Free Republic

The economic crisis, which has claimed more than 5 million jobs since the recession began, did not strike the entire country at once. A map of employment gains or losses by county tells the story of how those job losses first struck in the most vulnerable regions and then spread rapidly to the rest of the country. As early as August 2007, for example—several months before the recession officially began—jobs were already on the decline in southwest Florida; Orange County, Calif.; much of New Jersey; and Detroit, while other areas of the country remained on the uptick. Using the Labor...

HARRISBURG -- Grand jurors here and in Pittsburgh cataloged what they described as a culture of corruption that allowed former state Rep. Michael Veon, current Rep. Sean Ramaley and 10 current and former Democratic staffers to divert millions of dollars in state resources, including more than $1 million in illegal pay bonuses. The jurors said Mr. Veon and the staff members conspired to arrange hefty year-end pay bonuses to House employees who worked on political campaigns over a three-year period, while Mr. Ramaley is accused of working full-time on his 2004 House campaign in Beaver County while drawing a taxpayer...

There is quite a lot of interesting, but wild, speculation running around the blog-o-sphere, progressive circles and just plain dinner conversation these days about whether BushCo will allow a peaceful and constitutional transfer of Executive power in the ’08 elections. Unless or until George Bush appears on our TV boxes one night, wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and red tie with his hands sweatily clasped in a desperate death grip on top of his desk in the Oval Office, telling us that some catastrophic event, whether man-made or natural, has just occurred somewhere, and he must, for the...

With the Senate immigration bill dead and buried, political activists say their next battle will be at the ballot box, where Republicans risk losing hard-earned votes among Hispanic immigrants. Lawmakers dealt a lethal blow to the immigration bill Thursday, making it highly unlikely Congress will enact any broad changes in immigration law until well after the presidential election in 2008. As policy analysts study the fallout, some say the defeat could prompt immigrants — the nation's fastest growing group of new voters — to swing toward Democratic candidates. Democrats could gain more Hispanic voters, who make up the nation's largest...

Elizabeth Edwards received thunderous applause during a speech in San Francisco as part of Sunday’s Gay Pride celebration. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of 2008 presidential candidate former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, advocated her husband’s democratic campaign and addressed issues pertaining to poverty, the U.S. involvement in the Iraq war and lesbian and gay rights, among other topics. As members of the audience held up John Edwards campaign posters, Elizabeth Edwards conveyed her and her husband’s beliefs regarding one of the most important issues to many San Franciscans: the rights of gay and lesbian American citizens. “Everyone should have the same rights...

Laura Belin plans to take her kids to a Memorial Day parade Monday. But there, at the urging of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, the mom from suburban Des Moines, Iowa, expects to join others protesting the war in Iraq. "Everyone knows that we're going to have to start getting our troops out," says Belin, 38. "And we need to start getting them out now." Edwards has called on Americans to "honor the memory of the fallen by acting ... to end the war and bring (U.S. troops) home." He's also asking people to honor troops with prayer or even...

A NEW REPORT from the centrist group Third Way complicates one's understanding of the 2006 midterm elections. There are already several competing theories of why last Election Day turned out the way it did. The storyline popular on liberal blogs is that in 2006 Democrats were true to liberal principles, fought back against the Bush machine, opposed the war in Iraq, and as a result the electorate woke up and took Congress away from the GOP.Another storyline that's popular among conservatives says Republicans lost control of both Houses for the first time since 1994 because the party strayed from the...

On Election Day 2006, American voters did almost exactly what history would predict: giving a president in the sixth year of his administration a serious smackdown, as an electorate wary of politicians and parties hedged its bets and chose a divided government. Since World War II, the parties that controlled the White House for two terms have lost an average of 29 House seats and six Senate seats in their second midterm elections. This election fits tidily into that pattern. President Bush bucked another ubiquitous trap of modern presidents when he actually picked up Congressional seats for his party in...

Republicans and President George W. Bush took a licking in the November 7 midterm election. The Democrats are now in charge of both houses--for the first time in 12 years. In the aftermath of the election, I listened to black talk shows, read emails I received from black organizations, and read newspaper columns written by black commentators. One point was very clear. They cared little for what blacks were going to get out of this Republican defeat. The mission for this election seemed to have been, "just keep the Republicans out of office." ----snip---- While other racial and ethnic groups...

Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, Democrat from California, has big, expensive plans for commemorating her ascension to the head of the “People’s House” in early January. Indeed, the bug-eyed lady from San Francisco has slated a four-day gala of pomp and circumstance that will make the installation of Pope Benedict XVI by the Vatican seem absolutely skimpy by comparison. To begin with, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Labor Council delegation of 50 people will be jetting back East to participate in the first coronation of a queen in American history—excepting only the first swearing-in ceremony for Barney Frank several years...

Young Voter Strategies - http://www.youngvoterstrategies.org/ New Lake-Goeas Poll Analysis Shows Iraq, Pocketbook Issues & Candidate Contact Spurred Large 2006 Youth Vote FKey Democratic support from young African-Americans, Hispanics, women; Strong Republican support from married and religious youthFor Immediate Release: December 14, 2006Contacts: Kathleen Barr, Young Voter Strategies, Phone: 202-994-9528, katbarr@gwu.eduAmber Moore, CIRCLE, Phone: 703-276-2772 x17, amber@tricomassociates.com Washington, D.C. –The war in Iraq, education, the economy, and health care were the primary issues driving young voters in 2006, as well as an overall desire for a change in the governing country’s direction, according to a new analysis of Young Voter Strategies’...

Participation climbs for second straight major election; 18-29s vote for Democrats by 22-point margin Washington DC - Nov. 08, 2006 Young voters turned out to vote in higher numbers and favored Democrats by a wide margin, according to exit polls, providing a major boost to Democratic candidates in yesterday’s House and Senate elections. The 2006 turnout increase follows on the unprecedented 2004 youth turnout and provides further evidence that the new generation coming of age today is more engaged than young voters in recent decades. Exit polls on CNN’s website confirm that young voters increased their share of the electorate...

Democratic campaign operatives pushed newspapers to write about then-Rep. Mark Foley's e-mails to teenage pages in the hope that a scandal would emerge before the midterm elections, according to a House ethics report. The findings were bolstered when an aide to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Democrat, said the congressman also knew about the e-mails, which were dubbed "inappropriate" by the ethics panel. Mr. Emanuel, who was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) when Mr. Foley's sex scandal broke in late September, had denied knowledge of the Florida Republican's e-mails. The House ethics panel, which is formally called the...

 Imagine for a moment that a sex scandal involving pages had forced a Democrat Congressman holding a safe seat to resign in disgrace weeks before crucial midterm elections, while also reflecting badly on other members of his Party in tight races across the country. A month after the votes had been tallied, and the Democrats had surrendered control of both chambers of Congress in a stunning defeat, a House ethics panel released a report on the subject containing the following information: The leaks to the press concerning this matter had come from the communications director for the House Republican Caucus ...

Our view: In Arizona and nationwide, voters rejected rigid ideologues in favor of those who promised moderation, dialogue. The picture that emerged from last month's elections, at both the state and the federal level, showed a majority of voters weary of hard-line, intransigent ideologues on the far right. We know that, because voters turned both houses of Congress over to the Democrats and for the first time in many years gave Democrats 27 of the 60 seats seats in the Arizona House of Representatives. They also re-elected Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, giving her a 27 percentage point victory over her...

Happy Thanksgiving. It’s a glorious morning here in the heart of Jesusland, and our home is the center of an extended family gathering. The love of family and friends, things which give our lives pleasure and meaning, are found in great abundance today. We have much to be grateful for, indeed. And even though Michael Moore is of the opinion that our country is now in the hands of the Left, we take great comfort in knowing that the fate of our nation is in the hands of a much higher Power. Last week, Mr. Moore extended an olive branch...

A runoff between Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla and his Democratic challenger will be held Dec. 12, Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday. Bonilla finished with 49 percent of the vote in the Nov. 7 special election. He will face former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, who got about 20 percent of the vote. Early voting will begin Dec. 4. Eight candidates participated in the special election that was called after the U.S. Supreme Court found a portion of the congressional district boundaries unconstitutional.

Election Day 2006 was a bad day for the Republican Party. But it could have been much, much worse. My estimate of the House vote (calculated by summing up all current totals reported by the media and projecting the vote totals of the Democrats and Republicans who were uncontested) indicates that the two-party vote was approximately 54% D to 46% R. This would mark a 5.4% decrease in the GOP's share of the two-party vote from 2004. The final two-party vote result was almost a perfect inverse of the 1994 result. This estimate is very similar to the one that...

