Free Republic

http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/08/08/28124/new-law-would-allow-californias-electoral-college-/ California will have to vote for Romney if he gets the national popular vote. Romney might reverse "Gore" things this time. Looking at the Gallup polls it sometimes seems more likely that Romney wins the popular vote. What a backfire for libs! Why is nobody talking about this?

A French nonprofit said it was considering making complaints against some Twitter users following an explosion of French-language anti-Semitic messages. SOS Racisme, a Paris-based anti-discrimination organization, made the statement on its website after the phrase UnBonJuif on Oct. 10 became the third most popular hashtag among French Twitter users. Literally meaning “a good Jew,” it served thousands of Twitter users to enter what the French daily Le Monde termed “a competition of anti-Semitic jokes.” One Twitter account registered to the username “Marcel Leblanc” posted a picture of an emaciated Jewish woman taken in a Nazi concentration camp as his or...

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terror group vowed to retaliate against Israel on Sunday after announcing that two men killed earlier in an IAF air strike were members of the group, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported. The group confirmed that Izz Addin Abu Nuseira, 23, and Ahmad Abu Fatayir, 22, were affiliated with its Nasser Saladin Brigades. Both were killed when the IAF struck targets in the terrorist haven of Gaza for the fourth time in 24 hours Sunday afternoon. The IAF said the targets were part of a terror squad that had fired a rocket at Israel a...

(CNN) -- A popular female Pakistani singer who defied the Taliban's decree against singing and dancing was shot and killed in northwest Pakistan Monday night, police and hospital officials told CNN. Authorities described the singer's ex-husband as a suspect in the case, and said early indications were that the Taliban were not involved, according to police official Imtiaz Altaf. Ghazala Javed, who recorded scores of songs in her native Pashto language and became a household name among young, progressive ethnic Pashtuns in northwest Pakistan, had just left a beauty salon and was driving home with her father when gunmen on...

Last Thursday’s GOP presidential debate was a doozy. Some of the commercials weren’t bad, either. My favorite was the ad from the National Popular Vote movement, promoting legislation in the 50 states to guarantee that the people, not the electoral college, choose our president. Mind you, I’ve always found it kind of fallacious to worry that our current system elevates popular-vote losers to the presidency: that’s because popular votes cast in a state-by-state contest for 270 electoral votes do not reflect the national will. Rather, they reflect the results of a competition in which candidates tailor their messages and deploy...

By Jacquerie Wake Up AmericaWhile the lamestream media holds public attention on GOP candidate rivalries, a "progressive" strategy is underway to eliminate the role of the states in electing a U.S. President. By transferring electoral votes to a "national popular vote" this "Compact"  would  usurp the role of the states as safeguarded by our Constitution. In doing so, it could also neutralize Obama's critics -- totally. This may be the most vital - and time sensitive - expose WAM has ever uncovered and shared! And it's happening now, under the radar, with the general public in the dark. This "ultimate vote fraud" is...

Golden State legislature says it will give its states electoral votes to the national popular vote winner. Providing a significant boost to an effort to end-around the Electoral College, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation on Monday that would award the Golden State’s 55 electoral votes to the presidential candidate garnering the most votes nationwide. California, which has more electoral votes than any other state in the nation, is the eighth state to join the National Popular Vote compact, an effort to end the Electoral College's role in picking presidents.

Haven’t had your fill of Sarah Palin and her brood hunting, shooting, fishing and rafting on TLC? Well don’t fret, it looks like “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” could be sticking around for a second season. On Tuesday, PopEater reported that “'Sarah Palin's Alaska' is such a huge hit for TLC that the network is busy trying to get the former governor to sign up for season two.” The show has indeed been a success for the network, with about 3 million people tuning in on average week after week. PopEater points out that those numbers are better than the numbers for...

House Republicans are looking to repeal the healthcare reform law and replace it with one of their own early next year without interrupting two popular parts the administration has already begun to implement. They include a mandate that bars discrimination of pre-existing conditions and a stipulation that allows young people to remain on their parents' insurance plans until age 26. Incoming Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Monday that they would do this by passing a GOP healthcare bill at the same time as repeal efforts are underway. Speaking to more than 100 students at American University, Cantor said,...

