Free Republic

I am asking all Freepers to contact their federal elected officials, especially if the officials are Democrats and insist that they end the partial federal shutdown right now. After listening to Rush L today, I got fed up with the shutdown and all the media nonsense going on. I agree that the Dem's are starting to weaken. It is time to turn up the heat to HIGH on them. That is why today I contacted "my" entire federal delegation and told them in no uncertain terms to end the shutdown. We all need to participate in the democratic process and...

It's over. After bringing us within hours of a shutdown on Friday, congressional leaders backed down and voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security through the rest of the year today. That didn't happen because they suddenly came to their senses and decided to stop playing political games. It happened because they knew they couldn't get away with it any longer. They heard the voices of hundreds of thousands of Americans who stood up to let them know we were ready to hold them accountable. They saw reasonable members of Congress standing united, and refusing to budge. And you...

* Obama is reportedly looking to expand his deferred action program to include any one who came to the U.S. as a child * The sweeping order would also allow parents of both citizen children and illegal immigrant children to remain in the U.S. * As many as 4.5 million illegal immigrants with U.S. born children could be protected * A growing number of conservatives are pledging to stop Obama by restricting immigration funding in an upcoming spending bill * Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has explicitly said there won't be another government shutdown - period House Speaker John Boehner...

While the federal government was squeezed on one side by sequester and the other by a looming partial shutdown, the State Department was spending heavily on booze for its embassies abroad. The Washington Times reports that the department spent about $180,000 on alcohol in September and $400,000 in all of 2012—that’s three times the $118,000 spent in 2008. The booze tab reportedly has risen every year since 2008, but the end of fiscal 2012 saw a particular spike. …

Regrouping with Democrats after a bitter budget fight, President Barack Obama on Friday cast the recent spending-and-debt standoff with Congress as “a symptom of a larger challenge” but one offering Democrats the chance to show voters the virtues of their vision for government ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. … “The shutdown was about more than just health care,” Obama said. “It was about a contrast of visions, about what our obligations are to each other as fellow citizens. And we’ve got the better side of that argument.” … … Obama is weighed down by the calamitous debut of the...