Free Republic

The Wyden-Bennett plan seeks to achieve universal coverage by creating a new private insurance system for the United States. It would establish state-based purchasing pools, with nearly all Americans (except those in Medicare and the military) required to enroll in a private insurance plan made available through their state’s pool. Employer-based coverage would likely be reduced substantially over time (few, if any, small employers likely would continue to offer coverage although a number of large employers probably would do so, at least initially), and Medicaid and SCHIP would be converted into supplemental insurance programs that “wrap around” the private insurance...

Bob Bennett has a challenge for those who reject The Book of Mormon as a fanciful work of fiction...In a new book, Leap of Faith: Confronting the Origins of The Book of Mormon, the lifelong Mormon and grandson of a church prophet, argues that the foundational book of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cannot be dismissed so easily. SNIP ...Terryl Givens, a Mormon and a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, notes that The Book of Mormon has not undergone much if any scrutiny by scholars outside the faith. "The story of its...

Meet Bob Bennett. He is a Republican United States Senator. He is up for re-election next year. Bob Bennett is about to screw America. Bob Bennett is a fiscally irresponsible Senator who prides himself on being a Senator’s Senator. He was the only Republican who stood up and clapped when Barack Obama attacked Sarah Palin in his Joint Session of Congress speech last week. And Bob Bennett wants to cut a deal on healthcare. Why? Because that’s what Senators do. The compromise. And if you are a Republican Senator, you capitulate. Bob Bennett is working with Ron Wyden on Oregon...

That means at least 4 filthy Republicans supported it. Disgrace!

The biggest problem with the Book of Mormon is that it exists, says Sen. Bob Bennett...The Republican senator from Utah is the author of "Leap of Faith," which was recently released by Deseret Book...Bennett didn't like the way the Book of Mormon was represented in media coverage leading up to the 2002 Winter Olympics... "The tenor of the articles that kind of started me on this was that no one of any intelligence could believe the incredibly outlandish story about angels and gold plates, that any person with the slightest bit of education would reject this out of hand," he...

More than halfway through his first year in the Senate Michael Bennet continues to sport weak approval numbers, Public Policy Polling’s newest Colorado survey finds. Bennet has a 31% approval rating, with 38% of voters in the state disapproving of his job performance. That’s virtually unchanged from a 34/41 breakdown when PPP last polled Colorado in April. 57% of Democrats, 29% of independents, and 9% of Republicans like the job he’s doing. Voters aren’t too fond of his potential Republican opponents for reelection either though. 40% have an unfavorable opinion of former Congressman Bob Beauprez to just 30% favorable. For...

I believe that Bill O'Reilly did sum up the president's health care plan the best. He simply couldn't understand how any of it will work. That's because the president is either misguided or disingenuous. He makes outlandish claims about how everyone will be covered, costs will go down, services will stay robust, and no one will lose the health care coverage they currently have. At the same time, while this plan means a massive expansion of government control, he actually claimed that government won't get in between the doctor and patient. You can see why O'Reilly was so confused.

Tax protesters target him for backing $350B bailout for banks. BY ROBERT GEHRKE In his third term in the Senate, Bob Bennett finds himself in unfamiliar and unfriendly waters, roiled by public frustration with Washington and with at least two sharks circling, believing the Republican senator might be vulnerable. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is expected to announce his Senate bid today and Tim Bridgewater abandoned his bid for state party chairman last week, saying he heard all over the state that delegates wanted a more conservative choice for senator. Bennett was a prime target of tax protesters at "Tea Party"...

Facing the prospect of a primary challenge that is expected to launch this week, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) is up with an early ad featuring former presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R). The ad features clips of Romney praising Bennett as a “conservative giant” and states flatly that Romney supports Bennett. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (R) is scheduled to make an announcement Wednesday, and some errant Twitter messages from last week make it clear that he will enter the primary against Bennett. Bennett’s ads are a gambit to discourage Shurtleff from taking the plunge. . . . . . Bennett...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Prominent Republican Bill Bennett took issue Sunday with what he called the “media’s focus” on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Asked about the Republican Party’s increasingly public struggle to define itself and identify new leaders after eight years of the George W. Bush administration, Bennett said the press should be less myopic in its coverage of the GOP. “One of the things the media could do – some of the media – is to move the debate off Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh,” Bennett, a CNN Contributor, said on State of the Union. “This is probably not the...

