Free Republic

...First, Brooks gets a lot right. Talk radio, like every other form of media, has lots of influence and very little actual power. We can and do make the phones ring, and we can and do sometimes help stop legislation like the ill-fated and poorly drafted immigration bill of 2007, but moments like that are very rare. We certainly cannot nominate GOP presidential candidates, as almost none of us supported Seantor McCain, but that may reflect only that we lack decisive influence in the course of a fractured long campaign, or that we were ourselves fractured or uncommitted in our...

I think they will be talking about her book, among other things. Coming up at the top of the hour. Click on the link to listen.

I'm listening to Hugh Hewitt right now. I like his show, or I wouldn't listen. But can't the guy do a segment without a guest? SHEESH!!!

President Obama wants everyone to believe that American health care is in a crisis, and he wants everyone to be willing to sacrifice in order to solve that crisis... President Obama wants everyone to sacrifice. Well, not quite everyone. There is one group that President Obama doesn't mention, one group he doesn't demand sacrifice for the greater good. President Obama is protecting the plaintiffs' lawyers who sue doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies and reap billions in fees from the tort lottery...

A glimpse into the future if the DNC controls talk radio, too.

Hugh Hewitt said he would be discussing the birth certificate issue and taking calls, but only from skeptics. Click on the link, then click the LISTEN LIVE button.

Hugh Hewitt talks with Charles Krauthammer regarding the Gates matter.

...We're not talking about wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage. This week is fiction week as Hugh interviews many of America's most popular thriller writers practicing the craft. Today's program featured interviews with Brad Thor, the immensely talented writer of the Scot Harvath novels, and with Alex Berenson, author of the John Wells series... And on today's show Hugh continues fiction thriller week with Steven Pressfield today, author of Gates of Fire, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Killing Rommel, which will be discussed at length in the last two hours of the show today. But in the first hour, Hugh and...

Hugh spends the hour talking with legendary writer and pundit P.J. O'Rourke, author of the brand new book, Driving Like Crazy.

What do you do when your TV show is flopping in the ratings department? If you're Ed Schultz, you desperately attempt to draw attention to yourself by engaging in "Psycho Talk" which, ironically is a segment of MSNBC's The Ed Show that Schultz uses to supposedly demonstrate "Psycho Talk" from conservatives. However, take a look at the crazed Schultz in this video slamming Hugh Hewitt for stating that he would refuse to buy cars from companies taken over by the government. It far exceeds in looniness any "Psycho Talk" that Schultz features in his segment. Here is how TV Squad,...

Wednesday evening in the Chicagoland area Conservatives attended and event they thought would be an entertaining and informative. Three popular Conservative nationally recognized Talk show hosts were taking questions about Obama’s “First Hundred Days” in office. The Salem Broadcasting Corporation has been hosting a 12-city national tour. What they got was a shameless promotion of an Illinois RINO candidate courtesy of Hugh Hewitt. We’ll give Mr. Hewitt a break, maybe he was auditioning to be Mitt Romney’s spokes person for “National Council for a New America.” Hugh officially anointed Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) as the best candidate for the Illinois...

California voters head to the polls next week with predictions of doom echoing in their ears if they decline to endorse the massive tax hikes prescribed for them by big Democratic majorities in the statehouse, Arnold and a handful of now ruined-politically Republican legislators. "Shrill" doesn't begin to describe the campaign designed to stampede the Golden State electorate. The latest ad has a weary, soot-covered fire-fighter urging a yes vote on the tax hike. The message is clear: Vote no and your homes will burn down. Not even this sort of fear-mongering is moving the needle towards "yes" on the...

This is a new book that I have co-authored with Hank Adler, a professor at Chapman University's business school, a post he took up after retirement from a long and successful career as a partner with Deloitte. Hank and I undertook this project because we had --independent of each other and for different reasons-- arrived at the same conclusion: That the "Fair Tax" proposal put forward by my radio tal show host Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder is a disastrous mirage that far too many Republicans have been drawn too, and for all the wrong reasons. "The Fair Tax"...

Direct Link to the Audio of Mark Steyn on Hewitt's radio program April 16, 2009

HH: On the day after the tea parties, we begin as we do on those Thursdays when we are lucky with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. You can read all of Mark’s analysis at www.steynonline.com. Mark, I’m tempted to begin with Olga the Russian hairdresser, though. You’re the only one who spotted that story thus far. MS: (laughing) Yes, yes I am. It’s a cautionary tale not to hold up a hair salon in Russia. This guy went in with a gun, he told all the stylists and the clients to drop to the floor and give them all...

Obama: The first 100 days From the very beginning, President Barack Obama's journey to the Oval Office has been a series of both historical and controversial events. The first 100 days of his Presidency will give the world stage a glimpse of what's to come from this new generation of leadership. AM 870 KRLA and our show hosts have been watching closely, and now, they're ready to give you their critique. Join KRLA's Mike Gallagher, Hugh Hewitt, and Dennis Prager as they critique the first 100 days of President Barack Obama's term as President of the United States...

