Free Republic

Prosecutors across the country have ceased prosecuting certain crimes in the name of racial and economic equity and social justice. This dangerous trend denies justice to victims and increases crimeThe number of homicides in the United States increased around 30 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported last week, along with a 5.6 percent increase in violent crime in the same period. The number of homicides in the United States increased around 30 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported last week, along with a 5.6...

Boeing labor union credits Obama for Air Force tanker win Published: Saturday, February 26, 2011, 5:00 AM By George Talbot The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. will meet with top military officials on Monday to learn why its bid for the U.S. Air Force tanker contract fell short against rival Boeing Co. The details of that 10 a.m. CST meeting at the Pentagon could dictate whether or not EADS will protest the award The selection of Boeing’s KC-767 tanker, announced Thursday by the Air Force, stunned observers on both sides of the high-stakes competition for the $35 billion deal....

Olympia, WA—Fed up with citizens smuggling detergent into Spokane, Washington, from Cour d’Alene, Idaho, Governor Christine Gregoire, D-WA, plans to form a Cascade Task Force. The task force is being assembled to take down Washington state residents that egregiously violate the law.

The race for Washington’s next Governor is now a tie. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds incumbent Christine Gregoire and challenger Dino Rossi each attracting 48% of the vote. Gregoire is viewed favorably by 51% and unfavorably by 47%. Her job performance is rated 43% good or excellent from voters, while 35% say she is doing a poor job. Former State Senator Rossi’s ratings are 50% favorable, 48% unfavorable. This year’s race has been anything but steady. Last month, Rossi pulled ahead of the governor, 52% to 46%, after trailing behind by four percentage points in...

Democrats are expected to make strong gains in state legislatures this fall, but what do these stronger Democratic majorities mean? A look at Washington State may show what is in store for the rest of the country. Public employee unions are handing over vast amounts of money to the incumbent governor's re-election campaign, while the governor is simultaneously sitting at the bargaining table negotiating contracts with these very unions. If it seems inappropriate for the governor, Christine Gregoire, who is locked in a very tight re-election, to benefit personally from the parties that her office is negotiating with, that's just...

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law Saturday a measure to create domestic partnerships, giving gay and lesbian couples some of the same rights that come with marriage. The law creates a domestic partnership registry and provides enhanced rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will. "It offers the hope that one day, all lesbian and gay families will be treated truly equal under the law," said state Sen. Ed Murray, who is one of five openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature. To be...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- LGBT elected and appointed leaders from across the United States and around the world passed an historic resolution in Seattle this weekend at the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference calling upon "all nations and governments to adopt a vocal, clear and consistent policy on international human rights abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people that includes a call on other countries to abolish sodomy laws." Attendees, some who traveled from as far away as Sri Lanka and Poland, vowed to continue to bring attention to the horrific record of some countries on this...

Gregoire's Jenny on the spot By David Postman Seattle Times chief political reporter When Christine Gregoire needs an attorney, she turns to Jenny Durkan, a Seattle attorney popular among the prominent and the political who find themselves entangled with the law. But Durkan is also friend, confidante and political counselor to Gregoire. It's a bond formed during Gregoire's 12 years as attorney general, when, as the state's chief attorney, she needed a private lawyer to avoid any conflict between her public and private lives. With Gregoire's election as governor facing an unprecedented trial and Republicans trying to remove her from...

TUKWILA — The state Republican Party said in court papers filed yesterday that it has found 300 illegal votes and more than 400 that can't be verified in the governor's election. With Christine Gregoire winning the governor's race by 129 votes, Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance says he now has found far more than enough evidence to persuade a judge to nullify the election and call for a rematch between Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi. Lawyers and Republican staffers are continuing to look county by county for votes cast by felons, in the name of dead people or by people...

Guest columnist King County voters in good hands By Corky Mattingly Special to The Times I've been particularly troubled by one recurring comment regarding the gubernatorial recount in King County. It pertains to county Elections Director Dean Logan's professionalism and integrity. There also have been suggestions that Logan's decisions are based on partisan politics and are without justification or regard to Washington state law. As president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. All 39 counties conducted the recount process according to the rules currently in place, which are...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - America's newest governor, Democrat Christine Gregoire of Washington, chided President Bush (news - web sites) on Saturday for shortchanging the states and urged the former Texas governor to remember their financial needs. The Democratic Governors' Association picked Gregoire to respond to President Bush's weekly radio address to the nation. She took office on Jan. 12 after winning by just 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast. Her Republican rival wants the courts to overturn the election and order a revote. Gregoire wished Bush well as he enters his second term, but then lit into him. Many of...

