Free Republic

Charles Rangel, with all the ethics charges against him, easily defeated his main challenger Adam Clayton Powell IV by a wide margin for 52% to 24% with over 70% precincts reporting. Let's face it folks, Rangel will be there to torment this nation for as long as he wants to. Nothing, short of being caught murdering someone live will endanger his seat.

In Saudi arms deal, good news and bad for St. Louis The Obama administration is expected to notify Congress this week or next that it has agreed to sell $60 billion worth of fighter jets and helicopters to Saudi Arabia. If Congress approves the deal, it will be a significant piece of good news for the St. Louis economy. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the deal could include as many as 84 new F-15E "Strike Eagle" fighters, as well as upgrades to 70 more F-15s. Those airplanes are built at Boeing St. Louis. The United States no longer...

A national Democratic committee has asked local television stations to stop airing a campaign commercial that attacks U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski's support of the health care reform law. In a letter dated Friday to the stations, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee lawyers sharply challenge the accuracy of the commercial paid for by the 60 Plus Association, a conservative-leaning group that bought $465,000 in air time on the local stations starting last week. "This advertisement is false, misleading and deceptive," the lawyers wrote. The commercial argues Mr. Kanjorski voted for a $1 trillion health care bill that raises taxes, cuts $500...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggested Tuesday he might be open to agreeing to a temporary extension of tax cuts. Graham said he would be open to a deal that would extend tax cuts on all income brackets for the next few years as a way to reach a temporary compromise to prevent rates from springing upward next year. "Yeah," Graham said on Fox News when asked if he'd be open to a compromise. "I think three years would do us well."

The National Republican Senatorial Committee does not plan to spend money on its Delaware Senate nominee, Christine O’Donnell, an NRSC official said tonight. O’Donnell, who defeated Republican stalwart Rep. Mike Castle in the state’s GOP Senate primary, surged in recent weeks amid donations from tea party groups and an endorsement from Sarah Palin. But she trails her general election opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, in most polls.

OLLALA, WA) -- The Kitsap County Sheriff’s office is investigating an incident Saturday night where an off-duty Washing State Patrol trooper shot and killed a man he said was an intruder on his property. The trooper reportedly caught the man prowling on his property just before midnight Saturday after his dogs began to bark. Then trooper, armed with a gun, went to investigate and saw a vehicle he did not recognize and then found a man walking on his property near his house, located on Southeast Nelson Road near Olalla. The trooper says he identified himself as law enforcement officer...

Remember when Dick Cheney dropped the f-bomb in a private conversation with Pat Leahy and that cuuuuuuute little girl from Kids for Kerry who looked like little orphan Annie and told us and then proceeded to urge us to vote for the guy who dropped a national headline making f-bomb in an interview with Rolling Stone. I don't know how making a kid a spokesperson for grown-up matters is supposed to be persuasive, but I guess with "progressives," or liberals, or whatever nice-sounding adjective they're trying to ruin the meaning of, it makes sense to include children in the...

I just finished watching Karl Rove trashing GOP Senate primary winner Christine O’Donnell. It was on Sean Hannity’s FNC show. Might as well have been Olbermann on MSNBC. The establishment Beltway strategist couldn’t even bother with an obligatory word of congratulations for O’Donnell. He criticized her “character” and “rectitude” and claimed she hadn’t answered questions about her financial woes. She did so here. Rove mocked her security concerns as “nutty.” Yet, her concerns have been more than justified. See here. Rove came across as an effete sore loser instead of the supposedly brilliant and grounded GOP strategist that he’s supposed...

I have long admired Robert Fagles’ translations of the classics, and was re-reading his rendition of Antigone by Sophocles a few nights ago. I was inspired to do so by recent events. I thought I’d post this vanity to encapsulate my mental ramblings and see if they resonate with anyone else out there. Antigone is the first of the three “Theban” plays written by Sophocles, the Greek playwright most famous for his second Theban play, Oedipus Rex. The story of that play tells of the tragedy of Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother, Jocasta. Although he did...

Sen. John McCain on Tuesday became one of the highest-profile Senate Republicans to say that his party could take control of the upper chamber in the midterm elections. In an interview on the "Imus in the Morning" show, McCain (Ariz.) criticized President Obama on national security issues and said that if Republicans win the Senate, he would become chairman of the Armed Services Committee and could further influence the debate. "I thought the important thing is, particularly on national security issues, but other issues — I think I have a lot to contribute. If we, and I think we can,...

POLITICO CALLS IT FOR PALADINO WITH 58% PRECINCTS REPORTING. PALADINO : 65.4% LAZIO : 34.6%

I just finished watching Karl Rove trashing GOP Senate primary winner Christine O’Donnell. It was on Sean Hannity’s FNC show. Might as well have been Olbermann on MSNBC. The establishment Beltway strategist couldn’t even bother with an obligatory word of congratulations for O’Donnell. He criticized her “character” and “rectitude” and claimed she hadn’t answered questions about her financial woes. She did so here. Rove mocked her security concerns as “nutty.” Yet, her concerns have been more than justified. See here.

Join the mobile campaign by texting PERRY to 68398 and join Perry's Patriots at www.PerrysPatriots.com ... (more info) (less info)

Mention the 1st Amendment and an array of images come to mind: a printing press, a protest sign, a street-corner preacher, the fingers of a citizen journalist pecking out a bulletin for the blogosphere. Now there is another icon of free expression: the illustrated man (or woman). Last week the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled — correctly — that tattoos are a form of protected expression and that the city of Hermosa Beach may not impose a blanket ban on tattoo parlors. The decision arose from a challenge by a tattooist to the city's municipal code, which allows...

Much to the chagrin of the entertainment industry, the encryption that protects most high-definition video content may have just been cracked. Intel Corp. officials confirmed Tuesday to FoxNews.com an investigation into a security breach, possibly a fundamental compromise of High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) -- the digital rights management software that governs every device that plays high-def content.

Christine O'Donnell's victory in Delaware is the equivalent of the shot heard around the world. It shows that Sarah Palin will gallop to the Republican nomination in two years if the current seething anger in the party of Lincoln continues. Who will stop Palin now with the Republican right in such a fired up, throw the bums out mood? Mitt Romney, not on your Nellie? Newt Gingrich? Last century's man. O'Donnell's victory is far more significant than that of Joe Miller in Alaska. It occurred in a blue state where moderate Republicans long held sway. She deposed Michael Castle, the...

Details forthcoming...

Is the government making plans to confiscate your retirement money? The Obama administration is certainly exploring the idea. This question no longer seems far-fetched when the group-thinkers in Washington unabashedly promote a doctrine of wealth redistribution and central planning. These Keynesian socialists know they will need vast new sources of revenues to fund their relentless spending binges to "transform" this nation. A logical next step would be to legitimize the confiscation of private retirement assets -- an idea that was contemplated in the recent past by the Clinton administration. According to the Investment Company Institute, there was $7.835 trillion in...

So the NRSC has decided not to support Tea Party candidates even though they win the primaries? Okay. I say we send them a message, and it's a very easy one. Go to your kitchen and grab a bag of tea. You know, the single-serving ones you put in a cup. Slip it into an envelope. Address the envelope to: National Republican Senatorial Committee Ronald Reagan Republican Center 425 2nd Street NE Washington, DC 20002 Slap a stamp on that baby and drop it in the mail. Takes five minutes and ought to get the point across.

MASSIVE TEA PARTY UPSET IN THE MAKING. I VOTED FOR CARL & DIOGUARDI MYSELF. GO CARL GO!!!!