Free Republic

Neither Barack Obama nor Nancy Pelosi can be as clueless as they want us to think they are. The White House said the president was so uninterested in the results on election night that he watched a documentary on the '08 presidential campaign, no doubt eager to see who won. Mzz Pelosi, as oblivious of the scoreboard as a ditzy cheerleader unaware of which team has the ball, insists her side won the night. Mr. Obama continues to campaign for the job the rest of us thought we gave him a year ago. The day after the Republicans sent wake-up...

Any judgment of Barack Obama’s presidency based on a handful of off-year races is overstating the case. Trying to decipher the real meaning is something like reading tea leaves, and just as reliable. Still, they are clues and warnings, at least, for the national parties. My reading of the leaves: independents flexed their muscle and gave Obama a warning, passing health care reform is going to be a little harder but still in the cards, and New York voters deepened the Republican identity crisis. You could say this was in a part the opening blow of Obama vs. Sarah Palin...

Democrats have some thinking to do after Tuesday's elections, but Republicans don't have time to think. They're too busy trying to survive the party's internal purge and avoid being shipped off to political Siberia. Will loyal members inform on others for harboring suspiciously moderate views? Will anyone judged guilty have to wear a sign saying "Republican In Name Only" as penance? Will there be re-education camps? Will deviationists face the Enhanced Interrogation Technique of being forced to listen to the wit and wisdom of Glenn Beck, at ear-splitting volume, for days on end? Or worse: When Sarah Palin's memoir, "Going...

Lessons learned from the horrific Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 are credited with averting an even bigger massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, Thursday afternoon when police officer Kimberly Munley confronted the gunman without waiting for backup and took him down with four shots. Reviews in the aftermath of the shootings at Virginia Tech, where 32 died, found that first responders' decision to be careful and wait for backup probably cost lives as that gunman moved unchecked from classroom to classroom as law enforcement massed outside. Those findings had found their way to Fort Hood's Special Reaction Team, which had practiced...

He prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, a devout Muslim who, despite asking to be discharged from the U.S. Army, was on the eve of his first deployment to war. Yesterday, authorities said Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, a 39-year-old Arlington-born psychiatrist, shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex. -snip- Hasan steered clear of female colleagues, co-workers said. Despite his devout religious practices, he listed himself in Army records as having no religious preference. A longtime Walter Reed colleague who referred patients to psychiatrists said co-workers avoided sending service members to Hasan because of...

RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 6, 2009 – When he joined the Navy 15 years ago, Cmdr. Trent Kalp probably expected to serve six-month deployments to the middle of the ocean during his career. But at the time, it might have come as a surprise to learn he also would one day be packing his bags at his home in Midlothian, Va., for six months in Afghanistan. Navy Cmdr. Trent Kalp served six months as commander of Defense Logistics Agency’s support team in Afghanistan. His team worked to develop an aviation hub to provide food for U.S. forces in Regional Command South....

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is planning a second anti-health care reform Tea Party at the Capitol -- this one scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday -- approximately the time when the House is due to vote on Democrats' public option bill, POLITICO's Jake Sherman reports. King and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) organized a rally Thursday that drew thousands to the west front of the Capitol, drawing chants of “Kill the Bill.” There were a handful of arrests. “We can kill this bill and stop the government takeover of health care,” King said in a news release. “We need the help of...

Dear xxxx, The results of Tuesday's elections in Maine, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Washington were a mixed bag but there are some clear lessons we can learn. Voters rejected right-wing radicalism. Democrats who fail to stand up for Democratic and progressive principles fail in elections. The Right's lies still work. Despite the stinging loss for marriage equality in Maine, evidence elsewhere shows voters moving towards support of equality for all Americans. The Far Right strengthened its grip on the Republican Party. We have a lot of work to do to educate people, expose right-wing lies and counter the...

The Lesson of Bob McDonnellby Charlie SpieringA week before the election, Virginia candidate for governor Bob McDonnell was asked in a radio interview if he would veto state funding for Planned Parenthood.“We shouldn't be doing that (funding Planned Parenthood) in Virginia,” answered O’Donnell. “That's common sense I think, and that will be part of what we get done.”Pro-choice activists were furious and quick to condemn his remarks. To them it was one more reason why McDonnell was “out of step and out of touch with voters.” But McDonnell, with his common sense approach to politics, proved that you can still...

