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APRIL 6--A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that President George Bush authorized him to leak information from a classified intelligence report to a New York Times reporter. Details of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's testimony were included in a court filing made yesterday by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is prosecuting Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in connection with the probe into the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. According to Fitzgerald's filing, an excerpt of which you'll find below, Libby, 55, testified in 2003 that he...

When I was a teenager, I was told that I would someday be world famous. Leaders from many countries would make pilgrimages to my vast estates to seek my advice. I was even told that I would lead a punitive expedition across the galaxy to wipe out an alien civilization that dared to threaten our planet. Of course, I returned to Earth as a conquering hero. That same evening, other teenagers around the table I was sitting at, were told they would become famous actresses, captains of industry, or sports legends. Oddly enough, no one was told they would...

WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned the continued refusal of the Justice Department to answer basic questions about the National Security Agency’s warrantless program to wiretap Americans. The Department today sent over its answers to questions about the illegal program from the majority and minority members of the House Judiciary Committee. The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office: “The Department of Justice continues to refuse to give honest answers to basic questions, such as how many Americans have had their phone calls and e-mails listened to or read by...

BERKELEY, CA—The California Patriot, Berkeley’s student-run conservative magazine, and the Berkeley College Republicans are demanding an explanation from the University of California, Berkeley, regarding a study that links childhood personality traits to political ideology. The study, which was performed by a UC Berkeley psychology professor and has been published in the Journal of Research in Personality, suggests that “whiny, insecure” children grow up to be conservatives, while “confident, resilient, self-reliant” children are more likely to become liberals, according to a recent article in The Toronto Star. The editors of The Patriot have responded with an online editorial, which states, “The...

"Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day," President Bush said recently. Another time he said, "Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free." "There are some really decent people," the president said earlier this year, "who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of health care ... for all people." Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions. When the president starts a sentence with "some say" or offers up what "some in Washington" believe, as...

The Washington Post: "President Bush should hold more news conferences. ... In his sometimes blunt, sometimes joking and sometimes unpolished way, he sounded authentic ..." (Editorial, "Mr. Bush Unvarnished," The Washington Post, 3/22/06) The Washington Post: "[T]he president clearly has not lost sight of the enormous importance of the Iraqi mission ..." (Editorial, "Mr. Bush Unvarnished," The Washington Post, 3/22/06) The Washington Post: "Mr. Bush ... hasn't lost sight of the stakes." (Editorial, "Mr. Bush Unvarnished," The Washington Post, 3/22/06) ABC's Elizabeth Vargas: "The President, really striking, though George, a balancing act in this news conference today. Realism on the...

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals. The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar...

The town of Los Gatos settled with three anti-abortion activists on Feb. 24, paying their attorneys fees and entering a permanent injunction that will allow protestors on the sidewalk adjacent to Los Gatos High School. Eight activists were holding signs depicting various facts about abortion, and were handing out literature relevant to the abortion debate on the sidewalk in front of Los Gatos High School in 2004. "Some of the signs showed babies in various stages of the development, and some showed their condition after they were subjected to the abortion procedure," said Michael Millen, attorney for the activists. Administrators...

When Lue Allen got pregnant in 1953, she was just 20 and not ready to be a parent. "I was young," she said at a news conference this morning. "I was scared. I wanted one thing. I wanted an abortion." Abortion was illegal at the time but Allen knew that if you could borrow $200 you could find somebody to do the procedure. Allen did just that. "It wasn't a back alley," she said. But it wasn't clean or safe either. Allen said she felt a tremendous sense of relief from the abortion and went on to marry and have...

Washington journalism has about it a peculiar insularity. Who gets credit for groundbreaking reporting is not important to most readers, but Washington editors often try to knock down each other's stories and want to be credited when they think they've broken a story first. I know; I've done it. So a memo from Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau that criticized The Post, leaked to a popular media news Web site Friday, was not viewed with equanimity in The Post's newsroom. snip The most serious issue was Hoyt's questioning of figures cited in a front-page story in The Post on Tuesday -- that...

Well, it has finally happened. Americans are regaining their senses, and the cycle of ignorance that has gripped this nation for the past five years is relinquishing its hold. Seeing the end in sight, the rats have begun to jump ship and retreat into their holes, along with their media pundits, Barbie dolls and think-tank experts. It seems Americans have had enough of the "fair and balanced" news and the policies that caused their mental constipation. In record time, the United States has been transformed from a free and secure nation, loved and respected by much of the world, to...

