Free Republic

All Washington state wants for Christmas is a new governor.Just when it seems as if Indecision 2004 could not get more serpentine, surreal or saddled with conspiracy theories, some monstrosity, like a fanged beast from an old black-and-white movie, jumps out. The latest twist involves bloodsuckers with briefcases: lawyers. Attorneys and political consultants are now scrambling after the results of a second recount yesterday gave Democrat Christine Gregoire a 130-vote edge. That margin appears to give her a decisive victory over Republican Dino Rossi in the closest and most bizarre governor's race in American history.Legal shrieks and cries of electoral...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - Democratic leaders say their party needs to de-emphasize the issue of abortion rights, concerned that Republicans have hurt the Democratic Party by portraying it as an uncompromising champion of abortion. In interviews and public appearances since Election Day, Democratic officials have said that the party should open its doors to abortion opponents and that candidates should make abortion a less central focus of future campaigns. Party leaders said they were not abandoning their fundamental support for abortion rights, but said Democrats should consider accepting some restrictions that enjoy popular support - like parental notification when teenagers...

HARTFORD, Conn. - New England states making more, giving less Mississippi retains its title as the most giving state for the eighth consecutive year, according to the 2004 Generosity Index created by Catalogue for Philanthropy. Following right behind are Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee. New England residents continue to earn more and give back less, according to the annual index of charitable giving. Connecticut ranks first when it comes to making money, but joins New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island in falling to the very bottom of the 2004 Index. The survey is based on the average adjusted income...

Rowland Plea Deal Expected 8:26 AM EST,December 23, 2004 By JON LENDER, The Hartford Courant Former Gov. John G. Rowland, who resigned July 1 amid a scandal over his acceptance of gifts and favors from state contractors and others, is expected to appear today in U.S. District Court in New Haven to enter a guilty plea under an agreement that would send him to jail, the Courant has learned. The potential plea is the result of sensitive plea negotiations between Rowland and federal prosecutors who were gearing up to seek an indictment of the Republican former governor early next year...

John F. Kerry has indicated through sources close to the Democrat party that he intends file papers supporting the Green Party/Libertarian Party recount effort in Ohio. Kerry's filings will consist of a request for expedited discovery as it pertains to a voting machine system known as Triad Systems, and secondly, a motion for a preservation order to preserve evidence in the same matter. These filings are to be made in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Rep. John Conyer of Michigan and the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, has plans to ask...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - President Bush plans to renominate 20 candidates for federal judgeships who have been unable to win confirmation in the Senate, the White House said today, in a signal that the president is ready for a showdown early next year. "An effective and efficient judicial system is vital to ensuring justice for all Americans," the White House said. "The president nominated highly qualified individuals to the federal courts during his first term, but the Senate failed to vote on many nominations." Senate Democrats have maintained for months that they have routinely confirmed nominees who are not right-wing...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- A woman pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of threatening President Bush. A grand jury indicted Catherine M. Guertin, 24, in August and she was arrested the next month. Her guilty plea was entered as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors, according to court documents. The threats were made in May while Guertin was living in Independence, the indictment says. The woman allegedly threatened Bush by saying, "I want him gone" and "If I ever have a gun, I will shoot him between the eyes."

ABC Deceivingly Paints Bush Haters as Average Military Families In a Sunday night ABC story, the brother and mother of soldiers killed in Iraq denounced Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for having an auto-pen machine sign his letters of condolence. But while World News Tonight/Sunday anchor Terry Moran portrayed the two as representative of how "some military families" are "upset" with Rumsfeld, the two are dedicated Bush and Rumsfeld haters with a political axe to grind. Ivan Medina spoke in June at a pro-Fahrenheit 9/11 publicity event and in May took part in an anti-Rumsfeld protest where he charged: "This...

Choose which conservative website is imbecilic, idiotic, and created and visited by cretins. ALL OF THEM!, None of them, newsmax.com, lucianne.com, gopusa.com, foxnews.com, drudgereport.com, freerepublic.com, michaelsavage.com, rushlimbaugh.com Ballot #19581: has 24 total votes.

Buoyed by the defeat of a planned black bear hunt this year, one animal rights group has announced it has a statewide hunting ban in its sights. The newly formed Animal Protection Political Action Committee hopes to craft a network of more than 50,000 voters to oppose pro-hunting legislation and candidates. It's creation comes less than one week after the state Supreme Court halted the six-day bruin season, ruling Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell had the authority to stop it. "The (National Rifle Association) and all these other groups pull together all of these people who are 100...

