Free Republic

I take second place to no one in my admiration for George W. Bush. But there are times when he comes out with something so obtuse, so ill thought out, that it simply grates on the brain. Remarks of the "I have gazed into Putin's soul" variety. (I gazed into Putin's soul too. I needed two weeks of electroshock to straighten me out afterward.)

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said yesterday that federal courts have endangered national security by ruling against the Bush administration on issues related to the war on terrorism. In his first public remarks since he announced Tuesday that he would resign, Ashcroft told a meeting of conservative lawyers here that court decisions limiting President Bush's powers are part of "a profoundly disturbing trend" in which the judicial branch is injecting itself into matters that should be up to the executive branch. "The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas...

GQ Magazine, in it's latest issue, details Sec. of State Colin Powell's frustration with the Bush administration, his battles with the Pentagon, his 'real' relationship with Vice President Dick Cheney, and whether he'll return for a second term. The magazine issued a press release saying the following: Secretary of State Colin Powell is exhausted, frustrated, and bitter, uncomfortable with President George W. Bush's agenda, and fatigued from his battles with the Pentagon, reports GQ magazine writer-at-large Wil S. Hylton in the June 2004 issue of GQ magazine. Hylton's exclusive article, "Casualty of War," in which he talks with Powell and...

<p>On Monday, Mr. Clinton went on the offensive. "Our paradigm now seems to be: Something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us. And if they don't, they can go straight to hell," he told a symposium sponsored by Conference Board, a New York-based nonpartisan business research group.</p>

Confused Start, Decisive End Invasion Shaped by Miscues, Bold Risks and Unexpected Successes By Rick Atkinson, Peter Baker and Thomas E. RicksWashington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, April 13, 2003; Page A01 BAGHDAD, April 12 -- It was the low point of the war for the two generals. On March 27, outside the city of Najaf, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, commander of the U.S. Army's V Corps, met with Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division. As they sat on gray folding chairs in the desert wasteland, the war seemed to be in dismal shape.The critical crossroads...