Free Republic

I've been a Republican all my life, when I served in the Illinois legislature, when I worked for members of Congress and when I served in Congress. During the 2008 presidential election, I supported Republican Sen. John McCain. I have always been — and still am — a fiscal conservative, an advocate for a smart, but restrained, government. For those reasons and others, most people wouldn't expect me to be an advocate for comprehensive health care reform. But the truth is, I believe there is no bigger issue to solve and no better chance to solve it than now. If...

Police are engaged in a standoff outside the residence on 38th Street in Missoula where a kitten was found earlier this week, the victim of a savage attack. Dore Lane is closed off to keep people away from the area. The first 9-1-1 call came from a Missoula police officer who reported a shot had been fired at the house, but not by officers. That call came around 1:30 p.m. today. Officers and SWAT team members have congregated outside the apartment. A special operations police vehicle is approaching the home carefully, trying to determine what is happening inside. There is...

Sue Polinsky had the first cable modem in Greensboro. Back in the late 1990s, when the Web designer found she needed more Internet speed than a telephone or DSL line could provide, she was happy to pay a premium. She’s been a Time Warner Cable customer ever since — even upgrading to the business-class service to run her company, Tech Triad, from home. But when she got wind of Time Warner’s plan to begin monitoring and capping how much data its Greensboro customers use, she said it could be summed up in one word. “Greed,” Polinsky said. “That’s all it...

The leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Monday came to the defense of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood after he was rebuked last week by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs over a comment about highway taxation. Oberstar and Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the senior Republican on the transportation committee, said that a mileage tax would be one of the options that Congress will consider as it puts together a new five-year surface transportation spending program. Read More

ALBANY, N.Y. - Few New York policy issues have ignited such swift and fiery opposition and even confounded likely supporters than Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get state driver's licenses. "Spitzer maintains his policy ... will improve (homeland) security," the Watertown Daily Times wrote in one of several editorials on the topic. "That may be true, but rational discussion of the policy is being drowned out by the rhetoric on both sides." It doesn't help that Albany remains neck-deep in political mire that has veteran lawmakers and staffers shaking their heads. Even New...

ALBANY — Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s new policy that permits illegal immigrants to obtain New York State driver’s licenses is “an absurd” decision that will provide a new gateway for terrorists, a member of the federal commission that investigated the 2001 World Trade Center attacks warns. “It’s a perfect formula for al-Qaida. They won’t be able to resist it. They will be able to come to New York,” said John Lehman, a former secretary of the Navy who served on the 9/11 Commission that warned of the nation’s vulnerabilities to terrorist strikes. Lehman joins a growing number of critics of...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today made these statements on comprehensive immigration reform plan. General Thoughts: "Over the last few months, I have spoken with President Bush almost every week and met with him twice about immigration reform. Secretary Chertoff and Secretary Gutierrez have been there every step of the way. There would be no bill without their hard work. "Today we charted a new path for our nation's immigration policies. "We break the cycle of chain migration by placing a premium on the education and job skills of new immigrants coming to the United States. This...

(CBS) With protesters taking to the streets, and Americans looking to Washington for a solution, never before has immigration reform been tackled this way: Politicians at opposite ends of the debate collaborating in secret to devise a new comprehensive plan. According to CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, the group, which includes Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, has met for hours several times a week since March — with Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff acting as point man for the White House. How unusual is it for Democrats, Republicans and White House Cabinet officials to be writing...

At the beginning of every school year, bad news comes from Mexican heartland states such as Zacatecas and Querétaro: Local authorities are closing hundreds of schools because so many families have moved north to the U.S. heartland. Mexicans feel helpless before the migrant exodus, and talk about it the same way they talk about the weather. Everyone complains about it, but there´s not much you can do about it. On Friday night, the U.S. Senate approved a 700-mile high-tech border barrier in a bid to stop the immigrant flow. The decision, a seminal event in the two neighbors´ relations, has...

The immigration bill I voted for in the Senate started the United States down the road to a much better immigration system. But it's not finished. In its broad outlines, I support the comprehensive approach that the Senate bill takes. History has taught us that immigration reform measures cannot work in isolation. Simply strengthening physical border security or beginning a guest worker program will not fix the deep, underlying problems in America's immigration system. Any bill Congress sends to the president must enhance border security, create an operational temporary worker program, provide for work-site enforcement, and address the status of...