Jennings wastes no time in contesting her defeat in District 13 election DUANE MARSTELLER Herald Staff Writer MANATEE - Barely two hours after the state certified the 13th Congressional District election results this morning, losing candidate Christine Jennings challenged them in court. Jennings' lawyers contested the results in Leon County Circuit Court, contending a software glitch in Sarasota County's touch-screen voting machines caused them to miss thousands of votes cast in the race. "This is a miscarriage of the democratic process," Jennings' lead attorney, Kendall Coffey, said at a news conference in Tallahassee. The challenge was filed at about 11...

 In 1992, Bill Clinton campaigned for president by promising tax cuts for the middle class. Fourteen years later, his Party ran on a similar “tell the people exactly what they want to hear” motif, this time the mantra being a speedy withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Though separated by almost a decade and a half, these campaign strategies were quite similar to a now illegal marketing scheme called a bait and switch – whereby a company advertises a product for sale at a cheap price to lure in customers. Unfortunately, the organization’s retail outlets don’t actually have the item...

It looks like full steam ahead for a significant boost to the federal minimum wage when Democrats assume control of Congress in January. Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said Thursday that increasing the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 would be his top priority as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. On the House side, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., already has listed an increase in the minimum wage as one of the issues that would be taken up during the first 100 hours of the next Congress. "Americans are working harder than ever,...

In Birmingham they love the governor. And in Mobile and Huntsville, too. As Republicans coast to coast were burying their many political dead, a Republican governor once given up for dead was enjoying a landslide victory. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was re-elected last week, beating long-popular Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley with more than 58% of the vote, including an impressive 20% of the black vote. His victory was not simply the result of Alabama being a Republican state: Democrats won the two next most prominent statewide races, those for lieutenant governor and Supreme Court chief justice. In Alabama as elsewhere,...

Republicans grumble that President George W. Bush was about six weeks too late in sacking Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of Defense from the standpoint of affecting the election. Since the word from the White House is that Rumsfeld was going to go no matter what the outcome of the election, why was he not dropped earlier? Robert Gates seems a peculiar choice for the Pentagon. At CIA, he always was antagonistic to the intelligence operations at the Pentagon. As a CIA careerist on the analytical rather than the operational side, he was not close to military operations. The White House...

George W. Bush, who led the Republicans and conservatives to three straight electoral victories, who won the White House against an incumbent Democratic administration, who rallied this nation after 9/11, and removed two oppressive regimes in Aghanistan and Iraq, is suddenly responsible for all that ails the nation. This is no surprise to those of you who have been listening to the Democrats for six years, but now we have the Republicans and conservatives joining the chorus, the same folks who once celebrated the President as the next Churchill. I have something to say to Joe Scarborough, Rush Limbaugh, Newt...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope that the carnage experienced last night leaves a very bitter taste in your mouths and that you awaken this morning wiser than when you went to bed. The American people have spoken and they have chosen a new direction not because the Democrats offer anything better but because you failed to offer leadership. People crave leadership and if they do not get it they will latch on to the first person or group they think offers it. Germans craved leadership so badly they elected Hitler to lead them because there was no one who stood...

ACU Releases 2005 Congressional Ratings ALEXANDRIA, VA— The American Conservative Union, the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative lobbying organization, today released its 2005 “Rating of Congress,” the definitive conservative assessment of the federal legislative branch. ACU has rated every member of the House and Senate since 1971, making the latest guide its 35th edition. The purpose of the “Rating” is to inform the public, in as unbiased a method as possible, exactly where individual senators and congressmen stand on the ideological spectrum. “In the House, 38 Republicans scored a perfect 100% conservative rating in 2005, including newly elected House...

"Ballot-bag problems may slow counting of 8th District votes" ?King County Elections staff said about 100 bags -- containing up to 20,000 absentee ballots that had been dropped off at polling sites on Election Day -- remain uncounted because of an array of problems caused by the bags' being overstuffed. ?Jim Buck, King County's interim elections director, acknowledged that the problems -- including broken zippers and unclosed bag seals -- could potentially have allowed ballots to be cast after voting ended. Not clear yet whether any of the ballots are actually ineligible, and it's unlikely there could be nearly...

We aren't supposed to make any generalities based on race, color or creed, just to begin with. Invidious comparisons can be made, and indeed are every day made, by individuals. Still, institutions go to extraordinary lengths to avoid remarking differences. Indeed, many super-cautious universities even forbid applicants to submit photographs, on the basis of which an official at the Department of Admissions might say -- or whisper, or just think quietly -- that this applicant is black/Indian/Chinese ... So what I want to know is: How is it that on page P-7 of The New York Times for Nov. 9,...

