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WHEN it came to protecting Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Secret Service truly had its hands full, with President George W. Bush's wild and crazy daughters doing everything in their power to escape them, a new book reveals.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Conservatives are advised to avoid this movie. This is a sequel to the successful and funny 2006 film "Night at the Museum". In both movies the premise is that a magic tablet allows the museum characters to come alive at night after sunset. However, this movie proves the old adage that quite often the sequel is not as good as the original. The movie would be bad enough even without the shots at George W. Bush. A particular galling moment is when the come alive character General George Custer, whose voice sounds...

Many years ago, my wife and I purchased our first home. It was an older house, and I was not very handy then. Whenever something needed fixing, a tradesman was required. Our first plumber was selected by chance, just someone in the phonebook. He seemed competent enough but he always did something that never sat well with me. Whenever he repaired something, he always seemed to have something bad to say about the previous craftsman. He might tell me, "This wouldn't have happened if the stupid guy used Kohler faucets," "Whoever did this didn't properly caulk inside the wall," or,...

During his two terms in office, George W. Bush stepped outside the boundaries of the Constitution and assembled an amazing toolbox of powers that greatly increased the authority of the Executive branch and the reach of the federal government. Bush expanded presidential power to, among other things, allow government agents to secretly open the private mail of American citizens; authorize government agents to secretly, and illegally, listen in on the phone calls of American citizens and read our e-mails; assume control of the federal government following a "catastrophic event"; and declare martial law. Thus, the groundwork was laid for an...

(Feb. 14) - It's no surprise to see Abraham Lincoln, the man who held the nation together when it was on the brink of collapse, atop the list of greatest American presidents. But many other presidents are judged far differently by experts than by the general public. Bill Clinton left office with a high approval rating, but a panel of writers who focus on US politics and foreign affairs at the Times, a British publication, considered him mediocre. The president who passed progressive legislation but who saddled himself with the Monica Lewinsky scandal landed at number 23. As panelist Ben...

Q -- Why did your campaign lose? A -- I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration, how have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration.

Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States because the Republican Party and John McCain handed him the presidential election on a silver platter. The Republican Party and the Bush White House walked away from Republican ideals, and they walked away from Republican values. George Bush allowed the Republican Congress to overspend in the first six years of his administration without once using the veto pen; he blindsided the conservative Republican members of Congress on many occasions, and walked away from the base of his party on immigration reform and other issues such as Medicare and No Child Left Behind....

It's tempting right now to say President Bush will go down as one of the worst presidents ever to dis-grace the White House. But is that fair, or even accurate? Historian renderings of a legacy are often at odds with fluctuating public opinion polls that gauge the heat of the moment. Take Truman. The man had a 22 percent approval rating toward the end of his presidency--due in large part to a highly unpopular Korean War--yet he's among the most popular presidents in history. I'm going to play the devil's advocate and argue that it is at least in the...

Both presidential candidates took a few days to get their bearings and talking points in order after the beginning of the wild week on Wall Street. McCain McCain's quick comment: Fire Chris Cox, Chairman of the SEC. That effort to find a convenient scapegoat misses the mark and is also unfair. Cox has responded with a ten-point rebuttal pinpointing specific SEC actions — including strengthened investor protections, targeting fraud, emergency orders against naked short-selling involving Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, "sweeping" and "landmark" enforcement actions, etc. It is understandable that McCain wants to distance himself from President Bush. That does...

David Frum on Scott McClellan's new book: George Bush got the team he deserved Posted: May 30, 2008, 3:47 PM by Marni Soupcoff David Frum Except maybe for MSNBC’s wild-eyed commentator Keith Olbermann, nobody in politics or media seems to have a good word to say for Scott McClellan, the former George W. Bush press secretary turned ferocious Bush critic. The right complains of McClellan's disloyalty. The left complains that McClellan’s change of heart arrived too late. The old Washington hands shake their heads at a press secretary writing a book at all: FDR’s and Eisenhower’s men took their secrets...

Has there ever been as much chatter among the pundits about someone as light weight, un-talented, inconsequential (and utterly predictable) as Scott McClellan? I mean, who was he again? Oh yeah, that boring, un-engaged pasty little white dude who mumbled through the daily press briefings after Ari Fleisher and before Tony Snow. I remember him now. I used to wonder how in the world it was that the President found someone so totally unimpressive to help fight his media battles. Then I remembered: McClellan was a more appropriate as Press Secretary for the New Tone President than either his predecessor...