The always brilliant Hugh Hewitt has finally outdone himself in his pre-emptive war against the California gubernatorial candidacy of Tom McClintock. Let us forget, for just a moment, the ridiculous comparison made in his latest column, between Tom McClintock and Pat Buchanan. But he also seems to want to equate the re-election campaign of President George Herbert Walker Bush, circa 1992, with the (R)nold Inc. Gubernatorial campaign taking place today.

Mark Steyn analyzes the postmodern mess that is Barack Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father HUGH HEWITT: When we’re lucky on Thursday, we start with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. You can read all of his writing at www.steynonline.com. Mark, good Thursday to you. MARK STEYN: Happy Thursday to you, too, Hugh. HH: Thank you. Now I know you’ve read Dreams From My Father. I don’t know if you’ve listened to it yet. Do you think looking back, it was a wise idea for Barack Obama to record this book? MS: Well, let me say first of all, about...

Author Vince Flynn joins me for the entire show today as we discuss his phenomenal success, his approach to writing thrillers, the long war against Islamist jihadists and a dozen other subjects.

HH: If you’ve listened to this program, you know that I worked for Richard Nixon from 1978-1980, and then again from ’89-’91. I knew him pretty well, I knew him very well in those years. So when Frost/Nixon came out, I sort of was going to be skeptical. What would they do with Jack Brennan? What would they do with the old man? And I loved it. Joining me now to discuss it, Ron Howard, the director/producer of it. Ron, welcome back, good to talk to you. RH: Thank you, good to talk to you, Hugh. HH: Congratulations on the...

Panetta's a patriot, an experienced Washington hand, and close to the president-elect. As with many of the other early appointments on the incoming national security team, conservatives should be asking themselves if they ought not to be thanking their stars that the new team appears very realistic about the world they are being called on to lead and the enemies they will be facing.

HH: We begin with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn of www.steynonline.com. Merry Christmas, Mark, I hope your Christmas Eve is well launched already. MS: Yes, it is. Merry Christmas to you, too, Hugh. HH: Let’s begin with the issue of the report. I hate to bring politics into a holiday, but it seems to me that the Obama camp’s release of the report yesterday was designed to assure that no one talked about it, so we’re going to. What do you make about its timing and what it says? MS: Well basically, this is an attempt at self-exoneration. I...

Yesterday's Gallup shocker (a 2 point gap in the "likely voter" model) is going to have a follow up today if Drudge is right: A Rasmussen poll narrowing the gap to 3 points. Now we know why John McCain and Sarah Palin were both in PA yesterday. The election is tightening across the map as those of us who remember 1976 have been predicting all along. Barack Obama represents a much more radical alternative than Jimmy Carter did in '76, and Carter's unusual profile sent voters by the millions towards Gerald Ford in the closing days. The same thing is...

Farewell, Dean Posted by: Hugh Hewitt My friend and colleague Dean Barnett died today, and the world is a much poorer place for it. As anyone who listened to him on my radio show or read his work at Soxblog, here or at the Weekly Standard knows, and as everyone who had the great, great pleasure of knowing Dean will attest, Dean's combination of sparking intelligence and enormous good humor made him one fo the most memorable of friends. What too few people know, though, is what a kind, extraordinarily giving and compassionate man he was. Dean loved people and...

Finally, I understand why people say that those who pass away at a young age died “too soon.” Prior to Monday, October 27, I would tell myself that those who died young simply passed away at their particular “time.” Even when someone passed away at an exceedingly young age—like the singer and actress Aaliyah Haughton, who perished in a plane crash in August 2001 at the age of 22—I’d rationalize it by saying that it was their time to go. I cannot do that anymore. At the very least, I cannot do that now. Dean Barnett is no longer with...

It's my sad duty to report that our good friend and valued contributor Dean Barnett passed away today. He was a remarkable man--principled, witty, and to all of us, a model of grace and courage. We mourn his passing and cherish his memory. --William Kristol

In Tucson this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (10/05/2008 to 10/07/2008) various events are scheduled to support the Crisis Pregnancy Center in the "2008 Share in a Life Fundraising Event." Sunday night was a great lunch at the Doubletree Inn. Scheduled to speak on both Sunday and Monday was Hugh Hewitt, the famous radio personality, lawyer and author. Michael Medved is the featured speaker for Tuesday, October 7th. Even though Hugh Hewitt's flight was down between Phoenix and Tucson, Hewitt rushed to a ground vehicle and zoomed to Tucson where he was only a little late. Hewitt's speech was great in...

