Free Republic

Senator Barack Obama fought back Saturday against accusations from his rivals that he had displayed a profound misunderstanding of small-town values, in a flare-up that left him on the defensive before a series of primaries that could test his ability to win over white voters in economically distressed communities. For a second day, Mr. Obama sought to explain his remarks at a recent San Francisco fund-raiser that small-town Pennsylvania voters, bitter over their economic circumstances, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations. Acknowledging Saturday that “I didn’t...

Over the past few years, the mainstream media has tried to dismiss bloggers and other emerging media outlets as rank amateurs. It's claimed that our sources are unreliable, our investigation methods are shaky, and all in all, bloggers are considered to be an unprofessional lot who serve no useful purpose in the reporting process. Unfortunately, these same words can easily be used to describe the mainstream media. One need only to look to the story of John Mark Karr to see a vivid example of how the media runs with a story with little or no merit. As you probably...

Those Clinton campaigners sure know how to slip the "subliminable" shiv in. During a Hardball appearance yesterday, chief strategist Mark Penn managed to work the phrase "cocaine use" into his comments supposedly disassociating the campaign from charges of Obama drug use made by Hillary's New Hampshire chairman. See video of Penn in action here. Today, it was the turn of Hillary supporter Evan Bayh to take a whack at Barack, all while pretending to take the high road. A bit after 3 PM ET this afternoon, the Dem senator from Indiana with the Eagle Scout aura [who might well have...

pla•gia•rism -[pley-juh-riz-uh m, -jee-uh-riz-] –noun - the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work. Three years ago, I received an email for articles for a risk management trade magazine, a profession to which I am proud to belong. I deleted it. It got me thinking, though – why not send in an article and see what would happen. So I wrote a humorous little piece on how invisible risk managers seem to be in the business world and how no one (not even my...

He doesn't have the money to compete with the first-tier candidates. He doesn't have the national stature that others do. Still, he's got experience as a governor, from an area of the country important to his party's hopes in 2008, and speaks well on the stump. Therefore, he's the perfect choice for Vice President. These qualities all apply to Mike Huckabee, Evan Bayh, Bill Richardson, Mark Warner, Mark Sanford, Tom Vilsack and any number of other potential number twos. But every one of them will tell you they're not interested in the job (Richardson the latest to do so, in...

From the time we're in grammar school, all the way through our adult lives we've been taught to take responsibility for our actions and not place blame on others for something we did. It's one of the essential elements of integrity. There was a time in our history when we could at least hope to look up to our elected officials and view them as statesmen, because they represented character traits we admired. Those traits and the courage to take a stand against evil would make us proud to follow them into battle. But today, we see many of them...

"...No Member, officer, or employee shall knowingly use his official position to introduce or aid the progress or passage of legislation, a principal purpose of which is to further only his pecuniary interest, only the pecuniary interest of his immediate family, or only the pecuniary interest of a limited class of persons or enterprises, when he, or his immediate family, or enterprises controlled by them, are members of the affected class."-Standing Rules of the Senate - Rule XXXVII (4) Conflict of Interest "...As I travel across Indiana, one of the biggest concerns raised by my fellow Hoosiers is the rising...

Blog written by openly gay immigration attorney Gary Welsh lambasts Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh (D) for his "no" vote on cloture for the Shamnesty bill.

Reading this AP article on Evan Bayh's announcement that he won't seek the Dem presidential nomination because he's concluded the odds are too long, I kept searching for the predictable labeling reference. And sure enough it came: "Bayh has charted a centrist's course throughout his political career." That sent me scurrying to a favorite source, Project Vote Smart, to check Bayh's ratings from various interest groups. Yes, he's probably less liberal than, say, Barbara Boxer. But check out some of his ratings: NARAL, 2005 - 100%National Right-to-Life Committee, 2001-02 - 0%National Taxpayers Union, 2005 - 12%Americans for Tax Reform, 2006...

CBS) There has been intense speculation among Democrats Friday night that Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek his party's nomination for president in 2008, CBS News has learned. Bayh’s office has not yet responded to requests for comment. The speculation comes less than two weeks after Bayh hired campaign staff and announced plans to form a fundraising committee for a potential presidential bid. "He has this very serious team ... some very high-powered help," Mark Blumenthal — aka Mysterypollster, editor of pollster.com — said at the time. Blumenthal noted that he's worked in the past with some of Bayh’s...

