Free Republic

Barack Obama's reaction to bad news is to play it so cool that Americans yearn for a bit more drama - and some even for his predecessor, writes Toby Harnden in Washington. During the election campaign, Barack Obama's cool detachment was a winning quality, the "No Drama Obama" a welcome contrast with the "Mr Angry" John McCain, never mind the hot-headed "I'm the decider" President George W Bush. A year into his presidency, however, Mr Obama seems a curiously bloodless president. If he experiences passion, he seldom shows it. It is often anyone's guess as to whether an event or...

WASHINGTON -- The Palestinians had hoped they would see a new day coming after the Bush administration’s eight-year capitulation to all that Israel wanted. But they were wrong. The Obama administration is moving down the same Bush road -- perhaps a little slower -- but nonetheless still enabling the Israelis to continue to violate international law and the U.N. Charter by annexing occupied Arab land. First, the new administration made it clear that U.S. policy opposed new Jewish settlements on the West Bank. This declaration was met with a thumping rejection from the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Then,...

<p>TOKYO — Former President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the Japan Series between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters.</p> <p>Bush, wearing a Yomiuri warmup jacket, took the mound Tuesday at Tokyo Dome and threw a pitch to Giants catcher Shinnosuke Abe that bounced once in the dirt before being caught.</p>

One of President Barack Obama’s top funders, Code Pink’s Jodie Evans, is encouraging the kidnapping of former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura, according to new statements issued this week by Jodie Evans and Code Pink. While it might be tempting to look at this latest effort by Code Pink as an innocuous publicity campaign, Code Pink’s history of working with state sponsors of terrorism and supporting violent protest against President Bush–and their near successful arrest of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales–is cause for concern. Two weeks after meeting Obama at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco, Jodie...

So much for politics ending at the water's edge . . . Hillary Clinton has gone to Pakistan and bragged of having opposed Pres. Bush during her entire Senate career. Clinton also depicted the difference between Barack Obama and George W. Bush as being "like daylight and dark." For good measure, Clinton played the moral equivalency game, declaring "we cannot let a minority of people in both countries determine our relationship." The Pakistani minority she had in mind is presumably composed of al Qaeda and its sympathizers. Clinton didn't specify which Americans she would apparently equate with them.

Saskatoon, Canada -- A Canadian pro-life group gave former President George W. Bush an award yesterday honoring his pro-life record and recognizing his fight against abortion. The Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association presented the president with the award while he was in town to give an address. http://www.LifeNews.com/int1368.html

By 14 he was dunking. By 16 he was facing down reporters. Now the greatest basketball player in the world is 24 years old—and he's just getting started. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So you first dunked when you were in junior high? It was during a warmup game when I was in middle school. Every year we had a teachers-versus-basketball-team game in front of all the students. I got one in during the warmups, and then I actually did it during the game. Was it on a teacher? No. I wish! I wish it was on the teacher who gave me a C-minus;...

The Obama administration blamed President George W. Bush for 13,000 new support troops headed to Afghanistan, even though Bush has not been commander-in-chief for nearly ten months.The Washington Post had a front page story this morning saying Barack Obama had authorized the troops in addition to the 21,000 increase in combat troops he ordered in March.White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters today, according to the AP, that President Bush, who left office 276 days ago, was to blame for the latest troop increase:Later, spokesman Robert Gibbs rejected a published report that the president had authorized 13,000 additional troops...

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

WASHINGTON -- It isn't easy to put words in the mouth of the president of the United States, but the White House stable of speechwriters does that almost every day. The frustrations of such a prestigious post are painfully recalled by Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, in his new book "Speech-Less." The subtitle of the book by the conservative speechwriter is "Tales of a White House Survivor." Latimer's book divulges rich insights into the Bush White House. The rivalries, the egos, the fears and the trepidations of having written a prime time speech only to...