The former Bush administration pitchman making explosive election-year charges about how the White House handled the Valerie Plame case and built the case for invading Iraq said Thursday that he went to Washington to change it and became “disillusioned” when he realized he was just a pawn in the never-ending political game.

I'm currently of the opinion the disaster that has been president Bush for the last few years (yes, I was a supporter of George till he quit being a conservative) should cause Obamanation to win. I'm all for fighting the war over there. What I'm not for is letting the current congressional majority pass whatever they want and the President not showing any leadership skills with Republicans currently in congress. RINO's like McCain have ruined the party with their descent to moderation from Regan style Republican values. Obama should win this election so the nation can see the real differences...

One hundred nine historians already nearly unanimously agree. They call the presidency of George W. Bush a "failure." The History News Network (HNN), who polled the historians, failed to name them or where they work. Wonder why? American Enterprise magazine, in 2002, examined voter registrations to determine the political affiliations of humanities professors at an assortment of colleges and universities, public and private, big and small, located in the North, South, East and West. Of those registered with a political party -- and most were -- historians overwhelmingly belong to a "party of the left" (Democratic, Green or Working Families...

The big story this morning is President Bush's remarks to the Israeli Knesset invoking the example of Hitler to warn against the appeasement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the opening segment, from Mika Brzezinski [subbing for Joe Scarborough and seen in file photo] to Willie Geist to Pat Buchanan to Mike Barnicle to David Shuster, nary a word in defense of Bush was heard, with Shuster twice referring to Bush's remarks as "grotesque." The only slight straying from Bush-bashing orthodoxy was Barnicle's observation that when he first heard of the remarks, he took them as aimed at Jimmy Carter, not Barack...

Times Executive Editor Bill Keller delivered the Hugo Young Memorial Lecture in London in November, sponsored by the liberal Guardian newspaper, and said some things to his journalistic friends he might not felt comfortable telling a more general audience. "...And I would argue that in this clattering, interconnected, dangerous world, journalism that cuts through the noise has never been needed more. We have a war going very badly in Iraq, and another one in Afghanistan where our declaration of victory looks very premature." "...Third, we are agnostic as to where a story may lead; we do not go into a...

In just two weeks, six retired U.S. Marine and Army generals have denounced the Pentagon planning for the war in Iraq and called for the resignation or firing of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who travels often to Iraq and supports the war, says that the generals mirror the views of 75 percent of the officers in the field, and probably more. This is not a Cindy Sheehan moment. This is a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the U.S. armed forces by senior officers once responsible for carrying out the orders of...

Former Army Lt. Col. James Reilley was in charge of monitoring war crimes investigations conducted by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division in the early 1970s. In 2004, he reported that the John Kerry / VVAW Winter Soldier claims were baseless; that war crimes during the Vietnam War were few and none were authorized by the chain of command. In August, Col. Reilley took an Iceland Air flight to Sweden. On the way, he opened the July/August issue of the airline's in-flight magazine to find this: SHRIMP TO THE RESCUE Casualty numbers continue to climb alarmingly. The Green Zone is...

T he Washington Post's recent series on Dick Cheney's vice presidency certainly got my attention. Having held that office myself over a quarter-century ago, I have more than a passing interest in its evolution from the backwater of American politics to the second most powerful position in our government. Almost all of that evolution, under presidents and vice presidents of both parties, has been positive -- until now. Under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it has gone seriously off track. The founders created the vice presidency as a constitutional afterthought, solely to provide a president-in-reserve should the need arise....

A civil servant and an MP's researcher have been found guilty of leaking a secret memo about talks between George Bush and Tony Blair. David Keogh, 50, from Northampton, has been found guilty of two offences under the Official Secrets Act. MP's researcher Leo O'Connor was found guilty of one Official Secrets offence. It recorded Oval Office talks between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair about Iraq in 2004, the Old Bailey was told. Sentencing was adjourned for reports........

Know our enemyMonday, February 12, 2007 Liberals everywhere are waging war on phantom threats like atmospheric CO2cc11; and insensitivity and capitalism, while ignoring the real battle to the death that has already begun. But instead of engaging the enemy combatants of Islamofascism, the left has aimed all its fire power on the Bush administration. The gathering storm is global. It is virulent, violent and unappeasable. That sword of Allah is aimed straight at you, to separate your disbelieving head from your disbelieving neck. When the Iraq Surrender Group Report came out with its recommendation to pursue "dialogue" with Syria, Sen....