Red Alert to all Dino Rossi supporters!!!Rally for Dino this Sunday the 19th in Bellevue at 2:30 PM!!!330 112th Ave. NE, at the corner of 112th Ave. NE & NE 4th St.Christine Gregoire's allies in the Democratic Party are planning a protest in front of Rossi headquarters in Bellevue tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 19. Please help us send the message that we must only count legal votes, and that the rules can't be changed midway through the recount! The Gregoire people are showing up to protest at 3 PM, so please be at Rossi HQ by 2:30 PM. Feel free to...

The American Civil Liberties Union is using sophisticated technology to collect a wide variety of information about its members and donors in a fund-raising effort that has ignited a bitter debate over its leaders' commitment to privacy rights. Some board members say the extensive data collection makes a mockery of the organization's frequent criticism of banks, corporations and government agencies for their practice of accumulating data on people for marketing and other purposes. Daniel S. Lowman, vice president for analytical services at Grenzebach Glier & Associates, the data firm hired by the A.C.L.U., said the software the organization is using,...

Earlier this year, Tom DeLay correctly diagnosed the disease that infects his congressional majority. "If 1994 was the year we stopped thinking like a permanent minority," DeLay told Republicans gathered for a February party retreat in Philadelphia, "2004 is the year we start thinking like a permanent majority: unified, aggressive, rightfully confident of victory." DeLay, of course, thought permanent-majority status would be a good thing for the GOP, but nine months later he's become the symbol of a party corrupted by its lock on power. When House Republicans voted last month to allow members who have been indicted to keep...

The first thing that crossed my mind when ethics charges were lodged against Rep. Tom DeLay (R., Texas) was: "I wish Mary McGrory were still alive." McGrory, the pungent liberal columnist who died last April at the age of 85, was, improbably enough, a Tom DeLay fan. Why did this scourge of Nixon and Reagan appreciate "the Hammer" from Texas? She liked him because she was able to put aside partisan and philosophical differences in the name of a greater good. That greater good was a love of children. McGrory volunteered at St. Anne's Infant and Maternity Home and was...

<p>There is one group out there counting civilian casualties in a way that's tangible, specific, and very useful—a team of mainly British researchers, led by Hamit Dardagan and John Sloboda, called Iraq Body Count. They have kept a running total of civilian deaths, derived entirely from press reports. Their count is triple fact-checked; their database is itemized and fastidiously sourced; and they take great pains to separate civilian from combatant casualties (for instance, last Tuesday, the group released a report estimating that, of the 800 Iraqis killed in last April's siege of Fallujah, 572 to 616 of them were civilians, at least 308 of them women and children).</p>

Dear Michael, Will the real Michael Moore ever re-emerge and shut the door on the theatre of the absurd? Weeks of standing before large college audiences mixing a portion of book and movie promotions with a message that was more laughable than producing laughter.Now that you no longer have to pose as a 'least worster' with no more tatical excuses, what is your post election confession? So far your website has dodged this question, unless that is you have no reflections on the merit of abandoning your principals and your authentically progressive friends for candidates--US Sens. John Kerry & John...

The following documents will form the vasis for the filing of a petition to recall Christine Gregoire should she steal the election for governor for the state of Washington. Many people at Free republic have been aware of my fight against corruptyion with the government and courts of the state of Washington, including racketeering by Gov. Locke, AG Gregoire and even the Chief Justice of the state supreme court. Unfortunately the FBI and US Attorney, even though they have admitted to me in telephone conversations that the Chief Justice of the Washington state supreme court has been obstructing justice in...

<p>BC-APNewsAlert,0039 TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A judge has granted a Republican request to block elections officials from counting hundreds of recently discovered King County ballots in the Washington governor's race.</p>

Republicans announced plans Thursday morning to sue King County over 573 newly discovered ballots that could change the outcome of the closest governor's race in Washington state history. The county's Canvassing Board voted Wednesday to prepare the 573 absentee ballots for inclusion in the hand recount, over the objections of Republicans who urged the county to investigate the ballots first. State GOP Chairman Chris Vance said Thursday the party would seek a court order Thursday afternoon in Pierce County, aimed at slowing down the processing of the previously rejected ballots to allow them to be better tracked and verified. Specifically,...

BELLEVUE -- The latest flare-up over Christmas trees in public places has longtime Bellevue chiropractor and resident Sidney Stock protesting the large tree standing in the lobby of City Hall. The tree is a symbol of Christianity, Stock and his wife, Jennifer, told City Council members this week. They said it is inappropriate to display symbols of any religion in a public place. Their objection follows a recent flap over Christmas trees at branch libraries in the King County Library System, which first banned trees then decided to allow them at the discretion of branch librarians. ``I think it's inappropriate,''...