Okay, Code Pink did not intentionally praise former President George W. Bush, but that is the clear result of the photographs the group has posted of their first days on their week-long trip to Afghanistan that began this week.Before President Bush ordered the liberation of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, the Taliban controlled the lives of men and women--with an exceptionally cruel domination of women. Thanks to President Bush and America's armed forces, intelligence operatives and foreign service officers, Afghan women are not forced to wear burkas and girls can go to school:Code Pink's caption: These fabulous women were...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has become increasingly concerned with the "anti government rhetoric" regarding President Obama's health care plan. First of all, allow me to clarify, it's not an anti-government stance. It is a stance that is based on minimal government intervention let alone a government run by representatives who are not respecting the wishes of their constituents or even pretending to (re-visit Baron Hill). We on the right, are fine with government, as long as they know what they're doing, which obviously is not the case here. Pelosi goes on to state that it reminds her of...

During the 2008 CPAC convention, George Bush only mentioned the word “conservative” once, in the closing — and apparently that was no accident. A new book by the man who wrote the speech for Bush, staffer Matt Latimer, retells the story in Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, and Byron York relates it in today’s Washington Examiner. When Latimer tried to include supportive language about the conservative movement, Bush attempted to set his speechwriter straight: “What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?” the president asked Latimer.Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement — the...

Politics: The senator who called the president a liar and never apologized may have worn out his welcome in his home state. Harry Reid may be riding the liberal agenda into political oblivion.In 2004, Republicans defeated Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle largely on the theme that he neglected his home state in favor of national party interests. The GOP is hoping that in 2010 lightning will strike a second time, and Nevada polls indicate it may be more than wishful thinking. In 1998, Reid beat John Ensign by a hair-thin 428 votes. Ensign would go on to win Nevada's other...

The prospect of recovering the government's assistance to GM and Chrysler is heavily dependent on shares of the two companies rising to unprecedented levels, the report said. The government owns 10 percent of Chrysler and 61 percent of GM. The shares "will have to appreciate sharply" for taxpayers to get their money back, the report said. Treasury Department officials have acknowledged that most of the $23 billion provided by the Bush administration is likely to be lost. But Meg Reilly, a department spokeswoman, said there is a "reasonably high probability of the return of most or all of the government...

The Super Bowl XLV effort has been a celebrity draw, attracting everyone from football legends (Roger Staubach) to business legends (T. Boone Pickens). Now, the host committee has landed its biggest names yet: former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush. They will be co-chairs of an educational, community service and art project that's being described as the largest of its kind in the country aimed at elementary school children.

(CNN) -- Could George W. Bush or some of his top aides end up behind bars? It's extremely unlikely, but the Obama administration is taking its first steps along a path that could lead in that direction, with the investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators involved in the war on terror. "You don't know where these things are going to end up," former CIA agent Peter Brookes told me. "They could go to very high levels in the government." The probe will focus on whether interrogators exceeded their instructions and broke the law when, for example, they choked a prisoner...

Where has Ed Schultz been for the last eight years? Obviously not out with his progressive peeps. Otherwise he could not possibly have said what he did on his MSNBC show this evening: "I never saw anywhere in the news a Democrat carry a picture to any kind of a rally with a picture of Adolph Hitler putting them close to a characterization of President Bush. Never saw that!" Oh, really? View video here.

Once in a while, I get the most amazing emails. The one below was in response to the observation I made about Barack Obama's upcoming September 8th televised address to our nation's schoolchildren and how creepy something like that might seem to more than a few folks aware of fascist and communist history in other parts of the world. Well, it seems this gentleman just couldn't wait to school me on my proclivities and ultimate motivations, and I have to say that his missive was amusing on a couple of different levels. Here it is (profanity sanitized by me): "You...

