http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/editorial-news/ en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:40:38 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051564/posts If you read, watch and hear the media describe the campaign of 2008, it appears to be the most one-sided contest since Reagan trounced Mondale in 1984. McCain always comes across as borderline senile, lethargic, and pitiful while Obama is awash in media heroics and theatrical flourishes. But the race is still basically tied according to the polls. While Obama has gotten a four point bounce, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, from his European trip and the adulatory response of the left-leaning German crowds, the two candidates have been within one or two points of each other for the... Dick Morris Website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051564/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:40:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051550/posts Something’s better than nothing but the disappointment is palpable: “Everyone was excited about Obama’s visit. It’s a shame.” After googling around for details about what happened, precisely, I think John McCormack at the Standard has it right. It wasn’t the absence of media that led Obama to cancel the trip, it was the fact that two of his top military advisors, most notably Ret. Gen. Gration, couldn’t go with him because they’re technically campaign personnel and DoD regs prohibit political campaigning at military bases. Why Obama simply didn’t leave the two of them behind and make the trip anyway, your... hotair.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051550/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:57:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051543/posts When folks in Washington want to find out what's on the mind of the American people, they tune in to CNN or Fox News and listen to the best of the Washington talking heads. Not me. I have breakfast at my favorite diner in Eufaula, my hometown in Oklahoma. Last week, the folks at J.M.s Restaurant weren't talking about senators Obama and McCain, or the fact the Iraqi government has al Qaeda on the run. They were talking about energy prices. They were talking about the fact it costs $80 to fill up their cars and $120 to fill up... The Pahrump Valley Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051543/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:38:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051526/posts America is at the Mall by Bridget Geegan Blanton Several months ago I came across a photo while online that appeared to have been taken inside a military installation quite possibly in a theater of war. The photo was simple yet poignant. In the background was the indistinct image of a Marine dressed in camouflage entering the room from the outside and in the foreground the photographer zeroed in on the side of a refrigerator. Three sentences written on the side of the refrigerator constituted the single most riveting feature of the photo. The statement was brief, to the point... National Writers Syndicate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051526/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:39:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051522/posts The headline on the website of German magazine Der Spiegel about Barack Obama's speech in Berlin: "Huge Crowds Left with Mixed Feelings." Two hundred thousand turned out for the speech, but CNN's Candy Crowley reported an "absence of euphoria" at the event. As Senator Obama went global with "Yes, we can" and "Change we can believe in" he left at least some of the horde in Berlin scratching their heads. Perhaps these Germans, out to hear what all the excitement was about, were looking for leadership and substance rather than kumbaya. What they got was the global version of "There... Scripps Howard News Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051522/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:28:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051515/posts Sen. Obama's delivered a crucial speech in Berlin on July 24. Find the missing words. This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we... Israel Insider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051515/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:15:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051514/posts Scientists Debate Moving Polar Bears to Antarctica as Arctic MeltsJuly 24, 2008 Scientists are obviously reaching a point of true desperation. While the world still debates whether climate change is even real (eye roll), the scientific community is coming back to an idea that was once considered wrongheaded and dangerous: moving species to new areas of the world as their natural habitats become inhabitable. First up: moving the polar bears to the other side of the globe. From Wired: Caught between climate change and human pressure, species are going extinct 100 times faster than at any point in human history.... Earth First http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051514/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:14:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051512/posts Homeland Security: Forced to defend its growing terrorist watch list, the FBI let slip a chilling fact that should silence ACLU grumblers: America is teeming with 20,000 terrorists.After 9/11, federal authorities estimated that as many as 5,000 terrorists were living in the U.S. The new figure is jarring not only because it's four times as large but because it's based on real persons, not estimates. It's not something headquarters wanted to publicize. Officials had downplayed the threat so as not to spook the public. The spin had been that Britain has the homegrown problem, not us. But that was before... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051512/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:12:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051505/posts Geopolitics: As Barack Obama luxuriated in the adoration of Europeans, a less charming leader was also making his way across the Continent, seeking arms and military bases to direct toward the United States.What happened under the radar last week ought to have gotten more attention, because it's the beginning of a problem that will carry well into the next administration. While Obama was drawing applause in Germany, Venezuela's hostile and anti-American president, Hugo Chavez, was conducting a stealthy parallel trip across Europe spending billions of petrodollars on weapons of war he doesn't need. In Russia, he vowed to buy $1... