Free Republic

November 16, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Dede Scozzafava Is No GOP ModerateShe is a donkey in an elephant costume. By Deroy Murdock Re-canvassed votes in upstate New York’s 23rd Congressional District foreshadow the second coming of third-party candidate Doug Hoffman. As Mark Weiner of the Syracuse Post-Standard reported Thursday morning, Conservative nominee Hoffman’s 5,335-vote deficit behind Democrat Bill Owens has shrunk to just 3,026 after Election Night tabulation errors were corrected. Some 10,200 absentee ballots remain uncounted. State Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin told Weiner, “All ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to...

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." Not true: The IRS and Louisiana's taxmen have imposed nearly $2 million in liens against ACORN for failing to fork over taxes at its New Orleans national headquarters. The IRS recently filed a $548,000 lien against the group, and Louisiana state tax officials have slapped $334,000 in liens on ACORN since last October. Evidence that ACORN ignored its tax obligations may be less exciting than its branch offices' eagerness to help a self-professed pimp break multiple laws, or the voter-registration fraud for...

Betsy McCaughey reads massive health care bills so you don't have to. New York's former lieutenant governor, now chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, fired the torpedo that ultimately sank Hillary Care. Though the sheer girth of that 1,431-page legislative juggernaut intimidated nearly everyone, Ms. McCaughey devoured it. Her resulting January 1994 New Republic article unmasked Hillary Care's previously overlooked warts and sores. The horror Ms. McCaughey revealed eventually spelled that initiative's doom. Ms. McCaughey has done it again. In a June 19 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed column, she dissected the 615-page draft of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's...

As Bush fades to black, his presidency can be summarized with six Cs. Credit: Several key triumphs make Bush’s tenure merely a mitigated disaster. He first deserves praise for preventing another Islamofascist massacre on American soil. History will applaud the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Libya’s consequent de-nuclearization. Bush’s tax cuts buoyed the economy before it sailed into the twin icebergs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Justices John Roberts and Sam Alito will keep the Supreme Court constitutional. The D.C. voucher bill remains a school-choice milestone. Carter: Otherwise, Bush is the Republican Jimmy Carter. This weak, ill-prepared bumbler...

November 21, 2008, 1:15 p.m. Americans Flunk Basic CivicsBut boy, do we know our American Idol. By Deroy Murdock However you regard the outcome of the November 4 election, it was heartening to watch 125 million Americans cast their ballots at precincts from coast to coast. Unfortunately, they and the many millions more who skipped the whole thing collectively know frightfully little about the government we just reaffirmed, the principles that undergird it, and the basic documents in which those ideas are enshrined. Thus, Americans slouch into the 21st century — a free and confident people blissfully unaware of...

Barack Obama’s critics appropriately have spotlighted the Democratic nominee’s ties to William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, the remorseless co-founders and leaders of the terrorist Weather Underground. However, Obama’s detractors largely overlook Ayers’ campaign contribution to Obama. On April 2, 2001, Ayers donated $200 to Obama’s Illinois State Senate re-election campaign. Though not a jackpot, this represents Ayers’ only recorded political contribution. Here is how the Illinois State Board of Elections discloses this contribution on its website (which you can find by searching here): Multiple searches of this state-level database show that Ayers donated to no other candidate — neither incumbent...

How would your 401(k) perform under a President Obama versus a President McCain? To find out, try the revealing calculator on the website of Americans for Tax Reform. This device considers the value of your investment plan, and then estimates how your money would fare, depending on whether Barack Obama or John McCain wins today’s election. Take, for instance, a 401(k) with a balance of $121,202 balance — equal to the average 401(k) at close-of-business 2006, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute. Under Obama, such an account would shrink to $114, 293. But under McCain, it would grow to...

Compensation figures for his legislative staff reveal that Obama pays women just 83 cents for every dollar his men make. Obama’s average male employee earned $54,397 Obama’s female employees [earned] $45,152, on average. McCain’s male staffers averaging $53,936. His female employees averaged $55,878.

As al-Qaeda in Iraq’s fortunes wane, it has no one but itself to blame. President Bush’s troop surge indisputably has crushed al-Qaeda and other terrorists, while Iraqi soldiers have honed their ability to hammer deadly insurgents. But much of al-Qaeda’s damage has been self-inflicted. Largely overlooked is the Islamo-puritanism that it inflicted on the Iraqi territories it seized. Rank-and-file Iraqis tasted life under bin Laden-style Islam, and they gagged. They responded by collaborating with American and Coalition forces to expel these mad zealots from their midst. At one level, al-Qaeda’s religious decrees have been nearly comical. As the Institute for...

