Free Republic

Secretary of State William Galvin has opened an investigation into allegations that a large number of East Longmeadow voters had their party affiliations changed without permission. Town officials were notified Friday that Galvin’s office is looking into voter registration fraud for the upcoming Sept. 6 primary. The investigation will determine if a large number of voter registrations “were improperly altered and changed ... in violation of law,” according to Michelle K. Tassinari, director of the office’s election division. “Secretary Galvin considers this a matter of urgent circumstance,” she added. Brian S. McNiff, a spokesman for Galvin, would not say how...

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.” The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) have filed suit in...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Walt Disney Co.'s 1946 film "Song of the South" was historic. It was Disney's first big live-action picture and produced one of the company's most famous songs _ the Oscar-winning "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." It also carries the story line of the Splash Mountain rides at its theme parks. But the movie remains hidden in the Disney archives _ never released on video in the United States and criticized as racist for its depiction of Southern plantation blacks. The film's 60th anniversary passed last year without a whisper of official rerelease, which is unusual for Disney, but President and CEO...

'Song of the South' pits art vs. cultural sensitivity http://www.charleston.net/assets/webPages/departmental/news/Stories.aspx?section=localnews&tableId=136791&pubDate=3/31/2007 http://tinyurl.com/2w5vty BY RON MENCHACA The Post and Courier Talk of a possible re-release of the 1946 Walt Disney film 'Song of the South,' which is criticized for its plantation-era depictions of blacks as the happy servants of wealthy whites, already is sparking a debate. The film was reshown in theaters as recently as 1986, but it never was released on video in the United States. Its cultural and cinematic significance have been the subject of scholarly debate for decades, and bootlegged copies of the film are popular on the black...

IN the last few years, it has seemed that perhaps America's long-buried history of blackface is being allowed to peek out of the closet. Bob Dylan named his most recent studio album "Love and Theft," after Eric Lott's landmark 1993 study of the form; and in his curious 2003 film, "Masked and Anonymous," Dylan even got Ed Harris to "black up" for a scene. Spike Lee also explored the subject in "Bamboozled," and competing biographies of Stepin Fetchit joined "Where Dead Voices Gather," Nick Tosches' meditation on the minstrel superstar Emmett Miller, on bookshelves. "Old Dan Tucker," the opening track...

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Two former America West Airlines pilots surrendered Thursday on federal charges of being under the influence of alcohol while they were behind the controls of a passenger aircraft. Capt. Thomas Cloyd and co-pilot Christopher Hughes appeared Thursday afternoon before a U.S. magistrate and were released on $100,000 bond each. The federal grand jury indictment was unsealed Wednesday. If convicted, each man could be sentenced to as many as 15 years in prison and fined up to $250,000. Both men were declared indigent by the magistrate and were given public defenders. James Rubin, an attorney who...