Free Republic

It was my first time voting in a presidential election, and, while only twenty-one years old, I was already disenchanted with the state of partisan politics in America. Entering the voting booth I had no idea for whom I was going to cast my vote, but I was thrilled at the opportunity to exercise my newfound citizenship privilege. I scanned the seven names listed and stopped at the Communist Party candidate, Gus Hall. I was vaguely familiar with the name but knew nothing about him. I pulled the lever on my protest vote and became one of the 58,709 Americans...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2007 – Despite being shot down over Iraq and nearly losing an eye, Air Force Tech Sgt. Christian MacKenzie remains committed to the Air Force and his love of flying. Then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper visits Tech. Sgt. Christian MacKenzie at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. MacKenzie, who served as a special operations Pave Low flight engineer, was shot down in Fallujah, Iraq, April 13, 2004. U.S. Air Force photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For nearly 10 years, life was good for MacKenzie. He’d found his...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Saying he had "no illusions" about the difficulty of unseating a popular celebrity governor, state Treasurer Phil Angelides said Monday he's confident he'll win the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006 and beat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a head-to-head showdown. "This isn't going to be a plain, vanilla election - we're not talking about potholes," Angelides said in an interview Monday before launching a five-day statewide campaign tour Tuesday morning. "Gov. Schwarzenegger and I have a different view of the world, two very different visions of what makes society strong." A longtime fixture in California politics,...