Free Republic

Looks like they're about to do this: LET'S LIGHT UP THEIR PHONES FOLKS: (202)-224-3121 Because you know in conference committee ": Nearly one year of funding for the entire government — except on immigration" Immigration funding WILL be added back in. WE WILL NOT BE FOOLED, and WE must demand ONLY a short term funding Bill through January, WHY this congress would want the next one to be hampered (by Republicans) is beyond me (well not completely..).

Looters rule the streets while cars and businesses burn. Criminals repudiate with violence our American values, our justice system, and our sense of decency and decorum. Weak, pathetic politicians spur the criminals on with tacit approval, if not outright inflammatory suggestions. President Obama said in one sentence that we are a nation of laws, and then in a second sentence suggested that people were angry, and their reaction was understandable. How’s that, Mr. Obama? If the process was just, then the outcome was just. Why are people understandably angry at a just outcome? Does that understandable anger permit lawlessness? APTOPIX...

The St. Louis Prosecutor Robert McCullough made a series of highly unusual decisions on Monday. He was reportedly seeking to defuse the highly charged situation in the wake of a white Ferguson, Missouri, police officer killing an unarmed black teenager. He did not succeed. Protests ignited in Ferguson, fanning flames, literal and figurative, throughout the night. Demonstrations spread from New York City to Oakland, California. Even as President Barack Obama spoke to the nation, cable news channels showed him on a split screen with the violent protests. He did not even get three-quarters of the shot. McCullough was continuing the...

Ferguson reminds us that we still have a race problem in America. But the face of this problem is not Darren Wilson’s. It’s Bob McCulloch’s. Wilson, the Missouri police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, is the target of most public ire. But no responsible person thought Wilson’s killing of Michael Brown was premeditated. Even if prosecutors tried him on lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter, they might well have come up empty – and most people would have accepted that result of a fair trial. What causes the outrage, and the despair, is the joke of a...

American voters are divided on whether President Barack Obama should take action to address the immigration issue if Congress fails to act, as 45 percent say the president should issue an executive order while 48 percent say he should not, according to a Quinnipiac University National poll released today. At the same time, support for immigrants is at its lowest level ever measured by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University Poll. Offered three choices on what to do about illegal immigrants: 48 percent of American voters say they should be allowed to stay, with a path to citizenship, down from 57...

The biggest reason young Americans tend to lean to the left is that they grow up immersed in liberalism. Their entertainment, music, teachers and college professors lean to the left. Meanwhile, since few young Americans follow politics avidly or are out in the real world enough to feel the sting of left-wing policies, the only place they typically get to hear the conservative position is from liberals. That’s like getting the history of WWII from Hitler – or Noam Chomsky, either/or – and expecting to get an accurate picture of what the Allies believed. That puts these kids in a...

President Obama’s abuse of his powers to attempt to grant pseudo-legalization to five millions illegal aliens by executive fiat has been widely described as being “unprecedented” in some quarters. This is inaccurate. Others have tried to argue that reasonable precedent can be found in actions of prior presidents, such as Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who have issued executive orders relating to the implementation of earlier immigration laws. This is also false. It is difficult to find anywhere in the history of the United States a broader assertion of the power of the executive to make law than that...

The apoplectic and apocalyptic will scoff at the suggestion that this past week’s executive amnesty could help fuel a partial revitalization of our republic. So why is there room for optimism that something can be done–and what? President Obama’s threatened and now announced executive amnesty has, not for the first time, drawn pundits, politicians, and the American people, Left and Right, back to the Constitution to reflect on what, exactly, the president and Congress are supposed to do. That, in and of itself, is a good thing–an indication that, at some level, we all still recognize the need to square...

The self-righteous indignation of liberals was on full display last night, as the Grand Jury announced their decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson over the death of Michael Brown. Strangely absent was a sense of concern over the violence, destruction, and social devolution that erupted in St Louis. Instead, as expected, there was a profoundly misplaced anger over the decision of a Grand Jury that was presented with facts, eyewitness accounts, and forensic evidence. 1 – Ezra KleinEzra Klein is an idiot. But, don’t take my word for it. (I mean heck, John Ransom and I explain it every...