Tuesday, Bob McDonnell was elected to serve as the 71st Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, defeating state Sen. Creigh Deeds by a margin of 59 – 41 percent. By comparison, President Barack Obama received 53 percent of the vote for in 2008. Sen. Deeds had made clear during the campaign his willingness to raise taxes. On September 23, in a Washington Post Op-Ed entitled “My Transportation Plan”, Deeds said, “As a legislator, I have voted for a number of mechanisms to fund transportation, including a gas tax. And I’ll sign a bipartisan bill with a dedicated funding mechanism for...

A Video Tour Of The Virginia Governor's Mansion

Virginia Tech this morning confirmed that Fort Hood shooting suspect Nadal Malik Hasan graduated from the university in 1995. Here's the full news release. Virginia Tech has confirmed with the United States Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., that the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Texas, once attended Virginia Tech. According to Virginia Tech records, Nidal Malik Hasan first enrolled at Virginia Tech for Summer Session II in 1992, and completed coursework in Spring Semester 1995. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He minored in biology...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

Say No To Government Health Care rally on Saturday NOVEMBER 7, 2009 OK fellow patriots… here we go again. We will assemble this Saturday (11/07) from 2:00-4:00 p.m. to drive home the message of this week’s election – we don’t want no stinkin’ government health care! We will meet at the intersection of Hershberger Road and I-581, near Valley View. Our meeting place is the site of the old Celebration Station on Hershberger, and we’ll line Hershberger as far as our numbers allow. The weather should be glorious – a wonderful day to be outside and celebrate your liberty. If...

Sidebar Mods, the Quakers have a sign openly saying this is them in the last posted pic. So hopefully you won’t remove this thread. Yep, even though the GREAT PUMPKIN couldn’t personally be on the corner (must have been resting up for the evening,s Halloween), he sent us a personal message, held by Cindy_True_Supporter (BELOW) And the Legionnaires were also there, all in their Legion jackets (BELOW). Pictured are (L-R): Janet (Adopted Legionnaire), Dave, Cindy_True_Supporter, Halsey, Carl, Glenn and [Mrs] T. And then there were the rest of us. BELOW LEFT: Cindy_True_Supporter and Fraxinus. BELOW RIGHT: Lurker Bill BELOW: And...

A New Grassroots Political Organization Makes Its Mark by Deal W. Hudson    11/06/09 The election results of November 2 were not merely the spontaneous reaction of Republicans to the bad economy and liberal excesses of the Obama administration. The four pro-life, conservative GOP candidates in Virginia and New Jersey were elected in a groundswell of religious and social conservatives, many of them independent voters who had voted for Obama only a year ago. A new grassroots organization played a major role in getting these voters to the polls -- the Faith & Freedom Coalition was founded by Ralph...

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Despite the best efforts of the White House and much of the media to portray this week’s elections as a meaningless barometer of the public’s mood toward the Obama administration, the results were clear. The voters were communicating buyers’ remorse. One year after reaching its zenith, the Democratic Party is now grappling with what could be the beginning of the end of the Obama era. In Virginia, former Attorney General Bob McDonnell, a solid pro-family, pro-life conservative, won a landslide victory, as did down-ticket conservative candidates. Repeated Obama visits to his own backyard did...

The suspect, a Virginia Tech graduate and one-time Vinton resident, was shot but survived at Fort Hood, Texas. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of shooting 12 people to death and wounding 31 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, was the son of Roanoke merchants and restaurateurs, lived in Vinton and graduated from Virginia Tech. Hasan was born in Arlington to Palestinian immigrants from near Jerusalem who later settled in Vinton. Neighbors on Vinton's Ramada Road remembered him as a "studious" boy who went by "Michael." While his brother Eyad -- "Eddie" -- would play football with...

WASHINGTON — Military officials say Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspected shooter at Fort Hood, was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The Virginia-born soldier is single with no children. He is 39 years old. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. At Walter Reed, he did an internship, residency and a fellowship.

The family of Nidal Hasan once owned the Community Grocery Store on Elm Avenue. The Hasans also lived on Ramada Road in Vinton. Charles Garlick, a former neighbor, remembers the family. He told News-7 Thursday night that he remembered Nidal Hasan as a clean cut , nice young man. Garlick remarked that Hasan had more hair in those days than in the photos circulating after the shooting. The family sold the house about eleven years ago, Garlick said. He also noted that Nidal Hasan's parents both had died. Obituaries in the Roanoke Times show Malik Hasan died in 1998 and...

As Santayana said, "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it." Congressional Democrats take note! Are the elections of 2009 precursors of the same kind of massive partisan upheaval in Congress that we experienced in 1994? The historical data says yes, they are. In Virginia, the outcomes in 1993 and 2009 were almost identical. In 1993, after the Democratic incumbent, Doug Wilder, could not seek re-election, the governor's race pitted Republican George Allen against Democrat Mary Sue Terry. Allen won handily, 58 to 41 — virtually the same margin by which McDonnell defeated Deeds this week. And...