July 04, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Ground Zero of National ParalysisRebuild the Towers, privately. By Deroy Murdock In olden days, Americans needed just 13 and a half months to erect the Empire State Building, four and a half years to build Hoover Dam, and six years, four months to install the Transcontinental Railroad. And yet this Independence Day, six years, nine months, and three weeks have elapsed since September 11, and Ground Zero remains an 80-foot-deep international embarrassment for the United States. The government functionaries who fathered this fiasco should yield immediately and assign private developer Larry Silverstein to arrange...

Oil Is Not the Only Saudi ExportSaudi hate is no worry for the just-say-no-to-energy crowd. By Deroy Murdock Look what your petrodollars helped to finance: “The cause of the discord: The Jews conspired against Islam and its people. A sly, wicked person who sinfully and deceitfully professed Islam infiltrated [the Muslims].” “In these verses is a call for jihad, which is the pinnacle of Islam. . . . Only through force and victory over the enemies is there security and repose. Within martyrdom in the path of God (exalted and glorified is He) is a type of noble life-force that...

Look what your petrodollars helped finance: *“The cause of the discord: The Jews conspired against Islam and its people.” *“In these verses is a call for jihad, which is the pinnacle of Islam…Only through force and victory over the enemies is there security and repose.” *God “prohibits killing the soul...unless for just cause…unbelief after belief, adultery, and killing an inviolable believer intentionally.” These quotes are from Arabic language, secondary-school textbooks at northern Virginia’s Islamic Saudi Academy. As the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported June 11, “The Commission’s review of these textbooks found that they did contain passages justifying...

WHILE AMERICANS focus on the interminable Clinton-Obama celebrity death match, Sen. John McCain is using clear-headed, compellingly crafted speeches to propose surprisingly bold, free-market ideas. With one huge exception, the Arizona Republican advocates more limited, open government as his Democratic rivals promise tax hikes and an even-busier state. Voters should welcome this stark contrast. On spending, John McCain would rule with a tight fist. "There will be no more subsidies for special pleaders -- no more corporate welfare -- no more throwing around billions of dollars of the people's money on pet projects, while the people themselves are struggling to...

To paraphrase the late, great William F. Buckley, Jr., someone must stand athwart the federal ethanol program yelling, “Stop!” The emergency brake should be pulled -- NOW -- before ethanol wreaks further havoc. Poor Haitians rioted last week outside Port-au-Prince’s presidential palace, forcing Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis’ April 12 ouster. Haitians are enduring food prices 40 percent higher than last summer’s. Some have resorted to eating cookies made of salt, vegetable oil, and dirt. That’s right: Dirt cookies. Developing-world denizens are taking it to the streets with growling stomachs. In Bob Marley’s words, “A hungry man is an angry...

How much more pain must Americans endure before our masters in Washington let oil companies punch a few holes in the Alaskan tundra? Must we shiver pennilessly in the dark before we may extract new domestic petroleum deposits? Or shall we simply keep buying $111 barrels of oil from people who want us dead? In case Congress missed the news, three U.S. airlines went broke last week. Aloha, ATA, and Skybus blamed unaffordable fuel as they grounded their jets. Aloha said sayonara to 1,900 employees, NBC News reports. ATA’s demise destroyed 2,200 jobs, while Skybus sacked 450 workers, atop the...

March 24, 2008, 5:00 a.m. Chilling ConfirmationYes, Saddam Hussein was an Islamofascist threat. By Deroy Murdock As Operation Iraqi Freedom is now five years old, a new study confirms that ousting Saddam Hussein was justified and vital to U.S. national security. Though war critics hate to admit it, the Baathist dictator was up to his mustache in aid for Islamofascist terrorism. As a report from the Institute for Defense Analyses explains, “captured Iraqi documents uncovered strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism.� IDA’s review of some 600,000 documents discovered in Iraq since...

Now that he has embarrassed the “experts” and naysayers by clinching the Republican nomination and securing President Bush’s endorsement, Sen. John McCain can focus on picking his running mate. Three potential vice presidents merit the Arizona Republican’s immediate consideration. Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, 63, would add considerable executive experience to a ticket headed by a legislator. His experience in managing a $40.2 billion government with some 216,000 employees would prove an invaluable complement to the political skills of a president who mainly has written legislation, debated, and voted on Capitol Hill since 1983. Giuliani’s counterterrorism credentials are...

