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Geraldo Rivera: "Suddenly, because wedge issues like gay marriage and abortion lost steam with the Extreme Right they have now seized on this (border security) as a way to appeal to energize the base." Video at link

GILFORD, N.H. — As President Bush heads to Congress today to try to revive the compromise immigration bill, immigration seems to rival the war in Iraq as a top issue in the contest to pick his successor. John McCain got an earful on the subject in New Hampshire, far from the U.S.-Mexico border, last week after standing apart from the other Republican contenders by supporting the immigration legislation. Residents at a Gilford town hall meeting complained to the U.S. senator from Arizona that illegal immigrants burden the health care system, and that their children are taught in Spanish in the...

Picture this: A rotund, theatrical politician from Harlem and a wiry, introverted policy-wonk from Shreveport sitting elbow to elbow on the House floor, shuffling between each other's offices, passing paper between staffs. Two men from opposite ends of the political spectrum, they are joined in secrecy on a project that just about everyone else in Washington considers doomed to failure. Charlie Rangel and Jim McCrery are on a mission to rescue Social Security from bankruptcy. Conventional Washington wisdom long ago wrote the death notice on Social Security reform. What Republican would want to touch a project that blew up in...

Voters continue to trust Democrats more than Republicans on ten key issues tracked by Rasmussen Reports. In fact, the latest tracking update on five of these issues shows Democrats gaining ground modestly on four of the five issues. However, there is one major exception to the trend—immigration. A month ago, the Democrats had a fourteen-point advantage on the immigration issue. Following the Senate debate, the Democrats’ advantage has been cut to five points. Forty percent (40%) of voters now trust Democrats more than Republicans on immigration while 35% have more confidence in the GOP. The Republicans still lag Democrats on...

Close the prison at Guantanamo, or double its size? Raise or lower taxes? Let the free market or the federal government mend the healthcare system? With months still to go before the presidential primaries, the rough contours of the 2008 general election are already taking shape as Democrats and Republicans divide over those issues, Iraq and others. Come next year, voters could face choices similar to those in the polarized 2004 campaign.

Most election years, uninspired voters have little choice but to follow the example of W.C. Fields who said, “I never vote for anyone; I always vote against.” But not this year, and not in the GOP. Watching “Rudy McRomney” (as the frontrunners have sometimes been dubbed) debate in New Hampshire, it was hard to believe that as recently as 1996, the major contenders for the Republican nomination were Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan. If either of them had approached the stage Tuesday night, they would have been tackled by security and dragged from the building. The GOP field for 2008...

Republican presidential candidates would not rule out tactical nuclear strikes to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Four of the 10 candidates appearing at a debate Tuesday night in Manchester, N.H., were asked whether they would use tactical nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive strike. All four – Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore – said they would. "I think it could be done with conventional weapons, but you can't rule out anything and you shouldn't take any option off the table," Giuliani said. Later...

It's a perilous time. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney warned: "America is under attack from almost every direction. We have been attacked by murderous terrorists.... Our employers and jobs are threatened by low-cost, highly skilled labor from abroad. American values are under attack from within." That sinister "attack from within" comes from secular extremists. Mr. Romney fully appreciates that. Referring to America's Founders, Mr. Romney concisely explained: "[T]he authors of liberty recognized a divine Creator who bequeathed to us certain inalienable rights. They affirmed freedom of religion, and they proscribed the establishment of any one religion." Mr. Romney did not...

NAHR EL-BARED REFUGEE CAMP, Lebanon - Lebanon's defense minister issued an ultimatum Wednesday to Islamic militants barricaded in this Palestinian refugee camp to surrender or face a military onslaught. Fighters from the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam militant group vowed not to give up and to fight any Lebanese assault. Storming the Nahr el-Bared camp — a densely built-up town of narrow streets on the Mediterranean coast — could mean rough urban fighting for Lebanese troops and further death and destruction for the thousands of civilians who remain inside. It could also have grave repercussions elsewhere across troubled Lebanon, sparking unrest among...

HOUSTON - Rudy Giuliani directly challenged Republican Party orthodoxy on Friday, asserting that his support for abortion rights, gun control and gay rights should not disqualify him from winning the party's presidential nomination. He asserted that Republicans need to be tolerant of dissenting views on those issues if they want to hold the White House. ***snip*** "When people hear Rudy Giuliani speak about taxpayer funded abortions, gay 'rights' and gun control, they don't hear a choice, they hear an echo of Hillary Clinton," Perkins wrote. ***snip*** "The mayor's position on abortion couldn't be more repugnant to pro-lifers" said Richard Land,...