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051505/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:51:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051501/posts Leadership: When it comes to giving relief at the pump by drilling for more oil, this is truly a "do-nothing" Democratic Congress. President Bush should give 'em hell like Harry Truman did.Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution states that the president "may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses" of Congress. On more than two dozen occasions in our history, presidents have done just that, forcing the Senate and House of Representatives to meet on extraordinary matters of defense or economic peril. Sixty years ago this month, President Truman called such a special session to shame into action what he... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051501/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:42:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051499/posts Don't Be Afraid of the Drive-BysJuly 25, 2008 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We'll start in Ava Maria, Florida. This is Andy. Thank you, sir, for waiting. I appreciate your patience. You're up first. CALLER: Mega Ava Maria and Army veteran dittos, Rush. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: I'm a bit nervous. I can't believe I actually got through. I've been trying to for 13 years. RUSH: Well, congratulations, sir. CALLER: I just went over to grab lunch earlier and unfortunately I caught a CNN broadcast. They were reporting that 85% of the French polled would vote Obama over McCain if they... Rush Limbaugh .com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051499/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:40:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051490/posts There was a spring in Barack Obama's step and a sense of heady excitement in the air as he took to the stage beside Berlin's Victory column for his latest Big Speech. Members of his expansive entourage could have been forgiven for dreaming about the West Wing offices they will occupy in January. By any yardstick, the first half of the Illinois senator's foreign tour was everything his campaign staff had wished for and a little bit more. Wherever he went, world leaders wanted to bask in his reflected glory as the presumed next president. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of... Real Clear Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051490/posts#comment Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:23:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051139/posts Radical optimism is America’s contribution to the world. The early settlers thought America’s founding would bring God’s kingdom to earth. John Adams thought America would emancipate “the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush preached their own gospels of world democracy. The great illusion of the 1990s was that we were entering an era of global convergence in which politics and power didn’t matter. What Obama offered in Berlin flowed right out of this mind-set. This was the end of history on acid. Since then, autocracies have arisen, the competition for resources has... NYTimes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051139/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:55:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051458/posts The conservative nightmare (and liberal dream) is an Obama Court requiring taxpayers to fund essentially unlimited abortion rights throughout pregnancy; ordering all 50 states to bless gay marriage; expanding and perpetuating the use of racial preferences far beyond the 25-year phaseout suggested by the justices five years ago; prohibiting tuition vouchers for religious schools; stripping "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance; banning the death penalty; striking down the new federal wiretap law; expanding judicial oversight of military detentions, CIA interrogations, and perhaps other operations worldwide; opening the floodgates to big-dollar lawsuits against business; eroding property rights; and perhaps creating... National Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051458/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:13:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051445/posts What we really need from the climate modelers is an accurate 50-year projection of global politics. Will people believe the computer's dire prophecy enough to change their lifestyles? While we wait for 50 million lines of code to reveal the supposed future, consider how things look to one very knowledgeable energy analyst, Vinod K. Dar, who runs Dar & Company, a consultant to the energy industry, in Bethesda, Md. What follows is my own gloss on Dar's analysis. Everything he says, however, squares with all that I've seen and learned in the 30 years I've watched energy markets here and... Forbes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051445/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:44:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051442/posts As immortalized by C-SPAN, here’s the incident I had in mind yesterday in writing about the Berlin speech. Click the image and scroll down to chapter 17 to watch. In fairness to the left, no one except the most embarrassing, slackjawed Obama disciples went as far as to compare the speech to the Gettysburg Address. And of course it’s not the case that Lincoln’s speech was universally recognized as a masterpiece immediately afterwards. But it’s surely true that Barry O aspires to Lincolnesque heights of oratory, in which case I humbly offer two bits of advice. One: When you’re hunting... hotair.