Free Republic

I first met the man who would become America's 41st president in 1968. He was a Houston congressman and I was a young reporter for a local TV and radio station. My first impression was how kind he was to this "kid," who had just moved to Texas from the Washington, D.C., area and was just starting to learn the "language," like "fixing to go" and "y'all." Everyone who worked for George H.W. Bush, or knew him, has a story to tell. I have several. Mr. Bush was a letter writer like none other. I think I have an almost...

The New York Times has the rather annoying problem of having to make actual facts fit their confirmation bias.  By making journalistic pretzels of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, they’ve backed into the fact that W.M.D.’s really did exist in Saddam’s Iraq, despite their protestations. In 2004, an NYT public apology declaredTo anyone who read the paper between September 2002 and June 2003, the impression that Saddam Hussein possessed, or was acquiring, a frightening arsenal of W.M.D. seemed unmistakable. Except, of course, it appears to have been mistaken. [emphasis mine] Ten years later, above the fold “The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons” dances like...

The world (Except Saddam) claimed to know for a fact that there were illegal WMDs in Iraq. The left was screaming, "NO war for oil," and, "Bush lied -people died," for over a year now. I have a theory about this that hasn't collapsed to any new facts as of yet. In fact, it's strengthened. I take these people on every day in the web in other forums. They shout, "Bish Lied," and I shove back with, "Name the lie." They usually answer with, "Well, well, well..... He IMPLIED---," and their case is destroyed by their own words. But I...

Nostalgia, The Good Old Days – Who Needs Them? America needs a visionary for the future! During the past, and recent presidential election we hear the all too familiar suggestion of “returning to the good old days.” Every candidate talk about returning America to a sense of values. I don’t know about you but each time I hear, or heard that suggestion I get a little queasy in the stomach accompanied by a little bewilderment, confusion, and absolute disgust! Whenever I hear the suggestion I often wonder exactly what period in time they want to take us back to! Could...

President Barack Obama’s reelection effort is not blaming the sputtering economic recovery of the past four years on former President George W. Bush, his deputy campaign manager insisted Wednesday. “We’re absolutely not doing that,” Stephanie Cutter said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “In fact, we’re taking credit for the 5.1 million private-sector jobs that have been created over the past four years despite being handed the worst economy since the Great Depression. We’re taking credit for the million jobs that were protected under the president’s efforts to save the auto industry and the increase in manufacturing jobs for the first time...

The desperate search for an acceptable Republican Party presidential candidate continues. Republican leaders apparently are pushing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who previously said no, to jump into the race. The GOP's frustration is palpable. Mitt Romney has been running for four years but generates little enthusiasm. Rick Perry was an instant front-runner before losing much of his support after unimpressive debate performances. Michelle Bachmann briefly streaked across the political firmament but now barely registers in the polls. Newt Gingrich committed political seppuku shortly after announcing his candidacy. Ron Paul's support is fervent but limited. However, the real Republican problem...

Cody Alicea, a 13-year-old Stanislaus County boy at the center of a flag controversy, is getting a big show of support today. Hundreds of American Legion Riders escorted Cody to school. by Brian Hickey/staff at 11/15/2010 6:17:35 PM12:17 PM Family, Friends, and complete strangers come out to support Cody and his right to ride with American flag on his bike. by Brian Hickey/staff at 11/15/2010 6:11:24 PM12:11 PM Cody Alicea said support from the public "means a lot to me." Watch video: www.kcra.com by Jason Montiel/KCRA Staff at 11/15/2010 5:56:05 PM11:56 AM Bikers turned out early Monday morning to support...

How has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fulfilled her vaunted promise to "drain the swamp" and preside over the "most ethical Congress in history"? By shrugging her shoulders, downplaying the gravity of myriad ethics charges against Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel and waiting for the "political chips" to "fall where they may." At a press conference to preempt the bipartisan House ethics panel's announcement of 13 ethics and federal regulation charges against Rangel on Thursday afternoon, Pelosi claimed to take "great pride" in her swamp-draining record. Unblinkingly, she cited the House trial against Rangel as proof that the "process" is working. But...

Taxes: On the eve of President Obama's first State of the Union address, two Democratic congressmen are advising him to extend the Bush tax cuts instead of letting them expire. Now that's a stimulus. We hear that the administration is considering taking a more populist tack as it sails the choppy political waters of 2010. Some of President Obama's plans reportedly include several tax tidbits for the "middle class," including a doubling of the child care tax credit for families below $85,000 in income, and $1.6 billion for child care and a cap on student loan payments. Such transparent populism...