In Ohio, citizens marched to the polls on Tuesday and voted to allow gambling casinos in the state. This was obviously a message to President Obama that independent voters are not happy with the way the health care bill is going. Really, I don’t see how else you can interpret it. Ohioans were looking forward to the lower insurance costs that would come with a robust public option, and if the president can’t deliver, they’re planning to pay their future medical bills with their winnings at the roulette wheel. Also, people here in Cincinnati rejected a proposal that would have...

Today there are lots of people trying to lobby their elected officials on the health care bill pending in Congress, and Gerry Connolly tried to get one of them arrested on false charges of assault, setting a new standard for utterly abysmal, beyond-the-pale horrible constituent service. This guy is absolutely unbelievable. Connolly is trying to claim he wasn’t aware anyone would want to meet with him today, and is refusing to talk to anyone standing in the long, long line of constituents that are snaking out of his office door and well down the hallway. Instead, his staffers are telling...

Military officials say the suspected shooter at Fort Hood was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July. The officials had access to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's military record. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential. The Virginia-born soldier was single with no children. He was 39 years old. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech University, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in...

Dear xxxx xxxxxx, The elections held Tuesday should open all of our eyes. Please meet the new Governor of Virginia: [The] " dynamic new trend of working women and feminists ... is ultimately detrimental to the family." You read that right -- the new Governor of Virginia thinks working women are "detrimental" to the family. If you're scared that it might get worse in 2010 -- and you should be -- well, I have a way you can help fight these right-wing extremists who'd like to take over our government. NOW is committed to making sure women's voices are heard...

WASHINGTON -- What strikes me about politics over the past couple of years is how obvious it all has been. In 2008, as the junior senator from Illinois campaigned across the country, demonstrating his gifts as a motivational speaker and community organizer, all one had to do was review his recent life to know that he was about to bring down on the country -- ever so incompetently -- the most left-wing government in American history. And so he has -- with the utmost incompetence. Think of the paucity of swine flu vaccine, in large part the consequence of his...

WASHINGTON -- Bob McDonnell's decisive victory is even more impressive if one stops to acknowledge that it came in the face of incredibly daunting opposition, misleading and low-brow campaign commercials, and a "news" organization which often advocates for left-of-center candidates and causes. To win the election, McDonnell had to defeat not only the Deeds campaign, but the DNC, the White House, and The Washington Post. Lest we forget, this is not the first time this "take no prisoners" strategy was employed by the Democrats and The Washington Post against a Virginia Republican. In fact, three years ago, not only was...

RICHMOND, Va. — Attorneys for John Allen Muhammad released a May 2008 letter on Wednesday in which the mastermind of the deadly 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area proclaims his innocence. The rambling, handwritten letter was made available because of requests for a statement from Muhammad, his attorneys wrote on the Web page of their law firm. The letter was filed in federal court in connection with Muhammad's unsuccessful attempt to block his execution, the attorneys said.

After losing Virginia's governorship for the first time in eight years, some Democrats are trying to console themselves that Virginia is at its core a "red" state. This ignores not only that they won back-to-back governorships but also that Democrats defeated a sitting senator in 2006, took control of the state Senate in 2007 and won an open Republican Senate seat and three House seats in 2008 while carrying Virginia's electoral college votes for the first time since 1964. Some in the White House are trying to deflect blame for the defeat by saying that Sen. Creigh Deeds lost because...

In an RV swing through Northern Virginia in late August, there wasn't really time for Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor, to stop in West Springfield. But an urgent memo awaited from his senior advisers in Richmond...A 20-year-old academic thesis -- in which McDonnell had presented a deeply conservative vision of government and criticized working women, single mothers and homosexuals -- had surfaced. McDonnell needed to sign off on the campaign's response, and then he needed to race to a rally...That moment brought the greatest test of McDonnell's disciplined campaign. Would he be able to maintain his focus...

As the final votes were being counted, it was possible to draw some lessons from Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in Virginia and the close, three-way governor's race in New Jersey, never mind that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has taken to saying that the elections don't mean much. The odd-year elections -- held in the first year of a presidency -- have been meaningful over the last two decades. In 1993, New Jersey voters rejected tax-raising Democratic Gov. James Florio, despite the best efforts of Bill Clinton's consultant James Carville -- a harbinger of the losses congressional Democrats suffered...