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Governor Palin on his show today. It seems that the campaign got the "Free Sarah" memo from those on the right who wanted her to stop doing the stilted, edited, gotcha interviews with Gibson, Couric, et al., and let her be herself. She is great in this interview. She calls herself Joe Sixpack. On the blood-shooting-out-of-the-eyes hostility from the left. Oh, I think they’re just not used to someone coming in from the outside saying you know what? It’s time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency, and I think...

The McCain-Palin campaign finally did something its supporters have been calling for for weeks now — they unleashed Sarah Palin. She did an interview with Hugh Hewitt this evening. (Check HughHewitt.com; Hugh will replay it twice on his program. I appeared after Palin and was the first to analyze the Palin's answers. Short version - her first couple answers were a bit of the "generic talking point Sarah" we saw from the Gibson and Couric interviews. But she warmed up quickly. She mentioned that she and Todd had lost $20,000 in the past few weeks in their 401(k)s. Can you...

Here's a shocker: No one likes the risks involved in Paulson 2.0 or the precedent of using so much public money to rescue reckless bankers, both private and semi-private.. But there is a very good chance that (1) it will actually make money for the Treasury and (2) without it the financial crisis will spread and the small businesses of America and the people who own and staff them will be deeply injured. These businesses are the backbone of the economy, and they are in danger. This isn't just a bailout of Wall Street; it is a breakwall for Main...

Slow Joe at the Pro Hall of Fame, courtesy of Jake Tapper, who is clearly becoming the most-read reporter on the trail: Although Biden said he was a Steelers fan in a meeting with the team's coach Mike Tomlin on August 29, he later said in a September 8 visit to a Green Bay bar outside of Lambeau Field that he'd been a Packers fan since grade school. Today he added three more favorites to the list -- the Eagles, the Colts and the Giants. As he looked at the jersey of former Philadelphia Eagle Reggie White, Horrigan said he...

An Army of Sarahs by Hugh Hewitt Sarah Palin keeps collecting admirers. Her interview with ABC News Charles Gibson has added another legion, .... (excerpt) Manhattan-Beltway media elites are very slow to recognize anything completely new. This is why prior to 9/11 they were in the dark about Islamist extremism. It is why prior to $4 a gallon gas, they had never anticipated a huge majority of Americans would demand offshore drilling. And it is why they still don't understand the Palin Breakout. (excerpt) The Great Snarl that has arisen and is directed at Sarah Palin has registered at a...

A Los Angeles man is suing conservative Talker KRLA-AM/Los Angeles claiming the station, and parent Salem Communications, misrepresented their broadcast license by serving the interest of the Republican Party rather than the public reports the Glendale News Press. David Birke filed the complaint on August 27 against seven talk hosts, Salem and Salem President/CEO Ed Atsinger, claiming that they use the public airwaves to push a Republican agenda. Syndicated hosts Laura Ingraham, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Dennis Miller, Mike Gallagher and Kevin James are listed as defendants. According to the complaint, "Salem Entities and Atsinger had no intention...

Memo To Team Obama Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 1:24 PM Please keep talking about Sarah Palin's inexperince in foreign affairs. By reason of just her work with Canada, she's light years ahead of Obama.

Freddoso is the author of The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate Hewitt just started the interview. It's for two hours. Listen at the KRLA link.

Old Hugh Hewitt is apparently getting good intel (14 August FR Post "Military Coup in Mexico"). Powerful and influential senior Mexican General, General Segio Aponte Polito, was recently removed from his position as the 2nd Military District Commander (LA Times, 9 Aug). Unlike the US, Generals in Mexico don't get “resigned”..they play major roles in many power broker positions (and yes, until late, behind the scenes). The Mexican Military is fed up with not being able to control the spiraling arms race and increasing sophistication of the cartels. Expect to see Aponte in the future..and before the US election...Wait and...

Hugh was just notified by email that the Mexican army is preparing to mount a coup in Mexico City. Does anyone have any information concerning this?

The relation between the federal government and the governments of the various states is a chestnut of constitutional theory, a perennial cause of angst and a gauge of American politics generally. In antebellum America, Southern states claimed the right to ignore federal law, presaging the Civil War. In the past century, Progressive arguments for the federal -- rather than the state -- regulation of labor set in motion the centralized administrative juggernaut that became Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. More recently, the Rehnquist's Court's restrictions on federal authority, in favor of state autonomy, captured the Reagan Revolution's enthusiasm for decentralizing governmental...

A couple days ago at the gym, listening to a Hugh Hewitt podcast and perhaps not paying as much attention as I should have while pedaling away, I heard Hugh mention that Barack Obama doesn't understand the role of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What was Hugh referring to? As the British would say: the penny just dropped. A few minutes ago, CNN's Situation Room played a clip of Obama saying this about his plan for Iraq: BARACK OBAMA: I'm going to call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and give them a new mission, and that is to bring...

