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PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- U.S. plans to extend its ''star wars'' missile-defense program to Europe, which once dismissed the technology as unproven and unneeded, are gaining acceptance among governments here. Despite Russia's mounting opposition, the Czech Republic, Poland, and -- as of Friday -- Britain have all expressed serious interest in hosting parts of the shield. Other countries traditionally cool to the idea have been notably quiet. The trigger: concern about a nuclear Iran. ''This is all a result of Iran,'' says Tim Williams, a European security analyst. ''Governments see that Iranian missiles can hit Europe, and suddenly they are...

FORT GREELEY, Alaska, Aug. 28, 2006 – America’s missile defense capabilities are increasingly important now, as more countries demonstrate the ability and willingness to develop ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here yesterday after touring missile assembly and storage facilities. “It’s an activity that has been evolving over time and is important for the protection of the American people,” Rumsfeld told reporters after being briefed about the interceptor missile activities here. “It is an activity that with each passing month has become more capable.” The U.S. missile defense system is still limited and needs more...

WASHINGTON - North Korea’s threatening spate of missile launches — including an unsuccessful try with an advanced version of its Taepodong 2 Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile that is capable of hitting the United States — has sparked a cacophony of talk from leaders and foreign policy experts around the world. As they debate and discuss various options at the United Nations and in capitals around the globe, the rudimentary U.S. missile defense system is poised to shoot down anything launched from North Korea that threatens the American homeland or the critical interests of our regional allies like Japan and Australia. Noticeably...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A missile rose more than 100 miles into the atmosphere from Alaska's Kodiak Island Thursday in the first of several tests planned this year for the national missile defense system. The 35-foot missile traveled about 2,500 miles over the Pacific Ocean toward the California-Mexico border before splashing down, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rich Lehner. The purpose was to test upgrades to early warning radar installed in 1980 at Beale Air Force Base in northern California. "Everything went very well," Lehner said. "There were 26 test objectives and every one of them was met." An attempt...

LIVE THREAD--Reagan State Funeral Ceremony: Lying in State at the Rotunda (6/11/04)

Ronald Reagan did some fine things, but the economic theory that bears his name was not one of them. Reaganomics made the world safe for today's reckless tax-cutting. And the public hardly understands the social upheaval these policies will soon unleash. Reaganomics held that cutting taxes and reducing the size of government would let loose the nation's entrepreneurial juices and lead to economic growth. Note that the theory comes in two parts. The fun part is cutting taxes. The not-so-fun part is reducing government. Do the first part without the second, and you end up with budget deficits and an...

America's greatest president has gone home. God worked through Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) on Earth and now He's taken him back. Reagan is survived by his wife, three children, and the hundreds of millions of people he saved by winning the Cold War. Thanks to him, the United States of America never ceased to be, as Reagan said, "a place to escape to" -- the last stand on Earth. No thanks to liberals, I might add. More enraging than their revisionist history of Reagan, is liberals' revisionist history about themselves. Now liberals claim they liked Reagan at the...

RUSH: I have learned that the media has been asked that, as they cover the arrival ceremony at Point Mugu of the Reagan family that, there be no commentary offered of the ceremony, just live audio of what takes place -- and if that's the case and if there's a direct live audio feed, we'll take it. We'll JIP it as it happens, and along these lines let me tell you what's going to happen on Friday. As you know, the funeral will take place at the Washington National Cathedral. This program will start a half hour early on Friday....

Ronald ReaganThe U.S. presidential election campaign has effectively ground to a halt as Americans bid farewell to former President Ronald Reagan. With the Bush and Kerry campaigns on hold this week out of respect for Ronald Reagan, both candidates have had time to reflect on the legacy of the 40th U.S. president. President Bush spoke about it to reporters covering the G-8 Summit in Georgia. "Ronald Reagan will go down in history as a great American president because he had a core set of principles from which he would not deviate. He understood that a leader is a person who...

