Free Republic

Immigration is a subject that brings out the best and the worst in Americans. As taught to my fourth-grade daughter this semester, the story of the peopling of America encourages us to celebrate our identity as the land of e pluribus unum. It reminds us of the tolerance required to coexist in a culture of many cultures. It honors the courage to uproot your life so your children can have a better one. . . . Here’s what Newt gets: First, immigration is a rejuvenation of our economy, a source of invention and investment at the high end and of...

Pat Buchanan's new book Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025 is the bluntest and most cogent statement of the truth about the present course of Western civilization that has been seen in American bookstores in many years. In this book, Pat takes the gloves off and hits the American Left with the Hard Right. He knocks the liberal establishment out of the ring. Everything that real conservatives have privately known to be true for generations is finally aired in this brave and long overdue new book. Christianity is the foundation of Western civilization. As people of European...

For the third straight year, the median income of the typical American family fell in 2010. Adjusted for inflation, it is back where it was in 1996, the longest period of zero growth since the Depression. And the poverty rate has inched up to 15.1 percent. Both figures, however, should be put in perspective. For example, a family can be classified as poor and own a car, a flat-screen TV and a computer, and have a washer-dryer and a garbage disposal. Folks below the poverty line have their kids educated free in Head Start, for 13 years in public schools,...

THE economic crisis in the United States is also a racial crisis. White Americans are hurting, but nonwhite Americans are hurting even more. Yet leaders in both political parties — for different reasons — continue to act as though race were anachronistic and irrelevant in a country where an African-American is the president. In July, the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent for whites, but 16.8 percent for blacks and 11.3 percent for Latinos. The Pew Research Center estimates that in 2009, the median household net worth was $5,677 for blacks, $6,325 for Hispanics and $113,149 for whites — down from...

They can be grasped conceptually in a hundred ways, yet they cannot be named. Take, for example, the 2002 B flick They, about a young woman haunted by demons who invade her dreams, then her days, and eventually rape and devour her. Perfect. Or take They Live, a 1988 B movie in which aliens from outer space control American society through signals multiplexed into television broadcasts. Couldn’t get closer. But if you try to name them directly and exhaustively, you will miss. Before one attempts a taxonomy of They, one needs to construct a typology. A moth collector’s skills are...

Someone on YouTube shot a video of Detroit, Michigan. Provo, Utah is the most conservative city in America. Detroit is the most "progressive" major city. http://govpro.com/content/gov_imp_31439/ Obama carried Wayne County, Michigan with 74.2 percent of the vote. This is what Detroit looks like: Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6WKMNmFsxM Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfhsS-KMFL4 Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhUDKfiggY

Repeat after me: there is no such thing as a "compromise" with Democrats on immigration. Say it ten times if that it is what it takes for the truth to sink in. Consider this article an episode of Reading Rainbow with William L. Houston on amnesty and immigration policy. The whole argument for "comprehensive immigration reform" was blown completely out of the water yesterday when a federal judge blocked the toothless enforcement provisions of the "Utah compromise" less than 24 hours after going into effect. The ACLU sued Utah on the grounds that it didn't like the wrapping paper of...

In my previous article, I discussed the death of patriotic immigration reform in Florida at the hands of Sen. JD Alexander, Senate Budget Chief and Blueberry Emperor of the Polk County Farm Bureau. I noted the strong opposition of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida agribusiness to the E-Verify system. It hasn't escaped my attention that this is also what we saw happen in Georgia where E-Verify held up immigration reform down to the last few hours of the legislative session. In Alabama, E-Verify is the major difference between the two competing visions of immigration reform that have cleared...

"Today was a fun day," Obama said at his first fundraising event at Corzine's apartment.

January 12, 2010 A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes approximately 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It kills anywhere from 92,000 to 220,000 people, injures 300,000, and leaves approximately 1.5 to 1.8 million homeless. Led by the United States, the international community launches a massive rescue operation to save the survivors, and puts helicopters into the air and ships to sea to distribute hundreds of thousands of meals and bottled waters to the victims. World governments, NGOs, multinational corporations, and private individuals raise billions of dollars for the Haitian relief effort. The World Bank waives Haiti's debt repayment schedule for five...

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Senate soundly defeated five bills aimed at illegal immigration on Thursday in a marked departure from last year, when enactment of a tough local enforcement measure put the state at the heart of a fierce national debate over the issue. Majority Republicans were split in their votes on the defeated bills, which included two measures intended to force a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. The other three dealt with health care, public services and everyday activities such as driving. With business leaders urging lawmakers to put the...

