Free Republic

CONNECTICUT senator Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2000 who ran afoul of many party members over Iraq, said today he would run in November even if he loses his party's primary. Mr Lieberman, 64, has been facing a growing challenge for the Democratic nomination in Connecticut because of his support for President George W Bush and the Iraq war. Mr Lieberman, the only Jew ever nominated by a major party for president or vice-president, said he would not leave the Democratic Party even if he did not secure its support for a fourth term in the Senate and...

HARTFORD, Conn. - Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman , warily watching his primary challenger advance in the polls, must soon decide whether to start collecting signatures for a possible independent bid this November. "I am not going to close out any options," the senator recently told reporters. But any effort to gather signatures before the primary would be a sign of weakness, indicating that Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000, fears that he could lose to businessman Ned Lamont. The effort also would rile Democrats who already question Lieberman‘s party loyalty and his perceived closeness to President Bush ....

HIT, Iraq (June 16, 2006) -- Four months into a year-long deployment in this poverty stricken city of 30,000, U.S. soldiers say they’ve gotten a hold of this insurgent-heavy region, and are confident the Iraqi Army will spearhead operations by year’s end. Iraqi soldiers are leading daily patrols through the town, interacting with the local populace, and even catching a few bad guys – solid proof to their American counterparts that an American-to-Iraqi military turnover in operations is only a matter of time. Just two weeks ago, an Iraqi-led patrol caught two men with 122 mm artillery rounds in a...

Who is David Cloud, one may ask? He is the visible leader of Way of Life Ministries, a literature and (ostensibly) preaching ministry for Independent, Fundamental, KJV-only Baptists. OK, so that's not very important, but my relationship with David Cloud is long and complex. The reason I'm bothering to address him at all might not be readily apparent to any thinking individual, since he's mostly irrelevant to almost everybody on the face of the earth, but it will become apparent as I continue. Allow me to recount my history with David Cloud. When I first became a Christian, way back...

Gettin' ready!!!!

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (April 13, 2006) -- “If the American public could see what these young service members do every day (in Iraq) it would bring a tear to a grown man,” said Lt. Col. Drew T. Doolin, the commanding officer for Combat Logistics Battalion 7. Although he has served as the first Marine aide to the vice president and will soon work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., the pinnacle of his career, he says, has been serving here in Iraq as a commander in war, leading his Marines on a daily basis. The...

An Iraqi soldier from the 1st Motorized Transportation Regiment waves to onlookers as his unit returns to Camp Taji, Iraq, from a supply mission, March 23, 2006. The mission was the unit's first operation executed independently from coalition forces. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joshua Salmons Iraqi Unit Completes Independent Mission The operation, a supply-delivery mission to the 6th Iraqi army division, was theculmination of months of efforts from the 4th Sustainment Brigade’s Taji-based battalions. By U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua Salmons 4th Sustainment Brigade CAMP TAJI, Iraq, March 27, 2006 — Like parents waiting for their children to return...

Strayhorn, an independent running against Republican Gov. Rick Perry in this year's election, has complained about Secretary of State Roger Williams for weeks and even urged that he be removed from office because of his close ties with Perry. Williams, a Perry appointee, is the state's chief elections officer. Strayhorn's campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court in Austin over Williams' plan to manually examine her petition signature by signature instead of using statistical sampling, which examines only a portion of the signatures. The lawsuit says Williams' plan violates her constitutional rights. [. . .] Independent candidates for governor must...

During a brief stop in Nacogdoches Monday, independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman unveiled his secret campaign weapon to a roomful of supporters, college students and a few who showed up just to be entertained. "I'm the only candidate running for governor who has no political experience whatsoever," he bragged. Judging from the Aggie-style "whoops" and the thunderous applause that followed, that lack of experience may very well be enough to give him a shot at the governor's mansion. Friedman claimed that his two biggest opponents — Rick Perry and Carole Strayhorn — had a combined 59 years of political experience...

