Free Republic

He is paying the back tax after rules change; now Hill Country property brings scrutiny WASHINGTON - Presidential adviser Karl Rove may live in Washington. But in his heart — and for voting purposes — he remains a Texan. Which means he is not legally entitled to the homestead deduction and property tax cap he's been getting on his Washington home for the past 3 1/2 years. Last week, the District of Columbia tax collector was alerted to the problem. And Rove agreed to reimburse the District for an estimated $3,400 in back taxes, city officials said. But now some...

There have been a great number of petty and unfair attacks leveled at George W. Bush in the past five years. He's slow witted. He surrounds himself with incompetent "yes men." He's Hitler. But the pettiest and least fair to date is the charge that President Bush exercises too much. For whatever reason, liberals have developed an obsession with the president's "obsession" with physical fitness. Last month the New Republic's Jonathan Chait, writing in the Los Angeles Times, castigated President Bush for his "obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy." "Bush's insistence that the entire populace follow his example,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The first week of June has been remarkable in our nation's history. It was this week in 1776 that a congressional committee was formed to start drafting a Bill of Particulars for King George to consider. Just a month later, it was ratified as the Declaration of Independence. It was during this week in 1942 that the battle of Midway -- the turning point in World War II in the Pacific -- was fought. Within days, Congress was deliberating appropriations for more carriers. In 1944, this was the week during which hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Gas costs so much. I cant afford it. Why want Bush do something? Don't say he can't. His daddy or his handlers could be on the phone in 2 minutes with the Rothchilds and by 1 week, oil prices would be under $20 and gas would be 1 dollar a gallon. You know it and I know it. Why want he? Do you know? Is there sombody we can call? Plaese advice.

MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews suggested last night that the high point of President Bush's State of the Union Address - the emotional hug between grateful Iraqi voter Safia Taleb al-Suhail and Janet Norwood, mother of a Marine who died liberating her country - was staged by the White House. The cynical host apparently first voiced his skepticism during a commercial break. His comments were immediately seized upon by "Hardball" guest, MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan when the show returned.

Smarting over the prospect that President Bush's policy in Iraq was vindicated by Sunday's historic election, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi declined on Monday to offer any congratulations, choosing instead to insult his intelligence. Speaking of the warm reception Bush is likely to enjoy when he delivers the State of the Union Address later this week, the top House Democrat told the National Press Club: "You really don't have to have very [good] communication skills if you have a couple of hundred people who will jump to their feet when you recite the ABCs," she said. In comments on Sunday,...

Ted Kennedy's contemptible foreign policy speech deliberately timed just prior to the Iraqi election was bad enough. But Kennedy didn't just come within one state's electors of becoming president. John Kerry did, and his regrettable remarks on "Meet the Press" demonstrate how scary that is.

January 30, 2005Failed presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry whines about the Iraqi Vote on "Meet The Press"...   click here for really large version This is an email-able, copyright-ready graphic you can use in emails, on blogs, in flyers, on posters... anything that's noncommercial.

A bitter-sounding Sen. John Kerry dismissed the historic Iraqi election on Sunday, warning Americans not to "overhype" the watershed event. "No one in the United States should try to overhype this election," Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press." The failed presidential candidate questioned the historic referendum's legitimacy, saying, "It's hard to say that something is legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't vote and doesn't vote." Kerry also pooh-poohed reports of a surprisingly high 72 percent turnout by Iraqi voters, insisting instead that the election has "gone as expected." Asked if he thought Iraq was now less of...

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Sunday that when the full Senate debates the nomination of Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be Secretary of State on Tuesday, she intends to repeat charges that Rice deliberately misled the nation about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "I will lay out again on the Senate floor [why] I do not believe [she] has been candid with the American people," Sen. Boxer told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." "[She's] gone on shows like yours and made statements that I don't think were true, or they were half-true, didn't tell the whole story, didn't level...

No Name Calling Week?     1/12/2005By Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D.Yes, name-calling is wrong. But this event’s sponsors reveal the agenda behind banning it. “There is a special place in hell for people like you!” These words were directed at me by a teacher during this past summer’s National Education Association (NEA) convention in Washington, D.C. This delegate to the NEA convention made his prediction in response to my presence at the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators’ Caucus booth in the convention exhibit hall. His cheery salutation caught me off-guard given the message of tolerance and acceptance I had been hearing around the exhibit hall....

France has found a new tale of good and evil about which to make clever conversation. As usual the villains are capitalism and America, and “globalization” is the bogeyman combining the two malign forces which have, in their paranoid vision, conspired to diminish la France. Ho hum. The New York Times informs us that Parisian wine and film circles are abuzz with discussion of the surprise hit documentary Mondevino, which reportedly decries the “globalization” and “homogenization” of the world wine industry. Those under attack include Robert Parker, the American wine critic whose tastes have become the single most influential factor...

I was just watching CNN's coverage of the tsunami disaster and they had Patrick Leahy on commenting about it. He went to great lengths to state that the President had waited to long to make a public statement about the crisis and that our initial offer of $35 million dollars was not nearly enough. To her credit, the interviewer said that the White House was claiming that the President's critics were unwilling to give him credit for anything he did to which Leahy responded that he would give credit when credit was due.

WASHINGTON - President Bush tripped over his tongue again yesterday, inadvertently suggesting that he and his administration are plotting new ways to harm America. At a White House ceremony where he signed the $417 billion defense spending bill for the 2005 fiscal year, Bush uttered another of his celebrated malapropisms. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," he said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." Bush's latest verbal bobble was reminiscent of a similar gaffe made by former President Jimmy Carter on Nov. 1, 1980,...

President Bush offered up a new entry for his catalog of "Bushisms" on Thursday, declaring that his administration will "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people." Bush misspoke as he delivered a speech at the signing ceremony for a $417 billion defense spending bill. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." No one in Bush's audience of military brass or Pentagon chiefs reacted. The president was working his way toward a...

Respect. That's what we offer when we honor those who've passed before us. And we witnessed this upon the passing of Ronald Reagan. Hundreds of thousands traveled to Washington for the national and state funerals and the Capitol viewing and to Simi Valley. Millions more watched worldwide. But some were unable to put aside their political differences. Now its time spotlight those deserving of public shame for their atrocious behavior. French President Jacques Chirac boycotted the state funeral even though he was already in the U.S. Democratic National Committee staffers ordered interns who lowered the American flag to half-staff to...

<p>Let's get this straight. Ronnie Reagan allowed AIDS to flourish for years after it was discovered and did next to nothing to stem its virulent, lethal tide, and wouldn't even utter the word until the end of his term, when it was too late. Ronnie Reagan denied the existence of the nation's homeless problem that he largely created, and then blamed the problem on not enough people caring to get out there and get a job as he meanwhile slashed civil services and assistance for the poor.</p>

In a column set to be published on Sunday, NEW YORK TIMES Frank Rich writes: 'During the Reagan show the O.J. Simpson impact was sometimes literally acted out: the gratuitously attenuated aerial shots of the hearse streaking on California freeways to Simi Valley carried an eerie visual echo of the Bronco chase.' On Public reation to Reagan Death, Rich claims: 'The dirty little secret of the week: The outpouring didn't live up to its hype. 'There was this kind of extraordinary outpouring not by the public but by reporters who should know better,' as Morley Safer told Larry King after...