Free Republic

Several Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to allow Syrians who are already in the United States to stay, at least temporarily, out of concern it would be "too dangerous" for them to return home. The senators want President Obama to invoke what's known as "temporary protected status" for thousands of Syrians in the U.S. The designation typically is given to foreign nationals whose home countries are beset by war or natural disaster and who could face harm should they return. The senators argued that Syrians in the U.S. are in just that kind of predicament, as Syrian...

As Career Education Corporation students face prospect of worthless degrees and burdensome debt, former CEO given multi-million dollar severance package [WASHINGTON, D.C.] – After learning that the former CEO of Career Education Corporation (CEC) is set to receive a $5 million severance, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called on the Illinois-based company to refund tuition to students if their program of study loses accreditation.  CEC, which owns and operates Le Cordon Bleu and the International Academy of Design and Technology in Chicago, risks losing accreditation after its national accreditor discovered that the company directly violated Department of Education regulations...

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin told the Chicago Tribune that if the 2012 election is a “referendum” on President Barack Obama, then Democrats are “in trouble.” In an interview Thursday for the Tribune’s “Chicago Live” series, Durbin was asked about the election. “If it is a referendum, then we’re in trouble because the economy’s not good and people’ll say, ‘well, I just want to make it clear I don’t like the way things are,’” Durbin said.

Dick Durbin's Amendment stipulates new rules that will lead to lower fees for merchants when you swipe a debit card in their stores. Merchants currently pay around 1% of every debit card transaction to the credit card cartel. The lower fees to merchants, in theory, could lower prices in stores. We don't think consumers will benefit. The Australian government capped credit and debit interchange in 2003, which has resulted in some pretty pathetic credit card offers compared to what we have stateside. The average annual fee in Australia is $132, compared with $19 in the US. Rewards programs are also...

Economic indicators are falling. The Fed issued a gloomy report on the future of the economy, saying that the so-called recovery may be “faltering.” Greece has only enough cash to make payroll for a few weeks before it defaults and flattens the European banking system. The only thing missing from a collapse is a good, old-fashioned bank run.Enter Dick Durbin (h/t Ryan K):video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Holding up a plastic debit card on the Senate floor this afternoon, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., had some advice for Bank of America customers angry about the new $5 monthly fee: leave.“Bank of...

Dick Durbin urges customers to leave Bank of America By: Seung Min Kim October 3, 2011 04:26 PM EDT Angry about Bank of America’s new $5 monthly fee for using your debit card? Dick Durbin has some advice for you: Take your money elsewhere. “Bank of America customers, vote with your feet,” the Senate majority whip said in a floor speech Monday. “Get the heck out of that bank. Find yourself a bank or credit union that won’t gouge you for $5 a month and still will give you a debit card that you can use every single day. “What...

Hold on to your wallet: The Durbin Amendment goes into effect Saturday. The once-obscure amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill limits “interchange fees,” which banks charge to merchants for providing the service that allows stores to accept debit-card payments. The fees were cut by some 80 percent, which makes it less profitable for banks to offer debit-card services. So the banks have done the natural thing and begun to transfer the fee from merchants to their customers, with Bank of America announcing a new $5-per-month fee for debit-card users. Naturally, the amendment’s author, Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) is in...

Note well: It’s not because of a GOP filibuster either. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that, at the moment, Democrats don’t have the votes to pass President Obama’s jobs bill, but Durbin added that that would change.“Not at the moment, I don’t think we do but, uh, we can work on it,” Durbin said according to Chicago radio station WLS…“The oil-producing state senators don’t like eliminating or reducing the subsidy for oil companies, “Durbin said. “There are some senators who are up for election who say I’m never gonna vote for a tax increase while I’m up for...

Chicago, August 11, 2011 – This week U.S. Senator Dick Durbin held a press conference with members of the mainstream media to talk about the downgrade crisis. But the Senator’s scripted storyline veered off-course when a conservative reporter – me – showed up to ask an embarrassing question. Namely, “Senator, you’ve blamed the tea party…but do you bear any responsibility for this downgrade crisis?” Video at link posted

It's not very often that you run into a story that so perfectly captures both the sheer contempt which many reporters hold for the public and their desire to enable Democratic politicians. That's what happened in Chicago earlier this week when conservative journalist Bill Kelly had the temerity to ask Illinois Democratic senator Dick Durbin if he felt that he shared any responsibility at all for the recent U.S. debt downgrade. As a coddled and protected Democrat, Durbin certainly wasn't used to a tough question and he proceeded to ignore it, turning instead to a more compliant journalist, one Jim...

