Free Republic

The outcome of the Democratic Party's presidential nomination could hinge on what happens in Florida and Michigan. Late last year, leaders of both states decided to hold their primaries in January, in defiance of party rules. That led Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to strip both states of their combined 366 delegates, as he had pledged to do. The impasse could mean that the millions of ballots cast in Florida and Michigan won't count, and those voters will be denied an opportunity to influence the most competitive primary race in 40 years. The apparent Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain,...

CORYDON, Iowa - Democrat John Edwards tried to make light of Hillary Rodham Clinton's big lead in national polls Monday, saying that four years ago it looked as if Howard Dean might run away with the nomination. Edwards, campaigning in the state that will hold leadoff caucuses in January, said his organization is much stronger than at this point in 2004 when he eventually won a surprise second-place finish. Clinton now leads in Iowa as well nationally, according to the latest polling. The Des Moines Register on Sunday had her at 29 percent in the state, up from 21 percent...

In today’s testimony before the house, Fed Chairman Bernanke was questioned by Representative Ron Paul in what was a remarkable exchange. Remarkable for how straightforward, lucid, and anti-statist the question was. In his questioning, Ron Paul stated: “I want to follow up on the discussion about moral hazard. I think we have a very narrow understanding about what moral hazard really is. Because I think moral hazard begins at the very moment that we create artificially low interest rates which we constantly do. And this is the reason people make mistakes. It isn’t because human nature causes us to make...

WASHINGTON (Map) - Former Washington lobbyist and candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination Fred Thompson hasn't let accusations that he's violating Federal Elections Commission (FEC) law by running a shadow campaign slow him down. Thompson will be in the Twin Cities today to raise money for his "testing the waters" campaign while experts continue to assert that Thompson is using a loophole in the law to avoid the scrutiny that comes with becoming an official candidate for the GOP nomination. For someone who is only "testing the waters," Thompson's campaign team has seen a lot of upheaval. Today his communications...

The 2006 Democrat Party Suicide Pact for America 1. Raise Taxes 2. Re-implemented the Fairness Doctrine to destroy Conservative talk radio 3. Pass a new Campaign Finance Law to eliminate any opportunity of Democrats ever losing Congress again 4. Raise Taxes. 5. Unconditionally Surrender the War on Terror. 6. Create programs to appease North Korea and Iran by actively aiding them in developing nuclear weapons. 7. Raise Taxes 8. Double federal spending from it all ready grotesquely too high level in the name of "Homeland Security". 9. Repeal the Fence bill, the Detainee bill The NSA Bill and the...

"Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," administration name, SPP.

"The number of immigrants living in American households rose 16 percent over the last five years, fueled largely by recent arrivals from Mexico, according to fresh data released by the Census Bureau. And increasingly, immigrants are bypassing the traditional gateway states like California and New York and settling directly in parts of the country that until recently saw little immigrant activity - regions like the Upper Midwest, New England and the Rocky Mountain States. '...Essentially, it's a continuation of the Mexicanization of U.S. immigration,' said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. 'You would expect Mexicans...

If Democrats are getting antsy about the current governor's race between state Treasurer Phil Angelides and Republican incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger, it wasn't evident Friday at a charged-up "unity" rally in San Francisco. Several hundred union members, supporters and party faithful turned out to support Angelides -- and to hear from the always-fiery Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. Dean repeatedly reminded the audience of connections between President Bush and Schwarzenegger, saying that they shared more than campaign operatives. This week's defeat of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut, a Democrat viewed as close to the Republican president, was "a referendum...

DNC: Dean on Republican Post-Primary Spin 8/9/2006 7:02:00 PM To: National Desk, Political Reporter Contact: Karen Finney or Stacie Paxton, 202-863-8148, both for the DNC WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Yesterday's results reconfirm what recent polls have shown: the American people soundly reject President Bush's failed leadership and don't trust Republicans to do the people's business. In an act of desperation, national Republicans resorted to divisive propaganda in the wake of yesterday's primaries. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following response to the most recent Republican spin: "Republicans can try to spin their propaganda, but the truth...

No to Amnesty ! No to a Guest Worker Program for Illegals!

"There are jobs that just simply aren’t getting done because Americans won’t do them." —President George W. Bush, Cleveland, Ohio, March 20, 2006 [1] The twenty-first-century slave trade involves an organized effort to bring into the United States an underclass of uneducated, impoverished illegal immigrants who will work for below-market wages for companies that plan to commit employment tax fraud and violations of labor and immigration laws. No slave trader may actually go to Mexico or other Hispanic countries to capture workers and force them in chains to come to America to work in sub-standard conditions. Yet, we have termed...