*break* Bob McDonnell yesterday announced his transition committee leaders, including Tom Farrell, chairman and CEO of the state's largest utility, Dominion Resources. The transition committee also will include Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling; Attorney General Bill Mims; Bobbie Kilberg, president of the Northern Virginia Technology Council; and Kay Coles James, a Cabinet official under Gov. George Allen. *break* James, who served as director for the Office of Personnel Management under President George W. Bush, also is a former dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, where McDonnell received his law degree. *break* He said the...

My Wednesday Examiner column, written as the 2009 election returns were coming in, stands up pretty well. But let me add some observations written as the course of the elections became clearer. First, in the governor elections in Virginia and New Jersey, the Democratic candidate ran far behind Barack Obama’s percentages in 2008 and the Republican candidates ran ahead of George W. Bush’s percentages in 2004. The numbers are pretty daunting. In Virginia Creigh Deeds won 41% of the votes, way behind Barack Obama’s 53% in 2008. And in New Jersey Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine won 45% of the votes,...

ELECTION 2009: CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN! -- MSNBC, Aug. 31, 2009, Keith Olbermann on Robert F. McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia: "In [McDonnell's master's thesis], he described women having jobs as detrimental to the family, called legalized use of contraception illogical, pushed to make divorce more difficult, and insisted government should favor married couples over, quote, 'cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.' Wow. When did he write this? 1875? No, 1989. Wow, 1989. "Goodbye, Mr. McDonnell." -- MSNBC, Sept. 22, 2009, Rachel Maddow also on McDonnell: "And here's where the conservative movement and the Republican establishment smash into each...

Unsurprisingly, Michael Barone has an interesting and incisive roundup of numbers from last night that go deeper than the top-line results. Some nuggets: * Bergen County, New Jersey, a 56%-42% Corzine constituency in 2005, came within a point or two of voting for Christie. * Westchester County, New York, voted 58%-42% for a Republican county executive after voting almost exactly the opposite way, in a race involving the same two candidates, four years before. * The Virginia Board of Elections has results by CD showing that three Dems who captured seats in 2008 by very narrow margins (the 2nd, 5th,...

Most House Democrats tried to put a good face on Tuesday's election results, saying they picked up two more votes for a sweeping health care bill that could be on the floor as early as Friday. But it can't make it any easier for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she works to corral the last holdouts she needs to pass legislation overhauling the nation’s health care system. Of course, the speaker, who told POLITICO recently she's "not big on showing weakness," brushed aside questions about how the Democratic gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey would impact her final tally...

Today, national Democrats are trying their best to dismiss missing limbs as flesh wounds. It is their job. But they are in deep trouble if they believe their own spin. Compared to 12 months ago, 24 percent more Virginians voted Republican at the top of the ticket. Independents broke decisively against Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey. If this is not a backlash against Democrats, then who, exactly, was being lashed? These losses, for the most part, don’t seem to be a personal repudiation of the president. But they highlight a political fact -- the political fact of the last...

RICHMOND, Va. - Last year, 23-year-old Rashida Hill watched the presidential debates, visited the college political party meetings and put a Barack Obama bumper sticker on her townhouse door. She voted for Obama because she felt like the election was about "being a part of something." But on Tuesday, the Virginia Commonwealth University student didn't bother voting in the governor's race because, she said, the candidates didn't give her anything to get excited about. "The simple fact is, unless you put it in front of somebody, they're really not going to seek it out," Hill said. Many of the young,...

Republicans increased their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates in Tuesday's election by picking up at least five seats -- stanching a recent Democratic tide in the state's lower chamber. The GOP also made inroads into a handful of seats representing the Washington suburbs, including the 34th District, comprised of part of Fairfax County. Republican Barbara Comstock defeated Democratic incumbent Margi Vanderhye in the race for that seat by the razor-thin margin of 50.6 percent to 49.2 percent. Meanwhile, Republican Scott Garrett nipped incumbent Democrat Shannon Valentine in Lynchburg, 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent, with the race called by...

Previous: George Allen: with 58.3% of the vote, the largest margin (+17.4 points) since Albertis S.Harrison Jr.[Democrat SEGRAGATIONIST] defeated H. Clyde Pearson with a margin of +27.7 points in 1961. McDonnell: 58.64% as of 12:08am https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/election/DATA/2009/37C2EDEB-FACB-44C1-AF70-05FB616DCD62/UnOfficial/2_s.shtml

When Republican supporters of candidate Robert McDonnell are asked why they voted, a surprising number refer to "he" or "him." The folks at the Chesterbrook polling place in McLean are not talking about McDonnell or his rival, Creigh Deeds, but President Barack Obama. McDonnell voter Christina Hoag, who owns a catering business with about 25 employees, said that she hopes a Republican victory would slow the growth of government and send the message to Democrats that they don't have the mandate in Washington they think they do to remake the economy. "There's anger right now within ourselves, and I think...

