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Barack Obama's lead over John McCain has diminished considerably in three battleground states, according to a poll published Thursday. The Quinnipiac University polls, conducted from July 23-29, found that Obama's lead has weakened in Pennsylvania and Ohio, two key swing states in November's presidential election. The poll also found the two candidates in a virtual tie in Florida.

In 2006, voters put control of the U.S. Congress back in the hands of the Democrat Party after just 10 short years. Voters were growing unhappy with a lot of things at the time and certainly the War in Iraq contributed. But this latest survey of voters across the country (Battleground XXXII), suggests the changing of Congressional leadership has done little to stem that tide.Today voters are even more negative about the direction the country is taking. Perhaps most importantly a plurality of American voters now think in the future their children will be worse off than they themselves are...

A classic dispute before the Air Resources Board, pitting environmentalists against builders over a multibillion-dollar plan to cut diesel pollution, has gone beyond the confines of the ARB and is spilling over into the state budget and the highest levels of the Schwarzenegger administration. Environmentalists have successfully pushed into the 2007-08 Senate budget version a provision that requires builders, with some exceptions, who win new infrastructure-construction contracts to use specially approved exhaust filters to block harmful diesel emissions. The language could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars--directly from the pockets of equipment owners. "The point here is to make...

The Future As the Presidential Campaign Takes Shape [snip]Looking at the 2008 Presidential Elections, the Republican Party has two strong and popular potential candidates – Rudy Giuliani (64%favorable/22% unfavorable) and John McCain (62% favorable/25% unfavorable). Both are at a 2.5 to 1 favorable/unfavorable ratio and both have strong images with Independents and in the Northeast, Midwest, and West – all demographics where the Republican Party has struggled in recent years. In addition, Mitt Romney (22% favorable/13% unfavorable) has a slightly positive image with considerable room to grow with 46% of likely voters having never heard of him. In contrast,...

MILWAUKEE - When it comes to statewide votes on gay marriage, the score so far is 20-0 in favor of keeping it a one-man, one-woman institution. If there's a chance to break the streak on Nov. 7, it might be in Wisconsin, where activists believe that support from unions, college students and church leaders — coupled with hoped-for conservative apathy — could enable them to finally overcome the string of losses. Among the hopeful are Debbie Knepke and Candice Hackbarth, devoted partners for nine years, raising a 3-year-old daughter and 7-month-old son in pleasant Milwaukee neighborhood. They have joined some...

GW-Battleground 2006 Poll Reveals Negative Environment for President Bush and Congressional Republicans and Potential Opportunities for Democrats in 2006 WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2005--The George Washington University Battleground 2006 Poll finds that the events of the past few months have had a negative impact on President Bush and the Congressional Republicans. However, it is not yet clear if the Democratic Party will be able to translate these negative sentiments into major gains at the polls in 2006. "Today, President Bush and Republicans face a political environment that, as reflected in current polling numbers, is the most negative environment of his Presidency,"...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20050715/tc_cmp/165702500 UN Panel: No Single Nation Should Control Internet Addresses Aoife White Thu Jul 14, 9:38 PM ET BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

Columbus -- Ending one of the last fights from the contentious 2004 presidential campaign, Ohio's top judge on Thursday declined to punish four attorneys who had challenged the results in court. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ruled against Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's attempt to have the lawyers sanctioned for filing "a meritless claim" against the vote that gave President Bush a win in Ohio and, as a result, enough electoral votes to win a second term in the White House. In legal documents filed with the state Supreme Court, the lawyers had said the challenge they filed on behalf of...

DUmmieland is in an uproar because the Leftwing TomPaine.Com website published an article claiming that there was NO vote fraud conspiracy in Ohio. This is heresy in the eyes of the DUmmies because one of their most treasured beliefs is that the EVIL Republicans STOLE the election by rigging the votes in Ohio. One side effect of this belief is that it made Bev Harris a very rich woman since she scammed the DUmmies for at least $300,000 by making them think she was only $10 away from proving vote fraud in Ohio. There are actually two DUmmie threads...

Russ Baker —an investigative reporter and essayist—is a longtime TomPaine.com contributor. He is involved in the development of  a new not-for-profit organization dedicated to revitalizing investigative journalism in America . To read more about the problems in the 2004 presidential election and proposals for reforming our electoral system, see  Best Of TomPaine: Election Irregularities In 2004.Back in January, I wrote a piece for TomPaine.com questioning widely circulated claims that the election in Ohio had been stolen. I had done some poking around, anticipating that at least some of the frightening anecdotes filling our mail boxes and raging on talk radio would be...