LAREDO - In a parking lot of the Border Patrol headquarters three miles from the dividing line with Mexico, President Bush on Tuesday accused his opponents in the immigration battle of stirring up fear with false claims about amnesty. "Look, if you're one of these types of people that basically say, you know, throw them out, then you just use the word 'amnesty,' just toss it around," Bush said. "In order to frighten people, you just say 'amnesty.' " Standing with Gov. Rick Perry after a tour of the Laredo Border Patrol Sector's video surveillance program, Bush stepped up his...

WASHINGTON - With Senate passage of an immigration reform bill likely, key GOP senators on Tuesday urged Republicans in the House to rally around their party in an election year and allow negotiations on a final measure. The Senate's sweeping immigration bill is generally favored by President Bush but strongly opposed by House conservatives because it goes beyond border enforcement and includes a path to citizenship for most illegal immigrants. Looking ahead to a final vote Thursday on the bipartisan Senate bill, Republicans said gridlock between the House and Senate would hurt the party in this election year. "I don't...

As the Senate continues work on immigration reform, President Bush's proposals to strengthen U.S. border security still face an uphill battle in the House of Representatives. Despite the president's call for Congress to send him an immigration bill he could sign, few lawmakers are ready to predict whether the House and Senate can come up with final legislation before November's mid-term congressional elections. In an off-camera briefing on Tuesday for reporters, House Republican Majority Leader John Boehner praised the president for helping to frame the immigration debate. He called Bush's proposals a big step in the right direction, but added...

THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE HAS FLIPPED in President Bush's favor. The public now firmly supports toughened border enforcement plus--and this is a big plus for the president--a system for letting illegal immigrants already in America earn citizenship. This has been Bush's position all along, though the president has been reluctant to trumpet it. The ones with the politically untenable position are Democrats who want an immigration issue (but not actual legislation) to use against Republicans in November, and Republicans who want merely to increase border security. The upshot is that an immigration bill appears likely (but not certain) to pass when...

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush said he has faith in his brother's administration over its decision to allow an Arab-owned company to operate major U.S. ports, including in Miami. Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, is expected to take over a British company that has been running six U.S. ports. Several South Florida Congress members and politicians believe the deal should be closely examined. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she has no specific concerns about the company, although the fact that UAE was where a number of the Sept. 11 hijackers were being...

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth -- intense rivals on opposite sides of the political spectrum -- both hit President Bush on immigration in the wake of Tuesday's State of the Union address. The Arizona governor faulted Bush for not taking action on illegal immigration and for not laying out more specifics on immigration in his Tuesday night speech before Congress. Bush voiced support for a guest worker program, increased enforcement of immigration laws and said he opposed amnesty for illegals already in the U.S. But the Republican president did not lay out any specifics to obtain...

MISSION — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Tuesday that building a fence along the southwest border is unrealistic and ultimately would not deter illegal immigration into the United States. Cornyn, R-Texas, was in Mission on Tuesday to discuss flood control and the Rio Grande Valley levee system, but spoke briefly with the media about immigration issues and his plan to allow workers into the country legally but temporarily. He said he would not support a bill calling for a security fence — which could start in California and end in Brownsville — although the U.S. House of Representatives approved the...

Watching the action in the House of Representatives last week, it was easy to imagine that immigration was a strictly partisan issue. The bill under discussion, mostly the brainchild of Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, was about as tough as it gets: not just 700 miles of border fence and stiffer penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants but also a provision that turns illegal presence in this country from a civil violation into a federal crime -- subject to an entirely different kind of policing and punishable by much stiffer penalties. Over two days of emotional debate on the floor,...

The last-minute addition of language that expresses congressional support for a guest worker program into the immigration bill headed for the House floor Thursday has a group of Republican members up in arms. For months, House GOP leaders have said they plan to go to the floor with an immigration bill that deals with border security and doesn't include the kind of temporary guest worker program that many Senate Republicans and the White House have been calling for. But early Wednesday, House staffers learned that a one-paragraph section discussing the need for foreign workers to help the U.S. economy was...

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday said illegal immigration is a "severe and growing threat" and while it will take time to correct, the government has begun a campaign to secure America's borders. "Illegal migration ... undercuts the rule of law, it undermines our national security, and it imposes public safety and economic strains on our borders, states and communities," Mr. Chertoff said in a speech during the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) policy summit in Washington.