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (March 15, 2006) -- Iraqi soldiers are right on schedule with training requirements that will allow them to eventually relieve U.S. military forces in western Al Anbar Province, according to Marine officials here. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division - one of two Iraqi Army brigades in western Al Anbar Province - have spent months now learning the administrative and decision-making processes they’ll need to function as a military headquarters element to the three Iraqi infantry battalions which will eventually be under their charge. Partnered with a Military Transition Team - groups of...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2006 – Iraqi security forces continue to grow in capability and are planning and conducting more operations without coalition support, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said today. Of the 435 company-level or higher operations conducted in Iraq last week, 31 percent were independent Iraqi operations, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said at a news briefing. A very notable victory for the Iraqi security forces was a peaceful Ashura holiday last week, Lynch said. Two million pilgrims participated in the Shiite Muslim festival without any violence or attacks by insurgents, he said. This...

SAMARRA, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 25, 2005) – “Iron Rakkasans” are training the future trainers of an independent Iraqi army at sites in Samarra and Mahmudiyah, Iraq. Military Integrated Transition Teams from the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division are providing classroom and hands-on training of basic and advanced courses to prepare the Iraqi soldiers to take over the job of securing their own country. Iraqi army mix of experience The Iraqi army is a mix of seasoned soldiers with years of experience and new recruits right off the street. The classes are a baseline to start...

WASHINGTON - The independent counsel who investigated former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros charged in his final report Thursday that the Clinton administration thwarted his work, drawing the curtain on the longest-ever probe under a post-Watergate era reform law. Officials who worked in the Clinton administration flatly deny the allegations by prosecutor David M. Barrett, who closed a decade-long probe with a report detailing a behind-the-scenes battle inside the government as he tried to look into possible tax violations by Cisneros. Cisneros, who was housing secretary during the Clinton administration, pleaded guilty in 1999 to a misdemeanor of lying to the...

In Monday's edition of the NEW YORK SUN, reporter Brian McGuire and contributor R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., break the first look at the long-anticipated report from Independent Counsel David Barrett, whose investigation lasted 10 year and cost taxpayers $23 million. The SUN outlines the report's details surrounding the alleged illicit activity and cover up that involving former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros before and during his time in the Clinton Administration. The Sun reveals that the Barrett report connects the dots that allege that senior officials of the Clinton Administration hindered investigations by the IRS in both...

Texas State Teachers Association throws support behind Strayhorn BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Republican turned Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn picked up the endorsement of the Texas State Teachers Association on Tuesday. The group, however, won't be able to help Strayhorn collect the 45,000-plus signatures that she will need to get on the ballot for the November general election. The TSTA is encouraging all of its members to take part in the party primaries, spokesman Richard Kouri said. Because of several high-profile legislative races, "we certainly believe our members should be involved," he said. Strayhorn, currently the state's comptroller, had...

"I support gay marriage, and I support prayer in school," he said, sitting in the living room of his cabin in Medina last month. "You know why I support prayer in school? What's wrong with a kid believing in something?" [. . .] . . . "What politicians lack is a sense of humor, a sense of reality and a sense of community service. That's what I bring to the party. "The only time the Democrats and Republicans get off their asses is to attack each other. The Democrats can't get any traction, and the Republicans can't get any legislation....

Ex-GOP Rep. Stockman Seeks DeLay Seat by John Gizzi Posted Jan 5, 2006 05:08 PM "Nervous that the ongoing web of scandal surrounding disgraced Washington “superlobbyist” Jack Abramoff will cost Republicans enough seats to lose control of the House and convinced that Rep. Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.) might well lose his Houston-area district to a Democrat, former one-term Rep. Steve Stockman has decided to run for the seat as an independent. The surprise announcement by conservative stalwart Stockman, who represented about one-third of what is now the 22nd District from 1994-96, was coupled by the decision of the former lawmaker to...

