Free Republic

This afternoon, my niece accompanied her boyfriend to vote and he was not asked for id. I happened to do a quick google search to research how early voting worked and ran across two other incidents of no id being required. Daily Kos members were sharing their early voting experience and were surprised no one asked for id. Here are the excerpts: Then, you have to fill out another, almost identical "Identity Form." Same deal, provide either the last four digits of your SSN or your entire driver's license number. Since I am a square looking, elderly white guy, they...

Democrats in their own words covering up the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac scam that caused our economic crisis. [So far, 685,000+ have watched it]

It appears that Barack Obama has trained his minions well—very very well, in fact. Obama’s group ACORN is under scrutiny or indictment in at least 14 states for voter fraud, embezzlement and misuses of taxpayer funds. One of the states—Missouri—is the state in which the Obama campaign now has Missouri police, St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce using their offices to intimidate and threaten those who speak ill about Kandidate Obama. Note: There are also rumblings that Missouri police may use their color of authority to intimidate all non-Obama voters. The chance...

Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said Sunday that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) should step down from his chairmanship while an ethics investigation takes place. Questioned by host Tom Brokaw on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’, Udall initially cited the ethics process and demurred. When pressed, though, he said that it would be “helpful” if Rangel stepped down. “I think it would be helpful if Charles Rangel stepped down,” Udall said.

"C. Clark Kissinger was released from three months in the federal detention center in Brooklyn. His crime? Fighting for justice for Mumia Abu-Jamal!... Clark has been a journalist and political activist since the early 1960s. ..."I was National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society and organized the first March on Washington against the war on Vietnam in 1965." ...Support for Clark has rolled in from many quarters. He has been nominated for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award..."

(snip)In a video shot and quickly posted on YouTube, a dark figure was caught stealing signs for the Erik Paulsen campaign near a Perkins restaurant in Maple Grove. “I’m a private citizen and they’re within the public right of way,” the woman in the video says. Another person in the video points out the sign stealer has an Ashwin Madia bumper sticker. “I also happen to be a Madia volunteer,” she says. A check of a license plate reveals she’s married to Dan Pollock -- Ashwin Madia’s communications director and spokesperson.

Let's name names, shall we. Out of control, partisan, ignorant, incompetent fools responsible for the country's financial meltdown. Via Hot Air, here is the video with transcripts of these morons. Throughout the video, Republicans are pointing out the mismanagement and malfeasance of Franklin Raines and the instability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and are positively begging for more regulation and oversight. The Democrats stopped them cold.

Soldier’s Car Vandalized At Dallas University http://www.nbc5i.com/news/17550315/detail.html

Animal Rights Activists Get Official Roles In City and County Dog Law Enforcement Undercover Surveillance, Vigilantes, Uniforms and Badges by JOHN YATES American Sporting Dog Alliance http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org asda@csonline.net PALM BEACH, FL – Animal rights activists in many parts of the country are proving the adage that paranoia doesn’t necessarily mean dog owners are crazy. Cities and counties that have enacted repressive ordinances targeting dog owners are increasingly using volunteers as a major tool to enforce the law. Not surprisingly, only animal rights activists are likely to be accepted as volunteers. Many of these activists are opposed to the private ownership...

A new set of potential problems in Rep. Charles Rangel's financial papers has prompted the tax-writing lawmaker to decide to hire a forensic accounting expert to try to unravel the mess. Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is already the subject of ethics committee investigations on several fronts, including unreported income and unpaid taxes on his beach house in the Dominican Republic. Despite Republican calls for Rangel to be stripped of his Ways and Means Committee chairmanship, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CBS 2 HD it is not going to happen.

The troubled Service Employee International Union (SEIU) in California is seeing yet another explosion of negative publicity this week as one of its Local chiefs is arrested for possessing child pornography. The Sacramento Bee is reporting Local 1000 District Labor Council 784 Jaime E. Feliciano, 49, was arrested Tuesday, September 9. Authorities on Tuesday arrested the president of a state workers union local on suspicion of possessing child pornography and violating his probation as a sex offender.... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

In Palm Beach County it goes from missing ballots to too many ballotsBy Mark Hollis | South Florida Sun-Sentinel 6:13 PM EDT, September 12, 2008 It's no longer a missing ballots problem in Palm Beach County. Now there are too many ballots. After a cumbersome resorting and recounting of ballots from the Aug. 26 election, investigators produced two new troubling findings Friday. First, auditors have discovered electronic evidence that 110 ballots from voters at a Delray Beach precinct weren't included in election night results. Those votes also weren't included in totals from a recount. Second, auditors verified that there are...

