Free Republic

These columns now appear in print in the Canyon News, 20,000 copies weekly in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu and 12 other L.A. communities. A high proportion of those folks could readily turn "The No Bullsh*t News" into reality. Consider the Sunday news programs. Reporters pretend to ask relevant questions; politicians pretend to answer them. The reporters throw softballs to guests they agree with, or goad political opponents into making unfortunate statements. A minor slip of the tongue gets play if it fits a headline. Who takes these frauds seriously? Guests try to avoid "committing news in a public place." The...

This is an open letter (read open wound) to those business people not engaged in the business of serving me and my fellow consumers - we who are as vital to their continued survival as tax dodges, buyable politicians and oxygen: Please stop offending me with that fatuous flatulence about how momentous an event it is when I place a call to you. Although time has dimmed the light of my memory, I clearly recall the kinder, gentler and more considerate days when I picked up the telephone and almost instantly spoke to a fellow humanoid to whom I could...

To: Congressman Jeff Miller Member, House Armed Services Committee Key thought: As Violence Deepens, So Does Pessimism By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, May 18, 2004; Page A01 BAGHDAD, May 17 -- With stunning brazenness, pinpoint timing and devastating force, the suicide car bomber who killed the head of Iraq's Governing Council on Monday gave shape to a feeling among Iraqi and U.S. officials and common citizens that the country is almost unmanageable. Dear Congressman Miller: By now, I hope those with power in Congress are disabused of any fantasy that the Iraqis are “just like us,” but...

The images of the American guards at Abu Ghraib Prison posing for the camera all the while grinning at the plight of their charges was a disgusting display of ignorance, perversion and inhumanity. One photo shows a young female soldier while sporting a wide grin, pointing in the direction of the genitals of a naked male prisoner; another photo shows the same grinning female displaying a big thumbs up in front of a human pyramid of naked men. Judging from her appearance and facial expression, one might conclude that she is some kind of sexual pervert who had never seen...

There is a business in my hometown that spends literally millions of dollars each year on advertising and promoting future sales. If they would spend a few dollars to improving customer support they would increase there their bottom line revenue by a factor greater than they could ever realize. I am talking about my area cable services provider. This company spends massive amounts of money getting new customers and then they feel that a 5+ minute hold while waiting for a representative to answer the telephone in completely acceptable. If you hold long enough you will eventually get a representative...

I remember quite well the very last time I saw General Vann. He was home from the war and I had dropped by to visit Pete. He told me not to go downstairs and to just stay in the living room. This was rather new to me. General Vann came out to see us a few times and to talk to the family. He liked to have his tea in the living room at the coffee table. I didn’t see who was there and knew I didn’t want to look either. A day or two later Pete and I were...

I moved away from Columbine Knolls many years ago and seldom return since everyone else did the same thing. I get in touch with Pete once in a while and it won’t surprise some of you but he certainly isn’t a liberal. He grew up the day of the funeral in many ways. Many years after moving away from Colorado I picked my wife up from work at the ammo plant nearby and she asked me a strange question. “Who was that guy you used to know who was the top guy in Vietnam?” “Why?” “The guy I work for...

The years and the war drifted by as I attempted to grow up. Over those years I met General Vann numerous times. I was always over there it seemed. He always greeted me warmly with a handshake and a ‘how are you doing, Rick?’ He already knew how I was doing. My parents liked Pete quite a bit but as they said, the two of us were great kids as long as we weren’t together. When the two of us got together it was usually a bad thing. I’m pretty certain that was what he thought. I didn’t get to...

Last week my article received some rather heated emails. So here is a quick response to those. Yes Eisenhower put advisors in Vietnam (1954) before Kennedy ever came along. The first American death in Vietnam, however, was one Lt. Col Dewey OSS in 1945. That was during WWII under Roosevelt as we assisted Ho Chi Minh oust the Japanese from Vietnam. Several people told me I would find a way to blame the Democrats for the whole mess and as you can see I did. Truman also kept up the same game, but assisting the French against Ho Chi Minh...

The primary reason the liberals are attempting to use the image of Vietnam is that it is an image that conjures war without end. Kerry recently got together with twelve disgruntled Veterans in a diner for a photo-op regarding the veteran’s benefits and how atrocious they are. Before I mention that Kerry was there as Judas Iscariot I need to mention one very important thing. Kerry is in favor of universal healthcare. Current veteran’s benefits are exactly what that program would look like, too. Veteran’s benefits are government anything: A mess! I was going to mention that Judas Iscariot thing...