Deadline day filing ends mystery Quote from the announcement: "I am a Republican, but I know we must set partisan politics aside and do what's right for Texas. That is why I am running for governor as a Texas Independent. We can't wait any longer. It's time to shake Austin up."

True Conservatives Running as Independents against Anti-Family, Anti-Life ‘Conservative’ Candidates By Terry Vanderheyden OTTAWA, December 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At least two conservative pro-family independents have decided to face-off with Conservatives who support same-sex “marriage” and abortion in the federal election. Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, BC, Conservative MP James Moore riled a host of conservatives after he won his seat in 2000 while claiming that he was pro-family and pro-life, then later voted in favour of the Liberal Party’s gay “marriage” legislation. Now a former member of his riding executive, Greg Watrich, is running against Moore as an independent. “There is...

House Democrats are stepping up the pressure for an independent commission to investigate the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina through a legislative maneuver known as a discharge petition. As the former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown testified before a special House committee chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., Democrats in the House leadership condemned the hearing as a Republican whitewash of what they maintain was a colossal failure of the Bush administration to coordinate government agencies in responding to the Katrina disaster.

Some years ago, about 1900, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions -- especially his traps -- and drove south. Several weeks later he stopped in a small town just north of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. It was a Saturday morning -- a lazy day -- when he walked into the general store. Sitting around the pot-bellied stove were seven or eight of the town's local citizens. The traveler spoke. "Gentlemen, could you direct me to the Okefenokee Swamp?" Some of the oldtimers looked at him like he...

How do we get attention over the Supreme Court decisions? The justices aren't elected and could careless about their mail and email. Ten thousand calls to the White-House aren't going to impact anything other than their phone bill. Our representatives, if they haven't spoken by now, are in on the rewording of our constitution (it's a whole lot easier than going through that darn amendment process). Proposing amendments or signing a petition for the impeachment of justices will have the same impact as trying to repeal the 16th and/or 17th amendments. Lots of people talk about their gun collection and...

Former Rep. Nathan Mathis to run for governor 6/21/2005, 6:06 p.m. CT By PHILLIP RAWLS The Associated Press MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former state Rep. Nathan Mathis announced Tuesday he will run for governor on a gambling platform. And he is doing it by taking a gamble that has traditionally been a loser for Alabama politicians — running as an independent. If elected, Mathis said he will try to bring casinos to Alabama and would tax them to help fund health care, prisons and state troopers. Mathis, who served three terms in the Alabama House as a Democrat from Newton,...

I am confident I am the best candidate because O’Boyle’s campaign is mostly about simply defeating Deborah Sutherland, and if Bay’s present School Board President becomes mayor, it would be a pretty darn rough on Bay taxpayers, as I can only imagine how easy it would be for the School Board to pretty much get whatever its wants – they’d say jump and the residents would be saying, “how high?” My platform is the most substantial. My vision for Bay Village maps to the true desires of most residents and most business owners; moreover, I’m the only candidate who is...

Multimedia Newsletter: LOBBY FOR COBBY Bruce Cobbeldick For Mayor! Newsletter Friends Of Bruce Cobbeldick Mayoral Campaign Bay Village, OH - - According to Candidate Bruce Cobbeldick, November 2005 should be one of the most interesting mayoral races Bay Village has ever seen. "Bay is at a crossroads right now, and while some issues seem pretty cut and dried, it's when one spends just a little more time thinking about things - it's when one considers the source and looks at who stands to gain what that or lose what - that the voter has the opportunity to decypher double-talk and...

The Epoch Times is a popular newspaper in the Chinese global community and with those seeking more in-depth and insightful reporting on Chinese issues than what is available in mass media. When the newspaper began printing its scathing "Nine Commentaries" on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), printers in Hong Kong could not print them fast enough to satisfy eager readers. After an initial run of 30,000 copies, addition printings were ordered. Soon they ran out of paper before printing almost a million copies. Visitors from China carried the copies of the commentaries back into the mainland. As previously reported by...