Before my more conservative friends start leaping from buildings over Senator John McCain’s presidential primary victories, let me try to coax them back in from the ledge. Despite his myriad apostasies (e.g. McCain-Feingold’s free-speech limits, anti-ANWR-oil-drilling votes, a mixed tax-cut record, creeping Kyotoism, and cold feet on waterboarding), the Arizona Republican could do for fiscal responsibility what Ronald Reagan did for tax relief. Thanks to the Gipper, tax reduction is as central to the Republican faith as the Resurrection is to Christianity. True, McCain heretically opposed President Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. However, he now appears penitent and observant....

Living in the DC area, Chris Matthews has surely been stuck in traffic more than once behind someone sporting the classic NRA bumper sticker: "If Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns." Was Chris was listening too intently to NPR to consider the the truth of that pithy aphorism? You might think so, considering his anti-gun rant that seemed to assume that criminals, rather than law-abiding citizens, will obey restrictions on gun ownership. On this evening's Hardball, riffing off Mitt Romney's Second Amendment defense during last night's GOP debate, Chris took aim at National Review's Deroy Murdock, a Giuliani...

A jet passenger remembers seeing Rudolph W. Giuliani on a Dallas-to-New York flight. Heading home after a March 2005 speech, Giuliani perused a volume of Elizabethan literature. Miles above Pennsylvania, a door-seal suddenly cracked. As the cabin depressurized, the pilot nose-dived from 38,000 feet to a safer 9,000. Oxygen masks swung above the heads of horrified travelers. What did Giuliani do? As another, visibly rattled traveler recalled: "He put his mask over his face, picked the book back up, and kept reading Shakespeare." ...

The God-O-Rama that the Republican presidential campaign has become has eclipsed the GOP's signature issue: taxes. Assuming life still matters here on Earth, not just in the hereafter, it might help to evaluate the top GOP candidates and their executive tax records. "Thanks to a final term grade of F, Huckabee earns an overall grade of D for his entire (Arkansas) governorship," states the Cato Institute's 2006 Report Card on America's Governors. Romney also sought revenue by closing $283 million in "tax loopholes." Put another way, he slipped nooses around previously untaxed activities. This included retroactive new taxes on incomes,...

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney suddenly faces questions about bicoastal tragedies involving three murder victims, a vicious killer, and a permissive judge he appointed who helped magnify this mayhem. Daniel Tavares Jr., 41, pleaded guilty in 1991 to stabbing his mother fatally with a carving knife in their Somerset, Massachusetts home. While serving a 17 – 20-year sentence for that atrocity, Tavares allegedly punched one prison guard in the head and later spat on another while yelling “I’m going to kill you!” According to a Department of Corrections document cited by the Boston Herald, Tavares also “threatened to kill the...

Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is gaining fans, even on the West Bank. “I hope Hillary is elected in order to have the occasion to carry out all the promises she is giving regarding Iraq,” said Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian terror group. “President Clinton wanted to give the Palestinians 98 percent of the West Bank territories. I hope Hillary will move a step forward and will give the Palestinians all their rights.”Senakreh and other top Islamo-fascists want Hillary in the Oval Office. These mass murders also have “gone negative.” They...

“The most important ‘traditional value’ in this election is keeping the Clintons out of the White House,” says Greg Alterton, an evangelical Christian who has “spent my entire professional career considering how my faith impacts, or should impact, the arena in which I work” — government and politics. Alterton writes for SoConsForRudy.com and counts himself among Rudolph W. Giuliani’s social-conservative supporters. People like Alterton are important, if overlooked, in the Republican presidential sweepstakes. Anti-Giuliani Religious Rightists are far more visible. Also conspicuous are pundits whose cartoon version of social conservatism regards abortion and gay rights as “the social issues,” excluding...

October 15, 2007, 7:00 a.m. Spinning for Rudy?Just look at the numbers. By Deroy Murdock Ramesh Ponnuru responded Friday to my piece on Rudolph W. Giuliani and the Religious Right by accusing me of performing “spin for the mayor.� My dreidel impersonation, Ramesh wrote, includes “cherry-picking� data to advance my arguments. It hardly is “cherry-picking� to analyze Giuliani’s abortion record by documenting the decreases during his tenure in New York City’s total abortions, its abortion ratio (abortions per 1,000 live births), local-taxpayer-financed Medicaid abortions, and local-Medicaid-abortion spending. I suppose it also would be “cherry-picking� to invoke GDP growth, the...