Grammy-award winning musician Tony Bennett told CNSNews.com he “loves everything” Barack Obama has done in his first 100 days as president and thinks every American should “give him all-out support for anything he wants to do.” Bennett further said that Americans should imitate the other countries of the world that support Obama. “I really hope that every citizen of the United States would imitate the rest of the world because they’re all for Obama,” said Bennett. “Every other country adores what happened – in our great country – to have him as president.” Bennett’s comments were made at the National...

LANSDOWNE, Va. - Prosecutors say it seems gang members are beginning to attack innocent people after the arrests of four people in the brutal beating of a Lansdowne woman and the murder of her husband in March. Rushing from the Loudoun County courthouse too upset to speak, the family of accused killer Darwin Bowman went to hire him an attorney. Bowman could face the death penalty for the murder of William Bennett and the attack on his wife Cynthia. In court via closed circuit feed from jail, Bowman wore an orange jumpsuit and a grim expression. He and three other...

The former Massachusetts governor is in town today for a $1,000-per person luncheon fundraiser for Bennett's re-election campaign. Romney could prove to be a powerful ally for Bennett in Utah. The former Massachusetts governor's presidential bid excited Utah Republicans unlike any before. He trounced the competition, receiving 90 percent of the GOP primary vote, and raised $5.5 million from Utah donors -- nearly six times as much as they gave to Sen. John McCain, the party's nominee. Romney was tapped to step in and salvage the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah after a bribery scandal threatened the games. He had...

Early Sunday morning, deputies found a man's body in a grassy area next to Riverside Parkway in Lansdowne. A woman was found in critical condition nearby. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office got a call at around 5 a.m. A witness had spotted a white van and people outside of it screaming and reported a suspicious vehicle. When deputies arrived, they found the body of the man. He had suffered severe head trauma. The woman wasn't discovered until the sun started to rise. She was in a grassy area across the street, over a fence. "We found the blood on the...

CNN seems determined to go the way of MSNBC and lose every shred of journalistic integrity and decency when it comes to political reporting. Here are two videos, the first being a vile report by CNN's Kira Phillips who was dispatched to Alaska over the weekend to actually investigate the nutroots rumor that Gov. Palin did not actually have her Down Syndrome baby, Trig, but rather concocted an elaborate plot to coverup the fact the baby was her daughter's. CNN actually took the Daily Kos smear seriously and sent a reporter to investigate it. Phillips then talks about finding out...

NEW YORK -- Phillip R. Bennett, Refco Inc.'s former chief executive officer, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday for his role in a scheme to hide the commodities broker's financial troubles. At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan said white-collar defendants such as Mr. Bennett often "just don't think they'll get caught." "You and others like you play a truly high-stakes poker game," the judge said. The judge didn't impose a fine and said restitution will be discussed at a later date. Mr. Bennett has agreed to forfeit essentially all of his assets. The...

Brook Bennett's murder has brought back calls for a tougher law against adults who sexually prey on children. More than thirty states -- but not Vermont -- have enacted Jessica's law, setting a 25-year minimum prison sentence for convicted child sex offenders. "When a person is sexually assaulted, a minor is sexually assaulted, it's my opinion that they should go to jail for 25 years," Dubie told Channel 3. "That's very simple and that's what Jessica's Law calls for. I'm also asking that we reconsider what the governor proposed last legislative session, and that's civil confinement." House Judiciary committee chairman...

Bill Bennett had Mitt Romney on his morning show. This proved instructive. Before beginning, I note that Bill opined on the Ferraro matter. Rather than accepting the self-evidence of her statement (Obama would not be where he is without being black), Bill suggested that she was indeed racist. His reasoning was convoluted and a caller pointed this out to his detriment. I mention this to because it was troubling considering how well I think of Mr. Bennett. But he did have Mitt Romney on who excelled at explaining the problems with our economy and the body politic. Among other things...

Not very shocking that the Times would leave something like this out of their McCain story: Robert Bennett, a Washington attorney representing McCain, told NBC’s “Today” show that McCain’s staff provided the Times with “approximately 12 instances where Senator McCain took positions adverse to this lobbyist’s clients and her public relations firm’s clients,” but none of the examples were included in the paper’s story. Highlight the instances where it benefited the company, but ignore all the times where it went against them….nope, no bias there. [?] Share This

The liberal New York Times is wasting no time in smearing John McCain, the Republican Party nominee for President. Late Wednesday, the Times published to its website a story set to hit print editions Thursday, linking McCain to a female lobbyist. The paper suggested the Arizona Senator has been engaged in an illicit relationship. "A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet," the Times reported. "Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff...

