Free Republic

Determined to neuter the grassroots and head off future insurgencies like those of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Ron Paul, Republican party bosses have pulled off an audacious coup, high-handedly turning the GOP into a much more top-down, centralized party. Boehner with gavel Yesterday, the Republican National Committee in Tampa adopted some rules changes that shift power from the state parties and the grassroots to the RNC and the GOP presidential nominee. Former Governor John Sununu of New Hampshire touted the new rules as providing “a strong governing framework” for the party over the next four years. But in fact...

:Congressional and Senate Republicans have discovered that Karl Rove and his friend, President George W. Bush, not only don't have a clue when it comes to their favored "comprehensive immigration reform" plans, but also that Rove and Bush's alliance with open borders Democrats represents an axis of amnesty that their constituents simply won't tolerate." " Even the pro-illegal alien and open borders lobby has finally arrived at the conclusion that the American people won't tolerate an illegal alien population demanding the same rights as American citizens. And the in-your-face enthusiasm of illegal aliens and their amnesty-advocate supporters has waned as...

Almost two centuries ago, a small band of national patriots joined Texans to launch a battle for freedom and sent a unifying rallying cry through out our nation "Remember The Alamo!" Our nation is being threatened by a new Alamo, and the army is between 12 million and 20 million strong. The army is one that is creeping, walking, swimming and being driven in shadowy caravans across our nation's state borders. Instead of being armed with weapons of violence, this army is simply overwhelming American health care, education, and justice systems by refusing to enter our country legally. But the...

“Expanding and strengthening” the onslaught against the people of Lebanon. That was Israel’s response to the international outcry over the slaughter of 56 civilians, most of them children, in Qana. And with the world’s eyes turned to the increasingly savage offensive in southern Lebanon, Israel has tightened the noose of collective punishment around the Palestinians in Gaza. Accompanying all this are the barely concealed calls in Washington for an assault on Iran and Syria. No one should be in any doubt which way the chain of cause and effect runs. George Bush, with Tony Blair at his heel, is backing...

Pence-Hutchison “Compromise” Induces Illegal Aliens to Leave By Letting Them All Stay Plan Compromises the Security of the Middle Class by Putting Business in Charge of Immigration Policy Washington, DC—In a desperate effort to “get something done” on immigration before the end of the congressional session, two normally sober members of Congress have hatched a plan that is vague on details when it comes to securing America’s borders and protecting American workers, while containing specific promises to millions of illegal aliens. The plan offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) would require that the...

In a July 3 article on Townhall, columnist Michael Barone laments the possibility that Congress may not pass any immigration “reform” legislation this year. However, he pins some hope on a proposal being advocated by Representative Mike Pence (R.-IN). Ostensibly, the Pence proposal would incorporate the “best” of both worlds, including provisions from both the Senate’s recently passed guest worker/amnesty bill, along with the House version that focuses on immigration enforcement and border security. Unfortunately, the Pence bill would ultimately constitute no less a “sellout” on immigration than that attempted by the Senate, albeit this effort would be spaced out...

Let's face it: the vast majority of the offerings on cable news networks aren't very good. This article analyzes some common traps cable news networks often fall in. From partisan politics to populism to media bias, cable news networks should be viewed more as entertainment rather than legitimate news commentary sources.

TALLAHASSEE - Katherine Harris' floundering U.S. Senate campaign lost its high-level staff again this week and is groping for a message -- which doesn't surprise Republican insiders who trace the seeds of her trouble to the story of ``Joe's dead intern.'' This wasn't any old Joe. It was Joe Scarborough, host of the prime-time MSNBC show Scarborough Country and a former Pensacola Republican congressman who was courted last summer by national Republicans to run against Harris. But before he could announce he wouldn't, Harris called major donors and suggested Scarborough would have to answer questions about the strange death of...

AZTLAN ACADEMY: COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD? By Michelle Malkin   ·   July 12, 2006 11:40 AM So, Karl Rove gave his "We are all Americans" speech to the National Council of La Raza--The Race--yesterday. Today, my syndicated column digs into the millions of dollars in Bush administration federal education grants The Race has received for its nationwide charter school initiative. It’s bad enough the White House lent its prestige to The Race’s annual conference. But did you know the Bush administration has forked over millions of federal tax dollars directly to The Race? According to GOP Rep. Charlie Norwood of Georgia,...

If slavery was truly the United States’ original sin, then Vietnam is our guilty conscience. It was too complex and too disorienting and too many Americans lost far too much for the nation yet to understand it fully. More than 30 years later, the country still labors under the psychological weight of that experience. They say that the victors write history, but this was a war that nobody won. The South Asian battlefields may have long fallen quiet and the domestic tumult that pit parents against children and brothers against brothers may be over, but as long as many of...

On the Proposed AmnestyFirst of all, I don't think it makes any sense. IED makers and planters kill more Iraqis than Americans, just like the rest of the "resistance". They kill children. They kill motorists. They lack fire discipline and a certain degree of conscience. It is a fallacious belief that there exist Iraqis who make bombs destined only American stryker vehicles and none for Shi'a mosques; and that those making bombs don't collaborate with those recruiting human bombs for Iraqi neighborhoods. Secondly, I don't think it will have the desired effect: ending the insurgency. Because the amnesty is general,...

The House and Senate will soon start hammering out the stark differences between their immigration reform proposals. The Senate bill would put undocumented workers in the United States on a path toward citizenship. But the House version, firmly supported by the Republican leadership, omits such a plan, which many in the GOP call "amnesty." It stresses enforcement. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, introduced the original House bill. As Judiciary Committee chair, he is expected to be the House's lead negotiator on the immigration bill. He spoke with U.S. News about how this is going to be a difficult bargaining...

After months of declining job-approval poll results, George W. Bush seems to be turning around his presidency with the help of good news. Less than five months before the midterm elections, several key events have joined to lift Mr. Bush's approval polls to nearly 40 percent (up from 31 percent in May) and fewer Americans now think his decision to go into Iraq was a mistake. The Gallup Poll says 48 percent now believe the U.S. will win the war in Iraq, up from 39 percent in April. Among these linchpin developments:

A day after Homeland Security officials denied knowing about former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham's attempts to gain a contract for a limousine service, Cunningham's letter praising the company surfaced in the department's files. In the letter, Cunningham wrote of his “full support of (Shirlington Limousine's) wish to provide transportation services for the Department of Homeland Security,” or DHS. FBI agents have been investigating whether the company – while working for Brent Wilkes, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Cunningham corruption case – helped Wilkes arrange for prostitutes for Cunningham while Wilkes was vying for federal contracts. Wilkes and Shirlington founder Christopher...