Free Republic

We knew this day would come and sadly, this is likely to follow elsewhere. In Scotland, a plan has been approved to mandate so-called “LGBT-inclusive” education into government-run schools. NBC News reports:

Health organizations and U.S. nutrition experts say they are calling on fast-food restaurant chains to take sugary drinks off their children's menus. Margo G. Wootan, nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said McDonald's agreed to drop soda and sugary drinks from Happy Meal menus last year, and 100 U.S. and local health organizations along with nutritional experts said in a letter to Wendy's, Burger King and 21 other restaurant chains that they too should remove the items from their children's menus. Subway, Chipotle, Arby's and Panera already exclude sugary drinks from kids' meals. "With...

Blumenthal warns: [T]he initial results of the exit poll interviews have had frequent problems with non-response bias, a consistent discrepancy favoring the Democrats that has appeared to some degree in every presidential election since 1988. Usually the bias is small, but in 2004 it was just big enough to convince millions of Americans who saw the leaked results on the Internet that John Kerry would defeat George W. Bush. It didn't work out that way. The resulting uproar led the networks, beginning in 2006, to hold back the data from their news media clients in a sealed quarantine room on...

WASHINGTON -- Retiring Sen. Evan Bayh yesterday denounced "brain-dead partisanship" in Congress, saying the pettiness and focus on personal gain are keeping the institution in a state of dysfunction. "There's just too much brain-dead partisanship, tactical maneuvering for short-term political advantage rather than focusing on the greater good, and also just strident ideology," the Indiana Democrat told ABC News, a day after stunning the political world by announcing he won't seek re-election. "The extremes of both parties have to be willing to accept compromises from time to time to make some progress, because some progress for the American people is...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be competing in the South Carolina Democratic Primary Saturday, but they're also vying for the top prize in another contest: The Oppression Sweepstakes. That's how Michael Jelani Cobb, an African-American historian, describes the surge of venom that recently erupted between the Clinton and Obama camps. The sweepstakes kicks in when two excluded groups find themselves competing for the same prize. He says that took place in the 19th century when the abolitionist, Frederick Douglass and his ally, women's rights' activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, argued over what group should first be...

WASHINGTON - Federal election regulators refused to ease limits on political advertising Tuesday, blocking an effort to let interest groups run radio and television ads mentioning elected officials within weeks of an election. The Federal Election Commission voted 3-3 on a proposal that would have allowed such ads as long as they addressed public policy issues and did not promote, support, oppose or attack a sitting member of Congress. Supporters of the change said they wanted to strike a balance between campaign ad restrictions and constitutional free speech guarantees. The measure failed on a tie vote with the commission's three...

Reid Pushed By Liberal Groups In Opposing Judge Roberts: "The Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid Of Nevada, Said ... That He Would Oppose The Confirmation Of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. As Chief Justice, Surprising Both The White House And Fellow Democrats Still Conflicted About How To Vote." (Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David D. Kirkpatrick, "Top Democrat Says He'll Vote No On Roberts," The New York Times, 9/21/05) "'He Got The Message Loud And Clear, Didn't He?' Kim Gandy, President Of The National Organization For Women, Said Of Mr. Reid On Tuesday." (Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David D. Kirkpatrick, "Top...

WASHINGTON - You don't need a scorecard to figure out how lawmakers vote on major issues. You just need to tabulate their campaign donations. The Associated Press looked at six measures in the House — medical malpractice, class action lawsuits, overhauling bankruptcy laws, the energy bill, gun manufacturer lawsuits and overtime pay — and compared lawmakers' votes with the financial backing they received from interest groups supporting or opposing the legislation. The House passed five of the six bills and defeated an amendment that would have stopped the Bush administration from rewriting the rules for overtime pay. In the vast...

<p>While Gov. Gray Davis and legislators will be deciding what to cut, what to tax and how much to borrow as they deal with an immense state budget deficit, the specifics will largely depend on how well dozens of interest groups deploy their political resources for what promises to be some of the toughest political infighting ever seen in the Capitol.</p>