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Ari Melber ✔ @AriMelber This is what Presidents can do sometimes -- summon a *moral* authority to ask a nation to rethink race, guns, economic inequality... 12:18 PM - 26 Jun 2015 Naturally! President Obama was in Charleston today to eulogize Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people slain in the Charleston massacre. Well, that’s what he was ostensibly there for. It didn’t take long for the occasion to change direction:

Matthew 5:9 says “Blessed are the peacemakers” and it would appear Pastor Clementa Pinckney was definitely one of those. While the mainstream media is decrying the fact that the Charleston shooting victim’s body was carried past a Confederate flag today, the good pastor may not have found it all that offensive. In 2000, during his first term in the South Carolina State Senate, Pinckney actually voted in favor of H5028, the May 2000 compromise which placed the flag at its current location. H5028 related to THE PERMANENT PLACEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES FLAG, THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE FLAG, AND THE...

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will attend the funeral services for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, according to a White House official. Obama will deliver the eulogy, the official confirmed to The Post and Courier.

An NRA official blames the massacre at a South Carolina church on the slain pastor's anti-gun position.

One suspect is in custody Suspect identified as Dylann Roof Nine dead after ‘hate crime’ attack on historic black church Pastor Clementa Pinckney named among the dead Share your accounts with GuardianWitness What we know so far

I can't post the tweet images in here, so you'd have to find those at the site. Prayers. "I hate that this is where we are in this country. I hate that a reprehensible, stomach-turning act like the Charleston shooting ever takes place. I hate the vitriolic responses to it on twitter. And I really, really hate that I have to write something, anything other than: My prayers are with the victim’s families, and America this morning. I also really hate that that statement in and of itself will generate controversy. There was a time in this country where we...

Every time an American community suffers a tragedy involving a firearm, the anti-gun crowd unveils itself in full tribal dress. Wednesday night, a 21-year-old sandy blonde-haired white man with blue jeans and Timberland boots walked into a historically black church in Charleston, S.C. and killed 9 people.  That’s a horrible, murderous act, made worse by the fact that the man is still at large. The New York Times reported S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s statement about the tragedy. "While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we’ll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one...

Police are searching for a gunman who opened fire Wednesday night at a historic African American church in downtown Charleston, S.C. Charleston officials said nine people were killed and others were injured. “I do believe this is a hate crime,” Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said at a late night news conference, without explaining the basis for his conclusion. Police said the victims had gathered Wednesday night in the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston for a prayer meeting when the shooting occurred. Police are now searching for the suspect, described as a clean-shaven white male in...

Charleston shooting: Reports of shooting at church

Three Jasper County election commissioners who were notified in May they were not being reappointed have been informed by state Sen. Clementa Pinckney that their removal was never a formal decision by the county’s legislative delegation. Pinckney, D-Jasper County, says they are still members of the commission. On May 26, delegation chairman Bill Herbkersman sent letters to Rev. Donald Sheftall, Patricia Walls and Lillian King stating that their services were no longer needed because of background checks by the governor’s office. “We have been informed by the Governor’s office that due to the circumstances and or credit reported, you have...

A teenager who killed a mother and her son in their Dale City home during a botched burglary -- a chilling crime that the teen called a "mishap" Friday -- will spend the rest of his life in prison. Xavier Pinckney, 18, was sentenced Friday to life without the possibility of parole for the December 2008 shootings of James M. Smith, 19, a college student who had just returned home for a holiday break, and Smith's mother, Jean, 39. Pinckney, then a junior at C.D. Hylton Senior High School, climbed through a window in the Smiths' home on the afternoon...

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) returned to San Diego Feb. 24, after a five-month deployment to the Western Pacific in support of the global war on terrorism (GWOT). Pinckney made port visits to Guam, Singapore, Australia, Fiji and Hawaii. While in Guam, Pinckney became the first guided-missile destroyer to refuel and replenish the Mark Five (MK V), a high-performance combatant craft used by Navy SEALs. Pinckney was also the first DDG to embark two HH-60H Seahawk helicopters with their detachment, 20 Marine Corps personnel of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) detachment...

