Free Republic

Republicans hold seat in Special Election for State Senate. Trump won this district over Hillary 60/34. It is one of the most R Senate Districts in Iowa based on registration. 16K Republicans, 15K No Party, 8K Democrats.Tonite it went 56/44. So a win for the Rs, but a big shift toward the Ds.

Here is the video--6 minutes long of a 50-70 car pileup on I-35 near Ames, Iowa. First minute is a little slow. At about 4:30 in, it starts getting "wow".

ABC News/Disney had to pay BPI $177 MILLION for faulty reporting. That does not include what ABC's insurance company had to pay the company.

There was apparently an issue with a microphone used for the national anthems prior to Game 3 between the Ducks and Oilers in Edmonton. Canadian country music star Brett Kissel was supposed to perform the anthems, however, as he stepped up to the mic, he soon discovered that there seemed to be a malfunction. With some quick encouragement from Kissel, fans at Rogers Place stole the show with stirring renditions of both the American and Canadian national anthems.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer made the announcement at a news conference Wednesday. The slain officer was identified as 7-year veteran Kerrie Orozco, 29. According to Schmaderer, Orozco and other officers with the Metro Area Fugitive Task Force were conducting surveillance on a shooting suspect in the area of Martin Avenue and Read Street just before 1 p.m. Wednesday. Officers spotted the suspect, identified as Marcus D. Wheeler, in front of a home off nearby Vane Street. Schmaderer said Wheeler fired several shots at officers and then fled toward a home on Martin Avenue. When officers confronted Wheeler, police said,...

DES MOINES: Catholic high school wrestlers can't have ash on their forehead at the state wrestling tournament. The competition starts tomorrow (Wednesday), which is Ash Wednesday. Catholics typically apply ash crosses on their foreheads in observance of the first day of Lent. But Iowa High School Athletic Association officials say they must remove the ash since it could get into an opponent's eyes or mouths. All wrestlers undergo a skin and nail check prior to competition. Catholic priests say they won't challenge the ban because applying ash is optional.

As there was no Free Republic in 1980, I was wondering about Carter's boycott of the 80 Summer Games in Moscow. Agree or disagree? Set aside for a moment that it was Carter. On the plus side, it certainly hurt them economically, and I think his gist was the human rights angle, which certainly has merit. However, I can see it from the point of view that it is just athletics, and we should have let the team go, and try to beat some Rooskie butt. I was only 14 at the time, and certainly not up on international affairs,...

In 2002, John Thune lost the SD US Senate seat by 550 votes to Tim Johnson. It was rather obvious that the difference was the large amount of voter fraud on the Indian Reservation. But Thune sucked it up, didn't raise a stink and decided to fight another day.Forward to 2004, and Thune beat Daschle. If Thune had been elected in 2002, there is no one in the state of South Dakota, other than John Thune, who would have beaten Daschle in 2004. So indirectly, vote fraud did Daschle in.

Iowa City, Ia. - A majority of the undergraduate faculty at Iowa's three public universities are Democrats, with the strongest lean to the left at the University of Iowa, a review of voter registrations by the Des Moines Sunday Register shows. For every eight Democratic professors at the U of I, there is one Republican undergraduate faculty member registered to vote in Iowa, the review shows. While the ratio surprises some, others say the data confirm long-held beliefs that college professors are overwhelmingly liberal. Some conservative students said they cloak their political leanings to appeal to professors or avoid attacks...

Here is a story about a poor guy from Iowa with the name of Kerry Edwards. And get this.....his middle name is Dean. AAAAAAAHHHHGGGHHHHH!

I was traveling and saw a John Thune ad on a South Dakota TV station. He is trying to unseat Tom "Deeply Saddened" Daschle. I think this is great. Of course, I presume the hard stuff will come out later....

Flyers Promote White Student For African-American Award POSTED: 6:39 AM CST January 22, 2004 UPDATED: 7:52 AM CST January 22, 2004 OMAHA, Neb. -- Four Westside High School students are suspended for promoting a white student for an African-American award. More than 150 flyers were distributed throughout the school Monday. They featured junior Trevor Richards, A South African native who moved to the United States in 1997. Westside officials say the flyers were were quickly removed because they were inappropriate and insensitive to black students. Trevor said he is as African as anyone else. "I had no intent of hurting...

As I was bored, I decided to make a sortie to my local D caucus. I just got back, I did the vote, didn't hang around for platform discussion. First some background. I live in a town of 1300 just outside of Ames, Iowa. The county went Gore in 2000, but my precinct is the most R in the county, probably 50% registered R, 25% D, and 25% indy. I was the precinct chair for Forbes in 2000, and we kicked Bush's butt! Lotta good that did tho....Anyway, in my precinct, there were about 115 voters at the R caucus...

By From staff, wire reports Meanwhile, a member of a gas consortium led by Halliburton, the oil services firm formerly headed by Cheney, has denied allegations that $180 million in “secret payments” were made to secure Nigerian contracts. French company Technip issued the denial after press reports said the TSKJ consortium was accused of paying out the illegal commissions between 1995 and 2002 in relation to contracts to build and expand a liquefied natural gas plant in Nigeria’s Bonny Bay. Technip confirmed in a statement that the consortium’s Nigerian contracts have been under investigation since October by Van Ruymbeke. Company...

Just thought I would ax my fellow Freepers for their opinions on the Hawkeye Caucii (Iowa Caucuses). First some background on where I stand. I am a registered Republican, though will usually vote Libertarian if given that option. I am happy Bush is prez, compared to Gore, but I still have issues on the domestic front with Bush, though overseas, I think he is generally doing a good job considering the hand he was dealt. I generally can't stand those in the D power structure, and haven't voted for a D in years. But with that said, do you think...

Scroll down and to the left to hit the poll. Click via the source, above.

Anti-Americanism is the prevailing disease of intellectuals today. Like other diseases, it doesn't have to be logical or rational. But, like other diseases, it has a syndrome--a concurrent set of underlying symptoms that are also causes. • First, an unadmitted contempt for democracy. The U.S. is the world's most successful democracy. The right of voters to elect more than 80,000 public officials, the length and thoroughness of electoral campaigns, the pervasiveness of the media and the almost daily reports by opinion polls ensure that government and electorate do not diverge for long and that Washington generally reflects the majority opinion...

<p>In most cases, residents simply forgot that they filled out an absentee-ballot application over the summer, when political parties were making their big push, officials said.</p> <p>But William Radosevich, 73, of Altoona insists that it's voter fraud. He said he turned Iowa Democratic Party members away from his door in July. He was enraged when he, his wife and son recently received ballots in the mail.</p>

Space shuttle Columbia captured the Hubble Space Telescope early Sunday in preparation for a tuneup the crew will give the orbiting observatory. After chasing the telescope for nearly two days, the shuttle caught it approximately 360 miles above the Pacific Ocean southwest of Mexico as the pair hurtled around the Earth at about 17,000 mph ISLAMABAD, Mar 3, 2002 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- An intensive earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale on Sunday jolted Pakistan's eastern Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, with no immediate reports of casualties or damages. According to the Seismic Center in Peshawar, the quake, ...

I just got my annual report from a mutual fund I own, USAA Cornerstone. In the opening line from the president of USAA it reads, "As your Fund's semiannual report period ended, investors were still 'paying the bill' for the excesses of the 1990s"