Free Republic

Editor's note: Bill Frist, a physician, is former Republican majority leader of the U.S. Senate and a professor of medicine and business at Vanderbilt University. (CNN) -- A legacy of President George W. Bush will be that he saved 10 million lives around the world. His critics ignore it, but name another president about whom one can say that with such certainty. It is what historians will say a decade from now looking back. Not bad for a president who leaves office with the lowest approval rating in recent memory. The bottom line is: George Bush is a healer. First,...

Among his many accomplishments, Winston Churchill is author of two of my favorite quotes History is written by winners and History will be kind to me for I intend to write it

Tonight, President Bush will give his final address to the nation, ending a rocky eight years in the White House. According to the Dana Perino, the president's press secretary, this will be Bush's final appearance in public until the Obama's come knocking on Tuesday morning. Already this morning, Barack Obama and his family will officially be welcomed into the White House 'bubble' by moving into Blair House, a stones-throw from the executive mansion. The transition, of course, has reached its end stages. I, like many Americans that have supported this president have mixed feelings about the history that we are...

In a sense it should never have come to this. George W. Bush should never have been permitted to complete two full terms in the role of president of the United States for so many reasons. Attaining the highest of offices by unsavory means — it took the Supreme Court stopping the legitimate counting of votes in Florida, disrespecting the will of the people across this country along with the spirit of the Constitution. That was only the beginning of the contempt Mr. Bush would show for the document he couldn’t even remember swearing an oath to protect and defend...

Opponents and supporters alike have tried to put some context on Bush's responsibility for the mortgage mess that has turned into a full out economic crisis. The latest foray into this analysis is this piece from the New York Times in which all the blame was place on the Bush administration for the entire crisis. That is far too simplistic. Yet, there is no doubt that as President, Bush deserves plenty of blame for what is happening. The question is how much and for what. From my perch inside the industry, here is how I see his role in this...

Doing the kind of investigative reporting we should expect from the major media, a financial research and consulting firm has released a major analysis of the “credit crisis” that concludes that the claims made by Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to justify a socialist takeover of the financial industry were demonstrably false. The analysis, Flawed Assumptions about the Credit Crisis: A Critical Examination of US Policymakers,concludes that the result of the unjustified massive federal intervention in the economy could be similar to the economic crisis in the Weimar Republic of 1922, where disastrous hyperinflation...

Investigators say they believe 64-year-old Paulette Locklear was beaten to death outside her home Tuesday afternoon after confronting a man who was trying to break in. Julio Cesar Ramos, 45, is charged with first-degree murder in Locklear’s death. Ramos, who is from Honduras, has been deported from the U.S. several times and is in the country illegally, said Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. Ramos told investigators he is homeless and unemployed., Tanna said. Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies responded to Locklear’s home on the 1200 block of Wilmington Road after she called 911 Tuesday afternoon to report...

Recently, President George W. Bush stated that he believes that the concept of evolution does not conflict with a belief that God created the world. In an interview with ABC’s Cynthia McFadden at the White House that aired on Monday, December 8, 2008, on Nightline, Bush said that he isn’t a literalist when it comes to reading the Bible, but he thinks “you can learn a lot from it.”1 When asked about creation and evolution, he said, “I think you can have both.” He clarified:...

Pictures of the new currency that will supposedly replace the US dollar have appeared on the Russian Internet. The United States is reportedly working on the new currency, the amero, which will be common for the USA, Mexico and Canada. The unstable financial situation in the world, the collapsing oil prices and the growing foreign debt of the United States may eventually crush the US dollar as the world’s major currency. Needless to say that the US authorities reject the rumors and promise to keep the dollar afloat. Amero notes have no portraits of US presidents on them and resemble...

The shoes had hardly left the hand of the Iraqi who tossed them at President Bush during the Baghdad press conference yesterday when the leftwing blogosphere began cheering him as some sort of hero. The incredible success of the Surge in Iraq has been very frustrating for the left. Along with Joe Biden they claimed that the Surge could never work. Problem was that it worked. That is why they have been so silent recently on the topic of the Iraq. The complete turnaround there has been much too embarrassing for them to mention Iraq very much...until now. The shoes...

