Free Republic

Why is it that the press likes to report some misstatements by politicians but not others? John Kerry gave a highly covered, nationally televised speech last week at Temple University. The substance of the speech was front-page news across the country. Sound bites from it led all the major newscasts. It was analyzed by talking heads. It was rewritten into wire service reports. But no one – not one news agency, not one analyst, not one commentator – mentioned Kerry's slip of the tongue. It was an embarrassing one for the presidential candidate. After he made it and corrected himself,...

Osama bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been captured in Pakistan, according to a report quoted by Israel Radio today. The Jerusalem Post says Pakistani forces operating against al Qaida strongholds in the country report capturing the Egyptian national, who was formerly the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which operated in the past against the Cairo regime. Earlier today, Lt.-Gen. David Barno, commander of the coalition forces in Afghanistan, told Reuters bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida leaders are most likely hiding in Pakistan and that they have been assisting Taliban remnants in efforts to disrupt the Oct....

WASHINGTON -- The executive producer of CBS's "60 Minutes" midweek broadcast, who partially blamed the Bush White House for bogus documents used by Dan Rather, is a former staffer for New York Democrats who was still making political contributions while on the network's payroll. Josh Howard served on the staff of Rep. Stephen Solarz and worked for Sen. Charles Schumer when Schumer was a state assemblyman, a background confirmed by CBS. Federal election reporting records show that Howard, identifying himself as a CBS employee, contributed $1,000 in each of Solarz's last two campaigns for Congress in 1990 and 1992. When...

We are apparently amidst a national conversation between the Kerry campaign and the mainstream media about President Bush’s military records when he served as a fighter pilot in the National Guard. The question of whether he missed a physical or several meetings seems to be asked over and over again. The catalyst for all these questions is the federal records which are kept about each member of the Armed Forces. These documents are the best evidence of what really happened at that time. Of lesser value are the memories of various individuals who served with George W. Bush. Did they...

As a duty of memory, it is necessary, on the eve of the presidential election, to give a clear and definitive look at one of the most crucial events of the Bush administration and understand there was no room for hesitation. First, the U.S. intervention was legitimized by the U.N. Charter itself....Therefore, undertaking a military course of action was legitimate, and the United States respected the spirit and principles of the U.N. Charter. Second, it was not a new war.... Military intervention was necessary, and even a moral obligation, to eradicate this threat. Third, to this military threat must be...

I just waited through 25 minutes of blather from Lanny Davis (thank God for the mute button) waiting for Alan to come on. Got five minutes of Alan and then the skull says we have to go now and they've been talking non-stop about Hacking. What is wrong with Hannity? He spends half his air time, radio and TV, giving these idiots free reign! Fair and balanced, OK, but this is stupid (IMHO)!

"Manchurian Candidate" stars Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep may be promoting a movie together, but they are not of one mind when it comes to religion and politics, as a recent interview on NBC's "Dateline" revealed. Katie Couric asked Streep about her appearance at a John Kerry fund-raiser, where she criticized President Bush by saying: "Through the shock and awe I wondered which of the megaton bombs Jesus, our president's personal savior, would have personally dropped on the sleeping families of Baghdad." "It was a question about, when you put Jesus on the campaign bus to stump for you, you...

For the many readers who have requested a brief synopsis of the moral arguments in the Arab-Israeli conflict, I offer the following list of numerical data. Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament: over 700 Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran: 0 Number of Arab leaders who visited Jerusalem when it was under Arab rule (1948 to 1967): 1 Number of Arab refugees who fled the land that became Israel: approximately 600,000 Number of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries: approximately 600,000 Number of U.N. agencies that deal only with Palestinian refugees: 1 Number...

I have been employed as a police officer, a town marshal (yes, Texas still has a few), and a deputy sheriff. All this within seven years. I do not have to worry about speaking out and getting fired anymore – I am pretty much blackballed from the profession. On [Joseph Farah's radio] show, I have heard uninformed people state that the police did nothing about this or that illegal alien problem. I cannot speak for the rest of the world, but here in Texas, you can't touch them. You cannot even ask them for a green card. You cannot even...

Ever hear about the Battle of the Humvee? That's what I'm calling a May skirmish fought by soldiers of the 37th Armored Regiment's 2nd Battalion in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. In what became a six-hour firefight, Americans battled followers of Moktada al-Sadir to secure the hulk of a burning Humvee. It's not that our soldiers fought because the flaming wreck amounted to a tin can's worth of military value. They fought, as Capt. Ty Wilson of Fairfax, Va., explained to The Washington Post, because "We weren't going to let them dance on it for the news. Even (with)...

