Free Republic

Retired Air Force Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak's recent comparison between Sen. Joseph McCarthy and former President Bill Clinton is factually wrong and politically misleading ("Obama aide compares Clinton to McCarthy," Page A7, Saturday). Mr. McCarthy was a Marine Corps officer who served his country faithfully and patriotically. As a senator, he staunchly defended the United States against communism. Records revealed after the end of the Cold War indicate he was correct. Mr. McCarthy was vehemently attacked by the left wing in this country, primarily by Democrats, who continue to attack him. Mr. Clinton was a draft dodger who signed an...

Adolf Hitler realized the importance of having a good press. In Nazi Germany with its press censorship, it was easy for Hitler to have a good press. However, during the 1930s the Nazis also tried to control the media in the neighboring European countries that Hitler was planning to invade. The Nazis bullied the democratically elected governments in these countries to censor everything that resembled what today might be called "Naziphobia" — criticism of Nazism. Interestingly, the bullied governments gave in to the Nazi intimidation rather than back the few courageous individuals who spoke out against totalitarianism. In the late...

Three-thousand oceanic probes — the "Argo" program — are a problem for global-warming alarmists. More to the point, explaining the probes' findings should be a priority for the alarmists if science is what drives them, and credibility. Argo shows no global warming over the last five years. In fact, the numbers show a slight cooling. These are merely one small data set, but they cut against the rhetoric, and require attention. Interestingly, though, as one measure of the widespread disinterest, the New York Times has not reported on Argo since its launch in 2000. The 3,000 probes are scattered around...

<snip> Central to the court's ruling was the claim that NHTSA ... had ignored the benefits of reducing emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2).<<snip> The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) points to glacial melting, shrinking sea ice, and other consequences of global warming. But such "evidence" doesn't tell us whether the causes are natural or manmade. Other evidence, such as the claimed correlation between temperature and CO2, is circumstantial; during much of the 20th century the climate was cooling while CO2 levels were rising. A forthcoming report by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC),...

Beyond the melodrama of Sen. Hillary Clinton's tears-on-her-pillow triumph in New Hampshire and her gaming victory in Nevada lies the profoundly disturbing question of the Clintons' hidden record of suspected crimes. It's that very record which likely prompted Sen. John Kerry's sudden endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama just two days after Mrs. Clinton's first primary win, followed by two more supportive votes from ranking congressional Democrats. Their swift response was a clear sign that ranking Democratic colleagues are determined to derail Mrs. Clinton. Why? Because there exists a vault of information American voters are not aware of concerning the Clintons...

With one credible September 11 movie, "United 93," under our belts, it will be interesting to see whether ABC-TV will complete the September 11 Commission's whitewashing of the pre-September 11 failure of U.S. intelligence-community leaders in its forthcoming mini-series based on Richard Clarke's memoir, "Against All Enemies." Media teasers about the mini-series have said that Mr. Clarke -- the former "terrorism czar" -- and a senior FBI officer, the late John O'Neill, will be the heroes of the saga. If true, and if ABC's fact-checkers are not diligent in verifying Mr. Clarke's stories and claims, the mini-series will be...

When Sen. John McCain is good, he is very good. When he caught Barack Obama, the Democrats' golden-boy senator, behaving like just another politician on lobbying reform, he broke out his scorching pen. Mr. Obama, the senator from Arizona said, had pledged privately to support the bipartisan reform plan that Mr. McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman are trying to push through Congress. But on Thursday, Mr. Obama announced in a letter to Mr. McCain that he will support a Democrat-only lobbying-reform bill after all. In an uncommonly harsh response, Mr. McCain called out the junior senator from Illinois for playing...

Imagine for a moment that we are at war. (For many of us, that will not require a very active imagination.) Our military-theater commanders in western Afghanistan and central Iraq sketch out operations against the enemy. They account for the various contingencies that might arise when confronting stealthy terrorists who shun the laws of civilized warfare. They pore over the latest intelligence estimates one last time. They position their land and air forces accordingly, and ensure that they are properly armed and ready. And then they go ... straight to court. Where's the Probably [sic]Cause? Why? Well, to make...

There was something unreal about last November's oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the case of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. Last week's decision from the Court did nothing to dispel this sense. But the brief opinion did offer an excellent example of the absurd state of abortion jurisprudence. Pro-life Victory? The case had to do with a New Hampshire law that required parental notification before a minor could obtain an abortion. The law contained no "health" exception, and so it was challenged as unconstitutional. A lower court struck down the statute, and a challenge...

On the thirty-third anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the decision seems simultaneously to have become more sacrosanct than ever, and more imperiled than ever. It is supposedly well-settled as a matter of law. Even some former opponents of the decision believe that it has survived for so long that it should not be overruled. The op-ed pages are full of liberals who allow that Roe was never a well-reasoned inference from the Constitution, but say it's too late to let it go. And polls find the decision to be popular, so it seems to be protected by both legal...

