Free Republic

Republicans themselves brought on the whipping they suffered in the 2006 elections, Colorado state GOP chairman Dick Wadahms said in appearances in Montana. "I don't think Democrats really won the 2006 elections," said Wadhams, who spoke to the Montana Republican Party convention ... "They were just standing there. We didn't deserve to win in 2006." Wadhams is a former campaign director and staff member for Conrad Burns, who represented Montana... Republicans lost in 2006 because they forfeited their claim to fiscal responsibility, "mishandled the ethical lapses" ... Wadhams, 51, has won more campaigns than he's lost, but he lost a...

By Pedro O. Vega As published today in the Johnstown Tribune DemocratThe situation in which we find ourselves in Iraq because of the war on terror defies my attempts at originality to describe. I find myself in need of laying hold of aphorisms and clichés said by the truly Great Ones, and some not-so-great. The first one that comes to mind is from Thomas Paine, an American Founding Father, written in 1776. It’s one I used in a previous column, one I keep returning too because of its sheer wisdom: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer...

The most lasting tragedy of the Vietnam War is that it has legitimized “giving aid and comfort to the enemy”. We are seeing the giving of aid and comfort to the enemy running wild in this war on terror and sadly not only among liberals and their media but also among some conservatives who some of them are right here on this great Free Republic. When Al Qaeda terrorists, or the terrorist regimes in Iran and Syria, or the Iraqi insurgent terrorists whether they are Sunnis or Shia hear the speeches of defeatism coming from liberals and their media, or...

In at least one critically important way Iraq is not Vietnam. No Viet Cong or North Vietnamese leader declared war on the United States. No one asserted that that war was one step in a global effort to destroy the United States and drive it from the face of the Earth. Our defeat did not inspire and strengthen a worldwide movement to attack the U.S. And, Vietnam did not provide a base of operation and a stream of income to fanatics seeking weapons for our destruction. And make no mistake, if we fail in Iraq, if we leave there defeated,...

NEWS RELEASE CONTACT:  Robert Dixon - Phone: (916) 441-6197 or Email: robert@moveamericaforward.org December 6 2006 IRAQ STUDY GROUPA COMPLETE FAILURE Report Makes Few Constructive Proposals Advocates Cooperation with Sponsors of Terrorism: Iran & Syria The Chairman of the nation’s largest grassroots pro-troop organization, Move America Forward, has issued the following statement after reviewing the Iraq Study Group’s report.  A complete analysis will soon be posted on the organization’s website (www.MoveAmericaForward.org). ________________________________________ STATEMENT BY MELANIE MORGAN, CHAIR, MOVE AMERICA FORWARD: “The Iraq Study Group has failed.  With great hubris and pomposity, the Iraq Study Group released a report they wrote...

The attack on the small Mustafa Sunni mosque began as worshippers were finishing Friday midday prayers. About 50 unarmed men, many in black uniforms and some wearing ski masks, walked through the district chanting "We are the Mahdi Army, shield of the Shiites." Fifteen minutes later, two white pickup trucks, a black BMW and a black Opel drove up to the marchers. The suspected Shiite militiamen took automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the vehicles. They then blasted open the front of the mosque, dragged six worshippers outside, doused them with kerosene and set them on fire.

A federal judge has ruled that a portion of a post-Sept. 11 executive order allowing President Bush to create a list of specially designated global terrorist groups is unconstitutionally vague. U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins, in a Nov. 21 ruling released Tuesday, struck down the provision and enjoined the government from blocking the assets of two foreign groups which were placed on the list. The ruling was praised by David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights. "This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," he said. "It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era."...

It's Official: Media Body Burning Story is Bogus Posted by Greg Sheffield on November 27, 2006 - 13:25. The news that six Sunnis were captured by Shiites, doused with kerosine and burned alive, was too sensational to not be picked up by the mainstream media. But it turns out that the event never happened. Furthermore, the Iraqi "spokesman" relied on to give all information regarding this event is as fictional as the story itself. Jamil Hussein, the man news reports called "police Capt. Jamil Hussein," was the source for all information regarding the burning. Although he is mentioned by USA...

A mortar attack ignited a huge fire Monday night at an oil facility in northern Iraq, shutting the flow of crude oil to a major refinery, and a U.S. Air Force jet with one pilot aboard crashed in Anbar province, a hotbed of the Sunni-Arab insurgency, officials said. Al-Jazeera reported that the pilot was killed.

Bombshell: Centcom says AP’s Iraqi police source isn’t Iraqi police posted at 1:07 pm on November 27, 2006 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | printer-friendly I laid off this post at Flopping Aces initially because I didn’t think there was anything particularly suspicious about the cop. Centcom was disputing his report of the six Sunnis burned alive by Shiites but they could have been wrong just as easily as he could. I also didn’t (and still don’t) see Curt’s point about the cop only being quoted in cases where Shiites attack Sunnis. If he’s stationed in an area where...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has asked the U.N. Security Council to extend the mandate of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq, according to a letter circulated Monday. In the letter, al-Maliki said a top priority of his government is to assume full responsibility for security and stability but it needs more time. The United States circulated a draft resolution that would extend the mandate for one year starting on Dec. 31, with a review at the request of the Iraqi government or by June 15. The draft, obtained Monday by the Associated Press, contains the...

