Free Republic

A key message of the pro-gun advocates trying to unseat Senate President John Morse is that he’s a stooge for New York City’s mayor and not really representing his district in Colorado.So what is the first message he posted as it appeared the Secretary of State would approve enough signatures for his recall? Meanwhile, Mr. Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat, released a statement Monday on his Facebook page asking for out-of-state help from those in traditionally liberal cities to help fight the recall effort. “We can get phone lists to you and things like that and have you help from...

DENVER– Senate President John Morse issued a national plea for help to out-of-state supporters from Boston to San Francisco as Colorado Democrats went on the offensive Tuesday to save him from a recall vote. A spokeswoman for A Whole Lot of People for John Morse announced Tuesday that a protest had been filed to nullify the recall petitions within hours after the Colorado Secretary of State’s office declared that the petitions were sufficient to force a recall election. Meanwhile, Morse urged out-of-state supporters to help him keep his Colorado Springs legislative seat by donating their money and time. “[A]ny help...

DENVER - BY MEGAN SCHRADER megan.schrader@gazette.com Enough signatures were verified Tuesday to make Senate President John Morse the first state-level elected official to face a recall election, but Morse isn't going to ballot without a fight. The secretary of state's office verified that 10,137 registered voters in Senate District 11 - west and central Colorado Springs - signed a petition to recall Morse through a election. Only 7,178 signatures are necessary to take the issue to voters in coming months. But a voter in Morse's district challenged the petition a few hours after the signatures were verified Tuesday, saying it...

It has happened again, Natura Pet Food, owned by P&G, has issued yet another recall. From a press release issued by Natura Pet Food, the company is recalling all lot codes, all sizes, all UPC’s of Innova, Evo, California Natural, Healthwise, Karma, and Mother Nature pet foods and treats. Natura Press Release: Natura Pet Issues Voluntary Recall of Specialized Dry Pet Foods Due to Possible Health Risk FREMONT, NEBRASKA, June 18, 2013 Natura Pet Products is voluntarily recalling specific lots of dry pet food because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Salmonella can affect animals eating the...

MADISON – After two long years of legal limbo, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to take up the constitutionality of the state’s controversial Act 10, the law led by Gov. Scott Walker that gutted collective bargaining for most Badger State public employees. One constitutional expert who has urged the court to settle the confusion surrounding the case, said a definitive ruling would “put an end to our long nightmare.” The case of Madison Teachers Inc. v. Scott Walker is one of four high profile cases the high court has decided to review. In its certification to the Supreme Court,...

Signature totals greater than number of votes cast for Morse's election Colorado Springs, CO, June 4, 2013, The Basic Freedom Defense Fund (BFDF - www.bfdf.org), the Colorado grassroots group heading the recall of State Senate President John Morse (D - Colorado Springs), announced that they have submitted 16,046 District 11 voter petition signatures to the Colorado Secretary of States' office for the recall of John Morse. This exceeds both the 7,178 signatures necessary and also exceeds the total number of votes (13,451) cast for Morse during his 2010 election.The results of this historic recall effort were achieved despite the efforts...

Senate President John Morse isn’t hiding his budding bromance with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg anymore ... Morse openly declares his fervent hope that Bloomberg rides to the rescue with some more cold hard cash for his recall defense campaign. He’ll need it after recall organizers turned in over 16,000 signatures, compared to the only 13,866 votes Morse received in his last election in 2010. Any Bloomberg bucks would be in addition to the at least $20,000 Morse’s recall defense campaign has already taken from Bloomberg-backed America Votes.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., June 3, 2013 — Petition signatures filed with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office are more than sufficient to recall state senator John Morse (D). The recall is the first recall of a Colorado legislator in the state’s history.

DENVER (Reuters) - Gun-rights activists submitted a petition on Monday to initiate the first recall election of a state lawmaker in Colorado's history for his support of laws restricting firearms. If the Colorado secretary of state validates at least 7,200 of the more than 16,000 signatures submitted, state Senate President John Morse, a Democrat, would face a recall. The move is being watched nationally by both sides of the gun-control debate. In March, Morse helped lead the effort to pass a package of gun-control measures in the Democratic-controlled state legislature, including banning ammunition magazines with more than 15 rounds and...

