Free Republic

You can always count on Democratic candidates for president to bash millionaires, even while cultivating their friendship and support behind the scenes. Yet and still, what you are never likely to hear is their inclusion of college presidents in this august group. Nevertheless, the latest Chronicle of Higher Education tells us that "32 leaders of private colleges earned more than $1 million in 2013." Here they are: ~ Lee C. Bollinger of Columbia--$4,615,230 ~ Amy Gutmann of Penn--$3,065,746 ~ Nido Qubein of High Point University--$2,909,148 ~ Richard M. Joel of Yeshiva--$2,503,794 ~ Nicholas S. Zeppos of Vanderbilt--$2,147,452 ~ Scott S....

Leading a country comes with extraordinary privileges but also, apparently, a price: new research suggests that heads of state age faster than normal and that the stress of the job may shave almost three years off their life expectancy. Doctors analyzed how long presidents and prime ministers in 17 countries - including Britain, Canada, France, Germany and the U.S. - survived after leaving office, compared to the losing candidates. They also observed the number of years that heads of state lived versus what was expected for someone of the same age and gender. After considering the fates of 279 heads...

Students at the College of William & Mary want Thomas Jefferson’s status removed from campus because they call him an “incestuous rapist” and a “racist.” The Jefferson statue there is now covered in yellow notes that say things including: “he knew it was wrong,” “racist” “rapist,” “black lives matter,” and ” stop worshiping racists.” The College of William & Mary, Jefferson’s alma mater, is one of many schools in America where student activists are debating the legacy of the Founding Fathers and demanding the removal of anything that commemorates them. At Princeton University, student activists held a sit-in inside the...

One need not be a fan of Woodrow Wilson to be appalled at the ease with which Princeton University sees fit to erase any association it has with the 28th President of the United States because of a few bullies who have nothing constructive to do with their lives. Wilson, of course, was President of Princeton from 1902 to 1910. This is no different than the effort to remove Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill. To give you an idea of how deep moral equivalency is imbedded in our university students, I recently attended a Halloween Party where I spoke...

As of July 2015, President Obama’s public approval rating was 44%, down significantly from his starting approval of 62%. To be fair, Obama still has around a year left in office, so his approval rating is far from final. But few presidents leave the White House more popular than when they entered. So how does Obama stack up to the modern presidents when it comes to popularity? Using data from Real Clear Politics and the Roper Center, InsideGov found the average approval ratings for the modern U.S. presidents (FDR onward). We also provide an overall breakdown of each president’s approval...

Thomas Jefferson’s response to Muslims in 1801 is more important today than ever. America’s first war with Islamic terrorists should be remembered. From Wikipedia: The First Barbary War (1801–1805) also known as the Tripolitan War or the Barbary Coast War, was the first of two wars fought between the United States and the Northwest African Berber Muslim states known collectively as the Barbary States. These were the Ottoman provinces of Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis, which were enjoying a large autonomy, as well as the independent Sultanate of Morocco. The war was fought because U.S. President Thomas Jefferson refused to pay...

US Drone Strike Statistics estimate according to the New America Foundation (as of 25 December 2013).] Year Attacks Casualties Militants Civilians Unknown Total 2004 1 3 2 2 7 2005 3 5 6 4 15 2006 2 1 93 0 94 2007 4 51 0 12 63 2008 36 223 28 47 298 477 Bush             2009 54 387 70 92 549 2010 122 788 16 45 849 2011 73 420 62 35 517 2012 48 268 5 33 306 2013 26 145 4 4 153 2,374 Obama

Longtime Kansas Sen. Bob Dole is planning an ambitious fundraising effort to build the long-debated Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, and he will have help from Tom Hanks, Tom Brokaw and others. Dole told The Associated Press on Friday that he aims to raise $150 million in private funds, if necessary, to build the memorial after more than 15 years of planning. Critics of the memorial's design have stalled funding in Congress. The 92-year-old World War II veteran says it's time to honor "Ike," the 34th president and supreme Allied commander during World War II. Organizers hope to create...

Book Discussion on The Real Watergate Scandal Geoff Shepard, former associate director in the Nixon administration, presents research he contends shows misconduct by the judges and prosecutors involved in the Watergate trials. An aging judge about to step down. Aggressive prosecutors friendly with the judge. A disgraced president. A nation that had already made up its mind. The Watergate trials were a legal mess—and now, with the discovery of new documents that reveal shocking misconduct by prosecutors and judges alike, former Nixon staffer Geoff Shepard has a convincing case that the wrongdoing of these history-making trials was actually a bigger...

