Free Republic

For all of the carping liberals did for eight years about corporate cronyism in George W. Bush's White House, they seem to turn a blind eye to the same behavior in President Obama's. With plans in place for a major overhaul in the health-care industry, General Electric is positioning itself to become a major beneficiary of these health care reforms.Recently at the Business and Social Responsibility Conference, General Electric Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt referred to America's current economic crisis as part of a "reset" rather than part of an economic cycle, saying, "People who understand that will prosper in...

Perhaps the biggest fraud ever to be perpetrated onto the American people is Global Warming. Al Gore is just the symptom. If not given cover by a group of supposed climate scientists and other left-wing academics, Mr. Gore would be easily seen as the nutcase, phony alarmist that he is. Alas, nearly the entire left of the political spectrum has bought into this hoax, and more than a few ‘conservatives’ have also succumbed to the hysteria, including Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee. Fred Thompson, at least since he started campaigning for the GOP nomination, has provided some biting remarks regarding...

As Dick Morris points out in his New York Post column: IT is hard to believe, but recent polling by the Fox News Channel suggests that more than a third of American voters believe that the Bush administration is manipulating the terror warnings for political advantage. This ridiculous suspicion is the Democratic equivalent of those Republicans who labeled Bill Clinton's rocket attacks in Afghanistan in the hopes of killing Osama bin Laden a wagging of the dog. America is not helped, and is badly hurt, when our partisans do not observe common sense and the paramount necessity of defending the...

Stocks up...Dashole saddened

RNC Research -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLAME AMERICA FIRST? ON THE EVE OF WAR, DASCHLE TRIES TO GAIN PARTISAN ADVANTAGE With American Troops Poised To Fight, Daschle Blames Potential War Casualties On President Bush __________________________________________________________________________________________________ SENATOR TOM DASCHLE: “I’m Saddened, Saddened That This President Failed So Miserably At Diplomacy That We’re Now Forced To War. Saddened That We Have To Give Up One Life Because This President Couldn’t Create The Kind Of Diplomatic Effort That Was So Critical For Our Country.” (Senator Tom Daschle, Remarks At International Association Of Firefighters Conference, 3/17/03) __________________________________________________________________________________________________ BEFORE LAST NOVEMBER’S ELECTION, DASCHLE SUPPORTED USE OF FORCE IN...

Last week PBS revisited the much hailed Ken Burns documentary ‘The Civil War’, were it recounted that in a last desperate attempt to survive, in what has to be one of history’s most delicious ironies, the confederacy conscripted blacks to defend the south. Would it be too presumptuous to assume that Al Qaeda, facing extinction, has not turned to Saddam Hussein?

What happened to www.dumpdaschle.org? It hasn't been updated since April and Daschole has done plenty of extreme things that need to be exposed. Now is no time to slack off on attacking Daschole. We need to be conducting a 24/7 attack campaign on Daschole the way they went after Newt. The stakes couldn't be higher. Daschole's agenda threatens our very way of life.

Daschle attacks Bush for what senator calls `atrocious' economic record By Alan Fram, Associated Press, 9/18/2002 17:11 WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle launched a pre-election attack on President Bush's economic record on Wednesday, accusing him of doing little to spur the listless economy or address job and stock market losses, eroded retirement accounts and vanishing budget surpluses. The South Dakota Democrat's 35-minute address on the Senate floor, replete with poster-sized charts, came during a run-up to congressional elections that have been dominated in recent weeks by talk of war with Iraq. Democrats long have preferred campaign seasons to...

<p>The move discovered yesterday by fellow lawmakers angered Western legislators whose states were forced to obey those same rules as they battled catastrophic wildfires. "What's good for the Black Hills should be good for every forest in the United States," said Sen. Larry E. Craig, Idaho Republican and chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Mr. Daschle, a Democrat, said the language to expedite logging is essential to reduce the timber growth that can fuel wildfires. "As we have seen in the last several weeks, the fire danger in the Black Hills is high and we need to get crews on the ground as soon as possible to reduce this risk and protect property and lives," Mr. Daschle said in a statement late Monday night after a House-Senate conference committee agreed on the language. The language was tucked inside the defense supplemental spending bill, which passed the House last night by a 397-32 vote. The overall measure, which spends $29 billion, will be taken up by the Senate today. The provision says that "due to extraordinary circumstances," timber activities will be exempt from the National Forest Management Act and National Environmental Policy Act, is not subject to notice, comment or appeal requirements under the Appeals Reform Act, and is not subject to judicial review by any U.S. court. More than 20 lawsuits, appeals or reviews are blocking timber projects to remove fuel from the Black Hills — some bottled up in bureaucracy since 1985, say Republican aides. "After hearing all the hand-wringing from environmentalists downplaying the impact of appeals and litigation, it's nice to see that the highest-ranking Democrat in the nation agrees that these frivolous challenges have totally crippled forest managers," said Rep. Scott McInnis, Colorado Republican and chairman of the House Resources subcommittee on forests and forest health. Mr. Daschle said his measure is the "fastest and most effective way to get the forest thinned." "To be effective, any piece of legislation must be crafted in a way that avoids more time-consuming litigation, and this deal should meet that critical test," Mr. Daschle said. House and Senate Republicans signaled they would try to extend the exemptions to forests in their own states. "He should expect that and he should support it," Mr. Craig said. More than 50,000 fires have torched 3.7 million acres this summer, the National Interagency Fire Center reported yesterday. "It will be interesting indeed to find out if what's good for Mr. Daschle's goose is also good for the West's gander. We intend to find out," Mr. McInnis said. Environmental groups oppose timber cutting as a form of fire prevention, and some groups contend that logging activities constitute the sort of human actions that cause forest fires. "It's like giving people the mumps vaccine during a measles outbreak because you don't have a measles vaccine," said Jeff Kessler, spokesman for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. "You appear to be doing something that matters, when instead all you are doing is eroding the rule of law," Mr. Kessler said. The provision to allow logging in the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve and Beaver Park was first included in the farm bill by Rep. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson for his seat in November. It was killed by Mr. Daschle and Mr. Johnson under pressure from environmental groups, congressional aides said. "They caved to the national environmental groups during the farm bill and got destroyed back home because of it, so they really didn't have any choice but to join Mr. Thune," one Republican aide said. The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance opposes logging in the Black Hills and is threatening to sue to stop such activities. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, where more than a half-million acres have been destroyed by fire, said the process should have been open and the solution available to all states in a "tinderbox situation." "It certainly can only be described as blatant hypocrisy on behalf of the Senate leader to claim on one hand to be the champion of the environment and then on the other hand to cut a special deal for his home state," Mr. Hayworth said. "What he is proving today is that true environmentalists are willing to have effective forest management. This is a classic case of somebody saying one thing for political posturing, and doing another for public policy," Mr. Hayworth said. "We're trying to rebound from the worst fires in our history — hundreds of homes, thousands of lives shattered — we're on emergency footing in the White Mountains of Arizona trying to rebuild people's lives," Mr. Hayworth said. "Believe me, if we had the option to take advantage of this for Arizona, you better believe we would have."</p>

