Free Republic

Dr. Howard Dean’s fans come out for the big Democratic summer shindig As Tom Andrews, the director of the leading national antiwar coalition, began his speech at the Maine Democrats’ big outdoor summer shindig in Falmouth, John Baldacci signaled his bodyguard/driver to move the large, dark SUV up the driveway. The vehicle soon hid in the trees, its engine quietly humming. At first, the governor seemed to be paying attention as Andrews, the former First District congressman, launched into rousing tales of how the country, under President George W. Bush, had gone "from peace and prosperity to war and recession."...

The final numbers are in -- and turnout in the 2004 presidential election, it seems, was a bit more impressive than previously believed. The Committee for the Study of the American Electorate reported yesterday that more than 122 million people voted in the November election, a number that translates into the highest turnout -- 60.7 percent -- since 1968. Turnout was 6.4 percent higher than in 2000, the largest uptick in voter participation since the 1952 election. The numbers are a bit higher than the research group's initial estimates, which were based on unofficial tallies and released days after the...

He's the star of bulletins chronicling Barack Obama's movements, one of only a few nonrelatives to consistently get time with the Democratic candidate for president and a trusted confidant who has shared some of the most pivotal moments of Obama's career with him. Yet journalists who have followed Obama's campaign for the better part of two years don't know what he looks like, staffers who have logged countless hours traveling with Team Obama didn't even know he works for the campaign and there's never been a story in a major media outlet about him. He is Michael Signator, an aide...

Let me be clear, we are without a doubt behind in this race. The odds are definitely against us, but then again with the right/wrong numbers the way they have been and presidential approval numbers very low, we knew this for over a year. I believe the same party has held the white house three elections in a row only twice the last 100 years. But taking all those things into account, along with the fact that we have BEEN OUTSPENT 3 TO 1. That is about to change, with the RNC committing to about 7.5 million a day along...

The heightened security for the Republican convention resulted in four Pakistani students from St. John's University being detained in Times Square last night. The four, who were in a burgundy van, were taken into custody shortly after 5 p.m. outside the Marriott Marquis hotel on Broadway and West 45th Street after cops thought they were acting suspiciously. They were questioned for at least seven hours at the Midtown North precinct on West 54th Street while anxious relatives waited outside. Police sources said two of the students were on an FBI watch list.

Map of the US after the 2004 presidential election shows where the winning votes have to come from. Victory comes from counties and small towns. McCain and Palin have to carry them all plus enough from the cities to reach the tipping point. THAT is why Palin's small-town roots are spot-on. Sorry, no USA Today link accepted but maybe below will help. Prepare to see red. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

WASHINGTON — The Arab television station Al-Jazeera is broadcasting a new tape from Al Qaeda (search) leader Usama bin Laden (search). Multiple sources told FOX News that the 18-minute videotape is authentic and said its release was timed to coincide with Tuesday's presidential elections. Bin Laden makes reference to recent conflicts in Iraq and addresses the American people directly, sources said. U.S. officials said the tape appears to have been made recently. Bin Laden is speaking from a lectern and he talks about threats to the United States and he says that President Bush will not protect the American people...

The Milwaukee Police Department has issued an investigative report on a host of election irregularities surrounding the 2004 presidential election in Milwaukee. The report, which covers many issues first reported by the Journal Sentinel in early 2005, provides a look at the level to which police investigated the problems, which included a gap of several thousand more votes counted than people recorded as having voted.

"I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty." Who can forget this now-infamous July 29, 2004, Democratic National Convention acceptance speech when the party's nominee publicly set his course for the next few months? "At the heart of the 2004 presidential campaign was a long-deferred national debate over whether American troops had systematically committed war crimes in Vietnam, as John Kerry and other activists had insisted, and as Hollywood, the media and much of the American public had long assumed," begins Chapter One of To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John...

If John Kerry had been elected President of the United States in November 2004, especially with the incoming majority Democrat Congress, it is highly likely that Iraq would be in the midst of a civil war, Iran’s regional influence would have increased, Israel would be in more jeopardy than it is now, two Supreme Court seats would be occupied by clones of John Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg instead of by John Roberts and Samuel Alito, judicial decisions would have given even more “rights” to enemy combatants, domestic entitlements and earmarks would have skyrocketed, the Bush tax cuts would be...

