Free Republic

HOUSTON — J. Mark Metts, a 60-year-old partner at one of this city’s prestigious law firms, had never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate until 2016. Now he and some of his neighbors in the moneyed River Oaks enclave of Houston are about to oppose a Republican once again, to register their disapproval of President Trump. “With Congress not really standing up to Trump, this election is becoming a referendum,” Mr. Metts said, explaining why he would no longer support the re-election of Representative John Culberson, an eight-term Republican. Mr. Culberson is now running roughly even with the Democratic candidate,...

Steve Jobs, Apple’s showman nonpareil, provided the first public glimpse of the iPhone last week — gorgeous, feature-laden and pricey. While following the master magician’s gestures, it was easy to overlook a most disappointing aspect: like its slimmer iPod siblings, the iPhone’s music-playing function will be limited by factory-installed “crippleware.” If “crippleware” seems an unduly harsh description, it balances the euphemistic names that the industry uses for copy protection. Apple officially calls its own standard “FairPlay,” but fair it is not. The term “crippleware” comes from the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit, Melanie Tucker v. Apple Computer Inc., that is...

~snip~ The decision by the lawyers, working under former Attorney General John Ashcroft, was disclosed in the final report of the independent prosecutor, David M. Barrett, which was issued Thursday. Mr. Barrett's investigation of Mr. Cisneros, the longest independent counsel inquiry in history, concluded that there was a possible cover-up by Clinton administration officials at the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service. ~snip~ "Barrett's allegations of a cover-up are nothing short of laughable, given that the Bush administration was in charge for the majority of his investigation, and it's clear he's simply making excuses to justify his expensive and...

President Bush made it clear last week that he sees no quick fixes to the nation's energy woes. The problem has been long in coming, the argument goes, and so will the solutions. But if history is any guide, there is one thing he could do immediately: bring back the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit. It has been done before. Along with record oil and gasoline prices, improvements in fuel efficiency and a lasting economic recession, speed limits helped curb fuel consumption for the first time in American postwar history between 1974 and 1984. Of course, energy eventually became cheap again,...