Why I’m Not Running in 2004 Mark Twain frequently used the title quote to introduce himself to civic associations where he spoke. It seemed the proper beginning to an article about Congress in general, and about why I am not running for the House – in 2004. The “trade” that Twain referred to was extracting ill-gotten gains from the unsuspecting public. Eight years after the first Americans established our new government under the Constitution, we divided into two major political parties: the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Both they and their allied newspaper editors then turned the denigration of their congressional...

The release of the photos of Iraqi prisoners being “tortured” by American service personnel has set off the predicted media feeding frenzy, to which no end is in sight. This incident has provided the “smoking gun” that was all the media and their friends on the Left needed to “prove” how duplicitous and dishonest America is. In Australia, writer Andrew Bolt reported on outrageous remarks made by various media types. The head of ABC’s 7.30 report, Kerry O’Brien, said, “This is exactly the type of brutality you would say the coalition liberated Iraq from.” ABC presenter George Negus reported that...

It seems that all the pundits and politicos are in an outrage over the abuse of the prisoners of war in Iraq and rightly so. The treatment of anyone, enemy combatant or not, should never drop to that of the lowest common denominator. To its credit, the United States military has brought charges against those responsible, have been conducting investigations and making arrests with regard to reports of abuse for well over a year. They are doing things by the book, by standard operating procedure, as it should be. But through all of this one thing has been blatantly obvious,...

My wife made the mistake of watching an awards ceremony for one of her former favorite actors. That would be Richard Gere. She watched in mild amusement as he did his little bow and hand thing displaying reverence, I assume, to the gathered elite. The whole show was done in a rather light-hearted manner until the end. Richard Gere talked about how it is wrong to have a President who thinks the Lord is only on his side. He also said they all need to work together to fix that ‘problem’. Who does he think he is kidding? I have...

I read numerous online news sources on a daily basis, and I check many of them more than once throughout the day. And so it was that I heard the news of Pat Tillman's death sooner, perhaps, than many. As I read the sketchy details and looked at the photo of Tillman in his proud Ranger uniform, tears came to my eyes. In just a few words and with a single photo, I felt his loss. Oh, certainly it was the merest shadow of the loss his family must feel, but it was a loss none-the-less. Within hours, more details...

Should the worse case scenario happen if John Kerry is elected President of the United States, his wife Theresa Heinz Kerry will be representing our country as the First Lady. Since she will be in the public eye, it is prudent to understand the woman who would be residing in the White House for the next four years. Here are some of the ways she views her world. She has been quoted, "Another thing that drives me crazy, and I hope I don't offend anyone here, is WAL-MART," "They destroy communities."1 Although Mrs. Kerry holds one million dollars of Wal...

In their unholy war for power, liberals and Democrats along with their comrades in the media have begun the propaganda drumbeat to convince voters that Iraq is becoming this generations twenty-first century Vietnam. If Iraq becomes another Vietnam, it won’t be for reasons proffered from the left. Vietnam may have been a low point in American history but it wasn’t a military failure, our troops won every major battle. The war was lost when the left successfully convinced the American public it wasn’t worth fighting, the cost was too high, and more importantly, our military was corrupt and could not...

I am having a little bit of a problem with the elite media today, the elite media and the liberal left. I know, when don't I have a problem with them, right? But today I believe even the most pro-media/pro-liberal among us would have to agree that there is a massive contradiction playing out in the headlines. I am talking about the retreat of a few of the more pusillanimous countries that have made up the coalition of the willing to date and the response to it. With the Dominican Republic's announced withdrawal of their contribution to the coalition forces...

"There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism." --Alexander Hamilton I wonder how many people in the United States have visited the gravesites of soldiers who fought in wars representing our country. It is a very sobering experience to actually read the epitaphs written in memorial to the men who would willingly put their own lives in harms way in order to extend or preserve the freedom of others. These men - sometimes women and, in some cases, children serving as drummers during revolutionary and civil war eras...

"There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism." --Alexander Hamilton I wonder how many people in the United States have visited the gravesites of soldiers who fought in wars representing our country. It is a very sobering experience to actually read the epitaphs written in memorial to the men who would willingly put their own lives in harms way in order to extend or preserve the freedom of others. These men - sometimes women and, in some cases, children serving as drummers during revolutionary and civil war eras...

I cannot tell you how many emails I have gotten from Vietnam veterans who are disgusted with John Kerry. Some are disgusted because of the anti-war stance he took after his service in the Navy and others are disgusted by his shameless promotion of his exploits while "in-country" during his abbreviated tour of duty. But what I am hearing from most of them was summed up quite succinctly by a Marine - I dare not say ex-Marine because as I have been told in no uncertain terms, once a Marine always a Marine - from Palm Bay, Florida by the...

