Free Republic

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is upset by the comments Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made about opponents of the pro-abortion Senate health care bill. Reid compared opposition to the bill, which funds abortions, to the 19th-century debate over slavery. Reid on Monday said Republicans opposed to the bill were displaying the same mindset as those who supported slavery.“If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right,” Reid said. “When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, ‘Slow down, it’s...

Probably not, but their candidate recruitment so far has been stellar. Democrats began the year as masters of the political universe, winning the White House and increasing their majorities in Congress. But the year is ending badly for them. Their top initiative, health care, is deeply unpopular. Congress's approval rating is 26%, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's is 28%, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's is an anemic 14%. Political currents are running against the party of Barack Obama. Democrats now trail Republicans by four points in Gallup's generic ballot poll. In 1994, the year the GOP took control of Congress, it...

Gambler Who Lost Millions Wants Some Debt Forgiven SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 8) -- Terrance Watanabe sometimes got so high on painkillers and alcohol in Las Vegas that he walked into doors and passed out at the gaming tables. The Omaha philanthropist consumed more than two bottles of expensive vodka daily and gambled for days at a time without sleeping. In a single year, he lost $127 million at two casinos owned by Harrah's Entertainment. Nearly $1 billion in wagers passed through his hands. This embarrassing portrait of excess and dissipation comes from legal documents filed by Watanabe's own attorneys, who...

WASHINGTON -- In an unexpected move, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this afternoon voted to table a pivotal abortion amendment that he said had no place in the health care debate. Reid, a Mormon who has long been against abortion, took to the floor to give an intense speech about his position and his belief that the health care bill maintains the status quo on the issue. "Our health care bill now before this body respects life," Reid said in a nearly 20-minute address. "This bill is about access to health care, not access to abortions." Reid's record on abortion...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago. The Nevada Democrat, in a sweeping set of accusations on the Senate floor, also compared health care foes to those who opposed women's suffrage and the civil rights movement. "Instead...

Washington » Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid equated Republican attempts to delay health reform to politicians who argued against ending slavery or giving women the right to vote. "All Republicans can come up with is this: Slow down, stop everything and start over. If you think you have heard these same excuses before, you are right," Reid said on the Senate floor Monday. "When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, 'Slow down, it is too early, let's wait. Things are not bad enough.' " Republicans immediately called foul....

At this point, at least, it appears that Nevadans are heartily sick of Harry Reid and want someone to replace the three term incumbent. Politico's Scorecard: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) continues to face weak support back home, and trails both of his leading Republican opponents, according to a new Mason-Dixon poll released today. Even as Reid has been airing a number of television ads highlighting his clout in the Senate and work saving jobs back home, the poll shows a near-majority of Nevada voters still view him unfavorably. Reid holds just a 38 percent approval rating - the...

The existence of a new secret plane photographed this week has been confirmed by the United States Air Force. The secret aircraft now has an official denomination: The RQ-170 Sentinel, a flying wing developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works. The RQ-170 is a stealthy unmanned aircraft designed to "provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces." It's flown by the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron at Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, under the Air Combat Command's 432d Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada. The aircraft has a 65-foot wingspan, with a fat body and a blended wing design. It's...

A new poll suggests even more trouble for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his home state. Only 38 percent of the 625 registered Nevada voters polled had a favorable opinion of Reid in the poll released by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research that was commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Forty-nine percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Reid in the poll with 13 percent remaining neutral. The results follow an aggressive early advertising campaign by Reid.

Nevada has overestimated the number of higher education jobs so far "retained" with federal stimulus aid, according to a state budget official. The revised count is about 1,400, a steep drop from the nearly 2,100 that state and federal officials have touted for weeks. Victor Redding, budget director of the Nevada System of Higher Education, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the inflated figure, which is still posted on a state Web site that tracks jobs created or retained with Recovery Act funds, resulted from a miscount by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

I apologize in advance for the Vanity Post. I rarely use 'em - but in this case, I need some Freeper advice. Like all of you, I despise Harry Reid. Next year, I want him gone in the worst possible way. But I was gonna wait and see how Nevada's GOP primary turned out before I wrote a check. In the last three weeks, I've received two fundraising letters from Danny Tarkanian's campaign for US Senate. I've read thru both of 'em. I've visited his website. And you know what? I still don't know much about this race. I don't...