Iraq has been a great source of frustration for the DUmmies this past year. Why? Because the surge WORKED. Yes, the DUmmies were adamantly opposed to the surge, claiming like Joe Biden, that it could NEVER work. They were wrong. And that made their anger at George Bush even stronger. So when an Iraqi "journalist" threw his shoes at a press conference today in Baghdad, the DUmmies stood up and cheered as you can see in this THREAD titled "Man throws shoes at Bush in Iraq." So let us now watch the DUmmies root for the shoe thrower in...

President George Bush Today dodged two shoes that was thrown at him by an Iraqi reporter. The president displayed some awesome reflexes by quickly dodging the fast moving shoe which was thrown at a close distance. Watch the video at here.

Harrell, Leach tour White House, meet the president BY DON WILLIAMS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL While other quarterbacks were keeping their fingers crossed Saturday for their chance at the Heisman Trophy, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell was at the White House meeting the president. Harrell, Tech coach Mike Leach, Leach’s wife Sharon and Tech associate media relations director Blayne Beal got a private tour of the White House and had a 20-minute meeting with President Bush on Saturday morning and afternoon.

AugustReview.com [Editor's note: members of the Trilateral Commission and companies with Commission representation appear in bold type.] Since 1973, this writer has made inquiry as to the location and ownership of the vast stores of monetary gold (400 oz., .999 pure bars) in the world. There has not been a formal audit on Fort Knox, for instance, since the Eisenhower administration. Official statistics on gold holdings are often contradictory. Getting plain answers from any Central Bank in the world, including the Fed, is virtually impossible. This paper points out a pattern of manipulation that has been clearly observed by many...

Another terrorist attack could hit the United States in the next five years — and North Texas could be a key target next time. By 2013, the U.S. “more likely than not” could be hit by another deadly attack, this time using something possibly like anthrax, according to the new report, World at Risk. And some fear that North Texas, with its population, sports and entertainment venues and businesses — not to mention the fact that President George W. Bush is moving back here after he leaves office in January — could be a target next time. “Everybody should be...

American Civil Rights Union TheACRU.org As usual, the ACLU misreads the Constitution, and sides with those who would attack America and murder Americans, instead of following the Constitution and protecting Americans and America. The latest example is the ACLU promotion of the interests of an Al Qaeda representative in the US. The facts for this article, but not all of the legal conclusions, come from an article in the Los Angeles Times on 5 December, 2008. It concerns an apparent representative of Al Qaeda in the US, who is also a legal resident in the US. On 5 December, the...

And now for a world government By Gideon Rachman Published: December 8 2008 19:13 | Last updated: December 8 2008 19:13 I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible. A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already...

A recent ABC report should be of concern to all Americans and to our elected leaders. It regards Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen who is believed to have committed a suicide bombing in Somalia and – even more disturbing – may have been involved in the recruitment of young men of Somali descent here in the United States. The news report further states that more than a dozen such men, perhaps as many as 40 and mostly in their 20s, have "disappeared." Here are the most important questions: How did Shirwa Ahmed acquire citizenship through the naturalization process? Did...

It's for our own good And it will be an Orwellian Police State, too: Thoughtcrime is already subject to ostracism and vilification, and what with the UN ready to codify it, and Obama signaling that he wants to increase the importance and influence of the UN, how long will it stay out of the U.S.? And why is this necessary? Primarily "to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack." Of course, to call the Muslim community in America to account and compel it to stop teaching Sharia supremacism and hatred of Jews and Christians -- that...

Calling the 2008 elections a “repudiation of Republicans,” President Bush shouldered at least some of the blame for his party’s poor results in November. “I’m sure some people voted for [President-elect] Barack Obama because of me,” the outgoing president said.

IN HIS EXCELLENT BIOGRAPHY of Abraham Lincoln, David Herbert Donald recalls a meeting he had with John F. Kennedy in February 1962, in which the young president complained about the way scholars ranked his predecessors. “No one has a right to grade a president—not even poor James Buchanan—who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and information that came across his desk, and learned why he made his decisions,” Kennedy said. With President Bush’s days in office coming to an end, the inevitable debate about his legacy is upon us. To his critics, his record of failure is...

