Free Republic

Where does the corruption begin? I have been doing a lot of thinking about the corruption in our political structure. I have come to the conclusion that we are looking at the branches of the tree and not the roots. When someone wants to run for office what do they do? They start collecting campaign donations. If you don't bend your morals to benefit large special interest groups/businesses, you might as well give up and not even run for office. You won't have enough money to get heard. No longer do we vote on the people with the best values,...

Washington -- Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County. As it turns out, neither was true. But Hoffman’s concession -- based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted -- set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill....

Everyone should watch the video on this post. The vote was taken! you must see this!! ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE !!! This is only 1.5 minutes long, and you won't believe it! It doesn't matter what party you subscribe to or what one believes. This is just wrong! From C-Span: HOW THE OBAMA HEALTH CARE VOTE WAS PASSED. This is what is wrong with our government and who is now controlling it. Something has to change.. ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE No wonder US citizens are appalled at the behavior of our (experienced) representatives! YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS! Straight from C-Span. This is how...

Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), a Philadelphia native, and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member, Lamar Smith (R-Texas) sent a letter, on November 10, to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting information ...

Are You Finally Ready To Trust Your Conscience? Most politicians are not bad people, but the system has a way of chewing them up and spitting them out. Once in the system, they learn to play the game and almost always compromise their integrity when it can be justified and even sometimes when it cannot. This is done while we look the other way if it’s “our guy” and/or they give us something we want. That’s the insidiousness of democracy and these “representatives” continue to do anything to stay in power. Many of the problems that we face today can...

NOW is the time for all of you to become PRECINCT COMMITTEE MEN/WOMEN! It's how we take back the Republican Party! PCO's have VOTING POWERS....they elect their County GOP Chair, make State House Appointments, provide input into the PLATFORM, help choose candidates, activate voters, and some are ELECTORS of the ELECTORAL COLLEGE. If you don't know what a PCP is go to your local County or State GOP page (or even the local DEMOCRAT webpage!)....or freep mail me...and I'll email info. You represent your immediate Precinct/neighborhood. It's TIME!!! HISTORY IS CALLING YOU! It's 1775 AGAIN....what are YOU going to do....

Almost 20% of West Virginians eligible to vote are either dead or have moved. Five States with the Most Dead People Eligible to Vote: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. FUN TIME IN ACORN TOWN: DEAD PEOPLE RULE! Are you lonely when you go to the polling place? Want some company? Perhaps, you'd like to take along a dead "friend" to vote with you. That's a scenario that's becoming more possible across the United States. A combination of old voter registration lists that still contain the names of dead voters and voters who have moved, new "Motor Voter" legislation,...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,” she said.

The Democratic Party of New Jersey is pressuring the Secretary of State to ignore discrepancies on the signatures that are supposed to verify absentee ballots. Under state law, anyone can cast an absentee ballot for any reason. Paul P. Josephson, a lawyer representing the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, declared “this level of scrutiny is unwarranted and discriminatory. Just because a signature contains misspellings, or a different address or name than the registered voter is insufficient reason for disqualifying the vote. Many Democratic voters are poorly educated, illiterate, or worse. Cracking down on these ‘errors’ will disproportionately depress the votes...

What's different about voting in Minneapolis this year? You get to rank three candidates in each election contest. That's ranked-choice voting, the system the city is launching for municipal races. So in the 11-person mayor's race, you may rank one candidate as your first choice, another as your second, and a third as your final choice. "It's a lot less confusing than it sounds once somebody explains it," Nancy Harrington, who rarely misses an election, said at an informational workshop at Webber Neighborhood Center last week. But there are some pitfalls to avoid. Think of the grid of candidates and...

Video - little over two minutes. Watch Murtha act as Speaker on the House floor, and completely ignore the Constitution. Just astoundingly pathetic.

The Supreme Court recently faced a challenge to the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A Texas municipality requested that it be allowed to be relieved from the onerous and expensive preclearance provisions of the Act. The Supreme Court avoided a ruling on the constitutional question but did allow the municipality to “bail out “ of the preclearance requirements. Under those requirements, a number of states and voting districts (mostly in the South, but also including parts of seven non-Southern states such as Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx in New York) must obtain preclearance from the Department of...

Voters in the small North Carolina city of Kinston decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party. The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" -- identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black. The department ruled that white voters...

link only per restrictions

I wonder why the same poeple opposing voter ID are the same favoring IRV ? why are "progressives" often on this bandwagon?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says she will vote for a Democratic health care bill, breaking with her party on President Barack Obama's top legislative priority. The Maine senator kept virtually all of Washington guessing how she would vote until she announced it late in the Senate Finance Committee debate Tuesday. Until then, she told reporters, she had not even let Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in on her secret. She told her colleagues: "When history calls, history calls," even though she had some criticism of the bill.

