Free Republic

The Sorry Bunch Listen and learn from our enemies.In a single day last week, in various media — the liberal International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post — the following information appeared. A Syrian smuggler of jihadists to Iraq, one Abu Ibrahim, was interviewed. He made the following revealing statements: (1) that the goal of the jihadists is the restoration of the ancient caliphate ("The Koran is a constitution, a law to govern the world") (2) that September 11 was "a great day" (3) that two weeks after the attack, a celebration was held in his rural Syrian community celebrating...

IT IS one of the big, untold stories of the global economy. America's public finances are improving at last, to the great relief of the White House but to the puzzlement of much of the commentariat, which cannot fathom how tax cuts can possibly go hand in hand with a smaller budget deficit. The US budget shortfall fell to $35.3bn (£19.4bn) in May, down 43.5% on the $62.5bn seen during the same month last year, thanks to a continuing surge in tax revenues. This year's deficit was the smallest May shortfall since the $27.9bn seen in May 2001, which was...

Carter: rich states "don't give a damn" about poor ATLANTA, April 14 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Thursday harshly criticized his own country and other wealthy states for being stingy with foreign aid and said in rich countries "We really don't give a damn." In a speech to a human rights conference in Atlanta, Carter said increasing financial assistance was critical to battling malaria, AIDS and other common diseases that disproportionately affect the poorest parts of the world. "Unfortunately, in the rich countries like ours, we really don't give a damn," said Carter, who was president from...

(Alexandria, VA) -- Failure to enact budget process reform or control federal spending last year were just two reasons why lawmakers' fiscal voting records eroded considerably, according to the widely-anticipated annual Rating of Congress released today by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union (NTU). The Rating, based on hundreds of roll call votes, is considered the most comprehensive scorecard available on federal tax, spending, and regulatory issues. "When it came to rolling back big government last year, Congress took the wrong direction: big government did the rolling while most lawmakers did the backing," said NTU President John Berthoud. "To improve their...

Why Bush Must Be Re-electedEdward I. Koch, Thursday, July 22, 2004 I support the re-election of President George W. Bush. Why? Because I believe one issue overwhelms all others: the president’s strong commitment to fight the forces of international terrorism regardless of the cost or how long it takes to achieve victory. I do not agree with President Bush on a single major domestic issue, but in my view those issues pale in comparison with the threat of international terrorism. Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the evil poster boys of mass murder, are revered and supported by millions...

I was wondering which candidates the faculty and staff at Ivy League schools were financially supporting. I found the money in politics databases at PoliticalMoneyLine's web site. The data include the Federal Election Commission's records of individuals who contribute over $200 to political campaigns, including in most cases the individuals' employers. In my queries, I found 792 donations to the 2004 campaigns of Bush and Kerry from individuals employed by Ivy League schools. An astonishing 92% of those donations were to Kerry. Dartmouth had the highest percent for Kerry (97%) and Princeton the highest for Bush (16%). Harvard had more...