CBS's Lara Logan Declares US Defeated In Iraq; General Abizaid Disputes Claim Posted by Michael Rule on November 27, 2006 - 16:09. On Sunday’s "60 Minutes," CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan insisted the US had been defeated in Iraq. During an interview with General John Abizaid, the top US Commander in Iraq, Logan asserted, "We hear very little about victory in Iraq these days. We hear a lot about how to manage the defeat." It appears Ms. Logan suffers from selective hearing. While many Democrats and some Republicans talk about Iraq as a lost cause, sources such as...

Congressman Charles Rangel said most enlisted soldiers join the military because they do not have the "option of having a decent career." Speaking with Fox News reporter Chris Wallace on Sunday, Representative Rangel voiced his belief that soldiers in America's armed forces join only for lack of a better choice. He said, "I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of...

I'm reading an astonishing number of comments on Free Republic these days by posters who have joined the ranks of the anti-American left in calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Some claim to have military experience, some claim to be patriotic Americans and some claim to be smarter than the rest.These posters are joining the Murtha-Rangel-McDermott treason caucus. Oh, they say they love the troops, but their decision to abandon them in the field speaks otherwise.Three years ago, the United States led an international coalition to rid the world of one of the worst regimes on the planet. Saddam...

A bomb intended to kill the contentious speaker of the Iraqi Parliament exploded inside one of his armored cars today while the car was rolling through the fortified Green Zone, injuring the driver and trapping members of Parliament inside the legislative building as the American military shut down the area for hours, a parliamentary aide said. Though the speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, was unscathed by the explosion, the assassination attempt was one of the most serious breaches of security in the four-square-mile Green Zone in recent memory. The Green Zone houses the seat of the Iraqi government and the American embassy,...

"The right-wing stranglehold on Congress has been broken," declared Joelle Fishman, chair of the Communist Party USA’s (CPUSA) political action commission, to a meeting of its 81-person National Committee this past weekend. Fishman noted, "This is a victory being celebrated around the world." Fishman delivered her report to the committee as it discussed the results of the election and prepared to move the struggle for democracy, peace, and economic justice forward in the new Congress, and to build the size and influence of the Communist Party. Overwhelmingly, the committee claimed victory for the US working class, the world, and for...

IN THIS POLITICAL season, the debate about Iraq has become almost completely backward looking. It has degenerated into finger pointing and partisan sniping--stuck between a false choice of "cut and run" versus "more of the same." Failure in Iraq is not an option, because it would spell disaster for U.S. national security and foreign policy credibility, not to mention military morale. Our mission in Iraq continues to move forward, and U.S. forces have successfully defeated the insurgents in several areas, yet the enemy has proven resilient and effective. Thus, we must succeed in Iraq by changing the status quo. The...

Is it a Roar or a Meow?Governance is not the same as easy criticism. Already the Democrats are learning, as is eternally true of our wonderful political system, that loud opposition is not the same as being responsible for governance. Suddenly the beloved press is looking again into John Murtha’s questionable ethics—and wondering whether we can really leave Iraq so easily. Nancy Pelosi was unable to see Murtha elected as majority leader, and we wonder about her political skills when it is matter of being a leader rather than a megaphone. And we still await something novel from the Democrats...

Well beyond us now is any overarching Churchillian vision of our enemies. We lack the practical understanding of an FDR that all of these Islamists loathe us far more than they despise each other. Their infighting, after all, is like the transitory bickering of thieves over the division of loot that always pales before their shared hatred of the targeted bank owner. So we are at a crossroads of all places in Iraq. The war there has metamorphosized from a successful effort to remove a mass-murdering dictator into the frontlines of the entire struggle between Islamic radicalism and Western liberality....

The disappointing results of the recent election have led to a lot of discussion about WHY this happened. In the search for the grand unifying theory of why we lost, there seems to be an inordinate amount of bitterness and recrimination.The problem is that we all are looking at this through the perspective of our own beliefs. Conservatives look at the loss of Chaffee and Northrup and think "If only we had had a real conservative in those seats." Moderates point to the loss of Hayworth and Santorum and caution about moving too far to the right. Some blacks look...

The more Democrats insist on timetables and an early evacua tion of Iraq, the more they sow the seeds of America's defeat - with disastrous consequences for both the region and U.S. interests. Not that they seem to care. Last week, it was Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the incoming chairman of the Armed Services Committee, calling for "a phased redeployment of our forces within four to six months." He was echoing the Senate's next majority leader, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who says that "we need to redeploy" and that a withdrawal should start within months. Even New York's junior senator, Hillary...

