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In 1941, the Roosevelt administration commissioned a radio special, “We Hold these Truths,” to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Listen to it here. The producer and writer was Norman Corwin (an ardent New Dealer who is still going strong at age 99). It featured an all-star cast including Orson Welles, James Stewart, Walter Brennan, and Edward G. Robinson, and closed with a speech by Roosevelt. Broadcast only a week after Pearl Harbor, it still holds the ratings record for any dramatic show. About half the American population tuned in. The actors, especially Stewart and Welles, give...

SIXTY-EIGHT years ago tomorrow, Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. In the brutal Pacific war that would follow, millions of soldiers and civilians were killed. My father — one of the famous flag raisers on Iwo Jima — was among the young men who went off to the Pacific to fight for his country. So the war naturally fascinated me. But I always wondered, why did we fight in the Pacific? Yes, there was Pearl Harbor, but why did the Japanese attack us in the first place? ... The one who had the greater effect on Japan’s...

In 1909, in the great state of Illinois, school teachers one February day were directed to spend at least half the school day in public exercises, patriotic music, and recitations of sayings, verses, and speeches to mark the centennial birthday of a great hero. At the end of it all, they were to have their students face in the direction of Springfield and chant in unison the following: “A blend of mirth and sadness, smiles and tears; “A quaint knight errant of the pioneers; “A homely hero, born of star and sod; “A Peasant Prince, a masterpiece of God.” Who...

Much has already been made of Landesman’s comparisons of Obama to Julius Caesar. As a teacher and lifelong student of history, I find that comparison amusing on various levels. Caesar was an accomplished military leader whose campaign through Gaul was the subject of his major literary work, still available in your local Barnes and Noble. Barack Obama is an indecisive teleprompter reader whose book will certainly be long forgotten 2,000 years from now. Julius Caesar’s actions as leader of Rome turned the Republic into a dictatorial empire that later spawned such rulers as Nero and Caligula. Might the Messiah, who,...

Writing in the NYR Blog, Jonathan Freedland notes that Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded by a committee of five liberal politicians from a country whose population is half the size of London, reflecting a “Norwegian consensus” that “favors multilateralism, yearns for nuclear disarmament, and believes in international institutions, revering the United Nations above all.” The speculation in Oslo is that what clinched the award for Obama was chairing a UN meeting and “using that body as the vehicle for his disarmament ambitions.” READ THE REST AT COMMENTARYMAGAZINE.COM

Below are all the American Presidents and Vice Presidents who have received the Nobel Peace Prize, in order from first to most recent. It was an educational experience to review all the awards since the first was given in 1901. That bears on whether the Prize just awarded to President Obama is a positive or negative thing with respect to international war and peace. 1906 - (President) Theodore Roosevelt who “drew up the 1905 peace treaty between Russia and Japan.” This was an actual shooting war, which ended with the Treaty which Roosevelt negotiated. 1919 - (President) T. Woodrow Wilson...

During his current media bombardment, President Obama is wisely downplaying the charges of racism his allies have been making. He told CNN’s John King that race wasn’t “the overriding issue” for the opponents of his health care plan. Not exactly an exoneration of his critics’ racial attitudes, but at least an acknowledgment that there is more than bigotry at work. What Obama says is really driving the negative response to his policies is fear. Fear of “big changes.” Fear of “uncertainty.” The president likes to equate the resistance he’s facing with that met by Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.

NEW YORK – A government that is constitutionally required to offer each citizen a "useful" job in the farms or industries of the nation. A country whose leadership intercedes to ensure every farmer can sell his product for a good return. A nation that has the power to act against "unfair competition" and monopolies in business. This is not a description of Cuba, communist China, or the USSR until 1991. It's the vision of the future of the U.S, as mandated by a radical new "bill of rights" drawn up and pushed by President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass...

You owe your life — and everything else — to the sovereign. The rights of subjects are not natural rights, but merely grants from the sovereign. There is no right even to complain about the actions of the sovereign, except insofar as the sovereign allows the subject to complain. These are the principles of unlimited, arbitrary, and absolute power, the principles of such rulers as Louis XIV. Intellectuals have assiduously promoted them; think of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. A new intellectual champion of absolutism has now emerged. Mild-mannered University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein has been advancing the...