Meg Whitman owes the voters of California more than an apology. The successful former CEO of eBay is a Republican candidate for governor in 2010. She is running as someone who will bring the skills of the boardroom to the serious economic problems afflicting her adopted home state. Because of her success in the business world and the personal fortune she's prepared to invest in the race, she is one of the leading candidates to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). But the formal launch of her candidacy last week was disrupted by a damaging report in the Sacramento Bee. Though...

Former Democratic Party chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. has taken over for the late Edward Kennedy in the Senate. Vice President Joe Biden swore in Kirk on Friday hours after a Massachusetts judge rejected a Republican request to delay it. The GOP had argued that Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick exceeded his constitutional authority by appointing Kirk before a traditional 90-day legislative waiting period had expired. State lawmakers passed a bill this week giving Patrick the power to choose an interim senator. Kirk gives Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority with the health care fight at a critical point.

Remember when the self-proclaimed most powerful woman in the world, Nancy Pelosi promised the most “honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history." But Pelosi must believe that being honest and open has nothing to do with reading a bill before it is voting. Back in June, Congressional Republicans introduced H. Res 554. The bill's purpose is to amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to require that legislation and conference reports be available on the Internet for 72 hours before consideration by the House, giving the members and the public time to read the bill before it...

A couple weeks ago, I did a story on a referendum in the Tacoma area on Ranked Choice Voting. In RCV, a voter ranks the candidates in the order of their preference. Then, if one candidate gets 50.1% or more they win. If not, the bottom candidate is dropped off and the second choice of everyone that chose that candidate first gets their votes. This process continues until someone finally does get to fifty percent or more. This is a way to encourage more third party participation.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2009 – Despite the wave of violence this week in Afghanistan’s capital, military officials there believe Afghans will turn out to vote in their national election Aug. 20, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said today. Suicide bombings in Kabul today and Aug. 15 killed three ISAF troops, several Afghan soldiers, United Nations employees and more than 50 innocent civilians, Canadian Defense Force Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay said in a video news conference from Afghanistan. Insurgents have stepped up their attacks from about 30 to more than 40 per day in the past four days,...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2009 – When Afghans go to the polls to cast their votes Aug. 20, they’ll see Afghans providing for their security, not U.S. or NATO forces. In a video news conference today from Kabul, Australian Defense Force Brig. Gen. Damien Cantwell, chief of the election task force for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, stressed that the Afghan security forces are completely in charge of planning and implementing security efforts for the elections. “Afghan security forces have committed themselves fully across the country with the intent to provide all they can within their resource limitations in terms of...

I've been checking out my copy of the Constitution and I'm still unable to find anything regarding a ruling class of elitist jackasses who refuse to interact with the people who elected them. Sherrod Brown isn't the only one who doesn't get it. As the health care clown carnival rolls into each new town a variety of elected representatives of the American people are behaving like those our Founding Fathers fought a revolution to free us from so many years ago. Something I said during the Tax Day Tea Party coverage on PJTV bears repeating (pomposity fits me like a...

In 2006, the Pierce County, in Washington state, (home to Tacoma) government held their once in a decade Pierce County Charter Review. This is a sort of Constitutional Convention when a commission is elected and makes suggestions to improve the Constitution. Those suggestions are then put on the next ballot as an initiative and if they are approved by the voters, they become a parter of the Constitutional Charter. For this Pierce County elects a group of seven members called the Pierce County Charter Commission.

In 2006, the Pierce County, in Washington state, government held their once in a decade Pierce County Charter Review. This is a sort of Constitutional Convention when a commission is elected and makes suggestions to improve the Constitution. Those suggestions are then put on the next ballot as an initiative and if they are approved by the voters, they become a parter of the Constitutional Charter. For this Pierce County elects a group of seven members called the Pierce County Charter Commission.

In 2006, the Pierce County, in Washington state, government held their once in a decade Pierce County Charter Review. This is a sort of Constitutional Convention when a commission is elected and makes suggestions to improve the Constitution. Those suggestions are then put on the next ballot as an initiative and if they are approved by the voters, they become a parter of the Constitutional Charter. For this Pierce County elects a group of seven members called the Pierce County Charter Commission.

Almost four decades ago, the 26th Amendment lowered the US voting age to 18.  At the time, most neurologists believed that the human brain was fully developed by about age 12, so allowing Americans to vote at 18 seemed like a safe move. But parents of teenagers knew that was nonsense, and new research is confirming those parental observations.  Since the voting age was lowered in 1971, scientific advancements such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allowed researchers to get detailed three-dimensional images of developing brains. Although human brains typically reach their adult size by age 12, they are far from...

