Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Words count, as President Barack Obama once said. Words spoken truthfully count even more. The president's triumphal eight-day six-country overseas tour, ending with his emotional visit to U.S. troops in Iraq, will go down in history as an opportunity for us to collect Obama's words and save them in our computers so we can match them with the administration's future actions. It's refreshing to hear words of optimism, courage and determination aimed at solving long-standing problems and threats. As the president said in Turkey, "If we don't reach high, then we don't make progress." So let's firmly assign...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama seems to be more interested in propping up Wall Street than saving the car companies and the auto workers in Detroit. He displayed his "get tough" side when he laid down the law to General Motors and Chrysler, whose restructuring plans had displeased the White House auto task force. The president gave the car makers a choice of coming up with tougher plans or face bankruptcy. GM was given 60 days to produce a plan for Obama, who has never ran a company, and Chrysler was given 30 days, with a threat to end its...

It takes a lot to motivate the American people but they are hopping mad over the bonus payments to Wall Streeters from their tax money. I haven’t seen this much "people power" since the grass-roots protests against the Vietnam War riled the nation. This anger is highly justified, but it hasn’t slowed the Obama administration’s peculiar drive to bailout Wall Street by buying banks’ toxic assets (bad loans and mortgage-related securities) to the tune of possibly up to $2 trillion dollars to stabilize the banks and to jump-start the credit industry. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday unveiled the plan amid...

WASHINGTON -- It’s unlikely that the United States will ever live down the shame of torture during the Bush-Cheney administration. It’s history now and all the piety and wit of those former U.S. officials responsible for this horrendous chapter cannot wipe out a word of it. Mark Danner published in the New York Review of Books excerpts of a leaked report by the International Committee of the Red Cross on CIA interrogation techniques used at secret U.S. "black site" prisons abroad and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Red Cross report is based on Red Cross interviews in 2006 with 14 "high...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is making a big mistake in escalating U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan, where he already has acknowledged he doesn’t believe victory is possible. We should ask: What are we doing there seven years after the 9/11 attacks by the al-Qaida network? Historically, the country has lacked a strong central government and has been governed by locally strong tribal leaders and warlords. Al-Qaida was able to take advantage of this loose structure and turn Afghanistan into the plotting ground for the terrorists who struck the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York. But what...

WASHINGTON -- Can Americans face the truth about the Bush administration’s abuse of power? I believe so, but clearly President Barack Obama and some Democratic lawmakers think they can’t. Or possibly they don’t want to be bogged down in a search which could be viewed as vindictive against the former regime. Too bad. Obama -- a former constitutional law professor -- has ruled out a look backward, claiming that any review of possible illegalities by Bush and his coterie would lead to "politics that have made Washington dysfunctional." Picking up on the last Bush mantra that we should move "forward,"...

Here is some good news and some bad news. I'll give you the bad news first. I was on a panel of smart, pleasant men and women last week, discussing the economy and, in particular, how it is affecting people selling vehicles with tires and wheels. I told the audience that the Federal Reserve, which has unlimited power to print money, had a program called the Term Asset Backed Lending Facility (TALF) that would help dealers restock their showrooms. I said I knew it hadn't started yet but I thought it would start soon. A gentleman on the panel --...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama was recently accused of being too much of a downer about the economy. Well, he certainly made up for that this week with his highly optimistic "yes-we-can" campaign-style speech to Congress. "We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States will emerge stronger than ever," Obama declared. "It is time for America to lead again." His upbeat remarks in a 52-minute State of the Union-style address to a joint session of Congress frequently brought the lawmakers to their feet as they roared their approval. The nationally televised event put the changing face of America...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is already back-tracking on some of his high-road campaign stands and is copying some of former President George W. Bush’s dubious policies. A couple of weeks ago the Obama administration invoked the controversial state secrets act in the case of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees. They claimed they were victims of the Bush administration’s rendition program under which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries where, they say, they were tortured. The Bush administration’s position has been that the case should be dismissed because even courtroom discussion of their treatment...

