Free Republic

It's O-fficial. At least until it isn't again. Al Franken will be standing - in a puddle of some controversy - along with appointed Illinois would-be Senator Roland Burris at the gates of that exclusive DC institutional club filled with a mixture of brilliant public servants and besotted stiffs (sometimes in the same person.) Which one will actually get in the Senate door and which one won't? Members-only seating on the underground Capitol Hill railway and exclusive elevator use are at stake here. Mr. Burris arrives with the fingerprints of felonious intent on his back from the Blagojevich hands that...

ST. LOUIS -- A voter registration recruiter working for the group ACORN has been indicted on two felony counts of voter registration fraud. Deidra Humphrey, 44, of East St. Louis, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in St. Louis this week after a federal grand jury indicted her on the charges Dec. 31, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Humphrey is accused of submitting forged and false voter registration cards for the November general election, including forging cards for nursing home residents, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Monday.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected Republican Norm Coleman's request to count an additional 650 rejected absentee ballots in the state's U.S. Senate recount. The court's ruling Monday likely paves the way for the state Canvassing Board to certify results showing Democrat Al Franken won the race. But Coleman's attorneys have said they are likely to sue if he loses the recount, meaning it could be weeks more before the outcome is final.

Democrat Al Franken pushed his lead in Minnesota's Senate recount above 220 today, as state and campaign officials counted absentee ballots that weren't part of the original election tally. Franken netted at least 175 votes more than Republican Norm Coleman in the review of the formerly sealed absentee ballots. There were more than 900 in the pile that were counted today.

CLEVELAND - Though the recession is crimping the spending of most Americans, Ohio Democrats plan to live large in the New Year -- at least during this month's four-day inaugural celebration. From elected officials to former office holders to proud volunteers, Ohio Democrats have purchased all of the state party's 150 allotted rooms at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, a historic luxury hotel not far from the White House. Only a handful of Ohio rooms are being held for last-minute VIPs. The price tag for celebrating the election of Democrat Barack Obama rivals the extravagance of the bygone housing boom: A...

Was 2007 the best year for socialism since 1917? The Guardian, the leftist, daily newspaper, based in the U.K., has reported as much. Investment banks, like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, failed. Wall Street took a precipitous dip, dropping by close to 40 percent, enraging middle class investors, whose 401K plans were threatened enough for them to vote, against common sense, for an avowed Marxist, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., a man with no accomplisments in life, save for getting elected, through ever more politically correct manipulations of the electoral system. But the rage hasn’t amounted to a revolution — yet....

GOP leaders reacted angrily Wednesday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s tactic of all but projecting Al Franken the victor over incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, even as Minnesota election officials continue to count the votes. "At this stage, it appears that Franken will be certified the winner by the State Canvassing Board,” said a statement Reid’s office released Tuesday. “We're keeping abreast of the situation and will make a decision with regard to Senate action at the appropriate point in the process."

There is a rush on in some quarters of the liberal mainstream press to blame President Bush for anything and everything that could cause grief to the incoming Obama Administration. The New York Times, one of the usual suspects, takes its turn today with an article that attempts to lay blame at the feet of Bush for a chain of events that has it's root in the decisions of President Bill Clinton.

On domestic policy, George W. Bush has been a terrible president. He sold out to the left early and often and when called on it has been irritatingly self-righteous. However, there is at least one domestic issue on which he does not deserve to be pilloried: housing policy. And yet the New York Times has excoriated Bush on an issue where he was clearly more right than wrong. The NYT hit piece from Sunday, "White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire," by Jo Becker, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and Stephen Labaton, dovetails perfectly with Times reporters' legendary hostility to markets and limited...

It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it. "We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and plans to stay on the job. In his first official statement since his arrest on corruption charges last week, Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-Uh-vich) says he will fight until he takes his "last breath." ... The Democratic governor says he intends to "answer every allegation in a court of law."

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The tight Minnesota U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken has become incredibly close -- with Coleman clinging to a two-vote lead. That's the latest tally after the state Canvassing Board spent a third day ruling on disputed ballots. There are hundreds of challenges yet to decide, as well as thousands of withdrawn challenges that have yet to be tallied. Coleman had entered Thursday's session leading Franken by 360 votes. But that lead eroded all day as the board considered a pile of challenges brought entirely by the Coleman campaign....

Herb London is the President of the Hudson Institute, a Professor Emeritus at NYU, and a former candidate for Governor of New York on the Conservative Party ticket. He took the results of November's election harder than we did, and wonders whether this country has undergone a profound change for the worse. Herb wrote this provocative essay for Power Line: The results are in and my candidate lost the presidency. Since I love this country, I wish the newly named President Barack Obama every success. But this was an election unlike any other. I don't think the Republicans merely lost...

