Free Republic

... one starts to wonder if the country wouldn't be better off without them and if Republicans should be cut out of the health-care system entirely and simply provided with aspirin and hand sanitizer. Thirty-two percent of the population identifies with the GOP, and if we cut off health care to them, we could probably pay off the deficit in short order.

Tenant activist-turned-suburban landlord Chris Daly certainly knows a good deal when he sees one. In February, the San Francisco supervisor, who has had his share of battles with developers over the years, scooped up a Fairfield house for $270,000, Solano County documents show. The four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath house had last been assessed at $514,686.He's now renting out the house, Daly told The Chronicle's Marisa Lagos. Bonus for the supervisor - there's no rent control.Daly went bargain-hunting in Fairfield again in April and landed another four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home - this one with a pool, on a cul-de-sac - for $275,000....

First lady Michelle Obama called her "current life" in the White House "a very blessed situation, because I have what most families don't have -- tons of support all around, not just my mother, but staff and administration. I have a chief of staff and a personal assistant, and everyone needs that." "Everyone should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants," Obama said with a laugh as she spoke before a crowd of business executives meeting today during a "Corporate Voices for Working Families" conference at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

President-elect Barack Obama’s vacation in Hawaii at $9 million mansion demonstrates his limousine liberal side — just a week after he called for “new ethics” on Wall Street, which he has condemned for “greed” for and luxury living while the rest of the U.S. is grinding through a recession. The economic downturn, moreover, Obama recently told reporters, “is going to get worse.” As far as the President-elect is concerned, however, these economic realities for regular folks don’t apply to him. Obama, his wife, and his children, as well as leftist apparatchiks, have rented three mansions on the beach in Hawaii....

I can understand why Warren Buffett wanted to teach Nicole Buffett, who gets by on $40,000 a year she earns as an artist and reportedly goes without health insurance, that she should not act like a spoiled brat. But the punishment did not fit the crime. The letter he wrote Nicole seems especially cold: "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin," the magazine quotes the letter as saying. "He signed the letter 'Warren'."

(Crain’s) — The best-funded political campaign in American history says news organizations will have to pay—in some cases almost $2,000 each—if they want to cover Barack Obama’s election-night celebration in Chicago. A memo sent to news organizations on Tuesday by the Obama campaign says credentials will cost $715 to $1,815, depending on whether electrical and phone lines are needed and whether an indoor or outdoor seat is requested for the event, which is expected to be held outside the evening of Nov. 4 in Grant Park.

Mr. Gilmore called Mr. Warner an "elite limousine liberal," a "knave" on foreign policy, and a "piranha" hungry for tax money. Mr. Gilmore repeatedly hit Mr. Warner, his successor as governor, for breaking a 2001 campaign promise by raising taxes $1.4 billion.

<p>BANGOR, Maine â€” Stephen King has fired back at conservative critics who attacked him over a remark he made a month ago at a writers symposium for high school students.</p> <p>A blogger jumped on King’s statement at the Library of Congress about the importance of reading in which he suggested poor readers have limited prospects, including service in the Army.</p>

Hoping a new attorney general will be more sympathetic to their cause, John Walker Lindh's parents again asked the White House to commute the sentence of the Marin County man who fought in Afghanistan for the Taliban. The family filed a petition today asking that Lindh's 20-year sentence be commuted. Lindh pleaded guilty in 2002 to providing services to the Taliban and carrying explosives during a felony. His attorneys first applied for a commutation in 2004, and have regularly beseeched the government since then to shorten Lindh's sentence. "We hope that President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will find...

. "...as a person, I love him,'' the Dalai Lama said about President GW Bush. ``We immediately became friends. He's a very nice person.''

IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT AND THE VICE PRESIDENT, THEY ARE TRAITORS TO AMERICA, AND SO ARE ALL OF THEIR SUPPORTERS. IMPEACH! ANYONE IN CONGRESS WHO REFUSES TO SAVE OUR UNION FROM THESE TRAITORS BY DOING NOTHING NEEDS TO BE RECALLED. SAVE OUR TROOPS!!! SAVE OUR SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS AND JOBS. FEED OUR HUNGRY AND POOR! SAVE THE DROWNING PEOPLE IN NEW ORLEANS! ANYONE WHO MENTIONS PARIS HILTON ONE MORE TIME MUST DIE!

