Free Republic

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says “evangelical Christians ought to vote Democratic because Jesus would have.” While admitting that Jesus might have had problems with Democrats’ pro-choice stand on abortion, “I don’t think he would’ve been a one-issue voter,” Dean speculated. “His demographic profile—poor, unemployed, unmarried—looks like a Democrat.” "I haven't read a single word about Jesus criticizing gay marriage in the Bible," Dean said in an address at a Democratic fundraiser at a Reno, Nevada casino. “In fact, Jesus himself may have been gay. He spent most of his time hanging out with men. The women in his...

...he was stunned to see two large Confederate flags flying from trucks...emblazoned with the words "The South Shall Rise Again." I'm stunned, too, that people still think it is cool to fly this flag. Our society should bury these flags -- not flaunt them...because the Confederate flag symbolizes racial tyranny to so many... ...This flag doesn't belong on city streets, in videos or in the middle of civil discussion. It belongs in our past -- in museums and in history books -- along with the ideas it represents.

Rudy Giuliani portrayed himself as the heir to Ronald Reagan at the first Republican debate last night, talking tough on terrorism - but struggling to present a clear and consistent position on abortion. Giuliani, who strongly supported abortion rights during his eight years as mayor, said he would not object to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision affirming abortion. "It would be OK to repeal it," said Giuliani, who is courting key anti-abortion voters in the GOP primaries. But he then added that "it would be OK also if a strict constructionist viewed it as...

As I have traveled around the country, one line in my speeches always draws cheers: "The monologue of the Religious Right is over, and a new dialogue has now begun." We have now entered the post-Religious Right era. Though religion has had a negative image in the last few decades, the years ahead may be shaped by a dynamic and more progressive faith that will make needed social change more possible. In the churches, a combination of deeper compassion and better theology has moved many pastors and congregations away from the partisan politics of the Religious Right. In politics,...

New York Observer's Kornacki writes that "according to one influential Democratic insider, close associates of" Al Gore "have communicated to him and other prominent fund-raisers who are uncommitted to other '08 candidates" that Gore "will consider entering the race -- if an opening presents itself -- in September." The timing "would certainly make sense," since Gore, with his "enviable name recognition," "reliable financial network" and loyal Dem support, "can afford to wait." With his Oscar and Nobel Prize nods, upcoming Cong. testimony on global warming and his int'l concert series slated for Jul '07, Gore "figures to receive more prominent...

President Lincoln - 1862 Copyright Albert Kaplan 1983 (click on image for the full daguerreotype plate) In 1977 Albert Kaplan purchased the daguerreotype receipted as "Portrait of a Young Man" from an art gallery in New York. "When I first saw it I thought that there were similarities between the handsome, aristocratic, and tastefully groomed young man of the daguerreotype, and my mental image of President Lincoln."Over the years Kaplan researched and assembled materials which cast light on the physical man, Lincoln. Kaplan believed that the best qualified people to analyze the image, and the assembled materials, to consider...

What is the underlying conviction of the European countries managing to establish a political and economical union of 500 million citizens? The leading voices of the EU itself seem to believe it all boils down to PC declarations. An alternative assertion to European strength consisting in thoughtless PC gaiety would be the immense, unsurpassed European contribution to the development of Technology, Science and the depiction of Man and his life here upon Earth as interpreted by the Humanist ideals stemming from The Renaissance and Antiquity. The EU comission article: "Federal Minister von der Leyen: "The Strength of Europe is its...

Why Women Are Abandoning MenBy SHMULEY BOTEACH The Jerusalem Post Remember the days when little girls grew up dreaming about a knight in shining armor whisking them off their feet to live happily ever after? Remember when a woman's foremost fantasy was finding the man of her dreams? Well, that's all over now as women are abandoning men in droves and learning to find happiness completely on their own. Two astonishing studies show just how alarming the trend has become. First, there was the study, from the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University and others, that two-thirds of all divorces...

Michael Stone, the most infamous hitman of the Northern Ireland conflict, has confessed to planning to murder Ken Livingstone. The former Loyalist assassin has revealed in an interview how he stalked London's Mayor when he was leader of the GLC in the Eighties. He was within three days of carrying out the plan, he said, but it was called off because the operation had been penetrated by an informer. Stone, 51, has never told the full story of the plot, although it was known Mr Livingstone had been a target of Loyalist paramilitaries because of his support for the Republican...

Oct. 26, 2006  With the midterm elections less than two weeks away, the Republican Party faces the real possibility of forfeiting its grip on the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994. As the chart above shows, at last count, the forecast from NPR Political Editor Ken Rudin sees Democrats ahead in 211 races, Republicans ahead in 204 races, and 20 races as tossups. At last count, NPR's numbers suggest there are 60 key races that could swing control of the House. . . .

