Free Republic

SACRAMENTO — Expect surprises. It's no longer politics as usual. Want to overhaul the Legislature into a single nonpartisan house? How about creating universal health care or a bullet train? Voters may soon get the chance. Californians are so tired of Sacramento and Washington that they are creating a "unique hybrid democracy" to dissolve political gridlock on key issues — a trend that could spread across the nation. That's the conclusion reached by California's two foremost pollsters, looking back to the Nov. 7 election and ahead to coming sessions of the Legislature and Congress. Californians are backing away from the...

June 26, 2005 Guest Viewpoint: The party's over for betrayed Republican By James Chaney As of today, after 25 years, I am no longer a Republican. I take this step with deep regret, and with a deep sense of betrayal. I still believe in the vast power of markets to inspire ideas, motivate solutions and eliminate waste. I still believe in international vigilance and a strong defense, because this world will always be home to people who will avidly seek to take or destroy what we have built as a nation. I still believe in the protection of individuals and...

I am very worried for Karl Rove. Ir appears he is going to jail, and I don't want him to end up in a bad place where bad things could happen to him (what were those bad federal prisons referred to in the movie "Office Space?") Can we start a petition to give to his sentencing judge to have him sent to a nice prison? Maybe he coould go where Martha Stewart went. Or is that just for women. Let's make sure he goes to a nice place, though.

Think a PDA will be too expensive to “waste” as a mere remote? The Pocket PC 2002-based iPAQ H3950 does ring in at a sticker-shock inducing $649 USD MSRP, but if you compare that to its closest hardware matched dedicated remote competition, the Philips ProntoPro at $999 MSRP, the iPAQ is actually 35% cheaper. Not only that, but it has far superior specifications: a 400MHz processor compared to 33MHz; 64MB memory with expansion compared to a fixed 8MB; 65,000-color active matrix LCD touchscreen compared to 256-color passive matrix – the list goes on. From a merely specifications standpoint the...