Top Indiana Democrat issues warning WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Sen. Evan Bayh, a veteran Indiana Democrat, said Tuesday's election was a vote against the status quo and not an affirmation of his party's agenda. In an interview Bayh, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said most Americans don't really know what Democrats stand for, Gannett News Service reported. "And if we serve up a highly partisan, ideologically extreme, Democratic version of what they just voted against, we're not going to do very well." Instead Bayh urged his party to focus on issues of concern to the middle class like health...

5 out of the top ten US House Recipients of contributions (1989- 2001) from Arthur Andersen are democRats. Their names and the amounts are listed below. And, according to dim logic, they are guilty by association and should have their names shining in the bright lights of Reuters, AP, Drudge, The Washington ComPost, and more. After all, this is a hit piece. Here you go, Klayman, chase this ambulance too! Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) $34,687 Martin Frost (D-Texas) $32,000 Peter Deutsch (D-Fla) $24,200 James P. Moran (D-Va) $21,250 Ken Bentsen (D-Texas) $19,225 Other Rats also receiving Andersen dirty money include: Rick...

In the history of the Democratic Party, the election of 1980 looms large: the year the party lost the White House, the Senate, a generation of Midwestern liberals and, in some ways, its confidence that it was the natural, even inevitable, majority party. Now, that election has a sequel. Call it the return of the sons: Chet Culver, the Iowa secretary of state and the son of former Senator John C. Culver, is running for governor of Iowa. Senator Evan Bayh, son of former Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana, is organizing and testing the waters for a possible presidential bid...

Sen. Evan Bayh, weighing a run for president in 2008, challenged the Democratic Party to establish an agenda aimed at middle-class voters, a critical constituency that he said the party has let slip away. "We may consider ourselves the party of the middle class, but too many middle-class Americans no longer consider us their party," the Indiana Democrat said Monday. "They have left the Democratic Party in droves - costing us the last two presidential elections and the last six congressional elections. If we don't learn some lessons, we'll lose in 2006 and 2008 as well, and we must not...

In a quiet, methodical style reflecting his Midwestern roots, Sen. Evan Bayh is laying the foundation for a presidential campaign and prompting some Democrats to talk about a candidate with a realistic shot. "The chatter that you hear is that he's a good guy and nice and he has that honest, Midwestern feel to him, kind of like Harry Truman," said veteran Democratic strategist Dane Strother. "That's all appealing." In his fifth trip to Iowa in the last year, the centrist Indiana Democrat opened a three-day swing Thursday with a fundraiser in downtown Des Moines for legislative candidates. He mingled...

And they're off! By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, June 18, 2006 Sometimes you are a hit. Sometimes you take a hit. One of the golden rules of campaigning is that every poll on the calendar is not a slam-dunk. The Des Moines Register conducted the first poll of the 2008 presidential race last week. It was based on interviews with registered Iowa voters who are likely to participate in the Democratic caucuses two years from now. Much ado has been made about John Edwards' robust first-place showing, Hillary Clinton's second place, John Kerry's distant third, and Iowa homeboy Gov. Tom...

IT'S TOUGH TO BE a moderate Democrat. Hatred of George Bush has changed the loyal opposition into the bitter opposition, less interested in policy than in punishing their bête noire. It's particularly tough for Democrats who supported the invasion of Iraq, the defining George Bush moment, and who oppose withdrawal. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the very model of a modern "defense Democrat"--not to mention the party's 2000 vice presidential nominee--now faces overwhelming votes of "no confidence" from Connecticut Democratic town councils.The conundrum is acute for the rising generation of moderate Democrats who may run for president, if the performances last week...