In previous posts I have been trying to come to grips with the dilemma of an Obama Presidency, the problems the country faces that need a coming together to solve, and the bitterness the left has engendered in me after eight years of trying to destroy President Bush and now Sarah Palin. Just as fanatic Islamists declared war on us, and we did not know it, the left has declared war on conservatives. We are just waking up to that fact, and the ground rules that they have set are that there are no ground rules. Throughout all my adult...

The bankruptcy of Iceland, now receiving a $2.1 billion two-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “to support an economic recovery program,” has been depicted as something that could never happen to America. Is the U.S. too big to fail? Or is the U.S. going through the same process, albeit on a slower basis? The bankruptcy of Iceland, now receiving a $2.1 billion two-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “to support an economic recovery program,” has been depicted as something that could never happen to America. Is the U.S. too big to fail? Or is the U.S....

The Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Hussein Obama triumvirate will be doing as much as possible to distract and demoralize the millions of Americans disenfranchised by last week’s Election. They’ve waited so long to come out with their show of control. Tonight there’s a developing story on Drudge that the Democrats are prepared to move forward with an investigation of the Bush Administration. A worldwide recession is deepening, the automobile industry is counting on billions, American Express is looking for a bailout, stocks are in freefall but the Dems have time to go after a lameduck president whose days in...

I WRITE in praise of George W. Bush. I recognise this may be an eccentric position to hold and an eccentric moment to express it. But I am inspired by the example of the great Catholic polemicist, B. A.Santamaria. In 1963, South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in a military coup backed by the Americans, though they didn't back his murder. To cover the assassination, the slander was put out that Diem, a devout Catholic, had committed suicide. Santa was torn. He wanted to defend Diem and denounce the Americans for the most foolish thing they did in...

IT is the final tribute to George W. Bush. In his America, allegedly awash with racism, militarism and bitter religion, the white war hero with the evangelical running mate got creamed and the black man of letters got the presidency. The greatest immediate international consequence of Barack Obama's election as president must be a reconsideration of the reflex anti-Americanism that forms the staple diet of intellectual life in many opinion-making corners of the world... ...President Obama will also have fellow Democrats in control of Congress. This could be triumph, or tragedy, for the Democrats and for the US... It has...

Entertainment Weekly's Joshua Rich reported on the weekend's box office returns for the latest releases on October 19 to let us all in on Hollywood's successes and failures, because, you know, Hollywood is important and all. We find that the Chihuahua movie is still going like gangbusters ($70 million in three weeks) and the horrid movie "Max Payne" led the weekend's receipts with $18 million. Oliver Stone's slamfest "W," though, earned a disappointing fourth place on its debut weekend. So, what was EW's excuse for this disappointing finish? According to Rich, "W" is failing at the box office because of...

Oliver Stone has proclaimed that his new feature film "W." aims to be an "empathetic" psychological portrait of President Bush. The president's younger brother has a different impression. At the heart of "W.," opening nationally in theaters Friday, is a psychological portrait of George W. Bush as living perpetually in the shadow of his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and driven to invade Iraq at least in part by a desire to prove he is as tough as the elder statesman. "The Oedipal rivalry is high-grade, unadulterated hooey," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told The Washington Times.

Why Bush Is Toast By William Saletan Posted Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000, at 3:00 AM ET Since Labor Day, the media have released about 20 polls on the presidential race. Three show a dead heat, one shows George W. Bush leading by a single percentage point, and the rest show Al Gore leading by one to 10 points. In the latest polls, Gore leads by an average of five points. It's fashionable at this stage to caution that "anything can happen," that Bush is "retooling," and that the numbers can turn in Bush's favor just as easily as they turned...

CBS) For as long as he's been asked about it, George Bush has publically professed to not care much about his legacy. "I'm reading about George Washington, still," President Bush said in 2006. "My attitude is, if they're still analyzing number one, 43 ought not to worry about it." And why would he want to, given the long list of targets he's presented to his critics, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports. The tragically weak response to Katrina, which will always overshadow the administration getting it right - like the last few days with Gustav. No Child...

