Free Republic

Rolling coverage of the third night of violent disturbances in London, with arson and looting reported at several locations across the capital.

After Tuesday night’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election, a computer error in heavily Republican Waukesha County failed to send election results for the entire City of Brookfield to the Associated Press. The error, revealed today, would give incumbent Supreme Court Justice David Prosser a net 7,381 votes against his challenger, attorney Joanne Kloppenburg. On Wednesday, Kloppenburg declared victory after the AP reported she finished the election with a 204-vote lead, out of nearly 1.5 million votes cast. On election night, AP results showed a turnout of 110,000 voters in Waukesha County — well short of the 180,000 voters that turned out...

More negative consequences for Rep. Bart Stupak, D-MI, flowing from his agreeing to support Obamacare tonight following President Obama's issuance of an Executive Order allegedly insuring that no federal funds will be used to pay for abortions. "This Wednesday night is our third annual Campaign for Life Gala, where we were planning to honor Congressman Stupak for his efforts to keep abortion-funding out of health care reform- we will no longer be doing so," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List Fund. "By accepting this deal from the most pro-abortion President in American history, Stupak has not...

Just alerted on FNC. Apparently prayer in D.C. is now illegal.

A new InsiderAdvantage poll conducted exclusively for POLITICO shows Republican Scott Brown surging to a nine-point advantage over Martha Coakley a day before Massachusetts voters trek to the ballot box to choose a new senator. According to the survey conducted Sunday evening, Brown leads the Democratic attorney general 52 percent to 43 percent. "I actually think the bottom is falling out," said InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery, referring to Coakley's fall in the polls over the last ten days. "I think that this candidate is in freefall. Clearly this race is imploding for her." The numbers show males and independents overwhelmingly...

Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 51-46 in our final Massachusetts Senate poll, an advantage that is within the margin of error for the poll. Over the last week Brown has continued his dominance with independents and increased his ability to win over Obama voters as Coakley's favorability numbers have declined into negative territory. At the same time Democratic leaning voters have started to take more interest in the election, a trend that if it continues in the final 36 hours of the campaign could put her over the finish line. Here's what we found: -Brown is up 64-32 with independents...

At approximately 4:30 p.m. today, rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Democrat of Florida, appeared with Gregg Jarrett on Fox News Channel. As part of her prepared talking lies she repeated the falsehood that Scott Brown "voted to deny rape kits to rape victims," "refused to insure his own employees" (he has no employees, and so on. Jarrett asked her why, then, did Coakley lose her lead, and Wasserman-Schultz erupted in a sputterstorm before stridently returning to whatever she had been given to memorize. I am truly hoping that someone caught this and can YouTube it or otherwise make it available, because it...

Elizabeth Berry's Blog: McCain's Selection of Palin is Lipstick on a Pig Palin does not change one single thing of what the Republicans are offering which is four more years of George Bush. All that McCain did was to put lipstick on the Pig (the Bush Administration whose failed strategies have wrecked our nation). Nothing has changed except for an exciting and sexy dash of lipstick to freshen up their tired old face of more of the same. The same people who do not like the Bush Administration for what it has done to this nation are not going to...

Earthquake Details Magnitude 7.2 Date-Time Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 22:33:01 UTCFriday, March 21, 2008 at 06:33:01 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 35.424°N, 81.386°E Depth 37.2 km (23.1 miles) Region XINJIANG-XIZANG BORDER REGION Distances 230 km (140 miles) SE of Hotan, Xinjiang, China375 km (235 miles) ENE of Leh, Kashmir615 km (385 miles) ENE of Srinagar, Kashmir3105 km (1930 miles) W of BEIJING, Beijing, China Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 6.6 km (4.1 miles); depth +/- 10.2 km (6.3 miles) Parameters NST=134, Nph=134, Dmin=962.1 km, Rmss=0.89 sec, Gp= 54°,M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7 Source USGS...

One of the most eloquent and moving tributes to our armed forces that I have ever seen. Flash plug-in is required. As is, if you are anything like me, a handkerchief.