Tough-on-terrorism Democrats urged their party on Tuesday to put foreign policy ahead of political retribution in the fall elections, underscoring a divide between the party's hawks and doves that could frame the 2008 presidential campaign. "Simply lashing out in anger at the current administration doesn't accomplish what we want," said Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a likely candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bayh and another potential White House hopeful, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, spoke at an event sponsored by the moderate Progressive Policy Institute to promote its book, "With All Our Might," a Democratic blueprint for fighting the war...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 4/15-4/16/06 (not the live thread) I'm going to try a little different formatting this week.  The listings were growing too long to let us look at and organize the show contents after I started adding the Saturday shows.  So what I'm going to do is add 3 message posts on this thread, in this order the Sunday show contents in message 1 the Saturday show contents in message 2 the guests for all shows in message 3 Then I'll send out the ping to everyone.  I hope this will help make the thread easier to...

Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page Meme: The Republicans are doomed if they do and doomed if they don't on immigration Topics: The Republican brawl over immigration: An interview with pollster Matthew Dowd on the politics of reform (Opinion Journal web site)Journal editors handicap the showdown between President Bush and GOP restrictionists. (Opinion Journal web site)Immigration reform and the Hispanic vote: Are hard-line Republicans jeopardizing the GOP's future as a majority party for short-term gains this November? (FNC web site) Guests Matthew Dowd I used to work for George Bush, now I work the Ahnuld on his...

The Talk Shows Sunday, February 19th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. THIS WEEK (ABC): Chertoff; Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.; basketball player Shaquille O'Neal. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Chertoff; British ambassador to the United States David Manning, German ambassador to the U.S. Wolfgang Ischinger and French ambassador to the U.S. Jean-David...

Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace) Memes: As usual it looks like Fox is reversing the main meme of the other shows: the usual suspects (Dems/MSM) are trying to blame the grown ups for a natural disasterThe MSM are out of their tiny minds, particularly CNN for lashing out at Brit Hume and Fox for the Cheney interviewThey are giving Evan Bayh a platform for trying to run right of George Bush on IRANThey are giving Lindsey Graham a platform to auditioning as John McCain's VP candidate, therefore he will take the Democrat talking points on NSA and repeat them, ad...

Be prepared for them to ask for your zip code, Some Senate offices have started doing that.

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) - A man who beat his ex-wife to death with an unloaded shotgun during an eight-hour furlough from prison was executed early Wednesday, hours after the governor denied his request for clemency. Alan Matheney, 54, was pronounced dead at 12:27 a.m. EST after receiving a lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Matheney said his attorney would give his final statement. Matheney was sentenced to death in 1990 for murdering 29-year-old Lisa Bianco. Prosecutors said he drove to the South Bend suburb of Mishawaka, broke into Bianco's home, chased her outside and beat...

Title and link only.

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh is among the most prolific money raisers in the early jockeying among potential 2008 presidential candidates. Bayh raised $1.17 million this year through a fundraising arm that will help him raise his profile and build a campaign team, according to recent disclosure reports. Some of that money paid for a public speaking consultant whose former clients include Princess Diana. But even though Bayh collected more through his political action committee (PAC) than New York Sen. Hillary Clinton did through hers, Clinton showed why she is considered the most formidable fundraiser of the potential Democratic candidates, raising...

DEMOCRATSHillary ClintonBorn October 26, 1947 - Chicago, Illinois Age in 2008:  61J.D. degree, 1973 - Yale Law School (New Haven, CT) B.A. degree, 1969 - Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA)Profession:  LawyerPolitical career2001 - present:  U.S. Senator, New YorkOther1993-2001:  First Lady of the United States 1983-1993:  First Lady of Arkansas 1979-1981:  First Lady of Arkansas 1976:  Attorney, Rose Law Firm 1975:  On faculty of University of Arkansas Law School 1974:  Adviser to Nixon impeachment inquiryTom VilsackBorn December 13, 1950 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Age in 2008:  57J.D. degree, 1975 - Union University's Albany Law School (Albany, NY) B.A. degree, 1972 - Hamilton College...

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry hit the Bay Area this month. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware is flying out here this week. Sen. Evan Bayh is making California plans. So is Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. And John Edwards is already on the books for a San Francisco speech next month. The seats from President Bush's second inauguration are barely cold, but leading Democrats -- many publicly or privately considering their 2008 election calender -- have once again descended on the Golden State, hitting the very blue West Coast in hopes of picking up the green. While most caution they're only keeping...