"Only a communist would talk as though health insurance and a college education ought to be available at a certain cost as a person's birthright. This is totalitarian collectivist nonsense at its worst. The United States is a constitutional republic. Kerry is running for office in the wrong country." The Federalist 04-15 Digest President George W. Bush would like to see all Americans have access to high quality and affordable health care. This is a noble goal. In a capitalist economy it's reasonable to believe that this can be done through choice and competition. Capitalism promotes innovation, cost control, and...

“Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.” – A. Sachs Almost everyone knows about New Jersey’s infamous Bear hunt this past winter. Any way you look at it, it appears to be a simple method of population control. However, there were some New Jerseyans who thought this hunt was very “controversial”. I don’t know why a number of people think it’s a conflicting issue; many states allow hunts like this go on all the time. So what makes New Jersey so special that hunting bear becomes a “controversial” issue? Are we trying too hard to...

Is the War in Iraq becoming like the War in Vietnam once was? No, if you look at the facts on the blood cost of the war. Yes, if you’re still stuck in the tie-died mind set of Woodstock. To explain: A number of apparently reputable media outlets in the United States have fostered the equation of Iraq equals Vietnam by breathlessly reporting of late that “US casualties in Iraq have reached levels not seen since Vietnam.” This demonstrates both historical ignorance and political bias. The bias is intended to promote the “quagmire” merchants. But the facts are far easier...

RINO: An acronym for "Republican In Name Only." A confused creature most commonly found in the United States Senate. For more information, see "Olympia Snowe," "Lincoln Chafee" and especially "Arlen Specter." At some point, George W. Bush and his chief political advisor, Karl Rove, apparently decided that supporting so-called "mainstream" Republicans, without regard to their political ideology, was a wise political strategy. I cannot imagine why, since their previous endorsements of liberal Republicans have been embarrassing disasters. They did it in the 2002 California governor's primary by endorsing former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a pro-abortion, big-government liberal, over a...

“Hope is not a strategy,” stated Jim Paxon at the recent Forest Health conference Governor Janet Napolitano held in Prescott, Arizona. Everyone across the West has been relying on this strategy of hope along with praying for rain. Unfortunately, progress in addressing forest health issues is proceeding in a tortuous manner. More funds are spent on studies, plans, meetings and court cases than on actual forest restoration. Sandy Bahr representing the Sierra Club has been present at the Arizona State Capital this week to register her vote of opposition to a bill sponsored by Representative Cheryl Chase, (D) Kearney and...

Since the beginning of the War on Terror, liberals have appealed to the "better senses" of our leaders to incorporate a broad, United Nations based, coalition to combat our enemies in the world. This coalition would grant "legitimacy" to our efforts, while invoking the spirit of multi-lateralism and global hegemony. These ideological opportunists include the likes of Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, former Vice President Al Gore, and presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry. After all, who would be against having multi-lateral support backed up by the almighty UN? We would gain a great deal from it. European nations, who...

John Kerry has based his claim of economic malfeasance by President Bush on the assertion that “three million jobs have been lost” on his watch. The original claim was 2.7 million jobs lost, but the quarrel here is not over the rounding up to an even three million. Ed McMahon has established over the last four decades that the Kerry claim is false. We’ll get back to McMahon in a moment. First a dose of statistics. The Department of Labor has a long and well-earned reputation for accuracy in its statistical analyses. But it has three different ways of measuring...

Liberal activist Barbara Streisand has gone on record accusing President Bush of being inept in the War on Terror. Citing the one side of the two-sided testimony given by disgruntled ex-employee and opportunist Richard Clarke as the truth, Streisand conveniently forgets that her hero, Bill Clinton, did nothing but lob cruise missiles at our foes from afar…or is that from a fairway. "Finally ... finally we can talk about what's really going on. Rather than accept the myth that 9/11 turned President Bush into a "hero" ... former counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke has bravely spoken out to tell us the...

As Carrie Bradshaw, the perky, always well-heeled lead character of “Sex and the City” fame, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, might write, “Can a conservative woman truly be a fan of a raunchy cable show that glorifies all things liberal?” Hold on to your Kate Spade handbag, Ms. Parker, cause the answer is going to blow your mind. This is going to come as a serious shock to some folks, but there were a number of conservative women who were rabid fans of the racy HBO series, “Sex and the City” and truly mourn the recent production finale. It was...

