Free Republic

President Bush's defense of his military service during the Vietnam War must have brought back memories to a whole generation of Americans. Anyone who was a male in his late teens or early 20s during the late 1960s and early 1970s knows the dilemma that Bush faced. They also know that his version of history does not tell the whole story. Most Americans may not understand that. A majority of Americans were either born after the fighting ended in 1975 or were too young to have any first-hand knowledge of it. They might think that war was just like the...

Double standard? Pat Buchanan, in his Nov. 29 Other Views column, It's time to revolt against judges, on gay marriage, states: • ''It is time for elected representatives to take back powers that were never constitutionally granted to any court.'' • ''The Massachusetts court has just usurped the power of the elected branches, and they should slap the court down.'' • ''Time to go to the root of America's social crisis: the power usurped by judges and imposed against the will of the people and their chosen representatives.'' Why didn't Buchanan apply those same ideas after the 2000 presidential election?

Three months after Cuban President Fidel Castro launched his harshest crackdown on dissidents in decades, there's still no agreement on what drove him to take such steps and then lash out at valuable European allies that criticized him. Fear that dissent had escalated into a real threat? A fit of pique by a grumpy old man? An attempt to tighten controls on society as the island's economy tumbles? Some foreign analysts profess to be baffled by Castro's decision to silence dissent and blast European allies that are Cuba's most loyal sources of trade and tourism.

'Herald' Goes Undercover to Cover Carter Cuba Denies 'Herald' Reporters VisasBy Joe StruppThe CIA just might be able to learn a few things from The Miami Herald. If they want to improve their undercover operations in Cuba, that is.Because of a long-standing Cuban policy that denies reporter visas to Herald staff writers, the newspaper is forced to send reporters to the island undercover as tourists, according to executive editor Tom Fiedler. He told E&P on Wednesday that a Herald reporter is in Cuba and filed stories about this week's trip by former President Jimmy Carter -- which appeared under no...