As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid struggles to pass a health care bill in Washington and his polling numbers in Nevada continue to tank, there’s another aggravation he can’t seem to escape — the Las Vegas Review-Journal and its publisher, Sherman Frederick. Frederick has called Reid a “political corpse,� said a visit by President Barack Obama to Nevada earlier this year “was only to try to stop Nevadans from bouncing their unpopular senior Sen. Harry Reid in 2010� and suggested that “Reid’s power so far has done more for Reid personally than it has for Nevadans as a whole.�...

Like many home owners, hotels are starting to drown in debt. They have been enticing travelers all year with sweet deals: credits for in-house spas and restaurants, up to 50 percent off five-star rooms, even free nights. But all that discounting hasn't stopped occupancy from dropping an average of 10 percent. The result? Hotel loans have begun falling into delinquency faster than any other kind of commercial real estate debt. The rising defaults paint a grim picture... The oversupply means room rates should stay low for at least another year, good news for consumers but not so great for hotel...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has told colleagues that he was given bad information by the American Medical Association (AMA), which will result in a significant setback to Democrats’ healthcare reform strategy. Democrats are not expected to have the votes to pass a 10-year freeze of scheduled cuts to doctors' Medicare payments, according to sources in both parties. Reid had offered to pass the "doctors' fix" in return for support from the doctors on President Barack Obama's broader healthcare initiative, which is slated for the Senate floor later this year. Reid told colleagues that the AMA said it could...

Christopher Edwards, a former Nevada ACORN executive, received a sentence of three years probation and a $500 fine today for his role in an illegal voter registration conspiracy, the Las Vegas Sun reports. In August the former ACORN field director pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime of compensation for registration of voters. The newspaper reported The attorney general’s office said Edwards organized and operated a quota system called “blackjack” or “21+” through which the group paid canvassers based on the number of voter registration cards they collected each day. The canvassers were to gather at...

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fl.) is now urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to propose a revision to the Senate's cloture rules so that only 55 votes, instead of 60, would be required to end floor debate. His effort -- spearheaded with the help of an online campaign at StopSenateStalling.com -- takes special aim at the healthcare debate, which Grayson said has fallen victim to countless overused and unfair filibuster threats over the past few months. "Why should launching wars and cutting taxes for the rich require only 50 votes while saving lives requires 60?" asked Grayson, who listed a...

The brains behind an illegal voter-registration incentive program that led to felony charges against ACORN, a national grass-roots community organizing group, was sentenced Monday to three years of probation. Christopher Edwards pleaded guilty in August to two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit compensation for registration of voters. As part of the plea deal, the state attorney general's office dropped 13 felony counts of compensation for registration of voters against Edwards in exchange for his testimony against ACORN and co-defendant Amy Busefink. "I take responsibility for what I did," Edwards told District Judge Donald Mosley. "I'm sorry. I truly...

A former field director for the political advocacy organization ACORN was sentenced today in district court to up to three years of probation. Christopher Edwards, who in August pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit a crime of compensation for registration of voters, a gross misdemeanor, received a suspended jail sentence and a $500 fine. He has agreed to testify against ACORN and one of its former regional directors, Amy Busefink. The Nevada attorney general’s office has accused ACORN and Busefink of operating an illegal bonus system. Tying money to or setting quotas for collecting voter registration cards...

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. That’s the way it’s always worked in Washington, so the news that Mary Landrieu will hold a fundraiser in New Orleans for Senator Harry Reid comes as no surprise. Reid procured a substantial dose of cash to Landrieu’s Louisiana in exchange for her crucial “moderate” vote. Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana garnered a lot of attention before the healthcare vote last night as to whether she would or wouldn’t vote yes to send the monstrosity of a bill to the floor for debate. After rumors of a $100 million dollar bribe by Senator...

YERINGTON, Nev. (Nov. 21) -- Peggy Pauly lives in a robin-egg blue, two-story house not far from acres of onion fields that make the northern Nevada air smell sweet at harvest time. But she can look through the window from her kitchen table, just past her backyard with its swingset and pet llama, and see an ominous sign on a neighboring fence: "Danger: Uranium Mine." For almost a decade, people who make their homes in this rural community in the Mason Valley 65 miles southeast of Reno have blamed that enormous abandoned mine for the high levels of uranium in...

