Free Republic

The Giuliani administration's tax cuts added fuel to a booming city economy and helped create more than 80,000 jobs since 1997, according to a study released yesterday. The report, titled "What New York Has Gained From Tax Cuts," was prepared by The Manhattan Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank with a long association with Mayor Giuliani. In a cautionary note to mayoral candidates who have criticized the cuts, the report estimated the city will lose 25,000 jobs if the 12.5% personal income tax surcharge is restored. "If you know which candidate you are talking about, you can actually see that...

Presidential hopefuly Rudy Giuliani is surrounded by supporters during a campaign stop in West Des Moines last week. It is one of the emerging mysteries of the 2008 race for the White House - voters punishing Sen. John McCain for his support of the Iraq War, while seeming to give a pass to the equally hawkish Rudy Giuliani. Yes, McCain is viewed in some ways as an unofficial architect of President Bush's latest troop "surge" into Iraq, an idea the Arizona Republican has championed for years as a way to hasten progress in the war-torn nation. But anyone who...

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - With allegations of money mismanagement, threats of court action and some members leaving, a group that has sponsored war protests in President Bush's adopted hometown has been anything but peaceful. The Crawford Peace House recently lost its corporate charter with the state, and a former member who now has rights to the name is threatening legal action because the group continues operating. Sara L. Oliver and some others are calling for a state investigation as to why only $14,700 is now in its bank account, saying tens of thousands donated during Cindy Sheehan's 2005 war protest...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani ventured to conservative South Carolina yesterday hoping to talk about terrorism and the economy, but instead got hit at every stop with another topic - abortion. A day after the former mayor said he supports public funding of abortion - sparking a firestorm among conservatives - local media here forced him to elaborate on the issue at events intended to underscore new endorsements. And although Giuliani, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, did not waiver from his central belief that abortion is a woman's right, he responded with some of his most...

The latest looney-tune story from the left was spun by Patrick Cockburn, an intrepid reporter for London’s Independent newspaper. According to this Iranian-sponsored fairy tale, it’s all Bush’s fault. That’s right. The fact that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy seized 15 British sailors and marines and took them hostage in Iraqi waters never would have happened if George W. Bush hadn’t ordered U.S. troops in Iraq to capture Gen. Minojahar Firouzandeh, a top Rev. Guards intelligence officer on Jan. 10, 2007. It appears that Gen. Firouzandeh was paying a courtesy call to an Iranian “consulate” in Irbil, Iraq, when U.S....

Once again, the Iranians have prevailed in a hostage crisis. The smirking leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, fresh from his latest demonstration of "performance-art politics," is no doubt preparing his next stunt for the world stage. And once again, the rogue regime in Tehran has been enabled by many westerners, who knee-jerkingly sentimentalize hostages, reflexively look for the worst in their own country and instinctively adapt the language of their avowed enemies. Any hostage who appears on television, or on Internet video, becomes an object of media fascination. By now, there's an established ritual of recognition: First, reporters with cameras...

Following quotes attributed to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during her visit to Damascus, the Prime Minister’s Bureau wishes to clarify the following: During Mrs. Pelosi’s meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, before her visit to Syria, the Prime Minister said that a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel. The Prime Minister emphasized that although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of...

SPEAKER A 'COVER' GIRL ON SYRIA SUCK-UP TOUR April 4, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for cavorting with Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, saying her visit makes the "sponsor of terror" seem like a respected member of the international community. "We have made it clear to high-ranking officials, whether they be Republicans or Democrats, that going to Syria sends mixed signals - signals in the region and, of course, mixed signals to President Assad," Bush said during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. "And by that, I mean photo opportunities and/or...

DES MOINES -- Let’s play with a jaunty bit of Conventional Wisdom that’s showing up in just about every article we’ve seen previewing ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s trip to Iowa. It’s this: “ Can Giuliani win the favor of Iowa social conservatives who dominate the caucuses?” Winning the favor is a very audacious goal for a cultural liberal. Let’s challenge the assumption: does a Republican candidate _need_ to win the hearts and minds of the “social” conservatives in order to win the Iowa caucuses? Can they instead win, say, one of the those two organs, or parts of one –a...

Rosie O'Donnell's wacky 9/11 conspiracy theories should get her kicked off 'The View.' RENOWNED metallurgist Rosie O'Donnell proclaimed on TV on Thursday that Sept. 11, 2001, was a more significant date than most of us realized. It was, in her words, "the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel." This, of course, came as news to steelworkers, blacksmiths, firefighters, manufacturers of samurai swords and other fools who hadn't realized that steel is forged in magic furnaces using dragon breath and pixie dust. O'Donnell made this and other profoundly stupid comments on the daytime talk show "The View,"...

