Free Republic

There is new life in the battle to defund Obamacare, as more lawmakers are willing to use Congress’ power of the purse to stop the health-care law. 79 members of Congress have signed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., asking to “defund the implementation and enforcement of ObamaCare in any relevant appropriations bill brought to the House floor in the 113th Congress.” The author of the letter, freshman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., released a copy of the text and all the signatures today.

It’s not for nothing police are sometimes called the largest gang in America. A federal civil rights lawsuit accuses Paterson, NJ police officers of arresting, beating, and robbing (apparently in that order) two men after a confrontation between the two and an off-duty cop at a local sports bar. From the Star-Ledger: A group of Paterson police officers repeatedly punched and kicked a handcuffed, nearly unconscious suspect during a 2011 arrest, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed in federal court last week. Captured on a surveillance video, the beating goes on for more than three minutes. The video shows...

Wednesday was blowback day. On Monday, 15 Republicans voted with every Democrat to END DEBATE on a phony "Border Surge" amendment which had been released just 72 hours before, and had ZERO hearings or hours of debate. It was disgraceful. It reeked of the same process by which ObamaCare was shoved down our throats by Pelosi & Co. And worse still, the promises of "700 miles of border fence" and a "massive deployment of force" to our border were soon revealed to be complete and utter LIES, as DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has unlimited discretion NOT to build fencing and...

As we noted on Friday, even though Schumer completely repackaged the amnesty bill with only 3 days to comb through 1190 pages, the fix is in. Every Democrat is prepared to vote for this bill, and at least 10-12 Republicans couldnÂ’t care less about their constituents. They have the votes. They donÂ’t care about the American people. Amazingly, there is a supermajority of Senators who are more in tune with the whims of foreign lobbies than with the security needs of the American people. I have no plans to reread this entire bill in order to ascertain all the changes...

Marco Rubio is likable. That likability is his chief asset. Even as he champions a wildly unpopular bill among his own base, his numbers remain high. It’s not just magic. Rubio is everywhere. If you tune in to Univision, you can hear him promising legalization. If you watch FOX News, you’ll hear him express disappointment in his own bill, almost sounding as he might not vote for the very thing that he has staked his entire career on. There are many Rubios. At times it seems as if there are as many Rubios as there are Obama. A flock of...

Washington Examiner‘s Conn Carroll compares the text of Cornyn’s amendment with the language it replaces–and it turns out that the amendment isn’t as bad as feared. It’s worse! Specifically: 1) It keeps the basic “legalization first” structure of the Gang of 8. That is, illegal immigrants are near-immediately given “provisional” legal status. Only then do promised enforcement improvements kick in. If Cornyn conditioned legalization on enforcement, he might actually come close–as close as he could come–to a “guarantee” that the enforcement measures would in fact be carried out. Instead, it’s “Give us legalization and we’ll give you enforcement in the...

The Cornyn amendment does not substantially change the border control metrics in the Gang of 8’s bill—in fact, it uses the same 90% apprehension-rate measure that is easily manipulated. The Gang of 8 bill requires “persistent surveillance” of the entire border and a 90% “effectiveness rate” (defined as deterring or apprehending 90% of illegal crossings). Cornyn’s amendment requires “situational awareness” (meaning having surveillance in place) and a 90% “apprehension rate.” There is no meaningful distinction between these metrics...

I’m assuming he would say that earned citizenship, which is slightly different, also doesn’t qualify as amnesty. In that case, I’ve got the perfect debate opponent for him. Meet Marco Rubio, candidate for Senate. October 24, 2010: (Snip) RUBIO: First of all, earned path to citizenship is basically code for amnesty. It’s what they call it. And the reality of it is this. This has to do with the bottom line that America cannot be the only country in the world that does not enforce its immigration laws. It is unfair to the people that have legally

The Senate voted overwhelmingly today [6/11] to move debate forward on the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. Only 15 Republicans voted No. Not all the Republicans who voted to move the bill forward today will necessarily vote for its passage, but it appears to be a foregone conclusion that the bill will indeed make it out of the Senate in more or less its current form. This is, I think, mystifying. I can understand why Democrats would vote for the bill: over the next ten years, it will result in somewhere between 30 million and 57 million new legal immigrants,...

The amnesty under consideration in Congress would come at an enormous cost: more than $5 trillion over the lifetime of immigrants who are legalized. But the bill is structured to hide most of those costs from voters. To see how, let’s start with some basic facts about taxes and spending in the United States. The average household receives about $32,000 in cash and services from federal, state and local governments combined. These range from direct benefits such as Social Security to public services such as police and firefighting. Households headed by college graduates tend to pay more in taxes than...

