Free Republic

Chris Matthews really needs to retire the name "Hardball" for his talk show on MSNBC. When it comes to liberal or radical guests, he ought to rename the show "Cuddles with Chris." When did this toothless trend become too obvious to ignore? It could have been with John Kerry about a year ago, when Matthews asked him "hardballs" like whether the Bush campaign was hoisting themselves "on their own petard by bringing up the issue of your service," and whether it was possible the Republicans were questioning Kerry's service because they realize "they can't beat you on the jobs issue,...

The opening salvo in the Hillary Clinton versus John Kerry 2008 presidential campaign was fired on Thursday. One time Kerry supporter Ann Lewis is now director of communications for Hillary Clinton's political action committee, and she was the marksman (or would that be woman) that went after John Kerry. (Newsday:) The Kerry campaign had "a different message every two or three weeks," Lewis told the Forward, a weekly New York City-based newspaper aimed at a Jewish audience. Lewis is quoted as saying the Kerry campaign "kept trying to rationally convince, to put a presidency together, line by line, plan by...

By DIANA B. HENRIQUES icholas Stachler was 19 years old when he reported for basic training with the Army at Fort Benning, Ga., before shipping out for 11 months to Iraq. A gentle, trusting man, he had only weeks earlier graduated from high school with a handful of trophies in hockey and soccer, middling grades and hardly a clue about how to handle his money. He had held only casual jobs baby-sitting and mowing lawns and had never opened a checking account. The bus trip to boot camp, from the foothills of the Appalachians in southern Ohio to the kudzu-covered...

This would not seem all that relevant today until you get to #14. Then chills run down the spine. Dear Mr. Ex President Clinton: I recently saw a bumper sticker that said, "Thank me, I voted for Clinton-Gore." So, I sat down and reflected on that, and I am sending my "Thank you" for what you have done, specifically: 1. Thank you for introducing us to Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, Dolly Kyle Browning, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broderick. Did I leave anyone out? 2. Thank you for teaching my 8 year old about oral sex. I had really...

Guess our national leaders didn't expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful. They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply...

What really happened in Fallujah was a great deal different from what was portrayed in the news media, said Robert Kaplan of The Atlantic Monthly, the only reporter embedded with the Marine company (Bravo, 1st Battalion of the 5th Regiment) that led the advance into the heart of the city in the pre-dawn darkness of April 6. The Marines won the battle in the streets, only to lose it in the news accounts, Kaplan said in an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal May 27. "I was in the city for the first days of the battle. The overwhelming...

When Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment led U.S. forces into the heart of Fallujah in the pre-dawn hours of April 6, I was the only journalist present. It had been Bravo Company of the "1st of the 5th" that had been first inside the citadel of Hue in Vietnam in February 1968. Hue City, the sight of one of the most glorious chapters in Marine history — in which the Marines killed 5,113 enemy troops while suffering 147 dead and 857 wounded — was foremost in the minds of the Marine commanders at Fallujah....

The TRUTH about IRAQ - from an Iowa National Guardsman and eyewitness. As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened. I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two week leave back home. And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on...

Friday, April 16, 2004 9:14 a.m. EDT Testy Teresa Tirade: I Can't Believe I Came to America It didn't take long for the rigors of the campaign trail to sour first lady-in-waiting Teresa Heinz, who fumed yesterday that she "can't believe" she moved to America and married an American politician. "I can't believe my family left Africa and came to this country," Heinz Kerry complained to the New York Post's Cindy Adams. "I can't believe I ever even married an American." "A politician's wife has a hard life," she said. "To become more of a 'thing' and less of a...

Greeting Friends, I was compelled to forward this along to you as a must read.  It's about Senator John Kerry... and how he is a surprisingly good role model for our Air Force.  Please read the following and then forward this again to folks you know so that you can do your part and do your civic duty.  Have a nice day. waltjune@tnni.net Subject: From Air Force Pilot Chris Thomas I would like to add my two cents about my John Kerry experience.  During my career as an Air Force pilot, I spent two years flying a small twin...

My nephew, who is in the Navy, sent me this: "You have to go after the facts, they won't come to your office" General Bruce C. Clark Liberals claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war. They complain about his prosecution of it. One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S history. Let's clear up one point: President Bush didn't start the war on terror. Try to remember, it was started by terrorists BEFORE 9/11. Let's look at the "worst" president and mismanagement claims. FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did....

A 60 Minutes Miracle By Paul Beston I was all set to turn off 60 Minutes last night after its first segment -- a too-brief and entirely anticlimactic interview with Condoleezza Rice -- but if I had, I would have missed a small miracle. Judge Charles Pickering finally got the public hearing he deserved, and the competence, courage, and decency of the man shined through. Pickering was nominated by President Bush to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001, but his appointment was blocked by Senate Democrats through 2003. Finally in January of this year, Bush made a...

... on Feb. 8, the Tehran Times published in full an e-mail sent by the Kerry campaign to a government news agency promising that a President Kerry would try to restore relations "at risk" due to "the actions and attitudes" of the Bush administration. "Disappointment with the current U.S. leadership is widespread," the e-mail said, "extending not just to the corridors of power and politics, but to the man and woman on the street as well." If that's not giving aid and comfort to an enemy, it's certainly meddling with U.S. diplomacy in a time of war.

This president worst in U.S. history? Hardly To the editor: They are at it again! Liberals claim that President Bush should not have started the Iraqi war. They waste their time grousing about his prosecution of it, while President Bush does something about terrorists. One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history. Let's just see. We did not start the war on terror. Bin laden did — on Sept. 11. President Bush just did what any president with any sense and gumption would do. Remember there had already been several attacks in our country which were...

When I Met Kerry Posted by Guest Blogger at February 7, 2004 11:50 AM Writes Hal Cranmer : I would like to add my two cents about my John Kerry experience. During my career as an Air Force pilot, I spent two years flying a small twin engine prop plane around the Pacific from my base in Okinawa, Japan. On one trip we had to fly Senator Kerry, his congressional aide, and a Navy Captain (Vietnam, A-4 fighter pilot) who was also in Kerry's party to various locations in Vietnam and Cambodia as part of the MIA/POW talks. When I...

I would like to add my two cents about my John Kerry experience. During my career as an Air Force pilot, I spent two years flying a small twin engine prop plane around the Pacific from my base in Okinawa, Japan. On one trip we had to fly Senator Kerry, his congressional aide, and a Navy Captain (Vietnam, A-4 fighter pilot) who was also in Kerry's party to various locations in Vietnam and Cambodia as part of the MIA/POW talks. When I met him, he was wearing a shirt with a picture of his sailboat on it. I told him...

This was written by a retired admiral and Annapolis graduate. The item offers no direct testimony about Kerry, but it does provide informed background useful in assessing what Kerry seems to have claimed for himself. It confirms information I have received from other sources. Our media should be demanding that Senator Kerry open his service records in the same way they demanded that of President Bush regarding his NG service. ***************** I was in the Delta shortly after he [Kerry] left. I know that area well. I know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and...

Senator John Kerry, a decorated battle veteran, was courageous as a navy lieutenant in the Vietnam War. But he was not so courageous more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners—perhaps hundreds—were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973. The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago— shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report—when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs. Over the years, an abundance...

<p>A poisonous Hollywood-soaked memoir is coming down. The book is also virulently anti-Clinton.</p> <p>Author, Aaron Tonken.</p> <p>He was involved in arrangements dealing with Marc Rich.</p> <p>Nobody else has said this. Nobody's confirming this. Nobody is rushing to buttress Tonken's rep for not-so-squeaky clean sullied truth. Tonken alone is alleging it.</p>

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart. The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am...