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<p>An acoustic sensor on a lamppost in East Orange, N.J., where the Police Department will start using the sensors next week in an effort to combat gun violence.</p> <p>EAST ORANGE, N.J., Aug. 16 - The sound of gunshots has become such a routine part of the urban cacophony here that the police say many residents do not even bother to call them anymore.</p>

The Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of influential party moderates, on Monday named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., to direct a new initiative to define a party agenda for the 2006 and 2008 elections. The appointment solidified the identification of Clinton -- once considered a champion of the party's left -- with the centrist movement that helped propel her husband to the White House in 1992. It also continued her effort, which has accelerated in recent months, to present herself as a moderate on issues such as national security, immigration and abortion. In her new role, Clinton immediately called for...

Immigration is the next big thing in political hot buttons, but who wins and who loses? Both parties are divided within their own ranks on how to position themselves for maximum advantage on an issue that is rising quickly toward the social and political surface. Both sides agree it could be a deciding factor in many races in next year’s midterm election. “It is the strongest issue out there for the blue-collar white males,” says Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a Virginia-based Democratic consultant who is co-author of an upcoming book, “Foxes in the Henhouse,” which will suggest ways his party can...

Leave it to the nation's most famous immigrant governor to trip himself up over the issue of immigration. In a recent policy speech to newspaper publishers gathered in San Francisco, Arnold Schwarzenegger prescribed an unintentionally inflammatory remedy for illegal immigration: "Close the borders. Close the borders in California and all across Mexico and the United States." When the stuff later hit the fan, particularly in California's immigrant communities, Ahnuld clarified that he meant "secure the borders," a politically safe position these days for politicians as diverse as President Bush and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Yet if stopping illegals, whether at...

Gov. Signs Gun-Permit Bill in Raton By Dave Kavanaugh Journal Staff Writer RATON— In the midst of several bill-signing ceremonies around the state, Gov. Bill Richardson chose the National Rifle Association's Whittington Center as the backdrop to add his signature to legislation allowing more New Mexicans to legally carry concealed handguns. House Bill 641 lowers the minimum age for concealed-carry permits to 21 from 25, extends the license term to four years from two and allows for a waiver of license fees for law enforcement personnel and retirees. Additionally, the legislation, approved by lawmakers during the recent session, removes the...

Parting company with some members of her own party, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said yesterday that setting a timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq would only give a "green light" to terrorists and undermine the country's nascent democratic government. Speaking with reporters by telephone from Baghdad, Clinton said there were "grounds for cautious optimism" about Iraq's direction after last month's successful national elections, which she called an "important milestone" because so many voted in the face of terrorist threats. Clinton said the Iraqi leaders she met over the weekend as part of a visiting Senate delegation were unanimous...

The [60 Minutes] interview also covered the war in Iraq, which was not mentioned in yesterday's excerpts. Rather said Clinton was "supportive" of President Bush on Iraq and that "it will surprise some people."

Vote NOTA!

[OK, barf bags on the ready...] (From paper copy) Bill Clinton is remebered for two things: the longest economic boom within living memory and some stains on a blue dress. The impression of the President of the USA as an unfaithful liar was the result of a Republican conspiracy and had little to do with politics. The boom was, however, entirely genuine and provided jobs and hope for hundreds of millions of people, not only in the USA. Now, both the dress and Clintonomics are history. Instead another heritage lives on. It is the way to conduct politics. Bill Clinton...

Several hundred people stormed the small yard of President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, yesterday afternoon, pounding on his windows, shoving signs at others and challenging Rove to talk to them about a bill that deals with educational opportunities for immigrants. Protesters poured out of one school bus after another, piercing an otherwise quiet, peaceful Sunday in Rove's Palisades neighborhood in Northwest, chanting, "Karl, Karl, come on out! See what the DREAM Act is all about!" Rove obliged their first request and opened his door long enough to say, "Get off my property."

