Free Republic

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said his remark that American troops could stay in Iraq for 100 years has been distorted, yet he still suggests a lengthy U.S. presence comparable to that in Korea and other countries. "Of course, that comment of mine was distorted. Life isn't fair, as Jack Kennedy said," McCain told a town hall meeting at Rice University. "I was talking about American presence after the war." Responding to a student who had criticized his 100-year remark, McCain added, "No American argues against our military presence in Korea or Japan or Germany or Kuwait or other places,...

The popular perception of the Bible as a divinely perfect book receives scant support from Ehrman, who sees in Holy Writ ample evidence of human fallibility and ecclesiastical politics. Though himself schooled in evangelical literalism, Ehrman has come to regard his earlier faith in the inerrant inspiration of the Bible as misguided, given that the original texts have disappeared and that the extant texts available do not agree with one another. Most of the textual discrepancies, Ehrman acknowledges, matter little, but some do profoundly affect religious doctrine. To assess how ignorant or theologically manipulative scribes may have changed the biblical...

AMES, IA – With four days until the Iowa caucuses, Fred Thompson continued his bus tour across the north central part of the state on Sunday, and he was asked to answer the same question he faced when he entered the race nearly four months ago: Does he really want it? Yesterday several journalists traveling with Thompson wrote stories about a response that Thompson gave to a 'fire in the belly' question. According to a transcript of the answer posted on the campaign's website Saturday night, Thompson's response included this line, along with a longer explanation about why it is...

(CNN) — Republican Fred Thompson has long faced criticism he lacks motivation to be President of the United States, but the Tennessee Republican's latest comments Saturday are likely to spawn fresh heat. “I’m not particularly interested in running for president," the former senator said at a campaign event in Burlington when challenged by a voter over his desire to be commander-in-chief. “But I think I’d make a good president," Thompson continued. "I have the background, capability, and concern to do this and I’m doing it for the right reasons.” Thompson took heat for not jumping into the White House race...

Some of Team Thompson are claiming they've been "Simonized" again - after Roger Simon of the Politico, who wrote an account of his visit to a firehouse that made it sound disastrously awkward, when later video depicted the candidate, his wife, and the firefighters all smiles and good cheer. This time their grumbling is directed at this account in USA Today: BURLINGTON, Iowa — Fred Thompson said Saturday he does not much like the modern form of presidential campaigning and that he "will not be devastated" if he doesn't win the election. "I'm not particularly interested in running for president,"...

The Bible is against abortion. Hillary is for killing womb babies. The Bible is against active homosexuality. Hillary endorses sodomy. The Bible is against other gods than God. Hillary is polytheistic in that any deity is fine for her. Yet Hillary quotes then from the Bible in a sanctuary. So what’s new? Per AP, “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton used an appearance at one of the nation’s largest evangelical churches Thursday to sketch a broad agenda to take on disease around the globe, calling it ‘the right thing to do.’ “The centerpiece of a speech laced with Biblical references and reflections...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A military investigation into allegations that U.S. troops intentionally killed Iraqi civilians in a March raid in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, has cleared the troops of misconduct, the military said Friday — despite dramatic video footage of slain children. Meanwhile, a lawyer representing families of some of the two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha on Nov. 19 said three or four Marines carried out the shootings while 20 more waited outside the homes. He also said victims' relatives turned down a request by U.S. investigators...

Bush Says Little Can Be Done About High Gas Prices (AP) SAN JOSE As oil prices hit a record, drivers worried about $3-a-gallon gas and politicians feared the impact on elections, President Bush on Friday acknowledged the pain but seemed resigned to being able to do little about it. "I know the folks here are suffering at the gas pump," the president said while promoting his competitiveness initiative at the Silicon Valley headquarters of Internet networking company Cisco Systems Inc. "Rising gasoline prices is like taking a _ is like a tax, particularly on the working people and the small-business...

Haniyeh: 'Washington Post' misquoted Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 26, 2006 Palestinian Authority Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday denied that Hamas was prepared to make peace with Israel, saying he had been misquoted by The Washington Post. Haniyeh said his comments had been misunderstood. He said he was not referring to a peace agreement, only a "political truce." "I didn't talk about recognizing Israel during the interview with the newspaper," Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza City. "I only said that when Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem, and releases all the prisoners and detainees, then...