Yasser Arafat is brain dead, according to Israeli television quoting French sources. The Palestinian leader's health has been reported to be deteriorating by the hour but there is still no official confirmation of his death.

How to hold off your opponent until the cavalry arrives. By: Marcel Matley E-mail: mmatley@aol.com In many western movies a wagon train moves across the prairie. Success looms just over the horizon, when suddenly they are ambushed by Indians. The wagons circle in a desperate fight against all odds. One brave fellow breaks out to make a run to the fort, which fortunately is just across the hills in the next valley. In the nick of time before all hope fades, and just in time for dinner if not afternoon tea, the cavalry arrives with flags flying and bugles blaring....

DOCUMENTS CITED Wednesday by 60 Minutes in a widely-publicized expose of George W. Bush's National Guard Service are very likely forgeries, according to several experts on document authenticity and typography. The documents--four memos from Killian to himself or his files written in 1972 and 1973--appear to indicate that Bush refused or ignored orders to have a physical exam required to continue flying. CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported the segment and sourced the documents this way: "60 Minutes has obtained a number of documents we are told were taken from Col. Killian's personal file," he said. The 60 Minutes story...

Both candidates gave speeches late on Thursday night. George W. Bush was more or less expected to. John Kerry didn't have to, but reported for duty even though nobody wanted him to. Unnerved by sagging numbers, he decided to start the post-Labor Day phase of the campaign three days before Labor Day. The way things are going, Democrats seem likely to be launching the post-election catastrophic-defeat vicious-recriminations phase of the campaign round about Sept. 12. At any rate, less than 60 minutes after President Bush gave a sober, graceful, droll and moving address, Kerry decided to hit back. In the...

Blustery winds and chilly raindrops thinned the crowd that flocked to Seattle Hempfest on Saturday and made it difficult to flick their Bics. But the gloomy weather didn't stop the hundreds gathered at the main stage at Myrtle Edwards Park from engaging in a ceremonial toke at 4:20 p.m. Vivian McPeak, one of Hempfest's directors, stood below a large "Seattle Hempfest" banner and large pot leaf cutouts in the moments leading up to the most universally recognized toke time. "Let's do it right now," the animated McPeak said before leading the soggy throng in a countdown and in spelling out...

SEATTLE -- More than 150,000 denizens of the Northwest will gather this weekend in a waterfront park for Hempfest, billed as the largest promarijuana gathering in the country, to listen to speeches from the biggest names in the national drug-law reform movement between band sets and bong hits. But this year, attendees will hear an explicitly partisan message, too: Organizers are pushing pot smokers to help elect Senator John F. Kerry president. The size of Hempfest indicates the potential power of the pro-pot vote, particularly in the Northwest, reformers said.

One of the characteristic behaviors of the left is the big lie, the false attack on your opponent for something that you have done yourself. With John Kerry, this tendency is combined with a uniquely highly developed case of tone-deafness, an insensibility to context, which in turn is a symptom, it seems to me, of his impenetrable self-regard and sense of entitlement. The other day Kerry attacked President Bush for having continued to read to the Florida school children for several minutes after getting word that the second plane had hit the World Trade Center. All other things being equal,...

Secondhand, from an Iranian: I am listening to KRSI (Radio Sedaye Iran) right now. There are many Iranians calling (from Tehran, and Gorgan, etc.). All reports indicate that almost every neighborhood in Tehran is on fire. People are throwing home-made bombs, Molotov cocktails, etc. into the homes of mullahs, and burning pictures of Khamenei in complete defiance of his recent edict to mourn during the month of Muharram. Background: Khamenei delivered a declaration (not really a fatwa, although some say it was) to Iranians to honor the month of Muharram, which started about two weeks ago, and to mourn and...

Monologist Spalding Gray, known to most normal people chiefly for his appearance in David Byrne's 1986 True Stories, has been found dead in the East River at lower Manhattan. Gray disappeared two months ago; speculation at the time was that he was a suicide and had leapt from the Staten Island Ferry.

Attorney General John Ashcroft was hospitalized today for what was described as "severe stomach pains." This according to CNBC. No further information was immediately available.