This is about a week old now, but if you haven't seen it, watch until the very end when Edwards answers the question "right or privilege?" Here's the full transcript of the "Right or Privilege" portion: Question: A college education? Edwards: Right. Q: Health care? E: Right. Q: A livable wage? E: Right. Q: Owning a handgun? E: Privilege. Q: American citizenship for someone not born here but has worked here for one year? E: Working for one year? That's a hard one, because I think people have to earn citizenship. I think I would have a period be longer...

LONDON (AFP) - Al Gore said the war in Iraq mirrors the lack of action on climate change in that the best evidence has been ignored, in an interview published Saturday. The United States was sucked in by "crass manipulation" over the moves towards the invasion of Iraq, the former US vice president turned environmental campaigner told British newspaper The Guardian. And Gore, who is repeatedly asked if he will run for office again, said he did not have the skills it takes to get elected as US president -- though he admitted there was no job in the world...

This generation is one that thrives on media publicity, and right now global warming is in the spotlight. From melting icecaps to rising temperatures and sea levels, global warming seems to be the hot topic. With the help of Al Gore's Academy Award-winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth," the issue of global warming has been projected from television screens worldwide, including those at Central York High School. Both Gregory Wimmer and Eric Webb, teachers of global studies and environmental sciences at Central, have used Gore's film as a teaching tool. "In a social studies classroom, "An Inconvenient Truth" allows for an...

Let us say right up front that it's terrific that John Edwards lives in a country where he can lose an election and still land a $480,000 part-time job as a consultant to an investment firm that keeps its hedge funds in the Cayman Islands as a tax shelter for its clients. This truly is the land of opportunity. We're also encouraged to hear that, according to the former Senator's spokesman, "John Edwards is running for President to give every American the opportunities that he's had." While there may not be enough half-a-million-dollar-a-year part-time consulting gigs to go around just...

MIKE BAKER Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. - Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the "rabid, rabid Republican" who owns property across the street from her Orange County home - and she doesn't want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor. Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way off his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person. "I wouldn't be nice to him anyway," Edwards said in an interview. "I don't want my kids anywhere...

NewsMax.com &nbsp; Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2002 Sheila Jackson Lee, Limousine Liberal On her Web site Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee claims, &quot;As your Representative in Congress, I feel that it is my duty to ensure that the government tirelessly works on your behalf.&quot; But in reality she seems to think taxpayers must work tirelessly on her behalf so can be chauffeured one block to work. United Press International noted today that &quot;the fiery liberal&quot; Texas Democrat is under fire in the latest issue of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard. &quot;According to writer Sam Dealey, Jackson Lee has a staff member ...

Illinois Senator Barack Obama warns citizens at his 50th Town Hall meeting about gas guzzling. It was among many points made to the standing room only audience at the Metropolis Community Center. Obama spoke on everything from DC politics to global warming. He says part of the blame for the world's higher temperatures rests on gas guzzling vehicles. Obama says consumers can make the difference by switching to higher mileage hybrids. Today the Senator said, "It would save more energy, do more for the environment and create better world security than all the drilling we could do in Alaska." After...

Credit for Ned Lamont's primary victory over Joe Lieberman has fairly gone to the "netroots" and above all to passions aroused by the Iraq War. But his really secret weapon is one that his fellow liberals prefer not to mention out loud: Mr. Lamont could finance his own campaign. Thanks to campaign funding limits, most political neophytes have a better chance of affording a home in Mr. Lamont's swanky town of Greenwich, Conn., than they do of raising enough money to be competitive against an incumbent of the same party. Despite his unpopularity in some Democratic circles, Mr. Lieberman was...

