Free Republic

Looking at the table of election recommendations published in today's edition of The Times-Picayune, I was surprised to see the newspaper has endorsed David Vitter for Governor. The T-P isn't exactly a right-wing rag. The only other newspaper in the city is the New Orleans edition of The Advocate. I don't know if an endorsement was made, but the paper is owned by Democrat businessman John Georges.

New Orleans cops say they got orders authorizing them to shoot looters in the chaos after Hurricane Katrina actual titleIn the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the New Orleans Police Department. It's not clear how broadly the order was communicated. Some officers who heard it say they refused to carry it out. Others say they understood it as a fundamental change in the standards on deadly force, which allow police to fire only to protect themselves or others from what appears...

The path to the sweeping health care act signed by President Barack Obama Tuesday was long, convoluted and fractious. The product is massive and complicated. But the premise behind the Affordable Health Care for America Act is simple. As the president noted during the signing ceremony in the East Room at the White House: "Everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health." They should, and a nation as bountiful as ours should make sure that everybody does. The act signed Tuesday is imperfect, but it provides vital benefits to tens of millions of Americans. The bill...

President Obama is right: This nation shouldn't allow tens of millions of its citizens to be left without health care. Those Americans suffer physically and financially, and the country is diminished because of it. He is also right that it is time for our leaders to act. As the economic downturn leaves more and more people without health insurance, the well-being of thousands of families is eroding week to week. The president made that case persuasively in his address to Congress and the nation Wednesday. It was high time that he stepped in. After a fractious August, during which both...