Free Republic

Arson destroyed an antebellum plantation house that served as the governor’s mansion for nine months during the Civil War and damaged a museum less than a mile away on Thursday, the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office said. The Old Governor’s Mansion burned to the ground, but the fire at the Louisiana Orphan Train Museum apparently burned out fairly quickly, said Brant Thompson, chief deputy for the fire marshal’s office. Museum workers found fire damage when they arrived for work Thursday morning, he said. …

The Democrats say that there is no reason to require voters to present identification, nor is any other measure to curb voter fraud needed. They should meet one of their own, Opelousas, La., Mayor Don Cravins Sr. While speaking on Nov. 3, the day before the midterm elections, Cravins told a gathering, "If you 'early voted'" for Sen. Mary Landrieu, "go vote again tomorrow. One more time's not going to hurt." In Louisiana, voters can go to the polls early, which Cravins sees as an invitation to stuff the ballots. But he's not worried about breaking the law. In the...

Opelousas Sen. Elbert Guillory has jumped to the Republican Party, becoming Louisiana's only black state senator in the GOP. Guillory announced Friday that he's leaving the Democratic Party. A spokeswoman for the Secretary of State's Office said Guillory filed paperwork on Wednesday registering as a Republican. The state GOP says Guillory is Louisiana's first black Republican state senator since Reconstruction.

The vile and repugnant Jason Whitlock just keeps the hits on coming. His ignorant screed denigrating our civil rights following an incident where a Kansas City Chiefs NFL player slayed his wife and then went to the Chief’s training area to thank his coach before doing society a favor and offing himself was offensive enough to America’s one hundred plus million gun owners. Jason’s Whitlock’s inner racist bigotry was out for all to see in subsequent remarks he made, equating the National Rifle Association and America’s gun owners with the Ku Klux Klan. Here is what the knuckle-dragging racist bigot...