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After weeks of ups and downs and unknowns in the special election for the 23rd congressional district of New York with conservative candidate Doug Hoffman losing to Democrat Bill Owens (one that which played out much like a political telanovela) analysts can agree on one absolute: we love drama. This race was reality television at its best with all the necessary ingredients: an underdog (Hoffman), a train wreck (Scozzafava), celebrity influence (Palin) and an attentive national media. And like many reality shows, after you've watched it you feel like you learned almost nothing. So what did we learn about NY...

A year after Barack Obama's election stirred broad hopes for change among American voters, persistent high unemployment and the spectacle of continued gridlock in Washington threaten Democratic dominance of the political landscape. Tuesday's defeats in gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey not only ended a decade or more of Democratic gains in those states but signaled possible trouble ahead in the midterm elections at the national level. At the same time, the loss of another Republican House seat in a special election -- the fourth such defeat in the last two years -- showed how bitter ideological conflict within...

The Permanent Tea Party Independent voters have become like a herd of cattle looking for political leadership. By DANIEL HENNINGER Welcome to the permanent American tea party. You will recall how when the tea-party movement erupted during the congressional recess in August, it was spun on the left that these events were the creation of conservative ideologues. At the start, yes. By the end, though, it was about anxieties deeper than that. The GOP is now spinning the results in Virginia and New Jersey as proof that voters are fed up with the liberal ideologues in the White House and...

The morning after Republicans lost an upstate New York House seat, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned that conservative activists will bring destruction to the Republican Party if they drive out moderate candidates across the country. “To those people who are pursuing purity, you’ll become a club not a party,” Graham told POLITICO in the Capitol Wednesday. “Those people who are trying to embrace conservatism in a thoughtful way that fits the region and the state and the district are going to do well. Conservativism is an asset. Blind ideology is not.” Graham, who has sparred with his party’s right wing...

WASHINGTON -- Americans' opinion of the health care proposals now before Congress is eerily similar to public opinion of the Clinton health reform initiatives in 1994, according to an analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine today -- and that may not bode well for Democrats.

I have written a lot over the years on my experiences with vote fraud in elections. Were it not for fraud, Republicans would win far more elections. After serving as a campaign worker, Poll Watcher, Alternate Judge in a democrat-dominated precinct, and yesterday as an Election Judge, I have concluded that being an election worker is the BEST way to prevent fraud. As a Judge you can enforce the law to the letter. In Texas we have an air tight system enhanced by our outstanding, un-hackable ESlate voting system in Harris County. I was aided by fellow Freepers, Tropicana Rose...

Not something that would make national headlines, but did not miss a stunned audience, President Barack Obama became the first American president in 118 years to abstain from the same long tradition of addressing the Daughters Of the American Revolution (DAR) Continental Congress, named after the governing body of the American Colonies during the American Revolution.

Holmes Norton: Republicans to blame for high D.C. AIDS rate By Silla Brush - 11/04/09 06:00 PM ET Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) is blaming Republican lawmakers for the District of Columbia’s high HIV/AIDS rate. In a letter posted on her website, Norton lashed out at Republican efforts in recent years to attach riders to annual congressional spending bills that limited the District from using locally raised revenues to support needle exchange programs. She said this explains “in large part” why the District has a higher HIV/AIDS rate than do similar cities. “The District has a higher HIV/AIDS rate than...

The peoples' Genie spoke yesterday. But will they keep speaking, or will the Genie ease back into the bottle? After watching the cram-down of astronomically expensive legislation and the accompanying explosion in national debt, the people's Genie tipped over the bottle and came out. Then the Genie's people spoke with bold passion at the August town hall meetings. As the fall approached, they kept speaking. They gathered at T.E.A. Party events along nationwide bus tours. They formed a huge crowd in Washington, D.C. on 9/12. They carried homemade signs in civil demonstrations in cities of all sizes across the land....

ELECTION 2009: CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN! -- MSNBC, Aug. 31, 2009, Keith Olbermann on Robert F. McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia: "In [McDonnell's master's thesis], he described women having jobs as detrimental to the family, called legalized use of contraception illogical, pushed to make divorce more difficult, and insisted government should favor married couples over, quote, 'cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.' Wow. When did he write this? 1875? No, 1989. Wow, 1989. "Goodbye, Mr. McDonnell." -- MSNBC, Sept. 22, 2009, Rachel Maddow also on McDonnell: "And here's where the conservative movement and the Republican establishment smash into each...