President Barack Obama should make the most of his "Daily Show" appearance on Wednesday night - charming the pants off Jon Stewart and the crowd, as he did when he showed up there two years ago. It's a terrific show, Stewart is a great interviewer and Obama makes good television. Then, the President should cancel all future trivial media appearances. While they may have kept him personally popular, in broad terms they've degraded the Obama brand. Obama's handlers were supposed to be smarter than this. They were supposed to use his celebrity strategically to advance his agenda. Instead, they've been...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - An amateur artist is drawing attention to herself because of the unusual way she paints...using her breasts. Victoria started her unsual way of painting about a year ago. She says one night she had a dream of painting a beautiful flower using her breast and decided to try it. He work is being shown at a St. Petersburg art gallery. She also has admirers who view her new paintings and order them online.

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

President Obama is to become the first sitting U.S. president to take part in a daytime TV talk show. As his popularity among Americans fades he has agreed to appear of popular programme The View, where he will be quizzed by a panel of five women. Obama is appearing as part of the show's 'Red, White & View' series, which has featured prominent American politicians and discussions on current political issues.

California residents are up in arms that a flag mural — paying homage to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks — was painted over after the state ruled it was graffiti. State transportation workers on Thursday turned the 35-foot hillside mural on Interstate 680 in Silicon Valley back into a gray slab of concrete, KTVU-TV reported. The explanation? It simply had been put on a list for graffiti remove, one official said. But the landmark had been a favorite among residents and motorists. "It just made me feel really patriotic just seeing it every day," motorcyclist Dave Freely told KTVU-TV....

<p>Here is a list of the top ten liberty websites. It is these websites that provide the most scholarly information on libertarian topics and most relevant liberty related news.</p>

Politico – The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is less than six weeks away — and reports of who’s invited are surfacing. The Creative Coalition — the nonprofit arts advocacy group that brought top celebs such as Anne Hathaway and Josh Lucas to the conventions — is always reliable for a strong roster of talent during the dinner weekend. Expect to see Spike Lee, Cheryl Hines, Adrian Grenier, Steven Weber, CCH Pounder, Wendie Malick, Taraji P. Henson, Dana Delany and Tim Daly — and there’s more to come, we’re told. _______________ What do we think BHO is more excited for,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Internet has become the third most popular news platform for American adults, trailing only local and national television stations, according to a survey released on Monday. Seventy-eight percent of the 2,259 adults surveyed for the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the Project for Excellence in Journalism said that on a typical day they get news from a local TV station. Seventy-three percent said they get news from a national TV network such as CBS or a cable TV news station such as CNN or Fox. Sixty-one percent said that on a typical...

It's official: Americans admire Glenn Beck more than they admire the pope. This news, at once unsettling and unsurprising, came from the Gallup polling organization on Wednesday. Beck, the new Fox News host who has said President Obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people" and alternately likens administration officials to Nazis and Marxists, was also more admired by Americans than Billy Graham and Bill Gates, not to mention Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. In Americans' esteem, Beck only narrowly trailed South Africa's Nelson Mandela, the man who defeated apartheid. The 45-year-old recovering alcoholic and Mormon convert has become...

People have been picking them up. Even heard one on an ad a few days ago. Either I was living in a fog before, or Glenn Beck's phrases have become a part of our American lexicon. Here are a few: 1. I'm just sayin' 2. Not so much... 3. Shut your piehole Now I know those phrases were probably used somewhere in the country before. Maybe even on T.V. (which I don't watch often), but it's interesting to hear them picked up and used by people who wouldn't be caught dead using them if they thought they came from Mr....

(NaturalNews) The US government has issued a new report that recommends blocking access to popular websites during a pandemic outbreak in order to preserve internet bandwidth for investors, day traders and securities clearing house operations. The concern is that a pandemic would cause too many people to stay at home and download YouTube videos and porn, hogging all the internet bandwidth and blocking throughput for investment activities, thereby causing a stock market meltdown. This isn't an April Fool's joke. It's all based on a public report issued by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), available from their website at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d108.pdf In...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration plans to end the popular $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program on Monday, giving car shoppers a few more days to take advantage of big government incentives. The Transportation Department said Thursday the government will wind down the program on Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. Car buyers can receive rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 for trading in older vehicles for new, more fuel-efficient models.</p>

No matter where she goes, Gov. Sarah Palin continues to draw large crowds to her public appearances. Recently she was able to use her popularity for an event publicizing the needs of those with autism and other developmental disabilities in the New York area. When she appeared in Auburn, New York, more than 20,000 people turned out to see her when she helped celebrate Founders Day and raised money for a museum honoring William Seward, secretary of state when Alaska was acquired for the United State Palin continues to speak out against the growing government solutions to the U.S.'s economic,...

