Free Republic

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is Master Sgt. Cirildo Valencio, U.S. Army, of Carrizo Springs, Texas. He will be buried on Aug. 4 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Representatives from the Army met with Valencio’s next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process on behalf of the Secretary of the Army. Valencio was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st...

John McCain's vice presidential running mate selection should be put in perspective. In a presidential campaign, there are only a handful of occasions when a running mate has news value: the day of the announcement and the few days following; the nominee's convention speech debut; the joint kickoff rally; and the televised debate with the counterpart running mate. Otherwise, by mid-September John McCain's VP choice will be consigned to secondary media markets in critical electoral states, along with tours through solid red states for fund raising, party-building and local-candidate support. National television and cable networks will include the vice presidential...

An indignant Don Perata made fun of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his brigade of "13 armed escorts" today. The Senate president pro tem was mocking Schwarzenegger as out of touch with the average Californian at a rally protesting the plan to temporarily slash the pay of state workers to $6.55 an hour. Visibly fired up, the Oakland Democrat declared he had only one question for Schwarzenegger now that the governor had revealed his plan to conserve cash during the budget crunch by cutting workers' pay. "Who in the hell do you think does the work around here?" he shouted to...

The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, And order'd their estate. The 1982 Episcopal Hymnal omits that stanza, the second of Mrs. Alexander’s original six (not counting the refrain). It also omits her fifth: The tall trees in the greenwood, The meadows where we play, The rushes by the water, We gather every day … Understandable, in both cases. The fifth stanza might possibly be re-cast for a modern child (the hymn comes from Mrs. Alexander’s 1848 Hymns for Little Children), perhaps along lines like: The Xbox and the...

The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers. And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair...

NEW YORK -- Painfully high vehicle- and jet-fuel prices are propelling popular demands for extracting the estimated 18 billion barrels of petroleum that rest beneath America's coastal waters. After rescinding previous executive-branch objections, President Bush said July 14, "the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress." Capitol Hill Democrats claim offshore drilling poses unacceptable ecological risks. This is yet another overblown worry. Democrats and other environmental naysayers cite the 80,000 barrels that spilled six miles off of Santa Barbara, Calif., inundating beaches and aquatic life. This hydrocarbon Hindenburg haunts...

Barack Obama's visits to the Israeli town of Sderot, which was struck by Palestinian rocket attacks, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial are smart moves. They underline that he stands, beyond any doubt, in solidarity with Israel against "terrorism". You assume that it is smart to exploit the suffering and death of millions of Jews in the Holocaust for Israeli and/or American political goals. But how does his visit to Sderot square with any solidarity with the decades-long dispossessed, oppressed and occupied Palestinians? Well, that is why he visited Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime...

In a stunning upset, Barack Obama this week won the Iraq primary. When Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki not once but several times expressed support for a U.S. troop withdrawal on a timetable that accorded roughly with Obama's 16-month proposal, he not only legitimized the plan. He relieved Obama of a major political liability by blunting the charge that, in order to appease the MoveOn left, Obama was willing to jeopardize the astonishing success of the surge and risk losing a war that is finally being won. Maliki's endorsement left the McCain campaign and the Bush administration deeply discomfited. They underestimated...

It was as if the fates had conspired to give Barack Obama the kind of foreign affairs photo-op that a campaign manager would only see in his wildest dreams. Damp, gray Berlin was alive with bright sunshine. A crowd police estimated at more than 200,000 filled the heart of the city. They cheered not only when he talked about global warming or called for a world without nuclear weapons, but also when he spoke of the fight against terrorism and the need for Europe to remain engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq. "In Europe, the view that America is part of...

Sen. Barack Obama claims there has been only a "shift in emphasis," not "wild shifts," in his political positions. Many already know the list: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, NAFTA, public financing of campaigns, abortion, gay marriage, Social Security taxes, the death penalty and negotiating with rogue nations.Possibly one of the more remarkable changes has been his position on guns. But despite Obama's recent concession on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" that there has been a "shift in emphasis" on various issues, on guns he held firm: "You mentioned the gun position. I've been talking about the Second Amendment being an...