The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, a breakthrough that provoked headlines around the world a decade ago, is to abandon the cloning technique he pioneered to create her. [H]e has decided not to pursue a licence to clone human embryos, which he was awarded just two years ago, as part of a drive to find new treatments for the devastating degenerative condition, Motor Neuron disease. His inspiration comes from the research by Prof Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, which suggests a way to create human embryo stem cells without the need for human eggs, which are in extremely short...

A civil servant who leaked a secret memo about George W. Bush wanted it to be seen by US presidential candidate John Kerry, the Old Bailey heard. David Keogh, 50, from Northampton, is said to have passed a highly sensitive document detailing talks between Mr. Bush and Tony Blair to Leo O'Connor. Mr. Keogh told jurors the contents of the memo had preyed on his mind. Mr. Keogh and Mr. O'Connor, 44, also of Northampton, deny three charges under the Official Secrets Act. Mr. Keogh had been asked to copy out the memo for distribution to high-ranking UK officials. The...

George W. Bush was elected to a second term by a big majority of Republicans, half of political independents and 11 percent of Democrats. Now, more than two years later, the majority of those voters say they are satisfied with the Bush presidency. But some have lost faith, and those who have say it is because they can no longer back Mr. Bush’s support of the war in Iraq. Fifty-eight percent of Mr. Bush’s voters say their feelings about the administration can best be described as satisfied but not enthusiastic. Nine percent said they are enthusiastic. But 26 percent said...

Four people were indicted Thursday in an alleged kickback scheme that?s at the core of the debate over the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Former state Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon, Toby Martinez, Raul Parra and Sandra Mata Martinez all face charges. The U.S. attorney?s office in Albuquerque says Marc Schiff, Ken Schultz and Manuel Guara had already entered guilty pleas in the case. Investigators say the kickbacks were related to the construction of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courthouse in Albuquerque. Iglesias believes he was fired as the federal prosecutor for New Mexico for resisting pressure from Senator...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has maintained a decidedly low profile following his self-described botched joke in the run-up to the 2006 midterm elections. Many observers concluded that Kerry's silence meant he had given up his dream of becoming the first Democrat since Adlai Stevenson to be renominated by his party four years after losing a presidential race. Wrong. Kerry has recently begun to bolster his Senate and campaign staff in preparation for what some Kerry insiders insist is a likely run for president. Kerry has signed on Erik Smith to serve as a senior adviser to his Senate campaign committee...

MONICA MADNESS BUBBA'S DEM CHIEF BARES HILL TENSION By MAGGIE HABERMAN     (snip)Bill Clinton described that time period as "absolute living hell," McAuliffe said. He uses the book to claim that Kerry, who lost his 2004 challenge to President Bush, had a bumbling and wavering campaign team that was tripped up by a smoother machine. "I thought the decision of the Kerry campaign to back off any real criticism of Bush was one of the biggest acts of political malpractice in the history of American politics," McAuliffe wrote. (snip)McAuliffe says Kerry's aides wanted to oust him as party...

Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday told a Montana audience the United States is lucky Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., lost the 2004 presidential race. Cheney told supporters in Flathead, Mont., that Kerry's remarks to students at Pasadena City College in California Monday constituted a "swipe at the U.S. military." Kerry said he flubbed a joke about President Bush when he warned students to study hard and be smart -- or they "might get stuck in Iraq." Cheney recalled Kerry last year accused U.S. soldiers of "terrorizing" children in Iraq. He said the senator is always lecturing about "nuances," adding Kerry apparently...

"This November, as dozens of state governors ask for your vote, ask yourself this: Do they deserve it? In states like Wisconsin, Maine and Michigan, NEA members see their governors finding money for programs and salaries, protecting jobs from privatization, and making sure students get what they need. (Can your colleagues in California say the same? We think not.) Yes, governors do make a big difference. And so do you, when you say yea or nay to them on the ballot................... Ohio U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland TWO WORDS: OEA alum THREE ISSUES: 1) WHO HE IS: Strickland is a psychologist...

A couple of days before the 2004 presidential election, an Episcopal clergyman named George Regas delivered a sermon to congregants in Pasadena in the form of a mock debate among Jesus, President Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry over the Iraq war. Regas left no doubt about his anti-war sentiments, saying that Jesus would have told Bush that the war "has led to disaster," but did not specifically endorse anyone in the election. Eight months later, however, All Saints Episcopal Church received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service declaring "a reasonable belief ... that you may not be a...

