Free Republic

(snip) The resulting film is called The Big Buy, made by Texas filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck. (emphasis added) Jim Schermbeck is not just a filmmaker. I have been looking into Schermbeck's odd connection to the DeLay case for the past couple of weeks. Go to this web site, and scroll down to the bottom. See a familiar name? It's Jim Schermbeck, "filmmaker." And leftwing activist. Check out this sympathetic story in the Dallas Observer, which identifies Schermbeck not as a filmmaker, but as an environmental activist. A couple of weeks ago I spoke via phone with Harold Green,...

The Ohio secretary of state announced yesterday that a series of election-related constitutional amendments had qualified for the November ballot, including one intended to strip Republican elected officials of their control over drawing legislative districts. The amendments are sponsored by Reform Ohio Now, a coalition dominated by Democrats, unions and watchdog groups. It celebrated the announcement and said a statewide campaign to win approval in November had begun. "It's not like we're posting yard signs yet, but we're close to that," the campaign manager of Reform Ohio Now, Scarlett Bauder, said. "Right now the time is ripe for reform." The...

August 22, 2005 -- AIR America, the much-hyped liberal media ven ture that was supposed to revolutionize talk radio, is "solvent and apparently stable": So claim the gullible cheerleaders at The New York Times, who made that unsubstantiated assertion in a recent glowing profile of Air America host Janeane Garofalo. But behind the fawning headlines and celebrity kiss-ups is a tale of astounding financial and legal chaos. The city Department of Investigation and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer continue to conduct separate probes into a dubious loan scheme involving Air America and the Bronx-based Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club....

The decision by the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America to pull an incendiary ad attacking President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court has produced a fresh round of recriminations within the Democratic Party and a return to a nagging question: Has the opposition lost its nerve? ....some choice pieces: "Republicans don't mind running an ad that's entirely false, but Democrats have never learned, and I'm not sure many of them want to learn, how to play that kind of politics," said Robert Shrum, an adviser to several Democratic presidential campaigns. NARAL had to pull the ad, he said, because...

AIR ENRON: NO LETTING UP By Michelle Malkin · August 10, 2005 01:49 PM Al Franken is laughing it off and the elite media is still blowing it off, but the Air America/Air Enron financial fiasco continues to unfold. Ed Morrissey and his legal consultant/reader Eric Costello shine renewed light on the Piquant buyout shell game here and here, previously explored by Leon H. at Macho Nachos. The Washington Times pounds the MSM and race hustlers' blackout in a new editorial today, "Air Scamerica." And in a fascinating little side development, a former Clear Channel official has been hired by...

BALTIMORE, (AP) -- Sinclair Broadcasting did not violate federal election law by running portions of a documentary critical of John Kerry's Vietnam-era anti-war activities, the Federal Elections Commission announced Friday. Suburban Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., owner of 62 television stations that reach a quarter of all U.S. households, was criticized for what the Democratic National Committee said was a plan to order its stations to show the documentary, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 2 presidential election. The DNC filed the FEC complaint on Oct. 12, contending that showing the film...

I have to give the DUmmies credit for honesty in this THREAD titled, “Fight dirty, go negative early and often.” At least they make absolutely NO phony pretense at trying to attain even a minimal level of civility. They up front admit they HATE Republicans and will do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING to defeat them. This is the REAL FACE of the Left, not that false front the professional Democrats put up when they know the cameras are rolling. Read this thread and learn how the Democrats REALLY think. It is a sad sight but educational as well. As usual, the...

You'd think by reading this e-mail that only Republicans are engaging in corruption in Congress. But with over 200 lawmakers filing late reports like Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif, reporting 21 trips and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., reporting 20 past trips, it comes as a surprise to learn there are just as many Democrats engaging in the time dishonored practice of junkets. The biggest traveler with privately funded trips is a Democrat also. Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., a Tennessee Democrat who is running for the Senate, holds first place as Congress' most prolific traveler since 2000. While his travel reports...

Self-inflicted wound District attorney's poor judgment in speaking at a Democratic fund-raiser provides an unintended boost for DeLay's defenders. Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has spent the past year investigating corporate funds collected by political action committees connected to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. So far, a grand jury has indicted three of the Sugar Land representative's associates for violating Texas election laws. Republicans have accused the veteran prosecutor, a Democrat, of conducting a partisan witch hunt. Earle's attendance and remarks attacking DeLay at a Democratic fund-raiser last week in Dallas damaged the credibility...

