USATODAY.com - Amrikiya. Beikoku. Estados Unidos de America. Etats-Unis d'Amerique. Hoa Ky. iMelika. Meiguo. Sayukta Rajya Amrika. Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika.
USATODAY.com - San Francisco Chronicle, in an editorial: "It's hard to miss the point. … North Korea blew up a 60-foot cooling tower at its main nuclear complex and invited foreign media to film away. (President) Bush himself read out the change in policy to give it full force.
The Christian Science Monitor - It's as easy as grilling hot dogs to revel in Fourth of July rituals. Fireworks, parades, flags, and picnics help bind Americans. But the holiday is also a time for each person to recall the good in the nation's past ? and renew faith in the good still to come. That private patriotism is hard to show, as Barack Obama and even war hero John McCain have learned.
The Christian Science Monitor - Is freedom a virtue or a vice? That question goes to the heart of some of the past century's most violent conflicts. And it seems to be driving much of the criticism against the US today. But as it's described in the quintessential work on freedom ? the US Declaration of Independence ? liberty is worthy of all the world's admiration.
HuffingtonPost.com - Colombia's audacious rescue of hostages held by the FARC, including American contractors Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell, adds an extra bang to the July 4 holiday. But we shouldn't forget the alarming backstory leading up to their captivity, which reveals a lot about the failings of government contracting, and government in general.
The Nation - The Nation -- Barack Obama is serious about going where no Democrat has gone before -- or, to be precise, where no Democrat has gone in a very long time.
Pat Buchanan - Not until a year after Lexington did the Continental Congress muster the resolve to declare the 13 colonies free and independent states, no longer subject to Parliament or Crown.
Linda Chavez - There are few places in the world that beckon to those who share no common blood or history, but America has done so for centuries. It is one of the things that defines this great country. In celebrating the 232nd birthday of our nation this Fourth of July, it is worth recalling what Ronald Reagan said about the promise the United States holds out to so many.
Brent Bozell III - The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy reported last month that a teenager who has been depressed in the past year was more than twice as likely to have used marijuana than teenagers who have not reported being depressed (25 percent compared with 12 percent). The study said marijuana use increased the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent. So much for the "harmless" nature of pot.
Susan Estrich - It was the headline you never wanted to see. For nearly two years, I have started my day by checking in on Leroy Sievers to see how he is doing. His "My Cancer" blog on npr.com has become a family of sorts for people living with cancer, for people taking care of family and friends with cancer, and for anyone who has been touched by the disease or who hasn't.
Mona Charen - The rescue of three Americans from the jungles of South America is a terrific Fourth of July present to the nation. (And John McCain gets high marks for timing in being present for the happy event.) American contractors Keith Stansell, Thomas Howes and Marc Gonsalves had been captured by the Colombian communist guerrilla group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) when their antinarcotics surveillance plane crashed in rebel territory five years ago. At the time, considering the weakness of the Colombian government, the growing strength of the neighborhood bully Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and the terror that FARC inflicted upon the Colombian people, the future looked grim for them and for the hundreds of hostages held in various remote areas. Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate who was likewise snatched and held by FARC, was freed with the Americans on July 2.
Georgie Anne Geyer - WASHINGTON -- As the Fourth of July approached that summer of 1826, John Adams, the second president of the United States and designer of American constitutionalism, lay dying in his Massachusetts home.
Ann Coulter - Well, I guess we're all pretty relieved we didn't drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge back in 2002. What a disaster that would have been.
Joe Conason - Despite all the feigned outrage fanned by the mainstream media and the right-wing noisemakers, Wesley Clark — retired four-star general, former Supreme Commander of NATO, wounded and highly decorated veteran of ground combat in Vietnam and a military man to his core — assuredly did not denigrate the war record of John McCain when he talked about the Republican candidate on television last Sunday.