Ten Liberals to Watch in 2005 Posted Feb 11, 2005 Evan Bayh Democrat senator from Indiana # Born: Dec. 26, 1955, Shirkieville, Ind. # Resides: Indianapolis # Significance: Son of former liberal Sen. Birch Bayh, he is chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, the "moderate" organization that helped launch Bill Clinton. Served as governor of Indiana. Likely 2008 presidential candidate, who has tried to position himself to the middle (voted for the partial-birth abortion ban), but ultimately delivers for liberals (voted for judicial filibusters). One of 13 senators to vote against confirming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Also opposed Atty....

Last week, Bayh - one of the four lead sponsors of the resolution that authorized the 2003 Iraq war and chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council - was one of just 13 Senators to vote against the confirmation of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The others were all liberal Democrats, plus Independent Jim Jeffords (Vt.). Bayh, who was on the short list for vice president in 2004, is an all-but-certain presidential candidate in 2008 - possibly the leading moderate in the race. So, was his "no" vote on Rice a bid to win favor with the anti-war mainstream of...

Another election, another smashing setback for the Democratic insurgency. How long will it take for the party of George McGovern, Sidney Blumenthal and Edward Kennedy to recover from bloody Sunday? Ol' George and young Sid have long been fla-fla, but for Ted the huge turnout yesterday was particularly devastating. Last week he thought he'd be hailed as the new Chamberlain, the next Benedict Arnold, the white Jesse Jackson, the Irish Jacques Chirac, the trans-gendered Jane Fonda. Alas, he remains the Crown Prince of Chappaquiddick, a perennial bottom feeder and all-purpose lout. "Johnny, we hardly knew ye," a hanger-on once said...

The good news for John Kerry is that he didn't pull an Al Gore. Instead of moping around after the election, putting on weight and growing a beard, the 2004 Democratic nominee is back attacking Bush's health-care plan, skewering his nominee for Secretary of State during confirmation hearings, and booking a comeback interview on Meet the Press. The bad news for Kerry, if he wants to try again in '08, is that there's a boatful of other Democrats already testing the waters with the party's top fund raisers. Among the earliest to start dialing for donors: Wesley Clark, who entered...

Washington — The terrorists' Ramadan offensive escalated last weekend, inviting martial law in Iraq and our counterattack to oust the occupiers of Falluja. A pitched battle where firepower is decisive is a loser for guerrilla fighters. Iraq will then proceed to elections, the U.N.'s unhelpful Kofi Annan notwithstanding. Thus the public side of the Bush administration's internal transition - that unnamed 80 days of relief, regeneration and reaching-out between re-election and second inauguration - will be overshadowed during what we hope will be climactic fighting.As soon as it ends, expect intense inside jockeying and outside speculation as the president begins...

  link to movierequires Flash Player 6, available HERE CLINTON TURNED DOWN SUDAN'S OFFERS OF BIN LADENHEAR CLINTON'S SECRETLY TAPED "ADMISSION" NOW by Mia T, 3.28.04   "The Sudanese wanted America to start dealing with them again. They released him [bin Laden].At the time, '96, he had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.So I pleaded with the Saudis to take him, 'cause they could have; but they thought it was a hot potato. They...

CLARKE WITNESSED FIRST-HAND THE CLINTONS' UTTER FAILURE TO FIGHT TERRORISM "If Clarke's plan had been implemented, [i.e., if clinton had responded to the bombing of the USS Cole, a clear act of war, militarily instead of telephonically!] al Qaeda's infrastructure would have been demolished and bin Laden might well have been killed. Sept. 11, 2001 might have been just another sunny day" [So the real question that requires answering is this: Why did this legacy-obsessed president miss a golden opportunity to secure his legacy for all time by wiping out terrorism, then in its incipient stage and stoppable? Was...

WHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA(a NEW virtual john kerry talks series) Kerry: "Call me irresponsible."(Call it: "Putting my out-Deaning Dean ahead of the troops.")     Mia T, 3.17.04    (viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com    ne•o-ne•o•lib•er•al•ism n. neocommunist political movement, a tipsy-topsy, infantile perversion of the Marxist-Leninist model, global in scope, beginning in the post-cold-war, unipolar 1990s, led by the '60s neoliberal baby-boomer "intelligentsia," that seeks power without responsibility, i.e., that seeks to dilute American power by concentrating power in said '60s neoliberals while yielding America's sovereignty to the United Nations, i.e.,...

