Free Republic

All Sen. Arlen Specter wants as he sits down at the Vietnam Georgetown Restaurant after a bruising day of fighting for survival is a gin martini, with olives. How hard is that? "Bartender is not here tonight. No mixed drinks - beer, wine only," the young waiter says, tapping a pencil on his order pad. "No bartender?" Specter says. "How about a manager?" The kid shakes his head. "Well, how about straight gin on ice? Can you do that?" Specter asks, sighing. The waiter is puzzled. "Straight gin," Specter repeats, exasperated now. Ah, the kid realizes, this customer is not...

Several lawmakers whose districts are drowning in foreclosures are taking unprecedented steps to help people stay in their homes, including picking up the phone themselves to negotiate with banks on behalf of their constituents. The pain of being put on hold for an eternity can be an educating experience for a member of Congress. (snip) Rep. Maxine Waters, who represents Los Angeles, has called mortgage lenders directly to seek lower payments for her constituents. Waters said it’s frustrating. She’s spent more than an hour on hold before, listening to music and getting transferred to different departments. She said the process...

Financial institutions in the United States probably need hundreds of billions of dollars in additional assistance, and one congressman wants to harness state and local pension funds to help them. Rather than rely more heavily on the Treasury, which has already put $350 billion in the nation’s banks, Representative Gary L. Ackerman sees an opportunity in the trillions of dollars in public pension funds. Most of the funds suffered giant losses last year in the market turmoil. But they do not need all of their assets immediately, because their time horizon for paying benefits is decades long. (snip) Since the...

ALBANY — It began with a simple plea for equity, for the same deal that other unions had. It ended with thousands more former New York City employees getting expensive Christmas presents: bonus checks in each year of retirement that would eventually reach $12,000, all paid for by taxpayers. The road to a new pension benefit that will eventually cost New York City an estimated $100 million a year began in 1995, when the city’s correction officers decided that on top of their regular pensions, they deserved the “Christmas bonuses.” Retired police officers and firefighters already received such checks, and...

Every year since 1999, New York City has reported that it has all the money it needs to pay for the pensions that have been promised to city workers. With the retirement plans said to be financially sound, state politicians have happily showered city employees with generous pension enhancements — annual cost-of-living increases, holiday bonus payments, early retirement with full benefits — that are the envy of private-sector workers, whose pension benefits have eroded. But a close inspection of city pension records shows that the funds committed to the plans may fall well short of the city’s promises to hundreds...

WASHINGTON — Sen. James Jeffords this week is expected to introduce the last major piece of legislation in his 40-year political career. The bill, if it becomes law, would slash America’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than half over the next 50 years, making it one of the most aggressive environmental measures in recent history. But when he introduces the legislation into the Congressional Record, he will do so with remarks prepared by his speech writers about a bill written, researched and crafted by two key policy advisers, and he will probably not answer reporters’ questions about it without an...

MEET AL GORE, scaremonger. In 2004, Gore denounced President Bush for "playing on our fears." Today, he is at the forefront of a "green scare" about global warming intended to terrify Americans into submitting to his environmental policies. Consider the trailer for "An Inconvenient Truth," Davis Guggenheim's documentary about Gore's green crusade. It promises to be the most adept piece of scaremongering ever captured on film, making "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" seem like "Toy Story 2." The movie's poster shows penguins walking across a desert. The trailer says, "If you love your planet … if you love your children …...

Washington Monthly reporter Amy Sullivan thinks evangelical Christians are ripe for the Democrats’ picking. Positively giddy at the prospects of "the party of Nancy Pelosi" converting just enough "moderate" born-again evangelicals to shift the entire balance of power in Washington, DC, she writes: In the last election, evangelicals made up 26 percent of the electorate, and 78 percent of them voted for Bush. That sounds like a fairly inviolate bloc. And, indeed, the conservative evangelicals for whom abortion and gay marriage are the deciding issues are unlikely to ever leave the Republican Party. But a substantial minority of evangelical voters—41...

As political experts prognosticate about the coming 2006 off-year elections, one issue is missing from the political skyline. Byron York observed recently in the New Republic, "These days GOP lawmakers are polling behind Democrats on issues like health care, education, and the deficit. National security is pretty much their only strength -- and now Bush has hurt them on that." The Economist provides a similar analysis: "For the Democrats, this is a great opportunity. For years, they have enjoyed a consistent advantage over Republicans on the 'mommy' issues, such as education and health care. But Republicans have trounced them on...

Well what else could explain his latest finger-wagging at America and Israel? It is not surprising that Jimmy Carter has penned a Washington Post Op-Ed demanding that the US and Israel give Hamas a chance. Yet no matter how many times Jimmy Carter steps forward to defend terrorists and enemies of this country it still manages to cause a visceral reaction of disgust, anger and shame at this disgraceful excuse for an American, let alone an ex-President. For years Carter has basically abused what is normally a respected status as an ex-President by becoming the mouthpiece for dictatorships spanning the...