Today, many in the Republican party and the conservative movement are saying some strange things about the prospect of our very likely nominee, Senator John McCain, and his ascent to the GOP nomination. Many think he will destroy the conservative movement if not the Republican party, and many have even said they simply will not vote for him in a general election if he heads the GOP ticket. Moreover, others have even said they would consider voting for Senator Hillary Clinton or that there is simply no difference between Senators Clinton and Barack Obama on the one hand, and Senator...

Conservative Sense & Sensibility The Right’s choices right now. Today, many in the Republican party and the conservative movement are saying some strange things about the prospect of our very likely nominee, Senator John McCain, and his ascent to the GOP nomination. Many think he will destroy the conservative movement if not the Republican party, and many have even said they simply will not vote for him in a general election if he heads the GOP ticket. Moreover, others have even said they would consider voting for Senator Hillary Clinton or that there is simply no difference between Senators Clinton...

Tony Bennett, left, is embraced by former President Bill Clinton during a fundraiser for Clinton's wife Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, N.J. Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007.

I had a chance to interview Bob Bennett today while in Boston. He had some interesting things to say about Romney and those Senators who "support" him:Click for video.

When they were stopped from going to the Salt Lake City offices of Utah's two U.S. senators Thursday, about 60 anti-illegal-immigration activists started singing "God Bless America." The group, mostly white men and women of retirement age, showed up at the Federal Building to demand that Republican Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch vote against S.1348, the recent immigration reform proposal. Most of the group consider the proposal amnesty because it would provide a path to legal status for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants nationwide through a guest worker program, where they would have to pay a $5,000 fine...

Steve Malzberg, one of America's favorite radio hosts today on SRN for Bill Bennett's Morning in America. Steve will be in today for Bill for Bill's first 2 hours, while Bill talks about his wonderful new book on The Today Show, "America, The Last Best Hope" Vol. II. Join Steve and his freeper fans at the link below. Steve will be live from approx. 6 AM to 8 AM EST. Listen to Steve now on 990 AM Philadelphia Radio at: http://www.wntp.com Join Steve and his fans champing at the bit to enjoy the breakfast buffett and cocktails while we bash...

Kant, Not Cant Actually, morning talker Bill Bennett has a much better taste in philosophers than that, but you’ve got the idea. It’s a curious thing, the angst over Don Imus. What’s most interesting is not what he said, but how people are reacting to his possible impending demise. If Don Imus goes, we are worrying — at least, the Washington Post is, but it’s not alone—will there be “No One to Talk To?” What the Post piece actually described is what a humiliating experience it is for a luminary to lower himself to go on Imus’s radio show—to sell...

Does anyone know why Bill Bennett's website (www.bennettmornings.com) has been down all weekend?

Steve Malzberg, one of America's favorite radio hosts today on SRN for Bill Bennett's Morning in America. Steve will be in for Bill again tomorrow. Steve will be live from 6 AM to 9 AM EST. Listen to Steve now on 990 AM Philadelphia Radio at http://www.wntp.com Call Steve at 1 866 680 6464! Steve may be on CNN on Bennett this AM, check it out! Steve’s new Rap! STEVE MALZBERG COOLER THAN EVER NEVER SAY NEVER 'CUZ HE'S SO DARN CLEVER! Join Steve and his fans champing at the bit to enjoy the breakfast buffett and cocktails while we...

Steve Malzberg, one of America's favorite radio hosts today on SRN for Bill Bennett's Morning in America. Join Steve and his freeper fans at the link below. Steve will be live from 6 AM to 9 AM EST. Listen to Steve now on 990 AM Philadelphia Radio at http://www.wntp.com Call Steve at 1 866 680 6464! Steve’s new Rap! STEVE MALZBERG COOLER THAN EVER NEVER SAY NEVER 'CUZ HE'S SO DARN CLEVER! Join Steve and his fans champing at the bit to enjoy the breakfast buffett and cocktails while we bash the liberal media. Yes, liberals are grass, Steve is...

Steve Malzberg, one of America's favorite radio hosts today on SRN for Bill Bennett's Morning in America. Steve will be in for Bill again tomorrow. Join Steve and his freeper fans at the link below. Steve will be live from 6 AM to 9 AM EST. Listen to Steve now on 990 AM Philadelphia Radio at http://www.wntp.com Call Steve at 1 866 680 6464! Join Steve "the Mutilator" Malzberg; a man who remembers when the words “respect” and “axe” were nouns. Join Steve and his fans champing at the bit to enjoy the breakfast buffett and cocktails while we bash...

