Free Republic

The “red wave” that is coming on Tuesday is a rebellion by the American people themselves against the excesses of big government and a “woke” left-wing ideology that has been imposed on every aspect of our lives, making our society less safe and more unhappy. Democrats know what is coming. Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) admitted this week that a “red wave” is on the way. He added that his party is being “crushed” on “messaging,” arguing there is nothing wrong with Democrats’ policies, just their rhetoric.

Between the new congressional district lines and the new open primaries, people who hold elected office in California are running for their lives. In previous years, maybe 10 percent of congressional and legislative districts were competitive. Now everybody thinks they're at risk. Even well-known incumbents in Democrat-dominated districts - people like Reps. Barbara Lee and John Garamendi - fear they might get beat. As a result, they are scooping up and holding onto as much campaign cash as possible. It's all putting a pinch on Rep. Nancy Pelosi's hopes of the Democrats retaking the House. You see, in the past...

Fracas erupts at GOP caucus By Mark LaFlamme, Staff Writer Tuesday, February 7,2006 LEWISTON - Stavros Mendros just wanted to keep the peace. The Republican county caucus was over and most participants had left. But there was still a small group of people there and an argument was getting heated. "There were some pretty nasty words being said. I just kept trying to calm it down, calm it down," Mendros, a city councilor, said Monday, two days after a scuffle at the Republican caucus. "The whole way it developed and exploded just made no sense." Bruce Boutilier, 40, of Auburn...

APPLETON (Jan 3): Rep. Barbara Merrill Monday informed her constituents in Maine House District 44, and the leaders of the Maine House of Representatives, that she has unenrolled from the Democratic Party. As a result, the Democrats have 73 members, the Republicans 73, the independents four and the Greens one in the Maine House of Representatives. In her letter to her constituents, Merrill wrote, "I do not take this step lightly or without long consideration. I have talked directly with many of you about the concerns which have led me to this action, and I know that many support my...

Think tank to examine Maine economy, growth, government PORTLAND — The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, is launching a study of the Maine economy that will include a blueprint on how to boost the state's prosperity while retaining its quality of life. The yearlong project, with a price tag of $450,000, was unveiled Monday at a City Hall news conference involving Gov. John Baldacci, former Gov. Angus King and representatives of business, conservation and foundation interests that are providing most of the study's funding. The event was organized by GrowSmart Maine, a nonprofit organization in Yarmouth that has focused...

Sunday, June 26, 2005 Fuming over tax By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Portland Press Herald Writer Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend Benjamin Snow started smoking as a teenager. Now 49, he thinks about quitting every day, but he doesn't plan to do so anytime soon, even as Maine prepares to increase its excise tax from $1 per pack to $2 to help balance the state budget. Snow, who lives in Portland, smokes a pack a day and says he can afford the extra $7 a week, or $365 a year. But he wonders about...

City Council To Weigh Bill Asking For Karl Rove's Resignation June 24, 2005 The City Council is weighing in on the controversial comments made by President George W. Bush's top adviser about the 9/11 attacks. Democratic Speaker Gifford Miller says the Council will introduce a resolution next week that calls on the president to fire White House Senior Adviser Karl Rove. The resolution reads: "Rove's rhetoric and cynical strategy of dividing Americans against each other for partisan gain has no place in our nation's public discourse." The president’s top advisor claimed during a conservative party fundraiser Wednesday that liberals did...

Thursday, June 16, 2005 Emery becomes first to challenge Baldacci By MARK PETERS, Portland Press Herald Writer Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend AUGUSTA — Former U.S. Rep. David Emery announced plans Wednesday to challenge Gov. John Baldacci in 2006, becoming the first Republican candidate to emerge from a crowd of possible contenders. Emery, 56, who represented Maine's 1st Congressional District from 1975 to 1983, told reporters that he will run as a fiscal conservative focused on improving the business climate in Maine. Emery, of St. George, is starting his gubernatorial run more...

Bill would raise tax on cigarettes By SUSAN M. COVER, Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend AUGUSTA — Cigarette taxes would increase by $1 per pack under a budget-balancing plan supported by Democrats in the Legislature. The Legislature's Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee voted 8-5 Tuesday along party lines to replace $250 million in borrowing with $125 million in budget cuts and $125 million in new revenue. The revenue would be raised mostly through an increase in tobacco taxes and an increase in corporate income taxes. The budget bill approved by the committee...

'Letters' an unabashedly slanted view of Bush win By STEVE FEENEY, Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend "LETTERS TO OHIO," Winter Harbor Theatre Company WHERE: St. Lawrence Arts and Community Center, Portland WHEN: 8 tonight Call: 775-3174 Ohio was a key state in the last election, securing the electoral college win for President Bush in a pretty close race. That win took the wind out of a lot of people who wanted a different outcome. Caitlin Shetterly and Erica Silberman were among the disappointed voters. Rather than retreating and laying low, however, they...

