Free Republic

< snip > ..... If Republicans have an opening this year, it is with the white working class, a crowd the Democratic Party has been hemorrhaging for decades. Barack Obama did better than John Kerry or Al Gore with these voters, though even he earned just 43% of their vote. ..... < snip > ..... The white working class will make up as much as 55% of the vote in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. ..... < snip > ..... And so at the heart of the Santorum agenda are policies designed to give special handouts to the working class,...

On the heels of his decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney took the attacks on his private sector record used by GOP rivals and turned them against President Obama. Romney’s critics have accused him of destroying jobs in order to increase profits for his investment firm, Bain Capital, but speaking Wednesday on CBS, Romney said that what he did was no different from the Obama administration’s auto industry bailouts. “In the general election I’ll be pointing out that the president took the reins at General Motors and Chrysler – closed factories, closed dealerships laid off thousands and...

Have you ever thought about that? How many times have you seen establishment types posit about how beautiful it would be to have a Romney/Rubio ticket? Even after Rubio has made it clear he isn't interested, I keep hearing it. It can be summed up in one word: Hispanic. The republicans have absolutely nothing in common with a conservative like Rubio, yet every time they mention his name, they always go off on a tangent about how he can win the hispanic vote. Because of his skin color?!?! Yep. The republicans are that superficial. It's that simple. They're in full...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Well, I knew that this was coming, but I would have never guessed where it's coming from. ... I'm not disappointed that it's coming from where it's coming from. I'm just a little surprised. I knew it was coming. Jealousy of Tim Tebow has surfaced in the National Football League. Brian, you're a big football aficionado. Tell me which quarterback has just expressed frustration and jealousy. You don't know yet, do you? So take a wild guess. Which quarterback has expressed frustration and jealousy over the coverage that Tebow is getting? (interruption) No. Not Aaron Rodgers. Not...

After the November 22 Republican debate in Washington, D.C., many conservatives took issue with Newt Gingrich's proposal to establish a system of local boards of review to assess the cases of illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for twenty-five years. While his opponents on stage chose to focus on concerns that the plan would entrench a powerful new "magnet" for illegal aliens, others isolated the strangest aspect of Gingrich's proposal, which was his explicit description of such long-established illegal immigrants as "law-abiding citizens." How, people reasonably asked, can an illegal alien who has never been granted U.S....

.....“I’m not ashamed to talk about my faith,” he says in the first spot. “Some liberals say that faith is a sign of weakness. Well, they’re wrong.” In the second ad, titled “Strong,” Perry bravely comes out as a follower of Christ. “I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian,” he says, before vowing that “as President, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion.” ......But most flagrant is Perry’s reference to “Obama’s war on religion” without evidence or explanation. He leaves the strong impression that it is Obama’s administration–instead of Supreme Court decisions from the 1960s–that took school-sanctioned prayer and...

Dear Friends, Today a friend who sacrificed much in the effort to lead our great country suspended his campaign. I want to wish Herman Cain, his wife Gloria, and the entire Cain Family the very best and God’s blessings as they move forward. Herman Cain’s appeal was that of a Washington Outsider – someone not beholden to the entrenched Beltway interests, and who hasn’t spent his life cutting deals at the expense of conservative principles. As the race goes forward, with the Iowa Caucuses 32 days away, I am truly the only Washington Outsider left in the race. I haven’t...

<p>Newt Gingrich called for a middle path on immigration reform – implying a limited amnesty – as he made his presidential campaign pitch to the Republican-friendly Hispanic 100 on Thursday at the Newport Beach’s Balboa Bay Club.</p> <p>“Both sides are wrong,” he said to the 300 gathered at group’s annual black-tie gala. “Those who say, ‘Kick everybody out’ – they’re wrong. Those who say, ‘Give amnesty to everyone’ – they’re wrong.</p>

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been pressuring the National Park Service to locate sites related to the histories of women and minorities, particularly Latinos, which could be added to the National Register of Historic Places or otherwise preserved as parks or properties. According to the Washington Post: With the nation's Latino population booming and now the country's largest minority group, the Obama administration's top Hispanic official is concerned that the federal government is not giving enough attention to Hispanic history and culture. Salazar bemoaned the paucity of such locations: Less than three percent of all the national landmarks that we have...

