Free Republic

Someone has vandalized a banner on a Richmond strip club that depicts President Barack Obama as the Joker of the "Batman" movie series fame. The graffiti includes the word "RAPIST," an apparent reference to a criminal case involving the club's owner, Samuel J.T. Moore III. He was convicted last year of three misdemeanor charges related to having sex with a minor and another female at his apartment above the club, and filming it illegally.

Dear conservative friend, In one of the White House's creepiest acts yet, it has posted a blog, which amounts to asking citizens to turn in those opposing Obamacare. They even set up an email address so citizens may tell the White House who is spreading "disinformation" (wink, wink) about Obamacare. Can you believe it? President Obama and his radical community organizers at the White House want literally to "keep track" of those who disagree with the government-run, potentially bankrupting health care bill, with its rationing of medical procedures to control costs, which Obama and Democrats in Congress are trying to...

Officials at the University of Texas at Austin are defending their actions following a minor confrontation between school officials and members of the Young Conservatives of Texas that has left the latter group decrying censorship. On Tuesday, YCT members took aim at a Diversity Training Program taking part on campus as part of the annual Summer Orientation program for incoming freshmen students. YCT contends that such diversity programs represent a radical agenda that devalues the individual and tries to indoctrinate students in a group consciousness system that many students may not wish to be a part of. Members showed up...

I probably should have just listened to Paul Harvey. Though it wasn’t actually Paul Harvey. It was Ron Chapman. And that’s probably the problem. I understand Ron Chapman is a radio legend somewhere, but I don’t live there. So, to me, he’s just an insufferable bore. But I should have been listening anyway. Instead I got an idea. An idea that had been kind of simmering in my head for a week or so. I was trying to think of a way to show that I wasn’t happy. That I was tired of bailouts. That I didn’t want to pay...

MARYSVILLE, Wash. - At least three students were suspended from Marysville-Pilchuck High School after displaying the Confederate flag. Ray Hauser, spokesperson for the school district, said one incident occurred in October, and another just last week. The students say the flag is a symbol of culture and heritage, but the school district says it's also a symbol of hatred. Hauser said the students are aware of school policy, and when the administration learned of the displays, the students were called in for a discussion and suspensions occurred immediately. Eighteen-year-old Ethian Allen is a senior at the school. Over the past...

Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance. Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that: The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program. A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as...

Obama campaign confronts WGN radio by John McCormick and Steve Schmadeke DENVER -- Sen. Barack Obama's campaign organized its supporters Wednesday night to confront Tribune-owned WGN-AM in Chicago for having a critic of the Illinois Democrat on its air. "WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears," Obama's campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "He's currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and University of Illinois professor William Ayers." Kurtz, a conservative writer, recently wrote an...

Reagan Library Republican Presidential Debate: January 30, 2008 SIMI VALLEY, California (CNN) -- Republican presidential hopefuls will face off Wednesday night without a familiar face as ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to drop out and endorse front-runner Sen. John McCain. The remaining candidates will take the stage in a debate -- sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico -- beginning at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday. The event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, follows McCain's Tuesday night win in the Florida primary. McCain topped former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 36 percent to...

Judge Andrew Napolitano is one of American media’s most tenacious defenders of Americans' rights. His official title at Fox News, where he appears regularly on Fox and Friends and The Big Story, is “Senior Judicial Analyst.” But at the often Bush-besotted network, the decidedly skeptical Napolitano thinks of himself more as “House Civil Libertarian.” He’s the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in New Jersey history, and a former teacher of constitutional law at Seton Hall Law School. He also writes books alerting Americans to how their own government threatens their liberties, including The Constitution in Exile and Constitutional Chaos: What...

Early coverage of Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason, has focused on the fact that the book is largely an assault on the Bush administration. But they have glossed over the most significant and alarming theme that Al Gore has taken up: his alleged defense of "reason" includes a justification for government controls over political speech. Judging from the excerpts of Gore's book published in TIME, his not-so-subtle theme is that reason is being "assaulted" by a free and unfettered debate in the media--and particularly by the fact that Gore has to contend with opposition from the right-leaning...

Liberal Democrats are attempting to muzzle conservative talk radio: they are assaulting free speech. Like the communists in the former Soviet Union, America’s liberals seek to crush dissent by consolidating control over the media—especially talk radio, which has emerged as the dominant medium for conservative opinion. Allies close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are promoting legislation, which if passed, will take off the air prominent conservative radio hosts such as Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly—along with thousands of smaller conservative broadcasters. The bill, entitled the "Media Ownership Reform Act," is sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a...