Should the winner of the presidential election be determined by the national popular vote and not by the Electoral College system? A coalition of good government and civil rights activists thinks so, and they're gathering at the State House today to outline the National Popular Vote bill at a news conference before testifying for it at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Election Laws. Under the proposed bill, all of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationally.

There were still many Germans who were skeptical of Hitler when he became chancellor in 1933. But Führer propaganda and military success soon turned him into an idol. The adulation helped make the Third Reich catastrophe possible. "Today Hitler Is All of Germany." The newspaper headline on Aug. 4, 1934 reflected the vital shift in power that had just taken place. Two days earlier, on the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler had lost no time in abolishing the Reich Presidency and having the army swear a personal oath of unconditional obedience to him as "the Führer of...

By MARK MARONEY mmaroney@sungazette.com POSTED: October 31, 2008 Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's straight talk Thursday night at Bowman Field spoke volumes for Dale McKay, 60, of northern Tioga County. McKay turned 20 years of age during an ambush in Vietnam. He served with the 1st Infantry Division of the Army in 1968 during the Tet Offensive in Saigon. "It was great," McCay said of the speech by John McCain's Republican running mate. "It was spectacular. Well worth the drive down," said the registered Democrat who plans to vote for the GOP this time around. For Leon Ward, a house painter...

Perception Isn’t Reality : Palin Is Popular The main stream media has been working overtime, trying to discourage supporters of the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket. They have thrown everything out there into the media they control, knowing that the more they throw, that some of it, no matter how deceptive, will stick. Their newest tactic is to post anywhere they can, that Sarah Palin is falling out of favor with voters. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everything you see about her is negative, yet, if you look at her rallies, you have to see them on the internet,...

MEXICO CITY - The tortured body of the lead singer of a popular Mexican band was found along a highway Monday and another singer was shot to death, police said, the latest Mexican musicians killed in a wave of violence over the past year. Sergio Gomez, a singer with K-Paz de la Sierra, went missing Sunday after a concert in the Michoacan state capital of Morelia, according to the state attorney general's office. Gomez allegedly got into a car with three other people after the concert and headed for Puerto Vallarta, said Magdalena Guzman, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's...

Surprise! Bush still popular on stumpBy: Mike Allen Nov 16, 2007 12:02 PM EST Despite voter unhappiness about the Iraq war, President Bush remains popular enough with Republicans that he has raised more money for the party this year than he had at the same point in the last election cycle. His party’s presidential candidates do little to embrace the president, although they generally support his policies and have proposed few reversals. And this year’s crop of GOP congressional candidates is unlikely to say much about him. Indeed, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to make “Bush rubber stamp” one...

Among athletes who obsess about their weight, we cyclists are second to none. Training rides are filled with conversations about weight lost or gained and the latest diet regimens and food fads. Resolutions are made and broken. We all know the formula: 10 pounds of extra weight on a 5 percent grade slows your ascent by half a mile an hour. It has a ring of Newtonian finality to it. F = MA. The Force needed to turn the pedals equals Acceleration times that Mass on the saddle. But most of the guys I ride with are like me: in...

Not since Teddy Roosevelt took on Tammany Hall a century ago has a New York politician closely linked to urban reform looked like presidential timber. But today ex–New York mayor Rudy Giuliani sits at or near the top of virtually every poll of potential 2008 presidential candidates. Already, Giuliani’s popularity has set off a “stop Rudy” movement among cultural conservatives, who object to his three marriages and his support for abortion rights, gay unions, and curbs on gun ownership. Some social conservatives even dismiss his achievement in reviving New York before 9/11. An August story on the website Right Wing...

US President George W Bush paid tribute to new symbols of capitalism during a visit to communist Vietnam on Monday. He offered encouragement for the country's battle against bird flu and other public health challenges. ... In Ho Chi Minh City, Bush visited the Vietnam stock exchange, where trading began in 2000 and expanded to Hanoi last year. The exchange initially listed two companies and two bonds. Now, there is trading in 56 stocks and funds on the combined exchanges with total capitalization of $3.5 billion. The president, wielding a red-handled mallet, struck a gong to open the day's trading....

