Free Republic

The Party's Over October 28th, 2006 For those confused or disgusted with this current political election, I offer these words of explanation. What we are witnessing is the death of a political party. The present Democratic Party is peculiarly the same as when Thomas Jefferson rallied a grassroots republican revolution in opposition to the Federalists during the 1790’s. In Jefferson’s mind the Federalists had become the same as the English monarchy in their elitist sensibilities of government. To counter this development, he collected a wide assortment of grassroots groups into a republican coalition and changed the direction of the...

Are the theocons taking over?By William Rusher Thursday, October 26, 2006 There's not a lot of argument about it: For better or worse, The New York Times is far and away the most influential newspaper in the country, and probably in the world. The news sections of the major television networks sound like, and probably are, the handiwork of producers who get the lion's share of their information, not to mention their opinions, from that morning's front page of the Times. And its Sunday Book Review section is as close as many of America's leading thinkers and opinion-makers ever...

'06 ELEX: BACK TO TOSS-UP By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN Mc GANN October 24, 2006 -- THE latest polls show something very strange and quite encouraging is happening: The Republican base seems to be coming back home. This trend, only vaguely and dimly emerging from a variety of polls, suggests that a trend may be afoot that would deny the Democrats control of the House and the Senate. With two weeks to go, anything can happen, but it is beginning to look poss- ible that the Democratic surge in the midterm elections may fall short of control in either House...

Bart Township Fire Company officials listen to a question from the media Tuesday. From left are Assistant Fire Chief Chad Graybill, Chief Curt Woerth and Mike Hoover, quick response services director. 1st responders: Bart Twp. deaths 'our personal hurt'Paramedics, firefighters explain how they coped with schoolhouse shooting scene — and how they’re coping now. By Cindy Stauffer Lancaster New Era Published: Oct 17, 2006 2:14 PM EST LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - The paramedics and firefighters who responded to the Amish school shootings all have had their “moments” in the past two weeks. The emergency workers have undergone counseling and...

Clintonoids trying to get Curt WeldonThe FBI gets a lot of tips on politicians. But it doesn’t act on all of them in a great blaze of publicity, just a few weeks before elections. And not many of them are specifically tipped by the Soros outfit CREW. Well, Curt Weldon and his daughter are getting the full CREW treatment. Weldon happens to be one of the few high-level members of Congressional Intelligence Committees to insist on reform in the intelligence bureaucracy, to expose the Clinton Follies in national security, and to play a consistently positive role in limiting post-Soviet proliferation...

The Fascists Among UsOctober 17th, 2006 It’s no secret that hurling names about is as common in the political world as it is in a grammar school playground. One oft-used pejorative is “fascist,” which, along with racist, sexist, homophobe and others, tends to be least understood by those who utter it most. And because these damning terms are used wantonly, more to discredit than describe, they tend to be misapplied. Then, soon, calling someone a fascist becomes akin to calling him a snake: more a vague impugnment of character then a characterization of methods and goals. Rhetoric aside, however,...

Outpouring The Amish in Nickel Mines have been deluged with contributions. Here's how they're handling the money. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Susannah Meadows Newsweek Updated: 7:37 p.m. ET Oct 12, 2006 Oct. 12, 2006 - Since the Oct. 2 shooting of 10 Amish schoolgirls, sympathetic people have responded with an outpouring of donations to help the community in Nickel Mines, Pa., pay hospital bills and for a new school. Since last week, three Mennonite groups with close ties to the Amish have been receiving those donations. Now the Nickel Mines Accountability Committee has been organized to administer the money. Herman Bontrager,...

Undeserved forgiveness By Jeff Jacoby Monday, October 9, 2006“There was not one desk, not one chair, in the whole schoolroom that was not splattered with either blood or glass. There were bullet holes everywhere -- everywhere.” That description is from Janice Ballenger, a deputy coroner in Lancaster County, Pa. She was among the first to enter the West Nickel Mines Amish School after Charles Roberts murdered five girls and severely wounded five others there last week. One of the bodies she examined was that of Naomi Rose Ebersol , a 7-year-old who had been shot more than 20 times....

Terrorist Rogues’ Gallery A photo exhibit on the value of interrogation. By Deroy Murdock Let’s hope last week’s compromise between President Bush and Republican senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and John Warner will free U.S. interrogators to resume questioning Islamic terrorists. Each minute spent not grilling these bad guys brings potential doom one minute closer. With any luck, President Bush was correct when he said last Thursday: “The agreement clears the way to do what the American people expect us to do — to capture terrorists, to detain terrorists, to question terrorists, and then to try them.” Bush critics too...

America’s Strategic Fix and Our New Decision PointsAugust 25th, 2006 America’s national leadership since 9-11 has said that we are in a “Global War on Terror.” More recently, they describe it as a “Long War.” Putting it together then we are in a “global-long war on terror” against jihadists, Islamic fascists, or however you want to describe that enemy, and implicitly any other people or nation that advocates and is pursuing the wherewithal and means to destroy this Country—after all that is the definition of a threat. The moniker suggests this war is something different, above and beyond even the...

