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Sen. Marco Rubio and 23 Democratic Senators are asking President Donald Trump to grant asylum to Venezuelans, even though the grant would minimize the Venezuelans’ incentives to overthrow their country’s Cuban-backed dictatorship. “We respectfully request that your Administration promptly designate Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to ensure that Venezuelan nationals currently present in the United States are not forced to return … [because a return] is not in the best long-term interest of the United States or our partners in the region,” said the March 7 letter.

A proposal to rename the Senate's oldest office building for John McCain ran into resistance Tuesday from Republican senators reluctant to take away an honor already bestowed on an earlier Senate titan — and a leader of Southern senators during a tumultuous era in the nation's history. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, looking to defuse a budding controversy, said he will form a bipartisan panel to solicit ideas on the best way to honor the late Arizona senator. McCain "meant so much to so many of us — inside this chamber and out," McConnell said Tuesday in a speech on...

A new Gallup poll shows growing support for marijuana legalization, with 64 percent of Americans now in favor of the measure. The number is the highest level of support in nearly half a century of surveying adults on the issue, according to Gallup. Support has steadily increased in recent years, with the latest figure up 4 percentage points over last year and up 14 points from 2011. The poll also showed a majority of Republicans favoring legalization for the first time, with 51 percent expressing support. That number is up 9 percentage points from last year, according to Gallup.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 1m1 minute ago More If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!

Ivanka Trump is meeting Monday with climate change activist and former Vice President Al Gore. The president-elect's daughter, who reportedly wants to make global warming one of her signature issues, will meet with Gore at Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to transition spokesman Jason Miller. The former vice president will not be meeting with the president-elect, Miller said in a conference call with reporters on Monday morning. He would not elaborate on the contents of the meeting.

Today, Donald Trump floated Condi Rice's name as a potential VP running mate. He did it in a clever way. He asked the audience to shout out names. From my TV I couldn't hear but he repeated the names Newt Guingrich, Jeff Sessions and Condi Rice. Only three. I've always believed that if her entire story were made known, Condoleezza Rice would be a perfect role model for young Americans of all background and an inspiration to all adult Americans of color. I personally find her to be one of the most remarkable Americans to have served in high office....

Poland’s deputy defence minister has said the ministry is considering asking for access to nuclear weapons through a Nato program in which non-nuclear states borrow the arms from the US. Tomasz Szatkowski said the ministry was discussing whether to ask for access to Nato’s “nuclear sharing” program to strengthen the country’s ability to defend itself...

The purpose of this post is to introduce My Little Pony to Free Republic in a positive fashion, to counter much of the negativity that has been unfairly heaped on the show. I had been trying to decide the best episodes to put forward, when the producers dropped the Season 5 premiere in my lap. What could be better than a no-holds-barred trashing of liberalism and forced equality in a ponified Harrison Bergeron type town? Complaining about a lack of good, new, family oriented television? All new TV is trash? This is what you're looking for. There's a certain kind...

Now that calorie counts on restaurant menus are a done deal, it's time to take the next step toward slimming America's flabby waistline.. A national soda tax. I know, I know: This is the kind of nanny-state talk that causes seizures among conservatives and libertarians. It's an intrusion on personal freedom, a trampling of consumer choice, blah-blah-blah. It's also, as we've learned from taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, a highly effective method of influencing behavior that carries high social costs.

Former President George W. Bush says he isn’t interested in playing on the national political stage any longer. But for family, he’s making an exception. Asked in an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer whether he thinks his brother former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush should run for president in 2016, the ex-president was unequivocal. “He’d be a marvelous candidate if he chooses to do so. He doesn’t need my counsel ’cause he knows what it is, which is ‘run,’ ” the elder Bush brother said about Jeb’s possible candidacy, in an interview that first aired Wednesday on “World News with...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell operates with a steely resolve, a political discipline that leaves nothing to chance. A childhood bout with polio instilled in him an enormous capacity for patience. And for 25 years in Congress, the Kentucky Republican has waited for the moment now before him: the chance to become Senate majority leader. With four seats needed to flip the chamber, or three if a Republican is elected president (because the vice president could break a tie), the GOP has its best opportunity in years to gain full control of Congress. But McConnell and his party must first...