This has been confirmed by me with a phone call to the State offices five minutes ago. We did it! This will be a historic first. No Senator has ever been recalled in Colorado before. The completed Senator Morse recall petition is being filed with the Colorado Secretary Of State today. The recall of John Morse is moving on to the next phase. The mud will start to really fly now! I am not an official spokesman for the group but I did confirm that the signatures are at the Secretary of State's Office now. The count will now be...

The Sheriff Arapio Haters came up short of recall signatures. This an AP story so by FR rules I can't say more than HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-

Four Colorado Democrats, including Senator Angela Giron, face recall efforts. (Opposing Views) Colorado Democratic lawmakers face recall efforts after their gun control votes. FOX News reported: Colorado Democratic lawmakers who recently helped pass some of the toughest gun-control laws in the country now face the political backlash of recall efforts. Two groups are targeting state Rep. Mike McLachlan and state Sens. Angela Giron, Evie Hudak and John Morse. The Democrat-controlled legislature passed bills that ban magazines holding more than 15 rounds and require background checks for all gun transfers. They were signed into law in March by Democratic Gov. John...

Update: The “A Whole Lot of People for John Morse” committee gets slightly bigger than six people. Update at the bottom. As Colorado lawmakers entered the last frenzied 72 hours of the legislative session — 90 bills were still on the docket when the legislature was called to order Monday morning — four state politicians are facing efforts to recall them from office. Recall drives are in full swing against Senate Democrats John Morse, Evie Hudak and Angela Giron as well as Democratic Rep. Mike McLachlan.

With the frequency of flailing attacks left-wing Colorado Pols has been throwing out lately against the impending recall campaigns of Democratic Senators Hudak and Morse and Representative McLachlan, you might begin to wonder if they doth protest too much. (Note to Michele Bachmann — it’s not “protestest too much“) It makes you wonder if some on the left have polled the issue and are beginning to worry that a low-turnout recall election is more than just a minor annoyance. Should any of the petition drives succeed, a recall election would likely be very low turnout, which would favor the highly...

We ended up with a good turnout for today's recall effort. There were canvassing teams out and we staked out a busy intersection by the Citadel Mall. Lots of good feedback from motorists responding to our signs and many others stopping to get their names on the petition to recall Sen. Morse. We even had some thumbs up from Colorado Springs Police that were driving by as well as Sheriff's Deputies. It was a good day and it ended with Fox News-21 stopping by. The story should be on at 9:00 PM MST. They will also be posting a video...

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the country’s interpretation of the Constitution will “have to change” to allow for greater security to stave off future attacks.

President Obama makes his second trip to Connecticut on Monday since the Sandy Hook massacre, delivering a speech in Hartford where he is expected to be joined by Newtown families. The president is trying to keep the outrage over the deaths in the forefront of the public, while lawmakers continue fighting over the gun control package the president proposed in the wake of Newtown.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday expressed opposition to possible GOP efforts to filibuster a Senate gun-control measure, saying he did not “understand” the move to block debate. “I don’t understand it,” said McCain on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The purpose of the United States Senate is to debate and to vote and to let the people know where we stand.” “What are we afraid of? Why would we not want… if this issue is as important as all of us think it is, why not take it to one of the world’s greatest deliberative bodies… A number of GOP...

DENVER • The clock is ticking on two efforts to oust Senate President John Morse over the stance he took on gun legislation at the Capitol. Two groups have organized to recall the Colorado Springs Democrat in an upcoming election, but first they have 60 days to gather the signatures of 7,178 registered voters in Senate District 11. “It’s not just the gun issue,” said Robert Harris, the registered agent for the El Paso Freedom Defense Fund. “He told us he was going to focus on the economy, but all he’s focused on are guns, illegal immigrants, tax increases …...

A New York snack food maker is recalling about 3 million pounds of frozen pizza, mozzarella bites, Philly cheese steaks and other products linked to a rare and potentially dangerous outbreak of E. coli poisoning...

This is where the rubber meets the road. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get er done.

Supporters of the 380 sheriffs in 15 states who so far have vowed to defy new state and federal gun control laws claim that legislation is starting to pop up around the nation to fire any state elected or appointed law enforcement official who doesn't obey federal orders. The first effort emerged in Texas. Legislation proposed by Dallas Democratic Rep. Yvonne Davis would remove any sheriff or law enforcement officer who refuses to enforce state or federal laws. What's more, it would remove any elected or appointed law enforcement officer for simply stating or signing any document stating that they...

