Free Republic

TNR has a profile of Barack Obama's favorite conservative pundit, David Brooks. The thing to know about Brooks is that he's a nearly man. He wanted to be an Ivy League scholar, but had to settle for the University of Chicago. He wanted to be a hardnosed political reporter but ended up a more sedate political commentator instead. He spent his life like a sort of Dickensian figure with his nose pressed against the window, studying the lives of the people he wanted to be. People like David Axelrod: whose career Brooks kept a close eye on after he graduated...

On target as always.

Snippits CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The whole delay in the peace process is a self-inflicted wound on the Obama administration. Let's remember that for over a year, the previous prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, had been negotiating with the head of the Palestinians and made an astonishingly generous offer in December of '08, which the Palestinians refused, as they always refuse. So Obama comes in and instead of picking up and trying to get the Palestinians to moderate, what does he do? He attacks Netanyahu. JUAN WILLIAMS: I think that this is really great news. STEVE HAYES: think it's difficult right...

t sounds like the plot for the latest summer horror movie. Imagine, for a moment, that George W Bush had been allowed a third term as president, had run and had won or stolen it, and that we were all now living (and dying) through it. With the Democrats in control of Congress but Bush still in the Oval Office, the media would certainly be talking endlessly about a mandate for bipartisanship and the importance of taking into account the concerns of Republicans. Can't you just picture it? (snip) Now, here's the funny part. This dark fantasy of a third...

Did they work? With the financial meltdown finally contained and the Year of the Bailout drawing to a close, we can start to make some meaningful assessments about whether hundreds of corporate rescue packages did more harm than good. It's probably fair to say that aggressive government intervention in the economy, starting with the Bear Stearns bailout in March 2008, prevented a deeper collapse and maybe even a depression. But the government also erred on the side of doing too much and propped up some huge, mismanaged companies that would have, and perhaps should have, failed. To gauge the consequences...

The usual September parade of world leaders descending on New York City for the opening of the annual United Nations General Assembly will be characterized this year by the presence of some of the world’s most controversial leaders. Likely to provoke the most ire this year will be Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who plans his first visit ever to the United States at a time when his emergence from international isolation has been set back by the release of the Libyan convicted in the Lockerbie bombing. Of the 270 people killed when the New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 was...

The Israeli Left reacted with dismay over the weekend to the results of a Jerusalem Post-sponsored Smith Research poll published on Friday that found only 4 percent of Jewish Israelis believe that US President Barack Obama's policies are more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian. The survey, which was featured prominently on Fox News in the United States and picked up by media outlets around the world, reported that 51% of Jewish Israelis considered Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, 35% called it neutral and 10% declined to express an opinion. The poll of 500 people representing a statistical model of the Jewish...

In February, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. noted that it was hard to talk about race, but cowardly not to try. In that spirit, he should answer questions being raised about the dismissal of a voter-intimidation case involving a hate group in Philadelphia. If you missed the incident, it's understandable. It was a YouTube blip on a historic election day. On Nov. 4, two black men in paramilitary uniforms, one wielding a nightstick, were reported harassing voters at a polling place. It had no effect on Barack Obama's landslide win in the city. He doesn't condone the hate group...

A Gwinnett County man is in custody Wednesday accused of slapping a stranger’s crying toddler in a Stone Mountain Wal-Mart. Witnesses say that Roger Stephens, 61, warned the mother of the child that he would “shut up the crying child if she couldn’t,” WSB-TV is reporting. Stephens is accused of slapping the 2-year-old multiple times in the face and then walking away. A bystander held Stephens until store security came to assist, according to the story.

The US national debt -- including its "implicit debt", unfunded liabilities for promised Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid benefits and federal employee/military pensions -- is staggeringly, unsustainably large: $64 trillion at the end of 2008. And since then it's grown to about $69 trillion (after adding the 2009 fiscal deficit of near $2 trillion and a year's interest to the implicit debt.) How unsustainable it? Even if never paid off the government still will have to pay interest on it. At the 6% long-term rate estimated by the Trustees of Social Security, interest on $ 69 trillion is $4.14 trillion...

The creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel would be a major step in the escalation of the Arab war against Israel even if the resumption of that war is delayed for a brief time while the world celebrates the outbreak of a Potemkin peace in the Middle East, produced by the end of Israeli "occupation" of Palestinians. Like the famous Potemkin villages that were all façade with no substance, the two-state solution would prove to be nothing more than the signal of the commencement of the next Middle East war. Human beings seem to have a basic impatience...

Who has the best chance to hold the Senate seat for the GOP? I don’t think it is any of the announced candidates. It’s a member of the Texas congressional delegation, whose members are worried about whether any of the wannabes can hold the seat against a Democrat. –This candidate has a large, enthusiastic constituency that goes beyond the boundaries of his district and his state. –This candidate won’t have to spend a nickel on name ID. –This candidate has $2,742,426 cash on hand. –This candidate is totally in touch with the GOP base, as it evolves further and further...

Here is video of Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney, talking with Sean Hannity last night about the continuing attacks on her father by the Left, and about the decision by Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to go forward with investigations of CIA Personnel who interrogated terrorists during the Bush Administration to gain information and prevent further attacks on America. She cited an Inspector General's report that shows enhanced interrogation techniques worked in obtaining information that saved American lives. She called "indefensible" the Obama Administration's decision to reveal what techniques were used without also being honest about...

I graduated from college in May, and I already have a job in my field. It was a part-time position that went full time, so I already have $15,000 in an IRA and about $23,000 in savings. I’m also debt-free, because scholarships paid for my education. Am I ready to buy a house? --Zack Dear Zack, You are the man! This is an awesome position you’re in right now! Financially, you’re okay to buy a house. I do have one slight hesitation, though. There are going to be lots and lots of things happening in your world during the next...

April 17, 2009 The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington , DC 20500 Mr. Obama: I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally. You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America . You are responsible to the citizens of the United States .. You are not responsible to the peoples...

Discovery's Rainbow Credit: NASA, Ben Cooper (Launch Photography) Explanation: Just one minute before midnight EDT, Friday, August 28, the Space Shuttle Discovery began a long arc into a cloudy sky. Following the launch, a bright and remarkably colorful trail was captured in this time exposure from the Banana River Viewing Site, looking east toward pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. On STS-128, Discovery docked with the International Space Station Sunday evening. The 13-day mission will exchange space station crew members and deliver more than 7 tons of supplies and equipment. Of course, the equipment includes the Combined Operational...

The Justice Department's decision to investigate the interrogation methods used by the Bush administration's war on terrorism sent a chilling message to CIA agents that they could be prosecuted for protecting our country from another attack. Despite President Obama's promise to CIA personnel earlier this year that he did not want to reopen the debate over aggressive-interrogation practices in the previous administration, Attorney General Eric Holder named a special prosecutor to go after agents who acted with the approval of the Bush Justice Department's legal rulings. Holder not only overruled Obama -- who caved in to his attorney general and...

The bully-in-chief is at it again. His "Organizing for America" campaign site had a call for a Phone Call campaign to Senators on the anniversary of 9/11.(it was taken down after it was discovered). The campaign is to fight back again the town hall protesters, and fight for the public option. There is nothing wrong with that a phone campaign to push a political point, but the rhetoric in this was incredibly disgusting. All 50 States are coordinating in this – as we fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to...

For suddenly departing politicans and CEOs, the standard line is to "spend time with my family." Now the Catholic church may have its own version of this unconvincing, stock answer. On Monday controversial Scranton Bishop Joseph Martino stunned longtime church-watchers by announcing that he was resigning his post because of problems with insomnia and fatigue. The controversial Catholic leader, who has gained national prominence for his outspoken pro-life advocacy and aggressive criticism of pro-choice Democratic politicians, was still more than a decade away from reaching the Church's automatic retirement age of 75. Martino's abrupt resignation, along with the fact that...

The polls this week are a disaster for Barack Obama. Scott Rasmussen has his approval dropping to 45 percent, after several weeks at 49 percent. John Zogby has it even lower — at 42 percent. Beneath the superficial data lies even worse news for the president. Not only is he losing support, but he is losing his political base. Young people — under 30 — long a key element of his support, give him no better than break-even ratings with 41 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving of the job he is doing according to Zogby. And only 75 percent...