An economist is saying that President Hoover set the stage to worsen The Great Depression because of his pro-labor union stance. Pro-labor policies pushed by President Herbert Hoover after the stock market crash of 1929 accounted for close to two-thirds of the drop in the nation's gross domestic product over the two years that followed, causing what might otherwise have been a bad recession to slip into the Great Depression, a UCLA economist concludes in a new study. Lee E. Ohanian, a UCLA professor of economics, lays the worst of the Depression at the feet of Hoover who, in his...

  Once, when asked his philosophy, Franklin Roosevelt answered simply, "I am a Christian and a Democrat."   As always with Roosevelt, there was more to it than that. He was not just a Christian, but a Protestant, an Episcopalian, a descendant of Huguenot and Yankee New Englanders on his mother's side. And he was not just a Democrat, but a New York Democrat, whose leaders and most faithful voters were overwhelmingly Catholic, especially Irish Catholic. There was a tension, always, between this Protestant patrician and his Catholic party, a tension that this congenial country squire and shrewd politician...

I ran across this on vox and with amnesty coming up for dicussion when congress comes back, I thought I'd post it. A Quote by President Theodore Roosevelt... Aug 19, 2009 at 12:07 PM 1 comment Share Where to begin... It is always difficult to start one of these. I mean, what the hell do you put in a blog? What should you put in a blog, is probably a better question. Answer? I will figure that out later. For now, I'll post a quote from former-President of the United States, Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt. One that I believe to be...

 The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has come in for some richly deserved criticism in recent months, publishing articles that have ranged from the inane (tributes to Michael Jackson and Easy Rider) to the damaging (a claim that Barack Obama is not pro-abortion). Still let's give credit where credit is due, and the latest attention-grabbing headline from L'Osservatore deserves applause.For many years now, critics of the Vatican have claimed that Pope Pius XII was silent in the face of the Holocaust. The criticism is unjustified; it ignores the ample evidence that the wartime Pontiff made great efforts, and took substantial personal...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

One thing to remember is that while the depression that started in 1929 may have come to a bottom in 1933, it took a long time to recover...

On Glenn Beck's Tuesday show on Fox News, he recommended reading Franklin Delano Roosevelt's January, 1944 Speech, for a better background to what's happening today with Obama's GIANT LEAP toward's FASCISM. Here it is. Fireside Chat 28: On the State of the Union (January 11, 1944) Franklin Delano Roosevelt This transcript contains the published text of the speech, not the actual words spoken. There may be some differences between the transcript and the audio/video content. Transcript Today I sent my Annual Message to the Congress, as required by the Constitution. It has been my custom to deliver these Annual...

New Deal Reality Check by: Malcolm A. Kline, June 02, 2009 As self-proclaimed intellectuals get embarassingly excited over the prospect of a new, New Deal, the rest of us would do well to take every opportunity to examine how the first one turned out. For one thing, it didn’t start under Roosevelt. In The Politically Incorrect Guide To The Great Depression And The New Deal, economist Robert P. Murphy, Ph. D., gives us a very useful comparison of what happened in another recession that occurred in the 1920s when so-called laissez-faire economics was practiced and the more famous economic collapse...

Over 5,000 years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel , "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the promised land." Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a camel, this is the promised land." Now Obama is going to steal your shovels, kick your asses, raise the price of camels, and mortgage the promised land.

... [E]ven if another depression is next to impossible, there is still the danger that next year, or the year after, might turn into 1936. Let me explain. From its bottom in 1933 to 1936, the G.D.P. climbed spectacularly (albeit from a very low base), averaging gains of almost 11 percent a year. But then, both the Fed and the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt reversed course. In the summer of 1936, the Fed looked at the large volume of excess reserves piled up in the banking system, concluded that this mountain of liquidity could be fodder for future inflation,...

Herbert Hoover was no laissez-faire president like Calvin Coolidge, however he did respect the constitution, and he never was willing to go as far as Franklin Roosevelt. He made a speech just before Roosevelt’s election to a third term, in which he made some salient points—ones we would still be wise to consider today. With Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin in power, and with a myriad of other dictators and authoritarian powers sprinkled across Europe, it was critical that the free citizens of America see the danger of handing over the reigns of industry to government—that economic power is so much...

