Free Republic

Learning From Conservative History: Main Trails . . . and Less-Traveled Paths - 01/02/09 This is part three of a symposium on contemporary conservatism hosted by ISI at Yale in November, 2008. Read part one. Read part two.By training, I am an historian. I love the discipline and believe that historical mindedness—the ability to see and understand the grounding of current institutions, issues, and events in the complex matrix of the past—this is the superior way to make sense of reality.All the same, I have been troubled for over a decade by the growing interest of American conservatives in...

Barack Hussein Obama Jr. (The Second), president-elect, met at the White House today with President Bush and with former Presidents G.W. Bush, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. According to one report, the youthful, inexperienced Obama proclaimed the meeting was “extraordinary…the White House is so much bigger than it seems on TV!” The Dauphin of the Democratic Party, Obama, was given on-the-job-training by his predecessors, including a briefing on what the duties and responsibilities of the office of the President are, and a short talk on the fact that putting Hillary Clinton in a “cabinet” position does not mean...

TEL AVIV – The Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization lacks missiles to "defend" itself from Israeli aircraft, former President Jimmy Carter claimed upon returning from a trip last week to Lebanon. "The general showed us a graph of the many flights of Israeli planes over all parts of Lebanon, averaging about a dozen each day. Neither Hezbollah nor the Lebanese Armed Forces have any anti-aircraft weapons for defense," wrote Carter in a first-person report posted on his Carter Center website. Carter was recounting how upon his trip to the region, Italian General Claudio Graziano, chief of the UNIFIL international forces deployed...

President-elect Barack Obama is welcomed by President George W. Bush for a meeting at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, with former presidents, from left, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter

Video here. I wonder what's on the menu.

When Fairway Oaks was developed eight years ago, it was praised by HUD Secretary Mel Martinez as "an excellent example of the public sector and private sectors working together to develop decent and affordable housing," said Martinez. "'Sweat equity' programs, like Habitat for Humanity, help more and more low-income families open the door to homeownership." Sweat equity. Right. Now Habitat for Humanity, the "darling of liberal social activists," is being sued for sloppiness and a reckless disregard for the consequences of building on top of uncompressed garbage. 85 residents, dissatisfied at the quality of their free lodgings paid for by...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions — and, apparently, the homes in the neighborhoods along that hellish path are built by Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity. All Jimmy Carter-bashing and schadenfreude aside, do the residents have a bona fide case or are these professional moochers trying to pin blame on others for their own lack of personal responsibility? Probably a bit of both. A few of the houses seem to have been clearly uninhabitable. In 2005, the cracks in one foundation reportedly “became so severe that the house had to be lifted and settled on piers....

RESIDENTS of a model housing estate bankrolled by Hollywood celebrities and hand-built by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, are complaining that it is falling apart. Fairway Oaks was built on northern Florida wasteland by 10,000 volunteers, including Carter, in a record 17-day “blitz” organised by the charity Habitat for Humanity. Eight years later it is better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious skin rashes. A forthcoming legal battle over Fairway Oaks threatens the reputation of a charity envied for the calibre of its celebrity supporters, who range from Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt to Colin Firth, Christian Bale and...

(CNN) -- A lawyer who served in the Clinton administration and more recently was an adviser to California's lieutenant governor pleaded guilty to a child porn charge in a San Diego federal court Monday. Wade Rowland Sanders admitted to having 600 images of minors on his computer, including a video depicting "several prepubescent females engaged in sexual conduct with an adult male and performing oral sex on one another," according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt. FBI agents raided Sanders' home last May after they suspected his home Internet service account was used to download several pictures and...

"Candidate Jimmy Carter said he stood for change." - Associated Press, 11/3/1976 Goodness. What a difference a year makes. In fact, a year after Carter's inauguration night, even some Democrats were rolling their eyes. Come, now: Let's revisit history, shall we? Before President Jimmy Carter's January1977 inauguration: November 3, 1976: "What Will Carter Presidency Look Like?" An AP news analysis, by Louise Cook reminds literates that "Jimmy Carter said he stood for change. He left a long list of promises" like Whatshisname. Consider.  "A streamlined bureaucracy"? Yes.  "A new tax system"? Yes. "A pared-down defense budget"? Yes. "Comprehensive national health and...

