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In 2010, the Tea Party helped elect legions of solid conservatives to Congress, statehouses and governors' mansions nationwide. With President Obama vulnerable, this raised hopes that in 2012, they could put a conviction conservative in the White House. Though many on the Right were looking for a dream candidate in the mold of new stars such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., with less than two weeks before Iowa, they're stuck with a group of presidential candidates who are retreads from a different era, insufficiently conservative or implausible. Though there are a number of reasons for...

A New Jersey man has filed a federal lawsuit in New York over the Port Authority's toll increase. Yoel Weisshaus of New Milford claims the increase is an abuse of power and discriminates against him because he is poor. Cash tolls on the George Washington Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge and Outerbridge Crossing went up from $8 to $12 on Sunday. Weisshaus claims the tolls are targeted to restrict minimum-wage earners and will be used to complete the World Trade Center project instead of improving bridges and tunnels. The Record newspaper reports the unemployed Bergen Community...

I got invited to a local trail last weekend to do a ride with some of my pals. Special guest in attendance.

I saw him Tuesday night. I saw Senator Marco Rubio in person as he delivered a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library outside of Los Angeles. I saw Marco Rubio catch Nancy Reagan as she stumbled. And I saw Marco Rubio offering coy answers to the question everyone in the press was there to see him answer: would you want to be vice president? ...Rubio is known as a Tea-Party candidate, or semi-Tea-Party candidate, but he didn't throw any rhetorical bombs Tuesday. That alone made him sort of agreeable. There were moments when he dared to offer a gram of...

NEW ORLEANS — Republicans head into 2012 united in their disdain for an unpopular, Big Government-loving, internationalist president. The name of that president: George W. Bush. From Capitol Hill to the statehouses to the presidential primary, Republicans are turning their back on almost every important accomplishment of the Bush administration.

President Obama’s speech to State Department employees today was billed as a major address on recasting American foreign policy in the Middle East. It lived up to its billing. President Obama has deep-sixed the ‘realism’ that marked the first two years of his approach to the Middle East. He has returned to the foreign policy of George W. Bush. The United States is no longer, the President told us in words he could have borrowed from his predecessor, a status quo power in the Middle East. The realist course of cooperating with oppressive regimes in a quest for international calm...

Michelle Obama has chosen to invite the rapper Common to perform at the White House Wednesday evening, and he is expected to lead rap workshops with school children prior to his performance, which is part of a greater event showcasing America’s poets, musicians, and artists. Common’s lyrics have referenced killing policemen and have called for the burning of George W. Bush.  Maybe he’s not the best choice to be teaching school kids? Here is a video of Common performing:

Could anything be more predictable than the euphoria with which the national media reported the death of Osama bin Laden? After all, their guy–the fellow America-hater whose election journalists secured with years of dutiful worship and diligent concealment–succeeded where George Bush had failed. The war on terror was now officially over, won by the first black President.

A person who knows the facts, versus an agenda-driven hack so-called journalist who has all the talking points on the tip of his tongue. The person with the facts wins. Gets particularly interesting around th 8:00 mark, for those of you who have work to do and can't watch the whole thing:

As lefties gloat over the political implications of Osama bin Laden’s demise, and the media ramp up an “Obama bounce� meme, conservatives should politely but persistently shift the conversation from politics to policy. In my latest column for Townhall, I draw on a number of fascinating news accounts elucidating how the our military and intelligence community finally nailed bin Laden. US officials describe a “mosaic� of intelligence that ultimately led a team of Navy SEALs to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan — suggesting that it took many years and myriad sources to pinpoint bin Laden’s precise location. As we now...

(CNN) – Former President George W. Bush is worried the U.S. might pull out of Afghanistan too early to the detriment of that country's women. In an interview with Fox News that aired Thursday, Bush warned that Afghan women will "suffer" should the Obama administration decide to downscale troop levels there. "My concern of course is that the United States gets weary of being in Afghanistan and says 'It's not worth it, let's leave' and Laura and I believe that if that were to happen, women would suffer again," he told Fox's Greta Van Susteren. "And we don't believe that's...