Two arrest warrants were issued Wednesday alleging election fraud by two voter-registration workers employed last year to sign up new voters. According to warrants filed by the Milwaukee County district attorney's office, Urelene Lilly, 48, and Marcus L. Lewis, 23, both admitted to authorities that they filled out multiple voter-registration cards using fictitious information to earn money from Project Vote, which paid workers such as them $40 per day plus $1.75 for each registration above the daily quota of 24 new voters.... Lilly and Lewis were charged with five felonies each: three counts of forgery, one count of election fraud...

FLASH: LARRY FLYNT OBTAINS DIVORCE RECORDS OF BUSH UN NOMINEE JOHN BOLTON -- Divorce Records Show First Wife Fled Home When He Was Traveling Abroad... Explosive: Flynt asks questions about sex... "Allegations that Mr. Bolton’s first wife, Christina Bolton, was forced to engage in group sex have not been refuted by the State Dep't despite inquires posed by Hustler publisher Larry Flynt concerning the allegations. Flynt has obtained information from various sources that Bolton participated in paid visits to Plato’s Retreat, a popular swingers club that operated in NYC in late 1970s and early 1980s.... MORE COMING....

The sloppy, inaccurate, "class-less", and potentially defamatory journalism displayed today by reporter Dan Feldstein and the Houston Chronicle in their article concerning my property taxes is a perfect example of why both the American public’s esteem for the mainstream media– and the Chronicle’s paid subscription numbers –continue to plummet like a stone. This article was a clear personal attack on me in an attempt to discredit my efforts to reform the property tax system and bring relief to Texas homeowners. It was also an attempt to destroy the trust I have earned with the public over a 16 year career...

The discovery of uncounted ballots in a King County elections facility could change the tenor of the governor's-election lawsuit, and it comes just as Republicans fine-tune their case in the final weeks before trial and drop some previously high-profile claims. Already, attorneys for both sides say the news of 94 uncounted, valid absentee ballots means scrambling to change plans for last-minute collection of evidence. They will expand the list of officials they want to question under oath and will change the nature of questions they'll ask King County's top two election officials, who were already scheduled for depositions. News of...

Two sons of prominent Democratic polticians and three paid party activists will face felony charges as a result of a widely-publicized attempt to keep Republicans from voting on Election Day in Milwaukee. The charges will be filed on Monday, highlighting the other unrelated issues of voter fraud in Wisconsin's largest city and Democratic stronghold:

Expect tire-slashing charges Monday Sources say politicians' sons, 3 other Democrats will be hit with felonies Posted: Jan. 22, 2005 Spivak & Bice Cary Spivak &Dan Bice E-MAIL  |  ARCHIVE   The investigation into the Great Tire-Slashing Caper will end Monday with felony charges against the adult sons of two prominent Milwaukee politicians - U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt. Sources close to the 83-day-old probe said Sowande Omokunde, Michael Pratt and three other paid Democratic activists will each be charged with a single felony count of criminal damage to property, legalese for vandalism. Omokunde, also...

Democrat Christine Gregoire will be sworn in as Washington's Governor today, possibly thanks to voters such as Mary Coffey, James Courneya and Rosalie Simpson. Why do we mention them in particular? Because, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently reported, they're all dead... Revelations of the formerly living casting ballots in elections isn't new to American politics, although it's something most of us thought was a relic of the late Richard Daley's Chicago. But this isn't the only jaw-dropper to have come out of Washington's gubernatorial race, which Ms. Gregoire claims to have won -- on a third recount, by 129 votes...

details to come, just heard

Reader Brian Thomas forwarded a very detailed letter [to Rossi] ... describing his experience as a recount worker. [On 12/20/04] in a second count of a box of absentee ballots I found, in the middle of ballots with Christine Gregoire votes, a ballot on which the bubble next to Christine Gregoire had been filled in and ‘X’ed out twice. ‘X’ing out a bubble being the correct procedure for canceling a vote on an absentee ballot. Next to the ‘X’ed out bubble was printed the words “no vote” with an arrow pointing to the name Christine Gregoire. I showed the ballot...

SCOTT REESE WILLEY The Progress Karnes County attorney and rancher Eric Opiela said he has presented evidence to a special committee of state lawmakers on Friday showing that more than 1,700 fraudulent ballots were cast in the Nov. 2 general election in Jim Wells and Bee counties. In addition, he added, a precinct by precinct mathematical analysis of the illegal votes show that when the fraudulent ballots are deducted from the vote totals, Opiela won the race for State Rep. District 35 by 110 votes. District 35 includes Atascosa, Bee, Goliad, Jim Wells, Karnes, Live Oak and McMullen counties. “The...

