Free Republic

This year is going to be a happy one -- at least for some taxpayers. Among the many changes that became effective on New Year's Day are higher contribution limits for 401(k) plans, a decline in the top federal estate-tax rate and a new deduction for many people who buy mortgage insurance. The standard mileage rate rose. So did the personal exemption, income brackets and dozens of other tax items adjusted for inflation every year. While these and other changes will bring relief to millions of taxpayers, many will be hit by higher taxes. About 11 million workers will have...

From our intrepid correspondent on site down in Texas, Crawford Activist, we have this photo of Cindy Sheehan registering to vote in the local post office last Tuesday: Crawford Activist reports that Mother Sheehan then left Crawford late Tuesday afternoon to attend a conference in Seattle she is headlining. Ms. Sheehan is supposed to return to Crawford Friday morning in time to protest the RNC fundraiser near the President's ranch. Then Cindy is off again to give a speech in Washington, DC on Saturday. It seems she just can't resist those speaking fees.But hasn't our hero mother broken Texas law...

<p>OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- A recent Sunday found Tina Kolm changing her morning routine. Instead of attending a Unitarian Universalist service, she was at the Lenexa Christian Center, paying close attention to a conservative minister's sermon about the importance of amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex "marriage."</p>

The $50 million Dems The real VIPs in the fight to oust George W. Bush won’t be on the FleetCenter stage next week. They’re the wealthy funders of progressive ‘527’ groups. BY DAVID S. BERNSTEIN ONE YEAR AGO, conventional political wisdom held that the Democratic presidential nominee would be in trouble right now. After spending all his cash in a tough primary battle, the thinking went, the candidate would have to spend April through June scrambling to raise money for the general campaign. In the meantime, Bush’s team would be free to use that three-month window to define the Democrats’...

BOSTON - Howard Dean (news - web sites) isn't running for president anymore, but you'd never know it from the reception he got Sunday night. Speaking to a crowd of young voters at a party sponsored by Rock the Vote and Democratic Gain, Dean was welcomed like a rock star. He could barely get through the crowd. Once he reached the stage, with his shirt sleeves characteristically rolled up above the elbows, he was greeted with chants of "Dean, Dean, Dean" echoing back to his rallies this past winter, when the former Vermont governor was running for the Democratic nomination....

(CNSNews.com) - In a letter to a conservative, pro-family group, the Internal Revenue Service established this week that homosexual couples filing joint tax returns would be in violation of the law under the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The Defense of Marriage Act, signed by President Clinton in 1996, says the states will not be forced to recognize homosexual marriages and it legally defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. "Because of this statute, only married individuals under this definition could elect to file a joint tax return," said the June 14 letter addressed to Public...

To hear Democrat Presidential-candidate John Kerry tell it on the campaign trail, not only is unemployment the fault of President Bush, but he's practically handing out pink slips to unwitting workers across the nation personally. The campaign rhetoric coming from the Left on the economy is only slightly less histrionic than their anti-war slogans. There is an opportunity, however, for Senator Kerry to do something good for the economy and jobs by tearing himself away from the campaign trail long enough to vote this week for the Ensign-Boxer "Invest in the USA Act" which is part of the FSC-ETI bill....

Even before the Sept. 11 attacks and the crackdown that followed, American Muslim leaders generally had come to believe they had made a mistake. In 2000, they made their first unified endorsement in a presidential race, backing George W. Bush. Many thought he would take a harder line against Israel, and, based on statements he made while campaigning, would protect the rights of immigrants facing deportation. Muslims say they were disappointed on both counts. Now, feeling the additional sting of being scrutinized in the domestic hunt for terrorists, they are mobilizing to express their anger at the polls in 2004....

He says he's entered the "death zone" – that period when he expects to succumb to the effects of his multi-week hunger protest. Thirty-six-year-old Gene Chapman hasn't eaten since tax day, April 15. The Texas man, who early on spent hours each day sitting across the street from the Austin IRS office, vows to die of starvation unless he receives what he considers an adequate answer to one question: "Where is my tax liability in the law?" Gene Chapman On his blog, Chapman says he has lost about 50 pounds: "I have lost a lot of weight. I could kick...

President Bush endorsed tax changes intended to help small investors recover from recent losses and feel better about the stock market. At his Waco, Texas, economic forum, Mr. Bush seized on two ideas floated by Charles Schwab, chairman of San Francisco investment-services firm Charles Schwab Corp.One idea would increase the amount of losses individual investors can take as tax deductions to $20,000 from $3,000. The other would reduce the so-called double taxation of stock dividends, to encourage chief executives to pay more in dividends and worry less about their companies' share prices and quarterly earnings.Although Mr. Schwab wasn't specific, the...