Free Republic

While speaking to the National Association of Counties Tuesday, President Biden pushed for more gun control and said there is “no rationale…for magazines that hold 50, 70 bullets.” He did not say what he believes to be a rational magazine capacity nor did he note whether 70-round magazines exist. Biden said, “I’m going to say something that’s always controversial, but there is no rationale for assault weapons and magazines that hold 50, 70 bullets.”

“The saggin’ started in the prison where inmates couldn’t wear belts, but in jail culture things started to transcend,” said community activist Leonard Jahad, the state’s top New Haven probation supervisor, “The left pant leg rolled up meant you’re in a certain gang and both pant legs rolled up meant something else,“ Jahad said. “When pants are down like the kids wear on the streets, in prison, it means you are available to the next man for sexual activity.” Smith, who’s also entertainment director of the youth development organization Ice the Beef, said he and his peers don’t view the...

The conventional wisdom about Fred Thompson is that he might have waited too long to get into the presidential race, even though by the standard of past election cycles he’s right on schedule. The best question for the Thompson campaign doesn’t have to do with timing, but with rationale; it isn’t about “When?” but “Why?” The Republican presidential field doesn’t obviously lack for a former senator with an unremarkable public record and a career as a character actor. Excitement built around him earlier this year as the default candidate, the “someone else” when underwhelmed Republican primary voters were looking for...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 23, 2005 – Two U.S. brigades will not deploy to Iraq as originally planned, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq said here today. Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said President Bush has accepted his recommendation that the number of American forces in Iraq drop over the coming months. Progress with the Iraqi security forces means the number of American brigades in Iraq can drop from 17 to 15. The 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, will remain at Fort Riley, Kan., and the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, will deploy to Kuwait...

Ever loyal, President Bush is rewarding conservatives with his choice of John Roberts—a man that liberals will have difficulty blocking. George W. Bush keeps surprising the wise guys. They keep thinking that he’s going to be something other than what he is and that he will do something other than what he says he will do. Well, he and Karl Rove built his career on West Texas Bible Belt conservatism, with deep ancestral ties to the Establishment “up East.” And it was that president—half Cambridge, all “Come to Jesus”—who chose John G. Roberts Jr. for the U.S. Supreme Court. In...

Until modern times, there existed no form of legitimacy in the Middle East outside of Islam. Rulers ruled in the name of God; assassins struck them down in the name of God. The assassinations of the early caliphs and the struggle between the Sunni rulers and the Assassins in the Middle Ages took precisely this form: each side claimed to act in accord with divine will, revealed in divine texts. Religion played a crucial role in the rationale of assassination, but it also played a crucial role in the rationale of government, law, and warfare—indeed, of everything. This invocation of...

By Rove's rationale, Kerry boxed in on Iraq Carla Marinucci Sunday, July 18, 2004 Presidential political adviser Karl Rove, racing up and down California last week ahead of the Democratic convention, said Sen. John Kerry is going to hear a lot more about his vote to approve military action in Iraq -- because the Republicans are ready to throw it right back at him. By the time the American people vote in November, expect the Bush campaign to try to box the Democratic presidential candidate in like this: Kerry had the same intelligence information as President Bush on Iraq, made...