To put it bluntly, I have little use for Bush-bashers. Their song is old and tired. Their mordantly indignant tirades serve to degrade, not only the office of the president, but the intellectual stature of Americans in the eyes of the world. While there is always room for genuine, thoughtful, intellectual debate, debate that supposes solutions over rhetoric, Americans have grown tolerant to the small-minded practice of Bush-bashing. If there is anything that reduces the image of Americans around the globe it is the stunted, acerbic, bullhorn mentality of America’s Fifth Column and those who join in their caustic idiom.

Bush's Iraq plan, between the lines Anthony H. Cordesman Friday, January 12, 2007 WASHINGTON President George W. Bush has presented a new strategy for the war in Iraq that he feels can reverse the country's drift toward large-scale civil war. The new plan focuses on stabilizing Baghdad by adding thousands of American troops with newly expanded powers to take on Shiite as well as Sunni rebels. It also includes a limited increase in United States forces in Anbar Province, and calls for Iraqi forces to take formal control of the security mission in November. The president was refreshingly candid, saying...

RICHMOND — An obscure new political group headed by an Iraq War veteran will begin airing television ads today that accuse Republican Sen. George Allen of voting to withhold lifesaving body armor for U.S. troops.The bluntly worded 30-second ad by VoteVets.org is significant because it's the first attack ad of this year's hotly contested Senate race between Allen and Democrat Jim Webb.It's also the first of many likely to be aired this fall not by campaigns but by so-called 527 organizations similar to 2004's anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the pro-Democrat Americans Coming Together. The ad's tone is...

by Mark Finkelstein September 2, 2006 - 19:20 I don't know about you, but by the end of the Bush-bashing festival that was the MSM's coverage of the one-year Katrina anniversary, I was about ready to climb up on my roof with a bedsheet message begging to be evacuated by helicopter. Neal Gabler also had a complaint about the Katrina anniversary coverage: there wasn't enough of it. On this evening's Fox News Watch, Gabler made his comment in the context of the panel's discussion of the John Mark Karr fiasco. Griped Gabler: "The embarrassment isn't that he wasn't guilty, the...

Lord knows I have my problems with President Bush. He taps the federal coffers like a monkey smacking the bar for another cocaine pellet in an addiction study. Some of his sentences give me the same sensation as falling backward in one of those "trust" exercises, in which you just have to hope things work out. Yes, the Iraq invasion has gone badly, and to deny this is to suggest that Bush meant for things to turn out this way, which is even crueler than saying he failed to get it right. But you know what? It's time to cut...

Bush-bashing for sport has never lacked fans in the blogosphere, but questioning the president's intelligence lately has gone mainstream. Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman and host of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," recently tossed his beanie into the ring, running a 10-minute segment titled: "Is Bush an 'Idiot'?" Scarborough wasn't calling Bush an idiot, mind you. He was just quoting that renowned American intellectual, Linda Ronstadt. Recently, Ronstadt had commented on the president's performance while attending an international summit of heads of state. No wait, my mistake, she made those comments to reporters and audiences while touring in Canada. But never mind....

``'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).'' -- ``Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll Bush-bashing for sport has never lacked fans in the blogosphere, but questioning the president's intelligence lately has gone mainstream. Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman and host of MSNBC's ``Scarborough Country,'' recently tossed his beanie into the ring, running a 10-minute segment titled: ``Is Bush an 'Idiot'?'' Scarborough wasn't calling Bush an idiot, mind you. He was just quoting that renowned American intellectual, Linda Ronstadt. Recently, Ronstadt had commented on the president's...

Former US president Jimmy Carter speaks with DER SPIEGEL about the danger posed to American values by George W. Bush, the difficult situation in the Middle East and Cuba's ailing Fidel Castro. SPIEGEL: Mr. Carter, in your new book you write that only the American people can ensure that the US government returns to the country's old moral principles. Are you suggesting that the current US administration of George W. Bush of acting immorally? Carter: There's no doubt that this administration has made a radical and unpressured departure from the basic policies of all previous administrations including those of both...

THERE’S NOTHING I like more than a Jewish joke. It’s the anti-Jewish ones I’m not so keen on. Wandering through the streets of Edinburgh during the world’s largest arts festival, you never know what sight or sound you will be bombarded with next. Half-naked men on 6ft stilts meander by, half-naked girls rush to sell you their show, troops of Japanese acrobats tumble past. But I wasn’t prepared for the verbal assault I got when I wandered into a comedy gig this week. There have always been anti- Semitic jokes. But you know times are changing when you go along...