He set several records as President. Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest person, so far, to become President of the United States (POTUS). The youngest to be elected remains, as of this writing, John F. Kennedy who was 43 when elected. Roosevelt was 42 when he took office as the 26th President following the assassination of his predecessor in 1901. Although other Vice Presidents had taken office following death of the President, TR was first to go on and win an election in his own right, preceding Harry S Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson in the feat. He also remains (as...

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sat stunned and silent in his study at 10 Downing Street when the news about his friend came just before midnight. Soviet Premier Josef Stalin was in his Kremlin office in the early morning hours and sat for a long moment, saying nothing, holding the American ambassador's hand who had just told him. And in Berlin, deep in his underground bunker, Adolph Hitler was telephoned by his propaganda minister, and was told: "My Fuhrer! I congratulate you. It is the turning point!" It was the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt— April 12, 1945. A...

Barack Obama last month enlisted Theodore Roosevelt in his campaign for increased governmental control of health care, arguing that TR "first called for reform nearly a century ago." Google "Theodore Roosevelt, universal healthcare," and you'll find The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, DailyKos, and many other stalwarts of the left suggesting or claiming that Obama is carrying the Republican Roosevelt's banner. That's nonsense. The propagandists take as their one piece of evidence a plank in the Progressive Party platform of 1912: "The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of...

A stranger stood at the Gates of Hell, And the Devil himself answered the bell, He looked him over from head to toe And said, "My Friend, I’d like to know What you have done in the line of sin To entitle you to come within?" Then Franklin D, with his usual guile Stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile. "When I took charge in Thirty-three A Nation’s faith was mine,” said he. “I promised this and I promised that And I calmed them down with a fireside chat, I spent their money on fishing trips And fished from the...

“Everybody is getting excited about the inauguration, where they think Barack Obama is going to ride in and save the day, and nothing could be further from the truth. A lot of people have such high hopes and such high expectations that he’s (Obama) is going to bring the change we need. Unfortunately nothing is going to change, change is less government, change would be sound money, change would be more freedom, were not going to get any of that, we are just going to get bigger government under Barack than we did under Bush. That’s not change at all...

When Barack Obama takes office on Tuesday, his first order of business will be a stimulus package estimated to be close to $1 trillion, including $300 million in tax cuts and the largest new government spending program for infrastructure since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Sages nod that replicating aspects of FDR's New Deal will help pull the country out of a recession. But the experience under FDR largely provides a cautionary tale. Mr. Obama's policy plans are driven by the conventional economic wisdom that the New Deal economic programs ended the Great Depression. Not so. In fact, thanks to New Deal...

...FDR's New Deal made the Great Depression longer and deeper. It is a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt "got us out of the Depression" and "saved capitalism from itself," as generations of Americans have been taught by the state's educational establishment....

“Morgenthau, after being in charge of this economic debacle called the New Deal, finally sort of exploded in 1939 and said, ‘We are spending more money than we have ever spent before, and it does not work,” quoted Folsom. “‘I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started and an enormous debt, to boot.”

The United States has entered the era of the experiment. President-elect Barack Obama is putting forward an infrastructure program whose plans and price tag are unclear. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson whipped up the Troubled Asset Relief Program to buy up bad mortgage instruments, and, expanding on that experiment, President Bush wants to try extending TARP to autoworkers. The idea that experiments are warranted in current circumstances comes from the New Deal. The official history is familiar: FDR put forward multiple projects, some at cross-purposes. Yet New Deal inconsistency was not a problem and might have been a virtue. Through "bold,...

We know that Barack Obama and his allies identify themselves as "progressives," and that they aim to implement the big-government liberalism that originated in America's Progressive Era and was consummated in the New Deal. What remains a mystery is why some conservatives want to claim this progressive identity as their own -- particularly as it was manifested by Theodore Roosevelt. The fact that conservative politicians such as John McCain and writers like William Kristol and Karl Rove are attracted to our 26th president is strange because, if we want to understand where in the American political tradition the idea of...