You can hardly pick up a paper these days without stumbling across yet another story on who likely will be elected president more than three years from now. It's hard to care this far out, but those so attuned would do well to skip the speculation and watch Florida in 2006. The nation's fourth-largest and perhaps most politically diverse state, Florida has replaced California as the new Petri dish. What happens there may be the best indicator for what will happen in the rest of the country come election time. And 2006 is an especially significant year for Democrats, who...

Since the MSM is concentrating on the new fraudulant poll that CBS has issued I thought I would share with y'all the hard facts. Funny how they only mention this CBS poll and do not mention this one, Gallup or Rasmussen. I believe Battleground and Rasmussen were the most accurate this past election.

Editor's Note: African Americans' overwhelming, decades-long support of Democratic candidates is being eroded by the Republican Party, which is attempting to redefine the very notion of black progress. LOS ANGELES--Top Democrats and civil rights leaders scoffed at Republican National Committee plans to set up a panel of GOP-leaning black leaders to wrench more blacks from the Democrats. In fact, they should be worried. At first glance the sneers seem justified. There's not one Republican among Congressional Black Caucus members. Nearly all black elected state and local officials are Democrats. The top civil rights leaders are all Democrats. And despite a...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The battle for Ohio in last year's presidential campaign came with a huge price tag: $100 million for television advertising alone, according to a new study. Ohio residents saw "a level of campaign activity unprecedented in modern times," according to the study released last week by five political science professors from the universities of Cincinnati and Akron. "Everyone had the sense that this was the most intense campaign ever and, by gosh, it was," said one of the authors, John Green, of the University of Akron. The election turned on Ohio's 20 Electoral College (news - web...

But by courting conservative blacks in battleground states — reaching out through programs such as the president's faith-based initiative — GOP organizers believe they made the difference that secured Bush's victory in 2004. In Ohio, for instance, a concerted effort increased black support for Bush from 9% in 2000 to 16% in 2004, providing a cushion that allowed the president to win the pivotal state outright on election night. The Black Contract With America will be unveiled by Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., a registered Democrat from suburban Washington who backed Bush in 2004 after voting against him four years...

SEN. KERRY: I lost, Tim, to an incumbent president by a closer margin than an incumbent president has ever won re-election before in the history of the country, and if you add up the popular vote in the battleground states, I won the popular vote in the battleground states by two percentage points. We just didn't distribute it correctly in Ohio.

Voters Drop Ohio Election Suit, Saying Certification of Electoral Vote Makes It Moot The Associated Press Jan. 11, 2005 - Three dozen voters challenging the presidential election results in the Ohio Supreme Court asked to drop their lawsuit Tuesday, saying it is moot with last week's certification of the electoral vote and the upcoming inauguration. Citing fraud, lawyers representing 37 voters on Nov. 2 had asked the court to examine several problems with voting procedures in the hopes of overturning President Bush's victory in the state. The election turned on Ohio's 20 electoral college votes, and not until preliminary results...

Recent News! They discover proof that Atlantis did not submerge complete but only one part...By Salvador Morales. Atlantis News Agency. Madrid, Spain. 01-06-2005. The Spanish investigator and scriptologist, Georgeos Diaz-Montexano, has discovered paleographical proofs that in fact the island or peninsula (Nêsos) denominated like Atlantis or Atlantic, it was divided in two parts below the sea. To date all atlantologists and students of the Timaeus and the Critias de Plato had thought that in texts of the Greek philosophist narrated the collapse of the all island or Atlantis peninsula, nevertheless, Georgeos Diaz-Montexano has reviewed the oldest texts known writings in...

The November 2004 Battleground Poll shows that sixty percent of Americans consider themselves either "very conservative" or "somewhat conservative," while only thirty-three percent consider themselves "very liberal" or "somewhat liberal."I have written often about the one public opinion poll which has proven most reliable and which has provided a hidden, but vital, bit of information about America: the Battleground Poll. This poll is one of the few which are the collaboration of two partisan polling organizations, in this case a Republican polling organization, The Tarrance Group, and a Democrat polling organization, Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates. This collaboration provides a...

Parties Should Court All Voters -- Not Just Those in Battleground StatesIf you saw a real live presidential candidate this year, you must live in one of those "battleground states." You're lucky. Most of us never laid eyes on a candidate except on television. In fact, most Americans are as likely to see a presidential candidate in the flesh as they are to see Elvis walk out of a Johnny Rockets hamburger stand. Despite being called a national campaign for the presidency, it really isn't national anymore. These elections have become a series of mini-campaigns in specific states calibrated to...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- This battleground state on Monday certified President Bush's 119,000-vote victory over John Kerry, even as third-party candidates prepared to demand a statewide recount.

Jeopardy question... What is - A party of elitists who are in denial about their losses, who fail to recognize that they aren't on the same page with their party's leadership, who appear blind to the concerns of the local electorate and local activists, and who at times appear to have lost their way from their founding? Answer is - The Democrat Party in 2004? Good guess and yes - but you'd also be describing today's Michigan GOP. In the month since President Bush was re-elected and claimed a mandate, the state GOP here in Michigan was acting like they...

This Holiday Season when your Bush-loving household is finally ready to give thanks for a year's worth of blessings, don't forget the Mighty Texas Strike Force. The Mighty Texas who, you ask? Well, with some swing states like Ohio and Florida, going red, and other battlegrounds like Pennsylvania inching ever so close, 1500 selfless Texans deserve recognition for fighting unseen battles to round up every last W vote. Whether you saw some extra Bush signs along your Michigan highway, got another W knock at your door in Iowa, or saw an unusually large number of passionate Bush supporters waving signs...

An attorney for a political advocacy group on Wednesday plans to file a "contest of election." The request requires a single Supreme Court justice to either let the election stand, declare another winner or throw the whole thing out. The loser can appeal to the full seven-member court, which is dominated by Republicans 5-2.

GOP on the Edge The Los Angeles Times notes an interesting trend in political demographics: In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas. . . These growing areas, filled largely with younger families fleeing urban centers in search of affordable homes, are providing the GOP a foothold in blue Democratic-leaning states and solidifying the party's control over red Republican-leaning states. Many agree that in these high-growth communities, as in much of the...

THIS AM...on Fox News, Podesta was being interviewed about the library. When asked about the extend of the displays about shillery, he said that...she was important..."as the vice president." He didn't say, "as was the vice president."

Judy (hmmm?) Woodruff just had a report that Karl Rove had offered Nebraska Sen Ben Nelson the post of Secretary of Agriculture. Nelson is up in 2006...and facing a hard race from popular GOP Gov Mike Johanns. Nelson is among the most conservative of Senate Dems..Does this make sense, because Nelson votes with the GOP on most of the key issues..?

WASHINGTON - Democratic Party leaders said Wednesday they want to know why Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) ended his presidential campaign with more than $15 million in the bank, money that could have helped Democratic candidates across the country. Some said he will be pressured to give the money to Democratic campaign committees rather than save it for a potential White House bid in 2008. "Democrats are questioning why he sat on so much money that could have helped him defeat George Bush (news - web sites) or helped down-ballot races, many of which could have gone our...

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004 5:45 p.m. ESTClinton 'Elvis' Library to Include Monica As Bill Clinton's library is unveiled at a gala opening this week, one thing is certain: His messy legacy will be on full display. One alcove will be dedicated to impeachment, and organizers have promised not to sidestep even Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones. The 58-year-old political superstar is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to his library. "Bill Clinton is a rock star," said Skip Rutherford, head of Clinton's nonprofit foundation that built the $165 million library. "He is Elvis."...

From "Light the Lamp!": The monthly newsletter of the Holy Flame Pentecostal Church of Little Rock, Ark. We welcome back to the area Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), who has been spending so much time here in Little Rock lately that she's practically joined the church choir! "I'm here spending time at my husband's library," she told the Lamp when we caught up with her after a Sunday camp meeting, "and of course, I always take time to worship God in as evangelical a way as is feasible, given time and location constraints. As you know, I consider myself an...

By Rob Long EDITOR'S NOTE: This article appears in the November 29, 2004, issue of National Review. Church Newsletters From All Over From "Light the Lamp!": The monthly newsletter of the Holy Flame Pentecostal Church of Little Rock, Ark. We welcome back to the area Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), who has been spending so much time here in Little Rock lately that she's practically joined the church choir! "I'm here spending time at my husband's library," she told the Lamp when we caught up with her after a Sunday camp meeting, "and of course, I always take time to...

(The) "nuclear option," (is) a parliamentary maneuver to effectively change Senate rules so that only a simple majority is needed to end a filibuster of a judicial nominee. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he has not decided whether he would invoke that option next year. Robert F. Bennett, R-Utah, the chief deputy majority whip, said such a move would occur only if Democrats filibuster a Supreme Court nomination. It's the last paragraph in the source link.