WASHINGTON -- Nothing tells you more about Hollywood than what it chooses to honor. Nominated for best foreign film is ``Paradise Now,'' a sympathetic portrayal of two suicide bombers. Nominated for best picture is ``Munich,'' a sympathetic portrayal of yesterday's fashion in barbarism: homicide terrorism. But until you see "Syriana,'' nominated for best screenplay (and George Clooney, for best supporting actor) you have no idea how self-flagellation and self-loathing pass for complexity and moral seriousness in Hollywood. "Syriana's'' script has, of course, the classic liberal tropes such as this stage direction: "The Deputy National Security Advisor, MARILYN RICHARDS, 40's, sculpted...

Actor and director George Clooney says he is proud to be denounced as unpatriotic for questioning US policy because he wanted to be on "the right side of history". Interviewed on BBC television about his latest films Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck, Clooney said that not only did he accept the right to be attacked for his views but he even relished them. Clooney, who has weathered attacks since opposing the 2003 Iraq invasion, said at one point that it was "frustrating" to be listed as a "traitor" on a set of playing cards, but he also accepted...

In a surprisingly strong Op Ed on Friday, Ted Koppel, the former "Nightline" host who is now an occasional columnist for The New York Times, argues that when it comes right down to it, the U.S. adventure in Iraq is, as some charge, "about the oil." He likened the situation to H.L. Mencken's statement that when someone says something is "not about the money" it is indeed "about the money." The same is true in this case relating to oil. While it's wrong to say that we invaded the country to take over its oil supply, Koppel writes in the...

I found the title of this DUmmie THREAD, "Can freepers be deprogrammed?" especially amusing since I just received a personal FreepMail message at the Free Republic from none other than DUmmie Doohickie. In case you don't remember DUmmie Doohickie, he was the author of some of our FAVORITE DUmmie threads called "I BELIEVE" in which he was cheerleading the DUmmie to BEEEELEEEEVE that John Kerry was going to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2005. These threads began shortly after the 2004 election and lasted until early Jan. 2005 when Doohickie took an embarrassed exit from DUmmieland but has recently...

President Bush has given the go-ahead to give a company based in the Middle-Eastern country of Dubai control of 6 United States ports. Critics in both parties say this deal leaves America less safe. What's your opinion? I trust whatever the President thinks is best for the country.16% I generally support the President, but I have concerns about how this deal could compromise our security.43% I generally don't support the President, and have concerns about how this deal could compromise our security.35% I do not think security at the 6 ports will be compromised, because the U.S. Coast Guard will...

 Little noticed in the kerfuffle over the takeover of major US ports by Dubai Ports is the key role being played by former Democratic Party leaders. Lobbying firms associated with ex-Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Madeleine Albright (Clinton’s Secretary of State) have been working (paid subscription only link) to secure approval of the purchase by Dubai. One would think that our leaders, even when out of office, would care more about their nation than their bank accounts.This hopefully will give impetus to a bill (drafted by Republican Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan) working its slow way through Congress that would bar...

RUSH: Brian in Wilmington, North Carolina, I know you're still out there, because I know you're here every day, Brian, and I know a lot of you libs are out there. Let me tell you: I think this is probably everything that you're looking for. The reason that it took so long to release details of the hunting accident -- Dick Cheney and Harry Whittington -- is that Whittington is actually dead, and it took them about eight hours to go find a double for Mr. Whittington, because he's actually brain dead. He's so injured that he's being held...

SACRAMENTO -- California regulators became the first in the nation today to designate second-hand tobacco smoke as a "toxic air contaminant,'' placing it in the same category as the poisons arsenic and benzene. The state Air Resources Board decided to target environmental tobacco smoke after evaluating studies that linked other people's smoke to increased cases of breast cancer, heart disease, asthma and low birth-weight babies. The designation will trigger investigations around the state. Air board staffers are expected to visit clusters of smokers outside buildings and other spots where smokers congregate. They want to figure out ways to reduce the...

The latest example of our friends on the Left according validity to a known hoax comes to us from Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who, in a December 22, 2005, op-ed piece in the Boston Globe, recounted the story of a college student who was rousted by two government agents because he had gone to the library in search of a copy of Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book. Two days later, the Globe reported that the student had admitted to fabricating the tale — as any sensible person would have suspected in the first place. While the senator did not respond...