Here's a video montage of the America's Presidents exhibit at the National portrait gallery. Other exhibits are also included. Watch video here. Notice the statue of Nixon dressed as the defeated Napoleon after Waterloo. The portrait of George W. Bush was recently added. How do you think his presidency will/should be remembered 20 years from now?

Now that the government has assumed the role of economic planner with various bailout packages and stimulus plans, experts are predicting a federal budget deficit of $1 trillion. That much money may be difficult to comprehend, but former President Ronald Reagan put it in perspective with a 1981 analogy describing the federal debt: "And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only 4 inches high, you'd be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high." But the huge number doesn't...

[T]he truth [about the Great Depression] is that Roosevelt changed course from year to year, trying a mix of policies, some good and some bad. ... Roosevelt instituted a disastrous legacy of agricultural subsidies and sought to cartelize industry, backed by force of law. Neither policy helped the economy recover. He also took steps to strengthen unions and to keep real wages high. This helped workers who had jobs, but made it much harder for the unemployed to get back to work. One result was unemployment rates that remained high throughout the New Deal period. Today, President-elect Barack Obama faces...

Barack Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, once worked for a man who was an identified member of the Communist Party USA, a registered agent of the Soviet Union and a paid disseminator of Soviet black propaganda. This man went on to become a key Chicago political fixer who helped elect communist linked politicians including the late Chicago mayor Harold Washington and former US Senator Carol Moseley Braun. This man knew Barack Obama and was a key member of an organisation which endorsed Barack Obama in his 2004 US Senate race. Barack and Michelle Obama were active members of this...

This was an interesting premise. Do you think that no matter what happens on election day, Sarah Palin will stay a GOP leader?

Today President George W. Bush met with President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay. The President and first lady Laura Bush attended a ceremony in honor of Theodore Roosevelt's 150th birthday at the White House. Pray for President Bush -- Day 2966 - McCain/Palin--Day 60. Sarah Palin was in Virgina today Enjoy Sanity Island

I wasn’t going to talk about presidential politics for a long while, especially since my prediction last year ago of a Giuliani / Hillary Clinton race, with America’s Mayor winning narrowly. Wow, did I miss the mark on that one. Wednesday of this week I got a call from a young woman who said she was a pollster for the Democratic Party of North Carolina. After a little back and forth, I was satisfied that this was a real poll, and I answered her questions. The fact that she didn’t ask any demographic questions at the end raised doubts about...

Every time I come close to despair, I derive strength from the wisdom of the American people. After listening to purveyors of the “conventional wisdom” disparage Senator John McCain’s selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, I grabbed the remote control and returned to that one reliable dispenser of the public’s common sense, C-SPAN. “Might we be dealing with a female incarnation of Theodore Roosevelt?” asked the first “caller” I happened to hear. “PULEEZ!” my inner voice-with echoes of David Gergen, Larry King, Charles Krauthammer, and others cried out.....

HUDSON, Wis. — Senator John McCain in a wide-ranging interview called for a government that is frugal but more active than many conservatives might prefer. He said government should play an important role in areas like addressing climate change, regulating campaign finance and taking care of “those in America who cannot take care of themselves.” “I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold,” Mr. McCain said, referring to Roosevelt’s reputation for reform, environmentalism and tough foreign policy.

HUDSON, Wis. — Senator John McCain in a wide-ranging interview called for a government that is frugal but more active than many conservatives might prefer. He said government should play an important role in areas like addressing climate change, regulating campaign finance and taking care of “those in America who cannot take care of themselves.” “I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold,” Mr. McCain said, referring to Roosevelt’s reputation for reform, environmentalism and tough foreign policy. The views expressed by Mr. McCain in the 45-minute interview here...

June 20, 2008, 0:00 p.m. What’s the Frequency?New Deal narcissism and what FDR wrought. An NRO Q&A The New Deal celebrates its 75th anniversary this week. National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez checked in with New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, Amity Shlaes, to mark the occasion. Kathryn Jean Lopez: How are you celebrating the New Deal’s 75th? Amity Shlaes: I’m participating in the Roosevelt Reading Festival at Hyde Park Saturday! One of the people I will see there is Nick Taylor, author of his own book, American Made,...