Labor unions, environmentalists and liberal advocacy groups are getting behind president-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus plans geared toward public works. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and the Economic Policy Institute Campaign for America's Future and People for the American Way Foundation, both backed by financier George Soros, are among groups launching a major lobbying push in favor of Obama's stimulus spending programs. Soros has been a harsh critic of the Bush administration. The AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, National Education Association and AFSCME government workers union are the main labor drivers...

In Ohio, a state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit was against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The lawsuit alleges ACORN has engaged in a pattern of corrupt activity that amounts to organized crime.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested four activists from ACORN Wednesday for allegedly disrupting a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting. Protesters from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now were at the meeting to criticize Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s policies, including his focus on illegal immigration. ACORN and other critics say the immigration focus takes away from other priorities. Arpaio said the four were warned by deputies not to disrupt the meeting and that Wednesday’s disorderly conduct charges follow the arrest four ACORN protesters Monday. “They’re always griping about me,” said Arpaio. ACORN political coordinator Teresa Castro...

1 plus 1 equals 20 extra votes for Franken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: December 17, 2008 5:45 pm Eastern © 2008 It's bad enough that the Republican Party can't prevent Democrats from voting in its primaries and saddling us with the New York Times' favorite Republican as our presidential nominee. If the Republican Party can't protect an election won by the incumbent U.S. senator in Minnesota, there is no point in donating to the Republican Party. The day after the November election, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman had won his re-election to the U.S. Senate, beating challenger Al Franken by 725 votes. Then...

This short news report might have been a bit longer if it had been written a couple of weeks later than it was. This story is dated September 5th and deals with one of the key issues about immigration that virtually no one is willing to talk about - especially politicians and others who subscribe to the open borders philosophy and to the idea of providing the millions of illegal aliens who are in our country with a Guest Worker Amnesty Program and a "Pathway to United States Citizenship." It deals with illegal aliens using stolen Social Security numbers and...

Tomorrow the Canvassing Board presiding over the recount convenes to consider challenged ballots that were excluded because of their disputed status from the recount. At the urging of the Canvassing Board, both the Coleman and Franken campaigns are reducing the number of ballots they have challenged. The Canvassing Board consists of Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie -- the Man from ACORN and George Soros -- and four judges (including Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson and Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson). Last week the Canvassing Board unanimously adopted Al Franken's playbook for the recount, taking action that threatens...

12.10.08 VIDEO: Secretary of State Mark Ritchie discusses the Recount of the 2008 Senate Race in Minnesota between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. These remarks are part of a forum held on "The Minnesota Tradition of Fair Elections" hosted by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. 12.12.08 VIDEO: Ritchie On Counting Improperly Rejected Absent Ballots # # # # # 11.20.08 VIDEO: Minnesota Majority (Standing Together for Traditional Values) blasts commie Soros puppet SOS Mark Ritchie. Announce they are filing a formal complaint with the U.S....

I've been a registered nurse for 30 years, so the future of American health care is one of my greatest concerns. Now that Mr. Obama has won the election, I decided to investigate what may be facing patients and health care workers. I started my research at Barack Obama's website and his Plan for a Healthy America. What a waste of time.  It read like a treatise from a beauty pageant contestant. What kind of medical expertise does Barack have? Remember this youtube  where his teleprompter malfunctioned?  He stumbled through an excruciatingly inept explanation of how health care costs can...

Naturalists are baffled this fall by a shortage of acorns in the eastern U.S. Residents in some areas report plenty of acorns, while others have seen none at all Acorn growth runs in cycles, so a lean year may be normal after last year's big crop Some scientists fear the shortage will affect squirrel populations (CNN) -- Up and down the East Coast, residents and naturalists alike have been scratching their heads this autumn over a simple question: Where are all the acorns?Oak trees have shed their leaves, but the usual carpet of acorns is not crunching underfoot.In far-flung...

THE national wave of home foreclosures, many concentrated in lower-income and minority neighborhoods, has created a strong temptation to find the villains responsible. ... There’s little doubt that the rating agencies helped inflate the housing bubble. But when we round up all the culprits, we shouldn’t ignore the regulators and affordable-housing advocates who pushed lenders to make loans in low-income neighborhoods for reasons other than the only one that makes sense: likely repayment. ... The Community Reinvestment Act was passed in 1977 when bank competition was sharply limited by law and lenders had little incentive to seek out business in...

  If there is a lesson to be learned from the 2008 election, it is not that the pro-life movement should abandon its efforts to overturn Roe.  Rather, the lesson is that the pro-life movement, vastly outgunned and outspent, is in dire need of an army of professional community organizers.   The success of, and controversy surrounding, the voter registration efforts of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) illustrates this need.    During the 2008 election cycle, ACORN employed over 13,000 registration assistance workers to successfully register 450,000 new voters.   But voter registration is just one aspect...

