Free Republic

NEW YORK - After spending 10 days in London with friends who were outspoken about their disdain for President Bush's policies, Berns Rothchild came home wishing she had a way to show the world she didn't vote for him. "I sort of felt ashamed, and didn't really want to be associated with being an American," said Rothchild, who lives in New York City and voted for John Kerry. Her mother had a suggestion: bracelets, inspired by the Lance Armstrong Foundation's popular "LIVESTRONG" bands, that would signal opposition to Bush. Thousands of miles away, two women in Idaho had the same...

Oscars ignore the Passion... ...in what appears to be a Blue State snub of Red States. Church of the Masses offers a couple of good ideas. Let's email EWTN and Pax TV and request they play the Passion during the televised portion of the Oscar ceremony.

2004 Political Contributions

We conservatives certainly missed a great opportunity back in November just after the election. Along with the usual liberal excuse-fest and tone-deaf mystification over values voters came something entirely new this year – talk of secession. Yes, the “bitterly divided” nation had elected the president in a noticeably geographical pattern and the coastal elites were so angry with their landlocked brethren as to momentarily consider the idea of leaving the Union. Perhaps they’d forgotten that this had been tried before? Now waging war over the abolition of slavery surely trumps waging war to redefine marriage, but this notion of seceding...

BUY BLUE? I DON'T THINK SO. Now here is an interesting website for you to take a look at. The title says "Choose the Blue." By searching the various categories through this website you can discover which political party PACs are supported by various corporations and corporate employees in several fields of business. The object of the website is to get loyal Democrats to stop spending their money with companies that lend the greater support to the Republican party. Some examples: In the auto insurance category, Progressive Insurance shows a 91% support for Democrats while State Farm shows an 81%...

It's only appropriate that we Republicans - in the spirit of appreciation, graciousness, charity and comity - give thanks to those whose contributions were instrumental in securing control of both houses of Congress, a majority of governorships, a plurality of state legislatures, a clear majority of the popular vote (for the first time in 16 years) and, of course, the re-election of President George W. Bush.

A Supreme Court justice once said that he couldn't define pornography, but that he knew it when he saw it. Gregory Welch just wants to see it. Welch, a convicted sex offender, has sued the Minnesota Department of Corrections, claiming the prison ban on inmates' receiving sexually explicit magazines and books violates his First Amendment rights. "Just because publications of sexually explicit material may have a negative impact on some inmates in Minnesota prisons does not make it fair for the Minnesota Department of Corrections to ban publications of sexually explicit material from all inmates in Minnesota prisons," Welch says...

Seeing Red and Feeling BlueBetter Red than Dead By Ron Peacock (pavonews.com) In your recent travels, has anyone noticed a post-election despondency amongst a certain segment of our population? On November 2nd, President Bush won re-election and the Republican Party gained an unprecedented second term majority of congressional seats. In the month following the election, the realities of these events have been beyond comprehension to a certain demographic of our population. It seems some of our left leaning brothers and sisters are seeing red and feeling blue.It has come to this writer's attention that a number of John Kerry...

When red met blueArnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver... America's odd couple     This is an email-able, copyright-ready graphic you can use in emails, on blogs, in flyers, on posters... anything that's noncommercial.

The most illuminating vignette in Newsweek magazine’s most excellent post-election issue was a line from none other than John Kerry. Arrogant to the core, the elitist ketchup-digger revealed his true feelings toward George Bush - and by extension all us clodhopping carp-chompers in the Red States - with one infamous slip of the tongue. “I can’t believe I’m losing to this idiot” muttered Kerry in a moment of sputtering confusion, no doubt scratching the bolts on his neck and wondering if his next job would entail being a body-double for Herman Munster. It has been a month since the election,...

November 29, 2004 Gregoire's illegitimate recount As Seth notes below, John Fund asks in today's WSJ Opinion Journal "Will Democrats steal the Washington governorship?" Well they're certainly going to try. I heard on KUOW this morning (can't find any report on line) that Gregoire will definitely ask for a hand recount this week. How should the Republicans respond? First, it's important to reiterate that Dino Rossi won two statewide counts; even after the Gregoire people won all of their legal and procedural fights to obtain certain unfair advantages; even after they were permitted to hand in questionable (and in...