Recall Mike McLachlan Official grievance against Mike McLachlan: "Representative McLachlan campaigned as a defender of the 2nd Amendment. Yet he said on the House floor “I believe there is no doubt that the overwhelming support of the people that were there were opposed to any restriction whatsoever…. No constitutional right, not even the 2nd Amendment is absolute.” He voted for these bills despite acknowledging overwhelming opposition to these bills from his constituency. Representative McLachlan campaigned to be “a representative that carries Southwest Colorado’s common sense values to our State legislature." Instead he introduced a 15 round magazine limit, an arbitrary...

At a Senate judiciary committee hearing on Thursday, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein shot down a proposed amendment exempting veterans from her “assault weapons” ban, bizarrely arguing that it’s legal to hunt humans with high-capacity magazines. “The time has come, America, to step up and ban these weapons,” Feinstein said. “The other very important part of this bill is to ban large capacity ammunition feeding devices — those that hold more than 10 rounds. We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it’s legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round,...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Reports out of Capitol Hill reveal that just-reelected turncoat West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is about to stick a big knife in the back of American gun owners. And to make matters worse, he’s lying about what he’s doing. Both Manchin and House anti-gun crazy Carolyn McCarthy are claiming to be “working with NRA” to enact gun bans and national gun registries. NRA says flatly that Manchin is lying, and we believe he is. (The Hill, 1/24/13) Ironically, Manchin was the “gun owner’s best friend” on November 5 2012 — the day before his reelection to a...

In an explosive exchange outside the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., security guards for billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accosted senior Talk Radio Network investigative reporter Jason Mattera when he asked the mayor about his strong support for gun control.

The Ford Motor Company has been forced to recall over 70,000 Ford Escapes and nearly 16,000 2013 Ford Fusions due to an issue with overheating that may cause the cars’ engines to catch on fire. The recall is only for select models that were sold in Canada and the United States. This comes after several other recalls Ford has had in the recent past. The recall is for Fusion SEL and SE models with the 1.6 liter engine, and the Escape SEL and SE models. Other Fusions and Escapes aren’t included. This is due to drivers reporting that their engines...

-excerpt- Per the notice filed with the US Food and Drug Administration, the recall includes 282,000 cases. Boxes included in the recall have the letters “KB,” “AP” or “FK” before or after the “Best Before” date.

-excerpt- New Mexico-based Sunland Inc. has expanded its recall of peanut butter and almond butter to include cashew butters, tahini and blanched and roasted peanut products. -excerpt- In addition to Trader Joe's, the recall over the past week has included some nut butters and nut products sold at Whole Foods Market, Target, Safeway, Fresh & Easy, Harry and David, Sprouts, Heinen's, Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, Giant Food of Landover, Md., and several other stores. -excerpt- Some of the brand names included in the recall are Target's Archer Farms, Safeway's Open Nature, Earth Balance, Fresh & Easy, Late July, Heinen's,...

MADISON — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that they will file a “Petition to Bypass Court of Appeals” and “Motion for Consolidation” with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in each of two legal actions originally commenced in Dane County Circuit Court challenging the state's “Voter ID” law, 2011 Wis. Act 23. The Attorney General will further ask the Supreme Court to immediately stay each of the Circuit Court injunctions against the Voter ID law in a determined effort to ensure the law will be in place for the November 6, 2012, general election.

After the second of two mysterious fires in a Karma sedan, the government-backed electric car-maker Fisker has initiated a voluntary recall of its luxury vehicles. In a statement, Fisker spokesman Roger Ormisher said that Fisker engineers and an independent fire expert had "identified the root cause" of a fire that swept through a Karma parked outside a Woodside, California grocery store on August 10. "The investigation located the ignition source to the left front of the Karma, forward of the wheel, where the low-temperature cooling fan is located," said the statement. "The final conclusion was that this sealed component had...

Before the June 5 recall election, and even before the May 8 recall election primary, Racine Mayor John Dickert was scheming for ways to prevent election observers from being present for elections in Racine, e-mails from the Mayor’s office reveal. Dickert insisted in an e-mail to City Clerk Janice Johnson-Martin dated April 25 that the Clerk’s office needed to try and find a way to prevent poll watchers from observing elections. Alleging that the observers only “intimidate people,” Dickert wrote, “The way I look at, if u [sic] are not there vote – leave.” Poll watchers are individuals who, under...

