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I have always found it fascinating that reporters for TV and newspapers always rely on so called inside sources for information on the President. An article on nydailynews.com has quote from a couple of people close to the President who say that he is "frustrated, sometimes angry and even bitter" so say his "associates." I don't know how W. could be happy, we are in the middle of a war and American soldiers are dying. Bush has steadfastly held his ground that it was the correct thing to do, but very few in his own party will cover his back.

Wars as controversial as the one in Iraq can make us deaf, dumb and blind to the facts of our military history. All conflicts can be seen as irrevocably muddy, which extreme leftists and long-gone pacifists seem to believe is always the case. Yes, we've fought for freedom and democracy, and we've been involved in imperialism, whether pushing the United States to the Pacific Ocean or doing in native populations when it served our interests. I mean those interests defined by the fine men, bigots and opportunists of Washington. Those foghorns of situational ethics led us into the fog as...

Imagine the following Olympic scenario: A white American Olympic wrestler draws as his first opponent a black wrestler from an African country. Rather than touch a black man, the American wrestler forfeits the match. When the head of the American wrestling team is asked for his reaction, he says, "That's his choice, and I have to say that, frankly, I respect it." The outcry would be instantaneous. The American wrestler would be permanently banned from Olympic competition and the U.S. would be condemned for having selected so bigoted a representative. The head of the team, who commended the wrestler, would...

BOSTON - I finally tracked down Michael Moore. I saw him walking in the street outside the Democratic convention center and pounced on him like the paparazzi on J.Lo. Moore had been dodging me because his movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11," was becoming increasingly indefensible by something called "facts." But to his credit, Moore took up my street challenge and agreed to appear on "The O'Reilly Factor." We debated for 10 minutes, and here's what happened: * He said President Bush "lied" about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction even though the 9/11 commission, the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation and Lord Butler's British...

Listening to speakers at the Democratic National Convention last week, most Americans were left with the impression that our economy is mired in depression. We were told that John Kerry's plan of raising taxes on American families and increasing government spending by hundreds of billions of dollars would spur economic growth. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a result of nearly 30 different tax-relief measures passed by Congress since 2001, unemployment has dropped to 5.6%, 1.5 million jobs have been created in the past year alone, household wealth is near an all-time high and inflation, interest rates and...

At this point we have four independent sources that say there was no lying by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The 9/11 commission, the Senate Intelligence Committee, Lord Butler's British investigation and Vladimir Putin have all stated that the WMD intelligence was faulty but the politicians did nothing untoward. So what should be done with the people who accused Bush and Blair of intentionally lying to bring war to the world? Have you heard any of them apologize for their slander? I haven't. Let's go further. The 9/11 commission report...

When it learned of the obscenities of the Holocaust, the world said, "Never again." It lied. Ten years ago, 800,000 people died in Rwanda while the world looked the other way. Oh, the after-the-bloody-fact posturing and the offering of new resolve. All of it, again, lies. History is repeating itself, this time with Khartoum-backed Arab militias butchering and raping black Sudanese. By conservative estimates, 10,000 to 30,000 have already died. The projected death toll is 300,000 to 1 million. Already 2 million are suffering from starvation and sickness. What the government-backed militias began, microbes may finish. The situation is indescribable....

A recent poll says 40% of Canadian teens believe the United States is "evil." Among French-Canadian teens, it's 64%. This, of course, must be laid on the doorstep of the often viciously anti-American Canadian press, as well as irresponsible Canadian teachers. America is getting slaughtered in the arena of public opinion. So what can we expect from children? When government-funded press agencies like the BBC and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. portray America as the world's chief villain, there's little anyone can do to balance the picture. Fox News Channel, for example, isn't even allowed in Canada. So for the benefit of...

Enough with France. That country is not a friend to the U.S.A. or to peace-seeking Iraqis and Afghans. French President Jacques Chirac continues to block efforts by the U.S.A. and Britain to bring stability to former dictatorships and make it more difficult for homicidal terrorists to operate. Take a look at Chirac's recent résumé: * Last week, he blocked a newly created NATO strike force from going to Afghanistan to provide extra security for elections. Chirac said: "[The strike force] should not be used for troop shortages on routine operations." * Chirac continues to insist that any NATO training of...

And so it will be this evening that Ronald Wilson Reagan will be laid to rest in the California he loved so well, in the America he loved beyond measure. Over the last few days, the nation has made clear that this love was requited. It has honored his memory and celebrated his legacy and embraced his widow with compassion. The President who projected the bright, shining glories of "morning in America" to so many will be bid final farewell as the sun is setting and the shadows lengthening and the twilight darkening into night. All of which is appropriate,...