Why America needs a national right-to-work law editorials and opinion By DEROY MURDOCK Scripps Howard News Service Thursday, August 30, 2007 Americans will skip work Monday to celebrate what really should be called Leisure Day. But this Labor Day, an estimated 7.2 million privately employed Americans (and even more public-sector workers) could relax more thoroughly if they were not compelled to join labor unions and/or pay union dues as job requirements. That's why the time is now for the National Right to Work Act. Rep. Joe Wilson and Sen. Jim DeMint, both South Carolina Republicans, have sponsored legislation to restore...

"America is still the land of opportunity," Sen. John McCain recently said. "And we're not going to erect barriers and fences." Unlucky us. Along with Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy, the Arizona Republican co-sponsored immigration legislation currently stalled in the Senate. McCain should recognize that without a barrier or fence, the U.S./Mexican frontier will keep welcoming Islamic extremists pledged to America's doom. This is not hypothetical. "Members of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, have already entered the United States across our southwest border," declares "A Line in the Sand," a January report of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Investigations, then-chaired...

As conservatives watch the second GOP presidential debate tonight, they surely will hear plenty about abortion. Rudolph W. Giuliani should detail what really happened to abortions while he was mayor of New York. The data present an encouraging picture of what he actually did as mayor and might do as president to promote abortion: Nothing. The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute reports that abortions across America fell from 1,495,000 in 1993 to 1,303,000 in 2001, a 12.8-percent decrease. (Guttmacher’s surveys of all known U.S. abortion providers are more reliable than the Centers for Disease Control’s nationwide figures; California and New Hampshire stopped...

As Earth Day dawns Sunday, Americans should consider the relationship between environmentalists and the former mayor of the capital of Earth. From New York's City Hall, Rudolph W. Giuliani successfully confronted green zealots while advancing science and technology. Here again, Giuliani stands well right of where his detractors might expect. _The West Nile virus debuted in the Western Hemisphere in the College Point community in the New York borough of Queens in August 1999. Among 62 New York state residents who contracted West Nile encephalitis (brain swelling) that year, seven died. Rather than study the problem to death, that summer...

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani took a step back last week in his previously promising effort to woo social conservatives. In seemingly casual and ill-considered remarks to CNN’s Dana Bash, Giuliani rattled the nerves of pro-lifers. “Do you support taxpayer money or public funding for abortions in some cases?” Bash asked. Giuliani replied: “If it would deprive someone of a constitutional right, yes, if that’s the status of the law, then I would, yes.” Giuliani later stated that, as president, he would leave intact the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal abortion funding, except in cases of rape,...

April 3, 2007 Giuliani’s Social Reforms Pave His Path to Re-Election Rudy Giuliani’s expected re-election November 4 is looking more like a coronation. A mid-October poll by NY1 and The New York Observer shows New York’s Republican mayor shellacking his Democratic rival, Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, by 24 points. Rudy leads Ruth 56 percent to 32. Some Giuliani aides even speak of a victory exceeding 60 percent.How has a New York City Republican come within days of doing to a long-time liberal Democrat what Ronald Reagan did to Walter Mondale?First, Giuliani clearly controls a city that literally had grown...

The same Beltway experts who declared Sen. John McCain of Arizona the GOP front-runner, even as he under-polled fellow presidential contender Rudolph Giuliani, now parrot equally dodgy concepts. When Republicans meet "the real Rudy," they will abandon New York's former mayor like cattle fleeing a burning barn. Then, the wobbly Washington wisdom continues, Giuliani's three marriages, and his less-than-solidly-right-wing views on gays, guns and gametes will torpedo his buoyant presidential hopes. These seers now detect unhappiness with the GOP aspirants. They cite a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in which 26 percent of Republican primary voters were dissatisfied with...

The same Beltway experts who declared Sen. John McCain of Arizona the GOP front-runner, even as he under-polled fellow presidential contender Rudolph Giuliani, now parrot equally dodgy concepts. When Republicans meet “the real Rudy,” they will abandon New York’s former mayor like cattle fleeing a burning barn. Then, the wobbly Washington wisdom continues, Giuliani’s three marriages, and his less-than-solidly-right-wing views on gays, guns and gametes will torpedo his buoyant presidential hopes. These seers now detect unhappiness with the GOP aspirants. They cite a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in which 26 percent of Republican primary voters were dissatisfied with...