Rochester Republican Dan Swecker’s boycott of an inauguration ceremony last week for Democrat Christine Gregoire and the inaugural ball that followed had nothing to do with any disrespect by Swecker for the office of governor. Making such an erroneous claim or suggestion about Swecker misses the point of his protest, with which a majority of his constituents likely concur. The 20th District state senator, who represents Lewis County and parts of Thurston County, believes as do many others that the election for governor was so deeply flawed the result was illegitimate. Calling for a delay in legislative ratification of a...

Friday, January 14, 2005, 12:00 A.M. Pacific Key interest groups financed large part of hand recount By Andrew Garber and David Postman Seattle Times Olympia bureau OLYMPIA — The unprecedented hand recount that put Gov. Christine Gregoire in office this week was paid for in large part with contributions from powerful interest groups, including labor unions, tribes and trial lawyers, which gave much more than they would have been allowed during the campaign. Democrats, by law, had to put down a $730,000 deposit with the state to do the recount. The party made a nationwide appeal to raise that amount...

Christine Gregoire dropped her inaugural speech on the ears of the state. The new governor said one thing. I heard and thought another. Gregoire told the crowd in Olympia the other day that "we all have a chance to have a positive influence in the lives of others" because "we all leave personal legacies for the people we know and love." //snip As president of Kappa Delta sorority more than three decades ago, she tolerated a "whites-only, Christians-only" rule. She presided over rituals with hooded white robes that even reminded some of her own sorority sisters of the Ku Klux...

Rat Problem Girl(Sung to Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls") Chorus- Are you gonna use fake votes tonight? Ah, even though it ain’t right. Rat Problem Girl You spin that fraud machine around. Verse- Chris took all the votes she had And Rossi beat her bad But she knew she could beat this misery Chris got with old Dean Logan Just a nasty old Rat spokesman Said call it a tie and don’t concede Chris appealed across our land She said count ‘em all by hand Throw in some dead and felons by the way, hey That put her on the top...

Democrat Christine Gregoire will be sworn in as Washington's Governor today, possibly thanks to voters such as Mary Coffey, James Courneya and Rosalie Simpson. Why do we mention them in particular? Because, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently reported, they're all dead... Revelations of the formerly living casting ballots in elections isn't new to American politics, although it's something most of us thought was a relic of the late Richard Daley's Chicago. But this isn't the only jaw-dropper to have come out of Washington's gubernatorial race, which Ms. Gregoire claims to have won -- on a third recount, by 129 votes...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Democrat Christine Gregoire was certified as the governor of Washington state on Tuesday, while outside the Capitol her supporters traded jeers with protesters across a line of state troopers. Inside the Capitol, Republicans' attempt to delay the election certification failed after an hour of almost surreally polite debate. Gregoire lost the first two counts in the amazingly close election, but won by just 129 votes after a hand recount of 2.9 million ballots. Next comes Gregoire's inauguration, planned for Wednesday - and then it's on to the courts. The first hearing in Republican Dino Rossi's election challenge...

Pro-choice leaders in this decidedly pro-choice state have been holding on to the gubernatorial recount roller coaster with white knuckles, crossed fingers and the breathless hope that Christine Gregoire's 129-vote lead will hold. It really doesn't matter that he supports severe restrictions on a woman's right to abortion, candidate Dino Rossi assured them during the race -- on those few occasions when he could be pressed to discuss a subject he smoothly managed to largely avoid. "I'm not running for Supreme Court," Rossi repeatedly said, selling himself as a moderate focused on jobs and business while nimbly sidestepping prickly social...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The wine has been ordered, the tuxedos have been rented, and the menu has been set. But at the state Capitol, there is something of a damper over Wednesday night's inaugural ball for Washington's new governor. Democrat Christine Gregoire will take the oath of office knowing that the Republicans are challenging the outcome of the excruciatingly close election in court. Her GOP opponent, Dino Rossi, is calling for a do-over election. Ultimately, the outcome of the dispute over the next few weeks could turn the inaugural ball into an empty exercise. "The last shoe hasn't dropped,"...

Feds threatened suit over military ballotsBy David Postman and Ralph ThomasSeattle Times staff reporters   OLYMPIA — Less than a month before the November election, the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to sue Washington state because it was moving too slowly in mailing military ballots overseas. At that point Washington was the only state that hadn't mailed its overseas ballots. Questions about military ballots have come up frequently since the Nov. 2 election ended with a deadlocked governor's race. Democrat Christine Gregoire was certified governor-elect Dec. 30 and is to be sworn in Wednesday. But Republican Dino Rossi has...