All Washington state wants for Christmas is a new governor.Just when it seems as if Indecision 2004 could not get more serpentine, surreal or saddled with conspiracy theories, some monstrosity, like a fanged beast from an old black-and-white movie, jumps out. The latest twist involves bloodsuckers with briefcases: lawyers. Attorneys and political consultants are now scrambling after the results of a second recount yesterday gave Democrat Christine Gregoire a 130-vote edge. That margin appears to give her a decisive victory over Republican Dino Rossi in the closest and most bizarre governor's race in American history.Legal shrieks and cries of electoral...

John F. Kerry has indicated through sources close to the Democrat party that he intends file papers supporting the Green Party/Libertarian Party recount effort in Ohio. Kerry's filings will consist of a request for expedited discovery as it pertains to a voting machine system known as Triad Systems, and secondly, a motion for a preservation order to preserve evidence in the same matter. These filings are to be made in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Rep. John Conyer of Michigan and the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, has plans to ask...

SEATTLE, Dec. 22 - After a bitter and protracted recount fight in the Washington governor's race, elections officials announced Wednesday that the Democratic candidate, Christine O. Gregoire, was leading her Republican opponent by 10 votes - a minuscule margin but a stunning reversal of the Nov. 2 election results. The preliminary results elated Democratic Party officials and came only hours after the party scored another victory, when the State Supreme Court agreed with the Democrats' contention that more than 700 newly discovered and erroneously disqualified ballots in heavily Democratic King County should now be considered. Since those ballots came from...

Are numerous other counties counting previously rejected ballots? No. Case made by Secretary of State and Democrats is wrong Seattle, WA – Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed and Democratic leadership have proclaimed that King County is not alone in counting numerous ballots that were previously rejected by county canvassing boards. However the claims are untrue. In Chelan and Thurston counties, each reconsidered one previously rejected ballot. “Two counties, two ballots,” said Washington State Republican Party Chair Chris Vance. “That’s it.” While King County is revisiting hundreds upon hundreds of ballots that were previously rejected – not once but twice...

Just announced. Christine Gregoire has picked up enough votes to win the gubernatorial race by 10 votes. The disputed 723 ballots, now freed by a state supreme court decision, will be counted by the King County Canvassing Board tomorrow. The race will be officially certified tomorrow.

It now appears that the premise of the question that caused an uproar around Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was off base. In Kuwait two weeks ago, Army Specialist Thomas Wilson (search) told Rumsfeld, "our vehicles are not armored ... We do not have proper armament vehicles to carry with us north [into Iraq]." But, according to senior Army officers, about 800 of the 830 vehicles in Wilson's army regiment — the 278th Cavalry — had already been up-armored when he asked the question. What's more, 20 vehicles remaining to be modified were in the process of being up-armored — and...

BC-APNewsAlert,0037 OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The Democratic state chairman says recount results from King County give Democrat Christine Gregoire an eight-vote victory in Washington's governor's race. (Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-12-21-04 2312EST

The American Civil Liberties Union is using sophisticated technology to collect a wide variety of information about its members and donors in a fund-raising effort that has ignited a bitter debate over its leaders' commitment to privacy rights. Some board members say the extensive data collection makes a mockery of the organization's frequent criticism of banks, corporations and government agencies for their practice of accumulating data on people for marketing and other purposes. Daniel S. Lowman, vice president for analytical services at Grenzebach Glier & Associates, the data firm hired by the A.C.L.U., said the software the organization is using,...

Red Alert to all Dino Rossi supporters!!!Rally for Dino this Sunday the 19th in Bellevue at 2:30 PM!!!330 112th Ave. NE, at the corner of 112th Ave. NE & NE 4th St.Christine Gregoire's allies in the Democratic Party are planning a protest in front of Rossi headquarters in Bellevue tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 19. Please help us send the message that we must only count legal votes, and that the rules can't be changed midway through the recount! The Gregoire people are showing up to protest at 3 PM, so please be at Rossi HQ by 2:30 PM. Feel free to...

<p>There is one group out there counting civilian casualties in a way that's tangible, specific, and very useful—a team of mainly British researchers, led by Hamit Dardagan and John Sloboda, called Iraq Body Count. They have kept a running total of civilian deaths, derived entirely from press reports. Their count is triple fact-checked; their database is itemized and fastidiously sourced; and they take great pains to separate civilian from combatant casualties (for instance, last Tuesday, the group released a report estimating that, of the 800 Iraqis killed in last April's siege of Fallujah, 572 to 616 of them were civilians, at least 308 of them women and children).</p>

Dear Michael, Will the real Michael Moore ever re-emerge and shut the door on the theatre of the absurd? Weeks of standing before large college audiences mixing a portion of book and movie promotions with a message that was more laughable than producing laughter.Now that you no longer have to pose as a 'least worster' with no more tatical excuses, what is your post election confession? So far your website has dodged this question, unless that is you have no reflections on the merit of abandoning your principals and your authentically progressive friends for candidates--US Sens. John Kerry & John...

