Free Republic

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the what's-in-it-for-me theory of life." — Theodore Roosevelt. To the peace-at-any-price news media, Memorial Day is a nuisance holiday. It requires "glorifying war" and honoring the 1.4 million Americans who sacrificed all to preserve journalists' right to bash the military and count the body bags of those we honor today. The media are loath to print good military news, and when they do, they spin it as bad news. Here are recent examples: All four military branches met or exceeded their...

The following article derives from a paper the author delivered at the 1998 Conference of Army Historians in Bethesda, Maryland. Finding the middle, where the truth sometimes rests, requires you to know the edges. When it comes to responsibility for the victory of the United States Army on San Juan Heights, Cuba, on 1 July 1898, the edges are easy to find. On one side, there is the Teddy-centric view, first and most clearly expressed in the writings of Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt of the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment—the legendary Rough Riders. Roosevelt’s memoir of Cuba so emphasized his own...

Hothead McCain by ROBERT DREYFUSS If you've followed Senator John McCain at all, you've heard about his tendency to, well, explode. He's erupted at numerous Senate colleagues, including many Republicans, at the slightest provocation. "The thought of his being President sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper, and he worries me," wrote Republican Senator Thad Cochran, shortly before endorsing McCain. You've heard about his penchant for bellicose rhetoric, whether appropriating a Beach Boys song in threatening to bomb Iran or telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that he doesn't care what...

Article can be found here, USA today has complained! It's been said (mostly by columnist George Will) that you can tell who the real conservative is by asking, "Who would you have voted for in 1912?" These days, we should probably settle for people knowing who the candidates even were, never mind having a preference. Nonetheless, for the record, they were Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. You wouldn't know it from T.R.'s cult of personality in Republican circles today, but Taft was the conservative in the race. Roosevelt bolted the GOP, taking the progressives with him into...

It's time that historical perspective and precedent, as well as toe to toe squaring off against a tyrant are applied in the Persian Gulf IMHO. As Teddy Roosevelt showed us, and has been shown coutless times since, one must stand up to tyrants and make them fear for their lives when they begin their bullying and tyranical ways. So, Iran, the options are simple and the full might of the UK and her allies, principally the United States, should stand behind a direct statement like this... 72 Hours. Faye Turney and the other UK personnel alive...or Ahmadinejad dead!

WASHINGTON - Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth will retire next month and move back to Missoula, crossing paths with his replacement, Abigail Kimbell, who will move from that city to become the agency's first female chief. Kimbell has been regional forester for the Northern Region since February 2004. She will be the agency's 16th chief. Bosworth, whose retirement will be effective Feb. 2, received a standing ovation from agency employees who gathered Friday afternoon to hear the announcement of his replacement. "I started with the Forest Service at a time when our focus was on getting out the timber cut,"...

The Democrat Party died yesterday in Hartford, Connecticut. Present when this venerable institution breathed its last were a minority of the Democrats in the Nutmeg State. The Party was the child of the Republican-Democrat Party, and the Anti-Federalist Party. It leaves no known descendants. However, political parties sometimes spawn children many years after their deaths. Is that verdict too harsh? The leaders of the Democrat Party in Washington, New York, and elsewhere, are not admitting even to a serious illness. It’s difficult to conduct a proper Irish wake when on-lookers insist on prodding the deceased to sing and dance. These...

A special issue of Time magazine celebrates the historic career of Theodore Roosevelt and the implications of his presidency for the development of American society. In the phony familiarity of our times, where you call people by their first names when you have never even met them, the cover story in this issue is titled "Teddy." Theodore Roosevelt was indeed a landmark figure in the development of American politics and government, but in a very different sense from the way he is portrayed in Time magazine. In fact, the way that Theodore Roosevelt has been celebrated by many in the...

