Free Republic

"Here the Bush administration has a case to make. Border enforcement has dramatically improved. The catch and release program of OTMs (other than Mexicans) was ended last summer, a month ahead of schedule. Substantial miles of the border fence, voted by Congress last September, are being built. Technology provides us with means to seal the border in thinly populated areas in ways impossible in the 1980s and 1990s. Rhetoric aimed at showing a willingness to accept immigrants has concealed these achievements. Rhetoric emphasizing the increasing toughness and shrewdness at protecting the borders could create another impression." For all of the...

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- News Corp. has made an unsolicited $5 billion bid to buy Dow Jones & Co. - an offer that could prove tough for the Bancroft family that controls the publisher of The Wall Street Journal to turn down, industry analysts said Tuesday. Nonetheless, some members of the family indicated late Tuesday that they would, in fact, oppose the deal, raising the possibility that other companies could bid for Dow Jones."

"In 15 years, scientists say, the snows of Kilimanjaro will simply melt away. ... Kilimanjaro is not the only place that is threatened. Glaciers and polar ice are melting. Coral reefs are dying as the seas get too warm. Lakes and rivers in colder climates are freezing later and thawing earlier each year, disrupting the life cycles of native plants and animals. What is causing this breakdown in nature?

Nothing follows ... No mention on any other major news sites.

One guest who shook hands with Bush in the receiving line told him, "Don't let the bastards get you down." Bush, slightly startled but cheerful, replied, "Don't worry. I'm not." The guest followed up: "I think we can win in Iraq." The president's reply was emphatic: "We're going to win."

"Our commanders report that the enemy has also suffered. Offensive operations by Iraqi and coalition forces against terrorists and insurgents and death squad leaders have yielded positive results. In the months of October, November, and the first week of December, we have killed or captured nearly 5,900 of the enemy."

Are the Arabs intrinsically incapable of democracy, as the "realists" imply? True, there are political, historical, even religious reasons why Arabs are less prepared for democracy than, say, East Asians and Latin Americans who successfully democratized over the past several decades. But the problem here is Iraq's particular political culture, raped and ruined by 30 years of Hussein's totalitarianism.

"Our strategists are constantly asked, how can we win the war in Iraq? But it is the wrong question, and therefore has no correct answer. Read Reuel Gerecht in Friday’s Wall Street Journal: “(The Baker/Hamilton Commission) cannot escape from an unavoidable reality: We either declare defeat and withdraw completely tout de suite, or we surge troops into Baghdad and fight. The ISG will surely try to find some middle ground between these positions, which, of course, doesn’t exist.”"

"This afternoon I had the privilege of being one of eight columnists interviewing George W. Bush in the Oval Office. The others were Tony Blankley of the Washington Times, Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal, Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, Lawrence Kudlow of CNBC, Kathleen Parker of the Orlando Sentinel, Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times, and Byron York of National Review–all conservatives of various stripes. Like many others who have been with Bush in the Oval Office, I have found him to be much more articulate and forceful in that setting than he often is in press...

"I’ll deal first with the Washington scandal du jour. In 2002, Foley thanked that year’s class of congressional pages with a bizarre, tearful speech that smacked of a guilty conscience and hypocritical emotions. According to the ABC blotter, “some of the very same pages in the chamber that day would months later receive Foley’s sexually explicit messages.” Clearly, Foley has acute problems. But Republican staff warned congressional pages five years ago to watch out for Foley, now the former representative from Florida. Yet Mr. Hastert took no action."

By most accounts, the House and Senate races are narrowing. But I don't see this. Either the polls are old (before 8/31) or they show Dems' leads as wide as ever. Thus, for example: MD (9/13): Cardin (D) +7 MN (8/27): Klobucher (D) +7 MO (9/13): McCaskill (D) +2 --- Republ'ns lose seat? NJ (9/10): Kean (R) +4 -- Dems lose seat? OH (9/14): Brown (D) +6 -- Republ'ns lose seat? PA (8/21): Casey (D) +8 -- Republ'ns lose seat? MD (9/13): Whitehouse (D) +8 -- Republ'ns lose seat? TN (9/11): Ford (D) up in one; down in the other...

"How can a bounce that obviously relates to a fundamental issue--national security--simply disappear after only a few days?"

"... But there is no getting around it: The pope made a big mistake, creating problems for himself, his church and the West. He spoke in the voice of the academic theologian he once was and not as the leader of one of the world's great religions. Being pope is very different from being professor Joseph Ratzinger." Also Wash Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800993.html

"Sept. 14, 2006 — Summer 2006 was the second warmest June-to-August period in the continental U.S. since records began in 1895, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Additionally, the 2006 January-to-August period was the warmest on record for the continental U.S. Above-average rainfall last month in the central and southwestern U.S. improved drought conditions in some areas, but moderate-to-extreme drought continued to affect 40 percent of the country."

"He used a vocabulary carefully designed to hoodwink the Americans without angering his fellow Khomeinists back home. The trick was reinforced by the fact that he often said one thing in Persian, while the interpreter said something else in English for the benefit of the Harvard audience."

"YESTERDAY, the Republican president threw down the gauntlet to Democrats in the House and Senate. Join me, he said, in revising the rules under which we hold and try the world's most dangerous and despicable men ... "And join me, he said, in protecting Americans fighting the War on Terror from prosecution ... "These requests raise the question: Is it too late for the president to be asking Democrats to join him in anything?"

"The 20th century was the one with the greatest decline in death rates not only in rich countries but also throughout the world. Very low birth rates in a rapidly increasing number of countries are shaping up as the defining demographic event of the 21st century. The total fertility rate, which measures the number of births to the average woman over her lifetime, must be at least 2.1 in order to prevent a country's population from declining in the long run in the absence of enough immigration. Yet there are now about 70 countries, which comprise almost half the world's...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - July 2006 is on track to be the hottest month in the Netherlands since temperatures were first measured in 1706, the Dutch meteorological institute KNMI said on Tuesday. Average daily temperatures in the first 24 days of July were a record of 22.3 degrees Celsius (72.14F) compared with the previous record of 21.4 degrees in July 1994 and normal average temperatures of 17.4, the KNMI said. "July 2006 is the hottest month ever," it said in a statement.

A ruling on Friday against Ronnie Earle suggests that the Delay case dismissal should soon follow: “AUSTIN – A state district judge threw out a felony indictment against the Texas Association of Business on Thursday, ruling that the group’s ads in the 2002 legislative elections did not expressly advocate the defeat or election of candidates. The ruling is probably a significant blow to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle’s prosecution of the state’s largest and most powerful business lobby.

"White House officials hoping for a bounce in the polls from the killing of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and President Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad are having to make do with a flat line. Bush's performance rating has been statistically unchanged in some polls and up maybe 2 percentage points in others."