Free Republic

On first appraisal, the amnesty/immigration bill before the Senate looks pretty bad. On a more careful comb-through, clause by clause, it looks much worse - like a complete disaster. It also looks like a massive venture in deception. Consider the oft-repeated claim that, under the bill, 11 million plus illegal immigrants now in the U.S. won't get legal status unless and until the border with Mexico is secure. This claim has been incessantly made by backers of the measure who call it "tough, conservative" legislation. Thus, a former official in the second Bush administration flatly tells us, "The bill's path...

If a ban can't pass the Senate, it certainly won't pass in the House. Consider the assault weapons ban a dead issue, while the ammunition limit is alive and well. Wall Street Journal: Senate Democratic leaders expect a gun bill to move to the Senate floor that includes most of the proposals backed by President Barack Obama, with the notable exception of a ban on military-style, semiautomatic weapons, a top aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said.The bill would likely seek to limit the capacity of ammunition magazines; expand background checks to include sales at gun shows and...

House Speaker John Boehner plans to introduce a bill on the House floor that would include tax increases on incomes above $1 million, he said this morning at a press conference. "We're going to move to Plan B," Boehner said. "Our Plan B would protect American taxpayers who make $1 million or less."That means, for the first time publicly, Boehner acknowledged he would be open to increased tax rates in a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. Boehner said he hoped to avoid tax hikes on as many people as possible ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline.Boehner emphasized that...

After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be -- and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted. Islamist parties swept the first free elections in both countries in recent months after campaigns that stressed their readiness to work with the secularists they struggled with in the Arab Spring revolts against decades-long dictatorships. With political deadlines looming, the Tunisian coalition led by the reformist Islamist Ennahda party and the head of Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood both made statements this week revealing...

Barack Obama went to church on the Sunday after Christmas in his native Hawaii, worshiping at a multidenominational service at a chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. And this is news, you ask? Actually, yes it is, when you are a struggling president facing re-election after a year in which growing numbers of Americans -- as many as 1 in 5 -- thought he was a Muslim, while more than half felt Obama's religious views were different from their own. Moreover, resurgent Republicans and conservative activists continue to raise doubts about Obama's religious views as a way to sow doubts...

President Obama used his January State of the Union speech to promise "a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants" and "new offshore areas for oil and gas development." Judging by its recent decisions, we'd say his Cabinet hasn't received the memo. Congress's ban on offshore drilling expired in September 2008, and a Bush Administration plan for leasing the energy-rich Outer Continental Shelf was due to begin this year. Yet within a month of taking office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar halted leasing by extending the public comment period by six months. When that period ended last September, Interior said...

I propose that the GOP Congress push for IMMEDIATE adoption of Obamacare! The Dims have structured the plan so that the catastrophe will not become apparent to the 0bamabots until after his 2012 re-election. If we demand immediate implementation the Dims won't be able to hide. They won't be able to delay while "... 127 people per day die" and they won't be able to explain how we must continue to wait "...after 100 years of struggle..." to create this "benefit". I also propose a phased implementation of 20% of states per year so as not to "overwhelm" the bureaucracy....

Remember how Republican Scott P. Brown's victory in January's Senate race in Massachusetts was supposed to represent a mortal blow to health-care reform? "Probably back to the drawing board," Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) declared the next day. "Might be dead," Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) surmised.... But rather than dooming the effort, Brown's win appears to have helped Democrats refocus the legislation and their strategy for selling it. ... Democrats now expect to unveil legislation that costs less and more aggressively tackles health-care inflation -- a package they say could leave them less vulnerable in November. It drops the "Cornhusker Kickback"...

The Obama administration signaled Sunday that it was on the verge of abandoning a government-run insurance option in its healthcare overhaul -- a bow to political reality and a big win for insurers. But some experts said that may not completely relieve pressure on insurers to deliver cost savings. Both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Sunday talk shows that a government insurance option was not essential -- one day after President Obama himself said as much. Private-sector options, such as insurance exchanges or cooperatives, would be likely to replace...

Barack Obama's vice presidential search team has floated the name of a member of President Bush's first-term Cabinet, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, as Obama's running mate. The search committee, now led by Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder, raised Veneman's name — among others — in discussions with members of Congress, two Democrats familiar with the conversations said.

The leading Democratic presidential candidates are increasingly making that more nuanced case. At a recent presidential forum, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York decried the failure of activists on both sides to work together to bring down the number of abortions. She repeated a mantra her husband made famous more than a decade ago: Abortion, she said, should be "safe, legal and rare." Then Clinton paused and added deliberately: "And by rare, I mean rare."

DENVER – Moderate Democrats trying to get back into a debate now dominated by liberals offered yesterday what they hope is a centrist path back to the White House, showcasing potential presidential candidates and unveiling a Hillary Clinton-produced “American Dream Initiative” designed to appeal to the middle class. Hillary Clinton The occasion was the annual meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group that propelled Bill Clinton to the presidency and has been long favored by the party's officeholders from states that lean Republican. The backdrop for the summer session was the growing pressure from the left to make...

Homeland Security's Chertoff urges three-tiered approach to address problemWashington -- Illegal immigration is a severe and growing problem, and the United States is taking aggressive and innovative steps to address it, says U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. In October 18 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chertoff told lawmakers that ending illegal immigration requires tough law enforcement, as well as action to reduce the demand that draws illegal migrants into the country. U.S. officials believe a three-tier comprehensive approach to curbing illegal immigration is necessary, Chertoff added. This approach involves establishing better control of the border, a more...

Alert: Zarqawi died (see update below) The Jordanian thug Fadhel Nazal Al-Khalayla (Zarqawi) 38 years has died. He received treatment from Arab doctors who were not very experts and lacking intensive care equipments which he needed for his puncture in the right lung. His wounds infection gets resistance to the antibiotics. He had what is called septicemia which is according to doctors an infection of the blood resulted from infected wound. Zarqawi's systems started to fail including his kidney and liver. He died and now in the hands of the Keepers of the Hell in its worst level. His family...