The Democrats did not lose a 2-1 squeaker last night. They lost two huge races, saw an overall evaporation of 25 basis points of support -- and lost by nearly 500,000 cumulative votes in the three high-profile elections. Or put another way, Republicans won two races decided by millions of voters -- and Democrats won a small race dominated by party operatives. In addition, the GOP made some historic gains in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Washington state special elections to boot. In the context of Bob McDonnell's huge win in Virginia and Chris Christie's surprisingly comfortable win in New Jersey, of...

On Today's Show... November 4, 2009   Democrats Lose Huge in NJ and VA, But the Worst Is Yet to Come Obama losing New Jersey is like Stalin losing Moscow. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen)   Conservatism Didn't Lose in NY-23 (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen)   "The huge story of NY-23 is the shambles the Republican Party 'big thinkers' made of it.   They nominated a horrendous candidate -- a liberal Republican -- and then when she left, they praised her, even as she  endorsed the Democrat! Conservatism did not lose.  What lost was Republican ineptitude and incompetence in selecting...

WASHINGTON – A trio of senators with differing political views is working behind-the-scenes to rescue troubled climate legislation. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., together with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Wednesday they would work in conjunction with the White House to patch together a bill that could pass the U.S. Senate. The three senators met individually with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change. "Our effort is to try to reach out to broaden the base of support ... ," Kerry said at an...

A powerful subcommittee chairman working on financial regulations didn't appreciate Rahm Emanuel's role in trying to change his bill — and he pointedly reminded members of his panel that President Barack Obama's chief of staff isn't in the House anymore. Rep. Paul Kanjorski sounded annoyed when freshman New Jersey Democrat John Adler invoked Emanuel's name while pushing a controversial amendment to Kanjorski's investor protection bill. “What seat does he occupy here?” Kanjorski demanded about freshman Rep. John Adler (D-N.J.), pointing around the half-empty Financial Services Committee room. Kanjorski is chairman of the capital markets subcommittee, and he didn't like the...

Leaked copies of two speeches Sarah Palin prepared for last year's US election night have revealed she planned to salute her husband Todd as the nation's "first ever Second Dude" in the event of victory. In defeat, which she suffered with Senator John McCain at the hands of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Republican vice-presidential candidate wanted to tell Todd to "get ready for the Iron Dog snow machine race!". A new book, Sarah from Alaska, details how the then state governor fought tooth and nail to introduce Sen McCain on stage in his home town of Phoenix, Arizona,...

Blue skies, warm weather and a crowd estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 people greeted the "Tea Party Express" bus tour in the parking lot of Lawrence-Dumont Stadium this afternoon. Members of the tour, titled "Countdown to Judgment Day," entertained the crowd with songs and speeches calling for change in Washington D.C., less government spending, less government intrusion, and an end to bailouts and President Obama's health care reform plans.The fourth tea party in Wichita lasted about two hours.Most in the crowd held signs proclaiming sentiments such as "We Want Our Country Back," "Wake Up America" and "Nobama Death Care."Fifteen people...

Does the National Journal's Hotline inhabit the same universe as the rest of us? Republicans went two-for-three in last night's big races. But in declaring Winners and Losers among non-candidates involved with the campaigns, the only Losers Hotline saw were . . . Republicans and conservatives, with nary a Dem in sight! Chris Matthews was only too happy to seize on the Hotline hitlist during his Sideshow segment on this evening's Hardball. Here were Hotline's three Losers: * Sarah Palin: for jumping into Hoffman's losing cause, whereas McDonell and Christie didn't invite her in and won. * Pete Sessions: the...

578 Votes Counted for Scozzafava in 3 Election Districts Where Hoffman Received ZERO Counted Votes With 92% of the precincts accounted for and a hefty 5,850 vote differential, news today that Madison County's Board of Election has confirmed that Doug Hoffman received zero counted votes in three of its fifty-five election districts is unlikely to cause the Conservative candidate in yesteday's Special Election in the 23rd Congressional District to rescind his concession speech. But it does raise eyebrows among election watchers who heard numerous accounts of election day malfunctions of a new voting machine system that was in place yesterday....