AL-UQAYLA, Libya (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi struck at rebel control of a key Libyan coastal road for a second day Thursday but received a warning he would be held to account at The Hague for suspected crimes by his security forces. Venezuela said Gaddafi had agreed to its proposal for an international commission to negotiate an end to the turmoil in the world's 12th largest oil exporting nation. "Bring Bush! Make a no fly zone, bomb the planes," shouted soldier-turned-rebel Nasr Ali, referring to a no-fly zone imposed on Iraq in 1991 by then U.S. President George Bush.

Banner only. Fox Radio says President George W. Bush might have been the target.

George W. Bush will be at Fort Campbell on Wednesday to sign copies of his presidential memoir, “Decision Points,” for soldiers and their families at the Post Exchange. The book-signing will be limited to people with a military identification. They must purchase Bush’s book at Leisure Travel Service on post, according to an announcement by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. The book-signing will begin at 9:30 a.m. CST. The PX will open at 7 a.m. Soldiers and family members must buy the book between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday or Tuesday at the PX store. The books...

In the runup to the 2006 midterm election...the Bush administration repeatedly broke the law by using federal funds to send Cabinet secretaries and other high-level political appointees to congressional districts of GOP candidates in tight races, according to a government report.

Once upon a time in America, when George W. Bush served as America's 43rd president, Democrats criticized the Bush tax cuts, especially for the wealthy. This month, President Obama called a measure extending all the Bush tax rates "a win for our economy" -- after excoriating liberal critics of his compromise tax package as "sanctimonious." Once upon a time, Democrats trashed Bush for pushing tax cuts during a time of war, and Democrats slammed Bush for not demanding that Americans sacrifice to win the war on terror. This month, while U.S. troops serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama added more...

A federal judge declared the Obama administration's health care law unconstitutional Monday, siding with Virginia's attorney general in a dispute that both sides agree will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson is the first federal judge to strike down the law, which has been upheld by two others in Virginia and Michigan. Several other lawsuits have been dismissed and others are pending, including one filed by 20 other states in Florida.

(CNN) -- Former President George W. Bush joined a chorus of U.S. officials calling leaks of sensitive government information "very damaging," telling a forum at Facebook headquarters that WikiLeaks' recent release of 250,000 documents may significantly hurt Washington's image abroad. "It's going to be very hard to keep the trust of foreign leaders," the nation's 43rd president said of the documents on issues ranging from Iran to Honduras to Turkey. "If you have a conversation with a foreign leader and it ends up in a newspaper, you don't like it. I didn't like it."

Former President George W. Bush is expected to draw around 40,000 people to a rally in Florida this morning at the Republican stronghold retirement community, The Villages, according to local news reports.Bush is promoting his new book, Decision Points. After the rally, he will greet several hundred people who obtained wristbands earlier in the week from a bookstore in The Villages. There are conflicting reports about whether pre-signed books will given to those meeting Bush or if he will sign books in person.The rally is set for 10 a.m. at Lake Sumter Landing.Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin drew a crowd...

It has almost been two years since President George W. Bush left office and Barack Obama assumed the office of President. In his eight years as Commander in Chief, Bush saw many crises and had to deal with many difficult problems: within his first year in office, the nation saw the worst terrorist attack in history on our soul on September 11, 2001; the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continued through the majority of his Presidency; Hurricane Katrina severely damaged New Orleans and our economy began to decline at the end of his second term. But now, after two years...

Vladimir Putin is cold-blooded, reveals George W Bush in tell-all London, Nov 10 (ANI): North Korea's Kim Jongil is a food-hurling tantrum thrower, Jacques Chirac of France likes to lecture, Tony Blair is a stalwart friend, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is "cold-blooded"-these are some of the revelations former US President George W Bush has made in his new book. Bush's 'Decision Points,' has packed his eight years in the White House into about 500 pages full of anecdotes and assessments of world leaders, some kind, others brutal, and a few perhaps designed to settle old scores, reports the...