Ever wonder why people who hate America live in America? At a soccer match between Mexico and the United States a few years ago, the stands were full of Mexican flags. The fans booed when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played and those few fans who raised American flags were pelted with debris, as were the American soccer players. This would have been rotten behavior if it had taken place in Mexico City. But it took place in Los Angeles. So it's scary. We already have enough homegrown America-haters in this country without importing any more, whether from Mexico or the...

PART I When you have seen scenes of poverty and squalor in many Third World countries, either in person or in pictures, have you ever wondered why we in America have been spared such a fate? When you have learned of the bitter oppressions that so many people have suffered under, in despotic countries around the world, have you ever wondered why Americans have been spared? Have scenes of government-sponsored carnage and lethal mob violence in countries like Rwanda or in the Balkans ever made you wonder why such horrifying scenes are not found on the streets of America? Nothing...

A LETTER TO MY SONS As your father, I believe I owe it to you to share some thoughts on the present world situation. We have over the years discussed a lot of important things, like going to college, jobs and so forth. But this really takes precedence over any of those discussions. I hope this might give you a longer term perspective that fewer and fewer of my generation are left to speak to. To be sure you understand that this is not politically flavored, I will tell you that since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led us through pre...

Monday, June 21, 2004 Official news agency says 1971 testimony shows war crimes The official Communist Vietnamese news agency is citing presidential candidate John Kerry's 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as proof the U.S. committed war crimes in its conduct of the Vietnam war. A report in the Vietnam News begins: "The Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal calls forth questions over the American War in Vietnam: "How were captured U.S. troops treated?" and "How did the Americans treat the Vietnamese?" The report goes on to charge, "like in any of the dozens of countries they invaded, it was...

Jason Burke, an expert on al-Qaeda, detects a growing revulsion in the Muslim world against the random atrocities committed by its self-appointed champions and sees in it a promise of terrorism's defeat Jason Burke Sunday June 20, 2004 The Observer Few people noticed the statement by two Saudi Arabian clerics denouncing attacks, on locals and Westerners alike, by Islamic militants. It came not from the usual tame clerics, but from Safar al-Hawali and Salman al-Auda, two rabble-rousing prayer leaders imprisoned several times for their hardline views. The statement last week was part of a phenomenon which, though its outlines are...

AT THE CLOSE of the recent G-8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia, sighs of relief could be heard in palaces across the Middle East where unelected leaders wield near-absolute power. The summit had been expected to produce a clarion call for reform in the only part of the world still largely unaffected by changes that have reshaped global politics since the end of the Cold War. Instead, it settled for a string of bland admonitions. Anxious to avoid fresh charges of unilateralism, and responding to demands from French president Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, President Bush toned down...

C-SPAN is now running a 1995 program of Peggy Noonan discussing Reagan at the University of Texas. IT IS POWERFUL. Scheduled to run to 9:30 PM. Don't miss it!

"If You Are Muslim, You Are Suspect" by Daniel Pipes New York Sun June 1, 2004 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1853 http://daily.nysun.com/standard/ShowStoryTemplate.asp?Path=NYS/2004/06/01&ID=Ar00700&Section=Foreign The U.S. government wrongly arrested Brandon Mayfield, 37, of Beaverton, Ore. on May 6. A fingerprint sent from Madrid apparently connected him to the March 11 bombings there that killed 191 people and injured 2,000. When the Spanish government identified the fingerprint as that of an Algerian, the Department of Justice requested that Mr. Mayfield be released, and he was. Putting aside the technical mistake, the Justice Department has come under criticism for having built its case against Mr. Mayfield in part...

Support the lesser evil [in Saudi Arabia] by Daniel Pipes The Australian May 31, 2004 Starting with the first terrorist attack just over a year ago, Saudi Arabia has witnessed about one major violent incident a month. This pattern has culminated with four incidents this month, including this weekend's deadly attack on a residential complex in Khobar. Although mostly directed against foreigners, and so the country's economic infrastructure, the attacks reflect a deep divide within Saudi society that has implications which go far beyond this. The issues involved concern religious, political and economic orientation, and they continue a conflict that...

Thursday, May 20, 2004 The Wedding Party It's an imaginary scene from World War 2, though it could have happened. Battalion headquarters gets a report over the phone from a front line sector. 'Armor moving to our front, 300 yards out bearing 75 degrees.' The information is plotted in grease pencil on a 1:10,000 map with an an acetate overlay. The position of the platoon reporting is known on the map. A protractor marks out the bearing and ruler paces off the distance. A symbol for enemy armor is drawn on the acetate. Ten minutes later, more details come in....