Madison - Racine Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard can continue raising unlimited campaign funds if he chooses to seek a lawsuit challenging his loss in the June 5 recall, the state Government Accountability Board said Monday. Wanggaard told WTMJ-AM (620) radio host Charlie Sykes on Monday that challenging the results would cost between $100,000 and $200,000. That money would come from the senator's campaign fund, according to accountability board staff counsel Michael Haas. A quirk in election law that allows elected officials to raise unlimited funds in the event of a recount would still be in place should Wanggaard seek a...

I searched FR and found no notice of the recall, and sure have not seen it on the news. I know I've been hit and miss due to a lot of health issues this past year, but we do watch the nightly news. And anything this big would have caught my attention because I keep Maalox in the house for occasional mild stomach upset/reflux when I eat something that disagrees with my stomach. Went to buy a bottle of Maalox and tried several different stores and types, finally one of the gals at a local Kroger's said Maalox had been...

Madison - As Democrats celebrate a recount that reaffirmed state Senate candidate John Lehman's recall victory Monday, the campaign for Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard is considering a court challenge. Republicans hold a 17-16 majority in the Senate, but the Racine County victory will put control in Democrats' hands once Lehman is sworn in. A legal challenge would be unlikely to change the results, but would delay the transfer of power until the court rules. The Wanggaard campaign initially called for the recount after Democratic challenger Lehman netted an 834-vote victory in the 21st Senate District's June 5 recall election. Monday's...

The results for the June 5 election have now been certified and posted by the Government Accountability Board, showing 57.8% of the state’s voting-age adults turned out in Wisconsin’s historic recall fight. That’s easily the highest turnout in more than 60 years for a non-presidential ballot: According to the final official results, Republican Gov. Scott Walker got 53.08% (a total of 1,335,585 votes) and Democrat Tom Barrett got 46.28% (a total of 1,164,480 votes). Total votes cast: 2,516,065. The June 5 turnout of nearly 58% of voting-age adults was far beyond that of any mid-term gubernatorial election in recent decades....

Madison - The odds of Racine's recall recount winding up in court increased Tuesday, as Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard's campaign said it may challenge canvassers' decision to accept ballots from voters who did not sign the poll book. The recount is in its second week after Wanggaard's campaign requested canvassers review an 834-vote victory that favored Democratic challenger John Lehman in the June 5 recall. Republicans' latest contention of voting irregularities in Racine targets election workers who failed to ask voters to sign poll books as required by state law. The Wanggaard campaign also disputes the Government Accountability Board's recommendation...

Oops. Concerns that Chevrolet Cruzes could catch fire have caused General Motors (GM) to recall more than 475,000 of the popular compact sedans, the automaker said Friday... All (Cruze) cars manufactured from September 2010 to May of this year are subject to the recall. Already getting Chevy Volt flashbacks? Of course you are. In January, GM “called back” every single Volt ever sold in the U.S., to fix the (fire problem on the) allegedly already “fixed” battery…. It’s important for a company to create a branding identity--something all its products possess as an underlying, unifying theme. GM has successfully identified...

Move over, Trust Fund Ted Hall, with your "Help us now!" meltdown. Make room, OccuPoet Misty Rowan, you and your "The Huff and Puff of My Frustration." Say hello to Thistle Pettersen and her "It’s very frustrating to be an anarchist in America" rant! Who is this "Thistle," you ask? A little digging--her blog is thistlespace.org--reveals that she is Kristine "Thistle" Pettersen, "bike activist and folk singer," and someone who likes to go to protests. She's part of a group called "Cycles of Uprising": "Cycles of Uprising is an interactive, bicycle village, folk music show, circus, dance party and...

It was predictable. In Indiana, where Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) instituted by executive order a similar reform seven years ago, government-worker unions have since lost 91 percent of their dues-paying membership. In Wisconsin, Democratic and union bosses (a redundancy) understood what was at stake if Walker prevailed: not benefits, not “rights,” but the very existence of the unions. So they fought and they lost. Repeatedly. Tuesday was their third and last shot at reversing Walker’s reforms. In April 2011, they ran a candidate for chief justice of the state Supreme Court who was widely expected to strike down the law....

