Free Republic

Why do so many Americans refuse to face the fact that our country is at war with international terrorism? The leading terrorist group, al-Qaeda, is fighting us on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Iran and North Korea are threatening nuclear war. And yet many Americans, including some Congressional Democrats, denounce President Bush, and in so doing, weaken our country's ability to resist Islamic fascism. One Congressional Democrat, John Conyers of Michigan, announced his intention to impeach the President when Republicans lose control of both Houses of Congress. There is something terribly wrong with people seeking to demean...

I'm going to vote Republican. I'll hold my nose to do it, but I'll do it. That may not be an enthusiastic endorsement, but it's the best I've got. And it's taken me six months to come up with that. I used to love the Republican Party. I saw it as a dynamic tool for advancing American liberty. I saw it as a common-sense defender of what average people like me stand for and believe in. But that was a long time ago. And things have changed. Not on my part. I'm the same person with the same priorities and...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Attempts by the administration of US President Gearge W. Bush to justify the continuing war in Iraq by comparing it to the 20th century war against Nazism as November elections draw near could actually benefit divided Democrats, experts said. "The battle for Iraq is now central to the ideological struggle of the 21st century. We will not allow the terrorists to dictate the future of this century, so we will defeat them in Iraq," Bush told the American Legion veterans group Wednesday in Salt Lake City, Utah

With his party’s loss of Congress looming as a real possibility, President Bush has launched yet another effort to rally uneasy Republicans and raise fresh concerns about Democrats with a series of increasingly pointed speeches that began this week. When the president, in a speech to the American Legion in Salt Lake City, warned that defeat in Iraq will mean “terrorists in the streets of our own cities,” he was signaling that he hopes, once again, to turn the war in Iraq into a political plus for his party despite what the polls now show. His remarks came after even...

Overall, almost one out of four voters says the economy (23 percent) will be the most important issue on their mind when they vote this fall, followed by the situation in Iraq (14 percent) and terrorism (12 percent). Here’s how the remaining issues rank: health care (11 percent), immigration (9 percent), gas prices (8 percent), Social Security (7 percent) and ethics in Washington (6 percent). For Democrats, the top issues are the economy (26 percent) and Iraq (17 percent). Republicans pick terrorism (22 percent) and the economy (19 percent), with only a few citing Iraq as the main issue deciding...

WASHINGTON -- Fear of another terrorist attack remains real for many Americans. For people who lived in the two cities struck by the terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001 -- New York and Washington -- the fears are intensely personal and vivid. They're nervous about public transportation, take note of suspicious people and think back often to the horrors of Sept. 11, an AP-Ipsos poll found. Well over half of New Yorkers and Washingtonians are worried their communities will be attacked again. Nationwide, a third worry they will be attacked. Five years after the attacks, the terrorist threat is still evolving....

FOR the third time in less than a year, and two months before crucial US elections, President George W. Bush is launching a new campaign to counter opposition to the Iraq war with a series of speeches he insists are not political. Mr Bush will kick off the speeches with an appearance tomorrow at the American Legion annual convention in Salt Lake City and will maintain the theme of the Iraq war and national security throughout September. Amid a sharp escalation of violence in Iraq over the past few months, Mr Bush will acknowledge "that these are unsettling times", White...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — President Bush is kicking off another series of speeches to counter opposition to the war in Iraq, impatience with the rising U.S. death toll and anxiety about possible terrorist attacks. ADVERTISEMENT Bush delivers the first speech Thursday to the annual American Legion convention in Salt Lake City. The appearances will continue through the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and culminate on Sept. 19 when Bush addresses the U.N. Security Council. It is the third time in less than a year that Bush has made a series of speeches on Iraq and terrorism. They come...

In a nutshell, Judge Taylor claimed that under our Constitution, Hitchens’ right to never have his overseas telephone calls intercepted without a warrant trumps the right of Americans not to be blown to smithereens. The Constitution, however, says no such thing. The truth is, Democratic Presidents long before Bush conducted warrantless electronic surveillance for national security reasons—and every time the issue was reviewed by a federal appellate court, the court ruled for the President. In 2002, the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review said: “The Truong court, as did all other courts to have decided the issue, held that...

CALGARY (MarketWatch) -- Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski's defeat in the state's Republican primary early Wednesday likely scuppers any chance of his gas pipeline contract passing through the state legislature in 2006. In addition, Murkowksi's deposal opens up the prospect that a new governor will consider other alternatives to the planned $20 billion pipeline, throwing open the entire question of how Alaska's stranded gas reserves will be brought to market, according to industry observers. "I can't see much happening with the contract now until the general election," said John Devens, executive advisor of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory...

You can imagine White House senior strategist Karl Rove smiling when he saw the front page of USA Today on Tuesday. The headline read "Poll: GOP Up After Terror Arrests" and detailed a rise in President Bush's job approval numbers and a narrowing of the Democratic advantage in the generic ballot since the foiled terrorist plot in Britain.Rove as well as other administration officials have made clear that they are hoping to turn this election into a referdendum on the question of which party is better able to protect Americans from terrorist threats. Rove first elucidated that dynamic in a...

University of Chicago Law Professor Cass Sunstein calls them as he sees them, as was obvious from his analyisis of the NSA's authority to conduct warrantless surveillance of Al Qaeda contactings its U.S. operatives.Now Professor Sunstein has written a telling little essay for The New Republic, which that magazine's headline writer has misrepresented with the title "Mortal Combat: By Stoking Fear, Republicans Gain An Edge Over Democrats." The essay says almost nothing about Republicans "stoking fear," although it includes the line "So Karl Rove knows exactly what he is doing."Rather, Professor Sunstein delivers some hard news for Democrats:  When Americans are...

WASHINGTON - Even though he's not running for re-election this year, President Bush knows just what he would focus on if he were: the economy and taxes. As Republicans face an increasingly tough political outlook, in part because of Bush's sagging approval ratings, the president offered some advice Monday to GOP candidates in the midterm elections. "If I were a candidate ... I'd say, 'Look at what the economy has done. It's strong. We've created a lot of jobs. ... I'd be telling people that the Democrats will raise your taxes. That's what they said. I'd be reminding people that...

IN the 1960s, my sister was part of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. She was arrested in a civil rights sit-in. Naturally, she was a lifelong Democrat. Today, she is a “9-11 Republican.” She is not alone. My sister is no less committed to civil rights than before. But she believes that not being murdered by Islamist terrorists is also an important civil right. She is not sure that the Democratic Party completely agrees with her. For 9-11 Republicans, this is the most significant political issue. The GOP “gets it,” while the Democratic Party doesn't. Many recent former Democrats...

Politicians are used to getting harsh letters critical of positions they take, but a recent letter to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid from a high-ranking member of his church shows the depth and passion that some Mormons feel about the need to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Reid, leader of the Senate's Democrats, says he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, and he voted for a state ballot question placing that language into the Nevada Constitution, yet he opposes placing the ban in the U.S. Constitution. He said he believes Republicans raised the amendment...

Need help determining candidates to vote for in primary elections in Florida.

Will the Left Ever Support the War on Terrorism? Posted by Chris Donohoe on August 9, 2006 - 20:27. Why are American liberals convinced that there’s no connections between Saddam and Al Qaeda? Why is it said “We had no reason to invade Iraq”? With the 5th year anniversary of 9/11 nearing, I reflect on a letter I wrote to my family in the first few days following the attacks explaining how proud I was of my country. Like most Americans, we were angry, perhaps moreso because my brother-in-law, who is an NYPD Emergency Service Unit officer, had to dig...

Here we go again. War in the Middle East. Instability and violence in Iraq. A confident, bellicose Iran continuing to pursue the capability for nuclear weapons. A terrorist plot intended to cause "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" by blowing up as many as 10 planes over the Atlantic Ocean. Though elections -- particularly midterms -- are traditionally driven by local concerns and personalities, with just over 80 days to go before voters step behind the curtain and make a choice, the issue of national security is again looming large, as it did in 2002 and 2004. The domestic political...

Well, it is a very pleasant time to be in Washington. Senators and representatives alike have vacated the premises. Most have headed off to ply their trade on their constituents. The off-year elections are approaching, and most of our federal legislators want another stint at what the Democrats call "public service." That is a euphemism for what all reasonable observers call the "public trough." The Democrats are in a sunny mood. As they see it, we are losing in Iraq. We are losing the war on terror. And Wal-Mart just posted a quarterly loss. All of this means, so the...

Sacramento -- Newport Beach (Orange County) Councilman Richard Nichols won't be among those cheering when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger takes the stage this weekend at the state Republican Convention in Los Angeles. Like a lot of conservative voters, the 66-year-old Nichols said he's disillusioned with the governor's recent efforts to recast himself as a political moderate in order to curry favor among Democrats and independent voters. Schwarzenegger's new strategy, which has boosted him in the polls, has also attracted criticism from both ends of the political spectrum that the governor has reversed position on key issues -- like education spending, the...