Free Republic

one of the last of this season's election flyers arrived at my Post Office from the GOP. : SCOTT BROWN HAS A STRONG RECORD OF FIGHTING FOR WHAT IS RIGHT. SCOTT IS PRO-CHOICE & SUPPORTS ISSUES IMPORTANT TO WOMEN. But this flyer came from the NH Republican State Committee. "The official position of the State Committee is that it is opposed to abortion. We believe that life is sacred, from conception to natural death and that we cannot diminish the value of one category of human life without diminishing the value of all human life." Now maybe that's all squaresville,...

White, white, white. In nearly every room Love enters as she stumps her way across Utah’s 4th District on a quest to become the first black female Republican in Congress, she is not just the only black person there. She’s the only person of any color, unless you count farmer tans. This 39-year-old, Brooklyn-born daughter of Haitian immigrants and former mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, seems completely at home in a crowd of mostly old white dudes. What’s more, she gets a warmer reception here than when she made a speech at the University of Chicago Law School in 2013....

Money certainly has been the villainous elephant in the room during another midterm bombardment of horrifically childish political advertising. Democrats have used every trick in the book to paint their Republican opponents as blue blazer-wearing Chatsworth Osborne Juniors, with the Rick Nolan campaign, for example, smugly referring to Stewart Mills as Stewart Mills the Third, apparently because thirds, in a "Great Gatsby" kind of way, have all the dough. Nolan might be running the dumbest campaign in the history of campaigns. He is trying to tell the people of northern Minnesota, who might very well be employed at a Mills...

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, who is seeking an 11th term in Congress in the Nov. 4 election, struck a moderate note on social issues in a meeting with The Record editorial board, even as he criticized President Obama on many issues. In a wide-ranging interview on Thursday, Frelinghuysen, R-Harding Township, said he favors exploring alternatives to a regional water authority’s plan to drain three Garret Mountain reservoirs — two of them in Woodland Park, at the eastern edge of his 11th District – and replace them with concrete tank farms. He called the scenic New Street and Great Notch reservoirs in...

In the wake of a federal court decision legalizing same-sex “marriage” in North Carolina, at least six judges in the state have resigned rather than be forced to officiate such unions. All stepped down, since October 10, because they believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman. They are: John Kallam Jr. (Rockingham County), Gilbert Breedlove (Swain County), Bill Stevenson (Gaston County), Tommy Holland (Graham County), Gayle Myrick (Union County) and Jeff Powell (Jackson County). The decision wasn’t easy for Stevenson, whose family depends on his $50,000 per year salary as their primary income. "I prayed about...

This image on an anti-Mark Miloscia website has since been taken down. Seattle, Wash., Oct 31, 2014 / 01:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Mark Miloscia, a candidate for Washington's state senate, has been attacked for his Catholic faith and adherence to Church teaching on a website belittling his faith as incompatible with representing his district. “'Mississippi Mark' has always worn his church on his sleeve. Rather than represent the people of Federal Way, he has best represented the people of The Vatican,” read an image which was posted on markmiloscia.info, a website erected by critics of Miloscia, the Republican senate candidate...

In the past week we've see votes cast on machines in Illinois' Cook County and in Maryland switch from Republican to Democrat due to "calibration errors." Watchdog.org has done phenomenal work in documenting changed votes. Now, a new report from The Weekly Standard shows that votes cast in Illinois for Republicans are being changed yet again in favor of Democrats. ... So what do we do about this? If machines in different states repeatedly changed votes from Democrat to Republican, Eric Holder would have launched a federal investigation under suspicions of fraud and I doubt "calibration error" would be accepted...

AUSTIN - With the formalities of a lightly contested election almost out of the way, the stage is all but set for the arrival of the most anticipated political newcomer in recent Texas history. The George P. Bush era appears ready to begin. About a quarter-century after first speaking at the Republican National Convention, and two years after filing paperwork to run for a then-unspecified state position, the 38-year-old grandson and nephew of presidents is expected to easily be elected land commissioner Tuesday. And while he has maintained a relatively low profile this year, holding few public events and focusing...

Can someone explain to me who Mark Levin is always taking pot shots at at the beginning of his show? Is it Michael Savage? If so, what's the deal between the two? I rarely ever get to listen to Savage at work.

Yesterday ABC's This Week (10/26/14) profiled George P. Bush, a Texas land commissioner candidate who is a grandson and nephew of the more famous George Bushes.  It was part of This Week's "Closer Look" series, which seems to be intended as a place for upbeat profiles of political heavyweights. But a brief exchange about climate change showed the limits of this kind of journalism. Given its impact on land issues, correspondent Jonathan Karl had good reason to ask Bush about climate change. KARL: As land commissioner, he'll oversee millions of acres of oil and natural gas reserves. But he also...

