Free Republic

The nation obviously has been focused very heavily on terrorism for the last three years. Unfortunately, the overwhelming attention paid to foreign terrorist threats has tended to make people complacent about homegrown, domestic terrorism. Those living in the Washington, DC area got a wake-up call on this last week, when an apparent group of environmental terrorists torched a housing development under construction in nearby Charles County, MD. Law enforcement officials have not yet determined who the perpetrators were and it is conceivable that simple vandalism or other motives were at work. But the evidence strongly suggests eco-terrorism. The development has...

Although conservatives complain loudly and often about liberal bias in the mass media, the truth is that one is far more likely to read a conservative perspective in The New York Times than hear it from a college professor. At least the Times publishes an occasional conservative on its op-ed page. At many universities, just finding a Republican anywhere on the faculty is problematic.  Two recent studies by Santa Clara University economist Daniel B. Klein prove my point. In one study, he looked at party registration of the faculty at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. He...

POLICYTax Advice for Mr. Bush: Consider the VAT The logic of a value-added tax is compelling and may soon be overwhelming. FORTUNE Wednesday, December 1, 2004 By Bruce Bartlett President Bush has pushed through some delightful changes in the tax code over the past four years: lower income tax rates, rebates, and increased business depreciation allowances, to name a few. It's been great. Except for one thing: When you consider those measures as a whole, they don't make much sense. Bush's tax policy--although "policy" may be stretching the meaning of the word--is a haphazard mess. What's scary is that the...

On Tuesday, the Public Broadcasting Service ran a scathing attack on Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, on its "Frontline" series. The title of the program was, "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Although never stated explicitly, it is clear from the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the company that the answer clearly is "no." I watched this program with special interest. In fact, it was the first PBS program I'd seen in some time. I'd stopped watching shows like "Frontline" long ago because of their heavy liberal bias. But I thought perhaps this one would be different because I had been extensively...

Government-Funded PBS Fails to Understand Capitalism, Blasts Wal-Mart On Tuesday, the Public Broadcasting Service ran a scathing attack on Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, on its “Frontline” series. The title of the program was, “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” Although never stated explicitly, it is clear from the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the company that the answer clearly is “no.” I watched this program with special interest. In fact, it was the first PBS program I’d seen in some time. I’d stopped watching shows like Frontline long ago because of their heavy liberal bias. But I thought perhaps this one...

A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT'S CREATIVE WRITINGJust A Coincidence The New York Times Publishes Suskind Hit Piece On Same Day They Endorse Kerry?_____________________________________________________________SUSKIND DOESN'T ALWAYS GET HIS FACTS STRAIGHTSuskind Piece In New York Times Largely Based On Anonymous Sources And Second Hand Reports. Mr. SUSKIND: "It's not my analysis. It's the analysis largely of Republicans who cooperated with the – the [New York Times] story. What did they say?" MURRAY: "But no names. No names. Mr. SUSKIND: "Bruce Bartlett – Bruce Bartlett's in the lead of the story." MURRAY: "He's not in the administration." Mr. SUSKIND: "Well, but he talks to a...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 17, 2004 Without a Doubt By RON SUSKIND ruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion. ''Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett said, ''I think a light has gone off for people...

One of the biggest problems that John Kerry has is that he is still an enigma to most people. We all know more than we want about his service in Vietnam, but very little about what he has done between then and now. In particular, his 20-year Senate career is a blank. For this reason, I found of great interest the new book by former Senate staffer Winslow T. Wheeler, The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security. Wheeler spent 31 years working on national defense issues for both Republican and Democratic senators. The main point of his...

A newspaper’s prime real estate is the space on page one, above the fold. This is where it highlights the most important stories of the day. Usually, the news itself dictates what will occupy a paper’s most important space. So when a paper turns this territory over to a politically charged story that is not time-sensitive, it is sending an important message to its readers about what it wants them to know. Consequently, it is revealing that the Washington Post devoted half the space on its Sept. 20 page one above the fold to an advertisement for John Kerry. It...

I know many New York Times reporters and have always found them to be very good at their jobs, interested only in getting the story and getting it right. One that I don't know is Timothy Egan, who confirms most conservatives' perception of the Times as little more than a conduit for Democratic Party press releases.  On Aug. 28, Egan published an article in the Times titled, "Economic Squeeze Plaguing Middle-Class Families." I know that reporters don't write the headlines, but in this case it accurately describes the content of the article. Unfortunately, the content is deeply flawed. Indeed, it...