Many pundits say that election 2004 was about morals; moral voters pulled it for bush while immoral ones for kerry. Since crime is consequence of immorality, crime rates by county, especially in battleground states, should resemble election results.

Democrats didn’t get it and the media still doesn’t. A record turnout of gun owners has once again helped shape the political landscape, this time around not only retaining control of the White House, but also reinforcing the strength of the Republican majority in both houses of Congress. Firearms owners, including millions of hunters, were far quicker to see through the façade John Kerry and his strategists tried to build, attempting to portray the Massachusetts liberal as pro-gun and pro-hunting when his 20-year voting record belied that image. When a politician has a track record of supporting every kind of...

Could President Bush have won Pennsylvania if he would have endorsed Toomey instead of Spector? Toomey lost in the Republican primary (49½ to 50½ %). Things were looking pretty good for Toomey until Bush weighed in. He could have left it at a pro-forma statement of support, but instead he came to Pittsburgh to stand beside Specter and say: "I appreciate my friendship with Arlen Specter. He's been a friend for quite a while. I'm proud to campaign for him. I think he's earned another term in the United States Senate. He's a bit independent-minded sometimes, but there's nothing wrong...

Here's how we did it, FReepers:

bout time

Gallup Job Approval: 51% Gallup Pre-Allocation Horserace: 49%/47%/1%, 4% undecides Gallup Post-Allocation Horserace: 49%/49%/1% Nader If Gallup allocated half (like Pew): 51%/49%/1% For comparison, the closest to actual results among top tier pollsters were: Pew: 51%/48%/1% Battleground (before adjustment): 50%/46%/0% Battleground (after adjustment): 51.2%/47.8%/0.5% To-Date Results: 51%/48%/1%, 99% reporting

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- In his bid to win re-election, George W. Bush believed he could carry Nevada a second time, despite Democratic challenger John Kerry's many efforts to win the state. President Bush carried out his strategy and won a hard-fought duel in battleground Nevada, a victory that could seal this tightly contested presidential race. In final, unofficial returns from the Nevada secretary of state's office, President Bush received 414,939 votes, or 50 percent. Kerry grabbed 393,372 votes, or 48 percent. Independent Ralph Nader had 1 percent of the votes. Nevada and its crucial five electoral votes -- one...

How fascinating that the pro-Democrat media establishment so quickly called states for Sen. John Kerry where his margin of alleged victory is smaller than President Bush's lead in Ohio. The tally in Pennsylvania, according to pro-Kerry CNN: 2,868,674 for Kerry, 2,746,856 for Bush, an advantage of 121,818. In Ohio: 2,794,346 for Bush, 2,658,125 for Kerry, an advantage of 136,221. And check out New Hampshire: 340,019 for Kerry, 330,848 for Bush, a difference of only 9,171. Then there's Wisconsin, which CNN, USA Today and others claim Kerry won: 1,482,583 for Kerry, 1,468,937 for Bush, a difference of only 13,646.

According to the state of Ohio, The official number of provisional ballots in Ohio is 135,149. With 99% of the Ohio vote counted, Bush leads Kerry by 145,098 votes. Do the math, John Kerry!!!! http://election.sos.state.oh.us/ProvBallots.htm

Talk about hitting it head on!!!

President Bush and challenger John Kerry traded early swing-state victories Tuesday night, a tension-packed conclusion to a race for the ages fought out over Iraq, the economy and terrorism. With results coming in from Connecticut to Colorado, the race remained wide open. The candidates sweated out a long night of vote counting and excruciating Electoral College math: It was too close to call in Ohio and Florida, with a combined 47 electoral votes out of the coveted total of 270. Kerry won the battleground state of Pennsylvania, worth 21 electoral votes. Among the other battlegrounds, Bush won West Virginia's five...

Go Bush!

ABC News calls that Bush has won the state of Florida! One more nail in the coffin of the French-looking candidate.

Capital Ideas Election Results Launchpad with Direct Links to Battleground States Results...

Didn't find this on a quick search. I'd like Pennsylvania voters to post their experiences here.Please indicate where you are, the general atmosphere, time you got to the polls, time you left and anything else of interest.We live west of Greensburg, PA-- a swing area of a swing state. Mostly good people, but a lot of Kool-Aid drinking union and ex-union members.We arrived at 7:30 a.m., weather pleasant, lines longer than I've ever seen them. We emerged at 7:55 a.m. Both camps out in force.

Links to battleground states results all at one site! Bookmark to check all evening once polls begin to close...