JIM MEIGS AND DAVID DUNBAR OF POPULAR MECHANICS appeared on PBS to debate the Loose Change folks regarding 9/11 conspiracy theories. You can see the Video HERE

A new Harris Poll shows that Florida has become a slightly less-popular state for Americans to live in, while Orlando's popularity climbed into the top 15 cities for living. Florida has fallen a notch to become the third-most-popular state U.S. adults would choose to live in if they could live in any state outside of their own. The top-ranked state is California, which has been No. 1 for the last four years. Next up was Hawaii, which flip-flopped spots with Florida. The rest of the top 10 most-popular states people said they would like to live in were: * North...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Move over Bud. College life isn't just about drinking beer. In a rare instance, Apple Computer Inc.'s iconic iPod music player surpassed beer drinking as the most "in" thing among undergraduate college students, according to the latest biannual market research study by Ridgewood, N.J.-based Student Monitor. Nearly three quarters, or 73 percent, of 1,200 students surveyed said iPods were "in" — more than any other item in a list that also included text messaging, bar hopping and downloading music. In the year-ago study, only 59 percent of students named the iPod as "in," putting the gadget...

InTech 17 May 2006China close to edge The U.S. economy in 2007 will be OK, but things will start to slide in 2008, and there will be a recession in 2009, said economist Alan Beaulieu at the 13th annual Control Systems Integrators Association Executive Conference in Panama City, Fla. “So no big capital investments after this year and don’t hire that corporate VP unless you’re really comfortable with and can afford to lay people off,� Beaulieu warned. While the recession will, of course, be unwelcome in the U.S., it may have profound effects in China. When the West pulls back...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2006 – A partnership that enables military members and their families to file their tax returns electronically without charge is proving tremendously popular, with 103,000 returns already filed as of Feb. 7, a Military OneSource official told the American Forces Press Service. "That's a big response!" the official said. More than 97,000 people filed their returns electronically within the first 20 days after being offered free access to Turbo Tax software, she noted. Military OneSource and Intuit, a financial services company, are partnering to offer the Turbo Tax basic product for both federal and state returns at...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval ratings have improved with his release of highly popular proposals on state spending in 2006-07 and long-term rebuilding of the state's aging infrastructure, according to a poll to be released today. But the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California survey indicates Schwarzenegger has not regained majority support, even though 60 percent of Californians polled like his budget and $222 billion infrastructure plan. The poll showed even greater support, 70 percent, for a more modest infrastructure improvement plan pitched by state Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland. The survey also indicated majority support for a...

Once again, convicted Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti is trying to "lead" his people from inside an Israeli prison. If his win in primaries in the West Bank on Friday provides any insight into the Palestinian popular mood, it is that they are still addicted to terrorist "leaders" like Barghouti. According to the BBC: He [Barghouti] is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for the killing of four Israelis and a Greek monk. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said there was no chance of Barghouti getting an early release. Barghouti, 46, won 34,000 out of 40,000 votes - affirming...

Heck, if the government really is going to spend $200 billion to rebuild New Orleans, they might as well rebuild it as the city of tomorrrow complete with kelp farms, electricity generated by tides, public transportation light as a cloud and efficient and almost noiseless, parks that are nice and safe and clean. It could be a proof-of-concept city for all those innovations you see in the middle of "Popular Science" that are always "just around the corner." I draw the line at dog-walking robots and the bubble dome (for now), but you get my drift, I suppose. Well, I...

Mr. Bush as a person, as an individual, is as attractive to Republicans as he is unattractive to Democrats. Republicans like him because he seems like a normal guy--business, family, sports, Top 40 on the iPod. Democrats hate him for this--how common, how plebian; he'd have more elevated tastes if he were a more elevated man. Republicans like him for the one way in which he is obviously extraordinary: When he says it he means it, and if he promises it he'll do it. Democrats see this as evidence of derangement: He doesn't change his mind because he thinks he's...

The Iranian government must investigate the deaths of at least 17 people at the hands of security forces in the western province of Kurdistan over the past two weeks, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces reportedly also wounded hundreds when they opened fire on demonstrators protesting the killing of a young Kurdish man, Shivan Qaderi, on July 9. In addition, the government forces arrested hundreds of people throughout the province, including Roya Toloui, a women's rights activist, and several other leading human rights defenders and journalists. On July 9, security forces shot and killed Shivan Qaderi in Mahabad. Kurdish...