In 1931, when Franklin Roosevelt was considering whether he should, and could, run for the presidency, he called in three physicians to advise on his physical capability. They reported that the man who had contracted polio ten years earlier, losing all movement in his legs, was indeed in good health—and, furthermore, that he had "no symptoms of impotentia coeundi." "In plain English," writes historian Joseph E. Persico, "he could sustain an erection." It is a significant detail for Persico, given the questions he seeks to answer in his new book, "Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other...

The Myth of Helplessness : Those who accept no excuses get results Matthew Ladner, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 14, 2008 On April 4th, Arizona School Board Association analyst Michael T. Martin wrote a column opposing the state takeover of the Roosevelt school district. He asserts that widespread lead poisoning is the cause of Roosevelt’s problems. Lead poisoning has been much diminished since the elimination of lead paint and lead gasoline, but not entirely eliminated. An examination of the evidence is in order before writing off these kids. In our state of 6 million people, the Arizona Department of Health...

Consider the modern MSM and Hollywood's insistence that dissent is patriotism. Click on the link and see how much "dissent" was practiced in America of the 1930s. It brings the meaning of Liberal Fascism home in ways that most of us have not experienced. Roosevelt and his administration did things that, if implemented by George Bush, would have led to his impeachment. As for the NRA logo, it’s a reminder of the happy days of FDR’s attempts to revive the economy by pouring a bowl of alphabet soup over its face. The NRA, among other things, was intended to prevent...

Floyd M. Boring, a Secret Service agent who guarded five presidents and took part in the gunfight that foiled an attempt by Puerto Rican nationalists to assassinate President Harry S. Truman, died Friday at his home in Silver Spring, Md. He was 92. His death was confirmed by the Collins Funeral Home of Silver Spring. On the afternoon of Nov. 1, 1950, Truman was taking a nap at Blair House, where he was living while the White House, across Pennsylvania Avenue, was being renovated. Boring was stationed outside Blair House with several uniformed White House guards, while two Secret Service...

Putin's role model Vladimir Putin has had some great publicity lately. Time magazine recently dubbed him the Person of the Year. What that says about "You" — the previous recipient of the P.O.Y. designation — I don't know. Time gave Putin that title because he represents a mounting preference for authoritarianism over the chaos of democracy and the uncertainty of the free market. He "has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power," the editors declare. While Time saw fit to...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday compared himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. leader who served three full terms and is credited with laying the foundations for his country's prosperity. When asked about his vision for Russia's future, Putin -- who is to step down when his second term ends next year but is expected to retain significant influence -- drew a parallel with Roosevelt's New Deal plan conceived in the 1930s depression. "Roosevelt laid out his plan for the country's development for decades in advance" and was criticized for that by the U.S. elite, Russian...

A stranger stood at the gate of Hell And the Devil himself had answered the bell He looked him over from head to toe And said “My friend, I’d like to know What you have done in the line of sin To entitle you to come within?” Then Franklin D. with his usual guile Stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile. “When I took over in ’33, A nation’s faith was mine”, said he “I promised this and I promised that, And I calmed them down with a fireside chat. I spent their money on fishing trips And I fished...

I grew up in a home in which Franklin Roosevelt was regarded as a saint. Is it any wonder that it took me so many years before I finally saw the light? As a rule, I don’t approve of people who lay their own shortcomings at the feet of their parents, but when I realize that for no other reason than the way I was raised that I actually voted for Jimmy Carter, it’s awfully tempting to blame my folks. But whoever is at fault, it is certainly high time to acknowledge how much harm was done to this country...

WASHINGTON -- Some mornings during the autumn of 1933, when the unemployment rate was 22 percent, the president, before getting into his wheelchair, sat in bed, surrounded by economic advisers, setting the price of gold. One morning he said he might raise it 21 cents: "It's a lucky number because it's three times seven." His treasury secretary wrote that if anybody knew how gold was priced "they would be frightened." The Depression's persistence, partly a result of such policy flippancy, was frightening. In 1937, during the depression within the Depression, there occurred the steepest drop in industrial production ever recorded....