Free Republic

Former Florida Governor JEB Bush has decided not to persue the Senate Seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Mel Martinez. JEB was considered the top candidate for the office. Mr. Bush has stated that he is not yet prepared to return to public office.

CAIRO, Egypt – Islamic militants posted sarcastic comments on an extremist Web site Tuesday ridiculing a recent announcement by First Lady Laura Bush that the family's cat had died.

President Bush appears at 1:20 of video.

Donors to President George W. Bush's presidential library probably will remain a mystery, said the foundation overseeing fundraising. Mark Langdale, who heads the George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, said that's the way some donors want it. "It's our decision not to disclose who the donors are," he said. The foundation will oversee construction of the library, museum and public policy institute at the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas. The group had raised less than $3 million when the latest tax reports were filed in August. That's far short of its $300 million goal, but foundation officials said fundraising...

HONG KONG - Bush-bashing - that thriving international industry which over the past eight years has crossed borders, cultures, races and the economic divide - will lose most of its sporting appeal when US President George W Bush hands over to his successor, Barack Obama, on January 20. There will no doubt follow another global wave of celebration and surge of hope as America's first African-American president, who has promised to restore the country's tattered image abroad at the same time that he fixes the economic mess he has inherited from the Bush team, takes the helm in a much-anticipated...

A White House letter tells the father his request on behalf of Sgt. Evan Vela will be 'seriously considered.' The father of an eastern Idaho soldier convicted of killing an unarmed Iraqi says the White House has confirmed that President Bush is considering a request for a pardon. Curtis Carnahan said he received a letter from the White House last week. "Please know that your views on this matter will be seriously considered," it said. Sgt. Evan Vela,a 24-year-old U.S. Army sniper,was convicted in February and sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing an unarmed Iraqi civilian who stumbled...

An 11th-hour rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is stirring national controversy by allowing people who provide reproductive health services to refuse information or procedures that violate their conscience. Under the so-called "conscience rule," scheduled to take effect Jan. 19, any health care provider can refuse to disclose information or provide services to clients without disclosing such actions to supervisors, even if the individual's actions counter the mission of the organization in charge. The rule is backed by some religious and anti-abortion organizations including the National Catholic Bioethics Center. "The proposed regulations will reinforce and reaffirm...

The latest NIC Global Trends 2025 Report is out… and it’s not good news for those determined to insure the Bush legacy is portrayed as one consisting of nothing but of utter failure. Download the 120 pg, 8.2MB report hereI had summarized for Larry Weisenthal here just a few days ago… as well as blogged about it on my old haunt Sea2Sea back in February 2008… PLUS Wordsmith’s post May 29th here on FA… about what? There’s been more than a few of us becoming aware that one of the side benefits of the Iraq war was the decline of...

Tonight, we will be breaking down the last 8 years of the Bush presidency, what he did right, what he did wrong, how history will remember him, and what to expect from the incoming President elect. Tune in tonight at 11:30pm EST.

The rise of the neoconservatives within the GOP has not only discredited the Grand Old Party but tarnished the image of conservatism. The Republican party suffered an overwhelming electoral defeat this past November. The establishment media were all too quick to proclaim that conservatism is dead and we're now at the dawn of a liberal age. Peter Beinart, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), wrote in Time magazine that we are facing the dawn of a "new liberal order." In making this proclamation, Beinart overlooks the fact that the public was not voting...

President Bush met with the First Vice President of the Government of National Unity of Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit today in the Oval Office of the White House. TRANSCRIPT The White announced that Bush family pet cat India, aka Willie or Kitty, passed away on Sunday. India was a beloved member of the Bush family for almost two decades. ANNOUNCEMENT

In an ever-shrinking news cycle and political memory to match, I just thought I'd provide a little link to a very controversial book that was being released just before the election, four short years ago. Anyone remember 'The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty'? Well, not necessarily, that anyone remembers, since so few people bought the scandal monger's tripe.Ann will be fine, but NBC would do well to remember how much time it found for Kitty Kelly's controversy.

Size is reduced from what activists sought, but they plan to lobby Obama> The marine areas — totaling 195,280 square miles — are: * In the northern Pacific, waters at the northern end of the Northern Mariana Islands, including the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of Earth's oceans at 36,000 feet. * In American Samoa, the Rose Atoll — the world’s smallest coral atoll and one of the most remote. * In the central Pacific, coral reefs, pinnacles, sea mounts, islands and surrounding waters of Johnston Atoll, Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island. These...

"Earlier today, Americans for Limited Government announced that it had formally asked Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to launch an immediate investigation into a well-orchestrated plan by top union officials, environmentalists, and political interest groups to raid worker pension funds in order to push the green agenda."