Mark Levin announced on his radio program this evening that tomorrow's rally point (at noon, Thursday, November 5) has been moved to the west steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage. "Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian...

Join Jim and Rose every morning 6-9 AM on WPGB. You can go to www.warroom.com for information and joining up and getting the show archives and other goodies..plus they will use your donations to give a ServiceMan or Woman free acces to their Show and website.

The economic situation is proving challenging to “root cause” theorists—those who argue that social pathologies like crime arise from economic inequality and racism, not cultural dysfunction. The regular predictions that crime will go up as self-disciplined burghers lose their jobs continue to be dashed. To be sure, in some cities, youth violence has been bobbing up and down. Chicago, for example, saw a 38 percent spike in homicide victims aged 17 and younger in 2008—to a total of 50 victims—but this year, those youth homicides were down 19 percent by the end of September. Inner-city gangbangers never had jobs to...

November 4, 2009 About Last Night What The Election Results Mean. An NRO Symposium Is the GOP now on top? Are we riding the first wave of the next Reagan Revolution? National Review Online consulted some expert strategists to interpret the results of Tuesday’s vote.

In New York's 23rd Congressional district, Democrat Owens finished with 49% , making him the winner of a plurality of the votes. What's being overlooked by Republicans and conservatives is that Scozzafava, despite having withdrawn from the race, still garnered 6% of votes, with Hoffman getting 45%. I'm guessing that most of Scozzafava's 6% were absentee ballots which had already been mailed before she dropped out. Other votes could have come from die hard fans of hers, or voters who simply didn't know she was no longer in the race. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that Owens won with...

Heh. No doubt the RNC response was to insist that they were merely local races signifying nothing about the national mood. But Rahm was right that time, wasn’t he? [L]ooking back at First Read’s coverage the day after the 2005 New Jersey and Virginia contests, we had forgotten that Rahm Emanuel — then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and now White House chief of staff — had called us to argue the very point Republicans are now making: that the two gubernatorial contests say something about the upcoming midterms. Here’s what we wrote then: Democratic House campaign committee...

The third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives on Wednesday endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman for the 2010 midterm elections. House Republican Conference chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) offered his support to Hoffman, who was defeated at the hands of Democrat Bill Owens in a highly contested special election in upstate New York. "Well, let me say that the lesson here is that we all need to fall behind Doug Hoffman for next fall’s election," Pence told a conservative blog today. "I look forward to welcoming him to Congress a year from now. I think he ran a brilliant campaign."

Over ONE MILLION copies sold! On the NYTimes Bestseller List for 19 weeks, 12 weeks at #1!Buy it… read it… live it!“Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

WASHINGTON - U.S. Democrats pushing for healthcare reform shrugged off their losses in two governors races and said on Wednesday the results made it more imperative to deliver on campaign promises to overhaul a failing system. A reduced Democratic turnout and a drop in support from independent voters fueled Republican wins in Virginia and New Jersey, but Democrats said the outcome would not sidetrack President Barack Obama's top domestic priority -- a sweeping healthcare overhaul. "I would not read too much into it. I saw a depressed Democratic base last night, and what that told me is Democrats need to...

RUSH: Obama's not a narcissist, he's not a narcissist. He watched a documentary about him while the election returns were coming in last night. That's what Bob Gibbs tells us. Welcome, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Folks, I would be embarrassed if somebody put together a documentary about me the way this has been put together about him. I mean it is godlike. But I have a question. He's the president. This thing aired live last night at nine o'clock on HBO, you mean to tell me that they didn't send him...

The election is over, and one thing is clear. Despite the attempt of the Democratic spin machine to claim that their defeat is a victory — that Republicans won the gubernatorial race in Virginia and New Jersey because of local issues alone, and that their party does not have to worry about the future — they have suffered a rousing defeat. Local issues, combined with growing unpopularity with Obama and in particular the ObamaCare health proposals, led to Republican victory. America remains a center-right — and not a center-left — nation. Remember, in New Jersey, Obama did all he could...

All young Americans need to wake up and pay attention. You are being sold out by the federal government. Your future will be bleak indeed if you do not heed my warning. You are being sold down the river on so many fronts that I cannot list them all in this short article, but I will attempt to give you a small glimpse of what your future holds if you do not stand up. You need to get informed NOW. You need to speak up and let your voices be heard....or become a working slave to support the federal addiction...

