Free Republic

In the last ten years, the off switch has seen something of a decline, being replaced by its trendier sibling, the standby button. But we miss good old offy -- his sturdy construction and good humour were a welcome break from the monotony of day-to-day life. There's good news though. With the environmentalists throwing a fit pretty much every couple of hours about how much carbon we're blowing out of our electronic bottoms, trendy standby is becoming a technological leper. Does this mean we'll see the glorious return of our old friend? Whatever happens, it will be years before all...

JEFFERSON CITY — Chris Koster, a Republican state senator and champion of stem cell research, is expected to announce today that he is switching to the Democratic Party. Koster, a candidate for attorney general next year, will hold news conferences in Columbia, Harrisonville and St. Louis. In a news release, he promised "a speech that may transform the political landscape of Missouri." Koster, of Harrisonville near Kansas City, resigned late Tuesday as chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus. His resignation letter, hand-delivered by Koster's secretary to the office of Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, gave no explanation. < snip...

Georgia state representative from the Atlanta has switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party, bolstering the wide GOP majority in the state House of Representatives. "My strong belief in fiscal responsibility and restraint... is not a good fit within the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives," Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Atlanta, wrote in an entry on his blog Tuesday morning. Rep. Jacobs' move to the Republican Party increases the GOP House majority to 107, and reduces the Democratic minority to 73 members. House Democrats criticized the move as opportunistic.

The bill to move next year's California presidential primary to Feb. 5 reminds me of selling mattresses. I've never sold them, but my college roommate did, and I learned a lot from him about getting customers in the door and then switching them to a more costly product. The mattress company advertised incredibly cheap prices, but when the customers showed up, they would be told that those mattresses weren't very good. But fortunately for the customers, there were much better mattresses available at, well, higher prices. The tactic usually worked. Who wants to sleep on a crummy mattress? California's presidential...

When he ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994 and for Massachusetts governor in 2002, Mitt Romney made it clear he believed abortion should be "safe and legal" and that he supported "the right of a woman to choose" to terminate a pregnancy. But in an interview with The Bee on Wednesday, Romney, a Republican presidential candidate trying to appeal to social conservatives, described a change of heart on abortion more than two years ago. He said he now believes states should be allowed "to pursue pro-life legislation." "I've changed my view with regards to the role of government in...

JACKSON, Miss. Mississippi's most experienced state lawmaker, Senator Tommy Gollott of Biloxi, surprised many of his colleagues today (Thursday) by making a last-minute switch from Democrat to Republican. Gollott announced weeks ago that he would seek re-election this year -- but he delayed filing qualifying papers until shortly before today's 5 P-M deadline. He says he switched because the Democratic Party executive committee two years ago threatened to NOT certify a Democrat who had supported a Republican in the past. Gollott says he supports Republican Governor Haley Barbour because he thinks Barbour is doing a good job helping the coast...

NEW YORK The next issue of Time magazine, due on Friday, features several takes on the Iraq war and domestic politics. "Independent" Sen. Joe Liebeman receives a mini-profile titled "What Joe Wants," a key question since he is "the Senate's one-man tipping point." Republicans, the magazine says, are "courting him" and Lieberman "has been indulging in some fairly immodest political footsie."

LEAKESVILE, Miss. - State Sen. James "Shannon" Walley of Leakesville, elected as a Democrat in 2003, said Thursday that he has qualified for re-election as a Republican. Walley represents Senate District 43, which includes all of Greene County and parts of Forrest, George, Perry and Wayne counties. "When I got to the Senate, I found myself voting more with the Republicans than with members of my own party. I realized that my beliefs were more in line with the Republican Party, and I need to stay true to myself and what is best for my district," Walley said in a...

State Rep. Will Kendrick is switching to the Republican Party, diminishing the Democrats' biggest pickup of seats in the state House in two decades. Kendrick, of Carrabelle, along the Gulf Coast southwest of Tallahassee, has always been conservative and frequently voted with Republicans. For generations, the Panhandle was dominated by Democrats, even though many were staunchly conservative and voted more often with the GOP. Kendrick said Monday he simply had philosophical differences with the Democratic Party and noted that Gov.-Elect Charlie Crist, a Republican, carried most of his district in the November elections. Kendrick also said he could be more...

Body reveals its inflammation 'off switch' 18:00 01 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service Deb MacKenzie Researchers have shed light on how the body switches off its immune response, a key step towards understanding autoimmune diseases and controlling inflammation. When immune cells die, they transform into “sponges” that soak up the molecules responsible for causing inflammation, researchers have discovered. The new information may lead to better drugs to treat inflammatory disorders, such as eczema. Inflammation is characterised by a red, painful swelling around a wound caused by blood fluids, proteins and immune cells flooding into an area of the body in...

