Free Republic

I was asked many times throughout the campaign season, why I rarely criticized the Bush administration in my writings. Like everyone else in America, I had to take a side in the race, and unlike O’Reilly or Savage, who also voted for Bush, I saw no benefit in shooting at my own guy…My answer is just that simple and self-serving. Like everyone else, I had an agenda. Not so much the re-election of the Bush administration, as the defeat of socialist anti-America minded Democrats who in my opinion threaten America’s future more than any outside enemy today. The sad part...

Sharpton has denied having an affair, but black columnist Errol Louis of the New York Daily News notes that "both split from their spouses around the same time and traveled around the country together during Sharpton's presidential campaign. Louis was intrigued by the report that Harris "lives in a swanky Trump Place apartment and sports top-drawer toys like a Mercedes, a mink coat and a $7,000 Rolex." Ironically, the Village Voice claimed that Sharpton revealed in 2001 that Rev. Jesse Jackson was involved in an extramarital affair and had an illegitimate child. Jackson was discredited, at least for a while,...

Life on the Information Super-Highway!One of the most interesting developments of the 2004 election was the impact that the “new media” (internet/bloggers) had on the election process. Just ask Dan Rather, George Soros, or John Kerry himself for that matter. Big Brother clearly has a new BIGGER Brother…and guess who is standing watch now… The nation of the people, by the people, for the people are now able to engage directly in the process of self-governance with ease at lightening speed, gaining real-time information, and reacting to that information swiftly, (no pun intended). Washington is obligated under Constitutional Law to...

It took two weeks— and it's still unofficial— but New Mexico's 33 counties have completed their vote-counting from the Nov. 2 election. President Bush is still the winner, although that won't be certified until the state canvass in another week. Meanwhile, contrary to some popular impressions, New Mexico isn't bringing up the rear in the count. Ballots were still being tallied Tuesday in Ohio and Washington and recounts were under way in other states with close races. Colorado was still counting provisional ballots on Monday. - snip- After two weeks of controversy, lawsuits and national scrutiny, New Mexico's vote counting...

Prime time in a big election year is sometimes called the silly season. This year in New Mexico it was ridiculous. Courtroom battles marked the months before election day. On Nov. 2, some 13,000 provisional ballots were cast in Bernalillo County alone, many by people who thought they were registered. More than half of the 13,000 were rejected. Long before the ballot-counting process ended Friday, it was clear that the cobbled-together, contradictory state election code is a loser. Lawmakers should start from scratch and rewrite the code in the next legislative session. It should be easy for citizens to register...

Bernalillo County commissioners agreed to certify election results Friday, 10 days after Election Day, despite concerns that hundreds of ballots were thrown out on a technicality. According to the final tally, John Kerry widened his lead in Bernalillo County by about 1,400 votes. The county's tally now shows Kerry with 132,404 votes to President Bush's 121,610. But the president retains a statewide lead of 6,120 votes in an Associated Press unofficial tally late Friday that did not include final numbers from a few other counties. Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for Gov. Bill Richardson, said the governor wants to look at...

Could more than 19,000 uncounted ballots reverse President Bush's current advantage over Democrat John Kerry in New Mexico's presidential vote count? It's unlikely, even in a best-case scenario for Kerry, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research and Polling Inc. "It doesn't look like the math is there for Kerry to reverse the outcome of the election," said Sanderoff, whose firm conducts polling for the Albuquerque Journal. The Associated Press called the race for Bush on Wednesday, but votes are still being counted in New Mexico on Friday, three days after the election. Bush's margin has been been narrowing. The president...

If New Mexico is leaning red, it's not because the state is any closer to declaring a presidential winner. It's because some New Mexicans are embarrassed about how long it's taking to get the votes counted. Again. "It's embarrassing to know this state has not been able to count all it's votes," said Tom Torres of Edgewood. "It's not like this is a surprise. We saw it last election." In the 2000 election, it took about a month for the state to determine that Al Gore had defeated President George W. Bush by 366 votes. Election officials said they are...

Less than 12 hours after the laborious examination of provisional ballots from the Nov. 2 election was done, Bernalillo County's protracted vote-counting process hit another obstacle: the computer system crashed. That meant election workers lost valuable time, with the deadline for finishing the count just more than a day away. The Veterans Day holiday threw another problem into the mix, making it difficult for election officials to find computer technicians. "The network has been down all morning. I can't input results into the computer," Elections Bureau Administrator Jaime Diaz said. "It means time. We're losing hours in the day. "It's...

Today is the deadline for counties to complete their canvass of last week's election, and the clerk of the most populous county in the state aims to meet that deadline. "I'm optimistic," Clerk Mary Herrera said. "If I have to be here 24 hours a day by myself entering (data), I'm going to do it." About 85 percent of the canvassing process was completed as of Thursday afternoon, county officials estimated. The hand tally of provisional ballots was expected to be done by this morning. Other remaining work included data entry and running reports on election results. The county canvassing...

SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters) - Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry has conceded, President Bush has laid out his plans for a second term and New Mexico still does not know who won the election in the sparsely populated state. New Mexico is the only state that does not have a clear-cut winner in the presidential vote, and state officials were red-faced over the slow count. The state had vowed to speed up counting ballots after it took about a month to tally the vote in the 2000 presidential race, where Democrat Al Gore beat Bush by 366 votes. Bush has...

Here are final unofficial vote tallies, released Friday afternoon. President, Bernalillo County John Kerry: 132,404 George W. Bush: 121,610 Ralph Nader: 1,462 President, statewide: John Kerry: 370,457 George W. Bush: 376,577 Ralph Nader: 4,059 Source: Bernalillo County Clerk's Office, The Associated Press

Provisional ballots in Bernalillo County are being rejected at a rate higher than earlier estimates. And that makes it even more unlikely that John Kerry can overtake President Bush in New Mexico. As of Tuesday evening, Bernalillo County election officials working under the watchful eye of Republican and Democrat observers had reviewed about 9,000 of the approximately 13,000 provisional and in-lieu-of ballots cast in last week's election. Here's an approximate breakdown so far: 3,000 have been accepted and will be counted; 4,000 have been rejected and won't be counted; 2,000 are undergoing further review; The rest have not been reviewed....

SANTA FE— Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron on Monday asked the state Supreme Court to set aside two recent court rulings that allow the disclosure of information about provisional ballots cast in last week's general election. "I need uniformity for the state," Vigil-Giron said at a news conference. The petition was filed Monday and seeks a court order vacating the rulings of District Judges Robert Robles of Doña Ana County and Louis McDonald, who issued the Sandoval County court order. It also asks the court to stay the rulings until it makes a final decision. The court has not scheduled...

Northern New Mexico's counties with large percentages of Hispanic voters remain a firm Democratic stronghold, last week's presidential election results show— but at least two northern counties didn't deliver as well for John Kerry as expected. Republican George W. Bush improved his numbers over those of the 2000 election in both Rio Arriba and Guadalupe counties, contributing to a lead of about 8,500 votes... in New Mexico's still-incomplete vote tally. Kerry's share of the vote in Rio Arriba— where more than 70 percent of the population and 80 percent of registered voters are Hispanic— was the smallest for a Democrat...

ALAMOGORDO — In a town where business marquees proudly welcomed the president on Sunday, George Bush promised a crowd of cheering supporters he would protect the nation's families. "All progress on every other issue depends on the safety of our citizens," Bush told about 10,000 people gathered in a field at Alamogordo High School. "The terrorists who killed thousands of people are still dangerous and determined to attack us again." Bush talked for about 35 minutes on family themes and attacked his opponent, Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, for not understanding the nature of the war on terror. Bush repeated...

The Two Johns: What's Your Next Speech Going to Be About? (Election Levity, II) Written by Gregory Borse Friday, October 22, 2004 Al Gore’s Gore TV--a new cable channel that promises to speak to kids in their twenties in a language they can relate to--released more footage from the reality series, ''The Two Johns.'' The series, which follows two rich, white liberals as they plot their strategery for winning of the White House in 2004, is currently being shot and producers intend a November 3, premiere. In this snip, the two Johns discuss campaign speechmaking. Commenting on the footage, Gore...

Remarks by the President at Victory 2004 Rally Lea County Event Center Hobbs, New Mexico 9:13 A.M. MDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. (Applause.) Thanks for coming out. (Applause.) It's nice to be back in a part of the world that I know very well. (Applause.) I was raised right around the corner. (Applause.) It's good to be in a part of the world where the cowboy hats outnumber the ties. (Applause.) It's good to be in a part of the world where people believe in their family and their faith and their country. (Applause.) I want to thank all...

Senator John Kerry c/o Democratic National Committee 530 S. Capitol St. SE Washington DC 20003 An Open Letter to John Kerry US Constitution Article 14 Section 3 Disqualifies You From the Presidency Dear John In April 1971 you testified as a Naval officer before Congress, giving the North Vietnamese what they hadn't gotten from American POWs in Hanoi: a confession of war crimes. According to Senator John McCain (14 May 1973 US News & World Report) your testimony was "the most effective propaganda they had to use against us." Your photograph is displayed in the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum...

President Bush will appear at the Lea County Event Center in Hobbs on Monday, October 11. Time has not yet been announced. I have ticket application forms and will FAX to anyone who FReep mails me. However, you will have to return them yourself to the Lea County Republican Headquarters in Hobbs to get the tickets (limit four per form).