Free Republic

<p>I realize that this is bit old. It predates the 2002 midterms, but it may help some folks understand what's happening in the Mountain West states and in California. I'm posting it at the request of a few other Freepers. It may have run a few years ago, but it deserves another read.</p>

Batman was powerful enough to rule the box office, but the superhero was unable to pull Hollywood out of its worst slump in 20 years. "Batman Begins" debuted as the top movie with $46.9 million, while overall movie revenues skidded for the 17th-straight weekend, tying a slide in 1985 that had been the longest box-office decline since analysts began keeping detailed records on movie grosses. The top 12 movies took in $128.5 million, down 1.6 percent from the same weekend in 2004, according to studio estimates Sunday. The slump may be a sign that more people are seeing movies at...

The New York Times Co. will shed 190 employees, mostly at its flagship newspaper, the company announced Wednesday. In a statement, the company said the reductions will include "fewer than two dozen" employees in The New York Times newsroom. About two-thirds of the reductions will occur at the Times, with the rest coming from the company's New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe. Newsroom reductions will come from a "voluntary reduction program," the company said. The reductions should be implemented by the end of August, Times Co. said. All told, the reductions amount to less than 2% of...

What are we to say about a human condition in which "Nature red in tooth and claw" rears up on its massive hindquarters, and hurls a 30-foot wall of water against the lowlands of eleven of the poorest and most populous nations on earth, including some playgrounds of the rich of Europe and America, and crushes, chokes, and twists away the lives of going past 150,000 human beings? "Nature" is not the way the Greens picture it. Nature batters human beings. Nature has annihilated tens of thousands of other species, why not the human species? Most of the public voices...

At least four scenarios exist for halting the filibusters, said Manuel Miranda, former counsel to both Frist and Hatch on judicial nominations.... Frist's attempt to reach an accord with Democrats might be remote, but it's a starting point, Miranda said. After that, Frist might consider something similar to the proposal he offered in 2003 with Sen. Zell Miller (D.-Ga.), which would have gradually lowered the number of votes need to invoke "cloture" and force a final vote on a nominee. Then there's the so-called "nuclear option," which would require 51 supportive senators to be present on the Senate floor when...

Midday Monday, members of the conservative "Monday Meeting" group in New York received the following e-mail: "We regret to announce that Senator [Arlen] Specter's office has informed us that Senator Specter would be unable to attend tonight's Monday Meeting. According to Senator Specter's office, the Senator is held up in Washington by the demands of regular business in light of plans for a shortened lame duck session as well as the demands of meetings relating to leadership issues." Specter was expected to attend last night's meeting with Sen. Rick Santorum, and to mount his most public defense for the chairmanship...

Of greatest interest now is: Will the GOP go nuclear? The question is especially pertinent after Senator Bill Frist spoke at the annual Federalist Society convention in Washington last week. The Senate Majority Leader indicated that he is inclined to support the so-called "nuclear option," in which the Senate — now with a more muscular Republican margin of 55 to 45 (44 Democrats plus one independent) — would vote to change its procedural rules so that a simple majority (51 senators), rather than the current super majority (60), would be required to bring a nominee's name to the floor for...

As the outstanding Italian journalist Magdi Allam sadly noted in the Corriere della Sera a few days after the event, the murder of van Gogh probably marked the end of Europe's multicultural utopian dream, because it forces politically correct Europeans to face an identity crisis that is eerily symmetrical with the same sort of crisis that has been afflicting Muslims for the past 30 years. Both were provoked by Western victories: The humiliation of Arab armies by Israel in 1967, and the defeat and dissolution of the Soviet Empire. The Six-Day War and the ensuing collapse of the dream of...

A firestorm engulfs Senator Arlen Specter's bid to become chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, the place where judicial nominations have gone to die a politicized death ever since the venomous brawl over Judge Robert H. Bork in 1987 — and with more regularity since the filibuster made its unprecedented appearance as the grim reaper during President Bush's first term. The storm is ignited, however, by two wary flanks of the wrong divide. For 30 years, the nation has been torn asunder by abortion. It is, by now, almost quaint to observe that people of good will and great...