ALERT! CLINTON-WAS-AN-UTTER-FAILURE Containment Team Scheme team is reactivated and in high gear... March 20, 2004 Clinton Aides Plan to Tell Panel of Warning Bush Team on Qaeda By PHILIP SHENON ASHINGTON, March 19 --Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that Al Qaeda posed the worst security threat facing the nation --and how the new administration was slow to act. They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in...

WHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA(a NEW virtual john kerry talks series) Kerry's flip-flop opportunism(Bush tweaks Kerry; Kerry tweaks Bush's anti-Kerry ad)     Mia T, 3.17.04    (viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com    ne•o-ne•o•lib•er•al•ism n. neocommunist political movement, a tipsy-topsy, infantile perversion of the Marxist-Leninist model, global in scope, beginning in the post-cold-war, unipolar 1990s, led by the '60s neoliberal baby-boomer "intelligentsia," that seeks power without responsibility, i.e., that seeks to dilute American power by concentrating power in said '60s neoliberals while yielding America's sovereignty to the United Nations, i.e., while surrendering to...

WHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA(a NEW virtual john kerry talks series) Kerry's flip-flop opportunism   Mia T, 3.17.04    (viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE) johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com    ne•o-ne•o•lib•er•al•ism n. neocommunist political movement, a tipsy-topsy, infantile perversion of the Marxist-Leninist model, global in scope, beginning in the post-cold-war, unipolar 1990s, led by the '60s neoliberal baby-boomer "intelligentsia," that seeks power without responsibility, i.e., that seeks to dilute American power by concentrating power in said '60s neoliberals while yielding America's sovereignty to the United Nations, i.e., while surrendering to the terrorists, as it continues the traditional '60s...

WHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA(a NEW virtual john kerry talks series) Kerry's Vietnam Quagmire   Mia T, 3.16.04    (viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE) http://johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com  The Bush administration is so enthralled by the idea of preemption and American military might….This is the consequence of a policy that regards legitimacy as largely a product of force and victory as primarily a triumph of arms. But as we discovered in Vietnam, success on the battlefield, or even in a series of battles, can often be the beginning and not the end of a conflict. John Kerry...

BUSH KNEW: yesterday's outmoded, outré idea, tomorrow's rage by Mia T, 3.12.04 Not unexpectedly, the web appears to have been wiped clean of that image. Anyone have pic of Hillary holding up "BUSH KNEW" headline in Senate?   very fashionista understands the capriciousness of style. Yesterday's outmoded, outré idea can become tomorrow's rage. Literally. And at the drop of a hat. In 2002, within a day of brandishing the New York Post BUSH KNEW front page like an uzi on the Senate floor, missus clinton, no doubt animated by overnight polling supporting our Commander-in-Chief, quickly disarmed and retreated; and the...

      Kerry's(?) Veep Short List by Mia T, 3.11.04 ALL Double, trouble TOIL for HUBBELL; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. THIRD WITCH (a stealth Conservative) Scale of BONIOR, tooth of WOLF, HILLARY'S memory, maw and gulf A ravin'd salt-sea shark, Ears of the MARTINS digg'd i' the dark, Gall of BILL, and McCURRY'S slips "Noes" of LANNY, and HUBBELL'S lips,Finger of ICKES ditch-deliver'd by a drab, Make the gruel thick and slab:Add thereto a Chinese squadron, For the ingredients of our cauldron. ALL Double, trouble TOIL for HUBBELL; Fire burn and cauldron bubble. SECOND WITCH: Cool it with...

clintonCREEP: Just who is in charge of the Kerry campaign anyway?(Elect Kerry (or any Dem) AND YOU GET THE CLINTONS) by Mia T, 3.9.04 NEW! hillary talks: VEEP CREEP (viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE) missus clinton's REAL virtual office updatehttp://hillarytalks.blogspot.comhttp://virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.comhttp://demmemogate.blogspot.comhttp://www.hillarytalks.ushttp://www.hillarytalks.orgfiendsofhillary.blogspot.comfiendsofhillary.usfiendsofhillary.orgfraudsofhillary.com by Mia T, 3.7.04   Uber Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton is warning all-but-certain presidential nominee John Kerry to back off if he's thinking about replacing party chairman Terry McAuliffe before the election. Asked about rumblings that the Kerry camp wanted to toss McAuliffe over the side, Clinton told the New York Times on Friday, "Terry has...

