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Ramadi Renaissance

Mario Loyola recently visited Ramadi in the Anbar Province of Iraq.  His story, found here, paints yet another encouraging picture in what has become a late summer season of encouragement regarding the war in Iraq. Google Anbar Province and you’ll find plenty of archived stories from not that long ago that said that Anbar was “lost” and “beyond hope.” Today, it is perhaps the safest place in Iraq. Is the Anbar model going to work...

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Government and social activism can’t replace a father.

The recent execution-style mass murder in Newark, NJ has sparked an avalanche of response from politicians, civic-leaders and community activists. None of that response comes close to touching on the fact that most kids in Newark grow up in fatherless homes. Nor will anybody say out loud that a disproportionate percentage of fatherless kids wind up in trouble. Steven Malanga writes on the subject in City Journal magazine. Do kids need fathers or will they...

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Oh @#$!, what if we win?

Q. When is winning a war bad news? A. When it costs you all the political capital you have invested in defeat. Following their takeover of the Congress in November 2006, losing in Iraq looked like a sure thing for the Democrats. “Bush’s War” turns out badly, the Democrats regain the White House while solidifying their lead in the Congress. It looked like a winning bet until very recently. And then, like the fortunes of...

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Politics is politics but war is war.

Leave it to a former agent of the Soviet KGB to nail down why going ad hominem against the president is a bad idea when bullets are flying and blood is being spilled. It’s OK to run against the president’s polices. It’s not OK to do so in a way that gives aid and comfort to those who are seeking to do us harm. If Republicans and Democrats united on the War on Terror and...

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OK, I’m still on vacation but you gotta read this.

Excellent article in The American Spectator on why conservatives need to quit moaning about the lack of a Ronald Reagan, take stock of their assets and get to work on winning the hearts and minds of American voters. Read it here.

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The Surge is working. But don’t look for the story in the mainstream media.

In 1968, the Viet Cong threw everything they had at the U.S. in what came to be called the Tet Offensive. The U.S. routed them. The Viet Cong lost over 60,000 men and never recovered militarily. Yet the media portrayed the Tet Offensive as an irrecoverable setback for the U.S. military and domestic support for the Vietnam War collapsed. When the U.S. finally left (fled) Vietnam in 1975, it led to barbarism and reprisal that...

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If you see something, say something. Then call your lawyer.

Debra Burlingame knows all too well what can happen when men of Middle Eastern extraction who don’t “act right” get on an airplane. Her brother, Charles Burlingame, was the captain of American Airlnes flight 77 that was used as a cruise missle against the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. She writes in this article about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and their apparent unwillingness to support legislation that would give...

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Lincoln could never win the Civil War today.

“I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me…” — Abraham Lincoln letter to William H. Seward June 28, 1862 Great enterprises come at great cost. Lincoln considered saving the Union a great enterprise. George W. Bush considers stopping al-Qaeda in Iraq equally as great. Many disagreed with Lincoln. Many disagree with Bush. If Abraham Lincoln were prosecuting...

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CBS Evening News still a distant third.

TV ratings for the week of July 9, 2007 show ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson and the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams nearly neck-and-neck with the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric trailing significantly. Here are the numbers: Average Nightly Viewers ABC: 7,670,000 NBC: 7,340,000 CBS: 5,850,000 Within the critical demographic of Adults age 25 to 54 where much of the advertising revenue lies, the gap is not quite as stark: Average...

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Why Rush Limbaugh wins.

Frustrated by talk radio’s domination by conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, several Democrats in Congress have floated the idea of reviving the long-discarded Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine mandated that equal time be given to opposing points of view whenever a controversial subject was covered. The Reagan FCC ditched the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and, in so doing, gave birth to talk radio as it is practiced today. National Review’s Byron York offers...