Free Republic

A panel of former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judges yesterday told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush did not act illegally when he created by executive order a wiretapping program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). The five judges testifying before the committee said they could not speak specifically to the NSA listening program without being briefed on it, but that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not override the president's constitutional authority to spy on suspected international agents under executive order. "If a court refuses a FISA application and there is not sufficient time for...

Democrats may claim victim status for unintended consequences, but at the end of the day, their policies have ultimately produced our current problems with the Axis-of-Evil and their nukes. One only need go back to the Carter administration to reveal the ugly facts. Between World War II and 1979, Iran was the model of progressive Middle Eastern modernity and was undeniably our strongest ally within the Muslim world. However, after Carter’s election, he decided the Shah didn’t measure up to human-rights standards. A leftist mainstream media campaign ran stories of Iranian government-sponsored torture while willfully neglecting to report the Soviet...

ohn Kerry, the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam*, showed up yesterday at a Boston event, where he was "using crutches as he recovers from knee surgery," reports the Associated Press. He was also using emotional crutches as he recovers from last year's election: "Last year too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated," the Massachusetts senator said at an event sponsored by the state League of Women Voters. . . . Kerry also cited examples Sunday of how people were duped into not voting. "Leaflets...