Making it through the past seven years without a terrorist attack in the Unites States constitutes a miracle even if Democrats pretend it does not. Such a national security achievement is the result of smart initiatives and the judicious employment of military force, even if President Bush's critics treat it as sheer good luck. That such luck has selectively eluded Great Britain, Spain, Russia, China, Indonesia, and Turkey (to name but a few) during the same period of time is habitually ignored by those making the case against "the worst president in U.S. history." While al Qaeda has managed to...

WASHINGTON — Bob Woodward, who wrote two books praising President Bush and then a third harshly criticizing him, is out with a fourth tome that renders a mixed verdict on Bush, lauding the president’s surge of troops into Iraq, but saying "too often he failed to lead." Woodward notes that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposed the surge, while GOP presidential candidate John McCain was “advocating more troops for years.” Woodward also quotes McCain expressing frustration with the Bush White House, clenching his fists in the West Wing and exclaiming to Woodward: “EVERYTHING IS F---ING SPIN.” Woodward also observed that...

8/15/2008 - EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- I learned a big lesson on service Aug. 4, 2008, when Eielson had the rare honor of hosting President Bush on a refueling stop as he traveled to Asia. It was an event Eielson will never forget -- a hangar full of Airmen and Soldiers getting to see the Commander in Chief up close, and perhaps even shaking his hand. An incredible amount of effort goes into presidential travel because of all of the logistics, security, protocol, etc ... so it was remarkable to see Air Force One land at Eielson on...

The current narrative of the Bush Presidency is that it is a failure (believed by 107 of 109 historians surveyed) and that George W. Bush is the worst President in history (believed by 61% of those surveyed historians). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said, "The president already has the mark of the American people -- he's the worst president we ever had." That's one narrative. I have another.

NBC's Bob Costas has his admirers and critics, but he isn't shy and certainly wasn't intimidated by his prime time interview Sunday night with U.S. President George W. Bush. Name another journalist who wrapped up an interview with a U.S. President by saying, “Okay, you're dismissed.” Some of the Q & A: Costas: . . . Alright, our time here is limited but we will get to as much as we can, the opening ceremonies were glorious there is much to admire about China's people, China's culture, and its present accomplishments. But this remains an authoritarian state. Bush: That's true....

GATES MILLS, Ohio -- President George W. Bush made a pit stop on his way back to the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Tuesday evening. After leaving a fundraiser in Gates Mills, his motorcade passed a home with a sign asking the president to stop by -- so he did. Bush got out of the car and spent a few minutes with Ruth Harris, who was celebrating her 91st birthday with her family. Bush sat in a chair next to Harris and said "91 years old -- how special." When neighbors noticed what was happening, they soon surrounded the president for...

GATES MILLS, Ohio -- President George W. Bush made a pit stop on his way back to the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Tuesday evening. After leaving a fundraiser in Gates Mills, his motorcade passed a home with a sign asking the president to stop by -- so he did. Video: Bush Visits Euclid Plant Bush got out of the car and spent a few minutes with Ruth Harris, who was celebrating her 91st birthday with her family. Bush sat in a chair next to Harris and said "91 years old -- how special." When neighbors noticed what was happening, they...

The received wisdom is that President Bush has been a foreign policy disaster, and that America is threatened by the rise of Asia. Both claims are wrong—Bush has successfully rolled back jihadism, and the US will benefit from Asian growth.

FINALLY Hollywood makes a film that says President George W Bush was right. But director Christopher Nolan had to disguise it a little, so journalists wouldn't freak and the film's more fashionable stars wouldn't walk. So he hides Bush in a cape. He even sticks a mask on him, with pointy ears for some reason.

In the last two weeks, since American politicians started feeling the wrath of American voters, the world market price of oil has dropped $24.00 per barrel or 16%. Another factor has been President Bush’s largely symbolic lifting of a previous executive order against drilling. I use the term, “symbolic”, because it is my understanding that Congress also needs to act before anything meaningful can be done. A third factor in the drop in price of oil and gasoline is the decrease in demand for gasoline which, in the USA, has declined about 3% recently. Several columnists have made the point...

