Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said the political atmosphere is good for Republicans heading into the midterms but warned that the party could bungle its chances if “unacceptable” candidates win their primaries but go on to lose in November.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will not be able to identify himself as a Democrat on the ballot in September’s recall election, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled on Monday. In filing his official response to the recall effort from February last year, Newsom’s staff failed to designate his Democrat party affiliation. The governor’s campaign asked California Secretary of State Shirley Weber to allow the affiliation to appear, but she declined. Newsom then filed a lawsuit (pdf) in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking to require all recall ballots to include beside Newsom’s name the words: “Party Preference: Democratic.” The recall...

[snip] We estimate that Sanders’s chances of a majority would have shot up to from 31 percent to 58 percent with an Iowa win, Warren’s from 5 percent to 32 percent, and Buttigieg’s from 4 percent to 22 percent. [snip] To be even more blunt: The Iowa Democratic Party’s colossal screw-up in reporting results will potentially have direct effects on the outcome of the nomination process. The failure to report results will almost certainly help Biden, assuming that indications that he performed poorly in Iowa are correct, as they won’t get nearly as much media coverage. And they’ll hurt whichever...

[snip] The DNC’s rules backfired spectacularly In late 2018, DNC Chairman Tom Perez unveiled the revamped rules for the upcoming Democratic primary debates. Perez pledged that the DNC’s debate rules would “give the grassroots a bigger voice than ever before” and “put our nominee in the strongest position possible to defeat Donald Trump.” ... But a year later, what’s beyond a doubt is that they did not empower the grassroots and they replaced old gatekeepers with new ones. Because of these new rules, the most powerful people in the primary up to this point have arguably been the pollsters. ......

The Air Force’s failure to report Texas church shooter Devin Kelley’s domestic violence conviction to the FBI -- a misstep that left the door open for Kelley to buy weapons -- is a systemic issue in its criminal investigations unit, according to a 2015 Pentagon analysis and a former Air Force agent who spoke to Fox News.

Jeb Bush's new political ad rips Donald Trump and gushes about the bright future of America — but incredibly, the spot uses footage shot Asia and the United Kingdom, Politico reports. The embarrassing disclosure couldn't come at a worse time for Bush, who political insiders say must make a major splash in Wednesday's GOP presidential debate on CNN if he hopes to save his sinking poll numbers. The ad in question — produced by the former Florida governor's super PAC "Right to Rise" — trashes Bush's nemesis Donald Trump with ominous clips of the billionaire developer and says he's in...

In both cases, presidents undertook ambitious projects: to remake part of the world, or a huge portion of the economy, along the lines that our government wanted. Redesigning Iraq proved to be impossible, and reorganizing health care may prove impossible as well. It is at least proving to be very difficult. The anti-war movement warned that fighting in Iraq would produce blowback terrorism against American civilians and chemical-weapons deaths among American troops. What actually happened — the disintegration of the Iraqi state followed by America’s desperate attempt to pick up the pieces — did not feature heavily in the opposition’s...

MGM Resorts International today said it’s recommending to Clark County that the quarter-billion-dollar Harmon Hotel at CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip be demolished because of construction defects. MGM Resorts said it is seeking Clark County Building Department approval to raze the empty, unused building. With that approval, MGM would then seek court approval for demolition. An initial proposed timetable calls for the demolition to be accomplished in six months, followed by five more months of debris cleanup and site restoration. At least $279 million had been invested in the building before construction was halted in early 2010 – with...

The Reverend Albert Sharpton has a little bit of trouble reading HIS teleprompter and trying to motivate MS-LSD-NBC viewers to get excited about the recall vote in WI. Now THIS is comedy GOLD!!!

The biggest moment any singer can ask for: "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl. And Christina Aguilera messed up the lyrics. At about 51 seconds in, as she was about to sing the fourth line ("O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming"), she accidentally sang a hybrid of the second line: "What so proudly we watched, at the twilight's last streaming."

From Tritter: Michael Steele drops out of RNC chair race, saying: "It's very clear that the party wants to do something different." - NBC Story developing....

As a metaphor for our troubled economic and financial era -- and the government's stumbling response -- this one's hard to beat. You can't stimulate the economy via the money supply, after all, if you can't print the money correctly. Because of a problem with the presses, the federal government has shut down production of its flashy new $100 bills, and has quarantined more than 1 billion of them -- more than 10 percent of all existing U.S. cash -- in a vault in Fort Worth, Texas, reports CNBC

The calls have begun for Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s resignation. Potential Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty both took that position last weekend in response to last week's embarrassing result in the trial of Guantanamo terrorist detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailiani. Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Pawlenty won't be the only prominent politicos reaching the conclusion that Mr. Holder is unfit for the office he holds.

It's not uncommon for people to use the wrong fluids in their cars, and the results of doing so can vary from irritating to deadly. For example, adding antifreeze to the windshield-washer reservoir might just create a slimy mess. But filling it with only water creates a good breeding ground for the bacterium that causes Legionnaires' disease, according to a study conducted by the British Health Protection Agency. This can increase your chances of becoming ill...

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has been left red faced after mistakenly sending a birthday message to the Queen a week early. An official statement from the US foreign policy chief paid tribute to the "Queen’s life and legacy,” despite the fact that the Monarch does not celebrate her official birthday until next weekend. The diplomatic faux pas, sent on behalf of President Barack Obama and the American people on Friday, also celebrated the "special relationship" between the British and US governments.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder didn't invite Florida AG Bill McCollum to his oil-spill meeting with AGs and federal prosecutors from the Gulf Coast. McCollum was not particularly pleased, judging from the statement his office issued. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to exclude the State of Florida from today's meeting of Attorneys General on the impacts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is concerning. ... I am disappointed the President and his Attorney General didn't appear to see the Deepwater Horizon incident as a severe threat to Florida's economy and environment, even though according to the...

WASHINGTON – He says "the buck stops with me," but nearly a year into office President Barack Obama is still blaming a lot of the nation's troubles — the economy, terrorism, health care — on George W. Bush. Over and over, Obama keeps reminding Americans of the mess he inherited and all he's doing to fix it. A sharper, give-me-some-credit tone has emerged in his language as he bemoans people's fleeting memory about what life was like way back in 2008, particularly on the economy. "Yes we can"? Try "Yes I have." While candid about what he called his team's...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House was poised to release a report on Thursday that top aides said will shock Americans about security lapses that allowed a Nigerian man to come close to blowing up a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25. President Barack Obama, in remarks scheduled for 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT), was set to outline steps the U.S. government is taking to try to shore up airline security, mindful of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States involving hijacked airliners. The White House was due to release a declassified review of what went wrong to allow...

When I was in school we used to have a shop teacher who had a wicked sense of humor. At the end of the year when the school was handing out scholastic award he had an award of his own to hand out. He called it the "Screw-up" award and it was given to the student with the lowest grade in each class. It was a piece of wood made to look like a trophy base with the front of it wood burned to say "Screw-up Award" and the trophy part consisted of a wood screw that was glued using...