We Americans saw what a fuss Al Gore made in our 2000 Presidential election (after he promised not to challenge), and we witnessed how Floridians could not accurately punch ballots, all the while Al Gore's people pushed our people through weeks of court wrangling not unlike his partner in crime, Bill Clinton, during the Lewinsky affair. That was so long ago that we had no idea what crooks and cheats inhabited Obama's ACORN. Now we see Iran going through a similar, yet more deadly dust up, involving the more conservative, religious and military backed badman Ahmdinejab vs the more Progressive...

Reporting from Washington -- The Supreme Court narrowed, but did not overturn, the historic Voting Rights Act today, ruling that municipalities across the South that have had a clean record for the last decade can seek an exemption from the law. The decision came as a relief to civil rights advocates, who feared the high court was prepared to invalidate the law. Since 1965, the Voting Rights Act has required states and municipalities in the South to "pre-clear" any changes in their voting or election standards with the Justice Department in Washington. Three years ago, Congress extended this provision for...

Military Voting Rights by: Evan Sumortin, June 16, 2009 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was originally passed to fight against discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African-Americans. Nevertheless, there is still a significant group of disenfranchised Americans: the men and women of the armed forces serving to defend our country abroad. At the weekly bloggers briefing held June 9 at the Heritage Foundation, Edward Fitzmaurice Jr. of Military Voting Rights USA presented his effort to pass a resolution calling for express mail to bring military ballots home from overseas. A survey by the...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has ruled that the State of Georgia may not use driver’s license photo ids or Social Security numbers to verify the eligibility of those casting ballots in that state. Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said that “requiring prospective voters to submit to such scrutiny at the polls would be humiliating and tend to reduce voter turnout—contravening the Administration’s policy of ensuring that all have access to the right to vote.” King went on to cite the “disproportionate impact on those without easy access to these forms...

A Cuyahoga County, Ohio, man who was registered to vote by ACORN has been charged with registering to vote nine times last year using false addresses and names, NewsNet5 reports. NewsNet5 reports that "Darnell Nash has been indicted on felonious charges of tampering with records, false registration and illegal voting. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation."

Senate Republican leaders appear willing to go to the mat for former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), but it's unclear whether Coleman wants to go to the mat for himself. The Minnesota Supreme Court is expected to rule within weeks on whether Democrat Al Franken bested Coleman in the long- contested 2008 Senate race. Republicans said they were ready to protest any Democratic leadership attempts to seat Franken — if the court rules him the victor — until Coleman either exhausts his appeals process in the federal courts or decides to throw in the towel. Cornyn and Senate Republican Conference Vice...

One of the most sacred rights and responsibilities of American citizenship is voting. We are supposedly guaranteed that every person's vote is worth as much as every other person's vote. That guarantee has never been perfect, Blacks weren't allowed to vote until the 15th amendment in 1870, and women until 1920's 19th Amendment, but the tradition of the United States has been to aspire toward honest elections. This past election America took a major step backwards, ACORN, perpetuated voter fraud in at least 14 states to the point where some districts had MORE than 100% of registered voters casting ballots....

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor wants to give jailbirds the right to vote. It's her opinion that the federal Voting Rights Act can be used to force states to allow voting by currently imprisoned felons.

I voted Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I've decided to marry my horse. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn't. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would. I voted Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it. I voted Democrat because when we pull out of...

Poll Shows Surge Under Obama in Voters Calling Themselves 'Independent' Conservatives are holding their own, while the ranks of independents have skyrocketed since November's presidential election, the latest Pew Research Center poll shows. The poll of 3,013 adults from March 31 to April 21 found that there had been "no consistent movement away from conservatism, nor a shift toward liberalism" since the election. Republican losses are slowing, the poll found, while Democrats have begun losing ground too. And independent and unaffiliated voters are approaching record highs. The implications for the president, Congress and the political parties in the next election...

[FedGov Fax Numbers May Be Obtained From ConservativeUSA.Org Congressional Switchboard 1-877-762-8762] DEAR Senator XYZ; Even if the Federal Government had the funding to enforce extra prosecution for "hate crimes," the idea is still inane, and unneeded. By the way, the FedGov is broke, so that should be enough stop a Bill that is directed, obviously toward protecting everyone but Christians and White people from said hate crimes. There is no evidence that the homosexual community has been singled out as victims of hate crimes. Nor, blacks. According to FBI crime statistics, there are far more hate crimes, proportionately, perpertrated against...