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051442/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:38:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051414/posts An American presidential candidate travels to the very center of Europe and draws a huge cheering crowd. George W. Bush obviously could never do that. Nor could John McCain. For the many Americans sick to death of eight years of confrontation and quarrelling with friends and allies, Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin presented an exciting and hopeful picture. This is how things should be! It was a great moment — so long as you viewed it with the sound off. But if you listened to the speech, you heard an ominous and disturbing statement, one that raises the same unsettling... National Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051414/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:46:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051390/posts Obama’s behavior toward American troops in Germany was so egregious, even the New York Times this morning is picking up the story. The Times writes, “It wasn’t perfectly clear whether the Pentagon asked the Obama campaign to cancel the trip outright or the campaign decided on its own -- after quiet pressure from military officials -- that a political trip to the base was inappropriate.” “The trip” was a scheduled trip to visit American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, one of the world’s largest military hospitals. Initially, Obama claimed it would be inappropriate because he was in... humanevents.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051390/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:11:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051369/posts Thank you for that kind introduction and warm welcome. I want to begin by talking about an issue in this campaign that I know concerns you as it concerns all Americans: the war in Iraq. Thankfully, the news from Iraq today is much more encouraging than I could have reported to you last year. Eighteen months ago, America faced a crisis as profound as any in our history. Iraq was in flames, torn apart by violence that was escaping our control. Al Qaeda was succeeding in what Osama bin Laden called the central front in their war against us. The... realclearpolitics.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051369/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:41:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051353/posts The Democratic Party that existed during my childhood and through early adulthood bore little or no resemblance to what it has become. In earlier times being a Democrat identified one as a proud, God-inspired American with intense traditional values, true love of country, belief in a strong, cohesive family unit, hard work, self-reliance, dedication to constitutional norms, equality and respect for others. Today, however, the party I once knew seems to say forget religious beliefs, forget the right to defend one's self, forget about hard work, just let working taxpayers provide, and disavow longheld moral decency standards as being irrelevant... The Belleville News-Democrat, Belleville, IL http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051353/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:11:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051332/posts As most of Washington met last week to fret over the economy, Harry Reid was attending a less-noticed summit. The Senate majority leader had summoned the titans of more than a dozen industry trade groups to a Capitol Hill meeting, where he delivered a crisp message: Get with our program, or get demolished. Anyone remember the "K Street Project"? Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and conservative activist Grover Norquist designed it to pressure the business community into hiring GOP lobbyists, supporting GOP causes, and giving money to GOP candidates. The press was shocked, shocked, to discover such behavior, and... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051332/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:42:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051304/posts Was the Pentagon's exclusion of Obama foreign policy advisor Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, USAF (Ret.) from Barack Obama's planned visit with wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany the reason for Obama's cancellation of the visit?Piecing together the information being reported in various news outlets points in that direction.Der Spiegel first reported the story in a brief note on their live thread on Obama's visit to Berlin yesterday morning (EDT). Free Republic was the first to pick up the story. From there it was picked up by Hot Air, then spread through the blogosphere and into the the... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051304/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:56:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051296/posts Wagner’s music is actually better than it sounds, Mark Twain liked to joke. The same can’t be said for Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign speech Thursday in Berlin. Obama’s speech fell flat. It amounts to an unforced error, perhaps prompted by the need to score another historic “first,” like Obama’s embarrassing claim at the outset that “I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.” As Victor Davis Hanson points out nearby, two distinguished blacks have served as secretary of State, representing the U.S. at the highest diplomatic level in Europe and around the... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051296/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:42:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051278/posts In the late 19th century, crusading journalists helped identify and correct some of the worst problems American society faced at that time. Newspapers like The New York Times and the New York World and journals like Harper's Weekly and Cosmopolitan (a very different kind of magazine than it is today) led campaigns that exposed and helped eliminate problems ranging from the sale of patent medicines to corruption in city government. Newspaper and magazine sales soared - and publishers knew a good thing when they saw it. If stories exposing evil sold papers - why, give the public what it wants;... Aberdeen American News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051278/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:08:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051193/posts (Second part of a three-part series) Here are more reasons to vote against Barack Obama. This part and the first part of the series, which ran on Thursday, can be found on The Bulletin's Web site at www.thebulletin.us. * This different kind of politician is different in still another way besides changing his mind on issues faster than any other politician in history. He doesn't want to be criticized, and doesn't respond to it. When criticized for associating with an anti-American, racist pastor or an unrepentant terrorist, he tries to fob that all off by saying that's the old politics.... The Bulletin http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051193/posts#comment Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:39:37 GMT