Are Bush's critics right?By Tony Blankley Wednesday, August 23, 2006 We are all aware of the dangerous Middle East conditions the United States faces today after five and half years of President Bush's leadership. So let's consider what the world might well look like if, in his remaining two and a half years, he were to follow the recommendations of his critics. First: America out of Iraq by the end of 2007. We warn the Iraqis to get off their duffs and prepare to be in charge by Dec. 31, 2007. We depart (leaving a couple of divisions in a...

LOSING GROUND By ADAM BRODSKY August 13, 2006 -- AS Israel and Hezbollah wrap up their warring, the winner may not yet be clear - but the loser is: us. The enemies of modernity and freedom have grown stronger in the past weeks. So our fight ahead will be tougher. In Lebanon, much of the outcome is now known. Israel won't deliver a coup de grace to the terrorists; they're too numerous, shadowy and well-armed. Jerusalem isn't willing to sustain large lossses (who can blame it?) or kill large numbers of "civilians." So a rump Hezbollah will reconstitute, with losses...

August 13, 2006 -- ISRAEL'S war against the Middle East's first true terrorist army provides tough military and strategic lessons - old, new, and all too often disheartening. Israel's been winning on the ground. And still losing the war. Lesson 1: You can win every tactical engagement and still lose at the strategic level. Lesson 2: The global media can overturn the verdict of the battlefield. Lesson 3: If you start off on the wrong foot in war, you may never recover your balance. Lesson 4: Technology alone can't win 21st-century wars. Lesson 5: Never underestimate your enemy. Lesson 6:...

The Habit of Betrayal August 9th, 2006 ‘Very Soon, This Stain of Disgrace [i.e. Israel] Will Be Purged From the Center of the Islamic World – and This is Attainable’ —- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, October 26, 2005 ”’Imam [Khomeini] said: ‘This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history.” —- Ahmadinejad in speaking to The World Without Zionism conference, Tehran, October 26, 2005 “The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake.”—- Richard Cohen, Washington Post columnistWhen the Boomer Left first came to power in the...

A Hinge of History August 9th, 2006 As I recline in my virtual hammock this lovely Midwestern midsummer’s day, feeling the warm, gentle breezes as they waft across my face (“God’s air conditioning” we call it out here), my thoughts turn to the currents and eddies of history that are churning just below the placid surface of the mundane, the day to day happenings in the world. Another war here. Some kind of dust-up in Africa. Is there no end to Asian “economic miracles”? And Old Man Europe, grown senile and oblivious to all but his ever growing number of...

July 25, 2006 -- WHAT if liberal democracies have now evolved to a point where they can no longer wage war effectively because they have achieved a level of humanitarian concern for others that dwarfs any really cold-eyed pursuit of their own national interests? (snip) What if the universalist idea of liberal democracy - the idea that all people are created equal - has sunk in so deeply that we no longer assign special value to the lives and interests of our own people as opposed to those in other countries? (snip) Could World War II have been won by...

Religious war July 17th, 2006 [Editor’s note: The question of religious war haunts the world today. Some, but not all, Muslims believe a religious war is long underway and will continue until the entire world submits to Allah. Last week, J.R. Dunn began a series of articles advocating avoidance of religious war rhetoric. Today, Michael Geer makes the contrary case. The American Thinker will gladly host a debate on the subject in coming days and weeks.] Given events in the Middle East and the near certainty of escalation, it’s time to name our enemy, because Israel is our canary in...

Attorney General Gonzales: Indict the New York Times June 24th, 2006 Within days of the September 11th attacks, the head of Reuters’ worldwide news division, explaining the agency’s refusal to use the word “terrorist,” made the famous fatuous remark that “one man’s freedom terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Reuters, it seemed, wouldn’t be taking sides in America’s war on Islamic jihad, because as journalists, Reuters didn’t believe the American people and our allies are any “better” than our putrid enemies. Such is the repulsive state of the “moral equivalence” mongers in what passes for news journalism, even among those...

It’s Fish or Cut Bait Time, Mr. Attorney General June 24th, 2006 In March, Gabriel Schoenfeld wrote a brilliant piece in Commentary in which he argued that the New York Times revelations about the NSA program warranted prosecution under Section 798 of Title 18, the so-called Comint statute. In the article he details the history and language of the Act and its 1950 amendment and argues that the language is unambiguous and certainly covers the paper’s disclosures of the NSA program, which substantially harmed our counter terrorism activities. Here are the critical provisions of the Act: §798. Disclosure of Classified...

STATEMENT OF ROBERT LUSKIN, ATTORNEY FOR KARL ROVE Tue Jun 13 2006 07:14:31 ET Washington, DC—Robert Luskin, Attorney for Karl Rove today released the following statement: “On June 12, 2006, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove. “In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public statements about the subject matter of the investigation. We believe that the Special Counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove’s conduct.” Developing...