The End of Christianity in Iraq by Glen ChancyJuly 24, 2006Christians of Iraq.ComThe news from Iraq has been especially grim of late. Daily it seems violent death is everywhere in the form of car bombings at mosques and other public facilities, ethnic cleansing carried out by militias roving about the streets seeking victims, even soldiers and police doubling as sectarian enforcers. The statistics themselves tell a grim tale. Baghdad's morgue is receiving nearly twice as many dead Iraqis each day as it did last year. In June 2005, the Baghdad morgue was receiving 700 to 800 bodies a month, or...

'MISBEGOTTEN' TIMES(NARROWNESS, MR. SULZBERGER, NOT WIDTH) PINCH'S NON-APOLOGY APOLOGY by Mia T, July 18, 2006 WAR AND TREASON AND THE NEW YORK TIMES by Mia T, December 29, 2005       inch Sulzberger scurried to the C-SPAN confessional even as the fires raged under the mammoth heap of ash and twisted steel that was once the Twin Towers and 2801 human beings. He had to make certain no one would blame The New York Times. The Times' 1996 endorsement of bill clinton1 was the problem. The endorsement, you may recall, was contingent on clinton getting a brain transplant--specifically of...

Pull out of Iraq now, congressman urges Cover-up of Haditha killings wrong, he says By Elizabeth Baier South Florida Sun-Sentinel Posted June 25 2006 American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to a crowd of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon. Murtha was the guest speaker at a town hall meeting organized by U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Miami, at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus. Meek's mother, former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, was also on the panel. War veterans,...

Country radio nixes Dixie Chicks NASHVILLLE, Tenn., May 22 (UPI) -- It appears the war U.S. country radio stations mounted against the politically outspoken Dixie Chicks has not abated in the least. The band is promoting "Taking the Long Way," its first album since Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 she was ashamed to be from the same state as U.S. President George Bush. The comment sparked a radio boycott of the group's music. Although the album hits stores Tuesday, the first two singles from the album are not getting widespread airplay, Billboard.com reported Monday. The first single,...

WASHINGTON - President Bush plans to address the nation Monday night on the immigration debate, trying to build momentum for legislation that could provide millions of illegal immigrants a chance to become American citizens. The White House said it was seeking time from television networks for the president's remarks. "This is crunch time," Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary said Friday at his first off-camera, or informal, briefing. On Thursday, Senate leaders reached a deal to revive a broad immigration bill that had appeared doomed just several weeks ago. Key to the agreement is who will be negotiating...

Mentioning "censorship" to artists is like saying "milk" to the lactose intolerant, but sometimes you can get them to sneak a sip provided it's to stave off osteoporosis and/or make headlines. It seems like only yesterday that Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones were hesitant, but agreed to, have their Super Bowl halftime show very briefly censored, with the microphone volume being lowered at the appropriate lyrical moment during two songs. The networks, still reeling from Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" a couple years ago, didn't want to hear from any more of us who had our old-fashioned sense of decency...

Hundreds of people filled Tampa's courthouse square Sunday to mark the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, as thousands did the same throughout the country. "After three years, it's a failure," said protestor Mabili Ajani. "It's a clear and utter failure." That belief was shared by many of the anti-war protesters, and some sounded off about how to get out of Iraq. "We're going to have to clean the mess up," said Michael White. "Somebody's going to have to. We need to get our children out of harm's way. Strategic withdrawal is where it's at." The...

A high school social studies teacher who was put on leave after comparing President Bush's State of the Union address to speeches made by Adolf Hitler defended his lecture on Tuesday, saying he was trying to encourage students to think. "My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society," Jay Bennish said on NBC's "Today Show." Bennish is on paid leave from Overland High School in suburban Aurora, Colo., while Cherry Creek School District investigates whether his Feb. 1 lecture violated a policy requiring that balancing viewpoints...

The Associated Press reached a new level of incompetence, and the "news" industry they serve doesn’t seem to care. If you want political opinion, you’ll find it in Associated Press dispatches. If you want news, you might have to read conservative opinion columns. On February 22nd, Walter Williams, a Townhall.com columnist, scooped the mainstream media. Williams reported that high school teacher Jay Bennish lectured his geography class stating: 1) "[President Bush’s State of the Union Speech] sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say." 2) "Bush is threatening the whole planet." 3) "[The] U.S. wants to keep...

