Free Republic

For more than two decades the Cheney and Bush families and Karl Rove have run the Republican Party by controlling fundraising. In 2016, Jeb Bush raised and spent more than $130 million from this powerful network of donors, at a cost of $46 million per delegate whom he won. At the same time, Karl Rove was predicting that if Donald Trump became the Republican nominee then Democrats would win the White House and the Senate. The opposite happened as Trump became president and his coattails lifted to victory many Republican senatorial candidates, such as Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania. Yet the...

President George W. Bush stood before the U.S. Capitol in 2005 and delivered an Inaugural Address in which he declared his utopian vision that the United States had a mission to change the world. He was wrong. History has now proved it. "The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands," Bush said. "The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." "So, it is the policy of the United States," he said, "to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions...

Since February is Black History month, I thought it fitting to write about an African-American I admire, Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under President George W. Bush. She was only the second woman, and the first black American, to hold the position. Rice reveals much about herself in a book published in 2010, "Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family" (Crown Publishing). An adored only child, she was expected to accomplish a great deal. Her mother, a piano teacher, wanted her to have a special name. Condoleezza is from the musical term "con dolce" meaning "with sweetness." Condoleezza grew up...

Saturday, October 31, 2009 Obama DOJ shovels out more grist for foreign prosecutions of Bush officials   [Andy McCarthy] Well, the hyper-"transparent" Obama administration won't share any of its internal deliberations on matters about which there is no good reason to keep the public in the dark — e.g., its strong-arming in Honduras, its dismissal of a slam-dunk civil rights case against the New Black Panther Party, and the legal analysis by DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel that explains why the DC Voting Rights Bill is unconstitutional — but it continues to shovel out previously classified information about interrogation techniques...

Mike Huckabee has decided to make a clean break with the Bush administration on foreign policy. In a speech yesterday, Huckabee supported the surge in Iraq but came out against the White House on most other foreign-policy issues, including the conduct of the war on terror: Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee ripped the Bush administration's war against terrorism Friday, delivering a bold and potentially risky speech that could establish the former Arkansas governor as the maverick among top Republican candidates and test his party's loyalty to President Bush. "This administration's bunker mentality has been counterproductive both at home and abroad,"...

The Bush administration has decided to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, putting the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming could drive one of the world's most recognizable animals out of existence. The administration's proposal -- which was described by an Interior Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity -- stems from the fact that rising temperatures in the Arctic are shrinking the sea ice that polar bears need for hunting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the department will submit the proposal today for publication in the...

You may recall from your high school civics class that our laws are made by Congress 535 representative and senators elected by the American people and signed by the president (also elected by us). Occasionally, the third branch of government, the judiciary, gets involved if there is a question about the constitutionality of a law. But, the common theme here is that American laws are supposed to be made by Americans. The foreign ministers of Mexico and six Central American countries don’t think that’s quite fair especially when it comes to making U.S. immigration laws. Meeting in Mexico City in...

The siren's going...nothing more yet.

Special Report: Judith Miller Exonerates Bush Officials The true facts in the CIA-leak case are now becoming astonishingly clear. New York Times reporter Judith Miller's testimony, as she describes it in the Sunday edition of her paper, proves that the wrong people are under investigation. It's not really a story about Bush officials Lewis Libby and Karl Rove and their conversations with the press. Rather, it's a story about a CIA bureaucracy working to undermine the Bush administration through the media and cover up for its own mistakes. It's now obvious that Bush officials are spending time before a grand...

The Bush administration has forged a close intelligence partnership with the Islamic regime that once welcomed Osama bin Laden here, even though Sudan continues to come under harsh U.S. and international criticism for human rights violations. The Sudanese government, an unlikely ally in the U.S. fight against terror, remains on the most recent U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. At the same time, however, it has been providing access to terrorism suspects and sharing intelligence data with the United States. Last week, the CIA sent an executive jet here to ferry the chief of Sudan's intelligence agency to Washington...

Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is President Bush's nominee for secretary of homeland security, has the right background and tough-guy temperament for the job. Tom Ridge performed admirably in setting up the new department, but there are advantages to his successor having experience in law enforcement. One unresolved concern during Ridge's tenure has been the department's uneven coordination with and support for first responders - the local fire, police and rescue units that would be on the front lines of any terrorist attack. These agencies often complain that they lack the timely information, training and equipment to...

When Jimmie Rosenbruch went north last month, bound for the high country of southeast Alaska to stalk mountain goats, the Utah sportsman and master hunting guide toted more than a rifle into the wilderness. Mr. Rosenbruch, a burly lifelong Republican and acquaintance of former President George H.W. Bush, also carried personal displeasure over the natural- resource agenda of Mr. Bush's son. In particular, Rosenbruch and a groundswell of other gun owners from the lower 48 are challenging the Bush administration's plan to undo protection of Alaska's Tongass and Chugach national forests by opening both to increased logging and road construction....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Bush administration on Monday put forward a proposal it hopes will move the legal process along faster concerning the pro-abortion lawsuits against the partial-birth abortion. The lawsuits have resulted in temporary injunctions. The proposal would call for the Bush administration to delay enforcement of the ban for 120 days if the courts would speed up the legal process. The request was initially made to U.S. District Judge Richard Casey of New York, who issued an injunction blocking the ban from taking effect almost nationwide. Bush administration attorneys will present the same proposal on Wednesday to...

ALL REPUBLICANS NOT CREATED EQUAL By Bill Gallagher DETROIT -- Our nation and the world would be far better off with the Republicans in charge. No, I haven't taken leave of my senses. I want the Republicans back in power instead of the Texas Republicans, the crazy crowd that runs the White House and dominates the Congress. Texas Republicans created an unnecessary war, made Americans despised around the world and our nation less secure, attacked basic civil and human rights, lost millions of jobs, made the rich richer and the poor poorer, left 40 million Americans without health insurance, defiled...

It's the top story in the Washington Post this morning as well as in many other media outlets. Who leaked the fact that the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV worked for the CIA? What also might be worth asking: "Who didn't know?" I believe I was the first to publicly question the credibility of Mr. Wilson, a retired diplomat sent to Niger to look into reports that Saddam Hussein had attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium for his nuclear-weapons program. On July 6, Mr. Wilson wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he said: "I have little...

The United States has prevented Israel's military from capturing the headquarters of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. U.S. government sources said the Bush administration sent a harsh message to Israel to suspend plans to capture Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah over the weekend. The sources said the had military planned to raid the so-called Muqata'a on late Friday and capture Arafat. Both Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice telephoned Israeli and PA leaders and warned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to suspend the military plans, Middle East Newsline reported. The U.S. sources said the Bush administration...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said "we will not be stopped by bombs" after a pair of Palestinian suicide bombings killed two Israelis on Tuesday and threatened to derail U.S. peace efforts. Speaking to a group of Israeli and Arab students in a speech, Powell argued the United States and others pressing Israelis and Arabs to end nearly three years of violence would not be deterred by the latest killings. "I have already seen reports (on television that say) 'Well, the road map is now finished; or the cease-fire is over; or this is all off track.'...

"This is not a party. Maybe it is a party in the sense of wearing hats and blowing whistles, but it is not a political party that means anything. . . ." "The party, to put it bluntly, is hypocritical . . . It does not criticize the Republicans who are pro-choice. So why criticize Bill Clinton? . . . " "It is true in both parties that the party platform is not worth the paper it is written on. That is why I am an Independent. That is why I am going to stay an Independent, whatever happens...