Free Republic

Hillary Clinton hasn't publicly conceded the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama, of course. But I have seen a significant new piece of evidence indicating that she has given up, that her actions show she is no longer acting primarily to win the election, but rather to position herself better if she loses. (Psychologically, her closing speech last night has been widely discussed as possibly hinting at the same thing.) What's the news? She has sent out invitations to Massachusetts supporters that she will be in Boston this Sunday (Feb 24), holding a fundraiser dinner (a $5,000 per table “Conversation with...

After people attacked the Bush Administration for invading Iraq, because of a lack of WMDs, saying "Bush lied," it was pointed out that his position on WMDs was the same as that of the CIA and most other intelligence agencies, and that CIA head George Tenet had called it a "slam dunk" case. Now Tenet admits he said that, but he is also claiming that people put the whole onus of the war on his shoulders, despite the fact that there were 23 casus belli. Contrary to Tenet, no one in the Bush camp has claimed or implied that Tenet...

I don’t know whether Libby was intentionally false and misleading in his testimony, but it seems clear to me that (contrary to several commentators) the counts against him do in fact depend on the discrepancies in memory between Libby and the various reporters, told well after the fact, and not any discrepancies between Libby’s testimony and the well-established timeline of when Libby learned about Wilson’s wife. Anyone who wants to argue about what Paragraph 32(a)(ii) in the indictment means should instead be looking at later (page 18) in the indictment, at (a selection of) Libby’s actual “perjurious” testimony, not at...

The European Union's (EU) resumption of arms sales to China "is a dangerous development that runs counter to the advance of liberty and threatens U.S. security interests, as well as those of Japan and Taiwan," charges Rep. Henry Hyde, R-IL. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Thursday, Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee disputed the EU's contention that the arms embargo against China is no longer warranted on human-rights grounds. Hyde scoffed at the claim, noting, "The many Chinese citizens who remain in prison 15 years later for activities related to Tiananmen might feel differently." "The Communist Party...

Nevada to Bush, accorsing to Fox, with 100% reporting. So even a faithless Elector can't throw it now.

Was anyone watching the McClellan (White House) press conference yesterday (Feb 10)? Does anyone know which reporter asked this? (I doubt even a Fox or Washington Times reporter would ask such an awesome question.) Question: Since there have been so many questions about what the President was doing over 30 years ago, what is it that he did after his honorable discharge from the National Guard? Did he make speeches alongside Jane Fonda, denouncing America's racist war in Vietnam? Did he testify before Congress that American troops committed war crimes in Vietnam? And did he throw somebody else's medals at...

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003 12:30 p.m. EDT Malkin: Tom Ridge, Where Were You? Seething over Homeland Security tsar Tom Ridge's months-long failure to end travel programs that allowed foreigners to fly to the U.S. without visas, before finally suspending them, sharp-tongued columnist Michelle Malkin has a question for Tom Ridge in her latest column: "Why did it take so bloody long?" She also wonders why Ridge has not put a permanent end to the programs, instead of merely putting them on hold. Says Malkin: "The visa is supposed to be our government's best method for keeping out foreign menaces. Law-enforcement...

Earth Worshippers Cause Death in Space By Hannes Hacker Ayn Rand Institute | July 11, 2003 Now that a dramatic new test has confirmed that a piece of thermal insulation flaking off of space shuttle Columbia's external tank during launch was the most likely cause of its destruction during reentry, the typical second-guessing in the press has focused on NASA engineers, asking: "What did Mission Control know, and when did they know it?" Somehow, NASA engineers should have guessed about the damage done to Columbia's thermal tiles and pulled an Apollo 13-style rabbit out of their hat. The implication is...

Debka HEADLINES Last Updated on April 4, 2003, 11:07 PM (GMT+02:00) Iraqi TV shows Saddam Hussein - or his double - visiting bombed residential areas of Baghdad Friday and being greeted by apparently spontaneous crowds Intelligence analysts suggest man on street not same as man in earlier address over Iraqi TV. Absence of bomb damage could mean street scenes shot earlier. Iraqi information minister Mohammed al-Saeef threatened “non-conventional” action against US troops at Baghdad airport Friday night. Asked if he meant WMD, he said no. There will be martyrdom operations from which no one will survive. Shortly after "non-conventional" threat...

I just saw on Fox people speculating on why the power is out in Baghdad, given that CentCom says we didn't do it. The speculation was that maybe it's for cover so Saddam's men can massacre the Shiites in East Baghdad, and blame the U.S. Perhaps. But it's at least as likely-seeming to me that it's merely so the population of Baghdad won't see or hear on the radio that the city is closely surrounded, something that their Information Minister scumbag was denying just this morning. Once the people see it's all over, they're more likely to start killing the...