Contents IntroductionWhat is the PSM/ISM?ISM Rewriting History ACT NOW! - OPPOSE GOOGLE'S PLAN Automatically send emails opposing Google's planSign a petition Introduction According to Lee Kaplan, writing for FrontPageMagazine.com: The Internet giant Google will give news agency status to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), according to an anonymous source at Google. If true, the ISM—an affiliate of the anarchist/communist wing of the PLO—would be on par with professional news services such as CNN, Fox, and Associated Press. … The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) are related and interconnected organizations that have one goal: the...

What do Islamist terrorists want? The answer should be obvious, but it is not.A generation ago, terrorists did make clear their wishes. Upon hijacking three airliners in September 1970, for example, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded, with success, the release of Arab terrorists imprisoned in Britain, Switzerland, and West Germany. Upon attacking the B'nai B'rith headquarters and two other Washington, D.C. buildings in 1977, a Hanafi Muslim group demanded the canceling of a feature movie, Mohammad, Messenger of God," $750 (as reimbursement for a fine), the turning over of the five men who had massacred the...

In the Feb. 15 edition of The American Thinker, Steven M. Warshawsky wrote a thought-provoking piece entitled “Beware the Condi bandwagon" that, essentially, warned the gathering numbers of “Rice for President” supporters that Sec. Rice cannot win the presidency in 2008, nor is she qualified to do so at this point in her career. A response from one of the passengers on this bandwagon seems apt. Mr. Warshawsky is right – not a lot of people start a career in elective politics by running for the White House. To do so is daring to be sure, but it is not...

Poor President Bush, so hated by "the world" and yet so incredibly popular at home. We all know why he's popular - he's a man of his word, he doesn't bend with political winds, he's willing to take the hard road and he means what he says. There's one other president in our hemisphere who resembles him, a man in the middle of another terror war whose inhumanly vicious enemies have tried to assassinate him two times in the past week, adding to a long string of other efforts. And his response has been like President Bush's - to defy...

 First order of business: Thank you Florida! People there are still cleaning up after the hurricanes and some still do not have proper residences. Yet they took the time to stand in line to vote. We should all take the time to send a note of thanks to a friend in Florida. Y'all see all the red on that USA Today map? Check out the difference between the 2000 map and this year's.[1] Dubya is the first President to be re-elected and gain seats in both the House and Senate since 1936. The last President to receive an outright majority...

Bush supporters need not be concerned about a possible popular vote win but electoral college defeat. I did an extensive analysis this weekend of the popular vote according to the most recent polling for each of the 50 states + DC. I used the polling information from the Real Clear Politics website where they have polls listed for all 50 states + DC. My analysis showed that, as in 2000, there is a greater risk that the democrat party nominee could win the popular vote and lose the election in the electoral college. I took the 2000 turnout by state,...

Leaders of Iraq's religious parties have emerged as the country's most popular politicians and would win the largest share of votes if an election were held today, while the U.S.-backed government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is losing serious ground, according to a U.S.-financed poll by the International Republican Institute. More than 45 percent of Iraqis also believe that their country is heading in the wrong direction, and 41 percent say it is moving in the right direction. Within the Bush administration, a victory by Iraq's religious parties is viewed as the worst-case scenario. Washington has hoped that Allawi...

Want to Be a Rock Star? Hollywood Actors Find It's Not So Easy From Music Sensation to the Big Screen The hottest accessory for young starlets this year isn't a piece of jewelry or a pair of shoes. The must-have perk is something a bit harder to come by -- a recording contract.

Dodge gets more Ram power, hybrids get more popular Dodge adds two brawny Rams Daily Edition: Jun. 16, 2004 Chrysler is adding two brawny high-powered trucks to its Dodge Ram lineup, trying to assert its image for tough high-performance trucks in a category intensified by competitors' redesigned models. The Dodge Ram Power Wagon and SRT-10 Quad Cab will join the brand's lineup this fall for the 2005 model year. The two Ram derivatives, unveiled Tuesday, are part of an aggressive product rollout that began this year and will continue into 2007. It's the first time in 25 years Dodge has...