Vote No: Schools must live within means Friday, April 29, 2005 BY KEN MOILANEN Special to The News Those proclaiming the "critical" need for additional school funding tell only part of the story. Here is a different perspective. Here is ... the rest of the story. Thomas Watkins, recent state superintendent of public instruction, had it right when he stated in his Dec. 6, 2004, Michigan School Funding report that "calls to raise taxes to fund education without a systematic overhaul will only serve to maintain the status quo. For our children's sake, this is unacceptable." He further said that...

Opposition group says 'this is a huge tax increase' By Christopher Nagy DAILY PRESS & ARGUS (snip) The upcoming countywide enhancement millage has been a different sort of animal, though, with dozens of opposition letters submitted to the Daily Press & Argus and a fully formed opposition group taking to the streets to counter the messages of pro-millage groups. Cohoctah Township resident Bill Johnston, who formed the Concerned Taxpayers Group in hopes of defeating the May 3 proposal, said a variety of factors play into the groundswell against this particular millage. "First of all, for the taxpayers, this is going...

Millage for survival? Districts' officials say they are trying to buy time for revamping of school funding Friday, March 25, 2005 BY LISA CAROLIN News Staff Reporter Officially, the 3-mill school tax levy that Livingston County voters will decide May 3 is called an enhancement millage. If approved, an additional $19.767 million will be spread among the county's five public school districts to help pay for operations. But school officials call it a survival millage. They argue that the three-year levy will allow the current educational program to survive another three years. They hope that will be long enough for...

4 districts support millage Countywide measure would shore up school operating budgets Friday, January 28, 2005 BY LEANNE SMITH, STEPHENIE KOEHN AND LISA CAROLIN News Staff Reporters Four county school districts where officials have openly supported a countywide enhancement millage have given their blessing to placing the measure to a vote on May 3. School boards in Pinckney, Howell, Brighton and Hartland voted Monday to support the measure, which would bring a three-year, 3-mill tax to all county districts to help shore up operating budgets in light of state budget cuts. Local school officials say the millage would be a...

4 districts unify for bond vote All but Fowlerville to give support Jan. 24 Friday, January 14, 2005 BY LEANNE SMITH News Staff Reporters A resolution supporting a countywide enhancement millage is expected to be adopted Jan. 24 by four Livingston County school districts. Officials and board members in Brighton, Hartland, Howell and Pinckney hope this show of solidarity for the 3-mill levy demonstrates just how important the millage is to their schools' survival, said Pinckney Superintendent Mike Couchman. "We agreed we all need to do this together," Couchman said. "This spirit of solidarity is very encouraging." The resolution supports...

Millage election proposed for May Howell, others eye countywide plan to beef up local school funding Wednesday, January 7, 2005 BY STEPHENIE KOEHN News Staff Reporter The particulars of a long-discussed regional school enhancement millage were spelled out Monday when the Howell Board of Education got a look at the draft of a resolution calling for a countywide May election to bolster school funding locally. The proposal asks voters for a 3-mill increase in property taxes for three years, from 2005-2007. School districts countywide have been considering the wisdom of requesting a millage seeking a temporary increase in property taxes...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

At least three sailors were killed and dozens more were injured after a bus carrying Navy people to a wreath-laying ceremony collided with a tractor-trailer today about 20 miles north of Beaufort, S.C. The sailors – part of the precommissioning unit of the guided missile cruiser Pinckney -- were traveling from Charleston, S.C., to attend a wreath-laying ceremony at Beaufort National Cemetery, according to a news release from the Navy's U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Two dozen sailors were treated at area hospitals, and 47 others suffered minor injuries, the release said. Names of the sailors killed in the accident are...