<p>NEW YORK – First lady Laura Bush, among the most reserved and enigmatic public figures of recent times, will, at last, tell her story.</p> <p>How much she will disclose remains a mystery.</p> <p>Bush has agreed to write a memoir with one of the world's oldest publishing houses, Scribner, the house of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the first lady's mother-in-law, Barbara Bush. Publication for the book, currently untitled, is scheduled for 2010.</p>

Here is video of former President George H.W. Bush on Fox News Sunday yesterday, January 4, 2009, where Chris Wallace asked him about his son, Jeb Bush's political future. Former President Bush said he wanted Jeb to do what he feels is best, but he would love to see Jeb become President or a senator some day. . . . (see video)

What's unfortunate about the world-wide condemnation of Israel for invading Gaza is that there was so little condemnation of Hamas during its years of firing rockets into Israel. Had international outrage been directed at Hamas provocations, it might have dissuaded Hamas from thinking it was invulnerable to Israel's displeasure. It was the thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately at civilian targets in Israel over the years -- intensified since mid-December when the Egyptian-brokered six month ceasefire was terminated by Hamas -- that led to the air attacks and now land invasion by Israel. Despite urgings by the Pope, the UN and...

“Thank you President Bush God Bless” is what 14-year-old Chrissy Doolittle’s sign read. The Leesburg resident stood holding her sign by the Washington Monument for nearly an hour and a half Saturday afternoon with her mother and grandmother to thank President George W. Bush for his eight years in office. Chrissy’s family was part of a group of around 150 people – the majority of them from Loudoun County – who wanted to make sure that their voices of gratitude were heard, even as Bush’s approval ratings hover around 30 percent and the area and nation turn their focus toward...

For nine days, as European and United Nations officials have called urgently for a cease-fire in Gaza, the Bush administration has squarely blamed the rocket attacks of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for Israel’s assault, maintaining to the end its eight-year record of stalwart support for Israel. Mr. Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said the United States did not want a “one-way cease-fire” that allowed Hamas to keep up its rocket fire, and Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday echoed the point, declaring that only a “sustainable, durable” peace would be acceptable. Many Middle East experts say...

President George W. Bush's "after-life," as Laura Bush calls the post-presidency, is shaping up to be pretty comfortable, with a Dallas office, staffers, Secret Service protection, a travel budget, medical coverage and a $196,700 annual pension, all at taxpayers' expense. However, Bush will be the first president not to benefit from one former lifetime benefit: Secret Service protection. "He'll be the first one to receive it for 10 years," said Malcolm Wiley, Secret Service spokesman. Congress changed the law in the 1990s so that any president elected after Jan. 1, 1997, and his or her spouse will receive the federal...

Former President George H.W. Bush said on Sunday he'd like to see his second son, Jeb, become president of the United States some day. Interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," Bush said his second son, a former governor of Florida, had all the qualifications to serve in the White House. Jeb Bush, 55, has said he was considering running for a U.S. Senate seat representing Florida in 2010. The current incumbent, Republican Mel Martinez, has announced he is stepping down. "I'd like to see him run. I'd like to see him be president one day, or senator, whatever, yes I would,"...

President George W Bush, in his last fortnight in office, is providing Israel with the diplomatic support the country needs to continue its offensive in the Gaza Strip. Late on Saturday, America prevented the United Nations Security Council from passing a statement urging an immediate ceasefire on both sides and expressing deep concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas. Britain has moved away from America and joined the consensus of European governments, who favour a ceasefire. Deprived of Britain's support, America was isolated on the 15-member Council. Alejandro Wolff, the deputy US Ambassador at the UN, said...

White House: Reid 'Isn't Really Taken Seriously' @ 4:14 pm by Hill Staff White House Press Secretary Dana Perino issued a terse response to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) suggestion that President Bush is the "worst president we've ever had." "The Senate Majority Leader isn't really taken seriously," Perino said. Reid, on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, defended his past remarks that Bush was the worst president and the the Iraq war had been lost. "I think you just have to call things the way you see them," Reid said. "I really do believe President Bush is the worst...

A new tax law will allow retirees to skip required withdrawals from individual retirement accounts and related accounts this year [2009]. The change -- signed into law by President Bush last month -- is intended to give beaten-down nest eggs time to rebound from the brutal bear market. ~snip~ The new law suspends required distributions in 2009. This gives those who can afford to leave their nest eggs alone a better chance of recovering some of the investment losses they sustained last year. "They'll have more dollars working for them in the event of a stock-market rebound," says Elizabeth Drigotas,...

Cheney stressed the US support for the Gaza operation, saying the rocket fire on Israel must stop.

An Arizona State University economics professor says our current economic nightmare is ‘hopefully' a once in a lifetime event. Anthony Sanders with the WP Carey School of Business says the United States is happy to put the year 2008 in the rear view mirror because the past few months have seen the worst economic times since the Great Depression. He says the repeated bailouts of everybody from banks to car makers to insurance companies went massively awry. "We have - the retail industry wants a bailout, everybody wants a bailout - in other words, I would call this in terms...