A single molecule, trapped between two electrodes, acts as a switch and has a ‘memory’ of the type used in data storage, Swiss and US researchers have found. Heike Riel of IBM’s research labs in Zurich says this is ‘a step along the way’ to making nanoscale electronic components a reality. Using single organic molecules as electronic components could allow researchers to miniaturise circuits far more than conventional techniques allow. They also avoid the interactions between the millions of molecules found in a standard transistor that can disrupt the conduction of charge. The scientists built their switch using a molecule...

The state’s only Libertarian to be elected to a county leadership post is no longer a Libertarian. Dade County Commission Chairman/Executive Ben Brandon said he is switching back to the Republican party, the Republican Liberty Caucus, to be exact. “It’s essentially the Libertarian wing of the Republican Party,” Mr. Brandon said. After unsuccessful bids as a Republican for county school board and county commission as a Republican, Mr. Brandon switched parties in 2002. In 2004, he was elected to the newly-created post of county executive/chairman as a Libertarian. Once in office, he said, he found that his party label prevented...

DAYTON — State Rep. Dixie Allen of Jefferson Twp. switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican Friday and plans to screen Saturday for an appointment to take over the Montgomery County Commission seat of recently retired Vicki Pegg. State Rep. John White of Kettering, chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party, said Allen "is the favorite and front-runner" for the county commission appointment because of her experience and "the level of respect she has earned as a legislator and community activist." Allen, a retired Wright-Patterson Air Force Base manager, has been a member of the Ohio House of Representatives...

Alachua County Republicans gained two new allies and candidates for the 2008 elections Friday at an event intended to show the growth of the county party. Alachua City Manager Clovis Watson and Ward Scott, a Sante Fe Community College professor, traded in their Democratic party registrations for Republican ones and announced their intentions to run at a "switch event" held in downtown Gainesville. "I'm a man of action and ideas," Watson told a group of a few dozen Republicans who attended the event. "I cannot continue to support a party that uses criticism and calumny as its stock in trade."...

Mashed-up corn is heated to produce vapor, which condenses into grain alcohol. Sound familiar, NASCAR old-timers? It's the recipe for moonshine, the largely forgotten foundation of a sport that has moved from backwoods to big time. But moonshine is going mainstream, too. You know it as ethanol -- a gasoline alternative that isn't much different from the hooch (shh!) Junior Johnson used to hide in his trunk. And given the current political climate, it might be smart for NASCAR to fire up the still. The Indy Racing League is leading the way on alternative fuels, beginning a two-year transition to...

ROME, Italy, April 25, 2006 (ENS) - Worldwide momentum is gathering for a major international switch from fossil fuels to renewable bioenergy, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today. The move is driven in part by record high oil prices, as oil jumped to an all-time high above $75 a barrel last week. “The gradual move away from oil has begun. Over the next 15 to 20 years we may see biofuels providing a full 25 percent of the world’s energy needs,” Alexander Müller, the new assistant director-general for the FAO's Sustainable Development Department, said here. Factors pushing...

One current and one recent Florida county director for the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization have switched party designations from Democrat to Republican, showing some of the first signs that the Republican Party's efforts to reach out to blacks are working. Darryl E. Rouson, recent past president of St. Petersburg chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Derrick Wallace, Orange County chapter president, both have registered Republican in the past two months. The announcements were seen as a boon for state and national Republicans eagerly seeking allies in efforts to reach out to...

BATON ROUGE, La. The state Republican Party can count three more members among its fold in the Legislature. Representatives Ernest Wooton of Belle Chasse, Dan "Blade" Morrish of Jennings and William Daniel of Baton Rouge have jumped to the G-O-P. Their switches bring the G-O-P membership in the Legislature to 55: 40 members of the 105-member House and 15 members of the 39-member Senate

WASHINGTON - A billionaire businessman who failed to beat Governor Pataki three times on the Independence Party line, Thomas Golisano, will switch his party affiliation to Republican today in an effort to gain major party support in another run for governor next year, a top New York State Republican official said yesterday. The source, who asked not to be identified because of the delicacy of discussions surrounding next year's race, said that top state Republicans have warmed to Mr. Golisano out of concerns about a Democratic romp in the 2006 elections. In three straight gubernatorial runs, Mr. Golisano has launched...

FRANKFORT - Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield announced yesterday that they had persuaded a freshman Democratic state representative from Western Kentucky to switch parties. The registration change of Rep. James Carr, of Hopkinsville, ended a weekend of speculation about the subject of the McConnell-Whitfield press conferences in Hopkinsville and Frankfort that were announced without details late Friday. Whitfield tacitly acknowledged that the secretive nature was designed to spur interest. At the news conference in the Frankfort GOP headquarters, McConnell also maintained his silence about recent controversies surrounding the Kentucky Republican Party's leadership and Gov. Ernie...