Democrats' Bush-bashing strategy goes bust By: Jonathan Martin January 25, 2010 05:07 AM EST After three consecutive losses in statewide races, some top Democrats are questioning a tactic aimed at boosting the party’s candidates in each of those contests: Bush-bashing. Running as much against the Bush White House as he was running against Sen. John McCain, Barack Obama easily carried Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts in 2008. Yet when Democratic nominees for governor in Virginia and New Jersey and for Senate in Massachusetts sought to tie their GOP opponents to the still-unpopular former president, the strategy didn’t resonate. Voters were...

It took a while, but President Obama has finally found a church with a Bush-bashing pastor. Isn't it funny how "Separation of Church and State" is not evenly applied? It seems to only create moral outrage when conservatives do it for some strange, unknown reason. Speaking of "Bush", can you imagine the hissy-fit there would be if George W. Bush was sitting behind the podium listening to his pastor spewing partisan, political rhetoric that bashed Democrats? Watch this...

President Obama will deliver a stern warning to his appointees at a meeting Tuesday afternoon that he won’t tolerate efforts by the CIA, the State Department and others to shift blame for the recent intelligence foul-up to other parts of the government, said spokesman Robert Gibbs. “We are going to move beyond agency finger-pointing,” Gibbs told reporters. “The president will not find acceptable a response where everybody gets in a circle and points at someone else. The American people won’t accept that.”

In case you've been on another planet for the last ten months, you know that President Obama's standard answer for the economic meltdown, and his anemic prescription to fix it, has been that the blame rests wholly on his predecessor. "I inherited this" has been Obama's mantra from day one of his Presidency with regard to any problem he encounters. In a revealing testament to President Obama's true character, last week when he and his administration touted the success of the TARP program and how banks were paying back their bailout money -- with interest -- he never once gave...

WHEN it came to protecting Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Secret Service truly had its hands full, with President George W. Bush's wild and crazy daughters doing everything in their power to escape them, a new book reveals.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Conservatives are advised to avoid this movie. This is a sequel to the successful and funny 2006 film "Night at the Museum". In both movies the premise is that a magic tablet allows the museum characters to come alive at night after sunset. However, this movie proves the old adage that quite often the sequel is not as good as the original. The movie would be bad enough even without the shots at George W. Bush. A particular galling moment is when the come alive character General George Custer, whose voice sounds...

Many years ago, my wife and I purchased our first home. It was an older house, and I was not very handy then. Whenever something needed fixing, a tradesman was required. Our first plumber was selected by chance, just someone in the phonebook. He seemed competent enough but he always did something that never sat well with me. Whenever he repaired something, he always seemed to have something bad to say about the previous craftsman. He might tell me, "This wouldn't have happened if the stupid guy used Kohler faucets," "Whoever did this didn't properly caulk inside the wall," or,...

During his two terms in office, George W. Bush stepped outside the boundaries of the Constitution and assembled an amazing toolbox of powers that greatly increased the authority of the Executive branch and the reach of the federal government. Bush expanded presidential power to, among other things, allow government agents to secretly open the private mail of American citizens; authorize government agents to secretly, and illegally, listen in on the phone calls of American citizens and read our e-mails; assume control of the federal government following a "catastrophic event"; and declare martial law. Thus, the groundwork was laid for an...

(Feb. 14) - It's no surprise to see Abraham Lincoln, the man who held the nation together when it was on the brink of collapse, atop the list of greatest American presidents. But many other presidents are judged far differently by experts than by the general public. Bill Clinton left office with a high approval rating, but a panel of writers who focus on US politics and foreign affairs at the Times, a British publication, considered him mediocre. The president who passed progressive legislation but who saddled himself with the Monica Lewinsky scandal landed at number 23. As panelist Ben...

Q -- Why did your campaign lose? A -- I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration, how have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration.

Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States because the Republican Party and John McCain handed him the presidential election on a silver platter. The Republican Party and the Bush White House walked away from Republican ideals, and they walked away from Republican values. George Bush allowed the Republican Congress to overspend in the first six years of his administration without once using the veto pen; he blindsided the conservative Republican members of Congress on many occasions, and walked away from the base of his party on immigration reform and other issues such as Medicare and No Child Left Behind....