Free Republic

Leaving aside passages in which he quoted a Chicago pub owner and a letter from a citizen from Georgia, President Barack Obama used the first person singular—including the pronouns “I” and “me” and the adjective “my”—91 times in a speech he delivered in Chicago Tuesday to explain his unilateral action on immigration.

NOVEMBER 22, 2014 Alinsky Does Amnesty The only limit on the president’s power that he recognizes is political expediency. By Andrew C. McCarthy That assertion is not an epithet — well, not primarily. True, I would not describe someone I admired as an “Alinskyite.” Saul Alinsky was a loathsome figure — a radical statist who whose toxic brew of thoroughgoing deceit and brass-knuckles extortion (“direct action”) has become a part of mainstream politics. But in tying the president to the seminal community organizer whose theories and tactics so influenced him, my purpose is more to decode than to insult him....

President Obama today is playing golf at the Shadow Creek golf club in North Las Vegas, reputed to be the nicest golf course in Vegas. It’s 55 degrees and mostly sunny. At 44 degrees, it’s a little too cold today in the Washington area for a comfortable round. This is the 47th time he’s played this year and the 204th outing of his presidency.

Republican Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner on Friday called President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration a “great start” to “get the dialogue going” on immigration policy changes. The comments came as Rauner addressed more than 900 advocates for the Latino community in Rosemont. Rauner told the crowd he supports “comprehensive immigration reform,” which he acknowledged will take more work. Immigration reform 'opens doors' NIU student and undocumented citizen, Laura Ramirez, faces daily challenges of living without citizenship. “The real way to do it is on a bipartisan basis, through Congress, through the legislature, with the president, with the states all working...

It might take a little political jujitsu to pull it off, but Barack Obama may have inadvertently opened the door for Republicans to move forward in their incremental approach to immigration reform. Until now, Obama and his fellow Democrats have argued that the humanitarian aspects of the current illegal immigrants in the US demanded a comprehensive solution rather than a deliberative and sequential strategy that could make sure that one piece worked before adding another to the mix. Republicans are pushing back hard on Obama’s declaration of executive amnesty last night, but it might have removed the argument for...

In politics, symbolism is everything. You have to pay attention not only to what politicians say, but when and where they say it. For example, Obama announced that he was shafting our loyal ally Poland in order to suck up to our adversary Russia regarding missile defense on the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland by Stalin. Tonight in Las Vegas, he will announce an unconstitutional executive decree providing amnesty for millions upon millions of illegal aliens, mainly from Mexico. Why today? Here’s a clue: The Mexican Revolution, which began on November 20, 1910, and continued for a decade,...

The Mexican Revolution, which began on November 20, 1910, and continued for a decade, is recognized as the first major political, social, and cultural revolution of the 20th century. The United States, Mexico’s northern neighbor, was significantly affected by the human dislocation that resulted: if someone did not want to fight, the only alternative was to leave the country—and over 890,000 Mexicans did just that by legally emigrating during the second decade of the 20th century….

President Obama was interrupted by hecklers during his speech in Las Vegas on Friday, as he tried to explain why he chose to act on his own to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Former White House spokesman Jay Carney admitted on CNN that President Obama did indeed flip-flop on executive amnesty. Host Anderson Cooper asked Carney for his opinion, after showing a series of clips of Obama denouncing executive amnesty, “So, I mean, other than his frustration, what has changed? I mean, he’s a constitution scholar. What has changed that allows him to do this?” “I think if he could have those words back, especially the first clip where he specifically talked about suspending deportations,” Carney said, “that is literally what he is doing today.” Carney went on saying, “In later instances including...

On many occasions during our history, presidents have tested the boundaries of their constitutional power through executive orders: Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, his Emancipation Proclamation, Franklin D. Roosevelt's creation of the Works Progress Administration, FDR's awful internment of Japanese-Americans, and Harry Truman's integration of the armed forces were all accomplished through controversial executive orders. During the 19th century, conventional wisdom held that presidents had only as much authority as the constitution explicitly granted; Teddy Roosevelt famously flipped that proposition on its head -- unless the Constitution explicitly forbids, he argued, the president has implied authority to act, especially as...

Lie #1: Every President has Taken Executive Action on Immigration: No other president has ever issued an amnesty of anywhere near this scope, created it out of thin air, or built it upon a prior executive action instead of a statute. And in the case of President Eisenhower, his executive action was to deport 80,000 illegal immigrants. Lie #2: Illegal Immigrant Crossings are Down: Actually, this is the third straight year that border crossings have gone up, not to mention the entirely new wave from Central America. Lie #3: It does not grant citizenship or the right to stay here...