At least one reviewer has noticed the symbolism that compares Batman to President Bush in the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight". As one who has greatly admired the understanding and foresight that President Bush has shown in comprehending the threat to free societies everywhere presented by Islamofascism and its record of murderous terrorism, and also admired the courage he has shown in the face of unbelievable threats, obstruction and vitriolics from the left-wing cowards and ostriches who can't and won't understand this threat, I am greatly encouraged that President Bush's great character and steadfastness is being recognized in a...

A cry for help goes out from a city beleaguered by violence and fear: A beam of light flashed into the night sky, the dark symbol of a bat projected onto the surface of the racing clouds . . . Oh, wait a minute. That's not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a "W." There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the...

THE DALAI Lama came to town, and I went to see him. After all, how often do you get to see a world figure, a Nobel Peace Prize winner? I saw his holiness at the majestic Kimmel Center, the perfect setting for such a holy man. --snip-- The angry murmur that went through the crowd when His Holiness proclaimed his love for George Bush was the exact opposite reaction you think you'd get from a bunch of peace-loving folk

Is the Bush administration crumbling? Asia experts Liu Kin-ming and June Teufel Dreyer, in postings on the Taiwan Policy Forum listserv today, ask a pertinent question. The answer, unfortunately, is “yes.” An exhausted Dubya is now doing everything he once said he would not. The President, for example, is rewarding North Korea prior to surrender of its nuclear weapons. On Wednesday, the administration agreed to talk with Iran even though the Islamic Republic is continuing to enrich uranium and undoubtedly maintaining a covert bomb program. And on the same day, it was revealed that the Bush White House is undermining...

The first time I encountered Tony Snow was through his columns for the Detroit News in the 1980s, when I was an undergraduate subscribing to a forgotten but quite good publication called Conservative Chronicle. His articles were like his later work for Fox News: a combination of reliable research and lively commentary, with the latter grounded in the former, making his arguments cogent and convincing. When you read Tony Snow’s op-ed pieces, you were engaged and learned something; you came away with the assurance that the case you just heard was rational and reasoned. He advanced his particular point and,...

This piece should really bring out the Calvins, the Dudley Dursleys, the Lucy van Pelts, the Angelica Pickles and all the rest of the spoiled brats and know-nothings of this world who have been having a temper tantrum because President Bush is succeeding in Iraq and defeating the terrorists.

I’m worried about you, George Bush. Mr. President you look — to use a phrase I’m sure you are familiar with — tuckered out. You are certainly looking worse for wear these days. Who can blame you? You are heading into your final months in office with historically low poll numbers, the economy is in the dumps, former pals are ripping on you and you’re almost out of a job. It’s enough to make a former drinker like you head for the Jack Daniels. SNIP Congress? Mr. President, surely you jest! As far as I can tell, the Democratic leadership...

... G-8 meetings follow a familiar script year after year. They begin with leaders issuing lofty statements on a checklist of "global challenges." They continue with TV footage of riot police struggling with the global protester brigade. And they finish with news stories quoting unnamed diplomats sighing that American obstinacy has just lost the world its last chance for some great advance on some issue vital for humanity. The good news is that this week's summit in Japan may be the one in which we finally awake from the G-8 version of "Groundhog Day." And when we do, we will...

It was on page 6 of my daily newspaper that an important reminder of Saddam’s capacity for WMD was published: the movement in secrecy of 550 tons of ‘yellowcake’ uranium from Iraq to Canada on July 5. 550 tons! Can they really continue their lies about no possibility of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Saddam’s Iraq? I know they will try to spin this, but can any honest person now still maintain that Saddam was not able to reconstitute his nuclear weapons’ capability left to his own devices? Can any honest person continue the nonsense of “Bush lied”? Although U.N....

RFFM.org EXCLUSIVE Tel Aviv -- A high-ranking member of the Israeli military says an attack on Iran is imminent. Experts predict Iran may be within six months of creating a nuclear weapon and the nation of Israel is bound and determined to prevent that from happening, according to the source. It has been estimated the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has produced more than enough weapons-grade plutonium to create a high yield nuclear device and, due to this fact, the attack on Iran ...