http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/georgewill/ en-us Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:19:42 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048461/posts Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's statement last week that economic conditions are "skewed to the downside" was the most muted assessment of a dismal situation since Emperor Hirohito, in his surrender broadcast after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage." There often are, however, upsides to downsides. Furthermore, in this transformative summer, America's political argument is being fundamentally recast in two ways that will reverberate long past November. In today's Niagara of bad news, the melancholy fact that General Motors' market capitalization recently dipped below that of the Hershey chocolate company testifies to... Newsweek http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048461/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:19:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036824/posts PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Fifty years ago, Jack Kilby, who grew up in Great Bend, Kan., took the electrical engineering knowledge he acquired as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois and a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin to Dallas, to Texas Instruments, where he helped invent the modern world as we routinely experience and manipulate it. Working with improvised equipment, he created the first electronic circuit in which all the components fit on a single piece of semiconductor material half the size of a paper clip. On Sept. 12, 1958, he demonstrated this microchip, which was enormous,... RCP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036824/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:40:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032426/posts The day after the Supreme Court ruled that detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo are entitled to seek habeas corpus hearings, John McCain called it "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." Well. Does it rank with Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), which concocted a constitutional right, unmentioned in the document, to own slaves and held that black people have no rights that white people are bound to respect? With Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which affirmed the constitutionality of legally enforced racial segregation? With Korematsu v. United States (1944), which affirmed the wartime right to sweep American citizens... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032426/posts#comment Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:04:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032144/posts The day after the Supreme Court ruled that detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo are entitled to seek habeas corpus hearings, John McCain called it "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." Well. Does it rank with Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), which concocted a constitutional right, unmentioned in the document, to own slaves and held that black people have no rights that white people are bound to respect? With Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which affirmed the constitutionality of legally enforced racial segregation? With Korematsu v. United States (1944), which affirmed the wartime right to sweep American citizens... RCP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032144/posts#comment Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:03:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030685/posts WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged on Thursday that he was mistaken when he asserted that China, at Cuba's behest, is drilling for oil in waters 60 miles from the Florida coast. In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cheney said on Wednesday that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, long off limits to oil companies, should be opened to drilling because China is already there pumping oil. ''Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida,'' the vice president said. ''We're not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation... GOPUSA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030685/posts#comment Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:04:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029159/posts If, that is, he can mobilize turnout among blacks and young voters in the general election (and why wouldn’t/couldn’t he?). Two clips here, the first the bad news and the second the “good” news as Pat Buchanan fantasizes about the rise of a new conservative movement from the ashes of the Democrats’ victory and inevitable mismanagement. Let’s hope this new generation of paleocons remembers to put the blame for World War II on whom it belongs, i.e. Winston Churchill. Read Will’s op-ed for Newsweek, too, about the two shoes yet to drop. I think he’s overstating the extent to which... hotair.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029159/posts#comment Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:21:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027782/posts RISING in the Senate on May 13, Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, explained: "I rise to discuss rising energy prices." The president was heading to Saudi Arabia to seek an increase in its oil production, and Schumer's gorge was rising. Saudi Arabia, he said, "holds the key to reducing gasoline prices at home in the short term." Therefore arms sales to that kingdom should be blocked unless it "increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately." Can a senator, with so many... NEW YORK POST http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027782/posts#comment Sun, 8 Jun 2008 04:17:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027478/posts ... 