Would Obama have helped Thompson? A Times expose explains how it never happenedBill Thompson didn't have Michael Bloomberg's big bucks, his renown or any real help aside from his own political muscle, but he made the mayoral race awfully close. Imagine if he had someone like, oh, President Barack Obama, backing him up. Early on, Bloomberg saw to it that the president wouldn't come to Thompson's aid -- not in the unequivocal sense, anyway, reports The New York Times . Sure, Obama offered a limp endorsement a few weeks before Election Day. But he didn't stand by Thompson, hands pumping,...

Barbara Walters will sit down with former Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for a five-part series of ABC News interviews to begin airing on "Good Morning America" Nov. 17, the morning her highly anticipated book "Going Rogue: An American Life" is released. The wide-ranging interview will cover her public life as Governor of Alaska and her Vice Presidential run in 2008, as well as her private life. This is Walters' first interview with the political figure.(continued)

House Will Vote on Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill on Saturday Washington, DC -- The House of Representatives will finally cast its first votes on the pro-abortion health care reform bill this weekend. After a fluid process that saw dates repeatedly pushed back, the first chance pro-life advocates will have to stop the abortion funding bill will come Saturday night. ACTION NEEDED! This is it, the House will finally vote on the pro-abortion health care bill. Please pass this on and then call or email NOW and urge NO votes on the rule and the bill. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5615.html

lredmond@lowellsun.com BOSTON -- As a Billerica gun case heads to the state's highest court next week, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Police Chiefs and other high-profile groups are urging the Supreme Judicial Court to reject the constitutional challenge to the state's safe firearm-storage law. The groups are joining with Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone, who is challenging a Lowell District Court judge's ruling that dismissed a gun-storage case against Richard Runyan, a Billerica man who kept an unlocked semiautomatic hunting rifle under his bed where it could be accessed by his teenage...

Congressional Phone/Office Directory HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 111th CONGRESS Phone# & Room# (alpha by State & Name) 40094 Representative State District Phone Room Young, Don AK At Large 202-225-5765 2111 * Aderholt, Robert B. AL 4th 202-225-4876 1433 Bachus, Spencer AL 6th 202-225-4921 2246 Bonner, Jo AL 1st 202-225-4931 2236 Bright, Bobby AL 2nd 202-225-2901 1205 Davis, Artur AL 7th 202-225-2665 208 Griffith, Parker AL 5th 202-225-4801 417 Rogers, Mike AL 3rd 202-225-3261 324 * Berry, Marion AR 1st 202-225-4076 2305 Boozman, John AR 3rd 202-225-4301 1519 Ross, Mike AR 4th 202-225-3772 2436 Snyder, Vic AR 2nd 202-225-2506 2210 *...

Who do you think is the most likely GOP Contender in 2012 of this group?Scroll down a bit... on the right side.

Commentary: Rates to stay low as long as unemployment stays highWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Reserve isn't going anywhere until the unemployment rate drops. In answer to all those who are clamoring for the central bank to begin raising interest rates or to at least explain when higher rates might come, the Federal Open Market Committee gave a simple response on Wednesday: Show us the jobs. Rates will stay "exceptionally low" as long as the unemployment rate is rising and inflation trends are subdued, the FOMC said. After its two-day meeting ended on Wednesday, the FOMC made essentially no changes...

"Is Anderson Cooper gay?" That's the big question once again circulating around the Web ... only this time it's not so much is he, but who is he dating and why hasn't he come out yet. Last week, Gawker, Page Six and Perez Hilton started buzzing about supposedly closeted Cooper's rumored new beau, and the glut of attention was accompanied by an almost crushing sense of déjà vu. Why? Because Cooper's sexuality is hardly a fresh topic. As Gawker's Brian Moylan said in an October 29th post on the subject: "Saying Cooper is gay is no longer a scoop. It's...

Democrat Bill Owens may have won last night's special election in New York's 23rd congressional district - but Sarah Palin said Wednesday that race "is not over." Writing on Facebook early Wednesday morning, the former Alaska governor praised Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and "all the other under-dog candidates who have the courage to put themselves out there and run against the odds." "The race for New York's 23rd District is not over, just postponed until 2010," Palin wrote. "The issues of this election have always centered on the economy – on the need for fiscal restraint, smaller government, and...

