Free Republic

Dear Mexico, Screw off.After your little stunt the other night, booing Miss USA at the Miss Universe contest, all of us up here in the real America have one simple message for you: Get busy edging the sidewalks. Or washing the dishes. Or selling the drugs and joining the street gangs. Or whatever it is you people do that real Americans won’t. Sure, we admire your ability to squeeze 17 people into a minivan, and nobody can fit an extended family into a duplex like you guys, but when it comes to decency and hospitality, you act like savages. Let...

SACRAMENTO, United States (AFP) - Mexican President Vicente Fox called the immigration reform bill passed by the US Senate "a monumental step forward" in a special address to the California legislature. "It is a moment millions of families have waited for, a moment millions of people have been working for," Fox said to applause in a joint session of the California state assembly and senate in the capital city of Sacramento. "Today's historic vote is a monumental step forward, but we realize there is more debate ahead," he said, shortly after the US Senate passed an immigration bill that would...

SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico (Reuters) - A protest by flower vendors erupted into a clash between machete-wielding peasants and riot police on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and several held hostage. Fifty police officers were injured, 11 seriously, state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto said, and about 100 people were arrested. Angry demonstrators from the town of San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles north of Mexico City, cornered 11 policemen and were holding them hostage at nightfall, officials said. The demonstrators refused to release the policemen unless protesters who were arrested earlier in the riot were freed. Mobs of protesters burned tires...

I am the father of the young man who did not stand for the singing of the Mexican national anthem during a cultural awareness program at Larkin High School. I have been constantly asked to explain the details of the event, and it is in response to these individuals that I offer the following facts. Some of the students, my son included, were compelled to attend this assembly. The Mexican national anthem was printed on fliers and handed out to the attending students. The Mexican flag was marched in and placed on a podium by itself. The attendees were then...

As debates over Social Security and Medicare heat up, Americans might feel like doing what the old urban myth says the Inuit do: Ship the old folks out on the ice floes. It's cheap, simple and good for the polarbears. It is also, arguably, a bit coldhearted. So here's a warm and loving alternative that the U.S. government should endorse: Send the old people to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. By one estimate, almost 20 percent of gross domestic product will go to seniors by 2030. Baby boomers are the first generation of grasshoppers in U.S. history. Their parents...

The president, in a wide-ranging talk, gives a hint at how he'll pitch reform measures GRAPEVINE - President Bush told a crowd of state legislators Wednesday that he will push immigration reform as beneficial for U.S. employers as well as foreigners looking for work. He also made an impassioned pitch for Americans to stay behind the war in Iraq. "Immigration reform is going to be an interesting subject when we get back to Washington" in September, said Bush, who plans to spend this month at his Crawford ranch. He argued that his proposal for a "guest worker" program is good...