'On the nose" is a Hollywood expression. It refers to a scene or a piece of dialogue that is too obvious or too good to be true. Hollywood would have said the whole Mark Foley sex scandal is on the nose. Let's start with the fact that this confessed gay stalker of teenage congressional pages was co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus. All over Hollywood, fingers would go to the tip of the nose: Can't we make it Armed Services? No, we cannot. To change anything at all about the Foley matter would be to trifle with...

Gas prices are down, the stock market is at a record high and 60 percent of Americans say the economy is in good shape. So why are Republicans in so much trouble? I've been asked this in the past week by several (mostly rich) Democrats and Republicans, so I picked the brains of a number of pollsters. Kathy Frankovic, director of surveys for CBS News, pointed to the finding in the CBS News/New York Times poll conducted Oct. 5 to 8, which said that despite the increase in the number of people saying the economy was in good shape, they...

Per FR guidelines, can only provide a link. Link The new Webster's definition of wishful thinking per USA Today and Gannett, IMO. Poll is of 1007 "adults".

Not long ago, "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi" sounded to many like little more than the rosy rhetoric of partisan Pollyannas. But Republican House leaders' scramble to control Rep. Mark Foley's sexual messaging fiasco has stoked already-burning fires of discontent over both congressional corruption -- two GOP congressmen have resigned in the past year, with the first now in prison -- and the party's support of the Bush administration's Iraq war effort. A 15-seat Democratic gain in the House no longer seems such a long shot. "It would be stunning if this (Foley) scandal were not reducing social conservative turnout in...

THC, the key compound in marijuana, may also be the key to new drugs for Alzheimer's disease. That's because the marijuana compound blocks the formation of brain-clogging Alzheimer's plaques better than current Alzheimer's drugs. The finding — in test-tube studies — comes from the lab of Kim Janda, Ph.D., director of the Worm Institute of Research and Medicine at Scripps Research Institute. "While we are certainly not advocating the use of illegal drugs, these findings offer convincing evidence that THC possesses remarkable inhibitory qualities, especially when compared to [Alzheimer's drugs] currently available to patients," Janda says in a news release....

NEW YORK TIMES editors have set a Page One Splash on Thursday claiming: Democrats suddenly face a map with new and unexpected opportunities to regain control of the Senate! "We are leading the paper with it," a newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. With less than six weeks to go before election day, races are so tight that they "could slip, in one direction or another, in a matter of days," reports Robin Toner. In Virginia, a state that few expected to be seriously competitive, Republican Sen. George Allen "looks newly vulnerable after a series of controversies over his racial...

Here's an email we received yesterday morning at 10:26 am: Hey guys, Even though I'm a big fat liberal, I've been a big fan of your site since it first launched, and I visit it every day. It's a terrific resource.However, I do have a criticism regarding the way you posted yesterday's (9/15) AP Piece "Polls Shows GOP Not Making Its Case". That's the way the AP titled it, at least. You guys decided to title it on your site "GOP Gains Ground In Battle For Congress".I understand that there may have been some data in their polling that made...

Number Doubled Over the Summer Facing the most difficult political environment since they took control of Congress in 1994, Republicans begin the final two months of the midterm campaign in growing danger of losing the House while fighting to preserve at best a slim majority in the Senate, according to strategists and officials in both parties. Over the summer, the political battlefield has expanded well beyond the roughly 20 GOP House seats originally thought to be vulnerable. Now some Republicans concede there may be almost twice as many districts from which Democrats could wrest the 15 additional seats they need...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats enter the fall campaign with a clear edge in the high-stakes fight for control of the U.S. Congress, riding a wave of momentum that has them positioned to retake the U.S. House of Representatives and make significant gains in the Senate. President George W. Bush's low approval ratings and public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, gas prices and the country's direction threaten Republican leadership in Congress and put Democrats within reach of victory on November 7, analysts said. "I don't think the question any longer is can Democrats win control of Congress, it's can Republicans do...

WASHINGTON - If Democrats win one or both houses of Congress in November's elections, as polls suggest is increasingly likely, President Bush's Washington will change dramatically. Democrats will press to get out of Iraq. They'll mount investigations into the Bush administration's record that could rival those of Presidents Nixon in Watergate and Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair. They'll push a boatload of social-welfare legislation, such as raising the minimum wage, that reflects their pent-up priorities, while blocking the Republican agenda on social issues such as gay marriage, abortion and religion. Those are some of the top plans that Democrats...