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," - President George W. Bush, December 16, 2008 on CNN President George W. Bush signs the $700 billion US financial bailout bill in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington Friday. (Charles Dharapak/Associated Press)Most conservatives just slapped their heads and groaned in consternation over the above statement; and probably also wanted to slap silly the president they've otherwise supported and defended for the last nigh 8 years in office. The Troubled Asset Relief Program was heavily criticized by many conservatives. In light of the stimulus spendings and expansion of...

As President Bush’s memoir Decision Points hits stores today, former campaign media adviser Mark McKinnon compares the book to the man he crossed the partisan divide to help elect.Every president becomes a caricature. The press, partisans, late-night shows, and other arbiters of our culture these days boil down complicated and multi-faceted personalities into one-dimensional punchlines. As President Bush writes in his new memoir, Decision Points, they "questioned my legitimacy, my intelligence, and my sincerity. They mocked my appearance, my accent, and my religious beliefs. I was labeled a Nazi, a war criminal, and Satan himself." I'm glad President Bush has...

9 Nov, 2010, 02.27PM IST,PTI US planned to send spl forces into Pak post 9/11 & 2008: Bush WASHINGTON: US came on the verge of marching its special forces into Pakistan to smash Taliban and Al Qaeda safe havens twice, post 9/11 and then again in mid-2008, but the country's rulers each time thwarted the attempt, former President George Bush has revealed. The former military dictator Pervez Musharraf had frustrated him from the move by conjuring up a spectre of a revolt in Pakistan and the possibility of militants taking over the reins of power and the country's nuclear arsenal,...

Ex-President George W. Bush rips wisdom of Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and John McCain to friends WASHINGTON - Two years of retirement haven't dulled George W. Bush's political zest - and President Obama and Sarah Palin are among his under-the-radar targets. The 43rd President has told friends the ex-Alaska governor isn't qualified to be President and criticizes Arizona Sen. John McCain for putting Palin on the 2008 GOP ticket and handing her a national platform. "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking told the Daily News. "He thinks McCain...

Mr Bush has allegedly told friends that Mrs Palin is not qualified to be president and criticises John McCain for picking her as his Running Mate in 2008 "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official close to Mr Bush told the New York Daily News. "He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin." Mr Bush has allegedly been disparaging about Mrs Palin in the past. Matt Latimer, former special assistant to Mr Bush, wrote in a book released last year:...

What a moment! George Bush 41 and George Bush 43 entered the stadium together tonight to throw out the first ball at the World Series. THE CROWD ROARED. Then GW threw a strike to homeplate catcher Nolan Ryan to start off game 4. What a wonderful moment. Watch the video here!

Sarah Palin is a trendsetter, and she’s going to make this George W. Bush character popular on the campaign trail no matter what challenges stand before her. Yes, Palin invoked he-who-shall-not-be-named at a campaign event earlier today to get Republicans and independents fired up about foreign policy, fiscal responsibility, and “good ol’ Reaganism.” Too soon? Palin was in Florida with RNC Chairman Michael Steele to energize voters and supporters to get out the vote and get involved in the few days leading up to the midterm elections in early November. She began first and foremost by plugging her new program,...

Sold-Out Crowd Gives Former President Bush Three Standing Ovations During Speech By EMILY GUEVARA Staff Writer Former President George W. Bush pulled back the curtain of the Oval Office and gave East Texans a picture of what his job was like during the high and low points. With trademark humor and conviction, he said he sought to lead with vision and optimism and to leave the office equal to or better than it was when he arrived. “Here's what you learn,” he said. “You realize you're not it. You're a part of something bigger than yourself.” Bush spoke Tuesday before...

