Free Republic

Jacksonville, Fla. — During those two electric Novembers, the chance to elect a black president, and then keep him in office, seized Regenia Motley’s neighborhood. Nightclubs were registering voters. Churches held fish fries after loading buses that ferried parishioners to the polls. A truck hoisted a big sign that said “Obama.” And residents waited in long lines at precincts across the community. But as Motley and some friends sought shade recently under a mulberry tree and looked across the landscape of empty lots and abandoned houses that has persisted here, they wondered whether they would ever bother voting again. “What...

You expect Republican politicians to criticize Democratic administrations and vice versa. But when Democrats start criticizing Democratic administrations, that is news. Someone once said that the headline “Dog bites man” is not news, but “Man bites dog” is. We are now starting to get “Democrat bites Democrat” news. Longtime Democratic pollsters Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen last week took on one of Pres. Barack Obama’s most bitter betrayals of his campaign rhetoric and the high hopes of people who voted for him. Their op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal dealt with race, and it pulled no punches: “Rather than...

Never thought I'd see a Doonesbury comic like this. Disillusionment, anyone?

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Whether cowed by crackdowns, pacified by an increase in social freedoms or simply resigned, Iran's students are no longer the force that once spearheaded a revolution or agitated for liberal reform. With just over a week to go before a presidential election in which the Islamic state's clerical leaders have said it is a national and religious duty to vote, student leader Abdollah Momeni is calling -- quietly -- for a boycott. It appears the last resort of a group whose hopes for reform through the ballot box have all but vanished, at least for now. "Voting...

Confederate heritage groups got excited when Gov. Bob Riley's annual proclamation designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month dropped a paragraph saying slavery was the cause of the Civil War. The groups were pleased because they consider that description of slavery historically inaccurate. Their excitement, however, was short lived. "It was a mistake," said Jeff Emerson, the governor's communications director, on Monday. He said he did not know how the mistake was made. Emerson said the governor was unaware of the deletion until The Associated Press contacted his office. The governor quickly reissued the proclamation with the paragraph on...

FreeRepublic: the safe-haven of the world. The one place of sanity in a global insane asylum. But what makes it safe? Or more correctly, WHO makes it safe? Why, the AdminMods and Jim Robinson, of course, as well as several others (no, not you, you vain freeper). But we seldom take the time to tell them "thanks" or "keep up the good work". Oh sure, we do it NOW, when the fundraisers happen, and we do it when there is a ZOT thread. But what if an Admin exerpts that was left unexerpted? Do you FReepmail him and say, "Thanks,...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - It was a phenomenon of Arab brotherhood: From across the Mideast and even farther afield, hundreds of young men made their way to Iraq to fight the U.S. and British "invaders." But with the fall of Baghdad and the absence of Iraqi leadership, some volunteers are returning home, disillusioned and angry at the failure of their jihad, or holy war. "We volunteered to defend Baghdad," said Firas Ali Abdullah, who returned to Syria with seven other Syrians and Lebanese on Wednesday. "Instead of giving us weapons to fight, they used us as human shields." Scores of...