Free Republic

Lincoln County, West Virginia, is a poor place whose chief export is Chuck Yeager. What it lacks in money, Lincoln County adds in entertainment. Its elections are liar’s poker among the Democratic Party factions. There are too few Republicans to matter, and so it is the Democratic Party primaries where the cheating occurs. For 14 years, Democratic County Assessor Jerry Weaver and Democratic Circuit Clerk Greg Stowers fixed elections. The feds caught them. They went to prison. Jerry Weaver got out and decided to run for sheriff. He figured since the current sheriff Democrat Jerry Bowman and his buddy, Democratic...

1. First off, what made you want to run for President in this election? Well, I was sincerely hoping that a better-known Democrat would enter the fray, a candidate of some national stature. My personal preference would have been former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, whose talents are largely being wasted in academia. We need him in Washington. I also believe that Rep. Dennis Kucinich would have been an articulate spokesman for the progressive values that so many Democrats hold near and dear, or possibly economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Jeffrey D. Sachs...

Three candidates have paid the $2,500 filing fee to appear on the Texas Democratic presidential primary. Besides President Obama, they are Darcy Richardson of Florida, and Bob Ely of Illinois. The web page for Richardson is darcy2012.com. The web page for Ely is workmorekeepless.com. It is possible others will qualify, because the deadline is not until Monday, December 19. Thanks to Jim Riley for this news.

Two of the Democratic Party’s core institutions are challenging a bipartisan consensus on Israel and Palestine that has dominated American foreign policy for more than a decade. The Center for American Progress, the party’s key hub of ideas and strategy, and Media Matters, a central messaging organization, have emerged as vocal critics of their party’s staunchly pro-Israel congressional leadership and have been at odds, at times, with Barack Obama’s White House, which has acted as a reluctant ally to Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government. The differences are ones of tone – but also of bright lines of principle – and while...

As of mid-day, October 21, only two individuals have filed to be on the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, Barack Obama and Darcy G. Richardson. However, filing doesn’t close until October 28. Darcy Richardson is the author of six books, all non-fiction books involving U.S. political history. He lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and has recently worked in the financial services industry. He has extensive political experience, and he frequently blogs at UncoveredPolitics.

Democratic Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani has publicly come out as a lesbian. In an interview, the 47-year-old Livingtson Democrat told the Stockton Record that it was not until after her 2006 election to the Assembly that she knew she was gay. Galgiani told the newspaper that she hoped talking about her life would provide support for youth dealing with issues related to their own sexual identity.

White House kept Democratic senators hanging on phoneBy Alexander Bolton - 10/04/11 05:30 AM ET President Obama’s relations with Senate Democratic leaders are deteriorating along with his poll numbers. With Obama’s approval ratings at record lows and the 2012 electoral map favoring Senate Republicans, the president and Senate Democrats are, in many ways, on divergent paths. Vulnerable Democrats from red states see Obama as impeding their chances of winning reelection, while the president often seems aloof to their concerns. Obama, focused on winning a second term, has distanced himself from Congress altogether, at times not making the distinction between Republicans...

Out of the hundreds of out-of-work employees, vendors, investors and other creditors in the bankruptcy of government-backed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, one name stands out: the California Democratic Party. Why California Democrats would be creditor to a company that received more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans to build a solar-panel plant isn’t clear. Even party officials say they’re not sure. The California Democratic Party’s communications director, Tenoch Flores, said the organization was not owed “any funds in any form” by the California-based company. He said he was unclear why the party would be listed as a creditor in...

Democratic Party fundraising slumps in AugustREUTERS/Kevin Lamarque updated 9/11/2011 12:17:41 AM ET **SNIP** Both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and President Barack Obama's re-election campaign were forced to curtail fundraising during the summer because of the negotiations with congressional Republicans over raising the debt limit, which led Obama to cancel fundraisers around the country. **SNIP** Democratic Party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who led her first full committee meeting, said the party needs to rally behind Obama's $447 billion jobs plan aimed at jump-starting the economy and hiring, as well as his own re-election prospects. "There is only one job the...

A prominent Democratic campaign treasurer who works for federal, state and O.C. lawmakers including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Rep. Loretta Sanchez and state Assemblymen Lou Correa and Jose Solorio has been arrested by the FBI on suspicion of mail fraud, The Orange County Register has learned. U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Thom Mrozek confirmed Saturday afternoon that Kinde Durkee of Burbank-based Durkee and Associates, was arrested by the FBI on a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento. Special Agent Steve Dupre of the bureau’s Sacramento office said she was arrested in connection with her position as a...