By Deroy Murdock/Syndicated columnist Sunday, February 18, 2007 - Updated: 12:40 AM EST By Deroy Murdock The Republican primary's most accomplished supply-sider is the all-but-announced Rudolph W. Giuliani. Having sliced taxes and slashed Gotham's government, New York's former mayor is the leading fiscal conservative among 2008's GOP presidential contenders. Before Giuliani's Jan. 1, 1994, inauguration, New York's economy was on a stretcher. Amid soaring unemployment, 235 jobs vanished daily within the city. Financier Felix Rohatyn complained: "Virtually all human activities are taxed to the hilt." Punitive taxes helped fuel a $2.3 billion deficit. Mayor-elect Giuliani sounded Reaganesque when he announced...

As pro-lifers mark the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, many wonder whether they could support Rudolph W. Giuliani for president despite his pro-choice views. While Giuliani’s statements on abortion make pro-lifers fret, they should find his record surprisingly reassuring. “I don’t like abortion,” Giuliani said last November. “I don’t think abortion is a good thing. I think we ought to find some alternative to abortion, and that there ought to be as few as possible.” But did Giuliani’s mayoral deeds match such words? According to the state Office of Vital Statistics, total abortions performed in New York...

As pro-lifers mark the 34th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, many wonder whether they could support former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for president despite his pro-choice views. While Giuliani’s statements on abortion make pro-lifers fret, they should find his record surprisingly reassuring. I don’t like abortion,” Giuliani said in South Carolina’s The State newspaper last November 21. “I don’t think abortion is a good thing. I think we ought to find some alternative to abortion, and that there ought to be as few as possible.” Nevertheless, Giuliani’s pro-life critics point to his April 5,...

As pro-lifers prepare to mark Monday’s 34th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision, many wonder whether they could support former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for president despite his pro-choice views. While some of Giuliani’s statements on abortion make pro-lifers fret, they should find his record surprisingly reassuring. “I don’t like abortion,” Giuliani said in South Carolina’s The State newspaper last November 21. “I don’t think abortion is a good thing. I think we ought to find some alternative to abortion, and that there ought to be as few as possible.”

Deroy Murdock: Giuliani's social liberalism overstated By DEROY MURDOCKCommentary 23 hours, 19 minutes ago LIKE A STACK of scratched records, pundits repeatedly dismiss Rudolph W. Giuliani's Presidential prospects because of his "social liberalism." True, the former New York mayor's views on abortion, guns and gays (despite his opposition to same-sex marriage) clash with those of many socially conservative Republican primary voters.However, socio-cons care about more than just these three important matters. On school choice, welfare reform, adoption, and quality of life, evangelicals cannot quibble with Giuliani's achievements. His Bush-like immigration proposals are no more liberal than the President's. Socio-cons also...

Like a stack of scratched records, pundits repeatedly dismiss Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential prospects because of his “social liberalism.” True, the former New York mayor’s views on abortion, guns, and gays (despite his opposition to same-sex marriage) clash with those of many socially conservative Republican primary voters. However, socio-cons care about more than just these three important matters. On school choice, welfare reform, adoption, and quality of life, evangelicals cannot quibble with Giuliani’s achievements. His Bush-like immigration proposals are no more liberal than the president’s. Socio-cons also like to see violent criminals incarcerated and terrorists incinerated. No Rightist calls Giuliani...

The oddest thing about the conventional wisdom may be its almost bulletproof imperviousness to the facts. An excellent example of this phenomenon is Arizona Senator John McCain’s oft-trumpeted status as frontrunner for the 2008 Republican nomination. Conversely, the cognoscenti titter at former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani as terminally liberal. McCain and Sen. [Hillary] Clinton are the ones to beat for their parties’ nominations,� political analyst Craig Crawford recently wrote. “While former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was once thought to be a threat to McCain, his star has faded since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. [Massachusetts governor...

With his exploratory committee now prospecting for 2008, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani leads the pack of GOP White House hopefuls. His standing atop numerous polls remains unchallenged. Also, his recent endorsement by some former critics suggests that social conservatives who explore his record might embrace him as president of the United States. In a nationwide Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,050 Republicans and 203 GOP-leaning independents, 24 percent backed Giuliani while 18 percent chose Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. McCain, at 17 percent, lags behind Rice, a declared non-candidate. “If we assume Rice is not running and allocate her...

With his exploratory committee now prospecting for 2008, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani leads the GOP’s White House hopefuls. His standing atop numerous polls remains unchallenged. Also, his recent endorsement by some former critics suggests that social conservatives who explore his record might embrace him as president of the United States. Surveys consistently demonstrate that Giuliani, not Arizona Senator John McCain, is this race’s front-runner. It’s not even close. In a nationwide Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,050 Republicans and 203 GOP-leaning independents, 24 percent backed Giuliani while 18 percent chose Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. McCain, at 17 percent,...