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Back of the Book" segment tonight: part two of my interview with Whoopi Goldberg. Our BillOReilly.com poll asked if I should apologize to Helen Thomas for making fun of her last week. Almost 80,000 folks voted. Ninety-three percent say no apology is necessary. Well, Ms. Goldberg disagrees with that. [VIDEO AVAILABLE AT LINK; LIABILITY WAIVER MAY BE REQUIRED]

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama should stop trying to win over Republican lawmakers in Congress. He has turned the other cheek -- and they slapped that, too. Since winning the November election, Obama has been trying to change the ways of Washington -- a goal that may prove more elusive than he originally thought. He was in hot pursuit of bipartisanship by socializing with the members of the GOP, inviting them to the White House, trying to sell them on his economic recovery plan -- but he struck out. No Republican member of the House and only three GOP members...

RUSH: I got an e-mail. This is from Susan in Virginia Beach. "Dear Rush: You are my professor. I am indebted to you for the knowledge that you have given me. You've always told us that you would tell us when it was time to panic. I'm starting to wonder how we are going to get our country back from these revolutionaries. Is it time to panic?" No. 'Cause panic doesn't accomplish anything. But when we come back from the break, I'm going to tell you how to get the country back. I'm going to tell you how it will...

Overlooked in coverage of Tim Geithner’s and Tom Daschle’s unpaid taxes is the $70,000 that Minnesota Democratic senatorial candidate Al Franken has admitted to owing in back taxes, interest, and penalties. Last April, the California Tax Franchise Board revealed that Franken owed the state $5,800 in taxes, fines, and penalties because he did not file returns in 2003 through 2007. Franken then admitted that he owed more than $50,000 in back taxes to 17 states.Franken blamed everything on his accountant of 18 years, saying he failed to report the income from the comedian’s celebrity appearances and speeches in those states...

“Nobody is perfect” was the not-so-profound observation of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs over the past several days as he tried to fend off criticism of the tax troubles of three top appointees. One of the three -- Timothy Geithner -- survived congressional and public scrutiny and was confirmed as secretary of treasury. But former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle -- who made a bundle in speaking fees and giving advice to health-care companies after he was defeated for re-election -- felt compelled to bow out from his nomination as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services...

Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Monday that he’s looking forward to one party controlling all aspects of government, despite GOP charges that it would be a disastrous Nov. 4 outcome. “Republicans had a chance to rule. They failed miserably. I think it’s time to give the other party a chance,” Dean said on MSNBC. Republicans recently warned there would be grave consequences for the country if Democrats were in charge of both chambers of Congress and the White House. At a rally in Ohio, for instance, GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) said he would provide a balance to...

WASHINGTON -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has awesome self-confidence. Chosen by fellow Republicans to be Sen. John McCain’s running mate, she told an interviewer: “I’m ready.” That confidence reflects her naïveté about her role that puts her one heartbeat away from the presidency. In accepting the Republican nomination as vice-president, she invoked the greatness of President Truman, based on their small-town origins. But anyone who was around during Truman’s era knows there is a world of difference between Palin and Truman. Take, for example, humility. Truman was vice president for only a short time when on April 12, 1945, he...

Joe Biden will deliver a high-profile first attack in a sustained anti-McCain offensive in a speech called "Bush 44" Monday in the key battleground state of Michigan. While the lines of attack have long been drawn, Biden will assert — as the title indicates — that a McCain presidency would amount to a third Bush term and will focus, in a detailed, comprehensive and aggressive way, on John McCain's domestic policies and harsh campaign tactics, a campaign aide told Politico. Biden will deliver the speech in St. Clair Shores, Mich., in Macomb County, the area whose voters inspired Democratic pollster...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was not happy with Sen. Joe Lieberman’s speech before the Republican National Convention Tuesday night.

We ran into actor Matthew Modine (remember "Full Metal Jacket"?!?) at Denver's La Rumba restaurant and, while the Obama supporter had plenty to say about John McCain's policies, he also had plenty of critiques of McCain's military service -- a topic that almost no one dares denounce. "I mean, he got shot down three times!" said Modine, taking on one of McCain's most lauded personal accomplishments. "That's not success!" While on a bombing mission over North Vietnam, McCain was shot down and held as a prisoner of war. When McCain's father was named commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, the...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., defended Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman on Wednesday after the former Democratic vice presidential nominee accepted a speaking slot at next month's Republican convention in Minnesota. "He has a close personal relationship with John McCain. I don't fully understand why he does," said Reid, who said Lieberman called Tuesday from the Republic of Georgia to alert him to the move. "I told him last night, 'You know, Joe, I can't stand John McCain.' He said, 'I know you feel that way,' " Reid said. But Reid said he would continue to resist calls from the...