If you're planning a garage sale or organizing a church bazaar, you'd best beware: You could be breaking a new federal law. As part of a campaign called Resale Roundup, the federal government is cracking down on the secondhand sales of dangerous and defective products. The initiative, which targets toys and other products for children, enforces a new provision that makes it a crime to resell anything that's been recalled by its manufacturer. "Those who resell recalled children's products are not only breaking the law, they are putting children's lives at risk," said Inez Tenenbaum, the recently confirmed chairwoman of...

The Iraqi who threw his shoes at Pres. Bush will be getting out of jail after serving only nine months of what was originally a three-year sentence . . . and David Shuster is pysched. Reporting on the news at the end of MSNBC's 4 PM hour today, Shuster exclaimed: "Good for him!" Co-host Tamron Hall wasn't so sure, making the incontrovertible point that Shuster wouldn't be so happy if the guy who walked early had hurled his Hush Puppies at Pres. Obama. View video here.

Calls the project a "labor of love." ~~~~ Infamous Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, 64, known for such sordid films as Basic Instinct and Showgirls, has undergone a conversion and now will be writing a new film on Our Lady of Guadalupe. Eszterhas has been one of Hollywood's most influential screenwriters, writing lucrative blockbuster films, such as Flashdance, Jagged Edge, and Basic Instinct, and raking in million-dollar paychecks. Known for living the full 'Hollywood lifestyle', Eszterhas gave it up to move home to Ohio with his wife and children in the late 1990s. In 2001, faced with throat cancer resulting from...

Media Bias: Veteran reporter, author and commentator Bernard Goldberg reports that when CBS News did its fake National Guard story on George W. Bush avoiding service in Vietnam, it knew it was a lie.It's a liberal urban legend that Bush used the influence of his father and his father's friends to land a cushy position in the Texas National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam. The Democrats would run John Kerry as a hero in the war, and CBS News was all too eager to help with Mary Mapes producing a "60 Minutes II" segment in September 2004 charging exactly...

Folks, this administration is getting better and better by the moment. What do you mean, you may wonder? While President Obama’s policies continue to destroy the country, they are making more people who once described themselves as liberals or moderates and turning them more and more into staunch Conservatives. But we cannot take this for granted. We have to keep fighting for our ideals and founding principles.

On Tuesday, FNC's The O'Reilly Factor hosted FNC analyst Bernard Goldberg as the former CBS News correspondent highlighted a story recently posted on his Web site, BernardGoldberg.com, in which he complains of how little mainstream media attention was given to the fact that former President George W. Bush had volunteered to go to Vietnam as part of his service in the Texas Air National Guard, but that he was turned down because other pilots were more experienced, and that CBS News producer Mary Mapes, even though she knew this part of the story before the report aired, did not include...

Have at him!

It is now going on eight month since President Bush has left office. I thank God for the time he was our President and kept us save after the horrible day on September 11, 2001For this month thread I will post the August photos from 2001 - 2004. The quote of the day will be President Bush’s announcement on the Patients’ Bill Of Rights, which I find very appropriate being what will face us if the democrat’s health care bill passes and becomes law Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island ..

You Obama supporters, be honest now. Read the following and tell me how you would have reacted: If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky? If George W. Bush had bowed...

Here is a video report on former President George W. Bush's speech yesterday in Woodward, Oklahoma, where he received a warm welcome on the 4th of July. Bush showed a good sense of humor with some jokes during his speech. . . . . (Watch Video)

July 2009 sees nearly 6 months since George W Bush entered private life and as we have done in previously monthly threads I have collated photos from the month we are in from previous years. Tonight I will post July 2001 and July 2002 photos and then over the next few days post 2003 and 2004 photos. I have also found some photos from this June which I will also post in the next few days starting with one of them as the photo of the month. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Video comparing President George W. Bush's Marine Corps welcome to President Obama's.

