Free Republic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Democratic Sen. Mario Gallegos of Houston had two shirts and he was wearing one of them. Sen. Rodney Ellis, also of Houston, longed for a pair of cuff links and at least one pair of jeans. And it seemed like everyone needed more underwear than they had brought. The 11 Democratic senators from Texas had known for weeks that the moment might come when they would have to flee Austin to try to thwart a congressional redistricting bill. But as events developed quickly at the state Capitol in Austin on Monday, a decision to leave had to...

AUSTIN -- Democrats vainly battled against inevitable defeat as the Texas House approved a Republican redistricting plan early today that likely would eliminate six incumbent Democratic congressmen in next year's elections. "We are all tired, and some of us have been beaten up and bruised in this process," Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, told the House as debate began on the measure Monday afternoon. Democrats argued that the public had no meaningful input into drawing the maps and that the proposed congressional districts would harm rural representation and dilute minority voting rights. But with Republicans holding a substantial House...

Women take it all off to push for peace Photo protest draws 43 to pose together in the buff near Lake Lavon 03/18/2003 By GROMER JEFFERS JR. / The Dallas Morning News As the nation moved closer to war with Iraq, nearly four dozen Dallas-area women removed their clothes to protest it. On Saturday, as a helicopter carrying a female pilot and photographer buzzed overhead, 43 naked women lined up end to end to form the word "peace." The event, on private property along Lake Lavon about 20 miles north of Dallas, mirrored other similar "Baring Witness" protests. "Being...

Posted on Thu, Feb. 20, 2003 Acting outHollywood antiwar sentiment is loud and clear. And so is the opposition.By Beth GillinInquirer Staff Writer AP photo Martin Sheen and James Cromwell turned out for Saturday's protest on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Celebrities do affect public opinion, media experts say. It's the largest outpouring of star-powered anti-war sentiment since the Vietnam War.Barbra Streisand, Martin Sheen, Jessica Lange, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Martin Scorsese, Sean Penn, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Ossie Davis, Robert Altman.Some of the country's biggest stars are loudly against invading Iraq.Edward Norton, Tyne Daly, Danny Glover,...

Maryland AG urges end to state's death penalty 01/31/2003 Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. called Thursday for Maryland to abolish its death penalty, noting systemic flaws and the possibility that innocent people could be put to death. Because of the system's "fallibility," he said, capital punishment could come only at the "intolerable cost of executing, every so often, the wrong person." He said 102 people on death rows had been exonerated since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate capital punishment in 1976. Mr. Curran, a Democrat, outlined his views in a...

Tens of thousands protest possible war with Iraq Rallies held Saturday in Washington, across U.S. and around the world 01/19/2003 By G. ROBERT HILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - They came by the tens of thousands Saturday, with the same message: No war against Iraq. Some carried it on printed placards or brightly colored banners or scrawled by hand on pieces of old cardboard. Others shouted it or chanted it. Some sang. They came from the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, the Southwest - from Maine and Kentucky and Michigan and Texas - all demanding that President...

Peace core: North Texans head to rally From '60s pacifists to teens, they're DC bound and determined 01/18/2003 By MARK WROLSTAD / The Dallas Morning News Bob Dennis was there among the demonstrators 40 years ago with Martin Luther King Jr., trying to push America and its government along the road toward freedom and opportunity. The veteran human rights worker from Dallas had wanted to be there again this weekend with demonstrators, trying to slow America and its government on the road toward war with Iraq. Mr. Dennis won't be there, but 54 people are enduring an around-the-clock bus...

Liberal response to GOP victory: A public nervous breakdown Posted: November 11, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Michael Medved © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com In the wake of the sweeping, startling GOP victories in last week's election, despairing Democrats confront a bitter existential dilemma: Is life worth living under a Republican regime? Listening to the grim comments of prominent pundits and politicos, it's obvious that some of liberalism's leading lights feel sincerely uncertain about the answer to that question. Some of them may even be tempted to follow the example of one impassioned partisan in Wasilla, Alaska, who became so "despondent over...

DAILY POLL Overall, how do you feel about yesterday's election results? Ecstatic Pleased Not sure yet Confused Disappointed Devastated Couldn't care lessLink to poll HERE.