Free Republic

With a month to go until Election Day, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told an enthusiastic crowd Saturday afternoon that it was time to "put on the heels and take off the gloves." And while she credited the line to a campaign worker, it and the rest of her 24-minute speech at the Home Depot Center rally was delivered with her trademark panache. The Republican hit the familiar topics of the economy, energy and defense, but offered a few surprises as well.

WASHINGTON - The Senate opened debate on an election-year immigration bill Wednesday, and leading Republicans swiftly clashed over whether the legislation would amount to amnesty for millions of illegal residents in the United States. The legislation "goes too far in granting illegal immigrants with what most Americans will see as amnesty," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, the first to speak on the bill. "I disagree with this approach ... because granting amnesty now will only encourage further and further disrespect for the law." Moments later, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio,...