Free Republic

St. Louis authorities declared a state of emergency Monday as they prepared for a second night of protests marking a year since a police officer killed Ferguson teen Michael Brown. The move was announced by St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, who cited the violence that marred protests Sunday night in Ferguson. "The recent acts of violence will not be tolerated in a community that has worked so tirelessly over the last year to rebuild and become stronger," Stenger said in a statement. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office announced criminal charges against a man authorities say exchanged gunfire...

Democracy demonstrators take to streets in Hong Kong

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration offered some friendly public advice to Egypt, one of its closest allies in the Arab world, when the State Department spokesman told Cairo to lighten up on protesters. After thousands of riot police broke up pro-reform protests in Cairo and roughed up demonstrators, spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement read to reporters at the department's daily media briefing, "we are deeply concerned." The protests were in support of two Egyptian judges facing disciplinary action after they blew the whistle on election fraud. McCormack coupled concern with a warning that "we will be following...

I’d love to have a talk about the current situation in the Ukraine with my left-wing friends, but I don’t think they would be interested, and probably not even capable of an intelligent discussion. Not only is the Ukraine so far off and seemingly unimportant to them, the intricacies of its politics defy the usual “left” vs. “right” stereotypes. I truly believe that many long-time lefties pine for the days of the Soviet Union. It gave them a glimmer of hope for world-wide socialism in their otherwise very comfortable, cushy, American lives. Too much guilt about living in the midst...