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage. Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse” under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property...

VERO BEACH, FL, -- The Vero Beach Police Department investigated a report of threatening telephone calls that were being made to the Republican Headquarters last month.The caller to the GOP office threaten to burn down the building. Investigators tracked the calls to the Republican headquarters to Randy Riddle Randy Riddle gave a statement to police admitting to calling the Republican Headquarters and making the threatening statement.On 09/11/08 an arrest warrant was signed for Randy Riddle, charging him with Making  Harassing Telephone Calls.   Randy Riddle was placed under arrest and transported to the Indian River County jail.  His bond was set at $500.00

A defensive Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel cited “cultural and language barriers” as reasons for failing to report $75,000 in rental income on a Dominican Republic beach house. Rangel gave the explanation at a Capitol Hill news conference, The New York Times reports, where he answered charges by saying, “I personally feel I have done nothing morally wrong.” The congressman then seemed to backpedal and claimed that he had been unaware of the income, and thus the taxes, because he had trouble getting detailed financial statements from the property’s managers in the Dominican Republic, according to the Times report. “Every time...

The powerful head of the tax policy committee in the House of Representatives said on Wednesday he will pay several thousand dollars in back taxes on investment income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic. "I personally feel that I've done nothing morally wrong," Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat who has represented New York City's Harlem district for 38 years, said at a news conference. He asked the House ethics committee to look into the matter and expressed "regret and embarrassment" in a letter released on Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. Rangel, chairman of...

As House GOP leaders called for his removal from the powerful chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) announced yesterday that he will repay "several thousand dollars" in back federal, state and local taxes owed on unreported income from a Dominican Republic vacation property. The Harlem Democrat will file amended federal, state and local tax returns to reflect $75,000 in income from the beachfront villa that he previously failed to list on tax and congressional financial disclosure forms, said his lawyer Lanny Davis. At a news conference today, Rangel planned to release a letter...

More held as convention protests continueTally grows to 315, expected to rise Gary Emerling Thursday, September 4, 2008 ST. PAUL, Minn. | Another day brought another series of protests during the Republican National Convention, as law enforcement officials remained on guard in a week filled with violent activity. National Guardsmen in full riot gear took up posts around the Xcel Energy Center following two days of protests that saw hundreds arrested, traffic disrupted and tear gas in the streets. Officials said 315 people had been arrested as of Wednesday evening, up from 280 on Monday. Secret Service spokesman Darrin Blackford...

A year ago, the Ramsey County sheriff's office began looking closely at a group called the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee. What it found, according to an 18-page search warrant application and affidavit, led to weekend raids on two Minneapolis homes and a temporary St. Paul office for the self-described anarchist group. According to the document, investigation learned: The self-described anarchist group — whose main goal was to "crash" the Republican National Convention," according to its Web site — traveled to or communicated with affinity groups in 67 cities to recruit members and raise money. Group members discussed the possibility...

Anti-corruption authorities have seized more than $630,000 (£315,000) raised during an "Africans for Obama" gala dinner held in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. Hundreds of the city's high-society elite and business leaders paid up to £11,000 for a table at the glitzy fundraiser, but police intervened when it became clear that US laws prohibit overseas donations. Staff from Barack Obama's campaign team said the Democratic presidential hopeful was in no way connected with the "Africans for Obama" organisation and added that no money from the group would be accepted. The organiser of the August 11 event, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, chair of the...

It's around noon and I'm driving to the Xcel Center in St. Paul when a group of kids pulls police tape across the intersection of 10th Street and Jackson. I ask a nearby girl to let me through. I'm not a cop, I say, and I'm not a delegate. I just want to find the parking lot. She smiles, flashes a peace sign, and turns away. Apparently people looking for parking are not the enemy. SNIP Now everyone's running up Sixth, away from the shrieking sirens. I hear a crash. I look to my right and see a ground-level window...

Anti-War Protesters Attack Conn. GOP Delegates Some Delegates Doused With Bleach-Like Substance; Rowdy Crowd Estimated At Between 2,000-10,000 ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ― Protesters attacked Connecticut delegates near the site of the Republican National Convention Monday in a demonstration where more than a dozen people were arrested by police using pepper spray amid window-smashing, bottle-throwing and tire-slashing. It was a violent counterpoint to an otherwise peaceful anti-war march not far from the Xcel Energy Center convention site. Many protesters involved in the more violent protest were clad in black and identified themselves to reporters as anarchists. They wrought havoc by...

