Free Republic

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports: Scott Brown is proving to be an elusive vote on matters of cloture. During his month in the senate, Brown is just about evenly split, siding half the time with Democrats and half the time with Republicans. For a man ushered into the Senate as someone Republicans should “exalt in” and signaling the death knell of Democrats’ super-majority, Brown has shown himself to be no fan of Senate Republicans’ slow-everything-to-a-snail’s-pace strategy. In two cases now Brown joined several other Republican moderates to buck his party and help Democrats narrowly defeat filibuster. The most recent occurred...

THE UNITED STATES has reacted swiftly and generously to Haiti's calamity, both with a colossal charitable response from individuals, enterprises and organizations and with a substantial commitment of troops, money, medical help and high-level attention from the government. But the Obama administration can and should do more, and quickly, to ease the vast burden of relief and rebuilding and to channel cash to Haitian families in dire need. Specifically -- and at a minimum -- it could accomplish those goals by allowing Haitians with relatives in the United States to join their families here as quickly as practicable. Instead, it...

At their home in Leipzig, Patrick Stuebing and Susan Karolewski are in the kitchen, playing with a young toddler. They share a small flat in an east German tower block on the outskirts of the city. It looks like an ordinary family scene, but Patrick is Susan's brother and they are lovers. "Many people see it as a crime, but we've done nothing wrong," said Patrick, an unemployed locksmith. "We are like normal lovers. We want to have a family. Our whole family broke apart when we were younger, and after that happened, Susan and I were brought closer together,"...