Free Republic

With chants of “Yes we can” raining from the rafters, House Democrats on Tuesday powered through legislation to cancel deportations and grant future citizenship rights to millions of people, in a vote that nodded more toward 2020 politics than to substantive policymaking. The 237-187 vote was momentous, marking the first major legalization to pass the House in nearly a decade, and underscoring the ground Democrats feel they have gained on an issue both sides expect to be at the center of the presidential election. With President Trump calling for action to solve crisis at the border, Democrats countered by casting...

Minutes into President Obama's speech, he uttered the following words... "...That doesn’t mean we don’t have a problem. The fact is, we didn’t need a rating agency to tell us that we need a balanced, long-term approach to deficit reduction. That was true last week. That was true last year. That was true the day I took office." He then goes on... "We knew from the outset that a prolonged debate over the debt ceiling -- a debate where the threat of default was used as a bargaining chip -- could do enormous damage to our economy and the world’s."Taking...

Roughly 1,000 Latinos and immigrants packed into a church near uptown on Wednesday to hear from the Illinois congressman one supporter calls "Moses of the Latinos." People clapped and cheered as U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez entered the church. Later, a chant arose: "Si se puede. Si se puede. Yes we can. Yes we can." Gutierrez listened as people told stories of families broken up by deportation. When the immigration-reform leader took the stage, he urged the crowd to play an active role in seeking change. "The system is not working, and we need to change it," he said. He also...

A Lubbock man took out his frustrations with the Obama health care plan recently by plowing his protest into a field of weeds. The plan could cost taxpayers trillions of dollars over the next several years, MSNBC reports. Sam Bates, a former art teacher cut down some weeds and left a large message visible from the sky: “Say no to Obama!” "I thought, maybe some pilots flying from here to Dallas would get a good chuckle," Bates said. But with the Internet and television, the message has reached far more than the few pilots and birds he expected. Bates had...

>-snip-< What a disaster this health-care debate is. It strains, stresses and pierces, it unnecessarily agitates and is doomed to be the cause of further agitation. Who doubts the final bill will be something between a pig in a poke and three-card Monte? Which is too bad, because our health-care system actually needs to be made better. *** There are smart and experienced people who say whatever the mess right now, the president will get a bill of some sort because he has the brute numeric majority. A rising number say no, this thing has roused such ire he won't...

When George W. Bush did town halls like that—full of people who'd applaud if he said tomorrow we bring democracy to Saturn—it was considered a mark of manipulation and insecurity. The first question was from a Democratic state representative from Dover named Peter Schmidt. He began, "One of the things you've been doing in your campaign to change the situation is you've been striving for bipartisanship." "Right," the president purred. They were really holding his feet to the fire. "My question is," Mr. Schmidt continued, "if the Republicans actively refuse to participate in a reasonable way with reasonable proposals, isn't...

Don't strain the system. Don't add to the national stress level. Don't pierce when you can envelop. Don't show even understandable indignation when you can show legitimate regard. Realize that the ties that bind still bind but have grown dryer and more worn with time. They need to be strengthened, not strained. Govern knowing we are a big, strong, mighty nation, a colossus that is, however, like all highly complex, highly wired organisms, fragile, even at places quite delicate. Don't overburden or overexcite the system. America used to have fringes, one over here and the other over there. The fringes...

In a magazine interview Obama and his wife Michelle revealed that one of their steadfast house rules is not giving Christmas or birthday presents to Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven. The couple explained that they spend "hundreds" on birthday slumber parties and want to "teach some limits". Santa Claus is still permitted to deliver seasonal gifts however. The girls are also given an allowance of just $1 (50p) a week for performing household chores, according to People magazine. Those chores include making their own bed, setting and clearing the dinner table and putting themselves to bed by 8.30pm. On the...