Free Republic

Virginia was once a solidly conservative Republican state, but in recent years it has tilted Democratic. A big reason for the shift is the GOP's recent love affair with higher taxes. In the 1990s Republican Governors George Allen and Jim Gilmore won sweeping victories running as tax cutters. Then in 2004 Richmond Republicans enacted the largest tax increase in the commonwealth's history -- a $1 billion hike in sales and tobacco taxes. Now they are flirting with another tax hike even though the state has a Blue Ridge Mountain-high $900 million budget surplus. Why? The hot political issue in northern...

More on ABC's Breathtaking Scoop [Ed Whelan  01/24 06:00 PM] From a reader who took part in the seminar that Justice Scalia led:“I was fortunate enough to have a first-seat view of the famous Beaver Creek conference that ABC is making much about. . . . As I recall, the timing of Roberts's confirmation vote and swearing in were up in the air to the last minute. . . . As I recall, he was sworn in within 3 hours of the vote, and it was announced as a surprise at the conference. Scalia even mildly chuckled from the podium...

TAKING LIBERTIES Shut Up, They ExplainedThe left's regulatory war against free speech.BY BRIAN C. ANDERSONWednesday, January 25, 2006 12:01 a.m. ESTThe rise of alternative media--political talk radio in the 1980s, cable news in the '90s, and the blogosphere in the new millennium--has broken the liberal monopoly over news and opinion outlets. The left understands acutely the implications of this revolution, blaming much of the Democratic Party's current electoral trouble on the influence of the new media's vigorous conservative voices. Instead of fighting back with ideas, however, today's liberals quietly, relentlessly and illiberally are working to smother this flourishing universe...