Gallup reports that, despite widespread media efforts to pump up the volume, Barack Obama's approval numbers have dropped to, statistically, the same level as George W. Bush's at the same points in their presidencies. Gallup latest daily tracking shows the Big O's approval rating at 57%,

THE war in Iraq is officially moving to an end. Six years after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, several coalition members have ended their missions in Iraq - including Australia, which pulled out its troops 12 months ago - and the US is preparing to wrap up its military involvement in the country. If we examine the question from an American, British or Australian perspective, then it would be difficult to present an answer that could convince all critics. For the coalition members this was a war of opportunity, not a war of necessity. Going to war or not was...

When candidate Obama talked about bringing us all together, this is presumably not what he had in mind . . . There was surprising consensus on today’s Morning Joe around the fact that this is an arrogant White House. It was press secretary Robert Gibb’s boast—responding to Pres. Bush’s rather mild remarks–that “we kept score last November and we won” that set things off. Willie Geist analogized it to an athlete whose team is ahead telling an opponent to “look at the scoreboard.” Pat Buchanan took it from there, with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and even John Harwood, not known...

The Hill: In a speech this week, Bush came off the sidelines for the first time since the beginning of the Obama administration to lob criticisms at Obama for his economic policies and his decision to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Gibbs said Thursday that many of those policies were debated during last year's election. "We kept score last November, and we won," Gibbs said.The Hill: Gibbs on Bush criticism: 'We won'

"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States," Former President Bush said to huge cheers to members of a local business group in Erie, PA.

As President Obama struggles to turn around the moribund economy and confront multiple international issues, he wastes few opportunities to remind the country that the problems are not of his making. “The financial crisis this administration inherited is still creating painful challenges for businesses and families alike,” Mr. Obama said this week as he proposed spending limits. “We inherited a financial crisis unlike any that we’ve seen in our time,” he said last week as he thrust General Motors into bankruptcy. His advisers and allies follow the same script. “The Obama administration inherited a situation at Guantánamo that was intolerable,”...

I was right to torture terror suspects - it saved lives, claims unrepentant George Bush By DAVID GARDNER 29th May 2009 George Bush has defended his decision to allow the use of torture on terror suspects in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The former president broke his silence on the scandal to insist that controversial interrogation methods like waterboarding and sleep deprivation helped save lives. Mr Bush was echoing claims made by his former Vice President Dick Cheney that the harsh interrogation techniques vilified by the Obama administration gained valuable intelligence. The ex-president was careful to avoid words...

Dick Cheney's "Shut Up and Listen" tour continued last week on CBS's "Face the Nation." There, the former veep reiterated his favorite theme: Obama is putting America at risk by "taking down a lot of those policies we put in place that kept the nation safe." What in the world is Cheney talking about? Granted, Obama's anti-terror policies are clouded by rhetorical "Hope" and euphemism, and the new administration is less given to chest-thumping than its predecessor. Otherwise, Obama's approach to terrorism is virtually identical to Bush/Cheney's. Whatever you think the right policy is regarding enemy combatants, warrantless wiretapping, and...

A lot of the difference, the change if you will, between Obama and Bush has much to do with the word humility. George Bush is and was a humble man. Obama thinks the world counts on him and him alone to lead us. Bush went to church and prayed often. Obama puts out press releases about his supposed piety. The left sold a great bill of goods to the American people claiming that Bush, et al. were arrogant while insisting that Obama was a “man of the people.” The 65th Anniversary of D-Day is fast approaching. Barack Obama will attend...

The rich get richer. Nothing wrong with that. Except in the case of an ex-president who doesn’t need the money, and could rehabilitate his image by donating his government pension to a good cause – say, for the families of Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers killed in the war that Bush instigated; or for the continued rebuilding of New Orleans, whose flooding became a symbol of Bush’s presidential ineptness; or for workers laid off in a downturn that started under Bush’s watch. Such benevolence would renew the “compassionate conservative” label that helped galvanize Bush’s base in 2000. Bush would be...