Anti-war Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont has surged to a razor-thin 51 - 47 percent lead over incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. This compares to a 55 - 40 percent lead for Sen. Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters in a June 8 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. In possible general election matchups: Lieberman defeats Republican challenger Alan Schlesinger 68 - 15 percent; Lamont beats Schlesinger 45 - 22 percent, with 24 percent undecided; Running as an independent, Lieberman gets 51 percent, to 27 percent...

Millionaire businessman Ned Lamont opened a double-digit lead over veteran Sen. Joe Lieberman less than a week before Connecticut's Democratic primary, raising the possibility that the three-term senator may have to run as an independent in November, a new poll released Thursday shows. Lamont, a political novice, had support from 54 percent of likely Democratic voters in the Quinnipiac University poll, while Lieberman had support from 41 percent of voters. The sampling error margin was plus or minus 3 percentage points. A similar survey July 20 showed Lamont with a slight advantage for the first time in the campaign. ''Senator...

Michael Moore - gadfly filmmaker, liberal activist and political lightning rod - says he finds himself being hugged by a lot of Republicans these days. On the streets of Traverse City, where Moore is working on last-minute preparations for a bigger-and-better sequel to the film festival he launched last year in his home state, the Oscar-winning director says he is approached all the time by conservatives ready to make peace. "If you were to hang out with me here it won't be five or 10 minutes before you see a Republican hug me. That is almost as entertaining as some...

Michael Moore says he is even more popular these days and Repbulicans come up to hug him. Even if you could fit your arms around him, would you want to hug this guy?

When the news media write about Ned Lamont, they almost universally call him a "Greenwich businessman." Were he a Republican, they would brand him a "Republican multimillionaire," which is journalistic code for "conservative, hard-hearted, money-grubbing skinflint." Mr. Lamont is worth about $200 million, less the $3 million he put into his campaign to take the Democratic Senate nomination from incumbent Joseph I. Lieberman. Mr. Lamont's tax return reveals he made $2.8 million in 2005, including $546,044 in salary and more than $1.7 million in capital gains. But the most telling detail -- one not widely reported -- about the man...

Fans of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy have long argued that he has fought the good fight ... But today, he is defending the indefensible: special interest legislation, tucked into a Coast Guard authorization bill, that would give Gov. Mitt Romney the power to veto the proposed Cape Wind energy project, even though it would be in federal waters. The project... more than five miles offshore of Cape Cod. The equivalent of burning 113 million barrels of oil per year. Proponents of Cape Wind say it is an important source of alternative, renewable energy, and it has the backing of such...

...Winfrey, 52, who is reportedly worth more than $1 billion, said she doesn't feel guilty about her wealth. "I was coming back from Africa on one of my trips," she said. "I had taken one of my wealthy friends with me. She said, 'Don't you just feel guilty? Don't you just feel terrible?' I said, 'No, I don't. I do not know how me being destitute is going to help them.' Then I said when we got home, 'I'm going home to sleep on my Pratesi sheets right now and I'll feel good about it.' "

Opponents of a plan to build the first offshore U.S. wind farm in Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts were a step closer on Friday to blocking the $900 million project. Negotiators in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate agreed late on Thursday to give Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney the power to block a plan by Cape Wind Associates LLC to put 130 giant wind turbines near the resort islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Backers say the project could generate enough electricity for most of Cape Cod and nearby islands. Opponents include wealthy residents with yachts and shorefront property near...

There is a rich irony in watching Senator Ted Kennedy join forces with Representative Dan Young of Alaska to stop a windmill power-generating project in Nantucket Sound. Rep. Young –conservative Republican and chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee – often opposes environmental proposals. His ranking from the League of Conservation Voters is zero. Mr. Kennedy’s ranking is 95 percent. The Cape Wind project they are fighting would place 130 windmills near the center of Nantucket Sound, perhaps seven or eight miles due south of Hyannis Port, Cape Cod, where the Kennedys’ famous seaside property it situated. Messrs. Kennedy...