Democratic leader consoles Wisconsin party after recallBy Brendan O'Brien | Reuters – 9 hours ago MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz rallied Wisconsin Democrats holding their state convention this weekend, urging them to regroup after a failed attempt to recall the state's Republican governor. Wasserman Schultz said Wisconsin Democrats had been up against "nothing short of an avalanche of secret, out of state, and corporate special interest money" in their bid to unseat Governor Scott Walker, who enjoyed a 7-to-1 financial advantage over his challenger Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

It's Hemmer Time - A "thank you" letter to the left

Now come on, tell me the truth. You thought the Democratics LOST in Wisconsin on Tuesday night. No no! Au contraire, mon ami! The Democrats actually WON! Yes, I kid you not. I read it at the DUmp, that bastion of astuteness and penetrating analysis. I read it here in this THREAD by DUmmie sabrina 1, "Wisconsin Recalls Worked! Walker and the Koch Brothers Have Been Defanged!" Freudenschade, baby! Crack open the champagne bottles, my progressive friends! We WON!!! WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! So let us now discover the reason for this hitherto inexplicable euphoria, in Reality-Based Red, while the commentary of...

Though it hasn’t been celebrated as such, Scott Walker’s victory in Wisconsin represents the full flowering of the tea-party movement. It is also a sign — among others — that the Republican party has recaptured its ideological core. Tea partiers are often mischaracterized as extreme right-wingers. Thus, proponents of same-sex marriage or unrestricted abortion will invoke “Tea Party” elements as those most opposed to their efforts. That’s off target. Though many in the movement may have conservative social views, those weren’t the issues that spurred them to organize, demonstrate, and vote. No, the tea partiers — judging by their signs,...

The American left as we have come to know it suffered a devastating blow in Wisconsin last night. The organized heart of the left gave everything it had to the fight against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: heart, shoe leather, wallet and soul. The left picked this fight, on the issue and in the place of its choice; it chose to recall Walker because it believed it could win a showcase victory. That judgement was fatally flawed; it is part of a larger failure to grasp the nature of American politics and the times in which we live. The left gave...

OTTAWA (The Borowitz Report) – The Canadian coast guard was on alert today, preparing for what it fears could be a massive invasion of boat people from Wisconsin. Conor McGlindon, commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Coast Guard (RCMCG), said that satellite photos had revealed a “substantial flotilla” in the making, as Wisconsinites prepared to flee their state for their neighbor to the North. “Word has gotten around that we have policemen, firemen, and basic school lunches up here,” Mr. McGlindon said. “You can’t blame these boat people for seeking a better life. But we are under orders to intercept...

LANSING, Mich.—A group seeking to recall Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced Thursday that it has ended the effort following Gov. Scott Walker's victory in Wisconsin's recall election. The group called Michigan Rising said it would stop collecting signatures, noting it already was short of its own gathering goals. Instead, the group said it will focus on a long-term effort to form a progressive think tank, develop progressive leaders and support current progressive legislators.

Dateline New York, June 6. 12:00 noon, Pierre Hotel: fundraiser. Lady M is introduced to her fans by Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. file photo: we all know the rules re. photos at fundraisers Most of you know my story by now. Yes…and a fine story it is: My father was a blue-collar city worker at the city water plant [and Democratic ward captain in the Daley machine], and my family lived in a little-bitty apartment on the South Side of Chicago. My mother still lives there. My bedroom looks exactly the same. (Laughter.) Apparently they all know that Granny “still living...

The spin from the left on the morning after their disastrous Wisconsin recall election failure is that Governor Scott Walker (R-WI), who walked away with the election, did so because he spent oodles of money. Politico’s takeaway: “Money shouts.” “Walker wins one for the plutocrats,” trumpeted Joan Walsh of Salon.com. “Outspent 7-1, Democrats couldn’t beat Scott Walker with a strong ground game.” Media Matters’ favorite Washington Post columnist, Greg Sargent, cited the Citizens United decision allowing corporate political spending no less than five times in his recap of the election – despite the fact that not one dollar spent in...

The only thing that went wrong last night was that Republicans possibly lost control of  the state senate.JSOnline: Democrats appeared to have assumed control of the state Senate with results posted early  Wednesday showing former Sen. John Lehman (D-Racine) defeating incumbent Van Wanggaard in a tight race.Republicans held on to three other state Senate seats in Tuesday's recall voting. Democratic challengers lost recalls bids against Sens. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls.).Rep. Jerry Petrowski (R-Stettin) was elected to fill the vacancy left by Sen. Pam Galloway (R-Wausau), who resigned earlier this year after opponents gathered enough signatures to...