Bill Bennett ran a song parody contest which clearly stated that lyrics be sent in. The contest was for the best Sandy Berger song parody. So what happened? The people who FOLLOWED the stated rules sent in lyrics and got PENALIZED because the winner of the contest also sent in a recorded version of his song. Sorry, Bill, but this is just WRONG. If you wanted people to send in recorded songs, you should have stated so instead of penalizing the entrants who sent in just lyrics as they were asked to do so in the RULES. In case anybody...

Bill Bennett has gotten the boot from Chicago radio! The management at conservative talk radio station WIND 560 has decided that they need a local flavor to their morning drive and sent the brilliant Dr. Bennett packing. According to a column that appeared in the Sun Times, http://www.suntimes.com/index/feder.html, they were looking to boost their ratings and at local talent to their lineup. The result is that they have hired a long time Country Music Radio host and local musician “Big” John Howell and given him a side kick named Cisco Cotto. They have done this to try to compete with...

America the Beautiful ...5:53 pm After playing Tony Bennett’s record, Rags To Riches, on his XM radio show, Bob Dylan said, “I heard a story once about Tony. They wanted him to sing the national anthem at the nineteen and sixty-one Preakness. He didn’t want to. He said, ‘I don’t know. Bombs burstin’ in air are just not my thing.’ Way to go, Tony.� That’s not exactly something that RWB would have chosen to say

Experts debate space-based BMD assets [More Usual Suspects] By JESSICA TAYLOR UPI, July 25, 2006 WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- A new report claims U.S. anti-ballistic missile defenses must be deployed in space to be effective, but critics disagree. Several analysts say the study is based on false pretenses and the deployment of defense mechanisms into space is not in national security interests. The Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, a Washington think tank, has issued a study saying the implementation of plans for space missile defense is critical for U.S. national security and an effective system against at least some...

When (and How) Did Hamilton County Endorse Mike DeWine? Answer: Glad you asked. In its Friday profiles of the US Senate candidates, The Cincinnati Enquirer noted that Mike DeWine has been endorsed by Hamilton County's Republican Party. Those who have only recently begun following Ohio's upcoming primary races, especially the GOP US Senate race, need to know what happened in Hamilton County. It is an object lesson in corrupt party kangaroo cronyism and Old Media ignorance. Once you know what happened in Hamilton County, you will know that the county party's so-called endorsement of Mike DeWine isn't worth diddly squat....

Proving that he’s just as adept at stuffing an election candidate’s coffers as he is at stuffing his own socks, Sandy Berger hosted an "almost secret" Washington fund-raiser for a recently retired three-star vice admiral last night. Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr, as the Village People would say, is "In the Navy". And when you want to take an Able Danger Congressman Curt Weldon down, what better way than to send in the Navy? Berger, dubbed "Sandy Burglar" by radio meister Rush Limbaugh, gained notoriety for trying to stuff classified documents into his socks and other attire. The man, who...

Several members of President Bill Clinton’s national security team are hosting a Washington fund-raiser tonight for retired Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr., the Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon in November. Officials at Sestak’s campaign headquarters in Media will not comment on the event, though an invitation sent out to potential donors and obtained by the Daily Times lists Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger as a host. "As a general rule, campaigns don’t comment on fund-raisers or people who hold them," said Sestak’s campaign chairman, Myles Duffy. Berger, who served as Clinton’s second-term national security adviser, pleaded guilty last year...

KABUL - An American journalist inmate at an Afghan jail block seized by prisoners said Taliban militants held there threatened on Tuesday to behead him and told him he would die if an attempt were made to end the siege by force. Emmy award-winning documentary maker Edward Caraballo, 44, from New York, was one of three Americans jailed in 2004 after being convicted of running a private jail and illegally detaining and torturing men in a freelance war on terror. Speaking by mobile phone from Pul-i-Charkhi jail on the outskirts of Kabul, Caraballo told Reuters he was barricaded in...

This time, the press failed the public By William J. Bennett and Alan M. Dershowitz February 24, 2006 There was a time when the press was the strongest guardian of free expression in this democracy. Stories and celebrations of intrepid and courageous reporters are many within the press corps. Cases such as New York Times v. Sullivan in the 1960s were litigated so that the press could report on and examine public officials with the unfettered reporting a free people deserved. In the 1970s the Pentagon Papers case reaffirmed the proposition that issues of public importance were fully protected by...