Media: The gaffes Barack Obama has committed would have crushed the typical Republican politician. But the reporters who can't get over Dan Quayle's misspelling of "potato" have little to say about their man's slip-ups.Sometimes it's hard to tell if Obama is really fouling up or simply puffed up when he tries to live up to his media-fed image as a leader ready for prime time. Consider his claim during a news conference Wednesday in Israel that "just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from...

Georgetown, S.C — "What’s this guy running for, ‘Emperor of the world?’” asked the sunburned fellow at the next table where we stopped for lunch. Mr. Sunburn was holding a copy of The Charleston Post and Courier and pointing to a headline, “Obama pledges to work for peace.” The inquiry, addressed to those sitting beside him elicited only shrugs, so he answered his own question: “Just doesn’t make any sense to me.” The Obama machine’s, “Hope & Change World Tour” has left more than a few people perplexed. Some – like the gentleman beside us at the restaurant – are...

When the media start backing away from supporting a candidate or a cause, read it as a sign the media elite understand the public is seeing through the media's neutrality ruse. MSNBC's coverage of Sen. Barack Obama's trip abroad streamed online shows one commentator waxing poetic about the senator's rave visuals. Another equally valid interpretation of the video of Obama shooting hoops with the troops is that it made him look less credible as a world leader, not more. A second commentator in the segment takes a deep breath, steps back and states that the Obama campaign has manipulated media...

Islamofascism: A new study confirms our "ally" Saudi Arabia is still poisoning young Muslim minds with anti-Western textbooks. So? Its hate-filled graduates are enrolling at our colleges.The Hudson Institute reviewed the 2007-08 textbooks distributed by the Saudi Ministry of Education and found that, despite promised reforms, the kingdom still teaches students to "hate the infidels." The texts assert that it's "permissible" for a Muslim to kill an "apostate," an "adulterer," a "homosexual," as well as non-Muslims practicing "polytheism," or Christianity. The violent ideology is introduced in a religion textbook in the first grade and reinforced and developed in following years...

Here are some questions that Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson should be asking Barack Obama as they follow him on his trip: Q: Before your trip to Iraq, you said that you intend to give the military a "new mission" — all of the combat troops withdrawn within 16 months. Why bother traveling to Iraq and consulting with commanders on the ground, if you've already decided on a new mission? Q: In 2004, you called it unwise to announce a timetable. By 2008, however, you announce a 16-month timetable. Only a few days ago, your top campaign strategist...

Energy: It has become something of an article of faith among those who oppose drilling in the Arctic that it's too much trouble for too little oil. Well, how about 90 billion barrels of oil? Too little for you?That's how much oil is estimated to be in the Arctic region, with at least a third of it under sovereign U.S. territory, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. Put into perspective, the U.S. "official" estimate for total oil reserves is 21 billion barrels. So by putting our Arctic resources into play, we would more than double our...

Campaign '08:<.b> Presidents Kennedy and Reagan both visited Berlin to champion freedom against its 20th century enemies. Barack Obama just showed Berliners no understanding of the 21st century's threats to liberty.At nearly 3,000 words, the most hyped speech in the long history of American political campaigns, delivered by Sen. Obama before Berlin's Victory Column on Thursday evening, was longer than both John F. Kennedy's and Ronald Reagan's Berlin speeches. Yet in content and import it was almost meaningless by comparison. "I speak to you not as a candidate for president, but as a citizen," Obama claimed to the massive crowds....

