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The weekly Economist for June 12 placed Iraq on its cover once again. The timing of the cover story was significant. Nine days earlier the Democrats had settled on their presidential nominee -- Barack Hussein Obama -- for the November election. The Iraq story had been downgraded by the mainstream media when the Democratic primary contest intensified and when the good news from Iraq, according to the Economist, was "far better than it was only a few months ago." The good news from Iraq is indeed far better than merely good. The military surge President George W. Bush ordered in...

President Bush doesn't hesitate to kick Congress around, but Congress just can't bring itself to kick back. During oral arguments yesterday about whether a federal judge should enforce congressional subpoenas against a belligerent White House, representatives of the judicial and executive branches both noted that Congress hasn't exercised its full constitutional powers. As Del Quentin Weber writes in The Washington Post, District Court Judge John D. Bates suggested that "the House could take other actions to compel the testimony. For example, the judge said, the House could order [White House Counsel Harriet] Miers's arrest and detention in a cell in...

As he leaves the White House at the end of his second term, the President has a poll rating of only 23 per cent, and is widely disliked and even despised. His foreign policy has been judged a failure, especially in view of the long, painful, costly war that he declared, which is still not over. He doesn't get on with his own party's presidential candidate, who is clearly distancing himself, and had lost many of his closest friends and staff to scandals and forced resignations. The New Republic, a hugely influential political magazine, writes that his historical reputation will...

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it...

Despite flaws, George W Bush is a loyal friend 06/16/08 When President Bush began his valedictory tour of Europe, we commented that he would be received correctly rather than warmly. Still, it would be churlish not to bid him welcome in his final presidential visit to London. He might not have been the easiest of allies, but an ally he has been. Anyone could compile a list of grievances: the steel tariff, the budget deficit, the reluctance to negotiate reciprocity in the US-UK extradition agreement, the calamities that befell Iraq after the invasion, the deaths of British servicemen in friendly...

'Bush Believes History Is On His Side' Tim Marshall Foreign Affairs editor Updated:02:04, Monday June 16, 2008 George Bush believes that where the British Empire stumbled, what he calls 'Freedom's March' will succeed. The American President was asked by Sky News about the British and Soviet experiences in Afghanistan. He gave an emotional response which went to the heart of his foreign policy thinking: "This isn't the American Empire, the British Empire or coalition empire; this is freedom's march. And freedom has had a way of taking hold in some of the places where people have never given freedom a...

Over the last few months, celebrations for Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday have drawn attention to the Kentucky native's life and his legacy as president. But the 200-year anniversary of another Kentucky president's birth, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, is receiving mixed reviews. "I'll say it this way - winners write history," said Ron Bryant, a Lexington historian writing a book on Davis. "We need heroes, we need villains. Lincoln became a hero and Davis a villain." Davis was born in what is now Todd County, Ky., in 1808, one year before Lincoln. Davis served as the only president of the 11...

"March 4,1865 in Washington was a bleak day. Low clouds hung in the sky,the wind blew in heavy gusts,and the carriage wheels sank in the mud of Pennsylvania Avenue. On the portico of the capitol Lincoln arose to deliver his Second Inaugural Address. In a quiet voice he read these immortal words."Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4,1865

The Lincoln - Douglas Debates of 1858 - Ottawa, Illinois (1st Debate) On C-SPAN3 History

Way back on December 2, 1864, a prominent Dallas County lawyer named George W. Gayle became the unluckiest man in the state. Gayle held his residence in the Dallas County seat of Cahaba. Cahaba had once been the state capital of Alabama (1820-1825). Gayle placed an ad in the Selma Dispatch promising that he would bring about the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, his secretary of state, William H. Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson on March 1, 1865. He asked his ad readers to donate to him a million dollars so that he could carry out his threat. Most folks...

NNow when he is at his lowest point yet in the polls is the time for those who love and admire President Bush to say so. Depending on the final success of his already successful campaign to bring the rudiments of democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, George W. Bush, #43, may go down as a truly great president, who against fierce odds turned the entire Middle East in a new, more democratic, and more creative direction. But I do not want to argue here the question of his greatness (I have heard voices call him the worst ever) because the...