Ronald Reagan has been gone only a few days, and already the left is trying to rewrite history. They're going beyond trying to debate Reagan's role in ending the Cold War -- a legitimate topic of debate and one that historians will be sorting out for some time to come. Indeed, they're even going beyond denying that Reagan had any role at all. Now they are arguing that Reagan may have prolonged the Cold War. Case in point is a piece by former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter Robert Parry at Consortiumnews. Witness the lead-in to his column: The U.S....

By the time this column sees daylight, it's unlikely that there will be many original nice things left to say about Ronald Reagan. To summarize why I admired the Gipper: He was put on earth to do two things: kick butt and chew gum, and he ran out of gum around 1962. The rest is commentary. So let me comment on one aspect of the Reagan coverage that has been driving me nuts: the notion that Ronald Reagan was a "pragmatist." I first picked up on this theme when I heard MSNBC's Lester Holt ask during an interview whether the...

MEMO to all those who believe that Ronald Reagan is being unfairly lionized in death: Bring it on. The undercurrent of unhappiness at the elegiac coverage of the Gipper isn't really an undercurrent at all by now. Rather, it's a stream that will soon overflow its bounds and become a flood. I'm not talking about the "I'm glad he's dead" garbage peddled by Internet leftists desperate for a Drudge Report link. I'm referring to the discomfort expressed publicly by major media figures about how the Reagan coverage is unbalanced — and how his supposed failures need to be dissected and...

<p>Political cartoonist Ted Rall's comment that the late President Ronald Reagan is "turning crispy brown right about now" provoked a reaction that crashed his Web site for at least 24 hours after the remark was posted on the Drudge Report.</p>

My friends, the new Zogby poll is out and it bucks a trend. Kerry has been silent, hasn't been doing much, and that's usually when his numbers skyrocket. Not so in this latest poll. His lead over Bush has dropped by three points. It's now 44-42, which is a statistical tie when you factor in the plus or minus margin of error. Everybody is going ape over Zogby these days because he was the one that called the closeness of the 2000 race. In the latest poll, “11 percent of voters said they were undecided -- up from the 8...

Since Ronald Reagan’s passing, the media have been filled with a celebration of his youthful spirit, his indomitable optimism, his faith in America’s greatness and in America’s goodness. His words have been reverberating: “morning again in America,” “springtime of hope,” “a promised land,” “the last best hope of man on earth.” The imagery varied, but a single, overarching principle remained: Reagan’s pledge to return America to its essential role as “a shining city on a hill,” a place of goodness, promise and hope. In other words, Ronald Reagan was one hell of a hedgehog. No, I’m not speaking ill of...

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Californians by the tens of thousands paid their respects to former President Reagan, backing up traffic on a freeway and forcing surprised organizers to extend the viewing period Tuesday by four hours. Some came in their Sunday best, while others looked ready to hit the beach in shorts and flip-flops. All fell silent at the first glimpse of Reagan's flag-draped casket. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library announced Tuesday that it had extended the end of viewing hours from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. "due to the overwhelming response for those showing respect for President Reagan." People...

Pallbearers from all armed services carry Ronald Reagan's coffin from funeral home in Santa Monica, Calif., for trip 40 miles north to Simi Valley, where it lies in state in presidential library before trip to Washington tomorrow. Nancy Reagan is consoled by Rev. Wenning after a brief private service with her family near the casket of former President Ronald Reagan before the public viewing period begins at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Monday, June 7, 2004. The remains will lie in repose through Tuesday evening. Ronald Reagan's fragile widow rested her head on her husband's flag-draped...

<p>Washington, DC, Jun. 7 (UPI) -- To honor, he says, Ronald Reagan's memory, Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., the Democrats' probable presidential nominee, has suspended campaign activities through Friday, until after the former president's funeral at Washington's National Cathedral and his internment on the grounds of his presidential library in California.</p>

Some congressional Democrats will not return to Washington this week to participate in the pageantry of a state funeral for a president they bitterly opposed. It was unclear how many rank-and-file Democrats in both the House and Senate would opt to stay at home and miss the largely procedural and symbolic votes to honor the 40th president’s life. But roughly half of the House Progressive Caucus was contemplating not trekking back to Washington for a legislatively inert week, filled only with tributes to a president they often clashed with, spokesmen for the lawmakers said. But despite the indifferent responses of...