AP) President George W. Bush will leave behind a legacy of Bushisms, the label stamped on the commander in chief's original speaking style. Some of the president's more notable malaprops and mangled statements: "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." - September 2000, explaining his energy policies at an event in Michigan. "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" - January 2000, during a campaign event in South Carolina. "They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too." - Sept. 26, 2001, in...

Five Democratic governors are determined to help President George W. Bush secure his legacy as the president who helped to destroy the U.S. economy in order to protect idiot real estate speculators. Placing their faith in the false gods of Keynesianism, they want the U.S. government to fork over $1 trillion --in addition to the $8.5 trillion the federal government and the Fed have already committed to various bailouts-- to help cash-strapped states, Reuters reports. In other Bush legacy news, the U.S. Treasury announced it plans to provide financial aid to companies that supply automobile manufacturers. President Bush better pick...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President George W. Bush will be judged on what he did. He will also be remembered for what he's like: a fast-moving, phrase-mangling Texan who stays upbeat even though his country is not. For eight years, the nation has been led by a guy who relaxes by clearing brush in scorching heat and taking breakneck bike rides through the woods. He dishes out nicknames to world leaders, and even gave the German chancellor an impromptu, perhaps unwelcome, neck rub. He's annoyed when kept waiting and sticks relentlessly to routine. He stays optimistic in even the most dire...

An Afghan woman holds a U.S. flag during a ceremony in Kabul marking the donation of more than 5000 wheelchairs to Afghanistan, September 22, 2003. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood Ted Turner and Jane Fonda must be political soul mates. From a transcript of Bill O'Reilly's interview with Ted Turner: O'REILLY: All right. Is America a good country? TURNER: Oh, it's a great country. O'REILLY: Are we exploitative overseas? Is the war on terrorism largely our fault? TURNER: No, I wouldn't say largely. But I think if we stopped bombing people and sent doctors and scientists and engineers around the world that...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryJanuary 2, 2009 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       In Focus: Middle EastTHE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Over the past week, I have been monitoring the situation in the Middle East closely with the members of my national security team. Secretary Rice is actively engaged in diplomacy. And I've been in contact with leaders throughout the region -- including the King of Saudi Arabia, the King of Jordan, the President of Egypt, the President and Prime Minister of the Palestinian Territories, and the Prime Minister of Israel. This recent outburst of violence...

Top Israeli officials have given the military the green light for a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip after a week of deadly bombings. "The Israeli leadership has given the thumbs-up for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip," wrote FOX News, quoting unnamed sources. Earlier on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with other cabinet members to discuss a ground offensive into Gaza.

One of Israeli's leading newspapers says only one one leader has shown genuine understanding of Israel's dilemma. The Jerusalem Post says George W. Bush's understanding has been steadfast during Israel's confrontation with Hamas. The newspaper said Bush's approach contrasted with that of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who initially said he understood Israel's stance, but then allowed the Foreign Office to join with Europe in calling for an immediate ceasefire. "In contrast, from Texas, where the president has been marking the holidays, his spokesman Gordon Johndroe placed the onus for the hostilities where it belongs: "Hamas's continued rocket attacks into...

Bush blames Hamas for Gaza conflict WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. President Bush laid the blame for recent fighting in Gaza squarely at the feet of Hamas, accusing militants of waging a campaign of violence against Israel with little regard for its people. "Since Hamas' violent takeover in the summer of 2007, living conditions have worsened for Palestinians in Gaza," Bush says in prepared remarks released Friday by the White House. "By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people." In a radio address to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department opened the door Friday to using a Citigroup-style rescue package to help other troubled financial institutions. The financial lifeline thrown to Citigroup Inc. (C) in late November involved backing billions in risky assets and providing the banking giant with a fresh capital infusion. Treasury said participation by other companies in such a program would be weighed on a case-by-case basis. Treasury said it would consider, among other things, whether the "destabilization" of a financial institution could threaten the viability of creditors and others. It also would weigh the extent to which the institution faced...

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Friday branded the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel an "act of terror" and outlined his own condition for a cease-fire in Gaza, saying no peace deal would be acceptable without monitoring to halt the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups. Bush chose his weekly taped radio address to speak for the first time about one of the bloodiest Mideast clashes in decades. It began a week ago. Israeli warplanes have rained bombs on Gaza, targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has traumatized southern Israel with intensifying rocket attacks. "The United States...

There is no doubt that we have achieved VICTORY in Iraq. In 2008 we have the lowest number of US troops’ fatalities in Iraq. Every dead soldier or Marines is way too many but the low number of US troops killed in Iraq is shockingly low in 2008 and compared to any historic standard. According to a leftist website that keeps track of US casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan we have lost 314 of our heroes in Iraq in 2008 but only 225 of them were due to hostile enemy fire. Here is the link http://icasualties.org/oif/USByYear.aspx. (Click on fatality type...