Coming back from his luxurious, Idaho-ski resort vacation, John Kerry has hit the ground running with his campaign message of outsourcing and job loss. In a speech given at a rally in St. Louis, Kerry revealed that over the next few weeks, he will be unveiling a jobs plan, expected to produce millions new jobs in the first year of his would be presidency. To create all of these new jobs, Kerry plans to raise tax rates on middle and upper income earners-some $900 billion according to several estimates-to redistribute wealth through a series of public works programs. This New...

So get this: I'm getting married in August. It's true. In fact, I've been planning the wedding for more than a year; I just never thought to write about it before. So why am I writing about it now? Well, because it's occurred to me I'm marrying not one but two -- yes, two -- people. The first is someone I've known and loved for almost six years. She's nice. I think you'd like her. The second, however, is someone I don't know, someone I don't love, and someone who won't even be at the wedding. His name is Jim...

Lately there have been a lot of rumblings and rantings about what will Government do about creating jobs. This demonstrates the damage done by the liberal media more than about anything else I have read. First it has been the liberal mantra lately that Bush should do more to create jobs. Bush doesn’t and can’t create jobs unless they happen to be ‘Robin Hood shaft those that work, for the sake of those’ that don’t programs. Where is he going to get the money to make jobs in the first place? What kind of jobs could they possibly be for...

The first article I noticed on page one as I picked up my Sunday paper this week was about the ugly topic of child abuse. The headline read: "Cases Pile Up For Already Overworked Child Advocates." It told the sad tale of abused and neglected children in Omaha, Nebraska. It also detailed the day-to-day heartache of twenty full-time investigators who see their workload grow by five new cases each week, and for every case that is investigated, there are many that are not. In fact, the article estimated that an additional 6,000 reports should have been investigated from 1999 through...

"Prior to the rise of whole language methods of teaching children to read, nearly all children mastered the skill of reading without undue difficulty. In the 3-4 decades between 1960-5 and 1995-2000 the methodology employed for the teaching of reading (not only in Australia but also in America and Britain) was changed, with disastrous outcomes. Between 25 and 40% of children were graduating from high school in a condition described as functionally illiterate. More significantly, even while the gap between the top performers and the lost children increased exponentially, the high achievers were under-challenged." 1 Having graduated in l990 with...

We need NASA's investigation skills in D.C., not just on Mars. Here's why: Last week NASA had their second major announcement of discoveries from the two Mars Rovers. The major news services carried the headline that NASA scientists had discovered not only that there had been water on the Red Planet, but that it once had at least one ocean. It was a salty body of water that eventually evaporated, but could have supported life at one time, like similar bodies of water on Earth. As a former physicist, I was interested not just in the conclusion but in HOW...

Last Friday, Rush Limbaugh played clips of two “grieving 9/11 widows” who objected to President Bush’s use of 9/11 imagery in his first campaign ads. Strangely, the women used almost the same exact phrases in describing their anger at Bush, and they repeated the phrases verbatim on four different networks. They simultaneously accused Bush of “stonewalling” the 9/11 commission. They opined that the ads should show President Bush in “a classroom, reading to schoolchildren because that was what he was really doing.” And, they commented that the “murders of 3,000 people happened on his watch.” Interestingly enough, the “3,000 people...

This month, a certain industrial business in my town is gearing up to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The celebrations will be subdued, however, because business isn't what it used to be and the company is struggling. Adding insult to injury, many of the company's employees are currently out on strike, and we can expect whatever celebrations there may still be to be marred by protest signs and shouting workers. Another area manufacturer has had financial problems as well, and there have been rumors of relocating the work to Mexico. At a time when the employees should be coming together and...

Now that private firearm ownership is banned in Australia, criminals have taken to swords and knives to exercise their violent criminal acts. The Aussie government, showing both their cowardice and maliciousness, have now banned the private ownership of swords and knives. They cite the same tired old reasons and use the same tactics that gun-banners have used for years. Self-defense-banners claim that no one really needs to be walking around with a knife. They have instituted a registration program to exempt collectors and the culturally protected from the ban. And although a few may be exempted from the knife ban,...

From the very beginning of this election cycle it has been clear, the divide between the American people with respect to our political culture is wider than it was for the 2000 election. Ever since the controversial Supreme Court decision that concluded George W. Bush won the 2000 Presidential Election, what should have been the final word for all to accept, there have been those from the party that preaches tolerance for all who have embraced intolerance at a level seldom seen. For a brief moment after the September 11th attacks it almost seemed as though our country left the...