The German paper Die Zeit has reported that the UN inspectors in Cyprus blame French, German and Russian appeasement for necessitating the war! Translation: The Mediterranean waves lap against the narrow sand beach in front of the Flamingo Beach Hotel. In front of the plain tourist hotel's entrance in Larnaka on Cyprus, bored policemen stand with their submachine guns dangling at the hip. The UN weapons inspection team is staying here, an hour and a half west of Baghdad by plane, after its hasty departure from Iraq. In the lobby, CNN war reports run 24 hours a day. For three...

I know we all have reason to be skeptical of Debka, but this is interesting if true: Away from the main arena, a small yet illuminating scene played out just across the Iraqi border Monday morning. Syria complained that a stray American missile had struck a bus killing five civilians and injuring ten.According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the only true fact in this terse account was that the bus was Syrian. The missile was no stray. It was deliberately fired from an F-15 fighter-bomber at a bus carrying armed Palestinian volunteers to join up with Iraqi forces, in order to...

OAK BROOK, Ill. (Reuters) - Fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. MCD.N , said on Friday that it would close about 175 restaurants worldwide and will miss its 2002 earnings estimate as it continues to struggle with underperforming sales in the U.S. amid stiff competition in the fast-food business. The company said it will cut 400 to 600 jobs. The actions will reduce fourth-quarter earnings by $350 million to $425 million, the company said.

Zap! Pow! The bad guys are dead. And they never knew what hit them. Living his presidency like Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, George Bush etched another notch in his gun butt this week, blowing away six "terrorists" in Yemen's desert. Their car was incinerated by a Hellfire missile, fired by a CIA unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone. Dealing out death via remote-controlled flying robots could be the spooks' salvation after the September 11 and Afghan intelligence flops. It makes the agency look useful. It is quick and bodybag-free. It is new wave hi-tech, a 21st century equivalent of James...

Now that the Senate is run by Republicans, I say it's time to take revenge on perhaps the two most obnoxious U.S. Senators; both, as it happens, from Vermont: turncoat Jim Jeffords and Judiciary obstructor Patrick Leahy. Now, I'm not saying we should send in troops to rape and loot their state. Or even that Vermont shouldn't get what should be coming to them like any other state (e.g., highway funds). But why should we maintain a Socialist scheme that was created merely to subsidize Vermont's dairy farmers? I say the Senate should insist on totally eliminating the Dairy Compact....

The Republicans took back the Senate this year, which is good enough for them in and of itself. The fact that they did this mid-term of the first term of a Republican Presidency is even better. But what’s best of all for the Republicans is the fact that they did this while defending 20 Senate seats this year, while the Democrats were only defending 14 seats (counting Wellstone’s recently emptied seat). Republican success refutes the myth of this being a “50/50 nation” – Republicans would have lost a couple seats in a nation evenly divided between the parties. But 2002’s...

UT frat suspended over incident Complaints about blackface episode bring action A University of Tennessee fraternity has been suspended because of an incident last week in which white members painted their faces to look like the black pop group The Jackson Five. The national office of Kappa Sigma has suspended its UT chapter, which means the fraternity "no longer has standing as a registered student organization and is suspended from participating in university activities, such as Homecoming," according to a statement issued Wednesday by UT Vice President and Provost Loren Crabtree. Fraternity members couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, but...

I just heard California Rep. Pete Stark say (I think on the House floor): “You know the President wants blood. The president wants war, that’s why we’re going to do this.” Apart from Stark’s general wrong-headedness, we have him pretending to be a mind-reader, and applying the worst possible motivation to President Bush (worse even than, “it’s all for oil”). Imagine if a similar interpretation were given to Stark and other opponents of Bush’s actions against Iraq: “You know that Pete Stark (Ted Kennedy, etc.) wants to see American blood. The self-hating appeasers want us to die in a nuclear...

<p>Bob Torricelli was missing in action.</p> <p>Locked in a heated re-election bid and facing mounting questions about his ethics, the senior senator from New Jersey was expected at a Hoboken Arts Festival last Sunday afternoon.</p> <p>He never showed.</p> <p>Torricelli was at his New Brunswick headquarters, reviewing results of an internal poll tracking his re-election prospects. The news was grim. Torricelli's support was collapsing, and he trailed by double digits.</p>

Trial run Jacob Sullum September 20, 2002 The federal government recently charged six men from Lackawanna, N.Y., with providing material support to Al Qaeda by undergoing training at one of the network's camps in Afghanistan. There, according to prosecutors, they received indoctrination in terrorism, a pep talk from Osama bin Laden, and instruction in the use of assault rifles, handguns, artillery and anti-aircraft guns. The authorities say the men, U.S. citizens of Yemeni descent, returned to the United States as a "sleeper cell," awaiting orders to attack. But despite their alleged commitment to violence against Americans, they are not to...