Free Republic

Washington (CNN) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he will add the DREAM Act, a controversial immigration measure, to a defense policy bill the Senate will take up next week. The decision means the defense bill, which often passes with bipartisan support, will be home to two major, thorny political issues – the other being the repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Reid called the DREAM Act "really important" and said it should be passed because it provides a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military....

Through most of its history, the narrative begins, the United States was a limited government nation, with restrained central power and an independent citizenry. But over the years, forces have arisen that seek to change America’s essential nature. These forces would replace America’s traditional free enterprise system ... These statist forces are more powerful than ever in the age of Obama. So it is the duty for those who believe in the traditional American system to stand up and defend the Constitution. There is no middle ground. Every small new government program puts us on the slippery slope toward a...

Enter DNC Chairman Tim Kaine. In a recent interview, the clearly deranged Kaine was asked about Republicans and the Tea Party, and what affect they were having on the 2010 elections. He responded: "What we're seeing in the Republican Party is that they invited the Tea Party in and it's turning into the Donner Party, in some instances, because they're turning the energy and the ferocity against each other." That's right, the Donner Party. The people who got lost going West in the 1800s and ate several of their travel companions. Unfortunately, Kaine must be painfully unaware that Republican prospects...

In August, liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America generated a fair amount of publicity when it said it wanted to buy an ad on Fox News in response to News Corp.'s $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association. Fox News said it would air the ad, provided some minor tweaks were made and MMFA ponied up the dough. Well, Media Matters has made the tweaks and come up with the cash, so the ad will air on "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight:

The imam at the center of the controversy surrounding a proposed Islamic center near ground zero is now the defendant in a law suit, according the paperwork filed today at Hudson County Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges Feisal Abdul Rauf's company, Sage Development, which owns two buildings in Union City, New Jersey, failed to properly maintain the buildings and apartments. One building contains 32 residential units and the second contains 16 units, according to the lawsuit. "From 1996 to 2010, the city responded to no less than 30 complaints from tenants predicated upon various health and safety concerns, including lack...

Obama should heed one thing Boehner said a few weeks ago — he needs to fire his economic team and start over. As politically charged as that move sounds, it’s the right one, on both style and substance... These folks are already thinking about their cushy private-sector jobs anyway. So Obama should cut his losses, start over and use the exodus to hit the Reset button. And as if that weren’t reason enough, nothing else is working. Obama has nothing to lose here. Except maybe admitting John Boehner was right after all .

Insanity is when you continue to do the same thing and expect different results. Maine people are not insane, so why do they continue to elect the Democrats to the Legislature and expect improvements? Maine continues to decline. If Maine really wanted the millions in funds that come with the “Race to the Top” program, why is it not publicized that one of the qualifications is to have charter schools? The teachers’ union opposes charter schools and the Democrats agree. Why are Maine’s health insurance rates so high? Maine Republicans have repeatedly proposed corrective measures, only to be voted down....

The Protestant Church has secondary growth concerns: The number of students for Evangelical Theology is in decline since the beginning of the nineties. [Die Zeit: Online] 10-15 years it will still go well, then however, Germany will be threatened by a shortage of ministers, fear the Union of Evangelical Pastors and Pastoresses. The number of young men, who want to be Pastor, has been declining for years: 1992 still had 8500 young people studying for the ministry, at the present there are only 2300, said Union President Klaus Weber. From 2020 on the Pastor-boom will fall into silence. Not only...

I’m surprised. Not only because it’s insane to think he’s still the favorite — closed primary, polls showing O’Donnell surging, nationally prominent conservatives in full-court press on her behalf — but because it’s poor messaging. If Castle’s chances for victory hinge on centrist Republicans turning out en masse, wouldn’t the GOP want to scare the hell out of those people with predictions of a nailbiter in order to make sure they know their vote’s important? Mystifying. "Republican National Committeewoman Priscilla Rakestraw, who has been working the phones on Castle’s behalf, and who spoke to 300 potential voters at the Academy...

If Mohammed is SO wrong on SO many points . . . how can he be a prophet of Allah?

<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York appeals court on Tuesday lifted a temporary order blocking the state from collecting taxes on cigarettes sold by Native American stores to non-Indian customers.</p> <p>On Sept. 1, a state appellate judge in Rochester restored a restraining order that barred the state from collecting the $4.35-per-pack tax. But the court's five-judge panel, which took up the case last week, ruled that the state properly approved regulations for the levy.</p>

Would anyone have a mailing address with which I could contact retired General Peter Pace? Thanks in advance.

In the first decision of its kind in the nation, an appellate court has ruled in a Sacramento case that DNA testing is a legitimate condition of release on bail for a federal defendant not yet convicted. Before a federal felony can be charged, there must be probable cause to believe a crime has been committed, a three-judge panel of the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted in Tuesday's 47-page opinion. Under those circumstances, the panel ruled, the government's interest in definitively identifying the defendant "outweighs the defendant's privacy interest in giving a DNA sample as a condition...

Here is video from today’s Obama School Speech in Philadelphia before an audience of children. This video does not use as tight a shot of Obama as most. It clearly shows TOTUS (Teleprompters Of The United States) that Obama takes with him literally everywhere – from parking lot remarks to remarks in front of school kids. A lot of what Obama said to the kids was very good. But is it not possible for this President to speak – even to children – without being dominated by his twin teleprompters? It is so ironic that many consider Obama to be...

Rush Limbaugh based his entire show commentary on it Monday and Tuesday. So did Sean Hannity, and several other talkers. The battle is raging between establishment Republicans and the new vanguard of Tea Party-endorsed conservative candidates. The conventional wisdom going into today's primary race between incumbent and Washington insider Mike Castle and challenger Christine O'Donnell is that the Tea Party-endorsed candidate O'Donnell stands a good chance of unseating Castle for Delaware's US Senate seat. Need proof? Look no further than Alaska, Massachusetts, and Nevada to see recent upsets. Amy Kremer, Director of the Tea Party Express says people have forgotten...

Seems Lady Gaga really did show us the beef Sunday night at the 2010 Video Music Awards. Her third dress of the night was made of "real meat from my family butcher," designer Franc Fernandez told MTV Style on Monday.

NEW YORK (CBS 2 / WCBS 880/1010 WINS) — There were major problems at the polls on primary day in New York and it’s all connected to the debut of the state’s new electronic voting machines. New York City spent $160 million on new voting machines, but the roll out was embarrassing. Some polling places opened as much as four hours late and thousands may have been unable to cast ballots, reports CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer. “This is a royal screw up and it’s completely unacceptable,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. Sources told CBS 2 that the list of problems was...

When giving a rundown on the establishment Republicans who have not survived primary challenges in 2010, Chris Matthews makes a curious claim about Arlen Specter's bolt from the Republican Party.

President Obama uses teleprompters to address hundreds of school children during his annual "Back to School" speech. "We all have to take responsibilities for our own education. We need to take responsibility for our own lives. But what makes us who we are is that here, in this country, in the United States of America, we don’t just reach for our own dreams, we try to help others do the same," President Obama said.