- Jerry Taylor is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Virtually every claim made by T. Boone Pickens to justify the lavish subsidies he is seeking for his wind energy investments is flat wrong. First, oil imports are not the cause of high gasoline prices. On the contrary, oil imports serve to keep gasoline prices down. After all, we import oil for a reason -- it's cheaper than the domestic alternative. If we were to restrict our energy diet to energy produced in the United States, it would make domestic energy producers (like Mr. Pickens) far richer and energy...

It is axiomatic that a knowledge of history is a prerequisite for understanding the present. But the question is: How much weight should we give to controversial figures from the past when deciding how to think about current conflicts? According to the authors of a new book about the grand mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini (1893-1974), a man who played a key role in fomenting and exacerbating the struggle between Jews and Arabs during much of the 20th century, the answer is quite a lot. The book, Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam, by...

Words come and words go. Some disappear completely, while others vanish into the jargon of our vocabulary. Few succeed in capturing center stage in our consciousness. One that has succeeded is a four-letter word that embellishes countless monuments, organizations, billboards and publications. Its sound enlivens the soul, its melody softens the heart. The word? H-O-P-E. “Hope is a waking dream,” Aristotle famously said. Indeed, hope can pull a person from the agonies of despair. Yet its essential meaning remains unclear. Is hope a realistic thought or a mere fantasy? Is it a pragmatic idea or a wishful illusion? Our sages...

RUSH: Cookie is working on a couple of audio sound bites and Drive-By Media reaction to the Messiah's speech in Germany. I have an idea what she's going to send. I never know what she's going to send unless I specifically asked for it. But Cookie is so good I seldom have to ask for it. I get what I want anyway. Now, one thing about this speech. I'll wait until we get the bites and see if what I'm expecting in these, citizen of the world stuff. When he started talking about that, that's when the red flags went...

What is it with Al Gore? Why is he compelled to exaggerate climate change (excuse me, “the climate crisis”), and then to propose impossible policy responses? It’s like he’s inventing the Internet all over again! OK, it’s pretty much standard rhetoric in Washington to say that if you don’t do as I say, there will be massive consequences. But to say, as Gore recently did: “The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk;” and: “The future of human civilization is at stake” — that’s a bit much, even for the most faded and...

Liberals have done a U-turn on conservative billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens. Formerly reviled for funding the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" campaign against Sen. John Kerry, he's now adored by the Left — unfortunately, for trying to gaslight the rest of us on energy policy. This column recently spotlighted Pickens' proposed plan to get America off foreign oil by substituting wind-generated electricity for natural gas-generated electricity and then using the natural gas to replace gasoline. Already having addressed the proposal's flaws — and Pickens' plan to profit at taxpayer expense from it — let's consider how Pickens' marketing shades...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil's on sale! Okay, not really. At about $124 a barrel, crude is still up substantially from a year ago. But it's down 15% in just a couple of weeks, and the threat of $150 oil has faded for now. The stock market has taken notice. Despite some not-so-great news from many banks, stocks overall have rallied. So why is oil falling? And can it continue to do so? There's a simple answer to the first question: Oil prices are down sharply because oil prices were up sharply. The spike in oil has hurt consumers around...

It's a small passage from Obama's Berlin speech, but this formulation, common in some circles, grates on some ears, like mine: The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.   Yes, the victims were from all over the globe — places like Brooklyn, and the Bronx, and Manhattan, and Queens, and Staten Island, and New Jersey — all over.  And most were Americans, weren't they?  Wasn't that the point of the attack?  This isn't to diminish the loss of anyone on September...

".....the End of the world is already near.....As  this same End of the world is drawing nigh , many unusual things will happen-----climatic changes, terrors from heaven, unseasonable tempests, wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes."    The quotation is from a letter sent by a very famous and influential man to a European head of state. Its author is disclosed at the end of this essay. Climatology is a science. Climatism is an ideology. Climatologists are scientists. Climatists are social or political organizers who abuse climatology in the service of ideologues. Climatology was and still is an investigation of nature. Climatism is the...