CARSON CITY — No sooner were the latest unemployment numbers released Friday morning than politicians offered their takes, illustrating that no fact will go un-spun this campaign season. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a statement declared the drop in statewide unemployment from 13.3 percent to 13 percent a “positive development and further evidence that Nevada is starting down the economic road to recovery.” Jeremy Aguero, principal of the financial firm Applied Analysis, said the “condition is effectively unchanged between September and October.” A muted response was appropriate, he said. “The unemployment drop isn’t because we’ve created jobs,” he said....

Mulder and Scully are on the hunt for Harry Reid's phantom jobs.

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

LAS VEGAS—The FBI and the Henderson Police Department have arrested five persons following an attempted robbery of a Henderson bank. Last Friday, November 13, 2009, five persons entered the Wells Fargo Bank at 1411 West Sunset Road and presented a false federal search warrant to the bank manager demanding all the money in the bank’s vault. When the bank manager refused to comply with the false search warrant, he was handcuffed and threatened. The five persons were placed under arrest by Officers of the Henderson Police Department as they left the bank, and were later taken into custody by the...

Sometimes you make exceptions at a members-only golf club. Especially if someone from the office of Vice President Joe Biden is on the telephone, calling back a second time with a more pointed request. It happened Sunday morning at The Golf Club at South Shore, at Lake Las Vegas. When the first call came in at 7 a.m., asking whether Biden could play the course, the PGA professional running the pro shop declined, citing the club's members-only policy. A few minutes later, another call: a Biden staffer telling the club pro "you know the vice president would really like to...

It appears there's such a thing as being too sinful, even in Sin City. The line was drawn after two Las Vegas strip clubs – Little Darlings and Déjà Vu – began promoting the venues by putting gyrating pole-dancers in the back of a truck with see-through sides and driving it around town. Deja Vu's marketing director, Larry Beard, first told the Las Vegas Sun that he’d fight to keep the trucks rolling – crediting them for a big boost in business. He later decided to suspend the racy campaign on the advice of his lawyer. “My client has authorized...

Nevada Has Highest Foreclosure Rate AgainUpdated: Nov 12, 2009 4:17 PM EST Despite the state's effort to slow foreclosures, Nevada once again has the highest rate of foreclosures in the nation. The latest report done by Realty Trac shows foreclosure filings were the highest in Las Vegas where one in 68 homes received a foreclosure filing in October. That's more than five times the national average which is one in every 385 homes. However, that national number is down three percent from September but when compared to a year ago, foreclosure filings are still up 19 percent.

thousands of nurses and other front-line healthcare workers are fighting mandatory flu immunization policies being put in place by some U.S. hospitals. The H1N1 pandemic, which has killed about 3,900 Americans so far, has stoked tensions over the best way to safeguard medical caregivers and their patients from flu. Nurses unions have won some early battles against compulsory vaccination. data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that only about 40 percent of U.S. healthcare workers ever get shots for seasonal influenza. mandating that healthcare workers get vaccines is misguided, ineffective and ultimately counterproductive. "There is no...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2009 – As Pentagon officials look for ways to increase intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support for warfighters in Afghanistan, the Air Force’s first unmanned aircraft systems wing already is on the case in its never-ending quest to provide more and better intelligence through the systems they fly. An MQ-1B Predator unmanned aircraft system takes off for a training mission at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “I don’t have to tell them to try to make it better,” Air Force Col....

The Tea Party Express rolls into Nevada!! We'll be at Tonopah, Hawthorne and Fallon today, and Carson City tomorrow morning, and then it's back to California at Walnut Creek tomorrow night!! Conservative groups have joined forces to make this massive national effort possible. Besides the lead sponsor, the Our Country Deserves Better Committee, the Tea Party Express II enjoys support from Grassfire.org, ResistNet, Free Republic, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, National Tax Limitation Committee, Americans for Prosperity, the Conservative MultiCultural Coalition, and dozens of local tea party groups across the country. The Tea Party Express II: Countdown to Judgment Day national...