In a rare public appearance, former President George W. Bush talked about life out of the limelight and took a jab at what the "elites" might be thinking of his upcoming book. "I have written a book. This will come as a shock to some of the elites. They didn't think I could read a book, much less write one," Bush quipped. Speaking at the University of Mobile in Alabama Thursday night, Bush talked about his memoir "Decision Points," [...] The 64-year-old said the tome gives some understanding to the decisions he made on tough issues like the handling of...

This morning at DFW Airport, George and Laura Bush greeted 150 (very surprised) troops as they arrived home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their expressions were so priceless! A few more pictures (larger size) here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=253292&id=361997510504 Confession - they made me cry.

The former president and his wife greet 150 returning troops as part of USO welcome program.

President Obama ranks 15th out of 44 in a poll of the best and worst presidents while former President George W. Bush earns a place in the bottom five, according to the Siena College Research Institute's recent survey of 238 presidential scholars released Thursday. Obama secured a top ten place in two skill set categories, communication ability (7th) and ability to compromise (10th), and in two personality trait categories, imagination (6th) and intelligence (8th). Background, described as family, education, and experience, proved his lowest score at 32nd. This is the 5th time the institute has conducted the survey of U.S....

It looks like President George W. Bush may have a pretty good birthday today. After all, this time last year the liberal media was terming him as "the worst president in American history." But a lot has changed since then. History has proven that the challenges he faced during his presidency were much more daunting that anyone realized. In fact, shortly after the 2008 presidential election, Gallup ranked Bush’s popularity at only 27 percent and Obama’s at 70 percent. Most of the country thought Obama would prove Bush totally incompetent, but since then a lot has happened, and Obama’s popularity,...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Former President George W. Bush was by turns affable, relaxed -- and deadly serious in his local appearance Wednesday. "Yeah, we water-boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," Bush said of the terrorist who master-minded the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. He said that event shaped his presidency and convinced him the nation was in a war against terror. "I'd do it again to save lives."

George W Bush joins Facebook FACEBOOK has a new member - former US president George W Bush. Bush joined the fast-growing social network yesterday and his profile page, facebook.com/georgewbush, attracted more than 2,000 fans within a few hours. The first post on the page touted Bush's accomplishments since leaving office in January 2009. "President Bush has remained active," it said. "He has visited 20 states and 8 countries; given over 65 speeches; launched the George W Bush Presidential Center; participated in 4 policy conferences through The Bush Institute; finished the first draft of his memoir, Decision Points; and partnered with...

Dissidents in the world's most oppressive countries aren't feeling the love from President Obama. No one seems to know precisely who is behind the "Miss Me Yet?" billboard—the cheeky one featuring a grinning George W. Bush that looks out over I-35 near Wyoming, Minn. But Syrian dissident Ahed Al-Hendi sympathizes with the thought. In 2006, Mr. Hendi was browsing pro-democracy Web sites in a Damascus Internet café when plainclothes cops carrying automatic guns swooped in, cuffed him, and threw him into the trunk of a car. He spent over a month in prison, some of it alone in a 5-by-3...

When I served as a Senior Speechwriter in George W. Bush's White House, Karl Rove was the bane of my existence. The rule was that no speech could ever go to the President without its first being reviewed by Mr. Rove, and since Karl was an extremely busy man, he often didn't call in his comments to the Speechwriting Office till eight or nine in the evening. By the time these comments reached me, they often seemed hopelessly cryptic and unintelligible, yet somehow I had to figure out a way to work them into my draft without offending all the...

Why are charges of racism and political extremism suddenly in the air?Party politics is always the norm, but what is unusual this time around is the juxtaposition between the once-soaring Obama unity rhetoric of the past and the hardball Chicago politics of the present, amid a landscape of feigned outrage that somehow politics are not "fair." A bit of history is in order.Like it or not, throughout much of the Bush administration, the public was conditioned to believe the following: • Filibusters were a key traditional Senate protection designed to thwart the tyranny of the majority as embodied by the Bush-Cheney...