Would you be willing to pump your own gas so that the anticipated savings on the price per gallon of gasoline could offset a hike in NJ's gasoline tax? Yes 70% No 30%

The Senate's number two Democrat said Sunday that if Judge John Roberts doesn't recognize that the Constitution's right to privacy covers the Roe vs Wade abortion decision, it would "disqualify" him from serving on the Supreme Court. Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if President Bush had "the same right" to appoint pro-life justices that President Clinton had to appoint pro-choice justices, Durbin at first insisted, "I'm not looking for a litmus test." "As important as reproductive rights and women's rights are, I just basically want to know that if the next case involving privacy and personal freedom came up,...

Can't sleep? Need a good laugh? Want to perfect your schadenfraude?HuffingtonPost is the place.I spotted a couple of conservatives, one being David Frum. He's got lots of work ahead.

In this photo provided by General Motors, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks about hydrogen fuel cell technology at an event marking General Motors' delivery of the U.S. Army's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered pickup at the General Motors research facility outside of Rochester, NY, Friday, April 1, 2005. Clinton was instrumental in securing funds in the 2005 Department of Defense appropriations on behalf of GM's experimental truck whose fuel cell modules are produced at the facility. The U.S. Army will perform rigorous testing in different climates and locations around the U.S. to assess performance and give the military first-hand experience...

Taxing the estates of wealthy Washingtonians to provide essential services to the state "is a very sensible, very socially responsible thing to do," William H. Gates Sr. said yesterday. Gates, the father of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was joined by Democratic lawmakers and others who support restoring Washington's estate tax, which was overturned last month by the state Supreme Court. "This is not a tax on wealthy people. It's a tax on the grateful heirs of wealthy people," he said. "It's a tax on what's left after having lived ... a...

Environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents a lecture titled "Environment, Health and Democracy" at 7 p.m. March 3 in the Wheeler Hall Auditorium at University of California, Berkeley. The event is free and open to the public, although tickets are required. The free tickets can be obtained in advance at Zellerbach Hall and, pending availability, will also be available at the door. Kennedy, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the author of several books, is delivering the seventh annual Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Lecture in Health Policy.

Blue-collar General Electric workers in Lynn have launched a campaign to support a planned Nantucket Sound wind farm project vehemently opposed by many of the rich and famous residents of Cape Cod and the islands. Leaders of the IUE-CWA Local 201, which represents 2,500 workers at GE's Riverworks plant, are passing out petitions and meeting with lawmakers in an effort to promote wind energy and possibly create hundreds of manufacturing jobs in Lynn. GE, via its wind-energy unit, is in line to land the more-than-$200 million contract to build the 130 giant wind turbines for the proposed project, spearheaded by...

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Kerry: "...And looking around here, at this group here, I suspect there are only three people here who are going to be affected: the president, me, and, Charlie, I'm sorry, you too." Kerry speaking in last evening's debate about his plan to raise taxes on people making 200k+ annually. So now John Kerry is prejudging people by just looking at them to determine their income?!? He decided that the only people in the room that qualified as his new tax-hike victims were himself, Bush and Charlie Gibson! Wow, a big criticism many liberals have of Bush is his supposed "arrogance",...

Democrats: the party of the little guy. Republicans: the party of the wealthy. Those images of America's two major political wings have been frozen for generations. The stereotypes were always a little off, incomplete, exaggerated. (Can you say Adlai Stevenson?) But like most stereotypes, they reflected rough truths. No more. Starting in the 1960s and '70s, whole blocs of "little guys"--ethnics, rural residents, evangelicals, cops, construction workers, homemakers, military veterans--began moving into the Republican column. And big chunks of America's rich elite--financiers, academics, heiresses, media barons, software millionaires, entertainers--drifted into the Democratic Party. The extent to which the parties have...

Bloomberg, the American financial media company owned by the billionaire mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, has made a series of donations to British political parties despite a law banning contributions from foreign corporations.The media giant has bypassed the rules by setting up shell companies registered in the UK and using them to make donations.Since 2001 Bloomberg has made three cash donations to Labour worth a total of £51,113, according to records at the Electoral Commission, the political watchdog.The records also reveal that Bloomberg provided two other donations to Labour classed as "sponsorship" worth a total of £11,548 in the...