Dear Friend: Thank you for contacting me regarding judicial nominations in the newly-elected session of Congress. It is an honor to serve in the United States Senate. The Constitution's "advice and consent" clause clearly gives the Senate the prerogative to accept or reject any of the President's judicial nominations. Unfortunately, a minority of Senators have been using Senate rules to stop the confirmation of many of these nominees and thwart the will of the majority. Their unwise and dangerous efforts are unprecedented and must not be allowed to succeed. That is why I have taken several steps to address this...

In what has to be the height of arrogance and ingratitude, Senator Arlen Specter, the man set to become the head of the Judiciary Committee, warned President Bush against nominating pro-life judges. This is after President Bush campaigned for Senator Specter over pro-life Pat Toomey and is responsible for Specter's re-election to the Senate. While the Senator did vote for the confirmation of Clarence Thomas, he has spent much of his public life fighting against the confirmation of pro-life judges -- including leading the fight against Ronald Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court, Robert Bork. He has a history of...

Dear Senator Frist, After a long and contentious fight to retain the White House and expand our majority in both houses of Congress, I am extremely dismayed by comments made by Senator Specter regarding the President's right to choose his own candidates for the nation's judiciary. After several years of stonewalling on the part of Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee, it is incredibly distressing to see a member of the Republican party attempting to block excellent and qualified judges from the bench because of their conservative ideology. I am a partisan. I will continue to work for our party's...

THE 2004 ELECTION may not be over, but it is finished, and Wednesday-morning quarterbacking always makes results look perfectly rational. At every point in the campaign (save the first presidential debate) John Kerry was the candidate who had the embarrassing iconic moments: windsurfing, botox, fake-tan, Swift Boats, Mary Cheney, $87 billion, saying "fuck" in Rolling Stone, "global test," goose hunting. Every Dukakis-in-a-tank moment in this campaign belonged to Kerry. And when you lose a race, all anybody ever remembers are the Dukakis-in-the-tank moments. So looking back, Bush's victory appears almost inevitable. Of course it wasn't. Had Kerry won, observers would...

This is one of the sites I go to when I want a break from politics. Check out the poll at the bottom of the page. We have some catching up to do.

This is a critically important NEW campaign in the battle against TV indecency, and we need you to help us. Just a few days ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it will delay broadcast license renewals for 50 TV stations until after Indecency Complaints against those stations have been resolved. This is a HUGE new development in our fight against filth on TV, because if a TV station loses its broadcast license, it's out of business. It's THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT against a TV station for airing indecent programming. We're the Parents Television Council and we're taking our campaign to...

Are you morally obligated to exercise your right to vote? That is, is it a sin not to do so? Of course, I am posing this question to those of you who actually believe in the Christian concept of sin in the first place. Sin, as defined in the Bible, is disobeying God’s commandments. Interesting question, isn’t it? In short, those we elect will begin to impose their collective morality on us. Despite what you have been told, this is why we have government–to promote good and to restrain evil. But it is how we as a society define "good"...

This may have already been posted, but it needs to be seen again, and sent out as an e-mail attachment to as many people as you know. This link really needs to be seen by everyone in the country! The media have done a shameful job of hiding the images of 9/11 and the result has been a population that is increasingly embracing a 9/10 mentality.

The latest Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows President George W. Bush with 49% of the vote and Senator John Kerry with 45%.

Virtually anyone can be a Democrat. Just simply quit thinking (about it) and vote that way. If you want to be a GOOD Democrat, however, there are some prerequisites you must have first. Compare the below and see how you rate... 1. You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of Federal funding. 2. You have to believe that the same school system that can't teach 4th graders how to read is somehow the best qualified to teach those same kids all about sex. 3. You have to believe that guns, in the hands of law-abiding...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thrilled delegates at the Republican National Convention last month with a thundering endorsement of the party's conservative principles. Back home, though, he has governed more like a Democrat on such issues as gay rights, guns and the environment.