About 100 people are marching in downtown Seattle to protest the decision by a Missouri grand jury to not indict a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teen. Shouting “No justice, no peace,” the marchers are headed from Westlake Park, site of an earlier rally, down Fourth Avenue and then looping back to Westlake Park. Dozens of Seattle police  bicycle officers are stationed along the streets, watching the crowd, which has thus far been peaceful.

A 13-year-old boy who was reported missing may have left home to join the protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that police have put out an Endangered Person Advisory for Avery Gales of Florissant, Missouri. The report mentions that Gales is thought to have run away to join demonstrators in Ferguson. Gales is described as "black, 5 feet 3 inches tall, 105 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes," according to the Post-Dispatch. Gales has been missing since Nov. 15. Before Gales was reported missing, a boy who appears to match his description and who has the...

He said “I do” while protests raged. Amid an uncertain future and an impending grand jury decision, Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson married his girlfriend, fellow Ferguson cop Barbara Spradling, last month. The 28-year-old, awaiting news on whether he will stand trial for fatally shooting unarmed black teen Michael Brown in August, tied the knot Oct. 24 with 37-year-old colleague Spradling, a 10-year veteran of the suburban St. Louis police force. The couple, who share a home in nearby Crestwood, Mo., applied for a license last month in Clayton and were married in Oakland, Mo., by a municipal judge.

House Speaker John Boehner announced Monday that he is reappointing Rep. Trey Gowdy as chairman of the House Select Committee probing the Benghazi attack. Boehner said in a statement that there are still many unanswered questions about the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Libya. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the attack. “I look forward to the definitive report Chairman Gowdy and the Select Committee will present to the American people,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. Boehner said that he is also re-appointing all the Republican members of the committee.

They say politicians, like generals, tend to fight the last war. In the Constitutional showdown over President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and threatened government shutdown, Republicans are poised to lose an important fight they can and should win. They lack confidence because they suffer PTSD from the last battle. It’s quite a turnaround from Obama’s historic drubbing in the midterms a few weeks ago. Suddenly, he seems smug and purposeful while Republicans are fearful of missteps in a minefield.Republicans and many legal scholars believe Obama undermined the constitutional order with unknown consequences. At worst, he’s ignited an arms race...

President Obama’s decision to ignore the law by granting de facto amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants brought to America as children and those who are parents of children with legal status was a terribly foolish act. It will only serve to exacerbate racial tensions. Polls indicate the overwhelming majority of whites view illegal immigration as threatening. Many see immigrants as taking jobs from native-born Americans, pushing down wages and contributing to cultural decline. While many may silently harbor racial bigotry, the adverse economic consequences for whites are real and palpable. Illegal immigration increases the supply of low-skilled workers, and...

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that he would nominate Leondra R. Kruger, a federal government lawyer, to the California Supreme Court. Kruger, 38, who grew up in Pasadena, was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2002 but has not practiced law in the state since 2009, according to bar records. She has worked primarily in Washington, D.C., where she has represented the federal government in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. She would be the only African American on the court. Kruger is a deputy assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel....

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny Welcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

US President Barack Obama’s immigration plan, unveiled on Thursday November 20th, eases the threat of deportation for some 4.7 million immigrants, many of them Mexican, who are in the United States without legal documents. “I want to publicly recognize the President of the United States for yesterday’s announcement,” Peña Nieto told a conference in Mexico. “These measures bring relief to principally Mexican immigrants.” Peña Nieto said he had instructed Mexico’s consular service to help those Mexicans who wish to take advantage of the reform. “This temporary relief is a great step in the right direction from the United States to...

Stay wide awake in the coming weeks. This is a historic moment when all of the divisions, misunderstandings and hatreds of President Obama’s time in office have come to a head. We are in a different place than we were. We are also in a place we were bound to get to eventually. Obama’s decision to back away from our government’s policy of ripping apart the families of undocumented immigrants has called forth utterly contradictory responses from Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives. It should now be clear that the two sides don’t see the facts, the law or history...

Another leftover from Sunday brunch via the Corner. Joel Pollak floated this idea a few weeks ago in a piece for Breitbart. I thought of it again on Thursday night, when I was busy enjoying my vacation from HA by watching Obama’s amnesty speech and screaming at my TV. Now here’s Cruz proposing the same plan, although with two caveats. One: It’s not so much that he wants the Senate to block O’s nominees as he wants Mitch McConnell to refuse to bring those nominations to the floor in the first place. That’s a clever way of killing two...