The actions of new administration can be explained in different ways: absence of professional training, revolutionary inertia, and thirst for revenge or something else. Among these actions, explainable from political point of view and unexplainable from juridical one, the so-called "NTN case" is one of the most resonance cases. Under pretence of far-fetched problems with payment for broadcasting license and sharing of TV frequencies judicial authorities make an attempt to close NTN. The fact that the administration’s accusations are far-fetched is proved juridically. However, the representatives of new power do not hide true reason of situation. New administration does not...

The departures of Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) will result in competitive US Senate elections in 2006 in two states where Republicans are not historically strong, though the special circumstances that apply to those seats make them within reach of the GOP. The former will have special meaning for Republicans since its occupant unilaterally handed control of the US Senate to the opposing party from 2001 to 2003. Because the Republicans enjoyed a historic victory in the 2002 midterms, the actions of the Benedict Arnold from the home of Ethan Allen had limited implications, aside from giving the...

ALERT: Sen. John Kerry is upset about the Senate Democrats' filibuster of President Bush's conservative judicial nominees. He's not upset about the fact that the judicial filibuster is unconstitutional. He's not upset about the fact that a minority is blocking a simple "up-or-down," "yes-or-no" vote on these nominees. He's not upset that these liberal Democrats are stopping the United States Senate from fulfilling its constitutional duty to "advise and consent" on judicial nominees. NO... he's upset that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is speaking out AGAINST the filibusters, at a Christian conference on the all-important issue of reining in our...

Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are still embracing the veracity of content of their 60 Minutes fraudulent memos aired on September 8, 2004. They need to re-read the Report of the Independent Review Panel “Concerning President Bush’s Air National Guard Service” by Dick Thornburgh and Louis D. Boccardi. For a fair perspective of President Bush’s Air National Guard (ANG) Service, I suggest reading “Bush and I were lieutenants““ by Col. William Campenni (retired), and my article: Bush and Uncommon Valor,as well as “Bush’s Air National Guard Years“ by Byron York. For a better understanding of the Dan Rather scandal, I...

"IN SEDUCTION, the rapist often bothers to buy a bottle of wine," proclaimed radical feminist Andrea Dworkin in 1976. If you're a woman born 20 years ago, you probably don't even recognize Dworkin's name. Yet, there's a good chance you've had some seriously frustrating dates with her unwitting progeny: the guy who waits until date three or four—not to grab you, throw you up against the wall and suck face—but to politely inquire, "May I kiss you?" Equal pay for equal work? It's a beautiful thing. Equal opportunity? Thrilled to have it. We women owe an enormous debt to Susan...

Father Paul Sretenovic, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, who was ordained to the priesthood in 2002, has abandoned the Novus Ordo in order to embrace Catholic Tradition without compromise. Father Sretenovic (pronounced Stre-ten-o-vich) informed his ordinary, the Most Reverend John Myers, the Archbishop of Newark, of his decision in a letter mailed to his Excellency’s home address on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Wednesday, December 28, 2004: “Your Excellency: I am writing to inform you of my decision to leave the Archdiocese of Newark. It is a decision that is eighteen months in the making,...

GOP senator who vowed to quit turns independent THE PADUCAH SUN PADUCAH - State Sen. Bob Leeper said he will stay in the Senate until at least this summer but will change his political registration from Republican to independent. He said not being a part of the Republican caucus will allow him to think issues through more clearly "without the political spin" of the party leaders. "I want to make it clear that the change in no way is a reflection on the Republican Party's philosophies," Leeper said. "I continue to support what they believe in." Friday, Leeper became frustrated...