RUSH: I've got to take care of something first. These idiots over at Bill Schneider's office and CNN. You remember the bit that I did yesterday in which I describe what would be happening if a Democrat vice president had shot a buddy accidentally while hunting? We would be hearing about, "Oh, this is a terrible thing. We must give the vice president room while he grieves and assembles himself as he suffers along with his friend." We'd get all kinds of features on hunting safety and there would be a totally different approach. They took one sentence out...

To the space community: I have recently learned that a London newspaper, The Guardian, ran an article which attributed this quote to me, "The space shuttle is a deathtrap." I suspect the article was a result of the recent media interviews surrounding the release of my new book, "Riding Rockets, The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut". Please know that I have never interviewed with anybody from that paper and have never said those words. When I have been asked about the Challenger, the shuttle design, etc., my replies have mimicked the current NASA Administrator's Congressional testimony. Administrator Michael...

Correction: In the original version of this report, NEWSWEEK misquoted Falwell as referring to "assault ministry." In fact, Falwell was referring to "a salt ministry"—a reference to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus says "Ye are the salt of the earth." We regret the error.

On Hardball last night, Chris Matthews said no less than three times that Laura Bush said "God wants New Orleans to be rebuilt." In the interest of FACTUAL and ACCURATE reporting, here are her EXACT quotes, followed by Matthews' statments. ----- "Asked about the comment, Mrs. Bush joked that she didn't really think she could speak for God. Then she added that she believes Nagin wants New Orleans to be rebuilt." "He wants people who lived in New Orleans to come back," Mrs. Bush said. "I do to, and I know the president does too. You know it's going to...

Dinasour Media bias in action, here is how the story was posted yesterday by AP. Notice how AP edited out the actual QUOTES that DIRECTLY contradicted their spin lie and had the writer write the story interjected their own interpretation of what was said by the sources. Here is yesterdays AP story. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that "arguably" a day or so of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq. Blum said that...

Secretary Condoleezza Rice Washington, DC August 17, 2005 QUESTION: Iran. It feels as if we're sort of at a dead end, perhaps, in terms of our efforts to deal with their nuclear program. It doesn't seem as if the IAEA has the votes to refer the matter to the Security Council. Even if they did, we probably would have a difficult sell there. So where do we go from here? SECRETARY RICE: Well, Phil, I'm not ready to come to that set of conclusions yet. QUESTION: Okay. SECRETARY RICE: First of all, let's look at where we've been. We were...

I did my weekly Google of my screen name and it yielded a hit from Air Americas homepage to a blog. That blog attributed a quote to me that I didn't make. I checked it against My Comments and it ain't even close. My question: Should I pop a cork in celebration of how dumb the moonbats be? Or should I go all parnoid and change my screenname and paint my windows black?

Looks like the New York Times can be more accurate, when pressed. Today's edition corrects one of two errors in Friday's story discovered by Michelle Malkin, the Radio Equalizer and several other bloggers:

JERUSALEM – The Associated Press yesterday retracted a story falsely claiming British Prime Minister Tony Blair blamed the London terror attacks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was the second time in the past few days the media agency falsely linked Israel to the deadly bombings. On Saturday, the AP published a story claiming Blair explained in a BBC Radio interview that to prevent future attacks against London the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needed to be resolved. According to the AP, while discussing the "very deep roots" of terrorism, Blair said "that meant boosting understanding between people of different religions, helping people in...

Harare - A United Nations envoy met with some of the tens of thousands of Zimbabweans left homeless in a so-called urban renewal drive that has drawn international condemnation. Anna Tibaijuka, who arrived on Sunday to assess the humanitarian impact of the government's Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash, toured the Caledonia Transit Camp on Friday where about 4,000 people are living in "difficult conditions" outside Harare, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at United Nations headquarters in New York. She also stopped off at demolition sites and places where the government is proposing to relocate people along the road to...

Boulder, Colo. Founding a democracy, rather like living in a democracy, can be very tough on friendship. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson began as friends. The tensions and frictions of the early Republic took care of that. Then, after years of silence between them, a mutual friend persuaded them to write to each other. In 1812, they launched into a correspondence that continued until it was ended by their deaths. That ending point was on their minds and drove their correspondence. As Mr. Adams wrote Mr. Jefferson, "You and I ought not to die, before we have explained ourselves to...