Free Republic

The other day I came out of my short retirement due to yet another Bush flagrant abuse of power. We decided that we would walk from Atlanta to DC to gather a people’s movement for humanity.

Just when the dust was beginning to settle following President Bush's latest assault on common sense, in which he accused conservatives of "spreading fear" by being honest about amnesty, Senator John McCain decided that fear mongering was not such a bad tactic after all. In fact, McCain decided that fear mongering was essential in trying to sell his amnesty snake oil to a skeptical and increasingly suspicious public. On June 2, McCain rolled out his fear-based defense of amnesty on the campaign trail in Le Mars, Iowa. Responding to a question about deportation of illegal aliens, McCain delivered the following...

Lately, there has been a growing movement on Free Republic to support the Presidential candidacy of Ron Paul. His supporters claim that he is the only true conservative candidate, and that Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Fred Thompson, etc. are not conservatives. While Paul may have some good ideas regarding domestic issues, his foreign policy ideas are downright dangerous. Here are ten questions for him that I would like to see answered.

Lately, there has been a growing movement on Free Republic to support the Presidential candidacy of Ron Paul. His supporters claim that he is the only true conservative candidate, and that Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Fred Thompson, etc. are not conservatives. While Paul may have some good ideas regarding domestic issues, his foreign policy ideas are downright dangerous. Here are ten questions for him that I would like to see answered. 1. AFGHANISTAN We all know your position on Iraq. But what is your position on the war in Afghanistan? Do you demand an immediate withdrawal of all troops there?...

John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002 after weighing the political ramifications and being told by his future campaign manager that he would never be elected president in 2004 unless he sided with President Bush on the issue, according to a forthcoming book by Mr. Kerry's former strategist. The book by veteran Democratic Party strategist Robert Shrum, titled "No Excuses," paints a portrait of an often-dysfunctional Kerry presidential campaign in which senior strategists clashed with each other, the Boston Globe reports. An advance copy of the memoir of Mr. Shrum's years in politics, slated for...

LONG-STANDING rumours that the former French president Jacques Chirac holds a secret multi-million-euro bank account in Japan appear to have been confirmed by files seized from the home of a senior spy. Papers seized by two investigating magistrates from General Philippe Rondot, a former head of the DGSE, France's intelligence service, show Mr Chirac opened an account in the mid-1990s at Tokyo Sowa Bank, credited with the equivalent of £30 million. It is not known where the money came from, nor whether it is connected to various kick-back scandals to which Mr Chirac's name has been linked over the past...

Since February 2005, I have been writing this column in the Jerusalem Post every other week. The talkbacks to my articles which also appear on jpost.com are consistently angry, aggressive, and opposed to almost everything I write. The responses to my repeated calls for taking steps toward peace with our neighbors have been complete rejection. The basis of opposition comes from those who question the very existence of the Palestinian people. Others, who might be willing to recognize that Palestinians do exist, are not wiling to accept the reality of their presence on any part of the Land of Israel....

May 6, 2007 I am proud to be a resident of the great state of Nevada. I am ashamed to be represented in the U.S. Senate by the less than "Honorable Harry Reid." Though it wasn't unusual for Sen. Reid to make inflammatory statements before the Democrats became the majority party in Congress, now it happens so often that one could almost set their watch by it. Since November he pledged full funding for the military, then it was full funding with conditions, now he has threaten no funding. Harry which is it? Do you support the men and women...

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) said Thursday the war in Iraq is "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops. The bleak assessment was the sharpest yet from Reid, who has vowed to send President Bush legislation calling for combat to end next year. Reid said he told Bush on Wednesday that he thought the war could not be won through military force and only through political, economic and diplomatic means. "I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and...

The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday. "I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid said, on the same day US President George W. Bush was giving a speech at an Ohio town hall meeting defending the war on terror.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the United States should pull out of Iraq within one year and work with Iraq's neighbors and Europe to resolve the crisis. Villepin, in a speech Friday at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government on Friday, said the United States' true strength "isn't its army." The United States in the 20th century constructed an economic and cultural model "and forged an ideal of modernity that inspired the admiration of the rest of the world," he said. "For us you represented the camp of freedom. You were the guarantors of...