Out here in West Texas we love our guns, we support our troops, and we treasure our freedom. We are an independent bunch and -- pardon me, Senator Obama -- fiercely but not bitterly so. We are proud to have our own things to do with as we choose to, as free people of the freest nation in the history of the world. We also walk around on top of oil: yes it’s far beneath us, but it’s there. And all these aspects of West Texas come together to our astonishment and anger over the fact that our independence is...

The first in a three part series on why to vote against Sen. Barack Obama and for Sen. John McCain. Will America elect an inexperienced Chicago machine politician, a radical, extremist, leftist, liberal, elitist, with no legislative or other accomplishments, who has demonstrated he is a world-class flip-flopping zigzagger? Will we go for someone with a painfully thin resume and body of experience, who has already demonstrated bad judgment by his selection of associates (racists, bigots, terrorists, and crooks) and by his output of ideas? This candidate is totally unfit to be our commander-in-chief and president in a time of...

               Now We Know Jennifer Rubin - 07.23.2008 - 10:50 AM Barack Obama has repeatedly expressed puzzlement at how American Jews could be wary of him. At various shuls and before AIPAC he has brought up the email/whispering campaign, his middle name and even the comments of other African-Americans to explain why Jews haven’t all been smitten by the Great Man. The tone, not just from him, but from his blogoshpere friends has often been one of “But how can it be that they doubt him?” Well, now there are plenty of stories...

Iran test launched salvos of missiles capable of reaching most of the Gulf region, Israel, US forces in the region and parts of Europe last week. Senator Obama was asked if he were President and such rockets were shot off what he would do. He explained Bush era failures accounted for the aggressive Iranian action, He then said he would gather intelligence. Then he would reach out, and engage in “tough diplomacy” with Tehran. So there it was, blame America first. But some went beyond the “whose to blame” story and asked a rather reasonable follow-up question. Wouldn’t the Iranian...

We're told the greatness of our nation comes from the satisfaction Americans have in knowing they have a fair and just forum — the courts — in which to make their claims. Hence, all the frivolous or vindictive claims that clog the dockets. Take Robert Robertson of Brooklyn, N.Y. He won a judgment against United Equities Corp. (UEC), so his lawyer, Roberta Felton, went after United Equities Inc. (UEI) with a vengeance, even though UEI is "unrelated to its near namesake," the New York Law Journal reported. UEI lawyers made that fact "crystal clear" to her in phone calls, faxes...

If you want to know how out of touch Congress is on the issue of wasteful spending, listen to Florida Rep. John Mica defend his pork projects: "There's no way in hell I would support banning earmarks. That's our job, getting elected and making decisions." Mr. Mica is the most powerful Republican on the Transportation Committee. The idea that bringing home federal dollars is integral to a politician's job and essential to getting re-elected is a favorite of Republicans and Democrats alike. Three months ago, Hillary Clinton told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, "I'm very proud of my earmarks. It's one...

Maybe you've noticed this, too. The less sure people are of their views, the more inclined they are to name-call, yell and bully. I've noticed this when it comes to religion and politics and life in general, but I've had trouble getting used to it when it comes to science. Science is supposed to be about irreducible facts, the discipline of the scientific method, repeatable experiments, rigorous analysis and solid conclusions rather than sound bites, insults, threats and public relations campaigns. But look at global warming and climate change. The Weather Channel's top climatologist says broadcast meteorologists who voice skepticism...

Not Since 1939 Have So Many Germans Turned Out To Hear A Politician in BerlinBarack Obama is set to speak at the Victory Column in Berlin. The Victory Column commemorates Germany's last military victory over France and Austria in the last 1860's - early 1870's. From that link: Berlin authorities say that as many as a million people could attend. Four TV stations are broadcasting the entire speech, and the rest are scrambling to secure prime locations at the site. Originally, the column was in a different location, but Hitler moved it in 1939 to its present location. He too...

