Free Republic

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace. The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.

House speaker John Boehner is set to sign an offer from Obama to accelerate negotiations. Republicans in the House of Representatives have capitulated in the showdown over the payroll tax, handing Barack Obama an important victory going into election year. Under pressure from other senior Republicans for blocking a bill that would extend tax cuts to millions of Americans, the House speaker, John Boehner, is backing away from his insistence that any deal must cover a full year. A deal agreed by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on Saturday covers two months, to allow further negotiations in January. It...

Country music gets its due at the Obama White House next week. The Obamas will play host to a string of country stars — legendary and contemporary — Monday at their seventh “In Performance at the White House” program. Among those performing Monday night: Lauren Alaina, The Band Perry, Dierks Bentley, Alison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Mickey, Darius Rucker and James Taylor.

Republican leaders have started laying the groundwork to persuade GOP lawmakers to support a compromise on a tax increase, an issue that has deadlocked a congressional "super committee" pressed to come up with a deficit-reduction plan by next week. GOP leaders on Tuesday presented to their rank-and-file members a scenario under which Republicans would agree to $250 billion in new tax revenue over the next 10 years, largely by limiting itemized deductions for upper-income households.

A remarkable thing has happened on the way to the supercommittee deadline: Republicans are beating the “we-want-more-revenue” drum. No, congressional Republicans haven’t taken up the mantle of tax increases, but as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction lurches toward its Nov. 23 deadline to cut $1.2 trillion from the nation’s deficit, GOP lawmakers are talking a lot about how to raise revenue and still stick to their no-tax-increase pledge.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The endgame at hand, House Republicans struggled Thursday to pass legislation to prevent a looming government default while slicing nearly $1 trillion from federal spending. Senate Democrats pledged to scuttle the bill — if it got to them — in hopes of forcing a final compromise. As afternoon debate headed toward evening, GOP leaders ordered an unexplained halt on the measure and Speaker John Boehner summoned a string of recalcitrant rank-and-file Republicans to his office. Asked what he and Boehner had talked about, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said, "I think that's rather obvious. .. There's negotiations going...

WASHINGTON — Heading into a crucial negotiating session on a budget deal on Thursday, President Obama has raised his sights and wants to strike a far-reaching agreement on cutting the federal deficit as Speaker John A. Boehner has signaled new willingness to bargain on revenues. (snip) The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenues as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) said that Republicans are open to between $150 billion to $200 billion in increased federal revenues as part of an agreement to cut federal deficits in a bid to smooth the passage of a debt ceiling increase. But Kyl said these figures didn't include closing any of the business tax deductions that Democrats have been pushing for, saying instead the total was reached by increasing fees charged to entities regulated by the federal government or sales of federal-owned property. "I have characterized those as things like fee increases, revenue from...

'A deep-rooted hatred of the British': How Israelis 'armed junta' in Falklands conflict Israel secretly provided arms and supplies to Argentina during the Falklands conflict, according to revelations in a new book. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin had such a deep-rooted hatred of the British that the Jewish state covertly became the biggest supplier of military equipment to the Argentine military junta. Gas masks, radar alert systems, air-to-air missiles and fuel tanks for fighter bombers were sent from Tel Aviv to arm General Galtieri’s forces. The most audacious deal involved supplying 23 French-built fighter aircraft – Mirage IIICs – which...

Potentially standing in the way of a vote on extending the tax increases is the Republican Party party convention this weekend. There is little point for Democrats who control the legislature to schedule a vote on a tax measure with activists on their way to the convention demanding that Republican lawmakers live up to their anti-tax rhetoric analysts said. "The more probable outcome is that they'll wait until after the convention," said Jon Coupal,

It doesn't look like Barack Obama will need to get his original birth certificate to state officials to be on the presidential ballot in Arizona next year. On a 5-3 vote Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee defeated SB 1526 which would let Arizona impose its own requirements on what someone needs to prove before being on the ballot in the state. Three Republicans voted with the two Democrats on the panel to kill the plan offered by Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City. Virtually identical legislation was introduced in the House in the form of HB 2544. But that measure...

Texas Governor Rick Perry has given Mexico's president 48 hours to contact him with information on the ongoing efforts to find the body of an American man reportedly shot dead on a border lake. Mr Perry said he hoped the body of David Hartley will be recovered by the time Felipe Calderón contacts him. 'If not, we're not looking hard enough,' he declared on Wednesday. Mr Hartley's wife Tiffany claims her husband was shot by Mexican pirates on Falcon Lake last week as they returned over the U.S. border on jet skis.

MEXICO CITY -- A top drug gang enforcer said he ordered the killing of a U.S. consulate worker because she helped provide visas to a rival gang in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, federal police said Friday. Jesus Ernesto Chavez (aka El Camello), whose arrest was announced on Friday, leads a band of hit men for a street gang tied to the Juarez cartel, said Ramon Pequeno, the head of anti-narcotics for the federal police. Pequeno said Chavez ordered the March 13 attack that killed U.S. consulate employee Lesley Enriquez and her husband as they drove through the violent...