Chicago, August 11, 2011 – This week U.S. Senator Dick Durbin held a press conference with members of the mainstream media to talk about the downgrade crisis. But the Senator’s scripted storyline veered off-course when a conservative reporter – me – showed up to ask an embarrassing question. Namely, “Senator, you’ve blamed the tea party…but do you bear any responsibility for this downgrade crisis?” What, you didn’t hear about this incident in the media? For those of you that need more proof that journalism is dead, read on. … I went to Durbin’s press conference to set the record straight....

WASHINGTON — In the ongoing deficit negotiations, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is at all the White House meetings and is one of the bipartisan “Gang of Six.” Then there is freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who is a leading voice of anti-President Obama tea party conservatives. Two Illinoisans, a study in contrasts. Durbin, the number two leader in the Senate, is a voice of reason as an Aug. 2 default deadline looms — willing to take on Democratic sacred cows of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A deal, Durbin told Illinois reporters on a conference call Wednesday, “requires spending cuts,...

Sen. Dick Durbin is calling on churches, synagogues and mosques to carve out time this fall to discuss the so-called DREAM Act with their congregations, despite federal restrictions on lobbying that often apply to religious institutions. The Illinois Democrat is reaching out to the faith community as he tries to advocate for passage of the controversial proposal that would provide a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants who attend college or join the military. A coalition of religious organizations -- which see the bill as a humane immigration proposal -- had already been pushing for what they call the...

I never thought I’d long for the days of Robert Byrd and his “pocket Constitution,” but alas, Dick Durbin has managed to eke out that much nostalgia after his DREAM Act gaffe yesterday. Real Clear Politics and Doug Powers at the Boss Emeritus’ site caught this tender moment from Durbin as he addressed school-age “undocumented” aliens and promised that his DREAM Act would allow them to become tomorrow’s Congressmen, Senators, and … Presidents? “When I look around this room, I see America’s future. Our doctors, our teachers, our nurses, our engineers, our scientists, our soldiers, our Congressman, our Senators and...

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) led off the first hearing of the 'DREAM Act' by asking all the illegals in his audience to stand up and then provided encouraging words, calling them our future "doctors, our teachers...our senators, and maybe our president."

The 18 Senators Who Approve Breaking The Internet To Protect Hollywood from the not-cool dept Last fall, we noted that the Senate Judiciary Committee had unanimously voted to approve COICA, a bill for censoring the internet as a favor to the entertainment industry. Thankfully, Senator Ron Wyden stepped up and blocked COICA from progressing. This year, COICA has been replaced by the PROTECT IP Act, which fixes some of the problems of COICA, but introduces significant other problems as well. A wide cross section of people who actually understand technology and innovation have come out against PROTECT IP as written...

Things have certainly changed in the last three weeks. In late March, Senator Dick Durbin dismissed the idea of Social Security reform, arguing that the entitlement program “does not add a penny” to the deficit, and called efforts to include it in entitlement reform a “deal killer.” Suddenly, Durbin has awakened to the danger of allowing Social Security to proceed unchanged, according to ABC: And while other top Democrats say Social Security should be untouched, Durbin says Social Security changes should be made now. …Durbin criticized a resolution put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal independent from Vermont, that...

Mark this date on your calendars. It will, like Pearl Harbor, “live in infamy.” Why? Because the Muslim Brotherhood may have won several Stealth Jihad victories across America in Washington, DC, Tallahassee – Florida’s State Capitol and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This great tsunami wave of Stealth Jihad started Sunday, March 27th with the launch of CNN’s “Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door” Soledad O’Brien’s “In America” documentary on alleged Muslim discrimination in Murfreesboro, Tennessee over the Islamic Center expansion project. The tag line in our post on the documentary was “Too sympathetic and biased”. In Washington, DC, we have a hearing...

In order to solve the budget impasse, Dick Durbin says that everything has to be on the table. In almost literally the next breath, Durbin then says Social Security reform will kill any budget deal, because even though budget talks can’t be serious without entitlement reform, Congress will refuse to address one of the Big Three entitlement programs. If you think that’s incoherent, wait until you find out why: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy It’s very hard, very difficult, when you get into the entitlements, but you can’t have a serious conversation about...

In what is likely a response to Rep. Peter King's relatively tame hearings on Muslim extremism and homeland security earlier this month, Senator Dick Durbin will be holding a hearing this Tuesday to investigate the supposedly growing problem of anti-Muslim bigotry in America. USA Today reports: "Our Constitution protects the free exercise of religion for all Americans," said Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who will chair the hearing. He said it follows a spike in anti-Muslim bigotry over the past year. Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy organization based in San Francisco, said...