Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Along with the war on terror and the economy, stem-cell research has emerged as an issue in the presidential campaign. Sen. John F. Kerry has repeatedly attacked the Bush administration for "banning" the research, declaring that "here in America we don't sacrifice science for ideology." In promoting the promise of stem cells at the Democratic National Convention, Ron Reagan said we must choose "between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology." In response to such criticisms, First Lady Laura Bush accused Democrats of giving false hope to the sick and defended her husband, saying that the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - For weeks, the rumor mills have been working overtime to claim that Oscar winner Meryl Streep based her portrayal of the Machiavellian mom in the remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" on Hillary Clinton. The rumors are not even remotely true, Streep told reporters over the weekend. But the actress added that she was imitating a person that no one has yet guessed. Streep plays a U.S. senator intent on seeing her son become president, assuming the villainous role played by Angela Lansbury in the original 1962 political thriller. The remake from Paramount Pictures is slated to...

If the former president's autobiography really told all ... Sunday, June 20, 2004 You'd think with a memoir at 957 pages, Bill Clinton would have included every last detail from Monica on down of his eight wacky years as president. Nope. There was plenty of juicy stuff he left out. But instead of being lost to history forever, the edited portions and discarded notes were rescued by PDQ staffers who just happened to be hanging out in Clinton's dumpster. If you're gullible enough to believe that, you're certainly gullible enough to believe these, the lost passages and notes from William...

COVER STORY: In a White House interview, President Bush discusses his faith, his role in the battle against homosexual marriage, and his determination to fight terrorists "who conveniently use religion to kill" By Marvin Olasky BATTERED BUT not beaten, President Bush met with eight Christian journalists on May 26 and said terrorists "want to sow fear so that we'll withdraw. I will not yield to them, to their blackmail, to their murders." The "I" was not an anomaly. George W. Bush, taught to identify that one-letter word with ego, rarely used it in small groups while governor of Texas and...

Age 80--What's it like? Let me help you with that one. Maybe other old guys can learn something from this octogenarian. Maybe as they ache and repeat themselves and tilt when they walk and wonder how others cope, they will see they are not alone. That should encourage them to head more confidently toward the finish line. First of all, there are a lot of changes when you get to be 80. In my case, I still feel like charging ahead and living life to the hilt, but my body lags behind. My mind is out there on the playing...

Advocate staff photo by Arthur D. Lauck LSU students Celeste Matte of Abbeville and Lenny Moss of Baton Rouge, both at right, prepare for a statistics exam while waiting for extra tickets, along with a long line of other students, for their May 21 commencement ceremony. President George Bush is scheduled to deliver the commencement address, which boosted demand for tickets * * <> * * LSU student Tiffany Popps of Melville was in line at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday to snag an extra ticket to hear President Bush's commencement speech next month. Bush's decision to speak at the spring...

<p>WASHINGTON — Once again, we have a poll taken overseas that tells us how much everyone abroad loathes the United States.</p> <p>This time the survey comes from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press for its Global Attitudes Project.</p>

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — President Bush started the trend as the guide of a seven-minute Oval Office tour on the White House Web site. Now his dog is set to film his own video tour, this one of the mansion's Christmas decorations, which feature past presidential pets. On Monday morning, the Bush's 2-year-old Scottish terrier, Barney, is to wander through the White House with a lipstick-sized video camera strapped to his collar. By Tuesday or Wednesday, Barney's dog's-eye view of the decorations will be available on the White House Web site, www.whitehouse.gov. White House officials acknowledged today that they were...

WEST PALM BEACH -- Candy Crowley, CNN's senior political correspondent, got the obligatory 2000 Florida election joke out of the way first. "All the cameramen I work with would like to thank you for the overtime," she quipped, and when the chuckles had faded, the 300 people in the Sheraton ballroom heard her thoughts on the 2002 midterm election -- why the Republicans won so much, why the Democrats lost so easily and who's likely to run two years from now. For political analysis, the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches couldn't have invited a more experienced speaker. Since 1976,...

<p>BUCHAREST, Romania — When President Bush was the new guy at international summits, a lot of world leaders thought a clueless cowboy with a dubious claim on the White House had joined their elite club. They may have a different picture after his visits last week to the Czech Republic, Russia, Lithuania and Romania.</p>

Thus far, the reputed idiot Bush has graduated from Yale and Harvard, made a stack of cash in the oil industry, become the first consecutive-term governor of Texas, defeated a dual-term VP for the Presidency, and led his party to [November 5th's] extraordinary triumphs. Let his opponents keep calling him stupid; if they do, within five years Bush will be King of England, the Pope, and world Formula One motor racing champion. - Tim Blair, Australian blogger and journalist. ". . . never, ever, ever underestimate George W. Bush. It took me two years of being wrong about Bush before...

LOS CABOS, Mexico (Reuters) - President Bush shared the limelight with a pelican Sunday as he took a sunrise jog along the pristine white sand of a deserted beach in the Baja, California, resort of Los Cabos. In a change of pace from diplomatic maneuvering at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Bush left his hotel before dawn for the nearby El Dorado golf course where he ran his daily three miles. But the lure of the sun rising over the shimmering Sea of Cortez proved too much. Bush, an avid athlete, headed for the beach. He added several hundred...

WASHINGTON Staff at the Blair House, the guest residence where Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stayed this week during his visit, said they had never seen, or rather heard, anything like it a head of state leading his staff in song. Wednesday night, after a tough day of meetings that included President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, Sharon, whom one official described as "upbeat," initiated a round of late-night singing in the dining room. Joined by his senior staff, security, and embassy diplomats, the group belted out classic Israeli...

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- First lady Laura Bush plugged Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Riley's campaign for governor Thursday, saying he's a "staunch supporter of issues that matter to Alabama families," listing among them jobs and "excellent schools for every child." With the Nov. 5 general election nearing, Riley, voicing concerns about voter turnout, organized the rally with the first lady at a Mobile hotel when he learned that Mrs. Bush would be in the port city for a library fund-raiser Wednesday evening. "Bob Riley is a man of great character and commitment," Mrs. Bush told the breakfast crowd of several...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 — A day after President Bush's speech to the United Nations, many Democrats are still tormented and uncertain over Iraq, not ready to give President Bush a blank check to wage war, yet wary about opposing him.The party's dilemma comes after a year in which Democrats tried to hug Mr. Bush closely on the war on terrorism but turn the political debate to domestic issues. Iraq has changed the equation. As the issue moves to center stage in Congress, many Democrats are showing clear misgivings about Mr. Bush's policy. But their positions are complicated by the fears...

A calculated plan to gain support from U.N., Congress ? WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — Alexey Lavrov is a shrewd operator. He couldn’t have survived for eight years as Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations any other way. And something he told me the other day in New York gave me further evidence that behind George W. Bush’s rootin’ tootin’ go-it-alone bluster there has long been a plan to collect allies for war with Iraq. TO BUSH’S CRITICS, the notion of him as a closet multilateralist is preposterous, I know. A bull in a china shop would seem to be a...

CENTRAL POINT — Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts got a taste of patriotism along with a lesson in the virtues of patience during President Bush’s visit Thursday. By 10 a.m., nearly 600 youngsters in neatly pressed uniforms had lined up outside Compton Arena at the Jackson County Exposition Park. After hours of waiting punctuated by bathroom breaks, restless stretching and waiting to go through security, followed by a long speech in a hot arena, most youngsters admitted they would have enjoyed less speech and more of a chance to meet the president face to face. "If I would have got...

<p>MEDFORD, Ore. — President Bush believes "the press looks silly" for obsessing over Iraq in its coverage of a meeting on a different topic — missile defense — that he held with military advisers this week, said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.</p>

<p>Escalating an already keen cable news competition, Fox News Channel took out a newspaper ad on Thursday criticizing CNN for changing its story on paying for al-Qaida videotape.</p> <p>"CNN ... Caught?" said the full-page ad in Thursday's edition of The New York Times.</p>

<p>With President Bush away for a month, a noisy horde of sweaty construction workers and heavy machinery has descended to give the executive mansion a facelift -- about 270 projects ranging from replacing the odd door knob to ripping up and repaving an entire driveway.</p>