Former president Jimmy Carter said that the cancer doctors discovered earlier this year, on his liver, has spread to his brain and that he will receive his first radiation treatment for the disease Thursday afternoon. "I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes," Carter said at a news conference. Carter, 90, said Thursday that doctors found "four spots of melanoma on my brain -- small spots" after first discovering cancer during an Aug. 3 operation to remove a tumor from his liver. During that surgery, Carter said, doctors suspected that the cancer had originated in other parts of his body. They...

The smash Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda joins the growing movement encouraging Americans to take a closer look at the Founding Father’s life and legacy. Go to any American elementary school and ask the students to name the Founding Fathers, and it’s likely that Thomas Jefferson will come up, right alongside George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson is on the nickel. Jefferson’s face is one of the four on Mount Rushmore. Jefferson has his own monument in Washington, D.C. Jefferson got to be president. But Jefferson’s star may be fading. Democrats are erasing his...

After nearly 100 years of rumors and historical speculation, DNA testing has confirmed that President Warren Harding had a child out of wedlock – his only biological child – with mistress Nan Britton. Britton first came forward publically with the claim that her daughter, Elizabeth Ann, was Harding’s daughter in a 1927 autobiography “The President’s Daughter.” In her account, Britton detailed a steamy six-year-long affair with the 29th president, including one encounter in a White House closet, before his untimely death in 1923. At the time of its publishing, the book was met with public ridicule and widely discounted as...

Verbal announcement that the previous surgery for a liver tumor has now been diagnosed as a cancer and it has apparently spread beyond the liver.

Some historical examples of US presidents behaving in an un-presidential or undignified manner while in office include, but are not limited to, war hero Andrew Jackson teaching his parrot to swear and James Monroe chasing his secretary of state out of the Oval office with fireplace tongs. The race between President John Quincy Adams and Mr. Jackson in 1828 was one of the ugliest ever, with partisan newspaper headlines making accusations against the candidates, ranging from murder and adultery to pimping. In more recent history, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, stands out, according to a contemporary who explained "the Johnson...

The Carter Center says former President Jimmy Carter has undergone a medical procedure to remove a small mass in his liver, and that he's expected to make a full recovery.

'After Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died 130 years ago today, a million and a half Americans watched his funeral procession. His mausoleum was a popular tourist attraction in New York City for decades. But for most of the 20th Century, historians and non-historians alike believed Grant was corrupt, drunken and incompetent, that he was one of the country's worst presidents, and that as a general, he was more lucky than good. A generation of historians, led by Columbia's William A. Dunning, criticized Grant for backing Reconstruction, the federal government's attempt to protect the rights...

Last month Matt Vespa covered the story of Democrats in Virginia who were talking about changing the name of their annual Jefferson Jackson dinner because of the Dylan Roof shooting or the Confederate Battle Flag or racism or something. That may have sounded rather silly at the time, but it’s turned out to be prophetic. Democrats in Connecticut also have an annual dinner named after the same prominent early Americans – as with their fellows across the nation – and have made the decision to change the name. (Because who would want to be associated with those guys, right?)...

Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are history in Connecticut. Under pressure from the (NAACP) the state (Democrat Party) will scrub the names of the two presidents from its annual fundraising dinner because of their ties to slavery.

The Missouri Democratic Party is changing the name of its annual “Jefferson-Jackson” fundraising dinner, deleting the names of slave-owning party heroes Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. The party will instead honor avowed racist Harry Truman.Though the state party denied that the name change was due to racial issues, Democratic state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, who has called for the name to be changed, said that it was probably due to race. Every state Democratic party holds an early-summer Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently attended the dinners in Arkansas and Virginia.But the Missouri party’s decision to instead name the...

...give gushing interview and say Hillary and Jeb will treat each other with respect... but do we believe them? Self-proclaimed 'long lost brothers' George W. Bush and Bill Clinton shared a stage in a rare joint appearance in Texas on Thursday - to claim the current presidential campaign between their family members will be conducted with respect. The two former presidents - who have become friends in their retirement despite being from opposing parties - spoke about the contest that has seen Bill's wife Hillary seek the Democratic nomination and George's brother Jeb go after the Republican one. Both men...