Barack Obama's personal recording of the audio version of his memoir could target the Democratic presidential candidate. ... In a passage [Hugh] Hewitt has played on his radio show, Obama mimics Wright's voice and repeats a sermon attacking a society "where white folks' greed runs a world in need." Obama is also heard swearing and quoting others using racial slurs...

Barack Obama has proven a difficult target to hit—just ask Hillary Clinton. Opposition researchers, though, hope that they’ve found a weapon to wound Obama in his own voice as recorded for the Grammy Award-winning audio version of his 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father.” While candidates often have their own words turned against them in attack ads, it’s one thing to see past statements in bloc text and something else entirely to hear the same words in the office-seeker’s own voice.

The Supreme Court's invalidation of the District of Columbia's handgun ban powerfully shows that the conservative rhetoric about judicial restraint is a lie. In striking down the law, Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion, joined by the court's four other most conservative justices, is quite activist in pursuing the conservative political agenda of protecting gun owners. If the terms "judicial activism" and "judicial restraint" have any meaning, it is that a court is activist when it is invalidating laws and overruling precedent, and restrained when deferring to popularly elected legislatures and following prior decisions. ... What then explains the court's decision...

The Supreme Court's invalidation of the District of Columbia's handgun ban powerfully shows that the conservative rhetoric about judicial restraint is a lie. In striking down the law, Justice Antonin Scalia's majority opinion, joined by the court's four other most conservative justices, is quite activist in pursuing the conservative political agenda of protecting gun owners. If the terms "judicial activism" and "judicial restraint" have any meaning, it is that a court is activist when it is invalidating laws and overruling precedent, and restrained when deferring to popularly elected legislatures and following prior decisions. Never before had the Supreme Court found...

HH: I want to begin with Mark Steyn, who has managed to leave the British Columbia courthouse wherein the British Columbia Human Rights tribunal is meeting to try him. He’s in the dock. He’s across the street from the courthouse. Mr. Steyn, welcome, how goes the affairs up there? MS: Well, I’m glad to be able to shake off the fellows from the British Columbia Sheriff’s department. It’s very bizarre to me. They said they’d had, they’d been following me around everywhere in the building I go because they say there are security concerns. And it’s not clear whether it’s...

Canada's descent into self-mockery opened today with the start of trial of Mark Steyn on allegations of human rights violations by the British Columbia Human Rights Commission.

Free Rock Concert Preceded Big Obama Rally in Portland Hugh Hewitt just told me that right before Obama addressed that huge crowd in Portland, the indie rock band the Decemberists played a free 45-minute concert. Now, I'm sure Obama would draw a big crowd either way, but wasn't that worth mentioning in the coverage? From Wikipedia: "Named both in reference to the Russian Decembrist Revolt (which may explain its use of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union as an introduction at many concerts)..." Lovely. I wonder if they played, "Sixteen Military Wives." The video depicts a bully named "Henry...

If Secretary of the Interior Kempthorne announces that the polar bear is now officially "threatened," the impacts on the American economy will be extreme and almost certainly not anticipated or understood by the public at large.The Endangered Species Act operates in a very unaccountable fashion, and if the polar bear is listed as a "threatened" species, every federal action --the grant of a permit, the award of a grant-- that leads even indirectly to the emission of greenhouse gases will come under at least the theoretical review of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service pursuant to Section 7 of...

AEI scholar Michael Rubin's very sober analysis of Iran April 16, 2008 HH: Joined now by Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, one of the country’s leading authorities on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Michael Rubin, last week, Vice President Cheney was on the program, and I talked to him about 12th Imamism, and about Ahmadinejad. And the left has gone crazy, and they’ve been throwing bricks at him, because he said we should take very seriously what Ahmadinejad says, and we should be concerned about sort of a millennialist outlook. And I’ve been waiting to talk to you...

Sunday, March 23, 2008 McCain-Romney?Posted by: Hugh Hewitt  at 9:50 AM The Boston Globe's Joan Vennochi is no fan of Mitt Romney, but her column today looks at the many upsides to McCain's selection of Romney as his running mate.  Key graphs: At a time when the economy frightens everyone from Main Street to Wall Street, Romney has the most extensive and successful business background of any candidate on the national stage. McCain admits that economic theory is not his strong point.... Even if Massachusetts is more than a long shot, Romney might help McCain snatch New Hampshire from the...

HH: It is the day that we are joined by Mark Steyn. We always enjoy that. All of his writing is available at www.steynonline.com. Mark, I’m wondering if you were as dispirited by the five year look backs at the invasion of Iraq as I was yesterday. MS: Yes, I think it’s clear that Iraq has actually dropped off the media radar screen since the surge proved to be working. As far as the mainstream media are concerned, no news is good news. Good news is no news from Iraq. So if things are going well, they tend not to...