As it was reported in the Staten Island Advance early last month, former Borough President Guy V. Molinari is back in the political game, this time at a national level as the co-chair of Rudy Giuliani's Presidential Exploratory Committee's New York Leadership Team. So, it should come as little surprise that Molinari, when asked by the Associated Press, favored the former mayor over Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, N.Y.) in a possible 2008 Presidential showdown. ''It would be a wonderful matchup,'' said the former congressman and former Staten Island borough president. ''The politician in me says that's what we all hope...

Hubby No. 1 has fond memories of 'terrific' gal Jeffrey Ross, in Tampa yesterday, told News that ex-wife Judith Giuliani would be a "terrific First Lady" TAMPA - Judith Giuliani's secret first husband emerged from the shadows yesterday to tell the Daily News his ex would make a "terrific First Lady." In his first public statements since the Daily News revealed that Rudy Giuliani's wife was on her third marriage, husband No. 1, Jeffrey Ross, had only good things to say about the former Judith Ross. In what must have triggered a huge sigh of relief at Giuliani's campaign headquarters,...

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's partner dropped his bid Monday to block the release of DNA test results that could reveal the father of her baby daughter when it appeared a Bahamas court was going to reject his appeal. An attorney for Howard K. Stern withdrew the challenge in the face of skeptical questioning by the three-judge Court of Appeal. All three judges noted that Stern had filed his challenge too late and should have raised his objections before the Supreme Court ordered DNA testing in the paternity challenge filed by Larry Birkhead, a former boyfriend of Smith...

It was only a second, no more than a click of the fingers. In that time the lives of all of us in that packed Tube carriage were changed for ever. It was as dramatic as being on a sunny beach one moment and finding yourself in the bowels of hell the next. In the aftermath of the blast, I drifted in and out of consciousness. The air was acrid, saturated with dust and the stench of burning electrical cables in the twisted metal shell that had been the carriage. People screamed. Then, after time, a man held my hand....

HERE'S A puzzle: Why would Al Qaeda choose the past several days, just as Democrats in Congress were voting to run up a white flag and commit the United States to defeat in Iraq, to launch a bloody wave of terrorist atrocities? For weeks, there had been noticeably less bloodshed and chaos in Iraq's most dangerous areas. The number of civilians murdered in Baghdad, for example, had dropped from 1,222 in December to 954 in January to 494 in February. US military deaths had dropped 20 percent during the first month of General David Petraeus's new counterinsurgency strategy , while...

Senator Clinton’s closest aide, Ms. Abedin never sweats; Oscar de la Renta wants to dress her Last June, under an oppressive sun, at a rally to save the Niagara military base at the University of Buffalo, all of New York’s top politicians—George Pataki, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton—poured sweat. Yet there was exactly one member of the wilting delegation who managed, somehow, to stay cool: Hillary Clinton’s mysterious, glamorous and eerily unflappable aide de camp, Huma Abedin. “It was like 110 degrees outside,” recalled the source, a political aide who asked to remain anonymous. “We were all just pouring down with...

With former Senator Fred Thompson pondering a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, the hunt is on to see if he has his conservative credentials in order or whether there might be some moderation lurking in his voting past. Mr. Thompson, the Tennessee lawyer turned actor turned senator turned actor again, is getting a lot of attention in Republican circles. That is especially so among conservatives, who are debating whether he would be more ideologically appealing to them than the three leading Republican candidates, Senator John McCain of Arizona, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and former Gov....

The fall of "Rome." A series cut down too soon. I know you're sad, fans of "Rome," perhaps on a couple of levels now that the SERIES finale has aired. (If you haven't watched, go away. Come back later.) I feel your pain. I certainly wish there were five or six more seasons left of it. But there's not. All hail the next DVD boxed set - may it contain loads and bloody loads of extras. Before I call out like the town crier - loved that guy and the way his fingers were placed, his arm motions, vocal inflections...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Plenty of people and politicians have skeletons in their closets. In the case of presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani, that closet is a walk-in. The former Republican mayor of New York City won widespread praise for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it is largely that collective memory that accounts for his current popularity in polls and makes him the early front-runner for his party's nomination. Yet as most New Yorkers could tell you, there are plenty of episodes in Giuliani's past that could come back to haunt him - scenes that played like a booming,...

Documents show Gonzales approved firings WASHINGTON — The White House and a key Republican senator reaffirmed support today for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even as Democrats questioned his credibility for apparently misrepresenting his role in firing eight federal prosecutors. Critics said the latest document disclosure — more than 280 pages of e-mails, calendar notations and other documents sent to Congress late Friday — bolstered their case for Gonzales' ouster. Yet one longtime ally who largely has kept quiet about the attorney general's fate issued a statement of support. "He has always been straightforward and honest with me," said Sen. Orrin...