Milwaukee has discovered some more voter fraud with 10 more voter registration workers are being investigated by Wisconsin authorities. Fittingly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the story in its paper on August 29. Unfittingly, the Journal Sentinel forgot one, tiny aspect of the story... that the voter fraud was perpetrated by Democrats. In fact, one of the organizations, ACORN, is intimately linked with Barack Obama. Milwaukee’s top election official said Thursday she plans to seek criminal investigations of 10 more voter registration workers, including two accused of offering gifts to sign up voters. So, what we have here is an...

Ramsey County sheriff's deputies found weapons and devices to disable buses - among other items - in searches in the Twin Cities last night and today. Authorities said the items came from "key members of the RNC Welcoming Committee," a self-described anarchist group. Five people have been arrested and four properties have been searched, according to the sheriff's office. At 8 a.m. today, the sheriff's office executed search warrants at three Minneapolis homes - 2301 23rd Ave. S., 3500 Harriet Ave. and 3240 17th Ave. S. The FBI, Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County sheriff's office assisted them. "The 'Welcoming...

Ramsey County sheriff's deputies found weapons and devices to disable buses - among other items - in searches in the Twin Cities last night and today. Authorities said the items came from "key members of the RNC Welcoming Committee," a self-described anarchist group. Five people have been arrested and four properties have been searched, according to the sheriff's office. At 8 a.m. today, the sheriff's office executed search warrants at three Minneapolis homes - 2301 23rd Ave. S., 3500 Harriet Ave. and 3240 17th Ave. S. The FBI, Minneapolis police and the Hennepin County sheriff's office assisted them. "The 'Welcoming...

Annapolis – An argument sparked by the Democratic National Convention turned violent when an Eastport man punched and chased his girlfriend around the house with a knife, Annapolis police said.City police responded to a call Wednesday afternoon from a woman who said her boyfriend attacked her. Jessica Christine Oldenberg told police that an argument began when her boyfriend Lorenzo Prince Glenn, was watching coverage of the Democratic convention and shouted “(expletive Republicans”.Ms. Oldenberg responded: “My dad is a Republican,” to which he responded, “(expletive your dad.)”According to the police report, Ms. Oldenberg “wanted to further upset him” and followed with...

A San Francisco radio host billed by his station as the "Lion of the Left" was sentenced yesterday to seven years of prison on a charge of e-mailing images of child pornography. Bernie Ward, a former Catholic priest who is now married with four children, hosted a Sunday radio program called "God Talk" on San Francisco-area radio station KGO-AM 810 and another program on weeknights devoted to news and politics. According to several reports, Ward earned his "Lion of the Left" nickname for his outspoken and staunchly liberal viewpoints. Ward came under FBI investigation last year after a woman with...

Sen. Christopher Dodd is sticking to his story that the two VIP mortgages he got from Countrywide Financial in 2003 had nothing to do with his membership on the Senate committee that oversees the lending industry. No, in Sen. Dodd's universe, members of Congress are treated no better or worse than the soiled masses. But in the real world: Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton last week dispatched a public-works crew to assist a "single woman" whose house was threatened by flooding caused by Tropical Storm Fay. The crew spent hours sandbagging the home of Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla, the Florida Times-Union...

A 22-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested Monday after police saw him carrying a bottle filled with feces, according to a police report. Zachary Patrick Grey, a University of Massachusetts student from Marion, Ma., was arrested at 1:40 p.m. Monday following a foot chase, according to a Denver County Court complaint. He was the first known person to be charged with possessing bodily waste during the DNC, though the threat of its use has been rumored by police and protesters alike for weeks leading up to the event. "It's disgusting for anyone to throw that at anyone," said Denver Police Lt....

Fox Reporter Assaulted By Anti-war Protestors In Denver August 24, 2008 - 15:30 ET The Democratic National Convention hasn't even begun, and the protestors are out trying to Recreate 68. For those unfamiliar, the group "was created for all the grassroots people who are tired of being sold out by the Democratic Party," and are gathering in Denver to "resist a two-party system that allows imperialism and racism to continue unrestrained." High profile activists such as Cindy Sheehan and Cynthia McKinney have already joined the festivities. On Sunday, Fox News's Griff Jenkins tried to speak to these folks as they...