NEWSWEEK “Isikoffed” the Gonzales Memo Since Christopher Hitchens is correcting old Dowdified quotes, I thought I’d correct one myself. This one, from a 2004 NEWSWEEK article, is a major Dowdification — in my view, every bit as egregious as Dowd’s original. What’s more, it’s still influencing lefties even today. Worse, unlike Dowd’s alteration of a Bush quote, the NEWSWEEK story didn’t even use an ellipsis to indicate what was missing. By altering an Alberto Gonzales quote in this way, NEWSWEEK managed to make Gonzales and the Bush Administration appear unreasonably dismissive of the Geneva Convention. The story was co-authored by...

This paper presents a fully independent security study of a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine, including its hardware and software. We obtained the machine from a private party. Analysis of the machine, in light of real election procedures, shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks. For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates.

911 Happened on Bush’s Watch As we approach the fifth anniversary of the 911 attacks, it’s time to face some facts. 911 DID happen on President Bush’s watch. He was in charge. The fault for letting the attacks happen rests with the top of the pyramid. The man deserved to be held accountable. Some would have preferred impeachment since it would have offered a partisan chance to avenge the impeachment of President Clinton 8years ago (still perceived by many as having been unwarranted). Lacking impeachment, there should have at least been a national referendum on the Presidency of George W...

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results. Tracy Costin pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Costin, 46, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when she is sentenced Nov. 30. As part of her plea agreement, Costin agreed to repay $82,732 to the unidentified clients for 11 jobs between June 2002 and May 2004. DataUSA is...

BRIDGEPORT — A polling company owner admitted participating in a conspiracy to falsify data in order to meet deadlines for clients, which included the campaigns of President Bush, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Mayor John M. Fabrizi. Tracy Costin, 46, of Madison, admitted to U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall that she participated in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Costin, who owned and operated DataUSA, a survey and polling firm with offices in West Haven and Guilford, faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced Nov. 30. However a preliminary calculation of...

The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results. Tracy Costin pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Costin, 46, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when she is sentenced Nov. 30. As part of her plea agreement, Costin agreed to repay $82,732 to the unidentified clients for 11 jobs between June 2002 and May 2004. DataUSA is now known as...

Very funny video. My first montage. I am mostly inexperienced. Most of the photos were obtained of on FR in the last several years.Thanks Guys!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlI0i4A8i6YP.S. While on Youtube, if you have time. Please see my 3 other videos, in one of them I am making an ass of myself. ;-) 

WASHINGTON --Sen. John Kerry didn't contest the results at the time, but now that he's considering another run for the White House, he's alleging election improprieties by the Ohio Republican who oversaw the deciding vote in 2004. An e-mail will be sent to 100,000 Democratic donors Tuesday asking them to support U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland for governor of Ohio. The bulk of the e-mail criticizes Strickland's opponent, GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, for his dual role in 2004 as President Bush's honorary Ohio campaign co-chairman and the state's top election official. "He used the power of his state office...

Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential hopes were sunk when he buckled under to “authoritarian” conservatives hellbent on smearing his military record as part of a larger “proto-facist” movement, says a former top White House aide whose testimony helped sink Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. John Dean, a Republican who served as Nixon’s top counsel, said Kerry slipped up during the 2004 campaign against President Bush by not suing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth when they published a book calling into question the Bay State senator’s Vietnam service. “What most surprised me is that Kerry never did anything with...

Three Vietnam War veterans who sued over a documentary about Sen. John Kerry's anti-war activities have dropped their lawsuits, leaving just one court fight pending over the 2004 film. Filmmaker Carlton Sherwood says the withdrawal of the lawsuits shows they were frivolous complaints filed by Kerry operatives to try to block the film's release in the final weeks of the presidential race. "We've always believed that Kerry controlled these lawsuits," Sherwood said Monday. The 42-minute film, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," charges that Kerry's actions as an anti-war activist after his tour in Vietnam harmed American POWs. It also...

In a major national security address Wednesday Democratic presidential contender John Kerry was sounding an alarm about premature U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. “I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy,” Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Massachusetts senator accused Bush and his aides of a “sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal without adequate stability,” which he called “an invitation to failure.” He contended that it would be “a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle” to...

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., will this week introduce legislation to pull the majority of U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of 2006, his office announced. Kerry will offer an amendment to the 2007 defense authorization bill. The recent trend in Iraq has been to increase rather than decrease American troops. Earlier this month the U.S. military announced that 3,500 troops -- two battalions of a brigade that was being held in Kuwait as a back up force -- had been deployed to Anbar province, the heart of the insurgency. Those battalions joined another that had already been called...

Writing in Rolling Stone, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assures us that the 2004 presidential election was stolen. This popular conspiracy theory has attracted many Democrats, from the clearly unbalanced to John Kerry himself. (Professor and activist Mark Crispin Miller of NYU says Kerry told him he believes the election was stolen.) Kennedy thinks it's fishy that the recorded vote didn't match the exit polls in four battleground states where Kerry was supposedly ahead. He also thinks the Republicans discouraged voters by creating long lines at voting stations in heavily Democratic areas. But bitter surmise isn't proof. And according to a...

...If only someone with Kennedy's stature would outline this need. If only. Whatever his aim, RFK Jr. does not appear intent on fixing the problem. He's more content to take us through a hit parade of the most popular, and the most dismissible, theories purporting to show that John Kerry won Ohio, theories that have been swirling about the blogosphere ever since the race was called. I scoured his Rolling Stone article for some novel story or statistic or theory that would prove, finally, that George W. Bush was not the true victor. But nothing here is new. If you've...

(AP) MILWAUKEE Four Democratic presidential campaign workers were sentenced to jail time ranging from four months to six months Wednesday for puncturing the tires of Republican vehicles on Election Day 2004. The men had pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor property damage. A fifth worker was found not guilty. Those who pleaded no contest were Sowande A. Omokunde, the son of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee; Michael Pratt, the son of former acting Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt; and Lewis Caldwell and Lavelle Mohammad, both from Milwaukee. They originally were charged with felony property damage but accepted plea deals...

A judge today ignored a plea deal calling for probation and sentenced four Democratic campaign workers to jail terms for their roles in the infamous Election Day 2004 tire slashing caper. The four - including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt - pleaded no contest to misdemeanors while an apparently deadlocked jury stalled over felony counts at the end of a January trial that received national coverage. A fifth Kerry-Edwards staffer accused of crippling Republican vans, Justin Howell, turned down the last-minute deal and was acquitted by the jury.

Thirty-five years after Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry (D) appeared before a Senate committee to call for an end to the war in Vietnam, he defended that decision yesterday in a speech in his home town and linked it to his current insistence on an early drawdown of troops from Iraq. Kerry, in remarks delivered in Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace, cast dissent in wartime as a patriotic act -- a response to Republican critics who insist that questioning the conduct of the war in Iraq emboldens America's enemies. "I believed then, just as I believe now, that it is profoundly...

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said on Thursday he was seriously thinking about another White House bid in 2008 and will decide before the year is out. "I will make that decision toward the end of the year, but I'm thinking about it hard," Kerry said in response to a question at the Latin Economic Forum at the United Nations. "If you can get help me find 60,000 votes in Ohio ...," he joked, referring to the close race in that state on which his 2004 loss to President Bush hinged. Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, has criticized...

As we pointed out earlier, Ann Coulter is in hot water because she registered to vote at a different address than where she lives. Not in a different state, or even different city, but a different precinct. Hardly the massive type of voter fraud elsewhere that should be looked into, but isn't. And, as we explained, she has legitimate reasons (ie., stalkers) for not wanting her real address in a public record (ie., voter registration documents). Now, according to the Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach officials are investigating Ann and even considering referring her to Florida's Attorney General for possible...

When I was a teenager, I was told that I would someday be world famous. Leaders from many countries would make pilgrimages to my vast estates to seek my advice. I was even told that I would lead a punitive expedition across the galaxy to wipe out an alien civilization that dared to threaten our planet. Of course, I returned to Earth as a conquering hero. That same evening, other teenagers around the table I was sitting at, were told they would become famous actresses, captains of industry, or sports legends. Oddly enough, no one was told they would...

Party money bought backing in the past St. Clair County Democratic leadership has distributed election packets to countywide precinct committeemen, which include an affidavit stating that money from the party will not be used to buy votes. The unusual action follows the vote buying convictions in June of five East St. Louis politicians. They had helped distribute more than $70,000 received by city Democratic precinct committeemen two days before the 2004 election from the county Democratic organization. While St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Robert Sprague could not be reached for comment, a fax received Monday from his Belleville...

Liberal Democratic Party leaders are far more worried about government power than they are about fighting America's enemies, the founder of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council said. In yet another stinging critique of the Democrats' liberal wing, DLC founder and chief executive Al From said his party could lose this year's midterm elections if it continues sending a message to voters that it is weak on national security issues in the war on terrorism. "Despite all that has happened since November 2004, I fear the 2006 national election could turn on whether voters' unease with the Democrats on national security...

