Free Republic

Longtime Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker Rep. John DeBerry Jr. says people refusing to acknowledge the violent riots going on in America right now are fooling themselves, and warned his colleagues in a powerful floor speech this month that such behavior must be condemned and stopped. His message is unusual coming from a Democratic officeholder in 2020, but DeBerry has never been afraid to take positions countering the party's platform. In fact, after 26 years in office, the Democratic Party recently booted the preacher out over his support of some conservative views. What are the details? In his address, DeBerry recounted...

A day after the Tennessee Democratic Party voted to remove Memphis Rep. John DeBerry from the party's Aug. 6 primary ballot, the legislator hit back at the party, saying it no longer valued a diversity of ideas. “The so-called party of inclusion is everything but inclusive. It’s all about thinking with one brain, marching in step and following the company line, sitting there like a brainless idiot and letting them tell you what to do,” he said in an interview Thursday morning. In recent years, DeBerry, who represents District 90 - a gerrymandered district that weaves from north of Interstate...

Chris Kyle, the now-deceased Navy SEAL who is celebrated in Clint Eastwood's movie "American Sniper" was a proved liar. Jesse Ventura, the former military man, wrestler and governor of Minnesota, sued Kyle before he died, claiming that he defamed Ventura in his memoir, "American Sniper." Kyle claims to have punched out Ventura in a bar after Ventura bad-mouthed the troops who'd been sent to Iraq. Kyle was killed before the trial, but a jury determined that none of what he had written about Ventura was true and awarded Ventura $1.8 million. Because he's a proved liar, we should be awfully...

NASHVILLE - Appearing before the House Ethics Committee, Rep. Lois DeBerry said Thursday she was "truly sorry" for taking cash from an FBI undercover operative and that she has returned $400 to the federal government. The committee then deadlocked along partisan lines over whether to drop an ethics complaint against the Memphis Democrat, who as House speaker pro tempore ranks second in the House leadership hierarchy. House Republican Leader Bill Dunn of Knoxville afterward declared he was "shocked and sickened" by Democrat-inspired inaction at a time when "there is a dark cloud over" the Legislature because of bribery arrests and...

Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry will reportedly forgo his customary team prayer before Saturday's game against Washington. The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported that the team will observe a moment of silence in the locker room instead. It's one of the first visible changes brought on by a new policy on public displays of religion. The Air Force issued guidelines Monday that discourage public prayer at official functions and urge commanders to be sensitive about personal expressions of religious faith. DeBerry has led pregame prayers in his previous 21 years as Air Force's coach. Last year, academy officials told DeBerry...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden said Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry is fighting the government over the role of religion on his team. Bowden brought up DeBerry while speaking to the Southern Colorado Fellowship of Christian Athletes on Sunday night. Last season, DeBerry was asked to remove a banner from the locker room which displayed the “Competitor’s Creed,” including the lines “I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.” “Fisher is fighting a heck of a battle over here at your academy (with) the U.S. government,” Bowden...