Nutter defends using tax $$ to pay for aides' Denver tripBy CATHERINE LUCEY Philadelphia Daily News Posted on Thu, Aug. 21, 2008 Mayor Nutter says that it's OK to use city tax dollars to pay for his staff to attend the Democratic National Convention next week. Other mayors have made the opposite call. The mayors of Baltimore, Boston and Chicago are using their campaign committees to pay for their entourages to travel to Denver for the convention. "It's a political trip, it's not like a mayor's conference, it's a party conference," said Sterling Clifford, spokesman for Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon....

A quick reading of the measure that will go before San Francisco voters in November to decriminalize prostitution easily could leave you with the misimpression that the measure is an exercise in fairness that demands that prosecutors go after men who abuse prostitutes and implement policies "to reduce institutional violence and discrimination against prostitutes." A careful reading of the initiative, "Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution and Sex Workers," however, shows a measure that shields child prostitution and traffickers of human beings. "If I had just heard from the proponents, I would probably vote for it myself," said the Rev....

Edwards' Camp Funneled Money To Mistress' Firm Reporting Marcia Kramer NEW YORK (CBS) ― John Edwards and his associates went to great lengths to keep his affair a secret, even moving thousands of dollars in campaign funds around to keep things quiet. The latest questions surrounding the Edwards affair involve efforts to funnel money to his paramour, Rielle Hunter, months after she had stopped working for him. The Edwards campaign wanted the money to come from his political action committee, but the committee was out of cash, so the money had to be handled and manipulated carefully. In April of...

ACORN Cracks Wide Open Carl Horowitz Saturday, August 09, 2008 The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, is a network of nonprofit community groups formed nearly 40 years ago on the premise that banks, corporations and insurance companies, immersed in greed, have kept poor and predominantly minority neighborhoods desperate. Within the past couple months, however, its leaders have been engaged in the more mundane task of spinning a scandal that already has claimed its most visible leader. To longtime ACORN critics, it’s a case of belated just deserts. At the center of this storm are ACORN co-founder...

KRQE Channel 13 in Albuquerque aired this disturbing report about criminals, including child rapists, persons convicted of fraud and forgery, and drug dealers, being hired by ACORN to solicit voter registrations: The litany convictions and charges against these individuals is long and this story is not the first problem for ACORN this year nationally or in New Mexico. In June the Dona Ana County Clerk warned citizens about registering with third party groups. Across the country states like Arizona, Arkansas Louisiana, Nevada, Virginia, Wisconsin and others have warned citizens about registering with and providing sensitive personal information to groups like...

SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA: The FBI is investigating two bombings that targeted university scientists, the latest in a rash of attacks against biomedical researchers who experiment on animals, authorities say. Both scientists work at the University of California, Santa Cruz. One of them and his family were forced to escape from a second-story window early on Saturday when a firebomb was lit on the home's porch, Santa Cruz police said. An adult was treated at a hospital and released. Police Capt. Steve Clark called the bombing "an attempted homicide." Also that morning, a firebomb destroyed a car belonging to another researcher....

Barack has lots of friends, from powerful Senators to domestic terrorists. You heard me right, domestic terrorists. Barack's long list of associations is troublesome at best, and the fact that he surrounds himself with these folks (or did prior to the national spotlight), shouldn't be brushed aside. That's why the GOP, in yet another innovation, released BarackBook, a kind of humorous social networking spinoff meant to make it easy to learn about Barry's bad connections. Just take a look at a nice quote from the site from Obama strategist David Axelrod, about that dirty domestic terrorist William Ayers: "Bill Ayers...

UPDATE: John Edwards' secret meeting with his mistress at the Beverly Hilton hotel has now become part of a criminal complaint. NATIONAL ENQUIRER reporters Alan Butterfield and Alexander Hitchen filed a criminal complaint with the Beverly Hills Police Department on Thursday, July 24, charging that hotel security acted unlawfully while the reporters were trying to question the former senator. Edwards now could be contacted by police to give an eyewitness account of what occurred. Hotel security tried to stop the reporters from questioning Edwards in the basement of the hotel at approximately 2:40 a.m. Tuesday, July 22 after Edwards came...

Congressman Robert Wexler is answering questions after a news report alleges that he doesn't reside in his home district of Delray Beach. It is required that he keep a residence in the district he represents, but, according to the report, his primary residence is in Maryland, not Delray Beach. The Delray Beach condo he has claimed as his primary residence is actually owned by his in-laws, in a 55-and-over senior community. When questioned by a Fox News reporter Wexler insists he has done nothing wrong and is following the established guidelines for a residence in his district. Statement by Congressman...