AUSTIN - Travis County prosecutors Thursday dropped a felony indictment accusing a California corporation of making illegal campaign contributions in 2002 in exchange for the company agreeing to testify against other defendants in the investigation of Texans for a Republican Majority. The agreement ends the prosecution of Diversified Collection Services Inc., a company that specializes in assisting federal and state government agencies in recovery of delinquent and defaulted debt. The company gave $50,000 in corporate cash to Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee, in 2002 to help the GOP take control of the Texas House. Corporate contributions...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Following an Election Day prediction that Democratic candidate John Kerry would win more than 300 electoral votes and the presidency, one of America's most well known polling firms continued the job Wednesday of explaining its flawed projection. Shawnta Watson Walcott, communications director for Zogby International, joined a group of liberal Democrats at a faux congressional hearing focused on whether fraud influenced the Nov. 2 outcome. "... it has become increasingly clear that this election has produced unprecedented levels of suspicion regarding its outcome, and we join this panel discussion in an attempt to find a...

The state Supreme Court gave Rush Limbaugh an extra month Wednesday to argue prosecutors illegally seized his medical records as part of a probe into whether he sought multiple prescriptions for painkillers. Florida's high court extended Limbaugh's deadline for filing his written arguments from Dec. 20 to Jan. 20, but said that date is final. Limbaugh argues prosecutors violated his privacy when they seized his medical records. The state 4th District Court of Appeal ruled against Limbaugh, but last month it asked the Supreme Court to consider the case. The DCA wants the Supreme Court to decide whether patients should...

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's legal expense fund accepted improper contributions from two registered lobbyists in 2001 and this week returned the checks, totaling $3,500, fund trustee Brent Perry said Tuesday. House rules prohibit lobbyists from making contributions to a member's legal defense fund. The Tom DeLay Legal Expense Trust has raised more than $900,000 since its creation in 2000, said Perry, a Houston attorney. The reimbursement was prompted by Public Citizen, a Washington-based watchdog group, which combed through DeLay's fund and identified the improper contributions. Asked why it took the fund so long to return the checks,...

Earlier this year, Tom DeLay correctly diagnosed the disease that infects his congressional majority. "If 1994 was the year we stopped thinking like a permanent minority," DeLay told Republicans gathered for a February party retreat in Philadelphia, "2004 is the year we start thinking like a permanent majority: unified, aggressive, rightfully confident of victory." DeLay, of course, thought permanent-majority status would be a good thing for the GOP, but nine months later he's become the symbol of a party corrupted by its lock on power. When House Republicans voted last month to allow members who have been indicted to keep...

The first thing that crossed my mind when ethics charges were lodged against Rep. Tom DeLay (R., Texas) was: "I wish Mary McGrory were still alive." McGrory, the pungent liberal columnist who died last April at the age of 85, was, improbably enough, a Tom DeLay fan. Why did this scourge of Nixon and Reagan appreciate "the Hammer" from Texas? She liked him because she was able to put aside partisan and philosophical differences in the name of a greater good. That greater good was a love of children. McGrory volunteered at St. Anne's Infant and Maternity Home and was...

AP articles published on the internet at numerous news outlets, including CBS, tell the story of 8 US soldiers named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit over enlistment extensions they considered unfair. The AP article as published on the CBS website, Soldiers Decry 'Unfair' Extensions, states:The lawsuit contends the policy is a breach of the service contract because it extends the length of service without a soldier's consent. It also alleges the contracts were misleading because they make no reference to the policy, said Staughton Lynd, an attorney for the soldiers. No mention is made of Staughton Lynd's significant past and...

Federal Judge Rules That Ohio Recount Will Go Forward in All Counties. COBB/LaMARCHE 2004http://www.votecobb.orgDecember 06, 2004 (released December 03, 2004)Contact: Blair Bobier, Media Director at 541.929.5755 FEDERAL JUDGE RULES THAT OHIO RECOUNT WILL GO FORWARD IN ALL COUNTIESGreen Party presidential candidate David Cobb today expressed his satisfaction with a ruling by a federal judge taking jurisdiction over a Delaware County, Ohio lawsuit and denying the county's attempt to stop the recount of presidential ballots in that county. "We are very pleased that the judge recognized our right to a recount and that the recount will go forward in each and...