Conservatism is supposed to mean less government, especially in terms of spending. In Texas, nearly every Republican candidate takes a hard turn to the right to prove just how conservative they have been. This marketing strategy has proved quite successful, considering that Republicans are expected to again dominate our state executive and legislative branches. How has the record matched with the rhetoric over the years? Last year, a massive debate swirled about how much the state was increasing its budget. The Wall Street Journal and conservative/libertarian groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation claimed the 2014-15 budget was increasing by...

I stopped by the Chevrolet Dealership yesterday for a look at the new Silverado 1500 pickup. Just for fun, I took it out for a test drive. I wanted to sense that new "feel" before they become extinct. The salesman (a black man wearing an Obama "change" lapel pin) sat in the passenger seat describing the truck and all its "wonderful" options. The seats were of particular interest. He explained that the seats directed warm air to your bottom in the winter and directed cool air to your bottom in the summer heat. Feeling like messing with him, I mentioned...

Joyce, an 82 year old lifelong black Democrat called C-Span to express her dismay with her party and announce that she voted straight Republican this year. She is dismayed with the Democrats stance on religion, abortion, and the poor effects of Obama’s policies on the black community and the country. “I have noticed in years what the Democratic party has done to my people. Unemployment is higher in the black community….than anywhere else. I cannot say, there’s no way I can continue to say that I was a Christian and stay in the Democrat party. They advocate the killing of...

The Republican Party simply doesn't get it. A new poll this week shows 2012 presidential nominee and 2008 primary candidate Mitt Romney leading the field of potential 2016 Republican candidates. According to ABC News/Washington Post, 21 percent of Republican voters would vote for Romney in the primaries; Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee tie at 10 percent, followed by Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Paul Ryan. Altogether, some 44 percent of Republican primary voters want an "establishment" candidate -- by which we mean a candidate for whom social issues are secondary, immigration reform is primary and economics dominates. The establishment donors...

On November 4th, 2014 (early voting starts October 20), Texans will have the opportunity to vote on one proposed amendment to the state’s constitution. Hardhatters offers our views on Proposition 1. Prop 1 (HJR 1)Ballot: "The constitutional amendment providing for the use and dedication of certain money transferred to the state highway fund to assist in the completion of transportation construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation projects, not to include toll roads."Summary: Proposition 1 will require the Texas Comptroller to transfer 50% of oil and gas tax revenues away from the economic stabilization fund (Rainy Day Fund) to the State Highway Fund....

MADISON, Wis. – Leave it to the Dem-heavy City of Milwaukee Election Commission to ban a 78-year-old poll observer for doing her job, a draconian punishment one election official described as nothing short of partisan “intimidation” in the remaining days before Wisconsin’s tightly contested gubernatorial election. Now, the commission’s executive director has turned in Marguerite Ingold to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, the same agency that has spent the past four years drag-netting conservatives in secret, politically charged John Doe investigations. The reason, according to Ingold: The election director believed this Muskego great-grandmother could have become “violent and stormed...

During his first term in office, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker gained a nationwide reputation for his often polarizing yet unapologetically conservative agenda. He feuded with public employees over their collective bargaining rights and was subject to a recall vote because of it. He enacted income tax reductions and oversaw property tax reductions. He signed a controversial law requiring women to get an ultrasound before getting an abortion, and he enacted a controversial voter ID law now tied up in court. Now, Wisconsin voters must decide whether they're up for four more years of the Walker agenda. If they are, political...

Elections are only a few weeks away, and most polls show that Texas Republicans again will control all statewide offices and large majorities in both houses of the Legislature. On the surface, Republicans should be pretty happy with the results. By just looking at a map of the party makeup of the Texas House, Republicans appear to control vast swaths of the Lone Star State. The devil is in the details; however, as we've provided you numerous scorecards from various organizations showing the voting records of House members in the 2013 Legislative session. Creating a map using these scores (Empower...

Note: This is the first in a series of essays examining the prospects for electing a republican president in 2016 and ultimately reining in the modern imperial presidency through the lens of Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist essays on the executive branch. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a politician making Iowa or New Hampshire his second home must be in want of the presidency. We’ve got more than a few of those these days and can expect the 2016 presidential campaign to begin in earnest minutes after the mid-term elections conclude. Expect the Big Announcement from Hillary some time “around”...

Even before Thomas Eric Duncan, who was being treated in Dallas for Ebola, died on Wednesday and a nurse who was treating him contracted this terrible disease, Republicans were vying with each other to shame the Obama administration into implementing a travel ban against Ebola-affected countries. That wouldn't be an unreasonable suggestion if it could stop the spread of the disease. But the fact of the matter is that it will do the opposite.