurgents allowed her to conduct occasional interviews about their organization in which she learned that they belonged to an insurgent council, including members of al Qaeda. "The main captor during all these interviews I would do was anxious to tell me about this. He told me his name was Abdullah Rashid," she said. "He said he had helped form this council … in Iraq that brought together some of the main Sunni insurgent groups, and he was the head of it. One of those groups in that council was al Qaeda and Zarqawi." She was held from Jan. 7...

At the beginning of Jill Carroll's 82-day captivity by Al-Qaeda terrorists she recalls asking for a quick death by pistol rather than beheading. "I don't want the knife", said Carroll to her kidnappers. She feared that they would execute her when she found out they were to use her in a second propaganda video. Her pleas seemed to have confused them, because they said they didn't plan on killing her. She said in an 11-part series at the Christian Science Monitor where she is a staff writer, how terrified she was during her captivity. She says that they were very...

CERTAIN she would be murdered by the men who kidnapped her on a Baghdad street and fatally shot her translator, American journalist Jill Carroll begged her captors at one point to use a gun to end her life rather than a knife. "Promise me you will use this gun to kill me by your own hand. I don't want that knife, I don't want the knife, use the gun," Carroll remembered crying hysterically to the Iraqi man who was watching her with a 9mm pistol at his side. For the first time since she returned to the United States in...