COLORADO high-school sophomore Sean Allen couldn't convince his father that his geography teacher was as over-the-top as he contended. So Allen taped one of his teacher's rants on his MP3 player. Too bad for Jay Bennish: His 20 minute lecture ended up on talk radio. As aired on Mike Rosen's show, Bennish said President Bush talks like Hitler: "I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same," but that the two share "eerie similarities." Peruvians and Iranians arguably have "a right to bomb North Carolina" because the state grows tobacco. On Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda operatives were...

by Mark Finkelstein March 7, 2006 Turns out the real culprit in the Colorado kerfluffle over the teacher who compared Pres. Bush to Hitler is . . . the student who complained about it. Just ask Matt Lauer. Interviewing teacher Jay Bennish this morning, Lauer laid out this sympathetic scenario: Lauer: "The family here, the student's family, didn't go to the school board with this tape." Bennish: "They never contacted me." Lauer: "They shopped it around to conservative media outlets and finally released it to one and created an uproar. On the tape you can hear Sean Allen [the student...

Student 'starting to get crucified,' his dad says By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News March 4, 2006 Sean Allen's dad says he isn't handling this week's media attention and threats as well as his son. "Sean has handled this way better than his father," Jeff Allen, Sean's dad, said in an interview with Sean Hannity, syndicated talk show host with Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. "To read some of these e-mails that are attacking Sean is just devastating," he said. "It looks like the tactic is to turn it around, to make it about Sean and not about the...

The reason Americans don't complain about an erosion of Rights could be they don't care enough to know what they are to begin with. The public largely does not care about the Patriot Act nor what the fuss is over at the NSA. Pro or Con on these issues, you cannot discuss them intelligently without knowledge. See: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2006-03-02T000634Z_01_N01474965_RTRUKOC_0_US-LIFE-FREEDOMS.xml The public would likely be happy if we threw out the Bill Of Rights and simply replaced it with two rights they all seem to care about: 1. The "right" to own pets; 2. The "right" to drive a car Huh D'oh--almost...

Some say Dick Cheney is toast. He's too hot to handle, throw him over the side if he won't drop himself into the waves. Don't look now, but that isn't water surrounding the Bush ship of state. It's gasoline. Have you ever noticed how on a scale of one to 10, every untoward event in the life of the Bush presidency goes straight to a 10? The Abu Ghraib photos? A 10 forever. Dick Cheney catching a hunting buddy with some birdshot? An instant 10. The Bush National Guard story? Total 10. How can it be that each downside event...

This past Monday, CBS, otherwise known as See? BS!, Al-Jazeera West, and the Corrupt Broadcasting System, proved once again that it is nothing but a shameless propaganda tool of the Democrat party, by releasing the results of a poll it rigged... uh... conducted recently showing that President Bush's popularity rating has plummeted to an all-time low of 34 percent. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

 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...

DUBAI — The UAE and Palestine have agreed to the establishment of a new joint investment company, to be announced within a few weeks, according to Mazen Sinokrot, the Palestinian Minister of Economy, who has recently visited the UAE. Speaking exclusively to Khaleej Times, Sinokrot said, "The purpose of establishing such venture is to explore the investment opportunities in Palestine, and to boost the economic ties with the UAE. Further we are planning as well an Initial Public Offering for the company in the UAE." "We have already started with the first step towards establishing this company by talking to...

Al Gore has become somewhat of an American idol this past few years. After his departure from Washington in 2000 the ex-presidential candidate has switch-backed across the county giving thundering sermons to over-flowing auditoriums and town halls. He’s railed against the Republican agenda in Iraq, denouncing President Bush and the neocons at every turn. Gore is fast becoming the antiwar celebrity du jour, capturing the imaginations of many who fear the vicious Bush cartel. “Normally, we Americans lay the facts on the table, talk through the choices before us and make a decision. But that didn't really happen with this...

Just as they did following the memorial service for Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002, Republican operatives and their acolytes in the media are now claiming that there was something inappropriate about the manner of how those who best knew Coretta Scott King mourned her passing. So great is the determination to protect George Bush from even the mildest expressions of dissent that commentators rushed to television studios Tuesday even before the service for King was over to denounce former President Jimmy Carter, the Rev. Joseph Lowery and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin for expressing sentiments not usually heard by this president....

It’s amazing that President Bush continues to pretend the federal government has no responsibility for illegal immigration and its effects. The 2007 federal budget he presented proposes killing the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program that helps states pay for jailing illegal immigrants. That’s nothing new. Bush has done the same thing in past years. It’s just amazing that at this point, with all the attention illegal immigration has received lately, the president continues to take the view that it’s individual states’ and communities’ tough luck that Washington can’t or won’t come up with comprehensive reform of the nation's broken immigration...