I was doing some thinking and a bit of research, and I found out that the Dumbacrats did not really ever do as much for African-Americans as the Republican Party has. In lieu of such evidence, why don't Blacks vote Republican? Are they just not aware of it? So I wanted to present some key notes and as if anyone had any other thoughts. 1863- Emmancipation Proclamation under Republican Lincoln. Sure, it did not officially free the slaves right away, but it set the seeds for its eventual destruction. Post Civil War- The Republican congress passed the 13th, 14th, and...

Help Wanted At DNC WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2004 This is a time of generational change. Congressional leaders Gephardt and Daschle are gone, the Clinton years are fading and the Democrats are squarely a minority party. Democrats are looking for someone to replace Terry McAuliffe as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. (Photo: AP) Howard Dean has been mentioned as a possible candidate to head the DNC, but his liberal reputation and possible plans to run for president in 2008 may take him out of contention. (Photo: AP) WANTED: Very blue Democratic Party desperately seeking leader. Must not be Howard Dean...

If you consider yourself even remotely taken by capitalism, you've got to love online auction house eBay. It's a free market proponent's dream, placing every possible sort of item, from the ridiculous (like a vintage 1996 McDonald's Happy Meal Rapunzel Barbie) to the sublime (Waterford crystal toasting flutes), in the hands of the person (or should I say bidder) who values it most. I've always thought the Left must dislike eBay because it collapses so many of their myths. For example, the Left's (and particularly the Ralph Nader Left's) favorite chorus is that we need more laws to protect consumers...

My smarter brother has redone his sheet to cover the recount of the Washington governor's race. Counties will not report anything until that entire county has been recounted, so instead of trickling in the votes will appear in chunks. Otherwise, the spreadsheet works as before to tabulate votes (re)counted and to project the final tally based upon county-by-county percentages. Of particular note is the "Change since first count" on the right, which reflects the change in the recounted totals from the original results in the counties recounted so far. I think this is the number everyone will be watching.

PA ranks at the bottom of the pile when it comes to economic freedom and at the top of the pile when it comes to how much we pay our state legislators.

Frankly, the whole "We're-moral-and-you're-not" argument is so much bilge. For example, how does that explain why a red state like Nevada offers legal gambling and legalized prostitution? Why does blue Massachusetts have the lowest divorce rate in the nation (about half that of Texas)? For that matter, how is it the thrice-divorced Limbaugh, an admitted narcotics addict and given over to great anger (one of the Seven Deadly Sins, remember), can present himself as a spokesman for "values?" Driving south on I-91 a few days after the election, I caught part of Rush Limbaugh's program. Not surprisingly, Limbaugh was reading...

A Dichotomy in Two Colors by Christopher Westley [Posted November 19, 2004] Call it the mystery of the red and the blue. After the presidential election, many have noticed the irony of how some of the more conservative, culturally red states seem to receive more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes. Meanwhile, some of the more liberal, culturally blue states seem to receive less in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes. You’d think the supposedly anti-Washington reds should be blues and the supposedly pro-Washington blues should be reds. After all, the red states seem to...

I don’t jump pews, speak in tongues or kiss rattlesnakes on the mouth. I don’t chain myself to the doors of abortion clinics or write long, scripture-laced letters to the editor categorizing the Satanic nature of demon rum, demon lottery, demon Victoria’s Secret or even demon new-car smell. I think a tent revival is what you do to your tent when a blizzard blows it over at 7,000 feet. I think a collection plate is the strip of metal where the dust settles in my “Sharper Image” air purifier. So imagine my surprise to learn - according to the mainstream...

It's bad enough that the red states elected President Bush and sent the blues into a psychic tailspin. bush wins: upper west side put on suicide watch reads a T-shirt in Manhattan. As students of the federal budget know, the citizens of some states pay more in taxes than they get back from Uncle Sam in grants and benefits. Arnold Schwarzenegger was stunned to learn upon taking office that for every dollar Californians send to Washington, they get back only 77 cents—an imbalance that topped $50 billion in 2003. But a new analysis in The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro...