Free Republic

A New Viet Nam? thelastcrusade.org U.S. residents are split over whether the country can achieve its goals in Afghanistan, according to a Gallup poll released this weekend. Almost three-quarters of those surveyed, 73%, say they fear spending in Afghanistan will interfere with domestic goals. Just over half, 51% , stated their support for the president's strategy, while 48% said they oppose it.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The government has spent trillions to rescue the banking system from the brink of disaster, but the biggest cost may be the loss in the government's credibility from an understandably distrustful and angry public, according to a quarterly report released Wednesday by the congressional watchdog over the bank bailout.

(IsraelNN.com) A recent survey conducted by Bar-Ilan University's BESA Center in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League reveals Israelis' opinion about the United States relationship to the Jewish State. The Israeli respondents, 57 percent of whom identified as secular, reported positive feelings toward America (72%), with a preponderance asserting that the United States is a loyal ally of Israel (68%). The overwhelming majority of those polled trust that the United States would come to the aid of Israel in the event of an existential emergency (76%), with nearly all respondents believing close relations with America is vital to Israel's security (91%)....

Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party has implications on a personal and national scale. For Pennsylvanians, who must decide who will represent us in the U.S. Senate next year, the stakes are personal. A central question will be whether Mr. Specter can be trusted on anything. In recent weeks, Mr. Specter has made numerous statements about how important it is to deny Democrats the 60th seat in the U.S. Senate and how he intended to remain a Republican to prevent one-party dominance in Washington. What Pennsylvanians have to ask themselves now is whether Mr. Specter is, in fact,...

President Obama reaches his 100th day in the White House Wednesday, so the liberal press is about to burst with flowery tributes to multiple milestones – some real, most imagined – of this most radical American chief executive ever. Contrary to the plaudits flowing from America’s left-leaning journalists this week, The Examiner must dissent by noting three of Obama “achievements” that likely mark his administration as a disaster in the making. First, there is national security. Obama’s demotion of the War on Terror to “overseas contingency operations” points to a series of presidential decisions that eventually will cost many American...

NEW YORK – Stocks slumped for a second straight day Friday as investors, already on edge about the worsening economy, were further rattled by a report that Washington's plans to help banks may have hit a snag. The Dow Jones industrials dropped 4.5 percent over two sessions; broader stock indexes are down more than 5 percent since Wednesday. Uncertainty about when the economy will improve has investors looking to Washington for answers. With the market particularly worried about the prospects of a big bank failure, investors have been hopeful that the government will soon release details of a wide-reaching plan...

We may soon be calling Hillary Rodham Clinton "Madame Secretary." The New York senator and former first lady is being considered for secretary of state by President-elect Barack Obama - an appointment that would go a long way toward healing the wounds left by their bruising Democratic primary battle. Two Obama advisers confirmed Clinton is under serious consideration, according to NBC News' Andrea Mitchell. Adding to the intrigue, Clinton was seen aboard a flight to Obama's hometown of Chicago today, but aides insisted she was on personal business.

Regarding "This Election"; the candidate: "Barack Obama"; and "The MainStream Media" How many times have you stopped and "caught yourself".......... literally "shaking your head" - in UTTER AMAZEMENT & DISBELIEF - that Barack Obama is even a "candidate" for President Of the US, much less the INSANE REALITY of him actually LEADING/WINNING!?! Couple that with the almost total Media Blackout regarding his obvious, blatant and irrefutable poor judgement, past history, anti-american friends/associates, etc. etc. Not only does the media not mention or question the incredibly obvious, alarming and very real CONCERNS, ISSUES & DANGERS surrounding him being elected and holding...

Chinese reoccupying Russia By DAVID WALL Special to The Japan Times VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- 2006 is the Year of Russia in China; 2007 will be the Year of China in Russia -- if the current friendly relationship of the leaders of the two countries lasts that long. Friendly relations are not something that the peoples of the two countries support that much. Among the noncultural things that Russian President Vladimir Putin did in China recently was to sign agreements to build two pipelines to carry Russian gas to west China. This was just a week before the Chinese signed an...

The N.C. State Bar has challenged the dismissal of disciplinary charges against two former Union County prosecutors, saying they committed felonies to win a death penalty conviction. Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer were charged with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in the 1996 murder trial. Honeycutt, the former district attorney in Union County, has since returned to private practice; Brewer is now a District Court judge in Richmond County. Last week, the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission cited a missed deadline in dismissing the case against them. But the bar's lawyers say there is no deadline to bring charges because the...

I was just a guest (last 30 minutes) on the Lee Davis radio show out of Birmingham, AL (I've been a regular guest since spring, when I became involved with Vietnam Vets for the Truth). I talked a little about my letter to Nightline (you can find on www.powerlineblog.com) as well as this latest attempt of the left to sway public opinion of our military. I outlined how this type of negative press (the trumped up mutiny story) is a goal of groups descended from VVAW, and talked about how the group Citizen Soldier is connected to known leftists with...

WASHINGTON -- The former chief internal watchdog at the FBI has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl and has admitted he had a history of molesting other children before he joined the bureau for what became a two-decade career. John H. Conditt Jr., 53, was sentenced last week to 12 years in prison in Fort Worth, Texas, after he admitted he molested the daughter of two FBI agents after he retired. He acknowledged molesting at least two other girls before he began his law enforcement career, his lawyer said. Conditt headed the internal affairs unit that investigates agent...

To be honest, it would be hard to attribute any of the self-effacing anti-Americanism that we are experiencing today to President Bush or his administration. Regardless of their stance on Iraq, the economy or any of the other situations that they find themselves dealing with, the pointed hatred delivered by a minority in our country toward our nation and its leaders is initiated and issued devoid of the facts in total and without foresight. Granted, the decision to pursue military action coupled with the benign economic environment, which the Bush Administration was saddled with by the previous administration, most likely...

(1875, a novel by Anthony Trollope, a multi-part series on PBS)There are worse things than a lie...I have found...that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned.-- Doctor Wortle's School, chapter 6, Trollope, 1858Russell Baker, former New York Times writer and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, hosting Exxon-Mobil Masterpiece Theatre's dramatic narrative of the Anthony Trollope novel, is either the stupidest man available to public television, or as masterful a fraud as the central character in the story. Baker, at the end of the third episode, found the ignorance or brass to face the...