A local architecture firm that recently won an $8.3 million federal contract to redesign a U.S. border crossing in California is being investigated by the Federal Election Commission for irregular campaign contributions to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who is up for re-election next year. Henderson resident Randy Spitzmesser prompted the FEC probe of his former employer, Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects. On behalf of the architecture firm, Las Vegas attorney Stan Hunterton told the Las Vegas Review-Journal by fax last month, "We do not believe that anything was intentionally done wrong" regarding campaign finances. Spitzmesser also thinks Henderson-based Tate Snyder...

"Stripper-mobile" Proves Every Las Vegas Stereotype Correct Just read an article about a truck that drives around Las Vegas with a stripper dancing in it, and boy are my preconceived notions about that place tired (from being completely confirmed.) Whatever happens in Vegas, is ridiculous in Vegas. The article (which is incomprehensibly only the second most-read article on the Las Vegas Sun's website) focuses on the "safety" and "decency" concerns raised by locals re: the mobile sin platform, which was devised as an advertisement for Deja Vu Showgirls and is described thusly: It's akin to a small U-Haul truck but...

To hear them as they tear into Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Silver State will be the site of a conservative resurgence that not only will sweep true-believing Republicans into office in 2010 but will also improve the breed by weeding out those squishy middle-grounders called RINOs. (Republicans In Name Only.) They're signing anti-tax pledges and strapping on their libertarian political six-shooters, firing at big-government Democrats and treating chamber of commerce Republicans like members of the Neville Chamberlain Fan Club. The RINOs will be an endangered species if they have their way. Surely that belief in revolution gives Gov.....

LAS VEGAS — Top-ranked competitive eater Joey Chestnut has won the first-ever Martorano's Masters Meatball Eating Championship in Las Vegas. The San Jose resident on Sunday ate 50 meatballs in 10 minutes at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino. The event was a Major League Eating-sanctioned competition. Chestnut's 6.25 pounds of meatballs set a new world record. The first-place prize was $1,500.

U.S. citizens are joining immigrants in store parking lots

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

People in the company of Clark County prostitutes collectively reported having $1.4 million in cash and goods stolen from them during the first nine months of this year — dupes of a larceny genre better known to police as the “trick roll.” By year’s end, it’s estimated the total reported losses will exceed $2 million — almost double last year’s total, and probably a fraction of the real amount. How many people file police reports, after all, when their prostitutes disappoint? Enough, at least, for Metro vice detectives to determine the problem is getting worse, and assign two detectives to...

Eighteen months later, Nevada Republicans have completed a count of all delegate ballots from last year's state convention. A group of disaffected Republicans says it feels vindicated after a Friday night count of missing ballots from the April 2008 gathering showed three delegates for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul should have been sent to the national convention. Paul supporters said they felt party leaders cheated them out of a place at the national convention when they abruptly recessed the convention before delegate ballots from the state's 2nd Congressional District could be counted. The district was allowed to choose three of the...

Sarah Palin's dad wrote a letter backing little Tark and the campaign sent out an email with a picture of the entire Palin clan (alas, no Levi) and a pitch to contribute. Here's Chuck Heath's letter to Nevadans: FROM THE DESK OF CHUCK HEATH Hello Nevadans, My family and I would like to thank all of you who welcomed us to your beautiful state and made us feel so at home. Everywhere we went, from Las Vegas, to Reno, to the smaller towns in between, the people there made us feel like family.

Another soldier from Nevada has been killed in Afghanistan, the second Silver State-related casualty in a week, according to the Department of Defense. Sgt. Josue E. Hernandez Chavez, 23, of Reno was one of seven soldiers killed Monday when a helicopter crashed in Darreh-ye Bum, Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said in a news release Thursday. Chavez was on a MH-47 heavy lift helicopter with four other soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Regiment from Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., and two from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

If you’ve been reading the papers lately you’ve probably concluded that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s political future doesn’t look good. The headlines speak for themselves: “Poll: Reid’s re-election numbers don’t add up”; “Harry Reid Seen Losing 2010 Reelection, Poll Shows”; “Senate Leader Harry Reid faces tough re-election” — just to name a few. If you’re just glancing at the polls, Reid’s two likely challengers are clobbering him in hypothetical match-ups — and some polls show Republican challenger Danny Tarkanian has a double-digit lead over him. Further, Reid’s approval rating ranges between 20 and 40 percent, with some polls showing...