I am sure that many of you were shocked, by the CNN poll showing J. Ketchup Kerry beating President Bush in a poll: http://cnn.allpolitics.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=CNN.com+-+Kerry+leads+Bush+in+new+poll+-+Feb.+2%2C+2004&expire=-1&urlID=9143781&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2004%2FALLPOLITICS%2F02%2F02%2Felec04.poll.prez%2Findex.html&part The poll goes against what most freepers regard as commonsense. Of course, you will say, a rich liberal New England elitist like Kerry can never get elected President. Right? No self-respecting folk in the South, the West, and the Mid-West will vote for him. Right? I will begin by stating an obvious fact that is well known to both you and I. That no Democratic Presidential candidate, who is truly HONEST about what the modern Democratic...

<p>A few weeks back, Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth in his own special Foghorn Leghorn way declared that he was "disappointed and shocked" when Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge suggested that President Bush might be softening government policy on undocumented workers.</p>

Rush has spent the last several minutes likening Bush to Nixon. Nixon gave us OSHA and the EPA. Bush is giving us Prescription Medicine benefits for seniors. Rush says the Republican party cannot claim to be the party of smaller government. This sounds likme the OLD Rush of 10 years ago! Go Get Em Rush!

Posted on Wed, Sep. 17, 2003 Schwarzenegger shifts toward centerLOS ANGELES TIMES Title: "Principles"Producer: Don SippleThe script: Schwarzenegger is pictured in the same cafeteria setting used in his last three TV commercials. Addressing what the campaign says are Schwarzenegger volunteers sitting around a lunch table, Schwarzenegger says: "My principles of leadership: progress over politics, bipartisanship always, and the will of the people is paramount. I will do the people's work, and I will take responsibility and be accountable to you." [Snip] Analysis: The ad would seem to represent an attempt to move back to the political center after a...

W's TriangulationBy Dick MorrisFrontPageMagazine.com | June 25, 2003 President Bush has stolen all the Democratic issues. Offering prescription-drug benefits under traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Expanded education funding. Boosting Head Start. Banning road construction in Wilderness Areas. Providing tax credits for lower-middle-income families. Ending racial profiling. Replacing expensive branded medicines with cheaper generic drugs. Like President Bill Clinton signing the welfare-reform bill and leaving Bob Dole with nothing to say, George W. Bush has triangulated and helped to assure his re-election. Two months ago, even in the flush of his victory in Iraq, Bush was vulnerable. His swift success in the War...

Triangulation, Good Politics -- Bad For The CountryBy John HawkinsIf I asked you what the worst thing in American politics was today, I would get a variety of answers. Some of you might say "dishonesty", others recoil from the "negativity" and I'm sure there are plenty of Americans fed up with the "petty partisanship" we're confronted with at ever turn. But me? I'd point to Dick Morris' Frankenstein monster, triangulation. For all intents and purposes, triangulation is the art of trying to be all things to all voters, or at least getting as close as possible. What you want to...

Senior White House Advisor Karl Rove has sworn off the concept of 'Triangulating' his fellow Republicans, the approach to Congress once synonymous with the Clinton Adminstration. [and their top advisor Dick Morris]At a closed door House Republican leadership retreat last Wednesday, Rove repeatedly stressed that the concept of political 'triangulation' does not work and said that President George W. Bush would not alienate House Republicans by moving to the center, leaving them isolated in efforts to rally the party's political base.Republican GOP Leadership aides said that the comments worked to reassure lawmakers after the President appeared to burnish his 'compassionate...

The Bush administration expressed at least limited support yesterday for the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in college sports, asking a federal court in Washington to dismiss a lawsuit by coaches of men's college teams who said enforcement of the law was hurting opportunities for male athletes. The National Wrestling Coaches Association filed suit against the Department of Education in January, saying the guidelines for a federal law known as Title IX discriminated against low-profile men's sports. Since then, alumni and student groups from Marquette University, Bucknell and Yale have joined the suit, charging that the Education Department's enforcement of...