Fitch downgrades Maine bonds AUGUSTA — As the state prepares for a $143 million spring bond sale, Fitch Ratings Friday became the second Wall Street agency this week to drop its rating for Maine's general obligation bonds. Fitch said it was downgrading the state's outstanding general obligation to AA from AA+, and assigning an AA rating to bonds expected June 6. Moody's Investors Service announced Tuesday it was downgrading Maine's general obligation bonds from AA2 to AA3. Fitch cited "the state's financial pressures in recent years, depletion of reserves, and a continuing structural imbalance, enlarged by assumption of a larger...

Friday, May 27, 2005 Executives give state's economy failing grade By EDWARD D. MURPHY, Portland Press Herald Writer Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend Maine business executives have a dour view of the economy, the business climate and the state's ability to tackle economic problems, a new study of senior managers in the state has found. "The results are not very encouraging," said Verne Kennedy, whose Florida-based Market Research Insight company conducted the survey of 502 business leaders for the Maine Economic Research Institute. "From the employers' perspective, they're giving the economy an...

Hidden Camera Nabs Alleged Panty Bandit Man Says He Was Balancing Laundry, Not Stealing POSTED: 5:25 pm EDT April 22, 2005 UPDATED: 7:43 pm EDT April 22, 2005 MIDDLEBORO, Mass. -- When her pricey panties started disappearing from the laundry room, a Middleboro woman decided to become a detective. NewsCenter 5's Todd Kazakiewich reported that Gina Roy rigged up a camera and allegedly caught her neighbor on tape stealing her Victoria Secret's underwear. The alleged victim said her underwear has been disappearing for two years. Although police haven't searched the suspect's apartment for the underwear, a videotape may be all...

CHICAGO -- Police said a quarrel over parlor games prompted a woman to fatally stab her boyfriend in the chest last week. Patrice Black, 37, was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday on a charge of first-degree murder. Black, is accused of stabbing her boyfriend of five years, Allen McDowell, 37, in the chest with a steak knife during a quarrel over the games of Monopoly and Uno, Assistant State's Attorney Mark Hitt said. Black was being held on $500,000 bond. While at home Thursday night with her 14-year-old daughter and boyfriend, Black asked McDowell if he would play the...

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) A woman accused of digging up and taking her boyfriend's cremated remains more than a decade ago and drinking the beer that was buried with them was sentenced to 60 days in jail Monday, a prosecutor said. Karen Stolzmann, 44, was sentenced on a misdemeanor charge of possession of stolen property, Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco said. She had faced up to nine months in jail on the charge, and DeCecco had recommended a six-month sentence. ``I kind of thought she should be punished more,'' he said. ``Under these kinds of circumstances, this is just unexcusable.''...

The phone call to a popular confessions show on WKSC-FM (103.5) could go down as one of the dumbest acts by a criminal in recent times, authorities said. Instead of the typical talk of naughty love affairs or childish road rage, a man who called himself "D" volunteered last fall that he and five others robbed a TCF Bank inside a Jewel-Osco last April. "D" gave specific details of a crime that went unsolved for five months, including that an employee had been in on it, that they tied up the bank workers, that those involved took money from the...

Tollway contract linked to convicted felon By Chuck Goudie February 15, 2005 — The I-Team uncovered a food contract between the Illinois Tollway and a company that has ties to a mega millionaire. Eddie Debartolo Jr. is also a convicted felon. Debartolo was once caught bribing Louisiana's governor with a briefcase full of cash. A company launched by Debartolo is opening pizzerias inside every renovated tollway oasis in Illinois. Tollway officials defend the deal. Eddie Debartolo Jr. is one of the country's 300 richest men. The Notre Dame graduate's net worth is estimated at more than $900-million, made mostly through...

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Chicago) Tuesday invited the president of the company that makes American Girl dolls to visit Pilsen after the firm angered some Hispanics by describing the neighborhood in a storybook as "dangerous.'' Meanwhile, Ald. Daniel Solis (25th) said he had set up a meeting for next week with a representative from Mattel, American Girl's parent company, to discuss what he said was "probably an unintended mistake.'' The Wisconsin-based American Girl rankled some when it set the back story of a new doll in Chicago. The storybook describes how a Mexican-American girl named Marisol Luna moves to suburban...

MILWAUKEE (AP) A male Wisconsin inmate who has received state-paid hormone therapy for the last 5 years to become a woman is suing prison officials for not finishing the sex change process. The suit was filed by Scott Konitzer who now uses the name Donna Dawn Konitzer. Konitzer, who has gender identity disorder, is serving 123 years for multiple armed robberies and for stabbing another inmate. The suit is pending in federal court in Milwaukee. The department has been providing Konitzer, 40, with hormone therapy to stimulate female development since 1999 but will not allow genital surgery. Konitzer claims a...

News Home - Help December Hiring Helps Fuel Job Growth 4 minutes ago By LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer WASHINGTON - U.S. employers added 157,000 workers overall to their payrolls in December, bringing the year-end total of new jobs to 2.2 million, the best showing in five years. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.4 percent. Related Quotes DJIANASDAQS&P 500 10622.882090.001187.89 0.000.000.00 Delayed DataProviders - Disclaimer   The Labor Department (news - web sites) reported Friday that the 2.2 million new jobs created in 2004 were the most in any year since 1999, when employers added 3.2 million positions, based...