Free Republic

December 13, 2005Sealed White House Needs Outside AdviceBy Bruce Bartlett In its latest issue, Newsweek magazine has a disturbing portrait of George W. Bush as an aloof, out-of-touch president, isolated by his own governing style. Because of his intolerance for dissent, he has effectively surrounded himself with yes-men (and women) fearful of telling the president anything he doesn't want to hear. Written by veteran reporters Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe, the Newsweek story confirms reports we have heard for the last five years about Bush's disinterest in the policy process or even the day-to-day politicking that ordinarily goes with the...

Today there was a terrorist attack at a place most people have never heard of. Unless you’re a soldier stationed here, the name Tal Afar would probably be insignificant to you. But Tal Afar means a lot to me. Today some terrorists decided to kill some Iraqi citizens — good Muslims — in order to discourage them from voting on Saturday on the new constitution. These terrorists called themselves Muslims and claimed that what they did was for Allah. But their connection to Islam is about as true and strong as Timothy McVeigh’s connection to Christianity. What they did is...

 LONDON, Aug. 1 - The 27-year-old Briton who was arrested in Rome on Friday and accused of planting a bomb on a British subway had entered Britain using fake documents and an alias, the authorities say. He managed to escape the country on a Eurostar train to Paris, although grainy photos of him plastered the walls of the train station. Yet the police swiftly tracked his escape, for the most mundane of reasons - he did not turn off his cellphone. Cellphones have, in the past decade, gone from a novel toy to a device nearly as common as a...

When you’re divorced each parent has to consciously parent, consciously throw themselves into worrying about the welfare of their children. The workaholic dad can’t say the mom raises the kids, I write the check. Or, more rarely, the Pilates-addicted mother cannot leave parenting to the Mr. Mom. Nobody wants to be the one the kids incessantly whine about to their shrink. The other thing that makes us divorceniks such great parents is that we get a break every once in a while. We’re not anchored to our kids 24/7 so when they’re over at the other’s house we get to...

We are in the midst of a remarkable Washington scandal, and we still don't have a name for it. Leakgate, Rovegate, Wilsongate - none of the suggestions have stuck because none capture what's so special about the current frenzy to lock up reporters and public officials. The closest parallel is the moment in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" when members of a mob eager to burn a witch are asked by the wise Sir Bedevere how they know she's a witch. "Well, she turned me into a newt," the villager played by John Cleese says."A newt?" Sir Bedevere asks,...

July 3, 1863:   Troops under Confederate General George Pickett begin a massive attack against the center of the Union lines at Gettysburg on the climactic third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest engagement of the war. General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia encountered George Meade's Army of the Potomac in Pennsylvania and battered the Yankees for two days. The day before Pickett's charge, the Confederates had hammered each flank of the Union line but could not break through. Now, on July 3, Lee decided to attack the Union center, stationed on Cemetery Ridge, after making...

 To your battle stations! Any rhetorical nice-nice after the resignation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was announced Friday will last about as long as a cascade of sparkling cinders from July 4th pyrotechnics.Unless President Bush decides to surprise the nation and nominate a replacement who is anything but a proven ideological touchstone, he will be in for the fight that he deserves.The coming confirmation debate will be of a magnitude unseen in many years, if ever. I'd guess thermonuclear, making the warm-up match earlier this year in the U.S. Senate look like a backyard barbecue.We should be willing to be...

 Under fire, President Bush addressed the nation Tuesday night to reassure the American people that for all the depressing news of bombings and death, we are winning the war, ...   <snip>   ... In response here at home, the ghost of Vietnam is once again being conjured. Given this tendency to compare the two wars, we really should re-examine the horror of Vietnam, specifically its final years. By 1973, the goal of fashioning a South Korea-like, non-communist entity in Indochina was supposedly obtained and the war over. The Paris peace agreements recognized two autonomous Vietnamese states. Almost all U.S. prisoners...

June 12, 2005 Major E. Reports Our correspondent in Iraq, Major E., wrote this essay in response to a column he saw in his home-town newspaper which argued that Iraq is a lost cause. We've edited it slightly for length; click to enlarge the photos: The number one question I have been getting from friends and family back home is whether we are winning here in Iraq. In fact, what inspired me to write today was reading an op-ed published by the local congressperson in the Contra Costa Times, a paper I actually delivered for three years many moons ago.......

Jan. 28 - When Hillary Clinton spoke out publicly in 1993 about the importance of faith in coming to terms with her father’s death, she was criticized for bringing religion into the public square. It was her first year as First Lady, and she was unprepared for the cultural dissonance she generated as a lawyer and outspoken policy activist married to the president. Everything she did provoked a backlash. Fast forward to 2005 and the most controversial first lady of modern times is a sedate senator from New York talking about finding “common ground” with abortion foes. Like Moses leading...