An independent commission has found CBS News guilty of "myopic zeal" in its airing of possibly forged documents that suggested President Bush lied about his service in the National Guard. A 224-page report, whose chief authors were former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press Chief Executive Officer Louis D. Boccardi, claimed that the pressure of getting the story before competitors, and not political bias, was responsible for the lapse in journalistic judgment. And Watergate was a "third-rate burglary." This is the Watergate equivalent of locking up the men who conducted the break-in at Democratic Party headquarters, but ignoring...

WASHINGTON - While pledging to help President Bush (news - web sites) promote anti-abortion judges to the federal bench, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) is struggling to maintain his proudly cultivated image as an independent thinker and sometime maverick. To salvage the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairmanship he's in line to get in January, the Pennsylvania Republican has been promising to support anti-abortion nominees even though he favors abortion rights. Specter's elevation to the panel's chairmanship after 24 years in the Senate was put in doubt two weeks ago when he told reporters that judges who...

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham joined representatives of Shell and General Motors Corporation (GM) on November 10th in the opening of the first hydrogen refueling station in Washington, D.C. The Shell station—the first in North America to offer both gasoline and hydrogen—will be used to refuel GM fuel cell vehicles as part of DOE's Vehicle and Infrastructure Learning Demonstration and Validation Project. To read more go to http://www.eere.energy.gov/

Secretary of State Colin Powell stepped in it once again – this time instructing the Taiwanese that their goal in life should be “reunification” with a murderous, police state. For nearly four years, Powell has been the weak link in Bush’s foreign policy. Of all the administration’s top officials, he was the last to come on board in support of military intervention in Iraq. Powell perfectly reflects the State Department mindset. In almost any situation, he favors appeasement over confrontation -- sacrificing U.S. allies (Israel, Taiwan) to win brownie points with thugs (Arab regimes, the People’s Republic of China). But...

London's Independent on Sunday is reporting that Tony Blair sent Philip Gould, "his polling guru" and "one of his closest advisers" to meet with Mary Beth Cahill on a "secret peace mission" to mend relations with John Kerry 10 days ago.

By now we had hoped to be rid of Sen. Arlen Specter. Unfortunately, Pat Toomey, the brave and conservative Lehigh Valley congressman we endorsed in the May primary, could not surgically remove our state's four-term cancer from the U.S. Senate. We have the next-best thing to Mr. Toomey, however, in Constitution Party candidate Jim Clymer, a Lancaster lawyer who is as close to the kind of principled, small-government conservative Republican we can hope for in 2004. Thus, we wholeheartedly endorse Jim Clymer for U.S. Senate.

Frédéric Desagneaux, consul general of France for San Francisco, is not happy with the light being shown on his country’s involvement with U.N. corruption in Iraq. Poor thing. Yesterday, the independent committee investigating corruption in the U.N.’s “oil-for-food” program for Iraq made public the names of 3,545 companies that sold goods to Saddam. Also published were the names of 248 companies which received Iraqi oil under the program. Through oil-for-food, Saddam stole “$10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.” Leave it to the U.N. to pull off one of the biggest scandals in world history. Evidence is emerging...

Independent may be spoiler By Nolan Clay The Oklahoman Independent U.S. Senate candidate Sheila Bilyeu claims the federal government implanted a device inside her head in the 1970s and has sent messages for years to annoy her. "Mean politicians ... have been after me for years and years and years," she said last week. "I know it sounds nuts, but it's true." Bilyeu accepts she has little chance of winning. However, there is some dispute about whether her candidacy might affect the outcome. Voters will choose Nov. 2 among Bilyeu, U.S. Rep. Brad Carson, D- Claremore, and Dr. Tom Coburn,...

An independent analysis of the reaction of independent voters from the Swiftvet television ads has been completed by Muhlenberg College and HCD Research and the results posted here. The study group consisted of 371 independent voters who self-described their political leanings thusly: Conservative: 4.31 % Somewhat conservative: 12.67% Moderate: 42.32% Somewhat liberal: 16.98% Liberal: 4.31% Unsure: 19.41% As people can see, the moderates in the middle plus the "unsure" dominate the mix, but the outliers seem tilted a bit towards liberals. More on that later. I won't get into the entire methodology -- after all, the report is on line...