Bully Boy Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt by Thomas SowellA special issue of Time magazine celebrates the historic career of Theodore Roosevelt and the implications of his presidency for the development of American society. In the phony familiarity of our times, where you call people by their first names when you have never even met them, the cover story in this issue is titled "Teddy." Theodore Roosevelt was indeed a landmark figure in the development of American politics and government, but in a very different sense from the way he is portrayed in Time magazine. In fact, the way that Theodore Roosevelt...

Partisanship has a funny way of making small differences seem huge. Listen to Howard Dean and you’d think that Republicans are orcs while Democrats are the saviors of Middle-earth. Similarly, in the 1990s, Republicans — including, at times, yours truly — talked about Bill Clinton as if he were the worst thing ever spewed from the bowels of Mordor. Many have noted that this partisan rage is a result of the tyranny of small differences. Clinton’s New Democrat rhetoric made him sound like an old Republican. And George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservative” boilerplate made him sound like, well, a New...

This is now the 4th Memorial Day since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Many people and media outlets are looking back at the war. And with that, comes the criticism. Now, I haven't spent much time on FR, but I am suspecting that most FRers are still in support of President Bush's policies. I consider myself a moderate and am critical of many things he has done since taking office. I don't know whether many conservatives feel it is unpatriotic to protest the President, but keep this in mind: "The President is merely the most important among a large...

This thread is complements of T.L.Sink who posted this first quote the other day. As I searched the web to locate a url or article to use as the reference I found more quotes on immigration by Teddy Roosevelt. I'll post their links under the quote. "In the first place we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equity with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin. But...

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but...

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for...

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore, John McCain spoke about two things that should frighten Republicans and Democrats alike: Teddy Roosevelt and Bull Moose. Although Moore recounts that McCain characterized Roosevelt’s bolting to the Progressive Party (popularly called the Bull Moose Party) in 1912 as “a mistake,” it’s not clear whether McCain felt the mistake was Roosevelt’s or the Republican Party’s.Whatever McCain’s analysis of that almost-century-old mess, there can be no denying some of the close parallels between McCain and TR and between the partisan alignments of then and now. The Republicans were seen as...

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American . . .. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We...

I am tired of Jimmy Carter shooting off his big mouth about my President and his handling of US policy in an incredibly dangerous world. I am composing a letter to the local liberal rag-- and would like to include an anecdote of old... but I cannot find it intact. Thanks in advance to my FReeper FRiends who might help me find or remember this story. I remember an old joke about the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt visiting Jimmy Carter on a sleepless night in the White House (ostensibly during the 1980 election cycle vs. Ronaldus Maximus). Teddy asks Jimmah...

It all started when a hunting party that included Teddy Roosevelt killed a sow bear, only to discover afterward that she had a cub. When one of the hunters raised his rifle to dispatch the orphan in order to spare the poor creature a slower death by starvation, exposure or predation, T.R. intervened, commuted the sentence, and the cub was led off, presumably to a zoo. This compassionate gesture is better known today than any of President Roosevelt's executive decisions, treaties or other accomplishments while in offlce — thanks to a toymaker. It seems the sparing of the bear cub...

Chapter Seventeen Hand To Hand With The Coal Kings - 1902 If the big story of American politics in 1901 had been the ascent of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency, the big story of American business was the creations of the United States Steel Corporation. The steel trust-- the first American corporation capitalized at over one billion dollars-- represented a marriage of the greatest names in American industry and finance: Andrew Carnegie, the strongman of steel, and John D. Rockefeller, the oil magnate whose holdings had long since spilled across the natural resources line into iron. J. P. Morgan, the...

Last week Secretary Rumsfeld, Administrator Paul Bremer, and several other officials testified before both the Senate and the House about the request for $87 billion to finish the military and civilian tasks in Iraq. The first comments are about the responses of Democrats in Congress to these events. Robert Byrd: In the Senate, Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) said to Rumsfeld, "Where is the mandate to rebuild Iraq?" Rumsfeld pointed out that the job did not end with the winning of the war. That reconstruction was the necessary end of the process. He did not point out that America has done that...

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood...