Free Republic

In local German elections, the successor to East Germany's Communist Party makes major inroads, a potential challenge for Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of national elections in September. PARIS – Sunday’s local German elections favoring left parties were variously described as “a wake up call,” a “shock,” and a “setback” for Chancellor Angela Merkel. But while the results may affect her plans for Germany’s next governing coalition, few analysts expect the popular German leader will lose national elections scheduled for Sept. 27. Nevertheless, the former Communist Party of East Germany, now known as the Left Party, made startling gains in the...

TWENTY YEARS after the fall of the Soviet empire, it is much easier to see that the current Russian regime wants to reclaim great power status. It more resembles the earlier Soviet regime and those of the czars than it does any Middle European liberal state. Indeed, its exploitation of Russian-speaking minorities in the Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and Ossetia as pawns is reminiscent of the tactics of the Nazi regime in the 1930s. Russia has invaded Georgia not just to punish Georgia's elected leadership, but also to reclaim Russian control of gas and oil pipelines in the Caucasus region....

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 — Democrats in Congress failed once again Friday to shift President Bush’s war strategy in Iraq, but insisted that they would not let up. Their explanation for their latest foiled effort seemed to boil down to a simple question: “What else are we supposed to do?” Frustrated by the lack of political progress in Iraq, under pressure by antiwar groups and mindful of polls showing that most Americans want the war to end, the Democrats last week put forward a $50 billion war spending bill with strings attached knowing it would fail. Like so many of the...

Not long ago, while visiting a friend at Oxford University, I found myself in a heated political discussion with a Scotsman. The subject of our dispute was the Iraq war, but the conversation turned toward the rise of latent anti-Semitism in once-respectable quarters of British opinion. Two years earlier, a story entitled “A Kosher Conspiracy?,” illustrated by a gold Star of David plunged into the heart of the Union Jack, graced the cover of Britain’s most prominent left-wing magazine, The New Statesman. Since then, the intellectual climate had only worsened. In response to my remark that many use the...

October 09, 2007 The evidence for NeocommunismBy James Lewis There is a compelling factual case to be made that the contemporary radical Left can properly be called "Neocommunist." The Hard Left is grounded in Marxist vision of creating a "new man" under a system led by a vanguard that knows best what the rest of society needs. And Neocommies behave in patterns with startling parallels to Old Communist tactics. The Neocommies are not members of a Communist Party, and are part more of a movement than a conspiracy. They are utterly different from traditional liberalism in America and Europe. Traditional...

AFTER the Democrats took control of Con gress last year, party leaders said that one goal of the new majority was "to achieve energy independence, strengthen national security, grow our economy and create jobs, lower energy prices and begin to address global warming." Yet the Democrats' energy bills do just the reverse - thwarting energy independence by taxing oil producers and keeping substantial reserves of oil and natural gas locked up, while favoring "fairy dust" alternative energy and fuel sources that won't be able to compete with oil and gas for decades (if ever). Now that Congress' is back, a...

On the way to their September 15 March on Washington for the “Mother of All Protests”, anti-war activists organized by ANSWER already have had to switch gears. The funds they’ve raised “to pay for buses and to print the hundred of thousands of flyers, stickers and posters needed to spread the word,” must go to pay some $10,000 worth of fines if group organizers do not remove every poster within 72 hours. SNIP Their last protest, also touted as the “Mother of All Protests” saw the “Moonbats” outnumbered for the first time in decades by the Gathering of Eagles. SNIP...

Town hall meeting - Sen. Ron Wyden takes heat for Congress not bringing the troops home Although few senators can match U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden's long record opposing the war in Iraq, it didn't protect him from being thoroughly roasted Tuesday by angry anti-war activists at a town hall meeting in Portland. The noontime event at Portland State University attracted more than 300 people, many of whom charged that the Oregon Democrat hasn't done enough to end the war. The senator was also repeatedly verbally flayed for not supporting the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "Do...

The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, by Matt Bai (Penguin Press, 316 pp., $25.95) Matt Bai’s The Argument is the most significant book to date on the upcoming 2008 elections—not because it has anything to say about the horse race for the Democratic nomination, but because it offers an account of the people who constitute what Howard Dean calls “the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.” Bai writes regularly on politics for the New York Times Magazine, where some of this material originally appeared. He has been sharply critical of George W. Bush and...

That's the way Hillary and her hero Saul Alinsky viewed liberals. It was the same way the Old Left – the Communist Party – viewed liberals. Hillary quoted Alinsky in her thesis as explaining the difference between a liberal and a radical: "The liberal refuses to fight for the goals he professes." I'm sure Hillary still sees herself today as a "radical." But she could never use that term and remain a viable politician. So she has adopted another term – "progressive" – which means the same thing to those in the know. This is the favored term even today...

Led by Democrats since the start of this year, Congress now has a "confidence" rating of 14 percent, the lowest since Gallup started asking the question in 1973 and five points lower than Republicans scored last year. The voters put the Democrats in to end the war, and it's escalating. The Democrats voted the money for the surge and the money for the next $459.6 billion military budget. Their latest achievement was to provide enough votes in support of Bush to legalize warrantless wiretapping for "foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States." Enough Democrats joined Republicans to make...

A tearful Cindy Sheehan cited her son, killed in Iraq, as her inspiration as she announced her candidacy Thursday for the U.S. House against Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Sheehan last month said she intended to run against Pelosi, the House speaker, if the San Francisco congresswoman didn't move to impeach President Bush by July 23. Sheehan said Thursday that Pelosi had "protected the status quo" of the corporate elite and had lost touch with people in her district, most of whom, she asserted, want American troops out of Iraq. Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi, would not comment on Sheehan's candidacy...

Saturday, September 15March on WashingtonEND THE WAR NOW!Check out Sept15.org A message from Ramsey Clark The People of Baghdad Have No Water Join MAS Freedom Sept. 15 for D.C. Rally and Iftar Join Iraq war veterans, active duty servicemembers and their families on September 15 Monday, September 17 Peoples March Inside Congress -- organizing group is CODEPINK. Come to Washington DC on September 15 for a large antiwar protest timed to coincide with the report by General Petraeus on the "Surge" in Iraq. Click here for more information and to get involved.Initial sponsors of the march include:The ANSWER Coalition; Ramsey Clark; Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation;...

When the Democrats enlarged their tent to include leftist activists, Ralph Nader was left in the cold. At a green party convention in Reading, Pa., on July 14, Ralph Nader provoked admirers and detractors alike when he declared that he is once again "considering" a run for the presidency. This would be the 73-year-old activist's fourth third-party race. For a decade now and counting, Nader has presented himself as the outsider's outsider, as the reformer's conscience and as a sturdy crusader against a corrupt party system -- meaning, in effect, against Democrats, from whom he siphons votes (a fact amply...

It is time to recognize exactly what we are up against and the concerted effort that will be required to save our country from the rampaging Left. The failed immigration bill was but one issue. There will be many, many more of equal or greater importance before the elections of 2008. Democrats play a tough game. This has always been true, but the immigration bill is perhaps one of the most poignant examples. Democrats could care less what floods of illegal immigrants do to undermine our legal system, overwhelm welfare and medical services, fracture society and destroy our culture. The best of them...

With the predictability of a John McCain temper tantrum (or a John Edwards $200-haircut), every two year the Democrats announce that they're going to fight like hell for the religious vote - a vow duly reported by the media in the hushed tones of revelation. Thus, a story on the recent CNN Democratic presidential forum began with the following observation: "After barring their souls in a live television confessional, top Democratic White House hopefuls have put Republicans on notice that religious voters are up for grabs." At the forum, sponsored by Jim (Hugo-Chavez-Is-My- Shepard) Wallis and his Sojourners collective, Hillary...

As conservative Republicans tell the tale, the 2006 election was merely a referendum on the Bush administration's incompetence in Iraq and New Orleans and on the Republican congressional scandals. The contest, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote, "was an event-driven election that produced the shift of power one would expect when a finely balanced electorate swings mildly one way or the other." Others insist that demographic trends continue to favor the Republicans. Seeing 2006 as an anomaly, political analyst Michael Barone argued that population growth patterns favor Republican-leaning areas in the interior of the country rather than Democratic-leaning areas on...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Why can't the left get any respect? Whenever you use the word "left" in American politics, you feel almost compelled to add quotation marks. Today's left is not talking about nationalizing industry, abolishing capitalism or destroying the rich. What passes for "left" in American politics is quite moderate by historical standards. Still, cliches die hard, so you hear such 20-year-old questions as: "Are Democrats moving too far to the left?" or "Will Democrats abandon the center?" This approach is about abstractions, not concrete political problems, and it misses the dynamic in American public life, which is the...

There's another website I participate in,and I often find myself crossing verbal swords with the self-defined "intellectual elite". Today was no exception. On one thread,an anonymous poster was making snotty remarks about "neo-cons" in the Administration.He/she (whatever!) listed several by name,and it suddenly occurred to me all of the names were Jewish . I responded politely-which took a bit of effort.I'm not Jewish,but 3 of my grandchildren are.My closest friend in high school was the son of death camp survivors-(and yes,I saw the tattoos with my own eyes !) I expressed my concern to "Anonymous",saying I knew anti-Semitism had become...

They’re NeoCOMs, that’s what they are! Like many of my friends who view things political from the dexterous side, I’ve been somewhat mystified by the way our brothers and sisters on the sinister side get all lathered up whenever they hear or utter the word NEOCON. Thinking that such a word could be used to fire up our troops in a similar manner, I now offer the word NEOCOM to describe our (loyal?) opposition. Following are characteristics I’ve observed of modern Democrat operatives: 1 – Like the OLDCOMS, they are never bothered by inconsistencies in their political arguments always picking...