Free Republic

Since May, dozens of illegal immigrants have been arrested and deported from Saratoga Springs, raising concerns about how increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement action could impact the busy horse racing season. At a town hall meeting on Monday, Saratoga Mayor Joanne Yepsen made it clear that the city's police force would not be initiating or participating in ICE deportation efforts. The declaration was met with applause, WTEN-TV reported.

Today's Iowa Polls of the two caucus races for president would seem to be good news for Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama. Both lead in the surveys of their respective races. Huckabee appears to have fended off a last-minute surge from Mitt Romney. After a tight race for months, Obama seems to be opening up a last-minute lead over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Huckabee, Obama maintain leads But no polls are predictors, and these surveys reveal: * Undecideds exist. There are 6 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers and 4 percent of the Republicans who have no first...

David Yepsen has a horrifically bad column in the Sunday Des Moines Register. In it, he distills each candidate down to the usual cliches of the leftist/"centrist" newspaper agenda: Mike Huckabee The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister has soared in the GOP race following his second-place finish in the Iowa Republican straw poll in August. He has rallied party social and religious conservatives as well as supporters of a big national sales tax to replace the income tax. He's a witty speaker and an affable politician whose criticisms of the nation's economic policies sound a lot like the populist...

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Fred Thompson survived the first big test of his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday when he turned in a strong performance during a debate among GOP presidential candidates. The former Tennessee senator and actor recently launched his campaign in a fumbling manner to poor reviews, but he came back Tuesday by offering some specific answers in a cool, commanding style as he debuted in the first debate with his opponents. He cemented his good grade by correctly answering the trick question of the day - who is the prime minister of Canada? (It's Stephen Harper.) The...