97 senators recently voted to increase the supply of oil on the market by stopping the flow of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which protects against major physical interruptions. Seventy-one of the 97 senators who voted to stop filling the reserve also oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. Seventy-two of today's senators -- including Schumer, of course, and 38... The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027478/posts#comment Sat, 7 Jun 2008 05:45:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026899/posts WASHINGTON -- An axiom. When voters watch a presumptive presidential nominee considering this or that running mate, they think: What if the president dies? When the presumptive nominee considers this or that running mate, he thinks: What if I live? Which brings us to the dotty idea that Barack Obama should choose to have Hillary Clinton down the hall in the West Wing, nursing her disappointments, her grievances and her future presidential ambitions while her excitable husband wanders in the wings of America's political theater with his increasingly Vesuvian temper, his proclivity for verbal fender benders and his interesting business... Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026899/posts#comment Fri, 6 Jun 2008 04:44:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026864/posts Sen. Schumer, New York Democrat, said arms sales to Saudi Arabia should be blocked unless "it increases its oil production by one million barrels per day," which would cause the price of gasoline to fall "50 cents a gallon almost immediately." Schumer does know that if you increase the supply of something the price will probably fall. One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 Clinton hadn't vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. Seventy-two of today's senators - including McCain and Obama - have voted to keep ANWR's 10.4 billion barrels of oil off... Insight http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026864/posts#comment Fri, 6 Jun 2008 02:46:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025940/posts George Will was on the Colbert Report last night, and he was quite good. When asked to describe the difference between liberals and conservatives (2:10), Will succinctly answers, "the difference between the truth and confusion." Well said, George. Primetime Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025940/posts#comment Wed, 4 Jun 2008 17:45:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025177/posts Cap-and-trade is a huge tax hidden in a bureaucratic labyrinth of opaque permit transactions An unprecedentedly radical government grab for control of the American economy will be debated this week when the Senate considers saving the planet by means of a cap-and-trade system to ration carbon emissions. The plan is co-authored (with John Warner) by Joe Lieberman, an ardent supporter of John McCain, who supports Lieberman’s legislation and recently spoke about “the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring.” Speaking of endless troubles, “cap-and-trade” comes cloaked in reassuring rhetoric about... National Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025177/posts#comment Tue, 3 Jun 2008 06:51:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021090/posts CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. -- Numbers come precisely from the agile mind and nimble tongue of Frank Buckles, who seems bemused to say that 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during America's involvement in the First World War and 4,734,990 are gone. He is feeling fine, thank you for asking. The eyes of the last doughboy are still sharp enough for him to be a keen reader, and his voice is still deep and strong at age 107. He must have been a fine broth of a boy when, at 16, persistence paid off and he found, in Oklahoma City, an... Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021090/posts#comment Sun, 25 May 2008 17:55:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019554/posts A preventive war worked out so well in Iraq that Washington last week launched another. The new preventive war -- the government responding forcefully against a postulated future threat -- has been declared on behalf of polar bears, the first species whose supposed jeopardy has been ascribed to global warming. The Interior Department, bound by the Endangered Species Act, has declared polar bears a "threatened" species because they might be endangered "in the foreseeable future," meaning 45 years. (Note: 45 years ago, the now-long-forgotten global cooling menace of 35 years ago was not yet foreseen.) The bears will be threatened... RCP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019554/posts#comment Thu, 22 May 2008 05:26:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017577/posts <p>Women, we are told by some people who say they know them, are not amused. Women, or at least those whose consciousnesses have been properly raised, supposedly think that the impatience being expressed about the protracted futility of Hillary Clinton's campaign is disrespectful. They say that if the roles were reversed -- if Barack Obama's delegate arithmetic were as hopeless as hers -- people would not be so insensitive as to try to hurry a man off the stage.</p> Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017577/posts#comment Sun, 18 May 2008 05:41:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015052/posts • You say that even if global warming turns out to be no crisis (the World Meteorological Organization says global temperatures have not risen in a decade), even unnecessary measures taken to combat it will be beneficial because "then all we've done is give our kids a cleaner world." But what of the trillions of dollars those measures will cost in direct expenditures and diminished economic growth—hence diminished medical research, cultural investment, etc.? Given that Earth is always warming or cooling, what is its proper temperature, and how do you know? ..excerpted... Newsweek http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015052/posts#comment Tue, 13 May 2008 01:42:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2014505/posts The 1st Congressional District, the northernmost in the most culturally Southern state, has given the nation William Faulkner and Elvis Presley, and next Tuesday will have a special congressional election that will test the Republican hope that Barack Obama and his former pastor can be the basis of a Republican strategy to nationalize congressional races to the disadvantage of Democrats. A Senate seat also could be affected by the cascading consequences of Republican Sen. Trent Lott's December resignation. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour replaced him with 1st District Rep. Roger Wicker, who this November will be on the ballot seeking election... RCP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2014505/posts#comment Sun, 11 May 2008 20:38:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2012866/posts <p>Hillary Clinton, 60, Illinois native and Arkansas lawyer, became, retroactively, a lifelong Yankee fan at age 52 when, shopping for a U.S. Senate seat, she adopted New York state as home sweet home. She may think, or at least would argue, that when she was 12 her Yankees really won the 1960 World Series, by standards of "fairness," because they trounced the Pirates in runs scored, 55-27, over seven games, so there.</p> RCP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2012866/posts#comment Thu, 8 May 2008 05:06:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008656/posts WASHINGTON -- Because John McCain and other legislators worry they are easily corrupted, there are legal limits to the monetary contributions that anyone can make to political candidates. There are, however, no limits to the rhetorical contributions that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright can make to McCain's campaign. Because Wright is a gift determined to keep on giving, this question arises: Can people opposed to Barack Obama's candidacy justly make use of Wright's invariably interesting interventions in the campaign? The answer is: Certainly, because Wright's paranoias tell us something -- exactly what remains to be explored -- about his 20-year parishioner.... Seattle Post-Intelligencer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008656/posts#comment Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:49:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008500/posts WASHINGTON -- Because John McCain and other legislators worry that they are easily corrupted, there are legal limits to the monetary contributions that anyone can make to political candidates. There are, however, no limits to the rhetorical contributions that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright can make to McCain's campaign. Because Wright is a gift determined to keep on giving, this question arises: Can persons opposed to Barack Obama's candidacy justly make use of Wright's invariably interesting interventions in the campaign? The answer is: Certainly, because Wright's paranoias tell us something -- exactly what remains to be explored -- about his 20-year... Townhall http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008500/posts#comment Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:25:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007907/posts Senator, concerning the criteria by which you will nominate judges, you said: "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old." Such sensitivities might serve an admirable legislator, but what have they to do with judging? Should a judge side with whichever party in a controversy stirs his or her empathy? Is such personalization of the judicial function inimical to the rule of law? • Voting against the confirmation of Chief... NewsWeek http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007907/posts#comment Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:28:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008357/posts Senator, concerning the criteria by which you will nominate judges, you said: "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old." Such sensitivities might serve an admirable legislator, but what have they to do with judging? Should a judge side with whichever party in a controversy stirs his or her empathy? Is such personalization of the judicial function inimical to the rule of law? • Voting against the confirmation of Chief... Newsweek http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2008357/posts#comment Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:23:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007729/posts Ugly locutions often crop up in the promotion of ugly politics. Consider the threat of "scrutinization." It has been made against some residents of Parker North, Colo., who expressed a political opinion without first getting their state government's permission for political activity. Herewith another example of what is being done around the nation in the name of political hygiene, as that is understood by "campaign finance reformers," those irksome improvers whose animating ideology is McCainism. Parker North is a cluster of about 300 houses close to the town of Parker. When two residents proposed a vote on annexation of their... Real Clear Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007729/posts#comment Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:38:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004299/posts Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. -- Robert FrostAnd some say it will end because of subprime mortgages. But for those who cultivate fears of catastrophes as excuses for expanding government supervision of other people’s lives, the bad news is that the world is not going to end—not from global warming or economic cooling or anything else. Today’s untethered Federal Reserve will, however, make the muddle-through interesting. The late Sen. William Proxmire, a populist Democrat who represented Wisconsin for 32 years, wanted all members of Congress to write on their bathroom mirrors, so it... Primetime Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004299/posts#comment Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:21:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004450/posts The description of the Fed as the "lender of last resort" is accurate without being informative. Lender to whom? For what purposes? Last resort before what? Did the bank "lend" $29 billion to Bear Stearns, or did it, in effect, buy some of the most problematic securities owned by Bear? If so, was this faux "loan" actually to J.P. Morgan Chase? The purpose of the money was to give Morgan an incentive to buy Bear -- at a price so low that an incentive should have been superfluous.In 1979, when the government undertook to rescue Chrysler, conservatives worried not that... Real Clear Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004450/posts#comment Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:17:11 GMT