This seems like the best forum to 'advertise' my independent run for US Congress in Texas' 3rd District. I've posted on FR in the past about my run for office, but I have now officially made the ballot and filed with the FEC, and am now starting the main campaign run. It is a campaign built around reducing the federal government and simplifying the tax system. We must remove career party politicans and put in place people who can come up with new ideas to reform our federal programs and who want to work together to reduce the burdens that...

... Along with its high optimism, the story told by the nation's 42nd president has a decidedly unhappy dimension. Its pages brim with bitter reflections on the source of that unhappiness -- the selection of a court-appointed prosecutor in the Whitewater investigation. That prosecutor, we are reminded, replaced an earlier, highly distinguished prosecutor, Robert Fiske, who had been chosen in early 1994 by President Clinton's own attorney general, Janet Reno, to investigate the matter. Mr. Fiske should have continued to serve, the argument goes, especially since (in the author's view) there was essentially nothing of substance to investigate in the...

BANGOR, Maine -- John Kerry received 49 percent support to President Bush's 39 percent in a poll conducted this spring by a Portland-based research firm. The remaining 12 percent were either undecided or favored another candidate. The random survey of 600 Mainers, 92 percent of whom identified themselves as registered voters, was conducted by Critical Insights between April 23 and May 20 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Here is what I was able to pull out of the tape. Portions of my tape we could not hear clearly what was being said. The part of the transcript with tgsltakoma includes her comments/corrections A=Angelwood B=Barrymore K=Kristinn Bu= BufordP S=Sauropod T=Tgsltakoma D: Drew Barrymore I've added/corrected from my recollection, to your transcript below. D: Did you make all the signs? (I recall that I said another guy made the signs and that I made the "awards") T confirms. D: You did? Did you make them at home? And you brought them here today? T confirms. D: Do you have...

LOS ANGELES, April 2, 2004—Jody Eldred Productions today announced it has just completed filming and is in the final stages of production on an inspirational documentary called, “Changed Lives: Miracles of The Passion,” which will air nationwide Easter weekend. With rave reviews from Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country,” this one-hour T.V. special was shot in High Definition and documents the true stories of people whose lives have been forever changed by Mel Gibson’s incredible motion picture “The Passion of The Christ.” “I knew instantly that people’s lives were going to be...

Tim Giago now plans to run as an independent for the U.S. Senate, a move expected to change the complexion of a South Dakota race full of national implications. Giago, of Rapid City, publisher of the Lakota Journal, had planned to challenge Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in the June 1 Democratic Party primary, with the winner to face Republican John Thune in November. But Giago said switching his effort to the fall gives him more time to get petitions signed and gives him a greater forum for discussion of Native American issues. "Our issues need to be analyzed, put...

Ralph Nader Kicks Off Presidential Campaign With Free “Vote Nader” Car Accessories LOS ANGELES, CA—Ralph Nader kicked off his attempt to oust the two-party system again today, this time as an Independent candidate. Though Nader announced his plans to run for President a few weeks ago, he just today began lobbying in Los Angeles. Nader, gave away over 1000 different automotive accessories at a campaign rally in down town Los Angeles, in hopes to round healthy support from LA's “street racing” community. The Rally was sponsored held at “Rick's all Things Imported” car shop and lasted nearly all day, with...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - In the bruising, contact sport of campaign fund-raising it appears everyone loves Claudia Alvarez, the 34-year-old Santa Ana City Council member seeking an Orange County state Assembly seat.</p> <p>While Alvarez does her own-fundraising, groups of corporate and business interests, dentists and senior citizens have also spent an extra $604,392 - the most in any statewide legislative race - to help her beat opponent Tom Umberg on Tuesday and become the Democrats' November candidate.</p>