Free Republic

The Obama presidency has not led to a post-racial America, says Toby Harnden, but black Republicans in Congress could help break down barriers . Campaigning a few miles from Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, Tim Scott described last week how he was born into poverty and a broken home, much like Barack Obama. But the conclusions that Scott, 45, drew were very different from those of Obama. When he was 15, a man who ran a Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurant taught him "that there was a way to think my way out...

Barack Obama Must Stop Campaigning And Start Governing President Barack Obama still steems to be running for office, rather than running the country, says Toby Harnden Toby Harnden 24 Oct 2009 Barack Obama retains the style of a campaigner, even in office. Perhaps we should not be surprised that the land of the permanent campaign has produced a president like Barack Obama. During his White House bid, Mr Obama's staff argued that his masterful oversight of the machinery that ultimately got him elected was his highest achievement. In many respects this was true, though Mr Obama was more chairman than...

Gazing through the telescopic sight of his M24 rifle, Staff Sgt Jim Gilliland, leader of Shadow sniper team, fixed his eye on the Iraqi insurgent who had just killed an American soldier. His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a hospital in battle-torn Ramadi, still clasping a long-barrelled Kalashnikov. Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow's commander aimed 12 feet high. Click to enlarge A single shot hit the Iraqi in the chest and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of 1,250 metres, well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold...

UPDATE 2-Zimbabwe blocks bail order for jailed UK journalists (edits) By Stella Mapenzauswa NORTON, Zimbabwe, April 4 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe prosecutors on Monday blocked a magistrate's order granting bail to two British journalists arrested last week on charges of working without official permission. The Sunday Telegraph's chief foreign correspondent Toby Harnden and photographer Julian Simmonds were immediately taken from the court in Norton to a prison in the capital Harare. They were arrested last Thursday, the day of Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections. Earlier on Monday, magistrate Never Diza had set their trial for Tuesday and granted bail of 1 million Zimbabwe...