In a recent USA Today op-ed, Tom Krattenmaker argues that “playing the God card” has backfired on President George W. Bush. The president’s favorability has fallen through the floor, Krattenmaker argues. And surely God would never side with unpopular presidents. “The God’s-on-our-side rhetoric is looking even less credible now, after more than a year of frequently bad news for the president and his administration,” he writes. As for the actual “God’s-on-our-side” rhetoric, Mr. Krattenmaker’s examples are pretty lame. He quotes an obscure alternate delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention and New York Governor George Pataki (no favorite of the...

Let me begin this column by informing the reader that I am a freak for Christmas songs. I'm the guy who whistles "Jingle Bells" in the grocery store; who starts the Christmas CDs before Thanksgiving. And if you pull up next to me at a red light when "O Holy Night" happens to be playing on my car radio, you might very well hear me singing through two panes of crash-proof, side-windshield glass, my arms flailing un-rhythmically like the poor shlubs in the commercials announcing a new season of American Idol. To me, this is the hap-hap-happiest season of all....

It came out of the blue. During a rare presidential press conference dominated by Katrina and Harriet, (some reporter) asked an ever-so-peculiar question:"Mr. President, the Bible speaks of goodwill towards the least of these. With that, how are you going to bridge the divide of poverty and race in this country beyond economics and home ownership, that after Hurricane Katrina and also the Bill Bennett statements? And also, how can the Republican Party gain the black vote -- more of the black vote in 2008, after these public relations fiascos?"Flash to my in-laws' dinner table. (Some AmSpec readers will recall...

It now appears that the estimate of 10,000 lost souls in New Orleans alone as a result of Katrina’s wrath was greatly exaggerated. While New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was the source of this dubious figure, the mainstream media turned it into a tautology. Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes a fact. And a damn good story. But then rescuers began the grisly chore of searching for and counting the dead. Now you can almost hear the nation’s assignment editors shouting at the top of their lungs: “That’s it!? 700? Oh, you gotta do better than that!” Just...

From Anklebitingpundits.com: A BIT ABOUT THE JUDGE, LAWRENCE K. KARLTON - He's a Jimmy Carter appointee (big shock there, right) - He's ruled in favor of Muslim inmates on "religous claims" - including ordering prison authorities to "religion-related disciplinary records of current and past Muslim inmates' custody files.", which has earned him praise from CAIR- He's also ruled in in favor of salmon and against 15,000 family farmers- Ruled favor of expanded amnesty opportunities for illegal aliens- Issued what was described as a "rare" ruling in order to twist policy in favor "low-income housing" residents.

We veterans of the 2004 campaign can hardly imagine the American political left sinking lower than it did then: the fake memo, Michael Moore's celluloid sandwich board, George Soros, "Bush is Hitler," Bruce Springsteen. And yet, as its reaction to Hurricane Katrina makes plain, the left is perfectly willing to sink a lot deeper. It all seemed to start with an op-ed by a certain Ross Gelbspan in the Boston Globe. Technically, Gelbspan (who once falsely advertised himself as a Pulitzer Prize winner) blamed the "oil and coal industries" for Katrina's devastation. But lest you missed the subtlety of the...

Once again, the Washington Post has taken another slanted poll, and used it to write a story about what it might mean for the 2006 mid-term elections. And once again it's up to us to point out the problems with trying to relate the poll results to what might happen come election day. Ok, you need to take a look at the raw numbers. Good, Now we'll tell you what's wrong with it. 1. Party Leanings - The respondents tend to "think of themselves" as follows: 32% Democrat; 29% Republican, and 33% Independent and 5% "Other.. The 2004 exit poll...

For the last few months there has been a running debate about the U.S. economy, more or less like this: American families: "We're not doing very well." The administration and some political commentators seem genuinely puzzled by polls showing that Americans are unhappy about the economy. After all, they point out, numbers like the growth rate of G.D.P. look pretty good. So why aren't people cheering? (snip)Corrections: In my column last Friday, I cited an inaccurate number (given by the Conyers report) for turnout in Ohio's Miami County last year: 98.5 percent. I should have checked the official state site,...

Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel is privately meeting with his top advisors and political contributors to discuss the prospects of an independent bid for the White House in 2008, a high level GOP source told me this morning. According to the source, Hagel has already begun to posture himself as an independent, believing that by doing so he can tap into the perceived growing frustration voters feel toward both major political parties. Recent polls show widespread voter dissatisfaction with leaders of both the Republican and Democrat parties in Washington. At issue is the concern among Hagel higher-ups that the Nebraska Senator...

This one goes out to all my liberal friends out there. Soon that old feeling, which by now has almost become a state of being, I suppose, will overcome you and once again you will recognize the absurdity behind the wailing and shrieking of your liberal cohorts. Though you will never admit it publicly, you will silently conclude that Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mom turned President-Bush-stalking-war-protester, is either a crackpot or a sideshow or perhaps both. Many of you have undoubtedly concluded this to yourselves already. The feeling you are experiencing, or will soon experience, is a familiar one. It...