This is the entire Carter-Reagan Presidential Debate that took place in Cleveland on October 28, 2008 Part 1Part 2 Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 10Conclusion

Mideast: Our worst ex-president and confidant of thugs and terrorists everywhere will monitor upcoming Lebanese elections, part of Hezbollah's ongoing attempt to swallow Beirut whole. Is he going as a monitor or a cheerleader for terror?Former President Jimmy Carter recently paid a visit to Lebanon to assess whether his Atlanta-based Carter Center will take part in monitoring parliamentary elections set for next May or June. The vote will be hotly contested between the terrorist group Hezbollah and rival pro-Western groups struggling to preserve Lebanon's democracy. Carter made the offer during a Beirut meeting with Lebanese Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, who...

Syria -- Former President Jimmy Carter met with the exiled leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the second time this year . . . Carter first met with the head of Hamas' policy-making body, Khaled Mashaal, in April. That meeting drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration, which labels Hamas a terrorist group and contends such meetings give credibility to hard-line militants. Carter said on Saturday, however, that he intends to continue meeting with Hamas leaders because peace requires dialogue with all sides.

Human Rights, Islamic Supremacism, and Our Responsibilities Right Side News, GA - Dec 9, 2008 In April 2008, Mr. Carter met with leaders of the Islamic supremacist group Hamas, linked to the Islamic supremacist Muslim Brotherhood.

Hezbollah leaders have refused to meet former US President Jimmy Carter, who is on a two-day visit to Lebanon, a Carter spokesman says.

Former United States President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday he is ready to meet with Hezbollah officials if the Lebanese militant group agreed to see him. Carter made the comments upon arrival in Lebanon where he will assess whether his Atlanta-based Carter Center would take part in monitoring next year's parliamentary elections.

At what point does someone who was a complete screw-up become a recognized expert in the field in which he proved a failure? This question might seem subjective, but we now have concrete numbers with which to answer this question. The answer is 28 years. How do we know? Because former US national security adviser in the Carter administration, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is now dispensing advice to Israel and America on how to deal with Iran.

To my Conservative friends: During the campaign, Joey "Plugs" Biden aka Mr. Snarky warned all of us to "mark my words" and "Gird your loins" because we are going to have an "international crisis" to test the mettle of our greener than green new President Barack Obama.... Well, Snarky wasn't exaggerating like he usually does - he is right on point here... History has shown him to be accurate with regard to the world testing new, and usually liberal Commanders in Chief... Remember KGB Khrushchev testing and pushing a 43 year-old Democratic President during the cuban missile crisis? The man...

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.

x-Fed Chief to Lead New Economic Panel of Outside Experts Who Will Brief Obama President-elect Barack Obama appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping to lift the nation from recession and stabilize financial markets. University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, one of Mr. Obama's longest-serving policy advisers, will serve as the board's staff director, along with his duties as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Members of the panel will be drawn from a cross-section of citizens outside the government,...

Thanks to one of those “quirks” in the U.S. Constitution, Sen. Hillary Clinton technically is not eligible to be the Secretary of State -- because of a pay raise. This technicality is not unique to Clinton. According to Article

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today said Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis was far worse than he could have imagined and expressed dismay that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his government refused to acknowledge the problem even existed. "The entire basic structure in education, healthcare, feeding people, social services and sanitation has broken down," Carter told a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. "These are all indications that the crisis in Zimbabwe is much greater, much worse than we had ever imagined." Carter was part of a delegation that was denied entry into Zimbabwe last week to assess the crisis. The delegation...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Southern African nations must intervene more decisively to end Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and other prominent world figures said on Monday. Describing Zimbabwe as close to a humanitarian disaster, Annan urged the Southern African Development Community's leaders to pressure President Robert Mugabe and the opposition MDC to break a deadlock blocking the formation of a unity government. "SADC must bring its full weight to bear," Annan, flanked by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and human rights campaigner Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, told a news conference. "I think...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has barred former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and other prominent figures from visiting the country to assess the humanitarian crisis, the group said on Saturday. They said they were denied travel visas to Zimbabwe despite the intervention of former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who is mediating the political conflict between President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Zimbabwe has refused to let Kofi Annan and two eminent colleagues visit the impoverished African country for a humanitarian mission, the three said Saturday. The former U.N. secretary-general, ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and rights advocate Graca Machel had planned to assess the country's needs. They are members of The Elders group, formed by former South African President Nelson Mandela to foster peace and tackle world conflicts.

There are a lot of unbelievable similarities between Carter's 1976 and Obama's 2008 campaigns. Let's see if their rulerships look similar in the coming months.

Remember to keep on the sunny side.