It's the question Democrats would rather not ask in their moment of revelry: Are their new majorities in the House and Senate sustainable? What if the war in Iraq is over by 2008? Or what if it is still being waged despite Democratic pledges to change the course? What if voter antipathy toward President Bush is irrelevant in two years? After all, he will be on his way out. "Who knows whether these things are long-term trends or not," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said last week. Voters gave Democrats control of Congress but did not undergo an ideological conversion. The...

In looking back at the electoral wipe out last Tuesday, I am left with a sense of great optimism facing those with my political world view. There is no doubt about the breadth of the election outcome mechanics, given that the Democrats picked up a large number of Senate, House, and gubernatorial seats previously held by Republicans while I believe the GOP took exactly ZERO seats in return. Think about that for a minute. Here are but a few reasons why I am excited for the future based on the recent and immediate past. It is neither a complete nor...

Dobson says values voters stayed home after GOP abandoned them. Perkins agreed. "The values that we care about," such as abortion and gay marriage, he said, "are issues that not just evangelicals care about, but more people in this society care about, even, as we've seen, the Democratic candidates running on those issues. … We can't shrink back now. Our values were validated in this election. We simply have to get people who will run for public office who openly share those views and will create policy reflective of those views." Minnery named the faith-based initiative and the federal marriage...

Two Democratic congressmen who could have mounted formidable challenges to longtime Mayor Richard Daley announced Thursday that they will not run for mayor next year because of their party's new found power in Congress. The power shift on Capitol Hill bodes well for both Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez. "More than any time since I took my initial oath of office, I am excited, eager, and downright giddy about the prospects in Washington," said Jackson, the son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. "In short, Tuesday's election made for a big night, and a new day." Jackson said...

J.D. Hayworth, who ended up on the short end of the vote count on election night, refused to concede defeat in his re-election bid for Arizona’s 5th Congressional District on Wednesday. the six-term Republican said he planned to wait out the final count. Election officials said more than 250,000 ballots cast in Maricopa County have yet to be counted. They were unable to immediately determine how many of those ballots were from the 5th district, which includes Scottsdale, Tempe, Ahwatukee Foothills, Fountain Hills and surrounding areas.

The 11 House races that are still undecided. ? Connecticut?s 2nd District: three-term Republican Rep. Rob Simmons ? Florida?s 13th District: ? Georgia?s 12th District: ? North Carolina?s 8th District: ? New Mexico?s 1st District: Rep. Heather A. Wilson, who is seeking a fifth full term in the House, may earn the prize for most resilient Republican incumbent... ? Ohio?s 2nd District: Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt?s hard-edged conservatism remains problematic even though this southern Ohio district leans strongly Republican most of the time. ? Ohio?s 15th District: Seven-term Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce?s influential position as the House Republican Conference chairwoman...a...

Defeated U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., refused to concede Wednesday saying there remain votes yet to be counted in his tight race against the declared winner, Democrat Jon Tester. Burns, who has not commented to reporters on the race since the votes were counted Tuesday night, released a statement at 1:47 p.m. “Jon Tester ran a good race and has the lead right now, but it is extremely close,” Burns said. “The state of Montana has a process in place, and it is our obligation to see it through. There are still votes out there that deserve to be counted....

Avert your eyes if you don't want to read a column about raunchy sex, libidinous lesbians, bodice-ripping passion and the lustful imagination of Lynne Cheney, wife of the ultra-conservative vice president, Dick. Lynne has been the toast of the blogs in the past few weeks after an erotic book she penned more than 25 years ago, Sisters, was outed by Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat who was running against George Allen for the U.S. Senate. (The outcome of that election was still pending as of press time). Allen accused Webb of writing a salacious book (he wrote about Vietnam), and...

What impact, if any, will the transformational 2006 Congressional Election have on Second Amendment rights? While election 2006 may have been a referendum on many things (the President, war in Iraq, Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley for example), it does not translate into greater support for gun control at the grass roots level. If anything, gun control was notable as a non-issue in this election. In compiling the GOA rating (House / Senate), researchers could hardly find a congressional candidate with any stated position on gun control on campaign websites. That's not to say many of the newly elected will not...

AP Stocks Decline in Late Afternoon Trading Thursday November 9, 3:46 pm ET By Joe Bel Bruno, AP Business Writer Dow, Nasdaq Stumble in Late Afternoon Trading As Investors Worry About Policy Shifts in D.C. NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street turned lower Thursday as investors cashed in profits amid disappointing consumer sentiment data, rising oil prices and new worries about policy shifts in Washington. The lackluster session was to be expected after three days of gains, including a new closing high Wednesday for the Dow Jones industrials. Investors had driven stocks broadly higher this week on optimism that Democrats...