One voice chiming in against President Obama's expected immigration announcement is Rep. Raul Labrador, a Republican from Idaho. Labrador is backed by the Tea Party, part of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, and a former immigration lawyer who represented undocumented residents fighting deportation. He spoke with NPR's Melissa Block ahead of the president's speech, in which Obama is set to announce executive action granting temporary relief to some of the more than 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Interview Highlights On how he feels Republicans should respond to the president's action The first thing we need to explain...

What does "three years at a time" mean? In defining just how long Obama's "temporary" halt of deportation is for over an estimated 5 million illegal aliens...according the White House Fact Sheet, it says that (on page 3 and 4)... ...eligible persons persons must also pass a criminal background check, begin paying their fair share of taxes and thereafter they will have “no fear of deportation for three years at a time.”. Beyond Obama's gross overall Constitutional violation, the "at a time" phrase worries me. Does this mean that these illegal aliens may apply for multiple rounds of 3-year deportation...

It’s a brilliant, brutally cynical near-term gambit. He delayed action until after the election, he even told everybody he was doing it! And then he completely screwed over the incoming Republican majority, making their lame-duck and first 100 days a complete pain-in-the-ass, while shoring up support among his progressive doubters who, if you watched MSNBC tonight, are back to 2008 levels of adoration. Still, what are the Republicans going to do? Impeach him? There’s a smart-ish strategy that involves funding the rest of the government while denying DHS the funds to enforce His Majesty’s edict. But when POTUS vetoes it,...

Obama’s speech announcing the his immigration diktat was the usual pabulum: “our immigration system is broken,” can’t let illegals “remain in the shadows,” “commonsense middle-ground approach,” blah, blah, blah. ​If I didn’t have to go on TV right afterwards, I would have played a drinking game. But the speech was notable for some of the things Obama didn’t mention. For instance, he lied about what his non-amnesty amnesty consisted of: “All we’re saying is we’re not going to deport you.” As polling has suggested, this is less likely to provoke opposition than the truth: “All we’re saying is we’re not...

Last night’s presidential address on decreeing that millions of illegal aliens can stay here in violation of the law contained a deep deceit, buried in words that were, on the surface, true. President Obama’s rhetoric left the impression that at last, illegal immigrants would “pay their fair share.” From the official transcript: We expect that those who cut the line will not be unfairly rewarded. So we’re going to offer the following deal: If you’ve been in America for more than five years; if you have children who are American citizens or legal residents; if you register, pass a criminal...

On Thursday night, President Obama delivered his address to the nation on his executive amnesty. It was historic, both in its scope and in its dishonesty: the speech represented a closely-woven and incredible tapestry of falsehood, exposited with a straight face by the greatest liar in modern American history. To those versed in immigration and constitutional law, watching Obama lay out his program felt like watching a madman describe, with preternaturally perfect sincerity, how the moon was constructed of cheese: you know the argument is untrue, but it’s incredible to watch its dogged exposition. Obama opened with a glowing talk...

NOVEMBER 20, 2014 No, ‘Prosecutorial Discretion’ Does Not Justify Obama’s Lawless Amnesty Obama’s planned action perverts the meaning of the legal doctrine. By Andrew C. McCarthy Can the president make fraud and theft legal? How about assault? Cocaine use? Perjury? You’d have to conclude he can — and that we have supplanted the Constitution with a monarchy — if you buy President Obama’s warped notion of prosecutorial discretion. Tonight, Mr. Obama will unveil his executive order granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. According to news accounts, the criminal-law doctrine of prosecutorial discretion is the foundation of the president’s legal...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yeah, really, when you stop -- and I'm sure most of you have -- when you stop and think about what's gonna happen tonight and the way it's being promoted, and the way it's playing out, I don't know, it's kind of surreal. Everybody involved knows that what's gonna happen tonight's unconstitutional. Everybody knows it. And there's nothing that can stop it. And stop and think of that. Everybody knows. I don't care if they're in the Drive-By Media. I don't care if they're in the White House. I don't care if they're in the Senate. I...

My fellow Americans, tonight, I’d like to talk with you about immigration. For more than 200 years, our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations. It’s kept us youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities – people not trapped by our past, but able to remake ourselves as we choose. But today, our immigration system is broken, and everybody knows it. Families who enter our country the right way and play by the rules watch others flout the rules. Business owners who...