U.S. President Barack Obama was set to release Jonathan Pollard but his vice president thwarted the move, The New York Times has reported. According to the report, Vice President Joe Biden met last week with 15 rabbis in Boca Raton, Florida, when he was asked by one of them why Pollard, who was convicted in 1986, was still in prison. In response to the question Biden said, “President Obama was considering clemency, but I told him, ‘Over my dead body are we going to let him out before his time.’” He added, “If it were up to me, he would...

Rick Perry can't get out of his own way. During the presidential debates, he has reviled three immigration issues that Republicans hold dear: passing mandatory E-Verify legislation, rejecting federal and state versions of the DREAM Act, and building a border fence.

Legislation meant to reduce the number of vehicles impounded at sobriety checkpoints was sent to the governor late Thursday night. The bill would bar counties from conducting combined sobriety and vehicle inspection checkpoints. Supporters of the measure, Assembly Bill 1389, say that checkpoints are used as a revenue-generating tool for local government and that they unduly harm sober but low-income or undocumented drivers. The impounding of vehicles at checkpoints when drivers have no valid California license hits undocumented residents particularly hard, . . .

Jamie Peachey One of the goddesses in the "green Chakra room" at Phoenix Goddess Temple ​Phoenix Goddess Temple, the "sexual healing" church featured in the New Times' story Sacred Sexuality in February, was raided by Phoenix police officers Wednesday. Sixteen people -- five men and eleven women -- were detained for questioning. Among those arrested was temple practitioner Wayne Clayton, who is one of 12 people being indicted on grand jury charges including illegal control of enterprise, maintaining a house of prostitution, and receiving the earnings of a prostitute. Phoenix police sergeant Steve Martos confirmed that officers served a search...

Obama's Jobs Package May Include School Renovations And A Tax Break For Hiring The president's proposal would mean construction work and an incentive for businesses to add employees. It's expected to come with a plan to reduce federal budget deficits. By Peter Nicholas, Christi Parsons and James Oliphant, Washington Bureau August 17, 2011 Reporting from Washington and Alpha, Ill.— The jobs package that President Obama plans to unveil shortly after Labor Day could include tens of billions of dollars to renovate thousands of dilapidated public schools and a tax break to encourage businesses to hire new workers, according to people...

The number of Hispanic voters nationally and in New Mexico is growing at a faster pace than any other ethnic group, and that could spell trouble for the Republican party over the next 10 years, a political analyst with a business advocacy group said Tuesday. “Republicans are in trouble with Hispanics,” said Michael Davis, the Washington, D.C.-based vice president for political programs of the Business and Industry PAC. The party’s stance on immigration may not be bad policy, David said, “but the tone and language is extremely harsh and it drives away Hispanics.” Either party can improve its chances of...

And, now, the group Americans for Rick Perry reports it has raised a fair amount of money in a short amount of time. Bob Schuman, a senior strategist for Americans for Rick Perry, said Thursday that the group is expanding its fundraising operation outside of Texas to include Miami, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The group can accept unlimited donations but, under federal law, can't strategize with Perry himself.

TX governor panders to 'The Race' Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 7/21/2010 5:20:00 AMThe head of a grassroots borders enforcement organization says it's completely inappropriate for Texas Governor Rick Perry to speak to a radical Hispanic organization that supports granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. The Republican governor recently addressed a crowd of 1,800 members of the National Council of La Raza, which calls itself the largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States. Critics, however, point out that La Raza means "The Race," and claim the organization is nothing more than a Hispanic supremacist organization. One of...

Romney says he's 'also unemployed' By Michael O'Brien - 06/16/11 01:04 PM ET Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) risked looking as though he had a tin ear when telling out-of-work Floridians Thursday that he's also unemployed. Romney, a Republican presidential candidate and a millionaire many times over, sought to empathize with voters in Tampa facing economic hardship. "I'm also unemployed," he said, as reported by the New York Times. And Democrats pounced, calling Romney out-of-touch for his remarks. “Mitt Romney’s comments today at an event with unemployed Floridians that he’s ‘also unemployed’ is inappropriate and insensitive to the millions...

NEW YORK - Cornelia Aguilar needs help when she goes to the doctor or when her co-workers at a nail salon call her on the phone. A Mexican who has lived in the U.S. for two years, she only speaks a variant of Mixteco, an indigenous language from the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero in southern Mexico. "It is hard sometimes," whispers the 28-year-old, who was born in San Miguel Grande. She is one of a sizable number of Latin American immigrants who have settled in New York in recent years and speak only indigenous languages — ancient tongues...