The Orange County Register is reporting that federal authorities have arrested a Burbank-based campaign treasurer for a number of Democratic politicians, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Garden Grove.

Outgoing National Labor Relations Board chairwoman Wilma Liebman thinks critics of the NLRB’s recent policies have blown their complaints “grossly out of proportion to what has happened and what has been done.” “We knew we were going to have a boxing match, but we didn’t expect our opponents to come in with a baseball bat,” Liebman, a Democrat, told The New York Times. The NLRB has come under fire during President Obama’s administration for favoring unions. The Board has traditionally swung with political tides, but critics say this time around it’s different. The NLRB has plowed forward with unprecedented cases,...

More than a dozen trade unions are planning to sit out the 2012 Democratic convention because they are angry it will be held in a right-to-work state. The unions say they are disappointed that labor wasn't consulted before Democrats settled on North Carolina, a state that is considered one of the least union-friendly in the nation. They are also frustrated that job creation hasn't been a higher priority for Democratic lawmakers. The unions include the Laborers, Painters and Electrical Workers. The move would deprive the party of millions of dollars spent on sky boxes and other sponsorships that usually help...

Fire destroys Democratic recall group's headquartersLa Crosse Tribune Posted: Sunday, July 31, 2011 8:36 am A fire in downtown La Crosse on Saturday destroyed local headquarters for We Are Wisconsin, a Democratic organizing group, in addition to some apartments. No injuries were reported. A cause hasn't been identified, fire officials said. Firefighters began battling the blaze about 9:30 a.m. We Are Wisconsin staff were inside when the fire broke out and escaped safely, group spokeswoman Kelly Steele said. Peggy Hatfield and Cathy Dunaway of Madison noticed the blaze while getting coffee near the building about 10 a.m. "You could see...

With all of the spotlights on the high-stakes debt maneuverings by President Obama and Speaker John Boehner the last few days, few people noticed what Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders said: "I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition." This is political treason 469 days before a presidential election. Now, comes a new ABC News/Washington Post poll with a whole harvest of revelations, among them, strong indications that Obama's liberal base is starting to crumble. Among the nuggets: Despite those hundreds of billions of blown stimulus dollars and almost as many upturn promises from...

When this episode in the American saga is written, historians will note that Barack Obama did not kill the Democratic Party; he was merely the murder weapon. He represents the Democrats’ suicide cocktail of hubris and a tyrannical lust for power, the arrogance of thinking themselves above the law. American politicians and journalists have degenerated so far that it is now possible for a President of the United States to present a clearly forged document on national television and no one blinks an eye. We have an illegal President, a Congress that tolerates criminal acts, and an intentionally impotent judiciary...

But the charge from Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is evidence of the political nervousness among Democratic governors looking ahead to 2012 after their ranks were thinned in the last election. It also hints at the tenuous control the president has over jobs and the economy, the issues certain to dominate the elections. "I think that there is an extreme wing within their party who have as their primary goal not the jobs recovery, but the defeat of President Obama in 2012," O'Malley said in an interview. "They know that their formulations, their policies of less revenues and less regulation badly...

New documents disclosed in a complaint from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) appear to show California Democrat Rep. Laura Richardson and her staff clearly violating congressional ethics rules and potentially federal law. The documents show Richardson using official taxpayer resources for political events, including fundraisers. “Rep. Richardson didn’t just violate House rules, she likely committed crimes,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director. In one instance, Richardson’s chief of staff, Shirley Cooks, told all of Richardson’s aides in an email from her official House account, “All staff are required to attend” a fundraiser held Sept....

Whither the Dems? Why NO call for Weiner to resign? The behavior of the Democrat leadership after Weiner’s presser yesterday afternoon is probably MORE bizarre that the congressman’s risky behavior…sending lewd pics of himself to women in cyberspace. If you think about it, it makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever. It is a LOSE/LOSE proposition for them. And thus, it’s reasonable to inquire if there is indeed something in the Dem/liberal DNA, psyche, ethos, whatever, that makes them behave in this way. Comparisons have already been made as to how Boehner handled the fairly comparable Chris Lee incident. He was gone...

DEMONIC: THE LIBERAL MOB ENDANGERING AMERICA CHAPTER 10 (excerpt) CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE MOB: GEORGE WALLACE, BULL CONNOR, ORVAL FAUBUS AND OTHER DEMOCRATS By Ann Coulter It was the Democratic Party that ginned up the racist mob against blacks and it is the Democratic Party ginning every new mob today— ironically, all portraying themselves as the equivalent of the Freedom Riders. With real civil rights secure—try to find a restaurant that won’t serve a black person—modern civil rights laws benefit only the mob, not the victims of the mob, as American blacks had been. Just as fire seeks oxygen,...