Ronald Reagan would have loved knowing that Sgt. York marched in his funeral parade. Sgt. York, of course, was that horse - a 13-year-old jet-black gelding from New York - that walked so majestically behind the caisson bearing the former President through the streets of Washington Wednesday night, saddle empty and stirrups bearing Reagan's riding boots turned backward. Reagan would have enjoyed the quiet dignity of that horse, but just as much, he would have thrilled at the memory the horse invoked: Sgt. Alvin York of Tennessee, the young draftee who led a small band into fire against a German...

Presidents who accomplish great things are not afraid of risk. On the contrary, they welcome it. They realize that presidential popularity is not to be hoarded like poker chips during a game. Rather, popularity is to be expended in pursuit of accomplishments that make America more prosperous and secure in the long term. By that measure, Ronald Reagan was a risk taker and a President for the ages. Reagan took office when the country faced its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He chose a bold course of action, a "riverboat gamble," in the words of then-Senate Majority Leader...

Respect is his due History will be kind to this leader who restored our pride One of the reasons I fought so hard a few months ago against that sleazy TV Reagan movie was that the former President simply didn't deserve that kind of display. CBS, I believe, came to the same conclusion when programming boss Les Moonves finally began paying attention to the project and decided to dump it. Although the film ultimately aired on a cable station, few Americans saw it. The left-wing ideologues screamed censorship but the real issue was respect. Ronald Reagan deserved the respect of...

Ronald Reagan leaves such a grand legacy that it is almost impossible to single out one achievement over the others. Until, that is, you remember the three Presidents who preceded him. If Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter had made a movie together, it would have been called, "Honey, I Shrunk the Presidency." They did that with eight years that veered from corruption to bumbling and dispiriting performances that left the White House a place of international scorn and derision. Americans were losing faith not only in their government, but faith in the ability of any President to make...

Democrats who battled him and Republicans who sainted him joined yesterday to celebrate Ronald Reagan's strength and sunny optimism in a less poisonous political time. Reagan really made people feel it was 'morning in America,' they said. "A giant left us today," said GOP Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, who was House minority leader in the Reagan era. "Ronald Reagan had a sense of principles he believed in, and no amount of polling data or press could cause him to alter these principles," said Hyde. Ed Gillespie, chairman of a Republican Party that is now wholly modeled on Reagan's policies,...

Ronald Reagan was American's most telegenic President, and television said goodbye to him yesterday with the fondness often reserved for one of its own. All major stations and networks except Channel 4, which stayed with Arena Football and the Belmont Stakes, began saluting Reagan as soon as they got word of his death at 4:09 p.m. Much of the familiar footage showed how the former President came to be called The Great Communicator, showcasing his wit, his ease in public speaking and his reassuring grandfatherly tone. Networks also made note of his long and loving relationship with his wife, Nancy,...

Cold-war hero for defeat of communism Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was among the first world leaders yesterday to mourn Ronald Reagan, saying the conservative and charming former President will go down in history for winning the Cold War "without a shot being fired." Having once called the late President "the second most important man in my life," Thatcher issued her condolence statement last night, about two hours after the sad news was reported that Reagan had died. "President Reagan was one of my closest political — and dearest personal — friends," said Thatcher, who was also the first...

Brought star power to bear and made U.S. believe in itself Camp Liberty Bell, South Korea, 1983. Ronald Reagan is saddling up after a quick visit to the demilitarized zone, where he has just stared through goggles across the barren border between the two Koreas at a Potemkin village to the north and dismissed it as just another phony Hollywood set. Reagan expects to board his helicopter for the short return hop to Seoul. But his advance men have prepared a surprise. It turns out that the U.S. Army unit serving as his host is descended from the fabled 7th...

Aha. So it turns out that Jose Padilla is really rather not a nice person after all. Having duly filled out his Al Qaeda application("Do you have a conscience?" No. "Do you have a whit of humanity and decency?" No.), the Chicago gang punk traipsed off to terror training camp in Afghanistan, earned all his merit badges and returned to his homeland to wreak havoc. And worse. As detailed yesterday by the Department of Justice, Padilla, a U.S. citizen, is indeed the enemy combatant the government had described. A few exploding apartment buildings and hotels here, a homemade "dirty bomb"...

Last week's dire warning from Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller was deadly clear: Al Qaeda is alive and well and planning a large-scale attack in the U.S. and/or on American interests overseas this summer or fall. As we saw in this weekend's terror attack in Saudi Arabia, U.S. targets are not all that terrorists have in their sights. Al Qaeda, particularly, is determined to penetrate internal security and defense agencies in the Mideast, carry out a series of sensational attacks from Pakistan to Morocco, then exploit the mayhem that follows to topple regimes. According to intelligence...