I was a student at Saint Louis University School of Law when I learned of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade. It was in a class taught by the late Gerald T. Dunne. Dunne was a biographer of Supreme Court Justices Joseph Story and Hugo Black; he was a decorated Navy veteran of World War II (Silver Star and Purple Heart), and former vice president and general counsel of the St. Louis Federal Reserve; and he was also an Irish-Catholic Democrat of the old school, who once described a seven-course Irish gourmet dinner as "A six pack...

Democrats like Senator Harry Reid understand—and manipulate—the bias of the mainstream media. They realize it is their most powerful political weapon, and they wield it with masterful skill. Democrats control the news cycle, because they apply an advanced level of game theory as they use the press to gain an edge over their political opponents.In 2005, Thomas Schelling received the Nobel Prize in economics. Schelling won the award because of the way he applied the principles of game theory to help manage the U.S. nuclear standoff with the Soviets. Reid has demonstrated his mastery of this discipline by soundly trouncing...

How many times have supporters of the war in Iraq complained that there is little reporting on good news from Iraq? And that when there is such news, it receives less-prominent coverage than reports of car bombings and sectarian mayhem? Sometimes the criticism has little merit; after all, there are lots of car bombings and sectarian mayhem, and they are news. But the where's-the-good-news question seems particularly timely this week after the publication of a new poll which found widespread optimism among Iraqis, both about their personal situations and the future of the country. Beyond the news organizations that...

The assault on Judge Samuel A. Alito's civil-rights record continues apace. The mantra of Judge Alito's opponents is that he's hostile to civil rights, and in particular, to claimants in race-discrimination cases. The members of the Congressional Black Caucus formally announced their unanimous opposition to Judge Alito's nomination last week, contending that the nomination represents "a dangerous turning point" for the Supreme Court. Speaking on behalf of the CBC, Eleanor Holmes Norton asserted that Judge Alito, a man of "extreme views," was an inappropriate choice to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who, according to Norton, represents "mainstream judicial conservatism"....

Here's a simple test. Imagine — just hypothetically, of course — that an appellate judge's position on a complicated question of civil-rights law was adopted unanimously by the Supreme Court. Assume that the judge wrote a masterful and scholarly opinion explaining his position. And assume further that he had the courage and clarity to take that position alone in dissent — in the face of opposition from all of his colleagues on the en banc court. Now suppose that that judge was nominated to the Supreme Court. Would you be inclined to regard the judge's opinion in that case...

"Why is it taking you five years to get through college?" I asked a student attending one of my campus lectures. "Because I changed my major from computer science to accounting after I discovered there are almost no jobs available for computer majors."Of course there are plenty computer jobs, but not for Americans because big business would rather hire foreigners. It's all a matter of money; corporations use their financial clout to get Congress to import foreigners who will work for half the salary Americans used to be paid for computer work.It's called the H-1B racket, and it's very...

In his welcome Washington Post "Outlook" piece, “Disappearing Act: Where Have the Men Gone? No Place Good,” Michael Gurian reports that colleges and universities across the country are “grappling with the case of the mysteriously vanishing male.” The author of books on the compelling brain research that reveals significant sex differences in learning styles notes that men make up only 43 percent of college students. Gurian laments that we have failed to react to a “significant crisis” that damages the life prospects of millions of young men. He marshals the evidence of boys in trouble and effectively demands attention...

On the question of minority voting rights, neither Republicans nor Democrats are covered in glory. In the latest chapter, House Democrats, led by California’s Nancy Pelosi, have gone ballistic over a leaked Department of Justice memorandum which concluded that the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan violated the Voting Rights Act. Pelosi has called for an independent inquiry into “the contemptible politicization of the Justice Department to rubberstamp Congressman Tom DeLay's illegal redistricting scheme” Illegal? Gee, we thought that when a federal three-judge panel decided after a lengthy trial that the plan was constitutional, that also meant it was “legal.”...

In conjunction with President George W. Bush’s public-diplomacy offensive to regain domestic support for the war effort, the National Security Council has now published a document entitled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq." While the usual suspects have denounced it as more of the same, the fact is that it is a sound effort to outline what is necessary to achieve our goals in Iraq. Properly understood, strategy refers to a plan for applying scarce means to achieve the nation’s goals. Without a strategic framework for setting priorities and guiding the development and employment of the instruments of national...

Abu Ghraib was a travesty and a tragedy. It tarnished America's reputation and credibility. It gave ammunition to America's enemies and critics. It set back progress in Iraq. What took place at Abu Ghraib was illegal – and those responsible have been rightly prosecuted and punished. So what is the point of Sen. John McCain's amendment to ban "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of any prisoner by any agent of the United States? His proposal might be seen as simply sending a message, a way to clean up the mess left by Abu Ghraib -- legislation in the service...