A GOP supporter waved a broom Tuesday at Rivals Sports Bar and Grill after Republicans swept the competitive Albemarle County Board of Supervisors races. Republican Rodney S. Thomas pulled ahead of Democrat David L. Slutzky, the incumbent, taking the Rio District seat. And Duane Snow, a Republican businessman and grandfather of 13, sailed past a Democrat and an independent for the Samuel Miller seat.... Snow said that his commitments include “looking for wastes and inefficiencies. I’m going to listen to the citizens of Albemarle County.” Snow received more votes than Democrat Madison Cummings and independent John Lowry. The Rio victor,...

The Democrats did not lose a 2-1 squeaker last night. They lost two huge races, saw an overall evaporation of 25 basis points of support -- and lost by nearly 500,000 cumulative votes in the three high-profile elections. Or put another way, Republicans won two races decided by millions of voters -- and Democrats won a small race dominated by party operatives. In addition, the GOP made some historic gains in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Washington state special elections to boot. In the context of Bob McDonnell's huge win in Virginia and Chris Christie's surprisingly comfortable win in New Jersey, of...

Even a five-point shift would mean big Democratic losses in 2010. Tuesday's elections should put a scare into red state Democrats—and a few blue state ones, too. Barack Obama was said to have redrawn the electoral map by winning Virginia last year with 53% of the vote. On Tuesday, Republican Bob McDonnell flipped the state back to the GOP, winning his election for governor with 59% of the vote. Mr. Obama carried New Jersey easily last year with 57% of the vote. This year, despite being outspent 3-to-1, Republican Chris Christie ousted Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine there by 49% to...

There is no doubt that many pundits will try to draw national implications out of the massive Republican comeback in Virginia, but there’s not really any evidence that there are any. For one thing, yesterday’s exit polls make it fairly clear that most voters did not consider their vote in the McDonnell-Deeds race to be a re-election of their opinion about the president. By a wide margin, the most important issue for most voters was the state of the economy. Obviously, that should raise red flags for Democrats as we head into 2010 with every indication that unemployment will remain...

NORFOLK, Va., Nov. 4, 2009 – Army Staff Sgt. Megan Krause’s words come out in a rush, as if she wants everyone to hear and learn from her story. Staff Sgt. Megan Krause, an Army Reserve medic who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, hopes to help other servicemembers by telling her story of seeking help when post-traumatic stress had her spiraling out of control. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Krause, an Army reservist with the 365th Engineer Battalion in Pennsylvania, does want people to hear her story, and she wants to connect with servicemembers so they...

Shannon Valentine has conceded the election for the 23rd house district to Dr. Scott Garrett. Chair of the Lynchburg Democrat party, John Lawrence, said Wednesday afternoon that Valentine will not seek a recount. Stay with ABC 13 for the latest on this.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) on Wednesday promoted a round of Republican victories in last night's elections in a letter to supporters. The 2012 presidential hopeful plugged the triumphs of Republican gubernatorial candidates Bob McDonnell (Va.) and Chris Christie (N.J.), emphasizing that his political action committee's endorsement and campaign work for the two candidates. "It's exhilarating to wake up to headlines of conservative victories in the battleground elections in Virginia and New Jersey," Romney wrote. "The American people have sent a very strong message to the liberals in Washington, DC that big government is not the answer, and that conservatism...

Pro-Life Advocates Excited by Defeat of Abortion Backers in Virginia, New Jersey Washington, DC -- Tuesday night provided a shot in the arm for the pro-life movement following the disheartening loss last year that resulted in the election of pro-abortion President Barack Obama. With victories in New Jersey and Virginia, pro-life candidates dispatched their pro-abortion opponents. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4542.html

WASHINGTON – An ebullient Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele asserted Wednesday that GOP victories in governors' races in New Jersey and Virginia demonstrate "a transcendent party" on the move again. The White House said the elections were not a repudiation of President Barack Obama. "We're not crowing, we're just smiling," Steele said in a nationally broadcast interview. "I think it's a bellwether for the party ... You look at where we were nine months ago." Steele said he believes Chris Christie's victory in New Jersey and Robert McDonnell's win in Virginia show that the GOP has "really found its voice...