Free Republic

SACRAMENTO The top candidates for lieutenant governor disagreed on government spending, health insurance, abortion and several other issues Saturday in a sometimes biting debate that demonstrated sharp differences in their philosophies. Republican Tom McClintock cast the election as a choice between someone who would work to cut taxes and regulations that are "crushing California" and someone who would support increasing them. "I believe firmly that we've got to reduce the taxes and regulations that are crushing our families, that we've got to restore fiscal integrity to California," he told several hundred people at a forum sponsored by Asian Pacific Islander...

Australia issues Solomons threat Mr Sogavare became prime minister after riots in April Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has threatened to withdraw some visa privileges for Solomon Islands politicians, local media said. The threat came in retaliation for the Solomons' expulsion of Australia's top diplomat, in a growing row over a police investigation into April riots. High Commissioner Patrick Cole was officially told to leave on Tuesday. A senior Australian envoy is in the Solomons' capital, Honiara, to protest against the decision. Mr Downer told Sky News that the government was seeking a measured response. "We can't just have our...

So with crude crossing the $50-a-barrel threshold in late September and continuing to set new records, it raises the question, Will George W. Bush pay for this year's 50%-plus rise in oil?

Several polls show that the No. 1 issue heading into the election season is not the war in Iraq or the terrorist threat, but the performance of the U.S. economy, which has gotten poor marks from voters despite steady growth and lower unemployment. Voter concern over the top two or three issues has risen or fallen in tandem with progress in the war in Iraq, the cost of oil and gas and news about the foiled terrorist plot in London. A CNN/Opinion Research poll of 1,004 Americans taken Sept. 4 and 5 showed that 28 percent said the economy would...

President Bush has dramatically enlarged the issue of terrorism in the 2006 midterm elections by revealing the names, faces and confessed plots of the Islamic radicals held by the CIA. In a sweeping, lay-it-all-out White House address that elevated the issue of the deadly dangers Americans still face from terrorism, Bush confirmed the existence of foreign-based CIA prisons where terrorists have been secretly interrogated by intelligence agents and even disclosed some of the plots they planned to execute against the United States and our allies. Last week's speech, part of a series of speeches to remind Americans of the increasing...

The Wapo has this sidebar section on Elections 2006 entitled "Bellewethers: Key Issues in the Battle for Congress" with a sub-title: Eight Issues That Will Shape the 2006 Elections. Note well that "Gun Control" is not one of them.

Five years after the 9/11 tragedy, the kingpin of Abraham Lincoln's party is still dead set on fooling most of the people most of the time. President Bush and his chorus of Republican pols, Cabinet members and neo-con sycophants would have us believe we're safer or, depending on political expediencies, not that safe. According to the president's pre-9/11 anniversary speeches on the progress of the war on terror, we're safer than we were before the attacks but not yet safe enough to steer clear of his failed stay-the-course strategy. As Bush explains it, al-Qaida's leadership is decimated but remains dangerous...

WASHINGTON - President Bush hopes to revive his plan to overhaul the U.S. Social Security retirement program if his Republican party keeps control of the Congress in the November midterm elections, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. ADVERTISEMENT Despite polls suggesting Democrats have their best chance in years to regain control of the House of Representatives, Bush told the newspaper in an interview he was confident a power shift was "not going to happen." "I just don't believe it," he said, adding that if Republicans prevail at the polls, next year might be a good time to reintroduce the...

At a rally held earlier this week to encourage Governor Schwarzenegger to veto bills that would promote homosexuality in California’s public schools, I made the following statement: “Our governor is a Republican. We represent what are called ‘values voters.’ No Republican has ever gotten elected in any state without the vote of values voters. No Republican has ever gotten elected in this state without our vote.” Can a Republican get elected without our vote? There are those who are betting that this is not true. Read More...

WASHINGTON - House Republicans are crafting new bills to crack down on illegal immigrants, nailing the coffin shut for now on broader legislation that would give many illegal immigrants legal status. If the bills are approved, Republicans can go into midterm elections Nov. 7 saying they took action on illegal immigration. At the same time, they can appease conservatives who oppose giving illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, which some have called amnesty. "Our borders are a sieve and we are at war and we certainly need to act like we are at war. We need to close our borders,"...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2006 -- Five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the United States is safer because it’s made sweeping changes to close security gaps revealed that day and has taken the terrorist fight to the enemy, President Bush said today in Marietta, Ga. Bush, addressing the Georgia Public Policy Foundation during his fourth major speech in the past week about the terror war, provided a progress report on steps taken since Sept. 11 to protect the American people and win the war against extremism. The past five years have seen “an unprecedented campaign” that has succeeded...