So let's assume that this stupid amnesty bill will pass the Senate and send it to the House. I think we all know that this bill is designed to look so awful that the GOP House will vote against it and thus make the GOP look like it is anti-Hispanic and thus create trouble in 2014, at least that is what the Dems hope will happen (kinda like the gun grab thing that flopped on them). Are you telling me that with all the scandals now erupting around Obama, any [likely] future scandal still to come, not to mention the...

In a Spanish-language interview Sunday with the network Univision, Sen. Marco Rubio, the leading Republican on the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform group, made his strongest statement yet that legalization of the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants must happen before any new border security or internal enforcement measures are in place, and will in no way be conditional on any security requirements. “Let’s be clear,” Rubio said. “Nobody is talking about preventing the legalization...

WASHINGTON—Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte says she will back the bipartisan overhaul of the nation's immigration system. The New Hampshire senator said Sunday the nation's immigration is broken and needs to be fixed. She says the Senate proposal secures the border and provides a "tough but fair" way for immigrants to earn citizenship. A bipartisan group of eight senators drafted the bill and then guided it through the Judiciary Committee to the full Senate. Despite widespread support, the bill's passage is by no means certain

The Gang of Eight’s Amnesty Bill (S. 744) is slated for a vote on June 10th. If there was ever a time to call your Senators and anyone of influence you know to oppose this bill, it’s now. In my state of Idaho, Senators Risch and Crapo take note. The voters are watching you and you better vote conservatively – get your collective arses off the fence already. I understand Crapo has stated he must study the bill first which is understandable, but I would like to make a point of order here. Amnesty does not serve any good and...

A homeowner takes matters into his own hands in a confrontation with gang members. The strange encounter happened Sunday around 6:45 p.m. north of Augusta near Gettysburg. Fresno Police Lieutenant Joe Gomez said three bulldog gang members parked across from the homeowner's residence and two of them walked up to the side of the house. "The homeowner was inside, he saw them and he went out to confront the bulldog gang members, and he had a machete," Gomez said. Gomez said a fight ensued and one of the bulldogs grabbed a bat from their car and struck the homeowner in...

Mayor Mitch Landrieu confirmed Thursday that a second suspect had been arrested in the Mother's Day second line shooting, and New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said that four others were arrested for harboring suspects. The second suspect arrested Thursday was identified as Shawn Scott, 24, brother of Akein Scott, 19, who was arrested Wednesday night and charged with 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder. Authorities said Shawn Scott also will face 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder, as well as heroin and other drug charges.Authorities said the Scott brothers are members of the Frenchman and Derbigny gang and that...

Islamic Sharia law is outdated, controlling, un democratic, barbaric, racist, sexist and just plain stupid. It is completely incompatible with modern life in civilized  nations. It’s no wonder those who live under Sharia in Muslim countries or those who call for it in the west are often regarded as a bit backwards,because  Sharia  most definitely is retarded. How can throwing a female who is a victim of  not 1 repulsive rapist but of 3 evil rapists, into prison for having sex out of wedlock be any kind of justice. The woman never asked to be raped, she wasn’t flirting with the attackers or leading them on...

The Qur'an allows for the owning of sex slaves: ... This is by no means an eccentric or unorthodox view in Islam. The Egyptian Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni declared in May 2011 that “we are in the era of jihad,” and that as they waged jihad warfare against infidels, Muslims would take slaves ... on May 25, 2011, a female Kuwaiti activist and politician, Salwa al-Mutairi, also spoke out in favor of the Islamic practice of sexual slavery of non-Muslim women, emphasizing that the practice accorded with Islamic law and the parameters of Islamic morality. ... While the savage exploitation of...

Por La Raza, Todo! Joe Biden in full pander mode, totally without shame.- by John HillStand With ArizonaFew can equal Vice President Joe Biden as a race-baiting panderer. And Joe is increasingly making his professed amor for "Hispanics" standard fare for his stump speeches pushing amnesty for illegal aliens. Biden never misses an opportunity to put Hispanics - and especially illegals - on a pedestal. In January, addressing a group of newly-elected Latino members of Congress, Biden insisted that "now the nation -- and I might add the hemisphere -- understands the Hispanic community must be courted. Must be courted....

ICE Agent Crane to Obama: "Mr. President, you've overstepped your boundaries. It's your job to enforce the law, it's Congress' job to enact the law."- Last week, ICE union chief Chris Crane won a stunning initial court victory in his lawsuit against the Obama Administration. As we reported, Federal Judge Federal Judge Reed O’Connor told the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they had no power to refuse to deport illegal aliens, and that he was likely to strike down Obama’s virtual “DACA” amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The ruling stunned Washington, and Crane’s lawsuit could derail Obama’s four-year...