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) endorsed conservative California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R) Tuesday, once again going against the wishes of his party. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has made no endorsement in the California Senate race, but party leaders favor former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina (R), a wealthy centrist whom many believe could give Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) a strong challenge. Later this month, Fiorina will be the guest of honor at a Washington fundraiser featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and three others,...

If there’s one thing liberal pundits are experts on these days it’s the sorry state of conservatism. The airwaves and op-ed pages brim with more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger lamentations on the GOP’s failure to get with President Barack Obama’s program, the party’s inevitable demographic demise and its thralldom to the demonic deities of the right - Limbaugh, Beck, Palin. Don’t look at the imploding Democrats. No, let’s all titter at the cannibalistic “civil war” on the right. Well, here’s what conservatives actually believe. After 15 or 20 years of steady moderation, many conservatives think it might be time to give their ideas a...

WATCH THE VIDEO BEFORE CAIR GETS IT PULLED BACKGROUND ARTICLEMUHAMMAD, AISHA, ISLAM, AND CHILD BRIDES by Silas NOTE I needed to edit and correct this article because I’ve learned some new details. Initially, I believed what many Muslims asserted: Muhammad sexually consummated his marriage to the nine year old Aisha following her first menstruation. HOWEVER, after reading brother Sam Shamoun’s articles (1, 2), I realized that the Quran, the Hadith, and Muslim scholar’s writings state that a Muslim husband can engage in sex with a child-bride before she has her first menses. Further, Muhammad actually did just this –...

Reenergized Republicans are savoring victories in two states that President Obama won last year, with party chairman Michael S. Steele celebrating the GOP's first turnabout after three years of Democratic wins by proclaiming a "Republican renaissance." But behind the Republican Party's elation after capturing the governorships in New Jersey and Virginia are troubling fissures within party ranks over how best to lead the GOP back to power in 2010. Conservative grass-roots activists drew national attention to New York's 23rd congressional district by bucking the party establishment and forcing out a Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, whom they deemed too moderate. But...

A "debate" between former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush has been nixed because the promoter overhyped it as a death-match faceoff between the men, The Post has learned. Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said the appearance was never slated to be a "debate" and was actually a moderated panel discussion with the 42nd and 43rd leaders of the free world. "This event ... was supposed to be a discussion between the two former presidents, and has been cancelled because it was not being billed as such by an overeager promoter," McKenna said.

Ralph Peters, a strategic analyst with FOX News Channel, discusses his novel, "The War After Armageddon," the Obama administration's dispute with FOX News, and the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Many thanks to Jim Robinson and Hildy who encouraged me to post here. I don't do much blogging or posting other than Facebook so you can go over there to learn more about me and my platform. I am running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona. I will be a primary challenger to John McCain. I am a Constitutional conservative. I need your support in our effort to right the wrongs of how our federal government operates and repeal bad laws, regulations and protect states. Thanks for taking the time to read all this and yes I look forward to...

Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk penned a memo to Republican poobah Fred Malek hoping to secure an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his Senate candidacy, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Fix. After noting that Palin will be in Chicago later this month to appear on "Oprah", Kirk writes that "the Chicago media will focus on one key issue: Does Gov[ernor] Palin oppose Congressman Mark Kirk's bid to take the Obama Senate seat for the Republicans?" Kirk goes on to write that he is hoping for something "quick and decisive" from Palin about the...

At a meeting of Washington conservatives this morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, expressed pride over GOP success in last night's election. But questions about NY-23 remain -- so I asked him whether there was an effort to get New York Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in that race, to endorse Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. "There was a huge effort," he replied.  When asked about rumors that the New York Republican Party picked Scozzafava because of the advice of Washington insiders who felt she would be a more electable candidate, Boehner rolled his eyes. "We told them...

JUST 12 months after Barack Obama won office with a promise of change, the Republican Party says election victories in two contests for state governor show voters are tiring of the US President and his policies. Republican candidates yesterday won the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, throwing doubt on the Democratic Party's prospects for mid-term elections next year and on Mr Obama's wider ambitions to pass laws on healthcare reform and climate change. A series of personal campaign visits to New Jersey by Mr Obama over the past few weeks was not enough to help Democrat governor Jon Corzine...