Is this what they meant by 'Hope and Change' ? I have many complaints about Bush's presidency but Obama's 'blaming Bush' excuses are getting old fast. It's been over a year and Obama can't open his mouth without blaming Bush before giving us his new set of transparent talking points. Is this what they meant by 'Hope and Change' ? When 'No' is the winning theme Democrats poll tested a phrase they used since early 2009 : "Republicans are the party of No". This Democrat strategy doesn't look as good now as it did a year ago when popular support...

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but someone has to do it. The “Miss Me Yet?” billboard (inspired by Jonathan Maney’s t-shirts) is cute. But let’s not get carried away with nostalgia. President Bush put America on the proper war footing after 9/11 and deserves much credit for doing so, but he also: 1) joined with open-borders progressives McCain and Kennedy to try to force shamnesty down our throats; 2) massively expanded the federal role in education; 3) championed the Medicare prescription drug entitlement using phony math; 4) kowtowed to the jihadi-enabling Saudis; 5) stocked DHS with incompetents and cronies;...

Internet chatter had led to speculation that it might be an urban myth -- nothing more than clever digital trickery spreading via the Web. But our friend Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio assures us he's seen it with his own eyes: There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: "Miss Me Yet?" Now, the push is on to find out who paid to have it put up.

Bryan Singer ("The Usual Suspects," the "X-Men" films, "Apt Pupil"), who told me an amazing story about an encounter he had recently. Singer was invited to speak at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea last September, and was flying over to the event when he was invited to greet a fellow passenger, with whom he wound up having a six-and-a-half-hour talk about, as Singer put it, "everything." Guy's name? George W. Bush. They talked about 9/11, the economy and Obama, Singer said, but I was eager to learn what the 43rd president had to say about movies. "His...

ABC's Ammu Kannampilly reports from London: Local reports say that Saudi health authorities have closed down a women’s fitness center attached to a hospital in Jeddah, with officials saying it is illegal to run health clubs or fitness centers for women in the country. Speaking to Arab News Muhammad Abdul Jawad, director of Jeddah’s Medical Licensing Administration said, “Anyone who violates regulations governing the running of health facilities would be punished severely because this involves people’s health.” ABC News’ Martha Raddatz wrote about feeling “like a second-class citizen” when she tried to use the gym at the Marriott Hotel in...

It's almost hard to believe but Wednesday, January 20 marks exactly one year since President Bush left the White House. During his last public ceremony as commander in chief, he was booed by thousands of Americans who simutaneously cheered for Barack Obama as he was sworn into office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Except for a June 17 speech in Erie, Pennsylvania in which Bush defended his policies and criticized Obama’s, the former president has been remarkably silent about his successor. He has not fired back at Obama despite the new administration inappropriately blaming Bush for all of...

"...more than four years into the war in Iraq, our troops are stretched thin, our equipment is deteriorating, and the patience of our nation is wearing thin. We have seen 3,600 service members die. Thousands upon thousands more have been injured. "

The National Guard is stretched so thin by simultaneous assignments in Iraq and the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast that leaders in statehouses and Congress say it is time to reconsider how the force is used.

This morning the DNC crew at Morning Joe all hit the fainting couches in "shock" that Rush Limbaugh would suggest that the Obama administration would respond to the Haiti earthquake with an eye on political ramifications.Joe, Mika, even Pat Buchanan slammed Rush's comments made on his radio show yesterday.Yet here is what the sanctimonious crew at MSNBC wrote about former President George W. Bush being asked by Barack Obama to co-lead relief efforts for Haiti along with Bill Clinton:For Bush 43, this is his first real public effort since he left office; it's an opportunity to begin establishing his post-presidential...

The gods of politics have an ironic sense of justice. They can force a president to confront more complex versions of the very problems we thought we had solved by electing him. As you judge, so shall you be judged: sometimes there is an almost mathematical precision to it. Just ask President Barack Obama. Elected to end the war in Iraq, he finds himself deep in a metastasizing war against Al Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan and, perhaps, elsewhere. Elected to bring America out of a recession, he now has to deal with our dwindling role in a global...