HARRISBURG -- As the pivotal 2006 legislative election season began, top Democratic House aides, using state resources, undertook a wide-ranging opposition research campaign into both Democratic and Republican office seekers, e-mails show. The project was spearheaded by Eric Webb, director of the Democratic Office of Member Services, who, on Jan. 31, sent e-mails to state employees advising them to begin digging up information on 35 declared and potential candidates for the state House. "We are mainly looking for bad things: liens, bankruptcies, homicides ... you get the picture," Mr. Webb advised a dozen House colleagues via their state e-mail accounts....

State police believe some people are so angry with the current state of the country that they took their frustrations out on a veterans' cemetery in Westmoreland County. Burned flags, broken holders and anti-American writing now litter the Hillview Cemetery in Hempfield Township...

While aggressive evictions are making rent-stabilized apartments increasingly scarce in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent apartments in a sprawling penthouse overlooking Upper Manhattan, courtesy of one of New York’s premier real estate developers. ... Mr. Rangel is not the only prominent resident with a rent-stabilized apartment at Lenox Terrace. Gov. David A. Paterson told The New York Sun in May that he pays $1,250 for a rent-stabilized two-bedroom apartment in the complex that rents for $2,600 or more at market rates. ...

The vote fraud specialists at the radical group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) have already gotten their fall vote fraud campaign underway. The Harrisburg Patriot-News reports that ACORN's recent activities in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, are under investigation by county detectives. ACORN National President Maude Hurd said she did not believe the former employee, who collected up to 150 questionable voter registrations, sought to register ineligible people. "While we don't think the intent or the result of his action was to allow any ineligible person to vote, this employee defrauded ACORN and the American public," Hurd said. So...

Denver—With a recent move to relegate peaceful protestors beneath the Denver homeless population, Re-create 68 has now vowed that there will indeed be “a bloodbath” at the Democratic National Convention should they try to keep them fenced in. The American Civil Liberties Union and several advocacy groups have filed an amended complaint to their lawsuit, stating that their First Amendment rights have been violated by security restrictions. “What the hell do they think we are? Barnyard animals,” asked Tom Mestnik, a member of The Re-create ’68 Alliance, an umbrella group organizing the protesters. “They’re giving the homeless a free pass...

Louisiana Democratic congressman William Jefferson has announced that he will seek re-election to a 10th term despite the fact that he is facing possible imprisonment if convicted on corruption charges. “I was reelected in 2006 after these charges were lodged against me,” Jefferson pointed out. “The notion that a representative of the people has to be ‘squeaky-clean’ is refuted.” Jefferson argued that his run-in with the law makes him “a suitable representative of an under represented segment of our society—the common criminal. You know, one percent of the population is in jail. If congress is to truly represent all of...

The FBI released its [1] preliminary crime figures for 2007 last week, and as is sometimes the case there was both good and bad news to be found in the report. Violent crime in the U.S. fell by 1.4 percent last year, a modest decline to be sure but a decline nonetheless after increases of 1.9 percent in 2006 and 2.3 percent in 2005. This nationwide trend is largely attributable to the even more dramatic drop in crime seen in AmericaÂ’s largest cities: there was a 9.8 percent drop in murders in cities with populations of greater than one million....

One of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's sisters pleaded guilty Wednesday to concealing a crime for her role in alleged scheme to defraud the federal government. Brenda Jefferson, 52, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony. Prosecutors have charged three other Jefferson family members with pocketing more than $600,000 in state and federal grant money intended for charitable and educational projects. New Orleans tax assessor Betty Jefferson, her brother, Mose Jefferson, and her daughter, Angela Coleman, are scheduled to appear in court Friday on charges that include federal program fraud, identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Brenda Jefferson, also...

<p>The latest on the triple-default, single-foreclosure Democratic congresswoman from Long Beach: "Rep. Laura Richardson initially failed to disclose economic interests -- including a loan from a strip club owner -- when she served on the Long Beach City Council, public records show," the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.</p>

Another New Jersey school principal -- the third educator in a month -- has been indicted on car arson charges in Essex County as prosecutors crack down on suspected insurance fraud. The charges against Amanda Wright-Stafford, principal of the Lincoln Avenue Elementary School in Orange, come as cases of auto insurance fraud are growing nationally, according to experts who blame the souring economy. Wright-Stafford, 51, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on charges she faked the theft of her 2000 Honda Passport, which was found burning in East Orange in 2006. An indictment handed up in Superior...