Former United States President Jimmy Carter said in an interview with CNN this week he expected President-elect Barack Obama to waste no time pursuing Middle East peace talks once he takes office. Carter told CNN he was "thrilled" by Obama's election and praised his victory as heralding "a new approach" to the handling of the peace process. Carter said Obama "will not wait for even a month after he is president to start working on the peace process, where as you know, the previous two presidents waited till the least year they were in office before they began the peace...

(IsraelNN.com) According to a report on Middle East Newsline, President-elect Barack Obama has dispatched his "senior foreign policy adviser", Robert Malley to Egypt and Syria to outline Obama's policy on the Middle East. Malley reportedly relayed a promise from Obama that the United States would seek to enhance relations with Cairo and reconcile differences with Damascus. "The tenor of the messages was that the Obama administration would take into greater account Egyptian and Syrian interests," an aide to Malley was quoted as saying. The aide said Obama plans to launch a U.S. diplomatic initiative toward Syria. Malley met both Egyptian...

'Carter hailed Ceausescu, dictator of the most repressive police state in Eastern Europe, as a "great national and international leader" who had "taken on a role of leadership in the entire international community." Triumphant, Ceausescu brought home a joint communiqué in which the American president stated that his friendly relations with Ceausescu served "the cause of the world..."' - Ion Pacepa (Former Romanian head of intel, who defected). Fast forward to today: Obama hailed Ahmadinejad, dictator of the most repressive police state in the Middle East, as a "great national and international leader" who had "taken on a role of...

The crashed economy via the CRA was started by Carter, strengthened by Clinton and re-formulated by the 2005 Congress. Chicago figures in the beginning stages of this act.

1976 was a great year for a 13 year old boy living in central Georgia. It was hot. The creek out back was cool. Girls were getting less weird and more pretty. My friends and I were within walking distance of the 7-11. “Now-Laters” and a Cherry Coke Icee were the treats of choice if we could get enough change together or beg a dollar from someone’s mom. That Bicentennial Year had both optimism looking backward and trepidation looking forward. Where were we going as a country? Fresh wounds from Vietnam, the Cold War, Watergate, Agnew’s resignation, Nixon’s resignation, inflation...

Reagan's landslide challenges the pulse-taker profession For weeks before the presidential election, the gurus of public opinion polling were nearly unanimous in their findings. In survey after survey, they agreed that the coming choice between President Jimmy Carter and Challenger Ronald Reagan was "too close to call." A few points at most, they said, separated the two major contenders...

With wanton disregard for the economic well being of America, a decade ago the social justice entrepreneurs of the ultra-leftist Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) let Americans know their strategy for bringing equality of result to the housing market -- at all costs. In a circa 1999 document, "To Each Their Home: Success Stories from the ACORN Housing Corporation," the ACORN affiliate called the American Dream a sham and bragged about undermining banks' underwriting standards. The brochure acknowledged there may be scattered "stories of hope and success" in ACORN-targeted communities, but "they also belie the supposition that...

I have spent much of my adult life serving in our government to promote America's interests at home and abroad; I have made it a special calling to help Jews around the world, including Holocaust victims, and to strengthen the US-Israel relationship. It is with great pride that I support Senator Barack Obama to be our next president. We are fortunate to have a youthful, brilliant, charismatic senator, whose vision is firmly planted in the 21st century, and whose best years are ahead of him, to help America meet the unparalleled challenges of a new era. He can get America...

The media’s almost universal opinion that Sen. Joe Biden simply made just another one of his gaffes – when he warned that the election of the untested Barack Obama would inevitably result in a global crisis where our enemies take measure of the man by confronting him and America with a challenge – was dead wrong.

October 10, 2008 Can America Afford Another Jimmy Carter? When former President Carter took office in 1977, the Shah of Iran was a staunch ally of the United States, a mainstay in our standoff with the Soviet Union, thwarting the dream held since the time of the czars of pushing south toward the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. Former president Carter's human rights deal, gave rise to one of the worst rights violators in history -- the Ayatollah Khomeini. Thanks to Jimmy and company, Khomeini's successors are preparing for nuclear war with Israel and the West. When President Carter...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Mohamed Nurhussien faced the usual challenges of a low-income worker trying to buy a home, with one big difference: As a Muslim he was forbidden by his religion to pay interest. The 54-year-old Eritrean immigrant with five children thought his only option was to save enough money to purchase a home outright, with cash earned from his job at a security company. Then he heard about Habitat for Humanity. For some Muslim immigrants like Nurhussien, the Christian homebuilding charity that offers zero-interest loans has become a real godsend.