Ronald Reagan Speeches "A Time for Choosing" (October 27, 1964) Download Audio (mp3) Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own words and discuss my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks. I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party...

Ronald Reagan's handwritten diaries of his eight years in the White House will be published as a book to be released next year, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation and HarperCollins Publishers announced Tuesday. Reagan, who died at 93 last June following a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease, wrote in his diaries every day of his presidency, recording his thoughts on events both routine and historic, officials said. While the volumes "were not initially intended for publication, we feel that these volumes offer an unprecedented insight into the Reagan Presidency," said Frederick Ryan Jr., chairman of the foundation's board of...

The key to understanding Lincoln's philosophy of statesmanship is that he always sought the meeting point between what was right in theory and what could be achieved in practice. By Dinesh D'Souza Most Americans -- including most historians -- regard Abraham Lincoln as the nation's greatest president. But in recent years powerful movements have gathered, both on the political right and the left, to condemn Lincoln as a flawed and even wicked man. For both camps, the debunking of Lincoln usually begins with an exposé of the "Lincoln myth," which is well described in William Lee Miller's 2002 book Lincoln's...

The candlelight vigil to honor President Reagan at Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. last night went very well. A steady crowd of about seventy people participated for the first two hours from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. After then, there were about one to two dozen people still there until after 9 p.m.We lit candles, listened to some of President Reagan's speeches and made speeches of our own in tribute to his life and presidency.We were joined by groups of tourists passing through the park to see the White House.We were quite surprised at the enthusiastic response from the media...

Click the Source URL above to Freep this CNN poll: Who is the Greatest President in American History. Results at the end of the program tonight. It's on the left side of the page.

I hold my set of President Ronald Reagan's official White House cufflinks -- his signature as neatly as ever engraved on the backs -- with affection and admiration. If we equate Germany's Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin, Communist China's Mao Tse-tung and Cambodia's Pol Pot as being the most evil leaders of the 20th century, we have to place Britain's Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, Poland's Pope John Paul -- and America's Reagan -- as courageously being the leaders who stood for all that is decent and right in our world. Here I do not mean to...

New York -- "I learned about principle, I learned about kindness, I learned about humor. Ronald Reagan was unfailingly courteous to the people around him, thoughtful to the little guy, the elevator operator, the butler at the White House." George H.W. Bush is calling up memories from his years as Reagan's political mate, Vice President and friend, TIME' s Hugh Sidey writes in the magazine's special commemorative issue, Ronald Reagan 1911-2004 (on newsstands Monday, June 7th). Bush shapes a private picture of a man he learned to love and admire, and the one he finally felt comfortable calling Ron. But...

The house I grew up in had large plate-glass windows, which birds frequently crashed into headfirst. My father helped me assemble a bird hospital, consisting of a few shoe boxes, some old rags and tiny dishes for water and food. When I lost my first patient, when the tiny gray creature died in my hands without ever eating any of the Cheerios I'd provided for it, my father patiently explained to me that the bird was free now, flying happily through the blue breezes of heaven, where there are no hazards such as windows. I was locked into his eyes,...

It may be in bad form to promote another website here. However, there is a wonderful memorial site here. I highly recommend it. This is The Heritage Societies memorial site:

ABC just announced :( Ronald Reagan was 93

Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate West Berlin, Germany June 12, 1987 This speech was delivered to the people of West Berlin, yet it was also audible on the East side of the Berlin wall. 2,703 words Thank you very much. Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself, make my second visit to your city. We come to...

I just watched an interview on Foxnews channel with a guy from the History Channel. Brigitte Quinn interviewed the guy who did the special. I believe they said that Thursday night at 9 p.m. eastern on the History channel they are going to be doing a special on Ronald Reagan. This is a new one. They interviewed Nancy Reagan,George Bush Sr, and George W, Secret Service Agents, and Gorby. They also are going to show more of his writings. He was a brilliant writer.