Free Republic

Sen. John McCain this morning said "greedy" Wall Street investors are partly to blame for what he said is probably an economic recession the nation is now suffering. "There has to be a modification of the greedy behavior of some of these people," he said, using the word "greedy" repeatedly in remarks to the Associated Press annual meeting at the Washington Convention Center today.

1. America is at risk of more terrorist attacks - but not just from the Middle East According to a recent NYPD report, the greatest terrorist threat to United States citizens now comes from our own people - homegrown terrorists. This is not news to anyone who is aware of how different the terrorist threat is from any other enemy we've faced. John Robb, in his excellent book Brave New War, outlines the myriad ways that any dedicated homicide-minded individual can bypass America's woefully inadequate homeland security and exploit technology to wreak havoc on a massive scale: "We have entered...

I am disappointed in the tactics and statements of almost all the presidential candidates, both Democrats and Republicans. My grandmother used to say that you can tell just as big a lie with a half-truth and sometimes a bigger one. Take the half-truths said about Mike Huckabee and taxes. I lived in Arkansas when he was the governor. He did away with the marriage tax penalty and the capital gains tax on the sale homes. He doubled Arkansas' standard deduction and the child care tax credit. He slashed the capital gains tax for both individuals and businesses. In 2001, Mike...

Conservatives outside Iowa are rejecting Huckabee more and more once they get past his ability to turn a warm and fuzzy phrase (which is something I always wished George Bush could do more easily). There’s no doubt Huckabee is comfortable in his own skin which is a strong voter attribute for any Presidential candidate. But what about his policy? Come on, conservatives and wake up! Don’t let this Baptist Minister fool you! Huckabee’s record as governor speaks for itself. He is wrong on taxes. He is wrong on illegal immigration (despite his recent cries to the contrary). He was not...

Glenn has been asking Ron to come on his show for the whole hour for weeks now. Well, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Ronny!

Not since Teddy Roosevelt took on Tammany Hall a century ago has a New York politician closely linked to urban reform looked like presidential timber. But today ex–New York mayor Rudy Giuliani sits at or near the top of virtually every poll of potential 2008 presidential candidates. Already, Giuliani’s popularity has set off a “stop Rudy” movement among cultural conservatives, who object to his three marriages and his support for abortion rights, gay unions, and curbs on gun ownership. Some social conservatives even dismiss his achievement in reviving New York before 9/11. An August story on the website Right Wing...

Via Andrew Fersguson in the Weekly Standard we have an analysis of James Webb and why he is embraced by the Democrats... [snip] The problem for the Democrats, is that Webb is not actually a Liberal. In fact, he is a reactionary; a conservative more in the mold of Pat Buchanan than George Bush or Ronald Reagan.

Two weeks ago, I pointed out that we live in something close to the best of times, with record worldwide economic growth and at a low point in armed conflict in the world. Yet Americans are in a sour mood, a mood that may be explained by the lack of a sense of history. The military struggle in Iraq (nearly 2,500 military deaths) is spoken of in as dire terms as Vietnam (58,219), Korea (54,246) or World War II (405,399). We bemoan the cruel injustice of $3 a gallon for gas in a country where three-quarters of people classified as...