Ohio — Today, attorneys representing the Kerry-Edwards campaign filed papers in Delaware County, Ohio to intervene in legal proceedings in defense of Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, Libertarian Michael Badnarik and their legal counsel, the National Voting Rights Institute, who are seeking a recount of all votes cast for president in the Ohio 2004 general election.

ABC reporter just said that there are 6000 absentee ballots in 1 county but the election workers have gone home for the night, so no results until the morning. Also 16,000 provisional ballots. Current statewide count is a 4,000 vote Bush lead.

GOP Complains About School Voting Over Alleged Ice Cream Bribe School Administrator Denies Any Wrongdoing POSTED: 10:41 am CST November 2, 2004 UPDATED: 11:58 am CST November 2, 2004 LUFKIN, Texas -- Lufkin-area Republicans are complaining about voting by residents from the local state school for the mentally disabled. The Lufkin Daily News reports the Angelina County GOP headquarters was told that Lufkin State School employees bribed students with ice cream. They also alleged improper use of a state van to take students to the poll for early voting. County Republican Chairman Dale Ingle alleges the school was trying to...

Calling the 2004 presidential election the beginning of a fresh start for America, Teresa Heinz Kerry asked supporters at a Monday Rally at Scranton High School to "vote often" today. "Do you know how to vote often?" the wife of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry asked a crowd of just over 1,000 in the school's auditorium. "You vote once, and then you take one, two, three, four, five people to vote with you. That's voting often, so vote often." Citing the loss of thousands of jobs, rising health care costs, a soaring federal budget deficit and the high number of...

Senate hopeful Democratic Congresswoman Denise Majette said Monday a company owned by her opponent, Republican Congressman Johnny Isakson, was guilty of discrimination. As both candidates crisscrossed the state, the Majette campaign distributed information that accused Isakson’s company, Northside Realty, of discriminating against Black homebuyers in the early 1970s. The company, which was founded by Isakson’s father and also run by him at the time of the charges, was found in violation of the Fair Housing Act by the federal government in 1970. “The public needs to know what his record is and I’m not doing anything other than informing the...

I am posting the flyers placed recently in North St. Louis, a predominately black area. The first one is from the group Americans Comming Together. It implys that republicans used waterhoses on blacks during the civil rights movement, although, as someone here pointed out, it was actually democrats who did this. See for yourself: The next one we found Sunday, on the windshields of cars at churches. We were putting out pro-bush, anti-abortion literature. Notice it's from "Clergy." I guess they don't care about Kerry's view on abortion: I was quite mad when I saw these. Complete condescending lies....

November 01, 2004 Live Report From Courtroom A Mr. Jordan was just testifying at the hearing in Daschle's lawsuit to stop poll watching. He worked for Howard Dean in Iowa. He said that poll watchers would "roll their eyes" and make a "negative face" at times and that, in his opinion, this constituted "intimidation" of voters. See SDP for a look at the complaint. UPDATE: Another report on Daschle's first witness, the Howard Dean worker. He's a lawyer from Virginia who works for Lexis-Nexis and has been in South Dakot for 48 hours. He testified to "note-taking" and "faces" being...

Story in Argus Leader now. We can't link, but the address is: http://www.argusleader.com/breaking/Mondayfeature.shtml A hand-picked Daschle judge will hear the case to keep GOP poll watchers from observing tomorrow.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, November 1, 2004 Contact: Dick Wadhams, John Wood (605) 221-1010 INTERVENTION TO HEAD OFF ELECTION LOSS DASCHLE LAWYERS GO TO FEDERAL COURT AT 8:00 PM TONIGHT TO STEAL VOTES, ELIMINATE REPUBLICAN POLL WATCHERS SIOUX FALLS – Anticipating a loss to Republican challenger John Thune tomorrow ending his 26-year congressional career, Senator Tom Daschle will seek federal judicial intervention in the election process tonight, Monday, November 1 during an emergency hearing in federal court in Sioux Falls at 8:00 PM. The hearing will be before Federal Judge Larry Piersol who was appointed by Daschle to federal court...

Just announced on fox. Big victory for us!!!

Horlick voter drive will proceed By Phyllis Sides RACINE - Horlick High School students will still help get out the vote next week, despite the decision to pull the plug on a similar program in Milwaukee. Jose Martinez, Racine Unified's assistant superintendent for secondary education, said students' efforts are part of a service learning project that is nonpartisan. The participating students are part of social studies classes that have been studying presidential elections and the democratic process. Students will spend the entire school day Tuesday going door-to-door, in all of the city's 35 wards, providing information on how people can...