Washington, DC -- Former Special Assistant to the Teamsters General President on Energy, Jerry Hood, issued the following statement today regarding John Kerry's scheduled remarks to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Unity Conference: "Whenever John Kerry has been faced with a choice between voting to create jobs for working families or abiding by the wishes of extreme and intolerant environmentalists, he has sided against America's workers. "Senator Kerry blocked the Alaskan drilling that would have created tens of thousands of new union jobs and has attacked the President for opposing the Kyoto treaty that would have crippled American manufacturing while...

He said the other day that he voted for the 87 billion for Iraq before he voted against it. Wha' Happened?

SPRING BREAK: KERRY RETREATS TO HIS SUN VALLEY MANSION FOR 5-DAY LUXURY UNWIND Dem candidate-in-waiting John Kerry is set for a 5-day luxury break at his Sun Valley, Idaho compound after a week riddled with gaffes, missteps and slippage in the polls. Gorgeous, 19.5 rooms at 7,749 square-feet, with a market value of $4.9 million [property taxes of more than $30,000 annually], Kerry's Idaho vacation getaway will be the setting of a Spring Break regroup and unwind, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. Private. Kerry is looking forward to enjoying the property, including the grounds, which have been freshly landscaped with...

Bush team singles out 'soft' Kerry By Los Angeles correspondent Robert Lusetich & The Times February 11, 2004 AS the John Kerry juggernaut steams into two key southern states today, the Bush machine has moved to brand the Massachusetts senator a "limousine liberal" who is soft on national security and out of touch with "mainstream America". Virtually ignoring the other Democrats still in the race to challenge George W. Bush in November, Republican heavyweights have started laying the thematic groundwork for a campaign against the 60-year-old Vietnam War hero. Senator Kerry, who has won 10 of the first 12 Democratic...

<p>THE anti-fur folk at PETA may have a new target: Sen. Hillary Clinton.</p> <p>On Dec. 24, the Times' Boldfaced Names column reported that Manhattan furrier Peter Duffy "told us he had just finished a mink coat for Hillary Rodham Clinton."</p>

American actor Martin Sheen has expressed solidarity with a group of Irish war protesters, charged with causing criminal damages to a US warplane, saying they had "moral courage." Sheen, who stars as a US president in the television drama series 'The West Wing,' said he was prepared to give the five Irish demonstrators his own special dispensation and "grant them full pardon," the Irish Independent newspaper reported Saturday. "As a fellow Catholic peace activist I am compelled to support them and their struggle for peace and social justice and their efforts to gain a fair trial," he said after meeting...

Actor Sean Penn's car was stolen as he lunched at a Downtown Berkeley restaurant yesterday afternoon, police said. The car, a black 1987 Buick Grand National, was taken in broad daylight between 1 and 2:45 p.m. while it was parked on the 2300 block of Shattuck Avenue, said Berkeley police Officer Mary Kusmiss. "It was quite bold," Kusmiss said. Penn, 42, told police he had a loaded 9 mm Glock handgun inside his car in addition to an unloaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in the trunk. It was legal for Penn to have the guns in his car because...

January 29, 2003 Nothing but the trough Author Arianna Huffington talks to The Times about corporate greed, President Bush's affectionate nickname for an Enron executive and her upcoming lecture at UCSB. By Quintin Cushner Life & Times Writer Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington promotes herself well. The Greece-born author and columnist is currently on a two-month book tour. On Monday, she was in Boston to appear on a local television show - and to speak with a group of students at a small New England college (all right, she was speaking at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government). Apparently unconcerned...

It is a sad time. The Democratic Party was not able to articulate a clear message - was not able to convey the very real and very many differences between the two parties. They did not allow the American people to make a meaningful choice. They never articulated what it was we were voting for, and in doing so they failed to motivate their base to go to the polls. The Republicans, on the other hand, spoke directly to their constituency and gave them a reason to vote. Instead of standing up to the Republicans and indicating their differences, the...