Swift Boat Vet Receives Help from Former Whistle-Blower Gary Aldrich reaches out to man under fire Steve Gardner, member of the effective 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is getting legal and financial help from Gary Aldrich, former whistle-blower and president of The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty. Gardner, also know as "The 10th Brother", was one of two men who courageously refused to stand with Senator John Kerry at the Democratic convention. As a result of this and an interview he gave stressing his strong opposition to a Kerry presidency, Gardner suffered threats, insults, and, finally, a...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - One of three Michigan men who hacked into the national computer system of Lowe's hardware stores and tried to steal customers' credit card information was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in federal prison. The government said it is the longest prison term ever handed down in a U.S. computer crime case. Brian Salcedo, 21, of Whitmore Lake, Mich., pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and other hacking charges. Salcedo's sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg, exceeds that given to the hacker Kevin Mitnick, who spent more than 5 1/2 years behind bars, according to a...

EDITOR'S NOTE:This is the first in a five-part series of excerpts from In the Red Zone by Steven Vincent. Together they constitute Chapter 4, "The 'Resistance.'" The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win. — Michael Moore She was a Sunni Muslim, an attractive, thirty-something writer, one of the few women I met who eschewed a scarf in public. And she was overjoyed at the demise of Saddam. "I am so happy! Freedom at last!...

Most people could only imagine the scene: a 10-month-old child lifeless in a crib, her mother sitting on the couch holding a knife. They winced, shivered. And they thought about something else. For a few people, several police officers and paramedics, the images won't easily be forgotten. They were the first ones to respond to Dena Schlosser's Plano apartment on Nov. 22. When they arrived, they found Mrs. Schlosser's youngest daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, with her arms cut off.

I'm headed out the door very soon to attend a birthday party today for the young daughter of a dear friend of mine. There will be a bouncy-house for the kids, a cake, tons of presents, balloons and squads of happy children."Big deal timpad, so what?" Well, just so happens that this little girl's birthday is actually today. Yes FRiends, her birthday is September 11th. She turned 2 years old the day her nation was attacked.Hold that thought. Are you thinking something to the effect of, "Gee, how terrible that her birthday will always fall on such a day!" If...

POLITICS Kerry's Teleportation Revelation Shocks WorldIn stunning announcement, candidate blows lid off top secret Pentagon projectBy V.K. Bestertester, Staff WriterFRESNO, CA — In a shocking revelation, John Kerry exposed a decades-old Department of Defense secret: Matter teleportation devices have been in use by the US Navy since at least 1968.  Above: Kerry Shown Entering Teleporter "The Navy sent me on a top-secret mission into Cambodia using one of these thingys." Kerry revealed. "They wanted to slip me and some Special Forces guys across the border without anyone, even my shipmates, knowing about it. So, they brought this device out...

For much of the past month a fight has been raging in news reports and over the Internet about the behavior of 14 male Middle Eastern passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles. Were the men terrorists casing the plane for a possible attack, as freelance journalist Annie Jacobsen suspected in a long article about the incident? Or were they, as the men said and federal investigators later concluded, a Syrian band on their way to a gig? Until now, news accounts have only featured government spokesmen or airline personnel who were not actually on the...

Shocking Success or Abuse of Power? MIAMI — A 340 lb. man in Miami resisted arrest, but 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser gun adjusted his attitude. The $800 guns are changing the way police conduct business. Before introducing Taser guns, Miami police averaged 20 shootings a year, killing two to three people. In the past 19 months, they have not fired a single shot, officials with the Miami-Dade Police Department said.

SPORTS Patriots Trade Kerry to HoustonNo Losers Allowed, Say Super Bowl ChampsBy V.K. Bestertester, Staff WriterFRESNO, CA — The two-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots announced today that they were trading their self described "fan"  Senator John F. Kerry (D-Lib) to the Houston Texans. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.   Above: Dumped by Patriots Patriots head coach B.B. Gumby said "We have worked very hard to build a winning organization here in New England. We've had some success. This team will not tolerate losing. And let's face it folks, this guy's got 'Loser' written all over...

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia is continuing efforts to evacuate employees of its companies from Iraq, but has sent a single plane to Baghdad instead of the planned three because hundreds of workers are choosing to stay.When Moscow announced the airlift of up to 816 workers two days ago following a spate of kidnappings, CNN's Ryan Chilcote reported many Russian workers wanted to stay in Iraq.An Ilyushin Il-62 jet took off from a military airfield outside Moscow Friday morning and was to return from Baghdad later in the day, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov told The Associated Press.Another ministry spokesman,...