Free Republic

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question...

The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was "deeply concerned" by Israel's plans to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank following a deadly attack on a settler family, calling Israeli settlements "illegitimate" and an obstacle to peacemaking. In a rare interview to the Israeli media, the Palestinian president reached out to the Israeli public, decrying the weekend attack in the settlement of Itamar as "despicable, immoral and inhuman." But he rejected the Israeli suggestion that his government was indirectly to blame. While the country was still reeling from the gruesome attack, in which two parents and three young...

Obama praised Mubarak for announcing he would not seek reelection in September, but said more was needed. The key question for Mubarak is "How do I leave a legacy behind?" Obama said. "How do I get through this transformative period? I hope he makes the right decision." "The only thing that is going to work is moving to an orderly transition process, right now," the president said, adding that change must also be responsive to the grievances of people. President Obama on Friday stopped short of urging President Hosni Mubarak to step down from power but made it clear that...