The war over immigration reform among conservatives continues, and, as in most wars, truth has been one of the first casualties. Those who disagree with the hardening positions of people who would adopt more restrictive policies or with people who favor less restrictive measures are attacked as know-nothings, traitors or handmaidens of evil forces out to destroy the America we live in. Many conservatives reacted angrily to the way the Bush administration tried to demonize opposition to the president’s quasi-amnesty and guest-worker proposals when they were first introduced. Critics at the time were characterized as racists or “nativists” more interested...

TALLAHASSEE - Katherine Harris' floundering U.S. Senate campaign lost its high-level staff again this week and is groping for a message -- which doesn't surprise Republican insiders who trace the seeds of her trouble to the story of ``Joe's dead intern.'' This wasn't any old Joe. It was Joe Scarborough, host of the prime-time MSNBC show Scarborough Country and a former Pensacola Republican congressman who was courted last summer by national Republicans to run against Harris. But before he could announce he wouldn't, Harris called major donors and suggested Scarborough would have to answer questions about the strange death of...

Howard Dean Outlines Democratic Agenda for Real Change on ABC's 'This Week' 5/8/2006 10:25:00 AM To: National Desk Contact: Dag Vega of DNC Communications, 202-863-8148 WASHINGTON, May 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On ABC's "This Week," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean outlined the Democratic Party's agenda for bold leadership and real change. He answered tough questions from host George Stephanopoulos. The following are excerpts from Dean's appearance: The Democratic Agenda for Real Change: "The fact is we want real change in this country. We're going to balance the budget, we're going to have American jobs that stay in America and...

Meeting Democratic National Committee Meeting Democratic National Committee New Orleans, Louisiana (United States) ID: 192086 - 04/22/2006 - 1:30 - No Sale Dean, Howard Chair (2005- ), Democratic National Committee Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean presides over the general session and delivers the keynote address of the DNC Spring Meeting. New Orleans was chosen as the site of the meeting to symbolize efforts to help revitalize the economy of the Gulf Coast.

Dean Response to Indiana Court Ruling on Voter ID Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following statement on Indiana's voter identification law, one of the most stringent in the country: "Today, I join Democrats in Indiana and throughout America in expressing my profound disappointment over the federal court ruling on Indiana's voter identification law. While Democrats are working to protect the fundamental right of all Americans to vote and have their votes counted, Indiana Republicans have joined national Republicans in pursuing unfair voter ID laws that disproportionately prevent countless poor, minority, elderly, rural, disabled and student voters...

Dean Says Bush 'Scapegoating' Hispanics By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean charged Friday that President Bush was exploiting the debate over immigration laws for political gain, "scapegoating" Hispanics with an eye to this year's elections. Dean skipped over the fact that he and Bush agree on the legislation at the heart of the debate. Both support a Senate bill that would expand guest-worker programs for an estimated 400,000 immigrants each year. At a speech in an Oakland union hall, the 2004 presidential candidate sought to tie Bush to a much tougher...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- About a fifth of Americans think federal agents have listened in on their phone calls, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday suggests. Twenty-one percent of the 1,000 adults who replied to the survey conducted Thursday through Sunday said it was very likely or somewhat likely their conversations had been wiretapped, while 52 percent said it was not at all likely.(snip) According to the poll, Americans appear to be split over the legality of the domestic eavesdropping program. About 49 percent of respondents said the president had definitely or probably broken the law by authorizing the wiretaps and...

DNC: Swann Recites Republican Rhetoric on African-American Outreach 2/13/2006 7:06:00 PM To: State Desk Contact: Damien LaVera of the Democratic National Committee, 202-863-8148; Web: http://www.democrats.org WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- This weekend, in a desperate attempt to distract Pennsylvanians from the Republican Party's failure to address the needs of African-American families, Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann challenged Democrats' commitment to African-Americans. On ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Swann argued that "The Democratic Party has had a stronghold over the minority votes for a long time. I think they're misrepresented." Swann's remarks come less than one week after the...

Dean Calls on Republican Party Leadership to Denounce Minutemen and Anti-Immigrant Rally February 10, 2006 Washington, DC - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement today as Republican Party extremist Tom Tancredo joined Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist for an anti-immigrant rally at the United States Capitol. Tancredo's extremist divisive views received the endorsement of Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman last July with Mehlman stating that he was "proud" to have Tancredo's extremism as part of the debate on immigration: "If President Bush were serious about comprehensive immigration reform, he would reject the anti-immigrant fervor on...