The Federal Election Commission said yesterday that it will police "527" groups, political organizations that largely operated outside the new campaign finance limits during the 2004 presidential election, by looking at how the groups word their appeals for contributions, how they describe themselves, and how they spend their money. If the groups make clear that they are advocating for or against a specific candidate, the FEC would regulate them. "We're providing clear guidance," said FEC Chairman Robert D. Lenhard. "This makes it clear that the existing rules will be enforced." The FEC filed the 44-page explanation of its approach in...

Anger over cartoons spreads in Europe AP Gaza City: Rage against caricatures of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) poured out across the Muslim world on Saturday, with aggrieved believers calling for the execution of those involved, storming European buildings, and setting European flags afire. The cartoons, first printed in Denmark, and then published elsewhere in Europe, have touched a raw nerve, in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet. Muslims in Europe have reacted less passionately than their counterparts in the Mideast and Southeast Asia, but on Saturday, anger in Europe swelled, too, with demonstrators clashing...

Conservative talk-show host Michael Graham was suspended without pay on Thursday, July 28 by ABC Disney following threats by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) over his on-air comments regarding terrorism and Islam. The suspension came despite repeated statements of support for Graham’s free-speech right by management at 630 WMAL in Washington, D.C.; the ABC owned stations where Graham had worked as mid-morning host. The suspension is pending an “investigation” of comments he made regarding Islam’s ties to terrorism. "I honestly don't know what Disney is investigating me for, unless it's for doing a compelling talk show that gets people's...

Town Council's Ban on Talk of Wal-Mart Draws Protest From ACLU The Associated Press Published: Jul 8, 2005 YELM, Wash. (AP) - The town council barred residents from mentioning Wal-Mart at meetings, prompting a challenge by civil libertarians who said a "free and accountable" government depends on a citizen's ability to voice concerns openly. The retailing giant has an application pending to build a superstore, spurring controversy in the small town about 15 miles southeast of Olympia. In a letter to the council, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Aaron H. Caplan said his group believes it is unconstitutional to ban...

Police charge pair with obstructing pedestrian traffic Two street preachers were arrested Saturday night on the Strip, reigniting a long-standing dispute between police and the American Civil Liberties Union over whether the preachers' actions are protected by the First Amendment. Jim Webber and Tom Griner were arrested Saturday night in front of the Bellagio and charged with obstructing pedestrian traffic, according to ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Gary Peck. "We will now sue the county and the police department ... because that is the only way, obviously, to get them to stop," Peck said. He did not give a timetable...

Chipping away at freedom of religion Lorne Gunter National Post - Editorial April 4, 2005 Like everyone else, members of Canada's political establishment are making a great show of respect for the passing of Pope John Paul II. But even as they are doing so, the forced secularization of Canadian society is continuing apace. Consider, for instance, the plight of Fred Henry, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Calgary, who is being hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for arguing against same-sex marriage in a letter he sent to his flock in January. Bishop Henry's case is being pursued under...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2005 — While its previous owners considered adult entertainment "immoral," Adelphia Communications Corp., the country's fifth-largest cable television provider, last week became the first to offer hard-core adult films on pay-per-view to its subscribers. "It's a very lucrative source of funds," said Dennis McAlpine, a media and entertainment industry analyst. "The cable companies and the satellite companies are programming agnostics in the sense that they don't care what the programming is. It's what the viewers want to see." Viewers can watch such sexually explicit movies in the Hilton and Marriott hotel chains on video services like LodgeNet...

Written 12/15/2004 Updated 12/16/04 Updated 12/19/04 Updated 12/22/04 With all the legislative attack on Christianity this season headed by liberal groups such as the ACLU (liberal anti-Christ union), many private Christian citizens around America are retaliating by putting simplistic to extraordinary effort in the Christmas decorations they are displaying in their front yards. If liberals are serious about their intention to secularize the entire nation, they're eventually gonna have to come out to Parker, Colorado from where these pictures have been taken. Christmas is about Jesus Christ, no matter how it has been argued. Download Oh Holy NightMP3 (organ instrumental)...

Written 12/15/2004 Updated 12/16/04 Updated 12/19/04 Updated 12/22/04 With all the legislative attack on Christianity this season headed by liberal groups such as the ACLU (liberal anti-Christ union), many private Christian citizens around America are retaliating by putting simplistic to extraordinary effort in the Christmas decorations they are displaying in their front yards. If liberals are serious about their intention to secularize the entire nation, they're eventually gonna have to come out to Parker, Colorado from where these pictures have been taken. Christmas is about Jesus Christ, no matter how it has been argued. Download Oh Holy NightMP3 (organ instrumental)...