BEIRUT -- A new report based on previously classified documents suggests that the Nixon and Ford administrations created conditions that helped destabilize Iran in the late 1970s and contributed to the country's Islamic Revolution. A trove of transcripts, memos and other correspondence show sharp differences over rising oil prices developing between the Republican administrations and Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi in the mid-1970s, says a report to be published today in the fall issue of Middle East Journal, an academic journal published by the Washington-based Middle East Institute, a think tank.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Former President Jimmy Carter said on Friday the "atrocious economic policies" of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Carter told reporters on a stopover in Brussels that "profligate spending," massive borrowing and dramatic tax cuts since President George W. Bush took office in 2001 were behind the market turmoil and economic crisis.

Neither presidential candidate was selling "morning in America." At times it seemed more like a competition to see who could paint the gloaming in the least unsettling hues. Tuesday night's presidential debate was remarkable for the dourness of its mood...the frequently subdued demeanors of the candidates even as they tore into each other, which they did with somewhat less vigor and venom than expected, given how little time remains until Election Day, given how nasty the campaign had turned in recent days. The debate — the second of three, and the only one to be conducted in a town-hall style...

Economic Crisis Video

The roots of today's mortgage-based financial crisis can be traced back to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which Jimmy Carter signed in 1977. Seeking to address complaints from anti-poverty activists and housing advocates about banks allegedly discriminating against minority borrowers and "redlining" inner-city neighborhoods, the CRA decreed that banks had "an affirmative obligation" to meet the credit needs of victims of discrimination in borrowing. To add a government stick to the process, the CRA decreed that federal banking regulators would consider how well banks were doing in meeting the goal of more multiculturalism in loaning when considering requests by banks...

One of the most frequently asked questions about the subprime market meltdown and housing crisis is: How did the government get so deeply involved in the housing market?Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even into the early 1990s, weren't the juggernauts they'd later be. While President Carter in 1977 signed the Community Reinvestment Act, which pushed Fannie and Freddie to aggressively lend to minority communities, it was Clinton who supercharged the process. After entering office in 1993, he extensively rewrote Fannie's and Freddie's rules. In so doing, he turned the two quasi-private, mortgage-funding firms into a semi-nationalized monopoly that dispensed cash...

Last week Speaker Pelosi and the Senate Majority Cadaver dodged two dangerous admissions: Pelosi denied that Democrats owned any responsibility for the nation’s banking crisis, and Harry Reid arose from his slab long enough to deny the Senate a resolution honoring American troops. Never in history has partisan petulance flapped so proudly on a flagpole. Even Obama has come forward — gritting his porcelain caps — and congratulated the troops, admitting that his predictions of military failure in Iraq might have been premature. When Nancy Pelosi was asked, “Do Democrats deserve a share of the blame for the current crisis...

When Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) gavels in the Senate Banking Cmte., he is expected to pro- pose changes to the Bush admin.'s $700 billion intervention in the financial markets. Witnesses include Sec. of Treasury Henry Paulson; Ben Bernanke, Chair of the Federal Reserve System; and others

Those behind market crisis should be punished: Sarkozy 1 hour, 39 minutes ago Those responsible for the crisis that has swept global financial markets should be punished, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said overnight in his first reaction to the latest bout of economic turmoil. In an acceptance speech at an award ceremony attended by U.S. and French business leaders, Sarkozy called for the "truth" on the crisis to be uncovered. "Today, millions of people across the world fear for their savings, for their apartment, for the funds they have put in banks. It is our duty to give them clear...

General Election Campaign In presidential trial-heat matchups between Ford and Carter, Ford trailed the eventual Democratic nominee by small margins in March, April, and early May. By late May, Carter opened up a double-digit lead and maintained it until late September. Carter's lead swelled to as much as 33 points, 62% to 29% among registered voters, after the Democratic convention that year. Ford cut into the margin after the Republican convention, reducing a 25-point (57% to 32%) early August deficit to 13 points (50% to 37%). ... In a poll conducted immediately after their first debate, Carter maintained a double-digit...

This morning on "Morning Joe," Larry Kudlow was asked about some specific reforms that could help the economy. He noted that the federal government helped create this financial crisis in the mid-nineties by passing the Community Reinvestment Act. According to Wikipedia: "The purpose of the CRA is to provide credit, including home ownership opportunities to underserved populations and commercial loans to small businesses. The CRA was passed into law by the U.S. Congress in 1977 as a result of national grassroots pressure for affordable housing, and despite considerable opposition from the mainstream banking community. Only one banker, Ron Grzywinski from...