September 12, 2006, 6:30 a.m. Grand Illusion, by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins Simply Grand Will America’s Mayor be America’s next president? A review by Deroy Murdock America’s still-vivid memories of that miserable morning five Septembers ago may be brightened by recollections of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s focused, confident performance. The ongoing goodwill his leadership generated may explain why he outpaces his potential rivals for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Recent polls show Giuliani waxing on the right, regardless of any misgivings conservative GOP voters may have with him on abortion, gay rights, or gun control. Among 432...

August 09, 2006, 1:35 p.m. Hot RocketsHezbollah turns ball bearings into WMDs. By Deroy Murdock Ball bearings normally help motors and other machines run more smoothly. In the hands of decent people, they ease commerce, fuel technology, and make life simpler and better. But among Islamofascists, they do exactly what Islamofascists do best: Destroy, destroy, destroy. Hezbollah’s Katyusha rockets, which it has fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, do not just explode with ordnance designed to level military buildings or demolish artillery batteries. Many of those Iranian- and Syrian-supplied missiles have warheads filled with ball bearings. Hezbollah uses...

July 06, 2006, 1:45 a.m. Gray Lady’s Serial SpillsThis is war. By Deroy Murdock The more that emerges about the New York Times’s treasonous disclosure of the once-secret SWIFT/Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, the more unsavory its treachery appears. The Bush-hating paper’s shameless self-justifications for its misdeeds look ever flimsier. Its inadequate excuses have disappeared into a cyclone of self-contradiction. Strict punishment for the Times’s crimes (and it has behaved criminally) is in order. First, The Times’s June 23 story on the CIA and Treasury Department’s efforts to follow terrorists’ money was no isolated incident. It is one of at...

STANFORD, Calif. -- With conservative congressional majorities at risk in next November's elections, President Bush repeatedly should remind everyone that a key reason coalition troops invaded Iraq was to padlock Saddam Hussein's Wal-Mart for terrorists. The administration finally is releasing intelligence documents captured in Baghdad. Bush should use them to detail how Hussein indeed was entwined with terrorists in general and al Qaeda in particular. These papers appear on the Army Foreign Military Studies Office's Web site. (fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm). The administration should promote a simple URL (e.g. iraqdocuments.gov) so readers easily can examine Hussein's terror ties. According to a March 23...

March 30, 2006, Rudy Awakening America's mayor recalls the Reagan assassination attempt. Today is the 25th anniversary of the attempted assassination of the late president Ronald W. Reagan, and it's a day former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani remembers vividly. "The morning of March 30, 1981, the White House had a breakfast with the president for newly appointed" sub-Cabinet officials, Giuliani recalls. He had occupied a Justice Department office for the previous fortnight while awaiting Senate confirmation as Ronald Reagan's associate attorney general. "Everyone took a picture with the president," Giuliani continues. "And then we had breakfast with him...

March 09, 2006 Black Like GOPBy Deroy Murdock,Contributing Editor Will the Dems lose a reliable constituency this year? This year, Democrats may lose their iron grip on the black vote. About 90 percent of black Americans vote Democrat, rain or shine. But a growing sense that Democrats take them for granted — plus several attractive, high-level black Republican candidates who will fight for these votes — could make November 2006 and 2008 fascinating. For starters, President Bush's black support grew from 9 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2004. That is no landslide, but Bush's black vote improved 22...

This year, Democrats may lose their iron grip on the black vote. About 90 percent of black Americans vote Democrat, rain or shine. But a growing sense that Democrats take them for granted _ plus several attractive, high-level black Republican candidates who will fight for these votes _ could make November 2006 and 2008 fascinating. For starters, President Bush's black support grew from 9 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2004. That is no landslide, but it's a 22 percent improvement in black support despite Bush's being vilified by the media and Democrats for four long years. In Ohio,...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version January 13, 2006, 8:11 a.m. The Butcher with the Terror Ties The evidence mounts. Drip, drip, drip. Drop by drop, isolated news stories and emerging documents are eroding the popular myth that Saddam Hussein had no connections to Islamofascist terrorists. These revelations undermine war critics’ efforts to whitewash Baghdad’s ancien regime — such as when Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid declared: “There was [sic] no terrorists in Iraq.” Likewise, Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) describes a “nonexistent relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.” Reid, Levin, and others who dismiss...