John Kerry is a walking contradiction. He hasn't held a steady position on any major issue in his entire record of public service. Now it seems that his past is really coming back to haunt him. Of all the explanations John Kerry should give to the American people, I'll settle for three. First of all, in case you haven't heard, foreign leaders from across the globe have endorsed John Kerry. Well, that is, if you ask the senator. You see, several days ago, Kerry, when speaking before a group of Floridians on the campaign trail, decided it was time to...

Richard Agans is not only more competent than your average bear, he’s more competent than your average Congresscritter, your average White House Press Corps member, and your average university professor. Who is Richard, I hear you cry? Why, he’s a Baggage Agent for Delta Airlines, that’s who. Allow me to illustrate my point. The members of my family, and occasionally me too, refer to me as “the Big Dummy.” Usually it’s meant in jest, but every joke must be rooted in truth or it doesn’t work. And I demonstrated the truth of this label Monday of last week in Washington-Reagan...

It was not all that long ago that Gallup had Senator John Kerry polling at an abysmal 9% nationwide, in the single digit cellar with the likes of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley Braun, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. {WWW.gallup.com/content/?ci=10687} The 9% reflects a January 9-11 sampling of 426 Democrats who seemed about as enamored with Senator Kerry as a canary would be with the cat. However, in just three short weeks from that date, Senator Kerry went from invisible to invincible, leading all remaining Democrats at 49%. By that time, Mr. Kerry had pulled off the twin victories of...

If one accepts the view that the criteria for presidential greatness is the ability to confound one's political opponents by stealing their issues and outsmarting them at virtually every turn, then New York Post columnist and political author John Podhoretz makes a convincing case for the premise of his new book, "Bush Country - How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane." By that measure - from tax cuts to education reform to the war on terror to his domestic spending priorities to his mid-term election victories - if political success equals greatness, then George W. Bush is...

Although it is as amusing as it is frightening, the Internet provides some real insight into modern America and what it has become since 9/11. Quite simply it has gone back to being exactly what it was before 9/11. I think the word schizophrenic describes it nicely. Paranoid is another word for it too. What I see out there these days reminds me of what this country was like when Bubba was running the show. He talked a lot about the burnings of black churches even though the only church he ever saw burned was a white one and he...

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was in Florida recently doing what he does best, stumping without a message, without substance. But I have noticed that Kerry has risen to heights that would make Bill Clinton envious regarding one campaign tactic he has chosen to embrace: pandering. John Kerry is emerging as one of the best vote panderers the Democrats have seen in a long time, and for the party that virtually invented "spin" that is not a small feat. Speaking to a crowd in West Palm Beach he was quoted as saying, "People ask me what it feels like to...

There has been a consistent tone to the letters I get that amazes me. Now I’m going to get to a few of the thoughts that have been hurled at me as though they were the very lightening bolts of Thor the almighty. My favorite is the view that the Rothschild’s owns Bush. That certainly does explain why he thumbed his nose at Europe, the United Nations and the Communist shill Democrats, and finally accomplished what they had only talked about. Some have said that the Republicans deliver what the Democrats talk about. In the case of stomping Saddam and...

It's pretty much official. John Kerry will be the Democratic nominee come November. After sweeping victories in all but one of the ten Super Tuesday primary states, Kerry looks to be the center of attention until the Democratic Convention on July 26. President Bush must be licking his chops! As we all know, the President isn't good with talking points, so it's a good thing there will only be two main themes to enforce from now until the general election. Bush's strategy, as with all campaigns, should be to enforce his strengths, while pointing out his opponent's weaknesses. Lucky for...

In America, Belinda Stronach is a name that does not often come up in daily water cooler chitchat. But a good friend of hers, Bill Clinton's, often does. What is interesting about Belinda's and Bill's friendship is not so much the fact that Belinda is a striking 37 year old blonde, or that they have been spotted in several high-class eateries as well as Belinda's family's' race track. But rather, the fact that Belinda Stronach, a relatively little-known $13 billion auto parts factory owning heiress, could become not only Canada's next Conservative Leader, but also Canada's first woman Prime Minister....

Two men appear to be locked in a battle. Like scorpions in a bottle they circle each other in a death grip with nowhere to go but at each other. Let us call them Howard and Ellsworth. Howard is an architect. Howard is an Individualist who expresses his individuality, and bares the truths that his soul holds dear, through his architecture. Indeed, contemporary culture holds this exercise to be of the highest importance. Whole industries and governmental agencies doling out money are dedicated to encouraging this activity. The second, Ellsworth, writes an opinion column on architecture in a major newspaper....