ATTENTION COLORADO VOTERS - IMPORTANT BALLOT QUESTION COULD AFFECT NATIONAL ELECTION) Still stung by George Bush's victory over Al Gore in the Electoral College four years ago, Democrats in Colorado have found a way to give John Kerry at least four electoral votes even if he loses the state's popular vote. Had this new voting system been in place in 2000, it would have been just enough to push Gore over the top. As almost everyone knows, presidents are not elected by popular vote in this country. Technically, electors voting in the Electoral College elect them. This year, that vote...

A National Sales Tax No Vote The rates would be vastly higher than what you might suspect. House Speaker Dennis Hastert created a flurry of excitement in Republican circles the other day when it was reported that he is proposing the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service in his new book. This would be accomplished by eliminating all existing federal taxes and replacing them with a national retail sales tax. There is no indication of what tax rate Speaker Hastert thinks would be necessary to replace all federal revenue. A current proposal by Rep. John Linder (R., Ga.) says that...

The Problem With Bashing The Rich August 2, 2004 The clear implication of the Democrats' message is that the rest of us would somehow be better off if the rich were worse off ... they've already received their wish. Why are they still complaining? (National Review Online) This column from National Review Online was written by Bruce Bartlett. A key theme of the Kerry- Edwards campaign is "us-versus-them," where "us" includes the poor and middle class and "them" indicates the greedy rich. Edwards famously characterized this dichotomy as "two Americas" during his run for the Democratic nomination. The clear implication...

A key theme of the Kerry- Edwards campaign is “us-versus-them,” where “us” includes the poor and middle class and “them” indicates the greedy rich. Edwards famously characterized this dichotomy as “two Americas” during his run for the Democratic nomination. The clear implication of the Democrats’ message is that the rest of us would somehow be better off if the rich were worse off. Yet according to a July 29 New York Times report, they’ve already received their wish. Why are they still complaining? According to the report, the wealthy were decimated by the stock market collapse that began in 2000....

A key element of the John Kerry-John Edwards campaign is an us-versus-them theme, where “us” are the poor and middle class and “them” are the greedy rich. Edwards famously characterized this dichotomy as “Two Americas” during his run for the Democratic nomination. The clear implication of the Democrats’ message is that the rest of us would somehow be better off if the rich were worse off. Yet according to a July 29 New York Times report, they have gotten exactly their wish. So why are they still complaining? According to the report, the wealthy were decimated by the stock market...

Last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris issued a new report on the underground economy. This is only the latest study showing a large fraction of employment and production in major countries as well as developing nations is off the books, unrecorded in national accounts and untaxed by governments.     According to the report, the underground economy varies from 11/2 percent of gross domestic product in the United Kingdom to almost half in the Kyrgyz Republic. The OECD does not present data for the United States, but there are much data showing it is a growing problem...

I had an interesting experience earlier this month. I wrote an article for the New York Times on Bill Clinton's economic record. I concluded that, looking only at this aspect of his presidency, he wasn't so bad. In many respects, he was better than George W. Bush has been. Reading this, a number of commentators mistakenly thought I now think Mr. Clinton was a good president. This is a misreading of the point I was trying to make. I simply recited the facts. The budget went from deficit to surplus on Mr. Clinton's watch, and lower spending played a key...

I've always thought that the minimum wage was perfect liberal economics, in the sense that it perfectly encapsulates the liberal philosophy. Liberals see a problem: workers with low wages. Their solution: pass a law requiring those wages to be increased. What could be simpler? The problem, of course, is that someone has to pay those higher wages, and the money doesn't come from the tooth fairy. The unstated assumption of minimum wage advocates is that businesses employing low-wage workers are highly profitable. Therefore, the only effect of a higher minimum wage will be to cut back business profits. It is...

A new poll from the Pew Research Center has raised again the issue of liberal bias in the media. A growing body of academic research at top universities supports it. Unfortunately, those in the major media still don't get it and are unlikely to change their behavior, resulting in further declines in ratings and circulation. Liberal bias is a tiresome subject, I know. We have been hearing about it for at least 30 years. Although those who work in the media continue to deny it, they are having a harder and harder time explaining why so many viewers, readers and...

A Taxing Experience The stars are aligning for a tax increase. In a recent column, I predicted that President Bush will likely be forced into a budget deal involving higher taxes some time after next year's election because of rising interest rates. Some of my friends thought I was endorsing such an action. I was not. But my experience in Washington over the last 25 years left me no choice but to come to this conclusion. The stars are aligning for a tax increase and I think being forewarned means being forearmed. Peter Wallison, who was White House counsel to...