In their first debate, staged at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Republican presidential rivals vied to pay homage to the late president even as they criticized -- or at best, ignored -- the current Republican in the White House, George W. Bush. Several candidates made reference to the Bush administration's mismanagement of the four-year-old war in Iraq, as if that were a given. Arizona Sen. John McCain defended his support for the war now, saying "it's on the right track." But he added, as he does routinely on the campaign trail, "The war was terribly mismanaged and we now have...

NEW YORK - Investors pressing companies to say more about the possible financial effects of global warming haven't found an ally in large mutual funds. While global climate change appears to be drawing more attention in the United States from lawmakers and businesses, no large mutual fund companies voted in 2006 to support shareholder resolutions seeking added disclosures about the possible financial effects of global warming. The 28 investment houses that run the country's 100 largest mutual funds either abstained from or opposed the handful of resolutions that reached a vote last year, according to data compiled by Institutional Shareholder...

Tom Tancredo, Pro-Life Republican, Makes Presidential Bid Official Email this article Printer friendly page by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com Editor April 2, 2007 Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Congressman Tom Tancredo, a pro-life Republican from Colorado, made his bid for the GOP nomination for presidential official on Monday. He traveled to Iowa, the site of the first presidential caucus, and told a radio program that he is an alternative to the establishment candidates in the race. "When I look at the field of candidates running for president, I don't see anyone discussing the topic to the level it needs to be discussed, so I...

"South Park" fans take for granted that the show consistently shocks and amuses in an environment flooded with distractions and imitators. Watching the Comedy Central series' Emmy-winning ninth season reinforces why. Creators and former CU-Boulder film students Trey Parker and Matt Stone position their pop culture texts violently against the grain, smartly engaging their characters in taboo topics of race, gender and sexuality. The duo's biggest asset? Their writing encompasses more more than shock value or self-amusement. Yes, potty humor and cheap shots fly left and right, attacking soft-skulled liberals and myopic conservatives alike. But the boys always make an...

SACRAMENTO – Creating commissions to address thorny issues has become a hallmark of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's governing style. The problem is they never seem to amount to much. High-profile Schwarzenegger advisory panels on prisons and government efficiency went nowhere. Now the governor has launched commissions on issues lawmakers have struggled with for years: prison sentences, the state water system and public-employee pensions. An in-depth report on schools requested by another Schwarzenegger panel, along with legislative leaders and the state schools chief, is scheduled to be released tomorrow. “Commissions are where intractable issues go to die,” said Thad Kousser, a political...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2007 – The Defense Department is working to address patient-care problems recently identified at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the department’s flagship medical facility, a DoD spokesman said today. Wounded servicemembers at Walter Reed still receive the best medical care available, but they do face some administrative and personnel problems that need to be fixed, Bryan Whitman told reporters. “Taking care of our wounded servicemembers is about taking care of the entire person, and taking care of the entire person is making sure that their administrative needs are taken care of, that when they’re outpatients that...

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Islamic issues are not "pro" Muslims but "anti" non-Muslims It does not mean anything "for" Muslims but rather everything against non Muslims   Fanatical liberals bent on all out suicidal appeasement, love to quote Muslims mass murderers terrorists devious masqueraded "flags", such as 'grievances' and 'issues'.   If there was any shred of truth that Muslims care "for" Muslims, that would mean helping poor Muslim Sudanese escape the genocide by racist Arab Muslims, it would mean bringing mutual mass murder between Sunni Shiite Muslims in Iraq to a halt, it would mean for filthy oil-rich Muslim sheiks & governments not lacking...

DORAL, Fla. -- The sting of Republican electoral defeats still fresh, the GOP chairman suggested Thursday the party has strayed and challenged it to refocus on core principles and reform. "We work for the people," Ken Mehlman, the outgoing chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a speech to a meeting of GOP governors. He reminded the crowd that "good policy makes good politics -- and, for Republicans, this must be a time for self-examination when it comes to our policy." [Snip] "Our nation is stronger and better when Republicans are the party running the government. But, ladies and...

TC Mits had his say last Tuesday: like it or not. We may not agree with his judgment, but we are bound to honor it.