Want to avoid standing in a long line of voters on Election Day? You could under a bill passed Friday by the Minnesota Senate. The measure, approved 41-22, would permit voters to cast ballots early without an excuse. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Katie Sieben, DFL-Newport, said early voting would make it easier and faster for people to vote. Sieben said she also designed the measure to "correct gaps that came to light" during the glare of Minnesota's still-undecided 2008 U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken. "While Minnesota has much to be proud of,...

Unfortunately we have lost what our Founding Fathers created. The Founders created a LIMITED GOVERNMENT REPUBLIC. Today we have an unlimited government democracy, which if historical trends prevail, will lead us to socialism as it is practiced in most of Europe today. When the republic was established, only property owning males who could read and write were permitted to vote in federal elections. The republic was set up to protect the interests of property owners, taxpayers, businessmen, and gun owners (Second Amendment). It was not designed to give the property-less urban proletariat the right to ride roughshod over the rest...

Like Tiresias in TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, Bhadaru at 127 has seen it all. Fall of a mighty colonial power, rise of a democracy, a changed world order, falling values, rising temperatures. But through the years he has not lost his commitment to the voting process. "I will vote this time too," he told TOI on Monday, reaffirming his faith in democracy. ``I have done it since 1952. Then it was Nehru," he recalled, going back in time. As he looked around, trying to bring back into his mind images from the past, he suddenly fixed his gaze on...

I'd been at Coalinga a couple of days when Mr Rigby showed me his dormitory. He'd been a high school sports coach before being convicted of molesting some of his students. He told me he was a great appreciator of the male physical form. Above his bed were photos of classical statues of male nudes. These gave me pause, since I knew some paedophiles like to justify their proclivities by citing the ancient Greeks' famous enthusiasm for pederasty. There was also a reproduction of a painting of young male ballet dancers, which had a definite erotic overtone. I asked one...

A Supreme debate about racial progress.

WASHINGTON - Estados Unidos deberá responder en dos meses la querella presentada por un abogado puertorriqueño ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) en reclamo del voto presidencial. Santiago Cantón, director ejecutivo de la CIDH -que responde a la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA)-, notificó al abogado Gregorio Igartúa que a partir del 22 de abril el gobierno de Estados Unidos tendrá dos meses para exponer sus puntos de vista. Igartúa denunció en 2006 ante la CIDH el hecho de que los residentes de Puerto Rico no tienen derecho a votar por el presidente de Estados Unidos. Cantón le...

The NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union of Florida are trying to stop legislation that could require a driver's license, passport or a form of state identification card in order to vote. The bill is gaining national attention from those who fear it would disenfranchise voters.

The number of Americans who describe themselves as "conservative" outnumbers those who call themselves "liberal" by more than two-to-one, according to the latest report by pollster Kellyanne Conway, published in Human Events newspaper, with the headline, The Unbearable Lightness of Approval Ratings. See, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31496 According to the Pew Research Center, 48% of Americans prefer a “smaller government [with] fewer services,” up from 42% prior to the November election. See, http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31496

National Popular Vote (NPV), a California-based group formed in 2006 to persuade states to join a compact to award their electoral votes to the winner of the nationwide popular vote tally for president, unveiled a new and potent argument on behalf of the proposed reform. “An overlooked benefit for many so-called ‘battleground states’ will be the reduction of candidate visits to their states,” said John Koza, chairman of NPV. “If the popular vote were the decisive factor, candidates would spend more time in the denser parts of the nation. Other communities wouldn’t be worth a visit. They’d be spared the...

Woman admits voter fraud By Robert Patrick ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 03/24/2009 ST. LOUIS – An East St. Louis woman pleaded guilty to a mail fraud charge Tuesday in federal court in St. Louis and admitted submitting false voter registration cards in the lead-up to the last year's elections, federal prosecutors said. Deidra Humphrey, 44, worked for the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition and submitted false and fraudulent voter registration cards for voters in St. Louis city and county, knowing it was illegal, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- For tens of thousands of convicted felons in Washington state, only one thing stands between them and the ballot box: debt. The Associated Press reported that under current law, felons can't vote until they have served their sentences, including the completion of any parole or probation, and paid all restitution and other court fees. A measure to remove that payment requirement -- opponents say it's akin to a modern-day "poll tax" -- has passed the House and awaits action in the Senate. If it becomes law, felons could simply re-register to vote once they're no longer in...

Can someone here enlighten me on this matter? Are there rules as to which of these folks can vote and under which circumstances? I know that Dear Leader ticked off the families and friends of Special Olympians and the disabled in general last night, but will many of the MR community be able to vote against him? Forgive me if my language isn't as PC as some would like, as I don't play that game. Thanks!