Blagojevich refuses to budge NBC Nightly News VIDEO: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/28200681#28200681&gt1=43001

America wanted change and we sure got it. We elected a politician who looked and sounded fresh and new and different (and don't forget "clean" as Senator Biden once remarked), and promised that magic word "change." Aren't we lucky? It appears that the change we got is that we've moved Chicago machine-style politics into the White House. We found out on Tuesday what that business model consists of- the good Governor of Illinois was arrested for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama's United States Senate seat. Yes, I said sell Obama's seat to the highest bidder. It's nice to know...

<p>President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.</p> <p>The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.</p>

MINNESOTA BALLOTS: LAND OF TEN THOUSAND FAKESDecember 10, 2008 What is the point of having a hand recount of ballots in the Minnesota Senate race if the Democratic secretary of state is going to use the election night totals in precincts where it will benefit Democrat Al Franken? Either the hand recount produces a better, more accurate count, or there was no point to the state spending roughly $100,000 to conduct the hand recount in the first place. But that is exactly what the George Soros-supported secretary of state has agreed to do in the case of a Dinkytown precinct...

<p>A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney's office would not confirm the information, and a spokesman for the governor did not immediately return a phone call for comment.</p>

... [T]he Justice Department should bring a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) prosecution against ACORN nationally, and shut it down permanently before it can taint any more elections by delivering its legions of multiply (or otherwise fraudulently) registered "voters" to the polls. (And remember, too, that while high-profile contests like the ones cited above make the headlines, there's no way of knowing how many closely contested down-ballot races - from city council members and county commissioners to state representatives and senators - ACORN may affect the outcomes of with its suspect electioneering.) RICO, enacted as part of the Organized...

The grassroots community organization, ACORN, is fighting for a new law it says will save lives. "Stop the Bullet" is a campaign that would make it harder for felons to buy ammunition from stores.When you buy a gun, gun shops have to run a background check first to make sure you're not a convicted felon.Although it is also illegal for convicted felons to buy bullets, a background check is not required. As it stands now, gun shops aren't required to ask any questions before selling bullets, as long as the buyer is 18 and can present identification.Community organizer for the...

Democrat Al Franken's campaign lodged a protest today over 133 votes that it said could not be accounted for during the U.S. Senate recount of a precinct in Minneapolis, which resulted in a loss of as many as 46 votes for the candidate. Campaign officials sent a letter to the Secretary of State's office and Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert demanding that the votes in one city precinct not be officially reported until a search is conducted for the ballots. Reichert, who said the discrepency was resolved "to my satisfaction," said she plans to report it to the Secretary of...

The final day of recounting in Ramsey County in the U.S. Senate race kicked up controversy today when 171 uncounted ballots from Maplewood turned up. The ballots apparently had been uncounted because of a ballot-counting-machine malfunction on Election Day. Democrat Al Franken made a net gain of 37 votes from the ballots, as he got 91 of the total, to 54 for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and 26 for other candidates, including Dean Barkley of the Independence Party. Once those were counted, election officials found that there appeared to be 31 more ballots cast than the number of voters who...

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head. Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill. But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last...

INTERVIEW SNIPPET: "Frontpage Interview’s guest today is John Ziegler, a former talk show host who is the director of the documentary Blocking 'The Path to 9/11’. He is now working on a new project, HowObamaGotElected. FP: John Ziegler, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Ziegler: Thanks. It has been a weird and rather rough time. FP: Why has it been weird and rough? Ziegler: Well, when I released the Zogby poll of Obama voters I never anticipated the level of outright hatred and irrationality that would be unleashed on me. I spent most of that week deleting nasty e-mail from my inbox...

The Fox Theater restaurant is proving a hard hole to fill. Dozens of restaurateurs have toured the 3,000-square-foot space, and no fewer than eight have said they can’t make a project pencil out at that site due to Oakland’s living wage requirement. The Fox hole’s fortunes could be turning, however. Business proposals from restaurateurs were due Nov. 17, and three were submitted. Phil Tagami, whose firm, California Capital Group, has managed the Fox rebirth, said that two other parties unaware of the formal proposal process expressed interest in the site, despite the wage requirements. He declined to say who submitted...

In what is apparently the first legal action of its kind, an association of community-based organizations has filed a federal civil rights complaint against two of the three largest Wall Street rating firms, charging that their inflated ratings on subprime mortgage bonds disproportionately caused financial harm to African American and Latino home buyers across the country. The complaint, filed by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, alleges that Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings enriched themselves by assigning high ratings to bonds backed by mortgages "that were designed to fail" because of "unfair payment terms and insufficient borrower income levels."