BAGHDAD Many of the American soldiers trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don't appear to be looking for reinforcements. They say a surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea. President Bush is considering increasing the number of troops in Iraq and embedding more U.S. advisers in Iraqi units. White House advisers have indicated Bush will announce his new plan for the war before his State of the Union address Jan. 23. In dozens of interviews with soldiers of the Army's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment as they patrolled the streets of eastern Baghdad,...

Blair on Islam: Standard-Bearer of Tolerance From the desk of The Brussels Journal Wed, 2006-12-27 08:43 A quote from Tony Blair in Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007 To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is. I write with great humility as a member of another faith. As an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, much as reformers attempted to do with the Christian church centuries later. The Koran is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and far...

We're not "not winning." We've lost. So declares Bush critic Frank Rich in Sunday runs of the NEW YORK TIMES. MORE Taking it all the way, this time, Rich writes: "The actual reality is that we have lost in Iraq." "The Iraq-Vietnam parallels at this juncture are striking," Rich explains, in an op-ed he has titled: "THE SUNSHINE BOYS CAN'T SAVE IRAQ." Rich declares: "As bad as things may seem now, they can yet become worse, and not just in Iraq. "The longer we pretend that we have not lost there, the more we risk losing other wars we still...

Washington – Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts desperately distorting Kerry’s comments about President Bush to divert attention from their disastrous record: “If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but...

Dear Rush: Pardon my French, but you’re full of s***! As I listened to your show last week, you chose to criticize and attack conservative Americans like myself who feel the Republican Party does not deserve to win in November. Rush, since when did you become such a shill for the GOP? Choosing the party over the base is a very disappointing move to this long time listener. I’m very disappointed in you, Rush Limbaugh, you’ve lost touch with the reality that is life for the common man in America. I heartily recommend you take pause and reconsider your programming...

'Racist' transport poster pulled September 17, 2006 RACISM complaints have forced Transperth to withdraw taxpayer-funded ads showing a gorilla wearing a fez. The Public Transport Authority confirmed that the campaign, which cost about $7000 and depicted an ape wearing what is sometimes considered an Islamic cap, was stopped after three complaints. "The gorilla first appeared on July 22. We did not receive any feedback from the public until this week, when three complaints were lodged," PTA spokesman David Hynes said.

Leading French presidential hopeful sneers at Bush's 'axis of evil' 7 minutes ago France's leading candidate for the presidency, Segolene Royal, described US President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" as simplistic and the invasion of Iraq as a mistake. "Preventive wars aggravate the problems they presume to tackle. Only George Bush could think that the world is safer since the occupation of Iraq," she told more than 2,000 members of her Socialist Party in this eastern town. "In this world, neither simplism -- such as the theory of an 'axis of evil' -- nor fear are good advisors," she...

There they go again. Hoping for a reprise of the 2002 and 2004 elections, when they rolled over Democrats by claiming they were soft on terrorism, leading Republicans are once again portraying the invasion of Iraq as brilliant, denouncing their critics as traitors and claiming anything less than enthusiastic support for "staying the course" is tantamount to saddling up with al-Qaida. Recently, GOP heavyweights used the victory of anti-war political novice Ned Lamont over three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) in last week's Democratic primary — Lieberman remains a staunch defender of the war — to portray the Democrats...

July 27, 2006 -- WHEN I visited Baghdad in March, there was no civil war. There is no civil war in Iraq today. But it's beginning to look as if there might be one tomorrow. Something vital has changed. In Baghdad. [snip] We helped make this mess. Instead of relentlessly destroying terrorists and insurgents, we tried to wage war gently to please the media. We always let the bad guys off the ropes - and apologized when they showed the press their rope burns. We passed up repeated chances to kill Moqtada al-Sadr and break his Mahdi Army militia. We...