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A House race in California that was previously called in favor of Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) has been called into question, with Democrat T.J. Cox pulling ahead Monday in the vote count. The Associated Press on Monday said it was retracting its call in the race after previously declaring that Valadao had been reelected. "No new call will be made until the results are certified," the AP wrote in a tweet. --- The race in California's 21st Congressional District, which includes the San Joaquin Valley, is the last contested race in the country. Cox holds a 438-vote lead as of...

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Barack Obama enraged many Americans when he began his presidency on an “apology tour.” Famously, Obama bowed to Saudi King Abdullah.Donald Trump hasn’t signaled he would act similarly. In fact, Trump doesn’t apologize for anything—even to God.But Trump has gone out of his way to praise some bad foreign leaders.First, he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin: One day after Putin called Trump a “bright and talented”and the “absolute leader of the presidential race,” the Republican presidential front-runner returned the compliments, hailing Putin as a “leader” and pointing to his high favorability numbers in Russia.“He’s running his country and at least...

The Senate approved the horrible budget deal last night while most of us were asleep at 3am: Ted Cruz last night called this budget deal a corrupt betrayal of the people as he spoke over an hour and a half. The vote was mostly Democrats voting to pass it but a fair number of Republicans voted for it as well. Here's how they voted: YEAs: 64 Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Baldwin (D-WI) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Booker (D-NJ) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Cantwell (D-WA) Capito (R-WV) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Coons (D-DE)...

Donald Trump takes a lot of flak for failing to offer specific policy proposals, but there was a time when he offered a very specific tax plan -- one that raised taxes on the wealthy so much it might have made Bernie Sanders blush. In classic Trump fashion, the plan was big and bold. If enacted, Trump's plan would have been biggest tax hike, in total raw dollars, in history. In a word, it would have been huge. The year was 1999 and Trump was toying with the idea of running for President as a third party candidate. The idea,...

JUNEAU, Alaska — Republican Dan Sullivan won Alaska's U.S. Senate race, defeating incumbent Democrat Mark Begich. Sullivan led Begich by about 8,100 votes on Election Night last week, and when state officials counted absentee and questioned ballots Tuesday, the results indicated that Begich could not overcome Sullivan's lead.

Thank you for using the White House's online petitions platform to participate in your government. In a nation of 300 million people -- each with their own set of deeply-held beliefs -- democracy can be noisy and controversial. And that's a good thing. Free and open debate is what makes this country work, and many people around the world risk their lives every day for the liberties we often take for granted. But as much as we value a healthy debate, we don't let that debate tear us apart. Our founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States "in...

Just posted this to Facebook for my liberal friends to see. Hopefully it will cause them to rethink their views a little. I encourage others to post it to Facebook as well. ------ Attention Obama voters. If you like Pepsi and I like Coke, that's matter of taste. That's something we can agree to disagree on. If you want big government and I don't, that's not something we can agree to disagree on. You voting for big government affects me and many other non-consenting people. It is an imposition on everyone who does not want big government. On the other...

My wife had some of her girlfriends over today when I was out of the house. Later, my wife told me that one of her liberal friend was bragging about how she is registered to vote at three addresses and regularly votes three times, including in the current election. She didn't say for who, but we all know she is a liberal. We live in the SF Bay area. The friend in question moved here from New York a few years ago and is probably registered in NY, plus at two addresses here in Calif. The question is, what can...

House Speaker John Boehner closed the door further on a big deficit reduction deal Monday as he and other congressional leaders made their way to the White House as talks with President Obama stalemated with only weeks left to avert a financial crisis.

Six months ago, before redistricting had even begun, Republicans were optimistic they would gain additional seats, or, as former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie put it, that they would “gain or protect” 15 to 25 seats. Not surprisingly, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) disagreed, arguing the process wouldn’t be the “disaster” for his party that some thought it would be (though he never said exactly who had predicted that). In January, I estimated in this space that redistricting would be close to a wash, with neither party making major gains, but with Republicans solidifying many of...

Donald Trump may be talking a game the Tea Party activists embarce, such as consistently questioning President Obama’s American birth of late, but an analysis of his political donations since 1989 show a distinct support of the Deomcratic Party that may not go over well should Trump be serious about running for the Republican Party nomination for President. <--snip--> Before 2010, when we could infer he was less serious about running for the Republican nomination, 59% of his political donations were to Democrats.

Although labor unions have been celebrated in folk songs and stories as fearless champions of the downtrodden working man, this is not how economists see them. Economists who study unions—including some who are avowedly prounion—analyze them as cartels that raise wages above competitive levels by restricting the supply of labor to various firms and industries. Many unions have won higher wages and better working conditions for their members. In doing so, however, they have reduced the number of jobs available in unionized companies. That second effect occurs because of the basic law of demand: if unions successfully raise the price...

Chance is down to 53% from 75% earlier today. The CBO was supposed to come out with their estimates right around now. Could this indicate rumors that the CBO numbers don't look good?

My girlfriend is graduating from Mills College in Oakland May, and guess who they have selected as the commencement speaker? That's right, Nancy Pelosi. Both my girlfriend and I hate her. I despise her so much that I feel like I will not be able to stand to even be in the audience and in the presence of such a horrible woman. However, my girlfriend says that her graduation is so important to her that she will never forgive me if I don't go. What should I do?

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. Senate debate on health-care legislation likely will be pushed back further into October, with a Senate Finance Committee vote on its health-care bill expected later this week. According to an aide for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate debate on the legislation is likely to be delayed "at least a week." Reid had earlier slated debate to begin the week of Oct. 12. The delay occurs as the Senate Finance Committee waits for a cost estimate of its bill from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). According to a Senate Finance Committee aide, the committee expects...

Stockholders and managers of firms, whose interests lie in higher prices for what they own or manage, miss few opportunities to deride short sellers. As Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal put it, "short selling is a business widely unpopular with everyone who has a stake in seeing stock prices go up."Regulators, whose blunders short sellers frequently reveal by discovering fraud that escaped their attention, respond similarly. That combination of interests helps explain why, at various times, short selling has been banned in many countries, including England, France and Japan.Such views are reinforced by accusations that short sellers hope...

A tide of lobbyists representing corporate executives, small-business owners, farmers and retirees swamped Capitol Hill yesterday in hopes of pushing an emergency economic rescue plan through Congress, but the fate of the measure remained uncertain as the House prepared for a climactic vote at midday today. Leaders of both parties said they were optimistic that they would be able to marshal more support for the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout than they mustered on Monday, when the House delivered a shocking defeat to the measure and sent the Dow Jones industrial average plummeting 778 points, or about 7 percent. The...

WASHINGTON - House and Senate leaders yesterday anxiously pleaded with skeptical lawmakers to accept a bipartisan $700 billion financial bailout plan, saying the package was crucial to calm the markets and stave off what they warned could be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Failure to approve the package, which bleary-eyed House and Senate negotiators agreed to early yesterday morning, would cause "an event which we don't want to conceive" of, said Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire and a lead negotiator of the package. The House is set to vote on the bill today, and the...