In an unexpected twist in the Election Day tire slashing trial, four former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanors. The plea agreements came in the middle of jury deliberations after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges that carried potential 3 1/2 year prison terms upon conviction. Michael Pratt, 33, Sowande Omokunde, 26, Lewis G. Caldwell, 29, and Lavelle Mohammad, 36, have all pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property. Omokunde is Moore's son. Prosecutors...

In late November, George W. Bush went on the political offensive over the state of the war in Iraq. Determined to get his groove back after weeks of being pummeled by revitalized Democrats, Bush delivered a major speech outlining his “plan for victory.” Democrats, smelling blood, carefully plotted their response. The party’s Senate leadership decided that Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island would deliver their rebuttal. As a former member of the Eighty-second Airborne who had opposed the war from the start, Reed had the perfect credentials to remind Americans about Bush’s mismanagement of the war and of the grim...

Just wondering if the MSM did its job: Has anyone heard a follow-up report on the woman affiliated with the NAACP who was trading crack cocaine for completed voter registration forms during the 2004 presidential elections? Was she charged with a crime?

THE MILWAUKEE 5 ON TRIAL By Michelle Malkin   ·   January 09, 2006 06:22 PM If these dudes were Republicans, their faces would have been all over the news today as their trial on felony counts of vandalism in the Election Day 2004 tire-slashing of more than 20 vehicles rented by Republican campaigners finally got underway: Sowande Ajumoke Omokunde, son of congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee). (Credit: Milwaukee County Police.) Michael Pratt, son of former Milwaukee mayor Marvin Pratt. (Credit: Milwaukee County Police.) Three other alleged tire-slashers: Lewis Caldwell (top-left), Justin Howell (top-right), and Lavelle Mohammed (bottom). (Credit: Milwaukee County Police.) The...

Everyone is asking the burning question: Why did The New York Times postpone its treason in publishing its NSA secrets when these leaks could have won the elections for their bosses, the Democrat Party?We certainly know it had nothing to do with any concerns about hurting our national security in the middle of a shooting war.Even The Times' own PR man felt obliged to (very publicly) upbraid his masters for this tragically missed opportunity, which we present courtesy of the New York Post [excerpted]: "Old Gay Gray Lady" publisher, Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr.Times' Own Ombudsman Rips 'Stonewalling' Paper By ANDY...

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2004 presidential election in which George Bush defeated John Kerry was invalid because none of the debates were conducted in Spanish. The ruling was hailed by former Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney Thomas Saenz, who represented the plaintiffs. “Non-English-speaking voters must have the opportunity to participate in the entire electoral process, from beginning -- to end, in the voting booth,” said Saenz. The court cited the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 as the basis for the decision. “We are a bilingual nation,” said Judge Susan Wynns. “Our elections...

I keep asking myself why, in spite of the encouraging reports out of Iraq, people such as Rep. Murtha want us to beat a hasty retreat, making the same sort of shameful exit we made out of Southeast Asia three decades ago, leaving our allies to the less than tender mercies of Pol Pot and the North Vietnamese. Why do these people seem to salivate every time an American soldier is killed doing his duty, as if hoping that when some magical number – 2,500? 3,000? – is reached, the American people will rise up and insist that we pull...

Senator John Kerry says losing last year's election hasn't soured him on wanting to be president. Asked if he wanted to run again in 2008, Kerry says it's too early to say. But he added: "Would I like to be president? Yes, obviously." Kerry made the comments today on C-N-N. The senator says he won't base his future presidential ambitions on whether other Democrats like Hillary Clinton join the race. During the interview, Kerry also said his vote authorizing President Bush to use military force was a mistake. He says he'd change his vote knowing what he does today.

November 09, 2005 Mary Mapes Names Names ("Anonymous" Ones) Posted by Bill An excerpt from page 201 of her new book: Within minutes of Buckhead's original posting, Freepers began to repeat and embellish Buckhead's thoughts. Not surprisingly, they all agreed with him, they all agreed with one another, and they all agreed this should be pursued aggressively. Freethinkers they are not. The Freepers and their lockstep like-minded fellow travelers moved as a group, like a school of sharks sweeping toward an unaware and unarmed victim. CBS was like some sunburned, overweight Florida tourist with a cut foot, floundering and flapping...