John Anderson has already shared the good news of the recent victory for restrictionists over in-state tuition for illegal aliens in Kansas. I'm tracking a few other important stories: Utah As in Kansas, the Utah House voted today to repeal the Utah version of the DREAM Act which makes illegal aliens eligible for in-state tuition at Utah universities. Last week, the Utah House approved Rep. Sandstrom's Arizona-style immigration law and Rep. Herrod's E-Verify bill. This bill also has a catch: illegal aliens are still eligible for in-state tuition if they (or their parents) can prove to have paid state income...

Colorado and South Dakota can now join Wyoming in the ranks of disappointing setbacks on immigration this year. South Dakota's version of Arizona's SB 1070 died in committee in the South Dakota House this afternoon. Republicans control the "State Affairs Committee" and account for 9 out of 13 of its members. The brief AP report alludes to law enforcement agencies and "other groups" which "work with immigrants" that testified against the bill. In Colorado, Rep. Randy Baumgardner pulled his version of the Arizona-style immigration law. He cited the burden that ACLU lawsuits would impose on Colorado taxpayers in a depressed...

There is a scurrilious new article in The Guardian that attacks YWC and the "nativist" shift of the Republican Party. This is nothing more the usual rehash of Democratic fantasies and talking points. After reading this garbage, you would assume that Republicans are recovering from crippling losses in the 2010 midterm elections, instead of having won their biggest victory at the polls since the 1930s. Daniel Denvir trots out the discredited mantra that Republicans are "alienating" the Hispanic vote and the growing Hispanic vote dooms the GOP unless it embraces "comprehensive immigration reform" which is wildly unpopular with the conservative...

Chick-fil-A has always been my favorite fast food restaurant. Last year, I cut fast food out of my diet. I have made one lone exception to this rule: the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. At the end of every successful week of physical fitness, I treat myself with an indulgence of delicious fried chicken and tasty waffle fries. The thought of my weekly "victory meal" motivates me to power through my goals at the gym. As a Southerner, I have always loved fried chicken. The cleanliness and great service at Chick-fil-A is another major reason why I go there. There is something...

Few conservatives think of New England as a stronghold for restrictionist immigration reform. That might be changing. I have been following some interesting developments on the immigration front going on in Maine for several weeks now. There has been a surprising positive turn of events there. . . . Yesterday, I learned that a Maine state representative has introduced an Arizona-style immigration law in the Maine House. Rep. Kathleen Chase has generated "a fierce reaction" from "human rights advocates" - a positive indicator if there ever was one. The "Maine People's Alliance" has decried the bill as "racist and unconstitutional."...

This is my first vanity ever. I'm sitting here watching Chris Matthews jump down the throat of some poor Republican about Michele Bachmann saying that the Founders abolished slavery. Several thoughts occur to me: (1) From the Revolution to the death of Jefferson and Adams, slavery was abolished in almost every Northern state, and was in fact "abolished" by the Founders in the Midwestern states by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Lincoln repeatedly cited the Northwest Ordinance as proof that the Founders invested in Congress the authority to abolish slavery in the territories. (2) Chris Matthews claimed that slavery was...

The immigration wars of 2011 lasted a week in Wyoming. This afternoon the Wyoming House shot down Rep. Illoway's Arizona-style immigration law. The bill died in the Republican controlled "Minerals, Business, and Economic Development Committee." According to Bloomberg News, no member of the "Minerals, Business, and Economic Development Committee" moved to vote on Illoway's bill. The ACLU, Wyoming Contractor's Association, and the Wyoming Lodging & Restaurant Association - the usual pro-amnesty coalition - opposed the proposed new law. In case you are wondering, Republicans control and dominate this committee in the Wyoming House: Chairman Thomas Lockhart (R), James Byrd (D),...

Wyoming is one of the many Western states that will be taking on illegal immigration this year. Every Western state with the exceptions of Oregon and Washington have some type of bill under consideration that I am tracking. In Wyoming, Rep. Pete Illoway in the Wyoming House is introducing an Arizona-style immigration law. He describes it as a "clone" of Arizona's popular SB 1070 which has become a model for other states. The bill would allow any state resident in Wyoming to file an action in court against a local government or police department for failing to enforce federal immigration...

Colorado is one of the many states that will be tackling illegal immigration this year. The Kentucky Senate and Mississippi Senate have already passed Arizona-style immigration laws. The Colorado Senate is poised to consider a similar bill. Yesterday, Sen. Kent Lambert of Colorado Springs introduced an Arizona-style immigration law in the Colorado Senate. A 2006 law already requires Colorado police to report to ICE anyone they arrest for other crimes and suspect of being an illegal alien. Lambert's bill goes a step further and specifically allows police to arrest illegal aliens for the crime of being in our country illegally....