Christie is leaving the door open. "If Gov. Romney comes to me and wants to have a talk about that, we'll have a full conversation about that and then Mary Pat and I will make that decision about what we want to do with our future," Christie said in a Fox News interview before Christmas. "But my view is, I think if you fast-forward the tape to a year from now, I think it's going to be President-elect Romney and some other VP-elect - and Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey." Christie repeatedly has said he would not be...

They tried to make her go to rehab...and she said yes, yes, yes. Singer Amy Winehouse checked into a treatment facility on Wednesday, the singer's rep confirmed. Winehouse "has embarked on a treatment program at the Priory Clinic," the rep said, according to Britain's Daily Mail. "She wants to be ready for performances in Europe this summer and decided to seek an assessment. She will remain at the Priory on doctors' advice." A source close to the "Rehab" singer told People magazine that Winehouse's father, Mitch, encouraged her to seek help: "Her dad sat her down and said 'I think...

ATLANTA (AP) --- Newt Gingrich, the House speaker who led a national GOP resurgence in the 1990s before facing ethics questions and resigning, is running for president. Gingrich's announcement, made on social networking websites Monday, came after months of public flirting with a bid. He enters a slow-to-form GOP presidential field that has left some Republicans craving more options as they search for a nominee strong enough to credibly challenge President Barack Obama. The former Georgia congressman, well-known to most Republicans, brings to the race a years-in-the-making political machine with ties to early nominating states as well as a network...

SNIP To help the president nudge the JCS in the ensuing discussion, here are the options he should ask to be put on his desk: 1. Best option: Give the Libyan rebels the aid they need to win. This may be no more than some secure communications gear and a couple of thousand rocket-propelled grenades to deter Qaddafi's tanks and SUVs. (This may be already happening in some form.) Can we start flying discreet charter flights of stuff into some airports in the east? This needs to be ready to go ASAP -- like yesterday. 2. More aggressive, riskier option:...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he isn't ruling out a possible presidential run in 2016. At the inauguration Tuesday of new Gov. Rick Scott, Bush repeated his stance that he's positively not running for president in 2012.

American University Erupts Over Date Rape: Girls Who Drink and Go to Frat Parties Deserve Date Rape, Says Student Newspaper Columnist Today begins Sexual Abuse Awareness and Prevention month -- and American University is in an uproar over an anti-feminist diatribe in the student newspaper charging that some women who survive date rape invited it. "Let's get this straight: any woman who heads to an EI [fraternity] party as an anonymous onlooker, drinks five cups of the jungle juice, and walks back to a boy's room with him is indicating that she wants sex, OK?" columnist Alex Knepper, 20, wrote...

Before Sarah Palin became the embodiment of the conservative grassroots, another national candidate from a state beginning with "A" mastered 21st century Republican populism on his way to winning the 2008 Iowa caucuses. During the campaign, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the funniest Republican since the heyday of Bob Dole, would go off on little-guy riffs like this: "If you're a person for whom 'summer' is a verb, if you went to Harvard or Yale, you probably think the economy is doing just dandy." After John McCain won the nomination, Huckabee did not fade away. Instead, he morphed into a...

Republican leaders in Congress have created something called the National Council for a New America (NCNA). It describes itself as "not a Republican-only forum" but one that seeks to "engage people in a discussion to meet common challenges and build a stronger country through common-sense ideas." The expectation--mine, anyway--is those ideas will differ from President Obama's in a way that makes Republicans look fairminded and reasonable. The council's first event at a pizza parlor in Arlington, Virginia, did just that. Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush showed up, media coverage was heavy, and the session was deemed a success. Improving the...

SAN CARLOS, Calif. (AP) - Fed up with the budget crises and partisan battles that have paralyzed California for years, some influential voices believe it's time to tear open the state constitution and start anew. Once dismissed as a hokey gimmick, support for a proposed constitutional convention has been building in the nation's most populous state. Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated he would back an effort to retool the document to make state government function more smoothly. Opponents of the step say it's just a ruse to raise taxes and could expose the constitution to a host...