Kerry VEEP: Hear hillary(White-House Zipper-Hoist2 Attempt?) by Mia T, 3.8.04 NEW! hillary talks: DEEP VEEP (viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE) missus clinton's REAL virtual office updatehttp://hillarytalks.blogspot.comhttp://virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.comhttp://demmemogate.blogspot.comhttp://www.hillarytalks.ushttp://www.hillarytalks.orgfiendsofhillary.blogspot.comfiendsofhillary.usfiendsofhillary.orgfraudsofhillary.com by Mia T, 3.7.04   Uber Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton is warning all-but-certain presidential nominee John Kerry to back off if he's thinking about replacing party chairman Terry McAuliffe before the election. Asked about rumblings that the Kerry camp wanted to toss McAuliffe over the side, Clinton told the New York Times on Friday, "Terry has helped the Democratic Party move into the 21st century to compete against the incredible...

NEW! hillary talks:DEEP VEEP (viewing movie requires Flash Player 6, available HERE)   Uber Democrat Sen. Hillary Clinton is warning all-but-certain presidential nominee John Kerry to back off if he's thinking about replacing party chairman Terry McAuliffe before the election. Asked about rumblings that the Kerry camp wanted to toss McAuliffe over the side, Clinton told the New York Times on Friday, "Terry has helped the Democratic Party move into the 21st century to compete against the incredible interlocking institutional powers of the other side." "A lot of plans have been laid, a lot of infrastructure put in place,...

<p>"Darling, a sponge fits in anywhere."</p> <p>So went the exchange between Barbra Streisand and the late great Kay Medford in "Funny Girl."</p> <p>BARBRA STREISAND'S admiration for Bill Clinton hasn't wavered, despite the fact that he is no longer president. Streisand was like a giddy school girl at a chi-chi dinner for California's Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, last week in L.A. (At the Pacific Palisades home of venture capitalist David Fisher.) Clinton, still wildly popular with Democrats, attended, and Barbra was starry-eyed, protective and affectionate with him.</p>

the post-Saddam "plight" of the Iraqi woman What missus clinton said Sen. Hillary Clinton said this week that Iraqi women were better off under Saddam Hussein, arguing that when the brutal dictator ran the country women were at least assured the right to participate in Iraq's public life. In comments that went unreported by the mainstream press, the former first lady told the Brookings Institution on Wednesday that since Saddam's removal from power, Iraq's post war governing councils had engaged in "pullbacks in the rights [women] were given under Saddam Hussein." Sen. Clinton noted that while Saddam had been...

BEN MCCONVILLE IN NEW YORK WHILE Senator John Kerry seems all but certain to clinch the Democratic nomination to take on George Bush for the US presidency later this year, the choice of a running mate continues to divide opinion. Many have assumed that telegenic Senator John Edwards would make the ideal vice presidential candidate should Kerry’s performance in the Super Tuesday primaries make his lead unassailable. But Kerry himself is believed to be less than keen, and analysts have warned that Edwards would not contribute much breadth of appeal to the Democratic bid for the Whitehouse. If Kerry wins...

the clintons: leftist anti-Semitic chic avant garde (Will "dummy" prove more damaging than "bigot" to the missus?) by Mia T, 2.28.04   The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract. Oliver Wendell Holmes t used to be said that anti-Catholicism was the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals. Today anti-Semitism is the anti-Semitism of the intellectuals. Not all intellectuals, of course. And the seepage of this ancient poison into the intelligentsia -- always so militantly modern..., which has leaned left for two centuries. Here the term...

Dear Mr. (My Name): Thank you for your letter concerning the reauthorization of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. I welcome your thoughts and comments. The primary purpose of any gun control legislation must be to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals or juveniles. Throughout my public life, I have opposed legislation that fails to appropriately balance the need to maintain a safe society with the ability of law-abiding Americans to own and use firearms responsibly. I have always supported the second amendment and have opposed efforts to impose burdensome regulations on gun-owners. I believe that tough and...