Something very good has just taken place on a college campus. After a two-year ordeal orchestrated by a group of mutinous faculty members, the Ave Maria School of Law has been given a clean bill of health by the American Bar Association and can continue with its work. I spoke on the campus last autumn and departed burdened by gloom. I feared the mutineers might win. They were the typical professorial grumblers, and such unhappy philistines so often have the upper hand on campuses. Truth be known, I spend very little time on college campuses. The life of the mind...

Looks like Sen. Christopher Dodd needs to re-recast his story about his dealings with Countrywide Financial. In June, portfolio.com revealed he and other bigwigs got discounted loans from Countrywide under the "Friends of Angelo" program, named for and run by CEO Angelo Mozilo. Sen. Dodd initially denied getting the VIP treatment when he and his wife refinanced two mortgages in 2003. But he later changed his lie, admitting Countrywide had extended them VIP loans, not because he was on the Senate Banking Committee, but because they browbeat a flunky loan officer into lowering the rates. But that lie doesn't jibe...

Dear Friend: Thank you for contacting me regarding high gasoline prices. I appreciate the opportunity to hear your views on this important issue, and I share your concerns. Gasoline prices reached an all-time high this year, and costs for food and other basic necessities are rising drastically. As millions of Americans struggle under this increasing burden, oil companies continue to report massive, record-breaking profits - $123 billion last year alone. This is unacceptable, and I want to assure you that I am working hard to lower prices and protect Americans from price gouging. I am proud to be an original...

We have been bracing for the list of closings, and it was finally revealed: 27 Starbucks outlets will be shuttered in Minnesota, leaving only 45,234. Hasta barista, baby. The effect on the Twin Cities will be light -- the average citizen will still be within six minutes of a $4 cup of coffee at all times. Productivity will not suffer as people slump over at their desks from lack of jitter-juice. The people you have to pity -- aside from the employees, who probably can't fill a bathtub now without thinking "room for cream?" and won't soon find another job...

Jon asked me to comment on the debate over the "water" bond currently being proposed in the Legislature. Since there really is no water bond being proposed, the debate is a false one. We are already in a water crisis it is true. Democrats have done nothing to alleviate that crisis since sometime in Jerry Brown administration in the 70's, that is true as well. About 6 bonds have passed since 1996 claiming to be water bonds, and they got Republican votes to get on the ballot because somewhere in the language of the bond, someone wrote the word water....

According to the most recent Rasmussen survey, "49 percent of voters believe most reporters will try to help the Democrat with their coverage ... Just 14 percent believe most reporters will try to help Mr. McCain ... a plurality of Democrats - 37 percent - say most reporters try to offer unbiased coverage of the campaign. Twenty-seven percent believe most reporters are trying to help Mr. Obama and 21 percent in Mr. Obama's party think reporters are trying to help the Republican candidate. Among Republicans, 78 percent believe reporters are trying to help Mr. Obama and 10 percent see most...

In a Washington speech last week, former Vice President Al Gore argued that America can produce "affordable" 100 percent carbon-free electricity within 10 years. My question: Why not five years? As long as Gore sees virtue in proposing completely unrealistic solutions - as in moving America from getting 3 percent to all of its electricity from renewable energy sources in a mere decade - wouldn't five years be twice as good? And it matters that Gore is all wet - because the longer Washington pols live in energy la-la land, the loonier and more costly America's energy situation becomes. For...

How is it possible that chronic behavioral malcontent George Miley assaulted a female police officer three weeks ago, but only ended up spending four days in jail? After all, his July 6 attack on Officer Lisa Frazer was followed by his 106th arrest since 2001. Most everyone says the system for punishing quality-of-life crimes like public drunkenness and aggressive panhandling is broken in San Francisco, but Miley seems like an extraordinary case. How can he be on the streets today? The answer is both complicated and simple: Lenient San Francisco juries, clogged courts, and judges who are more willing to...