All of April and the start of May 2009 find us still being bombarded by the media hyping up the first 100 days of President Obama with no sign of it dying down. Following the introduction to the monthly thread I will post some photos to remind us of the first few days of the first May of the George W Bush Presidency - those were the days. The quote I have chosen for this month are remarks made during Commander-In-Chief Trophy Event at the South Portico on May 4, 2001. Tomorrow I will post some more photos from May...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama’s 100 days in office have not shaken the world, but he has been compelled to focus on the legacy bequeathed by former President George W. Bush: the worst economic slump since the Great Depression and two wars. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, avoiding any credibility-destroying urge to praise his boss with ridiculous extravagance, gives the president a "B-plus" on his report card. "What the president has achieved is something we’re proud of," Gibbs said, adding: "There is room for improvement." Probably the biggest change Obama has brought about is the country’s new hopeful spirit,...

I really hate it when "parties" do really stupid things. And I'm not talking about Obama's bribe and bait little play with Arlen Specter. Heck he's been voting from that side of the aisle so long I just figured he had forgotten where his seat was. I'm talking about two of my heroes George W. Bush and Rick Santorum taking some really bad advice and snuggling up to the snake-oil Senator when he last ran for re-election. It caused me incredible pain at the time, but the thinking by all the smart people in the room like some of the...

Somebody take Chris Matthews’ temperature. He might be showing symptoms of a particularly virulent strain of swine flu . . . On this evening’s Hardball, Matthews referred to former Pres. Bush as a “bozo,” and called Scooter Libby a “henchman.” The clownish comment came in the context of an invidious comparison of W’s handling of Hurricane Katrina with PBO’s response to the swine flu epidemic. View video here.

Remember how Pres. Bush was often ribbed for his early-to-bed habits? How they were taken as a sign of a lack of sophistication by the Beltway crowd? Well, maybe there’s a soporific in the White House water. For it seems that Pres. Obama might be following in W’s footsteps when it comes to hitting the sack long before the witching hour . . . All the morning news shows ran clips of Michelle Obama taking questions from a group of young people yesterday. Check out what Mrs. Obama said while discussing a ruckus that Bo the dog recently made. View...

Mark Levin provided a lecture on history last night to President Barack Obama about the law and the decisions made by Lincoln, FDR, and others when American lives hung in the balance. "If we get hit again, that blood is on Obama's hands." It makes no logical difference that Bybee could have foreseen that the result of his incorrect legal advice would be the commission of a crime. Gorelick could have foreseen that the consequences of her incorrect legal advice would permit the commission of a crime (just read her memo ... and you will see that the warning signs...

As we enter April 2009 we are being bombarded by the media hyping up the first 100 days of President Obama I thought it would be nice to look back at the first 100 days of George W Bush Presidency. The White House Website for the Bush Administration had a photo essay for the first 100 days which I am sure will provoke fond memories. At the weekend I will post photos covering the first 2 weeks of April 2001 which once again I am sure will make us all feel nostalgic for the President we supported, respected and trusted...

The WOT has been replaced by the WOTC, the War on Tax Cheats. On '60 Minutes' tonight, President Barack Obama will announce that he is planning to indefinitely detain American Timothy Geithner, on U.S. soil, presumably without trial: Were Geithner to tender his resignation, Obama says he would tell him: "Sorry, buddy, you've still got the job." President Obama released dirty bomber Binyam Mohammed to return back to England. AG Eric Holder says "maybe" Obama will release 17 Uighurs into the United States even though all of them associated with the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, were trained in terrorism by...

Yesterday, I annointed our president Barack “Milhous” Obama. That was in honor of the prez’s reported plan to slap wage controls on financial industry employees, thus following in the footsteps of Richard Nixon, who as president imposed wage-price controls. This morning, we have a new middle name for the President Obama: W. It comes courtesy of the New York Times. Both a NYT editorial and a Frank Rich column draw what they see as worrisome parallels between the Obama presidency and that of his immediate predecessor. First comes Frank, whose very column is entitled: “Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived?” Rich...