The last of the 14 Lewis and Clark-class cargo ships that General Dynamics NASSCO is building in San Diego will be named after Cesar Chavez, the late civil rights and labor leader. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus will visit NASSCO on Tuesday afternoon to make the formal announcement. Some members of the Chavez family are expected to be in attendance, says NASSCO, which recently laid the keel of the ship. "We suggested the name Cesar Chavez for the ship because we're in Barrio Logan and want to be good neighbors, and we want to show respect for our workers,"...

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) disagrees with the Navy's decision to name a cargo ship under construction in San Diego for California farm labor leader Cesar Chavez. The decision, announced Tuesday, "appear[s] to be more about making a political statement than upholding the Navy's history and tradition," Hunter said in press release....

"Governor Daniels showed us he was a man of his word and has stood by the commitments he made during the 2004 pre-election Iftar," stated Alia Shah, Executive Director of MAI. Local Muslims say such political connections are important if their concerns are to be heard in government. But faith, rather than politics, was the key topic Monday night -- the first iftar held at an Indiana governor's home. Several Muslim leaders called it historic. "To be blessed to make prayer at the governor's residence is significant," said Michael Saahir, an imam from the Nur-Allah Islamic Center on the Northside....

Rush slams Daniels on big tent By: Jennifer Epstein February 14, 2011 02:42 PM EST Mitch Daniels called on the GOP to look beyond talk radio listeners to find voters — but Rush Limbaugh isn’t having it. “You don’t diss the people who are already audiences of those shows — you don’t say that they’re irrelevant or unnecessary,” Limbaugh said on his show Monday afternoon when asked about Daniels’ comments. “Who won elections for your party year after year after year?" Speaking Friday at CPAC, Daniels said that Republicans needed to broaden their appeal to win elections. “We will need...

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, will visit Israel. The Republican Jewish Coalition announced Tuesday that it would host Barbour in Israel Feb. 5-9. The RJC has hosted Barber in 1994, when he chaired the Republican National Committee. He will be the third potential Republican 2012 presidential candidate to visit Israel in recent weeks. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney visited Jan 13-14; ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is currently touring the country. Barbour, like Romney and Huckabee, is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli government...

Need to Know January 18, 2011 Ahead of the curve! Lib writer praises Jeb Bush Posted by Staff Ezra Klein writes: I think Jon Chait gets Jeb Bush very wrong here. When Bush says that "second-generation Hispanics marry non-Hispanics at a higher rate than second-generation Irish or Italians" and that "second-generation Hispanics' English language capability rates are higher than previous immigrant groups," he's directly answering a critique that has a lot of power among anti-immigration groups: that there's something different about this wave of immigrants as compared with previous waves of immigrants.

Seizing a window of opportunity before the new year ushers in a more conservative Congress, Democratic lawmakers and a handful of Republicans are leading a final charge to pass the DREAM Act, a youth-oriented immigration reform policy that would have its deepest impact in California. Illegal immigrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday would have a chance at citizenship through the DREAM Act if they can graduate from high school, go to college or into the military, and stay out of trouble. "They didn't come here through their own free choice," said Congressman George Miller, D-Martinez, who is...

The Obama administration agreed Tuesday to pay up to $680 million to American Indian farmers to settle an 11-year-old class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who took office promising to address longstanding complaints by minority farmers against the department, said eligible farmers and ranchers can receive up to $250,000 each for showing that USDA discrimination caused them economic losses. However, most farmers will probably opt for a uniform $50,000 payment, which involves less red tape. In the class-action suit, American Indian farmers allege that USDA bureaucrats denied them the low-interest rate loans

The link is to East Tennessee Catholic, and the article I'm responding to is "Triptych of Love," by Richard Stika, Bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville. (When you use the link, you'll have to go to page 3; I don't know how to link there directly.) The first half of Bishop Stika's article does a fine job of pointing out that the Biblical teaching of God's concern for "the widow, the orphan, and the stranger" can be applied in our day to the unmarried mother, the unborn child, and the immigrant. This much, I think, is true, accurate, and pastorally...

On Wednesday, Arturo Lopez, 18, was convicted of abducting and raping his foster mother in Henrico County, last April. The 55-year-old victim told the jury of her pain, and how she can longer trust anyone, ending her long service as a foster mother...The jury recommended a 20-year sentence for the abduction and 10 years for the rape. Lopez will be sentenced in November. On April 9, the woman called police to report that her foster son had just raped her at knife point. The victim was able to leave the house and call 911, after telling Lopez that she had...