With 8.8 percent unemployment across the country and more than 8 million people claiming unemployment benefits, one California congresswoman wants people to know they’re not the only ones facing financial hardship. Who else might be? The lawmaker herself. In an appearance on MSNBC Thursday, Democratic California Rep. Linda Sánchez talked about the downsides of a federal government shutdown. Some lawmakers, to the seriousness of the issue, have said they would forgo their paychecks in the event of that shutdown. Sanchez explained she just can’t afford to go along with that idea. “I have to tell you that I live paycheck-to-paycheck,...

The White House suggested Tuesday the mission in Libya is one of regime change, despite emphatic statements from President Obama and military brass that the goal is not to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power. According to a White House readout of a Monday night call between Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two leaders "underscored their shared commitment to the goal of helping provide the Libyan people an opportunity to transform their country, by installing a democratic system that respects the people’s will."

DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) is the largest socialist organization outside of the CPUSA (Communist Party U.S.A.) honest enough not to masquerade as something other than what they are. In 1997 DSA goals to attain by 2017 included: A U.S. President from the Progressive Caucus, a 50 member socialist caucus in Congress, successful programs of the likes of universal health care, progressive taxation, social provision and campaign finance reform. Little could they have known that almost a decade before their deadline, they would have practically achieved every one of their stated goals. Their not-so-secret plan to achieve these goals was...

Democratic state Rep. Nick Milroy (South Range) was tackled by police Thursday evening while he was trying to make it inside the Capitol in Madison.

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Wisconsin Senate Republicans sent police on Thursday to find at least one of the 14 runaway Democrats who fled the state to block a vote on a spending bill that would curtail public union bargaining rights. Republicans sent state patrol officers to the homes of the Democrats in a failed attempt to break a standoff that has blocked Republican Governor Scott Walker's proposal to strip most collective bargaining rights from public union workers. All 14 Democrats in the Senate fled to Illinois last week to deny Republicans a quorum and a vote on the bill, which...

Hope and Change has struck the Democratic Party in a big — and unexpected — way. Gallup analyzes its poll data from 2010 on party affiliation to look at the shift in each state, and the news is almost uniformly bad for Democrats. Almost every state has had a decrease in voter affiliation for Democrats, most of those significant, and the number of solidly-blue states has been cut in half: Gallup’s analysis of party affiliation in the U.S. states shows a marked decline in the number of solidly Democratic states from 2008 (30) to 2010 (14). The number of politically...

Top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa is responding forcefully to a push by his foil on the House oversight committee to give Democrats input on which congressional subpoenas he issues, including the ability to force a committee vote on subpoenas. Issa’s saying the proposal would grant Democrats “unprecedented new powers to obstruct oversight.” In a letter, Issa denies key charges made by the committee’s ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, Maryland Democrat, in a missive sent Monday, including that Issa had vowed privately to use his subpoena power “more expansively” and would not bring any subpoenas to a vote.

Liberals warn of Democratic schism if Obama backs Social Security cutBy Alexander Bolton - 01/15/11 12:00 PM ET The battle lines are forming within the Democratic Party over the charged question of reforming Social Security in the days leading up to President Obama’s State of the Union address. Liberals, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and labor unions, such as the AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU, have taken a firm stand against cutting Social Security benefits. They are still reeling over the deal Obama struck with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in December to extend almost all of the Bush...

Good Morning America's Claire Shipman on Thursday tried to disguise a Democratic activist as just a jobless American who would be hurt by Republican failure to extend unemployment benefits. Shipman sympathetically recounted that Edrie Irvine, who she didn't explain spoke at a Nancy Pelosi press conference on Wednesday, "never thought her very livelihood would depend on a political debate in Congress." A graphic reading "unemployed" appeared onscreen as Irvine complained, "They are talking about tax cuts for the rich and are holding people like me hostage." Who is Ms. Irvine? According to her bio on the leftist Democracy For America...

For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since. After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House was defeated and Republicans took over or gained seats in legislatures across the region — the party’s ranks in Dixie have thinned even further. In Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, Democratic state legislators have become Republicans, concluding that there is no future in the party that once dominated the so-called Solid South. That the...

Some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors met Tuesday afternoon with influential party figures such as AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, organizer Joan Fitz-Gerald and former White House aide Van Jones to discuss the lessons and implications of the GOP’s landslide midterm election victory. The meeting – organized by a group of wealthy, politically active liberals called the Democracy Alliance – took place at Washington’s swank Mandarin Oriental hotel, where off-duty police officers and other security patrolled the halls looking for reporters and other uninvited guests, who were escorted from the premises. "The agreement is that everything that goes on here...