Supporters of Darwin’s theory continue to distinguish themselves on America’s college campuses—not for their reason and logic, but for their incredible ill manners and an almost pathological inability to engage in civil discussion. Last week, a factually-challenged attack on intelligent design was published in The Nevada Sagebrush, the student newspaper at the University of Nevada, Reno. Nothing new in that; I see ill-informed articles on intelligent design all the time. But after my colleague Rob Crowther posted a short comment suggesting that readers might actually want to hear from intelligent design proponents themselves (imagine that!), the Darwinist thought-police came out...

UNLV REBEL YELL 2009 click image to enlarge To capture the essence of a classic Socratic quandary, imagine this scenario: You know that the right thing to do is to return your friend’s gun to him or her if you have taken it. But should you return it if you know that person is mentally unstable and would use it against others? I’m betting that most people would say no, and with good reason. Even though the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, in reality, not everyone has the right to gun ownership – the background check is...

RENO, Nev. -- A fight broke out Thursday at a Reno, Nev., clinic giving shots for swine flu when someone reportedly tried to cut in line. Washoe County Health District spokeswoman Judy Davis says she didn't have any details of the incident, but it involved people in high-risk groups waiting for a chance to get the shot. A witness told the Reno Gazette-Journal that a man took a swing at a woman, then jumped on her and they fell to the ground. They left after a security guard stepped in and broke up the fight. Davis says 1,200 vaccines were...

LATEST RALLY DRAWS OVER 1,000+ IN LIBERAL SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA (ON THE ROAD IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA) - Crowds continue to build as the Tea Party Express II: Countdown to Judgment Day (www.TeaPartyExpress.org) gains momentum! Yesterday in the very liberal San Francisco Bay Area, more than 1,000 people turned out to show their support for smaller government, less deficit-spending, and opposition to government-run healthcare. The rally held particular importance as a Special Election for Congress takes place on November 3rd in California's 10th Congressional District. Conservative candidate for Congress, David Harmer, spoke at the event. The Tea Party Express II...

US Airways Group and American Airlines said Wednesday they will continue to downsize their operations next year in the wake of falling air-traffic demand. In a statement, US Airways (LCC 3.13, -0.01, -0.32%) said will realign its business and reduce departures from Las Vegas and Philadelphia, and close stations in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Wichita, Kan. In turn, it will focus on its core strengths in Charlotte, N.C.; Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington's National Airport. By the end of 2010, the Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier said those four cities will represent about 99% of its capacity, compared to 93% today. "These centers...

Just about everyone has become familiar with America’s foreclosure capitals – metropolitan areas like Las Vegas with the nation’s highest rate of foreclosed properties (1 in 20) or No. 2 Merced, Calif., (1 in 27). But the problem is expanding to new cities. In fact, as the subprime-mortgage crisis eases for some of the top metro areas, like Merced and No. 3 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., economic pressures are creating new foreclosure capitals. One of them, Reno-Sparks, Nev., broke into the Top 10 foreclosure metros in the third quarter, according to a RealtyTrac report released Thursday. And others are gaining...

Could a dynasty of Reids, Harry and son Rory, both get elected to high office in Nevada a year from now? Of course, Harry Reid is the highest-ranking Mormon in political office. His son, not as well-known outside of Nevada, is also running for governor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is looking at a tough battle in his home state. More than half of likely Nevada voters think Harry Reid is a "weak" leader -- with 84 percent of Reid's Democratic base supporting a public option for health care reform, according to a poll sponsored by a progressive group...

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) —Nevada Republicans who supported Ron Paul in last year's GOP presidential contest announced a political action committee Monday to oppose the U.S. Senate bid of former state party chairwoman Sue Lowden. Robert Holloday, spokesman for the Fair Nevada Elections PAC, said Lowden's handling of last year's state convention when delegate selections were stopped amounted to betrayal. "Sue Lowden's leading role in improperly halting the delegate election disqualifies her for any position of trust in government," Holloday said. "Our group hopes to raise awareness of the dismal record of Sue Lowden and to oppose her election to...