NEW ORLEANS – Five years after Hurricane Katrina's wrath, President Barack Obama sought to reassure disaster-weary Gulf Coast residents Sunday that he would not abandon their cause. "My administration is going to stand with you, and fight alongside you, until the job is done," Obama said to cheers at Xavier University, a historically black, Catholic university that was badly flooded by the storm.

Companies using criminal records or bad credit reports to screen out job applicants might run afoul of anti-discrimination laws as the government steps up scrutiny of hiring policies that could hurt blacks and Hispanics. A blanket refusal to hire workers based on criminal records or credit problems can be illegal if it has a disparate impact on racial minorities, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agency enforces the nation's employment discrimination laws. "Our sense is that the problem is snowballing because of the technology allowing these checks to be done with a fair amount of ease," said Carol...

Apparently, not all Hispanics have Harry Reid's permission to "come out of the shadows". From The Atlantic: Reid's Hispanic Pitch The Las Vegas Review Journal reports today on Harry Reid courting Hispanics in his re-election race, and the state's 24% Hispanic population (as of 2007; it's possibly grown since then) could certainly be a critical voting bloc for him. His opponent, Sharron Angle, is an outspoken supporter of Arizona's SB 1070 and has proposed making English the official language of Nevada; Reid supports giving illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, but the Democratic Senate has failed to move on immigration...

Two U.S. senators are slamming four federal stimulus funded initiatives in Connecticut as part of their national attack on President Barack Obama's $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. No. 14 on the GOP list is Connecticut's Mohegan Tribe, which got $54 million in rural development loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build a four-story tribal government center, including a community center. The senators' main issue with the loans was that the center will also will serve as a practice facility for the WNBA Connecticut Sun basketball team. The team is owned by the Mohegan Sun casino, which...

WASHINGTON, July 30 -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued the following news release: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Pascua Yaqui Tribe today announced the production of the first ever Enhanced Tribal Card (ETC)--designed as a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI)-compliant document that formally recognizes tribal membership and U.S. citizenship for the purpose of entering the United States through a land or sea port of entry. The Pascua Yaqui are the first tribe in the country to issue an ETC. "Our collaboration with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe has resulted in the historic development of the first-ever...

JULY 13, 2010 Obama's Immigration Fakery In 2007, then-Sen. Obama helped derail an immigration bill he claimed to support. He's no more serious about a bipartisan bill today. BY WILLIAM MCGURN Many of us in the press have had a field day noting Sen. John McCain's (R., Ariz.) transformation from immigration maverick to the Wyatt Earp of border control. Fair enough. Back when it counted, however, Mr. McCain was the only Republican presidential candidate to back the last real chance we had for passing a bipartisan immigration compromise. Meanwhile, a man who claims to favor immigration reform but helped derail...

"...he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."

Published: May 21, 2010 The Times They Are a Changin’ Steve Jobs on ‘Freedom from Porn’ The following story comes from LifeSiteNews on May 18. CUPERTINO. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, says his company will not be a party to the pornography industry and hopes that the iPad and iPhone revolution will help lead to a porn-free world. Jobs reiterated his position in a heated e-mail exchange with Ryan Tate, a writer for Gawker.com, which follows news and gossip in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Tate, who admitted that he was home alone and slightly inebriated at the time, took...

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama said his administration is taking a “very close look” at Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law, examining it for any “implications, especially for civil rights.” “I want everyone, American and Mexican, to know my administration is taking a very close look at the Arizona law,” said President Obama during a press conference on Wednesday with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. “We're examining any implications, especially for civil rights,” said Obama. “Because in the United States of America, no law-abiding person – be they an American citizen, a legal immigrant, or a visitor or tourist from Mexico –...

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has been ripping into Arizona's immigration law as he tours Washington -- while appearing to disregard the way his own country cracks down on immigrants along Mexico's southern border. Mexico repeatedly has been cited by human rights groups for abusing or turning a blind eye to the abuse of migrants from Central America. Until recently, Mexican law made illegal immigration a criminal offense -- anyone arrested for the violation could be fined, imprisoned for up to two years and deported. Mexican lawmakers changed that in 2008 to make illegal immigration a civil violation like it is...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner's first Spanish-language radio ad is hitting the airwaves, treating listeners to some state-of-the-art, rhetorical acrobatics.Although Poizner has tacked hard right on illegal immigration, the ad accuses rival Meg Whitman of being the bad cop in the immigration debate. The ad also prominently features former Gov. Pete Wilson – chairman of Whitman's campaign and a longtime bogeyman for California Latinos."Here is the radio spot she doesn't want us to hear," the ad's announcer says before a short clip of Wilson introducing himself. The announcer then says, "The ex-governor Pete Wilson speaks about Meg Whitman's plan to...