The chasm between those who want President-elect Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate to verify his eligibility to hold the nation's highest office and those who simply support the Democrat is widening. "The Constitution means what we today decide it means," opined one participant on a new WND forum that offers readers an opportunity to express their opinion on the birth certificate dispute.

Several priests and parishes in Northern Virginia's Arlington Diocese balked Sunday at taking up a collection for the much-criticized Catholic Campaign for Human Development, whose contributions to the voter-registration group ACORN got a dose of bad publicity this fall.  "I personally haven't given a dime to the Campaign for Human Development in years," the Rev. John DeCelles told parishioners during his Sunday homily at St. Mary's Church in Alexandria.  "Over the years, including last year," he continued, "the campaign has given millions of dollars to very questionable groups, including groups that actively support and campaign for so-called 'abortion rights.'" Mary...

Here is my e-mail response from the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division: Hello ###### Question History: Patron: (this would be my question!) To the American Memory Team: I am very curious as to why our government does not vet our presidential candidates before their names are placed on the ballot. I have found out as of recently that there is concern that our new President Elect Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen and another candidate named Roger Calero which was on the 2004 and 2008 ballot for president still holds a green card and was born...

The 34-year-old Chester man must serve six to 23 months of home confinement after his sentencing Monday in Delaware County, reports the Associated Press.

Citigroup Bailout Raises Viability Questions For Entire Banking System Still more details are emerging from the weekend bailout of Citigroup. And in what is no surprise in this corner, it appears Citigroup is not well capitalized and Faces Pressure to Slim Down. /snip The question now is "Just how bad are Citigroup's books?" Don't expect answers from the Fed, but when FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair wants no part of the action, we at least have an indirect answer: Things at Citigroup (and no doubt everywhere else), are not as good as the financial institutions are letting on. Viability Of Banking...

Washington--The government is working on a new loan facility to help companies that issue credit cards, make student loans and finance car purchases. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve will unveil the program Tuesday, according to people familar with the plan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has yet to be made. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said he plans to use a "relatively modest share" of the $700 billion financial bailout money to pay for the new program. It's the latest effort by the government to break through a dangerous credit clog that has...

Businesses that politicians deem vital to the national interest aren't being allowed to fail in America today, and the bigger they are, the more help they get from the government. So it's not much of a surprise that the fine points of yet another bailout package are being worked out behind closed doors, this time for Citigroup. Again, not surprisingly, the latest recipient of government largess is a big donor to political candidates and parties. It's the 15th largest corporate giver, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, donating $25.1 million since 1989 in roughly even portions to the two...

Bush defends Citigroup rescue, says more such moves are possible if others need helpWASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush argued Monday that the government's dramatic rescue of Citigroup was necessary to "safeguard the financial system" and help the economy recover, and he said there could be more such moves if other institutions need help. Bush said he approved the action, recommended by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, while flying back to Washington on Sunday evening from meetings in Peru with Pacific Rim leaders. He spoke with President-elect Barack Obama on Monday morning about the move, part of what he has promised will...

The federal government agreed Sunday to take unprecedented steps to stabilize Citigroup Inc. by moving to guarantee close to $300 billion in troubled assets weighing on the bank's books, according to people familiar with details of the plan. Treasury has agreed to inject an additional $20 billion in capital into Citigroup under terms of the deal hashed out between the bank, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Treasury officials will charge a higher interest rate for the capital injection -- 8% for the first few years -- than it has charged to dozens of...

Obama Sued Citibank Under CRA to Force it to Make Bad Loans in these lawsuits, ACORN makes a bogus claim of Redlining (denying poor people loans because of their ethnic heritage). SCROLL HALFWAY DOWN TO THIS: UPDATE 4: Obama Audio saying it was a Good Idea to give people loans that couldn’t afford them. This is pretty much the start of the domino's falling

Headline and link only due to copywrite. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-11-24-obamadonors_N.htm

Citigroup & ACORN Sign Groundbreaking Agreement to Expand Homeownership in Communities Around the Country New York-Citigroup and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) today announced a landmark partnership that advances the goals of both organizations in promoting homeownership in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods, especially in immigrant communities, increasing the availability of affordable credit, and promoting financial education. The partnership also reinforces Citigroup's position as a key industry leader in responsible and innovative lending practices. As part of the partnership, announced today at an event in New York City, Citigroup and ACORN have agreed to collaborate on several...

Baltimore, Nov 11, 2008 (CNA).- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has not yet been able to determine if grants made to ACORN were used for fraudulent voter registration, but has cut off all funding to the community organizing group, Bishop Robert Morin announced on Tuesday. Shortly after addressing the full assembly of U.S. Catholic bishops, Bishop Morin spoke to reporters about what the bishops had learned concerning the use of grants from the CCHD to the group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which is currently under investigation in 13 states for voter fraud. CCHD originally...