As he madly dashes further into socialism, Comrade George W. Bush seems determined to lavish billions of taxpayer dollars on Detroit’s automakers — conservatism, Congress, and the Constitution be damned.

A regulatory expert says President Bush is flagrantly ignoring the law by using money from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for a second bailout of General Motors. The government's bailout of the auto industry has swelled to $23.4 billion after the White House committed to send GM and its financing arm an extra $6 billion. The Treasury Department plans to purchase a $5-billion equity stake in GMAC, the financing arm of GM, and give GM an additional billion dollars to in turn buy stock in GMAC. The $6 billion will come from the $700 billion Wall Street...

Karl Rove's recent revelation of President George W. Bush's passion for books wasn't a surprise to me. In a Wall Street Journal column last week, Rove explained that for the last three years, he and the president have had a friendly rivalry to see who could finish more books during the year. Rove won each year -- but the president was no piker. In the three years of the competition, the president read 186 books to Rove's 250. Much of the intelligentsia no doubt will be shocked to learn George W. Bush is an avid reader of serious books, but...

Bush Derangement Syndrome is not only expressed verbally or in writing. It'a also expressed in bombs and terror threats. Bomb suspect killed self; blasted Rove, Cheney and Bush in note ASPEN — A man who left bomb threats and homemade bombs around Aspen on New Year's Eve shot and killed himself in his car a few hours after his threats cleared much of the resort town, Aspen Police said. Assistant Aspen Police Chief Bill Linn said James Chester Blanning, 72, walked into two Aspen banks Wednesday afternoon and left packages wrapped in holiday paper along with notes saying the boxes...

Washington, D.C.--The acts of war by Hamas against Israel are precisely what people should expect from Bush’s so-called democracy strategy in the Middle East. The administration campaigned for elections in the strongholds of various Islamist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, groups that it should have worked to destroy. In the Palestinian territories, Bush insisted that Hamas be allowed to participate in the 2006 elections--and the jihadist group won a landslide. Thanks to that political victory, Hamas gained an unearned legitimacy for its vicious war to exterminate Israelis and Westerners. Winning power with the aid of their enemy confirmed for...

Everyone is bailout crazy. Insurance companies, banks, investment banks, automakers… and more are lining up for their share. So far the aggregate total exceeds $1 Trillion, and the total is expected to continue to grow. To put that in perspective, that’s about $4,000 for every living human being in America. If you have a wife and three kids, congratulations- you just spent $20,000 on corporate welfare. President Bush stated that he has put aside free market principles, in order to save the free market. That is at the very least a calumnious statement. Many of us find it flat out...

President and Mrs. Bush returned to the White House today from Crawford TX where they spent part of the holidays.

Tis the pardon season. As the clock strikes midnight on his administration, Santa Bush gets to decide which convicted criminals have been naughty or nice. Being one of Santa’s elves, I have prepared a pardon list for his consideration. A presidential pardon for Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Richard Cheney, would be one of the most controversial. Although he was investigated for leaking the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame, Libby was not even indicted for that crime. Scooter was convicted of lying and obstructing the investigation into the actual leaker. Many people suspect that...

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8

We are prohibited from posting USA Today, but in the Dec. 25 ed., an article by Rick Hampson called "An Epic Year" has a sort of debate between myself and liberal historians such as Eric Foner. I found the reporter fair, and his use of my comments and quotations was both fair and accurate. Link below. (Someone just alerted me to this article today, so it's a couple of days old).

Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust. The comparison is inappropriate, according to Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla. “Not a single person was marched into a gas chamber and killed,” Miller told the survivors. “They died from abject neglect,” retorted community activist Leah Hodges. “We left body bags behind... The people of New Orleans were stranded in a flood and were allowed to die.” Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said...

Although President George W. Bush succeeded with some of his policies, the bailout of the Detroit Three is possibly his most significant mistake. The recent damage he’s done to the Republican brand will take leadership with a command focus to repair. The president’s mistake could repeat the hardship Americans experienced the last time we went down this path early in the last century. . . . . . The Republican Party was once the champion of limited government and economic freedom. President Bush’s recent actions have thoroughly distorted that image. It will take strong leadership for the GOP to reclaim...

See what happens when you behave like a lefty?Believe it or not, there are some GOPers who hate it when that happens - and they're determined to do all that is necessary to make their disdain official.When the Republican National Committee has their monthly get-together in January, President George W. Bush could be on the hook - along with some less than principled Congressional elephants - for embracing socialism.Harsh words, indeed.Ralph Z. Hallow at the Washington Times writes: Republican Party officials say they will try next month to pass a resolution accusing President Bush and congressional Republican leaders of embracing...