If anyone was unclear about President Obama's distaste for the new Arizona immigration law, he cleared it up at his Cinco de Mayo celebration in the White House Rose Garden Wednesday night. "We can’t start singling out people because of who they look like, or how they talk, or how they dress," the president said. "We can’t turn law-abiding American citizens, and law-abiding immigrants, into subjects of suspicion and abuse." The law, which targets illegal immigrants in a way critics say is too broad, has repeatedly come under attack and been described by some as racial profiling. In a visible...

RNC Chairman Michael Steele said the GOP has not given Blacks a reason to vote Republican. As a black conservative Republican, I ask, what is the GOP suppose to do; serve soul food at Republican events? In other words, I reject the concept of dividing Americans into victimized groups and pandering to them. Besides, the Democrats are masters of insulting the intelligence of Americans by playing the old and tattered victim, race, and class envy cards. The GOP does not need to go down the same shameful disgusting road. Brother Steele, how about the GOP showing a little respect for...

PHOENIX -- Federal law enforcement officers have been sent to Arizona as fears surface of possible vigilante violence, experts said. Mid-April is a time of year law enforcement officers across the country, and in Arizona, are on high alert. "It's a time at which not only the Anti-Defamation League, but law enforcement, and I mean law enforcement at all levels -- local, state and federal -- are geared up,” said Bill Straus, the Arizona Regional Director for the Anti-Defamation League. The reason: there have been serious attacks on Americans by their fellow citizens during April. April 19 is the anniversary...

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on Thursday the operations of drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border are tantamount to war and urged a top military commander to deploy high-tech military systems to monitor activities in the area. "I can make an argument that we are [engaged] in combat on the border," McCain said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which was considering the nomination of Vice Adm. James "Sandy" Winnefeld Jr. to head U.S. Northern Command. He called the $65 billion-per-year drug trade in that region, which has resulted in murders on both sides of the border,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is developing an action plan that will focus on reducing health disparities between minority and white populations. Sebelius made her remarks Wednesday at a convention of the National Action Network.

Senator John McCain, whose reelection campaign has adopted a decidedly anti-maverick slant, released a new radio ad Wednesday assailing his primary challenger J.D. Hayworth’s proclivity for earmarking while in the House of Representatives. The 60-second spot features anti-pork crusader Congressman Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who credits McCain with a career devoted to eliminating wasteful federal spending and aligns Hayworth with big spending Democrats. “Republicans, including Senator McCain’s opponent, lost their bearings on federal spending,” Flake said. “They loaded up bills with pork barrel projects, and the voters punished Republicans by putting Democrats in charge.”

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's advisers will remove religious terms such as "Islamic extremism" from the central document outlining the U.S. national security strategy and will use the rewritten document to emphasize that the United States does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror, counterterrorism officials said. The change is a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventative war and currently states: "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century." The officials described the changes on condition...

The Obama administration is locking up the country's nuclear weapons for all but the most "extreme circumstances," pledging in a new policy not to develop new nuclear weapons and to limit the use of the ones in storage -- even for self defense. The new strategy stops short of declaring the United States will never be the first to launch a nuclear attack. But officials said the goal is to move toward a policy where the "sole purpose" of nuclear weapons is to deter or respond to a nuclear attack. And Obama, in an interview with The New York Times,...

(snip) VAN SUSTEREN: Governor Palin, if you were vice president today, what would you be telling a President McCain about what to do about immigration, if anything? PALIN: I support his position on immigration. It all comes down to securing the border. And he who has actually proposed some solutions, the Obama administration does not want to listen to Senator McCain or any other Republican, and that, of course, leads to a greater problem that we have in Washington, D.C. And it's that lack of the new administration's ability and enthusiasm for listening to those on the other side of...

<p>McALLEN — State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa announced Tuesday he plans for file a bill next legislative session to abolish the State Board of Education.</p> <p>Citing recent media reports about the board’s decisions on updates to the state’s curriculum standards for social studies, Hinojosa accused the board in a written statement of “shaping an extreme, if not myopic, view of social studies material to be used in Texas schools.”</p>