Unions spent more than $100 million getting out the vote, knocked on millions of doors and delivered Election Day support to Democrats running for the House by a more than 2-to-1 ratio. Now organized labor is spelling out what it wants from the new Democratic Congress. The priorities include raising the minimum wage, expanding health care and improving pension protections. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sees the elections as a "mandate for a union agenda." Likewise, says Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO, "we have an opportunity to push our agenda... The AFL-CIO executive council is scheduled to meet Tuesday...

Iran is "one step" away from achieving its nuclear ambitions and will celebrate victory before the end of the Iranian year, next March, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.Speaking in Baneh, a town in the northwest of Iran, near the border with northern Iraq, Mr Ahmadinejad told a crowd that the enemies of Iran were trying to stop the country pursuing its peaceful nuclear programme but that they would soon fail. "They want to keep their monopoly on nuclear energy and thereby dictate on nations," he said, according to a report by IRNA, the state-run news agency. "However, they should know...

Tuesday night by a vote of 4-2, the San Francisco Board of Ed banned Junior ROTC training in seven city high schools, throwing 1,600 students out of those clubs. This is a direct insult to the U.S. military and violates the civil rights, I believe, of the ROTC students. The federal government should immediately suspend all federal aid to San Francisco schools. There's no reason to ban JROTC. Nobody's required to join it. And if a student with parental approval wants to investigate a career in the military, every American school should encourage that. Obviously, the military is protecting us...

Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is imploring her colleagues to support Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for majority leader, multiple House Democrats said yesterday, dealing an unexpected but not necessarily fatal blow to Murtha’s opponent, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). It had been unclear until yesterday whether Pelosi would use her clout to turn votes to Murtha. She endorsed him in a letter Sunday, but some dismissed it as a nod to personal loyalty rather than a statement of her intentions. But by yesterday, her intent was clear, several lawmakers said; she hopes to oust her onetime rival Hoyer from the leadership. “She’s...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - An attorney for a Guantanamo Bay detainee has asked a judge to block a planned medical procedure on the prisoner's heart, saying that performing it at the U.S. base puts his life at risk. Saifullah A. Paracha, a 59-year-old multimillionaire businessman from Karachi, Pakistan, already had one heart attack while in U.S. custody and in recent days has suffered chest pains, his lawyers said. Doctors plan to perform a cardiac catheterization on Paracha this month at the isolated Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in southeast Cuba. Gaillard T. Hunt, one of Paracha's attorneys, asked a...

From the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: Demand House Republicans Denounce Ann Coulter's Hate-Speech PetitionWe, the Undersigned, endorse the following petition:Target: Republican Members in the United States CongressSponsor: Democratic Congressonal Campaign Committee As Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on the House floor recently, we are blessed with many freedoms, and among those is the right to freely speak our minds. While Freedom of Speech is one of the principles that makes our country great, it also means we have to endure hate filled rhetoric, like what was recently used by Ann Coulter. In her...

WASHINGTON - Nancy Pelosi was unanimously named speaker-elect by House Democrats Thursday, the first woman to be ensured the post that constitutionally is second in line of succession to the presidency. Even as Pelosi was enjoying her finest hour politically, her fellow Democrats remained divided by a family feud over whom to select as her top lieutenant.

a video posted by an anti-Murtha campaign shows it's clear his recorded refusal to accept a $50,000 bribe "at this point" was because he had bigger goals in mind. "I expect to be in the [expletive deleted] leadership of the House," Murtha said on the profanity-laced video posted by BootMurtha.com..."I'm just avoiding having a problem. I do business like this all the time," Murtha told the FBI agent in explaining his "disinterest"

WASHINGTON -- When cable news channels projected that Democrats would win control of the House, the crowd roared at the party's official election-night party here. California Rep. Nancy Pelosi was introduced as the first female speaker of the House. Mrs. Pelosi, in turn, drew an ovation when she referred to Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid as the next Senate majority leader, even though it would take another day for the election results to become known. Another winner that night was David Bolger, who exchanged high-fives with other Democrats, as the crowd applauded the party leaders. Mr. Bolger isn't a lawmaker...

Here is another tidbit of information that has also been conveniently overlooked by our one party media.From Wikipedia glowing entry on our hero: Harry ReidHarry Mason Reid (born December 2, 1939) is the senior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party, for which he presently serves as Senate Minority Leader. He will become the first Mormon Senate Majority Leader in 2007, after the Democrats won control of the United States Senate in the 2006 Congressional Elections.Early life, education, and careerReid is a converted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is...

Will the Democrats' new control of the House and Senate shake things up that much abroad? They certainly will have plenty of opportunities to alter the present American course of fighting terrorists, the war in Iraq and our overall foreign policy. For over three years, partisan opponents of the Bush administration have made two arguments against its conduct of the "global war on terror." First, they've argued, the absence of another Sept. 11-like attack has not been the result of anything our government has done, here or overseas. Remember, after conditions in Iraq began to worsen, they began to say...