Free Republic

Deep-pocketed donors are turning over multimillion-dollar checks to political organizations for November’s elections, and the sums raised by the national parties and their super PAC allies are already approaching the $1 billion mark. […] At the moment, Democrats seem to have a roughly 3-to-1 advantage over Republicans in cash raised and saved through independent groups. That balance of power could quickly change as more reports are filed. …

In its opening half-hour, Good Morning America told us--twice--that Pres.-elect Obama choked up with emotion as he was packing up his old house. But somehow ABC couldn't find time to mention that a possible pay-to-play scheme was behind Bill Richardson's bye-bye as Commerce Secretary nominee. After the show-opening roll in which the president elect was shown heading to DC, Robin Roberts literally bounced in her co-anchor's chair: "so excited, so excited, so excited . . . It's a new day, new year, new everything going on." Added Diane Sawyer helpfully: "And a president-elect." "Yes," concurred Robin, as if it wasn't...

The U.S. government has joined forces with the entertainment industry to stop the freewheeling global bazaar in pirated movies and music, pressuring foreign governments to crack down or risk incurring trade barriers. Last year, for instance, the movie industry lobby suggested that Sweden change its laws to make it a crime to swap copyrighted movies and music for free over the Internet. Shortly after, the Swedish government complied.Last month, Swedish authorities briefly shut down an illegal file-sharing Web site after receiving a briefing on the site's activities from U.S. officials in April in Washington. The raid incited political and popular...

Deer play on fenced land near Spring above a huge underground reservoir holding the natural gas supply keeping Houstonians warm this winter. The large herd also allows Houston Pipe Line Co. to receive a special agricultural valuation on its property, saving the company $400,000 in taxes it otherwise would owe Spring Independent School District. In suburban Austin, a 1,757-acre ranch owned by Michael Dell has what Travis County appraisers call a "well-managed deer herd" that reduces the ranch's market value of $74.8 million to an agriculture value of $290,000. Dell, founder of the computer company that made him the second-richest...

About 66 million Americans have signed up for the national Do Not Call Registry, resoundingly declaring their desire not to be bothered by telemarketers. "It's been a wild success," acknowledged Allen Hile, a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington. So why mess with it? That's what the FTC says it may do in response to a petition from Voice Mail Broadcasting Corp., a Southern California direct-marketing firm that specializes in blitzing consumers with prerecorded phone messages. The company argues that the Federal Communications Commission allows such calls under certain circumstances, which is true, and that all it wants...

A Very Real Conspiracy… Written by JB Williams ©2004-10-07 As an answer to every Bill Clinton indiscretion or any democratic anti-American policy blunder, Hillary Clinton made famous the phrase “right wing conspiracy”. There never was one of course, but it always accomplished the much needed diversion from the endless stream of Clinton scandals by shifting focus off of the immediate scandal, onto the imaginary conspiracy. However, a very real conspiracy is underway in America today, it isn’t coming from those “nasty right wingers”, and the proof is all around us. The Democratic Party has been promoting the idea that Republicans...