MACON, Ga. - President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks. "I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He's been an embarrassment." In the heart of Dixie, comparisons to Grant, a symbol of the Union, is the worst sort of insult, especially from a Macon woman who voted for Bush in 2000 but turned away in 2004. In recent years, Southern women have been some of Bush's biggest fans, defying the traditional gender gap in which...

As top House Republicans huddle Thursday to determine their next step in the heated debate over illegal immigration, limited options, a short legislative calendar before November elections and a partisan atmosphere will make it incredibly difficult to pass comprehensive legislation. Because of strident opposition from House conservatives, GOP leaders have given up on passing a comprehensive bill that would address the plight of the estimated 11 million individuals here illegally. But, determined to salvage something in an attempt to connect with voters, they intend to focus on boosting resources for border security. "The conversations about the overall bill, the larger...

All things considered, Democrats would rather be talking about the economy; they think it is favorable ground for them. Yet Democrats are often undone by talking about the economy — more precisely, by how they talk about the economy. That is the argument of a persuasive paper by Anne Kim and Jim Kessler for the moderate Democrat outfit Third Way. They note that, for a self-styled “party of the middle class,” the Democrats don’t win many middle-class voters. Democrats tell themselves bedtime stories about why this is so, including the thesis advanced by Thomas Frank, author of What’s Wrong With...

AURORA, Colo. — It was not by chance that Republicans brought their summer tour of hearings on illegal immigration to this growing community just outside Denver. Not only is Aurora bearing the costs of schooling and providing other services for a significant population of illegal immigrants, it is in the heart of a swing district and so is central to the intense battle for control of the House of Representatives. And while Congress is unlikely to enact major immigration legislation before November, inaction does not make the issue any less potent in campaigning. In fact, many Republicans, on the defensive...

The fall 2006 elections are now just two months away. Although the conventional wisdom is that Republicans will have a tough time this fall, I believe that we can still win -- but not without substantial changes. In this edition of "Winning the Future," I outline 11 values-led policies that are both morally right and that enjoy (not coincidentally) the overwhelming support of the American people. These are the values and the policies that Republicans should embrace this fall. Here's the key: Republican victory in 2006 depends on a return to the American values that twice elected Ronald Reagan and...

BURLINGTON, Ky. - Life is cramped at the Condit household. Dale and Sharon Condit and their two young sons need more room but can't seem to sell their current home — on the market now for three months. • Full politics coverage In a year when politics is being roiled by angry debates over the Iraq war and immigration, it might seem odd to imagine the midterm elections being waged over square footage and closet space. But these are parts of a lifestyle that Sharon Condit, a deputy clerk of court, describes as dogged by a sense of limits: "We...

The current session of the Legislature wrapped up last week with an orgy of back-slapping and congratulation-swapping. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Don Perata joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in trumpeting an “extraordinarily productive” year in state government. Much of the media joined in this chorus of “Sacramento the Beautiful” in analysis pieces and editorials asserting times had changed on the state government front. Don't believe a word of it. On the most important issues, nothing has changed. A credible argument can be made that the governor and the Legislature did far better on the process front this year...

The Republicans are hardly the last word in human wisdom, but right now they are the only ones acting normal. Sure, Democrats think they are making sense, but that’s only when they talk to each other. There aren’t enough grey-beard loons in the country to win national elections. What the Dems don’t get is that they have flagrantly and repeatedly crossed a clear red line in American politics: The line between being for our country or against it. Forget the word “patriotism.” The question is, do Democrats favor a strong and vigorous America that protects itself—- and the entire West—-...

CNN Poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation. Aug. 2-3, 2006. N=1,047 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. "Do you approve or disapprove of the U.S. military action in Afghanistan?" ----------------Approve--Disapprove-- Unsure 8/2-3/06----------56--------41---------3 "Who do you think is currently winning the war in Afghanistan: the U.S. and its allies, the insurgents in Afghanistan, or neither side?" ---------U.S. and Allies-------Insurgents-------Neither Side-------Unsure 8/2-3/06-------28-----------------10-------------58------------------5