W A S H I N G T O N, June 24 — Sen. John McCain vowed Monday to block confirmation of all Bush administration nominations until a replacement is installed for a lame duck Federal Election Commission member who helped approve controversial campaign fund-raising rules. In a letter to Senate leaders, the Arizona Republican pledged to object to action on "any nominee" unless Ellen Weintraub is confirmed by early August or President Bush agrees to bypass the Senate and make the appointment on his own.Weintraub is in line to replace Karl Sandstrom as one of three Democratic members on...

Tony Snow interviewed Tommy Daschle and Tommy pretty much summed up his attitude: “We should be getting more help and support from the Saudis.” Well, let me tell you, Tommy, the Saudis are our enemies and one does not only not ask, but certainly not expect, “help and support” from OUR ENEMIES! Tommy: The word enemy means they are not on ‘our’ side, but on the ‘other’ side, the side that has already killed THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS ON HOME SOIL! Cripes! Is Tommy that stupid or does he think we are that stupid? And now he continues in complaining that...

The $34 billion Senate FY 2002 Supplemental spending bill to enhance Homeland Security fulfills many of the legitimate national defense and security requests of President Bush, but in the process has also been abused by many Senators to provide unnecessary spending to privileged constituents. As the list below makes embarrassingly clear, most of these questionable add-ons are for purposes that have absolutely nothing to do with national defense, Homeland Security, or anti-terrorism efforts. Nor do they fund legitimate damage re-construction sustained during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. In fact, in a number of cases, the Senate has reduced...

DURING THE COLD WAR years, the clear number-one priority of U.S. intelligence was the Soviet Union and its satellites, but there were other priorities as well, including the People's Republic of China, North Korea, the Middle East and the countries the Soviet Union and/or China were trying to take over. Make Comments View Comments Printable Article Email Article The end of the Cold War and the shredding of the Iron Curtain reduced the major threat to the U.S. but did not eliminate the threat altogether. Indeed, the number of threats from that direction actually increased: Many of the cold warriors...

"[A]n attack that must have required extensive preparations and a substantial support network appears to have gone entirely undetected by the FBI and intelligence community. These are large failings, the causes of which will have to be meticulously identified and remedied. "The challenge ahead will require strengthening U.S. defenses and intelligence . . ." (Editorial, "September 11, 2001," The Washington Post, Sept. 12, 2001). Make Comments View Comments Printable Article Email Article THE SEPTEMBER 11 hijack-bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon bared a multiplicity of holes in America's intelligence fabric. As author Tom Clancy has pointed out,...

Enron Democrats by WILLIAM GREIDER If left-labor-liberal progressives had the cohesion and muscle of their right-wing opposites, they would be articulating a simple-to-understand litmus test for the Democratic Party--no "Enron Democrats" on the presidential ticket in 2004. That precondition would eliminate a number of presidential wannabes now mentioned by the Washington media's Great Mentioner. Scratch Senator Joe Lieberman. Forget the happy talk about Senate majority leader Tom Daschle's running for the White House. And Senator Joe Biden can stop daydreaming. These men--and perhaps some other would-be candidates--do not pass the Enron smell test. It is not that Enron Democrats got...

New York Times columnist William Safire whacked Democrats and their "liberal media voices" with the anti-Israel stick in his April 22 column, and Dems are hopping mad. "Most of the leaders of the Democratic Party and its liberal media voices distanced themselves from Israel in the midst of its defense against Arafat's war," Safire writes in "Democrats vs. Israel." Among the calumnies Safire ascribes to Democrats are Bill Clinton's support for an engaged U.S. policy in the Middle East, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's "block" of a bipartisan resolution designating the PLO as a terrorist group, and Senator Joseph Biden's...

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle desperately needs some history lessons. In a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors he declared that had it not been for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the world would never have heard of two major events in recent history. Without FOIA, Daschle said "We might never have known about the Pentagon Papers [or] the My Lai massacre." Not quite true, Senator. The Pentagon Papers became public knowledge only because they were stolen by Daniel Ellsberg, who helped compile them, and handed over to the New York Times which published them. The story...