As Representative Nancy Pelosi faced the cameras Wednesday morning, after the Democrats had taken a majority in the House and put her on the brink of becoming the first female speaker, she spoke so softly at first that some reporters insisted they could not hear her. “I’m not in charge of the technical arrangements,� Ms. Pelosi said quietly, fiddling with the microphone. Then suddenly, she was commanding: “But I could use my mother-of-five voice!� It is a line Ms. Pelosi uses often, and a voice she may have to rely on frequently as she tries to ensure that the new...

America's rejection of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy is a slap in the face for his allies, but it may give British premier Tony Blair a chance to improve his standing at home by discussing exit options. Blair has been derided and rebuked by critics in Britain as the U.S. President's "poodle" for giving staunch backing to a war which is hugely unpopular with British voters and has overshadowed achievements during Blair's 9 years in power. The Republicans' crushing mid-term election defeat toppled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, giving Bush the opportunity to change course. Now Blair may have a...

Conservative commentators were bloodied but unbowed Wednesday. After a day in which Republicans lost their grip on the House and before Democrats were declared winners of the Senate, too, some of the right's most prominent voices found little cause for discouragement. "Democrats, in my mind, don't have a mandate because they stood for nothing," radio host Laura Ingraham told her listeners Wednesday. "Republicans lost last night, but conservatism did not," Rush Limbaugh said on the 600 stations that carry his program. "The Democrats beat something last night with nothing. They advanced no agenda, other than their usual anti-war position." Two...

If there is one thing we have learned from the Democrats, it's not the guilt or innocence, it's the seriousness of the charge. That being the case, I believe an investigation should be started into secret deals between the Democratic party and CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, a quid pro quo that in exchange for muslim their votes and support, the newly elected Democrat majorities in the House of Represenatives and Senate will propose and pass legislation that would allow for the implementation of Sharia law in districts with a muslim population greater than 51%.

Former Congressman and Akron Mayor Tom Sawyer handily defeated incumbent Deborah Owens Fink in the District 7 state school board race Tuesday. ``This is very gratifying,'' said Sawyer, a former teacher. ``Education has been the passion of my public life from its beginning.'' Sawyer was drafted to run by Help Ohio Public Education, formed by scientists critical of Fink's attempts to change the state science curriculum. The group's founders, Case Western Reserve University professors Patricia Princehouse and Lawrence Krauss, have contended that the changes were an effort to insert religion into the science curriculum. [Snip] Fink, a Bath Township resident,...

For Help with you 2006 Election Blues listen to Dr. Marshall Foster - Click Here

More than 258,000 early and provisional ballots remained uncounted. Depending how many are from district 5, might be a chance JD Hayworth could pick up enough to carry him over. Something to keep an eye on while they are being counted. He needs 6,000 net out of the 258,000 to pull it off.

I have several questions, so I’ll direct them first to the American Civil Liberties Union: Will the ACLU mount a legal challenge to the defeated South Dakota abortion ban, as they’ve always done when partial birth abortion bans were passed? Will they mount legal challenges to the defeated propositions on parental notification in California and Oregon, as always they’ve done when parental notification laws were passed? In Missouri, will they mount a legal challenge to the bill that legalized cloning (deceptively presented only as embryonic stem cell research) and demand equal funding for adult stem cell research? Will they admit...

MT Senate Race seems to be still in play

I was struck yesterday upon arriving at my local polling place (Ann Arbor, MI.) I was only asked to write my name, address, and signature in order to receive my ballot! No ID or registration card were requested. This was not some fluke incident either, as my girlfriend and others noticed the same thing. Does this strike anyone else as quite odd? It seems that one could easily vote in place someone with very little risk of getting caught.

More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson observed, ‘Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.’ Jefferson believed that America's survival lay primarily in the character of her people. Likewise, Samuel Adams warned future generations by referring to ‘good manners’ as the vital ingredient a free society needs to survive. Adams said, ‘Neither the wisest Constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally...

Heard on the radio here just now that there are roughly about 100,000 mail-in ballots still to be counted, and roughly 50,000 of those were brought to the polls yesterday. And with the race being this close: Mitchell - 71,077 - 51% Hayworth - 65,122 - 46% and with Hayworth not yet conceeding, its possible we could hold this seat.