House and Senate leaders from both parties were continually briefed -- and tacitly approved -- the now controversial program of electronic intercepts aimed at thwarting further Al Qaeda plots, according to House Intelligence chairman Pete Hoekstra.The Michigan Republican, speaking Wednesday morning on Bill Bennett’s Morning in America, was eloquent in his defense of the President’s warrantless eavedropping on suspected Al Qaeda communications.Hoekstra characterized the program as aimed at telephone calls coming into the U.S. from known Al Qaeda telephone numbers. He strongly defended the monitoring on legal grounds and as a practical measure for thwarting potential Al Qaeda attacks. He...

First on TVNewser: Controversial conservative talk show host Bill Bennett will become a CNN political analyst early in 2006, TVNewser has learned. This month's departure of Bob Novak left the network without a high-profile conservative commentator. But Bennett, a former Education Secretary and drug czar, seems to be a strange choice to add a little red to the channel. Of all the conservatives CNN could sign, why Bennett? In September, he came under fire from all sides of the political sphere for his assertion that aborting "every black baby in this country" would reduce the crime rate. Many members...

A question for North Texas radio listeners. It has just been announced that Mike Gallagher will be doing a morning radio show on KSKY from 6-9. Presently, KSKY broadcasts Bill Bennett from 5-8. Obviously, KSKY can't do both. What station will carry Bennett? I haven't found an answer on the relevant websites.

(AgapePress)- The mainstream media are being accused of a employing a racial double standard, particularly for the way they have apparently chosen not to report on a recent forum at Howard University that included a black activist's call for genocide against whites. Former North Carolina State visiting professor Dr. Kamau Kambon recently told a panel of black media groups at Howard Law School in Washington, DC, that the "problem on the planet is white people." He went on to express increasingly volatile sentiments, querying "how we are going to exterminate white people, because that in my estimation, is the only...

WHY ARE WE WINNING THE WAR ON CRIME? The U.S. violent crime rate is at a 30-year low, and experts have many theories to explain it, especially the drop in the 1990s. Among them: -The fastest-growing population segment is those over age 50, who commit few violent crimes. -A record 2 million-plus people are locked up in prison. -The crack market shrunk in the '90s. -About 100,000 police officers were added since the mid-'90s. -Improved tactics -- such as the "broken windows" theory of policing, which cracks down on petty crime -- have helped. -The nationwide legalization of abortion in...

I am called upon to answer charges that should never have come up in the first place. But such are the times in which we live, and sometimes their level of dialogue. I have been slandered, defamed, misrepresented and libeled. I will not stand for it. I will not go away, or go meekly and quietly into that good night. Nor will I withdraw from the discussion. My entire career has been one of taking on serious issues, I have taken brickbats for that. I will continue to. Those who do not engage in serious conversations about serious matters can...

When Media Matters took out of context a statement Bill Bennett made on his radio show, the mainstream media were more than willing to comply and show outrage over his remarks. But another radio host made comments even more explosive, and even elicited a response from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. NewsBusters contributor David Pierre noted that on Sept. 21, Air America host Randi Rhodes compared the evacuation of refugees in New Orleans to the Nazi transportation of Jews to concentration camps. A caller was troubled that when they bused people out of the Superdome, they "wouldn't tell them where they...

Republicans have a bad rep when it comes to racism — from Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott’s endorsement of racist former Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., to President George W. Bush’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina. Now conservative commentator William Bennett is adding fuel to the fire with his comments that aborting black babies will make the crime rate go down. Racism continues to be a divisive topic in America — one Republicans would like to ignore. Bennett, a former U.S. education secretary and national drug policy director under the Reagan administration, said on his nationally syndicated morning radio show Sept. 28,...

My youngest son was arrested last year. Police came to my house looking for an armed robbery suspect, 5-feet-8-inches with long hair. They took my son, 6-foot-3 with short braids. They made my daughter, 14, fresh from the shower and dressed for bed, lie facedown in wet grass and handcuffed her. They took my grandson, 8, from the bed where he slept and made him sit on the sidewalk beside her. My son, should it need saying, hadn't done a damn thing. In fact, I was talking to him long distance - I was in New Orleans - at the...

Bennett's Critics Prefer to Misunderstand Him Until we were so rudely interrupted by President Bush's latest Supreme Court pick, we were having an illuminating squabble over Bill Bennett. And since Bennett's remarks on his radio show have already morphed into something of an urban legend in many quarters, I think they're worth revisiting. A quick recap: Bennett got a call from a listener suggesting that Social Security was in financial straights because so many taxpayers had been aborted after Roe vs. Wade. The caller was making an ostensibly pro-life point. But Bennett, also a pro-lifer, objected. That's not the way...