Republicans have no lack of would-be George F. Wills. But what they really need are some more Robert D. Novaks. The distinction between the two prominent conservative journalists isn't always obvious, but it's nevertheless important to understand: One almost exclusively writes opinion pieces, while the other offers reportage with a point of view. The same might be said of the emerging differences between the conservative presence on the Internet and the liberal one: The right is engaged in the business of opining while the left features sites that offer a more reportorial model. At first glance, these divergent approaches might...

ANTIWAR HYPOCRITES NO MORE 'BRING THE TROOPS HOME' by Ralph Peters AM I the only one who's noticed the silence? Mere months ago, left-wing bloggers and demonstrators were wailing Support our troops, bring them home! seven days a week. Now their presidential candidate has announced that he won't bring all those troops home, but will simply transfer combat forces from Iraq to Afghanistan - expanding that war. (He's discussed possibly invading Pakistan, too.) And the left's quiet as a graveyard at midnight. Where are the outraged protests from MoveOn or the DailyKos? I thought the extreme left felt sorry for...

  Senior Fellow  John R. Bolton   "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," once wrote Mark Twain. "Greatly exaggerated" also described the repeated, periodic predictions of American decline. Indeed, from the very moment of Independence, there have been those predicting America's demise, decline or irrelevance. The only variation is whether the eclipse of the United States will be produced by its own shortcomings or the unmatchable superiority of those doing the eclipsing. Betting against the United States--a sport even many Americans engage in--may be popular, but is has never proven profitable. Nor will it as long...

Tehran's Winning Streak July 24, 2008 The Washington Times To no one's surprise, international talks about Iran's nuclear program ended in failure again on July 19 despite the Bush administration's decision to reverse course and send the No. 3 official in the State Department, Undersecretary of State William Burns, to Geneva to negotiate. American, European and even Iranian negotiators all praised the talks. Western diplomats pointed to what the New York Times referred to as "a rare show of unity" among the United States and its five negotiating partners - Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - in urging Iran...

Stirring the Pot July 24, 2008 The New Republic Shmuel Rosner Will Israel bomb its way to the table? Israeli politicians have suggested for years that they might attack Iran, but, lately, they seem to be dropping more hints than usual. At the beginning of June, Israel's deputy prime minister, Shaul Mofaz, flatly told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that, if Iran continues its nuclear program, Israel "will attack it." Mofaz's comments struck many observers as more political than substantial--one of the things an ambitious Israeli leader does to bolster his odds of becoming the next prime minister. But the...

Why Bother with Iran Negotiations? July 24, 2008 crosswalk.com Cal Thomas The so-called international community and the American left had pressured the Bush administration to talk to Iran about its nuclear program. Barack Obama says he would negotiate with leaders of regimes like Iran and North Korea. The futility, even stupidity, of such a move was revealed following a meeting with the head of Iran’s nuclear program by the State Department’s William Burns. The Iranians rejected any and all offers to change their nuclear objectives. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday Iran would not yield in pursuit of its nuclear ambitions...

During his days doing stand-up in the 1960s, Bill Cosby recorded a track for one of his comedy albums about the American Revolution. As only Cosby could tell it, he spun a hilarious version of “the rules” for how the war for American independence was to be fought. The British, Cosby said, had to wear pattred and march in slow, straight lines, making them targets for the colonists, who were allowed to wear drab clothing that blended into the landscape and who could hide behind hills, trees and rocks as they took aim. It is a bit like this year’s...

Medicare pays doctors for specific services. If a patient has a checkup that includes an X-ray, a urine analysis and a physical, Medicare pays the doctor three separate fees. Each fee is meant to reimburse the doctor for the time and skill he or she devotes to the patient. But it is also supposed to pay for overhead, and this is where the problem begins. To Medicare, a doctor’s overhead (or “practice expense”) includes such items as rent, staff salaries and the cost of high-tech medical equipment. When the agency pays a fee to a doctor who has performed a...