Free Republic

Hugh Gallagher explored what he called FDR’s Splendid Deception in his 1985 book of that title. In the title Gallagher was referring to FDR’s concealment of the polio-related paralysis that struck him in 1921. Gallagher was also a polio victim who understood the pain underlying Roosevelt’s efforts. Researching the book, Gallagher found that among the 35,000 photographs of Roosevelt at his presidential library, only two featured him in his wheelchair. Media of the day cooperated by ignoring his polio. Roosevelt himself went to extraordinary lengths to convey the impression that he could walk. “[T]he overwhelming fact about [FDR] is that...

Today is the anniversary of the birth of America’s great or greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom at the exact moment when the country was on the threshold of abandoning what he called its “ancient faith” that all men are created equal. In 1858 Lincoln attained national prominence in the Republican Party as the result of the contest for the Senate seat held by Stephen Douglas. It was Lincoln’s losing...

Derek Chauvin could not afford an attorney to appeal his convictions in the case of George Floyd. Chauvin’s insurance did not extend to appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court denied him a public defender. Although I thought Chauvin could not have received a fair trial in Hennepin County, it looked like he wouldn’t be able to raise the issue on appeal either. I put out the call on Power Line for some member of the Minnesota bar to represent Chauvin on appeal. In the best tradition of the American legal profession, my friend Bill Mohrman answered the call. Chauvin’s legal...

Cook also encouraged other young girls who want to become officers to follow their dreams. “I think you know what I’d like to say to the little girls out there is, you can grow up to be a police officer, it’s doable it’s definitely something that is an honorable profession and if you want to serve your community,” Cook said. [snip] Cook assured Clay County residents they will be safe.

Most members of America’s foreign-policy establishment see Turkey as an ungrateful ally, perhaps even a Trojan horse inside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s walls. On Capitol Hill and in many Washington think tanks, a call for concessions to Tehran will get a more sympathetic hearing than a call to compromise with Ankara, a treaty ally for 67 years. Turkey’s determination to secure its southern border against the YPG is a wanton impulse, in the prevailing view. But the YPG has substantial ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, as then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter testified before Congress in April 2016....

“Tonight we are celebrating because we engaged and empowered our community and we won!” exclaimed Ilhan Omar in an August 14 press release. “Our campaign staff, our volunteers, and the people of the Fifth Congressional District are the inspiration we need to get up every day and fight for a democracy that guarantees a more just and equitable society. Together, each and every one of us are the inspiration we need to keep fighting for a democracy that gets us closer to the American promise of prosperity for all and the hope for a better tomorrow. The inspiration we need...

Victor Davis Hanson asks why so many Americans are depressed. Suggesting five themes that might provide an answer, he thinks it might be more than the economy that explains our state of mind. I agree, but none of Dr. Hanson's themes accounts for my despair. I feel utterly powerless to do anything about the fellow in the Oval Office who combines infantile leftism and adolescent grandiosity in roughly equal measures. It seems to me that every day he is responsible for assaults on the freedom and well being of the American people. I can't keep up and I can't stand...

Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson from Power Line Blog (http://www.powerlineblog.com/) has accepted being a write in candidate for MN Supreme Court. Thanks right...one of the guys that helped blow open RatherGate can be a MN Supreme Court Justice...talk about JUSTICE for the MSM. And how ironic - the power of the blog to elect a write in, last minute candidate. Please forward this to everyone you know in MN.