Much of the speculation about the impact of tea party movement successes in the election has been over what role and influence the new lawmakers will have among Republicans, so it is interesting that most Americans -- although Republicans and Democrats disagree on the point -- see the tea party as separate from, rather than part of, the GOP, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted Nov. 4-7. Forty-seven percent of the overall public sees the movement as separate from the GOP while 38 percent say it is part of it, with 16 percent undecided. Republicans see the movement...

[Minnesota, USA] Now's the time to complain about voter fraud when immigrants and others not legally able to vote are liable to exercise that "sacred" duty without the benefit of citizenship. Unfortunately, the mainstream media isn't very concerned about that. Mark Dayton is awaiting the results of the govern'rs race in downtown Minneapolis at the Hilton. There have been reports of irregularities at the polls and accusations of "overzealous" citizens at the polls trying to stop it. Considering that it's widely reported in the past that the Democrats employ ballot stuffing, it's not surprised that there are citizens who are...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently asked Palestinian peace negotiators to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. Some critics have called this move cynical, because Palestinian leaders are unlikely to offer such an acknowledgment. But others oppose it for a more basic reason: They claim it is antidemocratic. Israel, so the argument goes, affronts its non-Jewish citizens by identifying itself as a Jewish state and by using traditional religious emblems as official national symbols—for example, the Star of David on its flag. Along the same lines, various Israeli intellectuals have proposed dropping "Hatikvah" (The Hope) as their country's national anthem,...

...five well-known Hollywood Democrats -- David Geffen, Bob Iger, Peter Chernin, Haim Saban, and Ari Emanuel -- are hosting a November 4 fundraiser for Ari's brother Rahm Emanuel in his bid to become Chicago's next mayor. Rahm, a former Democratic U.S. Representative from Illinois' 5th Congressional District (2003-2009), resigned as President Obama's White House Chief Of Staff on October 1 to throw his hat into the mayoral race following the retirement of Richard M. Daley whose last name more or less owned that political office the way most families would takeover the dining table. The Hollywood fundraiser will be held...

It's too late to back out now because President Obama is already racking up frequent flier miles on his Western campaign swing, allegedly to help out embattled Democratic senators. But a new Gallup Poll out this morning puts the top Democrat himself at his lowest approval rating ever and finds most Americans do not want the Real Good Talker to have a second term. Other than that, Obama should be a real help to Washington's embattled Patty Murray today and Nevada's embattled Harry Reid and California's embattled Barbara Boxer later, trying to salvage the large Democratic majorities in both houses...

Just spent some time at Dummieland. I was curious about their response to the DOJ scandal.They aren't talking about it much, the few posts I found brushed it off like it wouldn't stick. I doubt most of them even know much about it and those who do are in denial.Things should really get interesting when reality drops all over them!

WASHINGTON - The Democratic left still smarts over President Obama's failure to deliver on some of its key issues, but has made no serious move to challenge him in 2012. Even the loudest critics among them think putting up a primary candidate would just split the party and strengthen the Republican who runs against him or her. "There is beginning to be some chatter about running a candidate from the left, but nobody wants to think that way," said Peter Daou, a liberal blogger and ex-digital media adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign. The left's grievance list is long. They believe...

Streisand and Jeffrey Katzenberg were no-shows at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser.....billed as co-hosts w/ Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams. Notables included Judd Apatow, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Reps. Howard Berman, Brad Sherman, Judy Chu and Laura Richardson. The price to be a co-host was $30,400 per couple, which included a photo with Obama — though POTUS said photo ops weren't the point of the evening. "I hope you understand why we're here tonight,'' said Obama. "It's not to take a picture with the president. We're here to make sure those who took the tough votes are rewarded."

New Democratic strategy for creating jobs focuses on a boost in manufacturingBy Lori Montgomery and Brady Dennis Wednesday, August 4, 2010 President Obama and congressional Democrats -- out of options for another quick shot of stimulus spending to revive the sluggish economy -- are shifting toward a longer-term strategy that promises to tackle persistently high unemployment by engineering a renaissance in American manufacturing. That approach, heralded by Obama last week in Detroit and sketched out in a memo to House Democrats as they headed home for the August break, is still evolving and so far focuses primarily on raising taxes...

Virtue: A Democratic Problem   By Dr. Jeff Mirus | July 16, 2010 2:30 PM Those who have ever taken a political science course which was not merely an exercise in advocacy may remember considering the strengths and weaknesses of various forms of government. Monarchy had its corruption in tyranny, oligarchy in plutocracy, and democracy in mob rule. For many centuries, most Catholic political theorists suggested that monarchy was the best form of government, because it mirrored the way God runs the universe. More recently, Catholic thinkers have suggested that democracy is most in keeping with human dignity, as it...

President Barack Obama has a long history with the U.S.'s largest marxist based organization, Democratic Socialists of America (D.S.A.). With several thousand members (many of whom are also Democratic Party activists and office holders), and considerable influence in academia, the media, mass "community organizations" and labor unions, D.S.A. has the power to direct or influence hundreds of thousands of activists in the "correct" direction. Here is hard evidence that D.S.A. threw its entire weight behind their long time ally Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections. From the Democratic Socialists of America National Political Committee Minutes of Meeting of September...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge handed a 12-year prison sentence on Thursday to Hassan Nemazee, a former fundraiser for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who admitted to a $292 million fraud of three major banks. Nemazee had pleaded guilty on March 18 to charges of bank fraud and wire fraud over loan transactions ... .. also sentenced to three years of supervised release .. ordered to make $292.3 million in restitution to the banks. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan pronounced the prison sentence, which is shorter than the term requested by prosecutors. They had sought a...

BOSTON – Democratic governors facing grim budget choices, lingering unemployment and angry voters are pointing a finger at their colleagues in Democratic-controlled Washington to explain this year’s toxic political climate. Few will fault President Barack Obama directly for their party’s plight heading into the fall midterm elections, but the chief executives gathered here for the National Governors Association (NGA) meeting believe the Congress and White House have made an already difficult year worse. While almost uniformly grateful for the financial windfall they enjoyed from the stimulus legislation, the Democrats believe it wasn’t sold well to the public and more still...

Elena Kagan's controversial "Final Conflict" thesis on socialism was written in 1981 when she was 21 years old. Professor Harvey Klehr, an expert on the socialist and communist movements, told me that while he sensed "a lurking sympathy" in the document for the left-wing of the Socialist Party, he didn't find a "red flag" that would derail her nomination. Kagan's thesis covered the rise and fall of the socialist movement in New York City from 1900-1933. Clearly, however, the socialist movement has risen again, under the cover of the "progressive" tradition that includes not only the President who appointed Kagan...

Former South Carolina judge and ex-state legislator Vic Rawl has officially conceded the Democratic primary for Senate, after he had attempted to contest his upset loss to unemployed veteran Alvin Greene. Rawl had originally insisted that there were irregularities or errors in vote-counting in his loss to Greene. A more common explanation has been that both candidates were unknown, and Greene's 60% victory owed something to his name having been listed in the first position on the ballot. And last night, the state Democratic Party upheld Greene's win, despite the embarrassment and scandals surrounding his arrest last fall on an...

More Americans than in 2009 say Republican Party's views are about right by Jeffrey M. Jones PRINCETON, NJ -- In the past two years, Americans have become increasingly likely to describe the Democratic Party's views as "too liberal" (49%), and less likely to say its views are "about right" (38%). Americans' views of the Republican Party, on the other hand, have moderated slightly, with a dip in the percentage saying the GOP is too conservative from 43% last year to 40% today, and an increase in the percentage saying it is about right, from 34% to 41%.The recent increase in...

Here’s the first concrete evidence of global warming: Deval Partick’s brain is melting. Speaking at Suffolk University Law School last week, the Democratic Governor of Massachusetts became the latest, and most prominent, liberal to charge that refusing to roll over for Obama was borderline treason.... ....Like, Democrats never rooted for Ronald Reagan, Bush ’41 or W. to slip and fall flat on their faces. They did handstands, cartwheels and goal-post victory dances (while waving pom-poms wildly in the air) every time a Republican president failed to achieve his policy goals.

Democratic delegates ignore controversy, nominate BlumenthalPublished: Sunday, May 23, 2010 By Susan Misur, Register Staff HARTFORD — This week’s allegations of deceit didn’t dampen enthusiasm for state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s candidacy at the Democratic State Convention Friday night where he became the party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Christopher J. Dodd. On the heels of accusations that he lied about his military service, Blumenthal appeared the likely winner as soon as the roll call vote began among the state’s 1,829 delegates. “I will never be intimidated. I will never back down. I will never stop...

He destroyed the Clinton Political Machine - Driving a stake thru the Heart of Hillary's Presidential aspirations--something no Republican was ever able to do. Remember when a Hillary Presidency scared the daylights out of you! He killed off the Kennedy Dynasty - No more Kennedys trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home. American women and freedom are safer tonight! He is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes! Dennis Moore had never lost a race - quit Evan Bayh had never lost a race - quit Byron Dorgan - had never lost a race - quit Harry...