I haven’t been keeping score, but my sense has been that National Review stays out of Republican congressional primary races, at least most of the time. This is a good thing. It reflects an ethos focused on the strategic direction of the conservative movement rather than tactical politics. It underscores that issues are more critical to us than personalities. As a practical matter, moreover, it avoids diminishing the magazine’s prestige. A candidate who wins despite NR’s endorsement of his opponent could become hostile — and less open to our ideas — especially because he knows NR’s endorsement of the other...

The White House invited four of the country’s top evangelical pastors to attend President Obama’s speech this morning calling for immigration reform. ... The Rev. Leith Anderson, President, National Association of Evangelicals. NAE is the nation’s largest evangelical group and has long sought to be a moderate evangelical alternative to the Christian Right. Dr. Richard Land, President, Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. ... worries that conservatives will burn bridges with the country’s fast-growing Hispanic bloc if they take a hard anti-immigrant line. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Council. Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of the...

Over at The Next Right, the've pieced together some interesting connections about the White House's ties to British Petroleum, better know as the company currently polluting the Gulf of Mexico. We all know Obama was the biggest recipient of BP's campaign cash in Washington, but it seems BP's ties to the White House run even deeper. According to The Next Right, PR firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner "helped BP plan and evaluate its successful re-branding campaign, focusing the company's branding on energy solutions, including the development of solar and other renewable energy sources." The firm's Stanley Greenberg is married to Rep....

Stupak, Dems reach abortion deal; 'eight or nine' will vote yes By Jared Allen - 03/21/10 03:33 PM ET Democrats have reached a deal on an executive order on abortion that could hand them a victory on healthare. "Eight or nine" Democrats, including Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), will announce the deal at a 4 p.m. press conference, according to an anti-abortion Democrat. "We've changed [our votes]," said Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio). Driehaus said he's seen the executive order and can now vote for the healthcare bill. He said Stupak has signed off, as well. Driehaus made his remarks just a...

David Gibson Posted: 03/13/10 The head of the national association of Catholic hospitals, which holds great sway in the health care debate, threw her support Saturday behind the contested Senate reform bill in a move that could give a major boost to the legislation's prospects. But the endorsement of Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, could also put the nun and her organization at odds with the Catholic hierarchy, which continues to oppose the bill due to its provision on abortion coverage. As Politics Daily has reported, the Senate bill does not appear to allow for abortion...

I cannot tell how much of this outrage about Sarah Palin's endorsement of McCain is feigned by those who do not wish her well. It is not principally to those folks that this post is directed. To those conservatives who are genuinely disappointed by Sarah Palin's decision to support McCain, let me say that I think Rush and Mark Levin understand it and have said that it is a question of loyalty and that loyalty is a virtue. That makes sense to me and, personally, I would be a little put off if she did otherwise, since it would look...

Although one would not know it by reading immigration policy debates, money paid to middlemen, mostly Americans, plays a major role in the whole process. If one seeks to manage, or at least nudge, events in immigration it is useful to visualize the financial transactions involving the non-migratory actors in the field, the people and institutions that shape migration but do not migrate themselves. As I see it, there are seven groups of such players, three of whom are motivated by personal financial considerations, three of whom are not, and one in between, where the institutions gain funds when there...

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Former first lady Laura Bush praised the performance of her husband's successor Monday, breaking with many Republicans in telling CNN that she thinks President Obama is doing a good job under tough circumstances.

What's with all the pro-Chicom nonsense on FR today?

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is firing back at her grandson's teenaged father, Levi Johnston, for comments he made on TV about the circumstances surrounding his son's conception. On an episode of "The Tyra Banks Show" to air Monday, Johnston, 18, claims that Gov. Palin did not think that he and her daughter Bristol were being abstinent when they were together. "Bristol did not even know Levi was going on the show," Palin's rep tells People.com. "We're disappointed that Levi and his family, in a quest for fame, attention, and fortune, are engaging in flat-out lies, gross exaggeration, and even distortion...

<p>Senate Democrats are expected to win over just enough Republicans to move forward on a controversial $410 billion spending bill....</p> <p>But it may come as no surprise that almost all of the Republican senators who are either expected to support the bill or are considering supporting the bill have billions of dollars worth of earmarks in the package.....</p>

Almost as if to undo all the good vibes with the grassroots that the House GOP gained in staying united against Obama's Trillion-Dollar Turd, at least two GOP Congressmen are now touting the benefits of the massive pork-laden spending bill.

Any Republican Congressman or Senator who votes for any form of Marxist enabling Porkulus is a traitor who deserves to be run out of office!! In days gone by, they would've been tarred, feathered and run out of Washington on a rail!! Porkulus is nothing more than a bloodless coup attempt by the America-hating Marxist, B. Hussein Obama. Massive government spending is not freedom. Government control of industry is not freedom. Government attempting to control the economy is not freedom. Not capitalism. This is socialism, fascism, Marxism. Centralized control. Nationalization of banking. Government control of banking, finance, manufacturing, production, transportation,...

Barely Bipartisan But a Senate Stimulus Deal is Done Sat Feb 7 The U.S. Senate looks to be on track to pass a bill that sounds almost exactly like what President Barack Obama asked for last month. The measure - now heralded as $780 billion, down from $890 billion - will include about 40% in tax cuts and more than 80% of the spending will flood the faltering economy within the next 18 months. But with just three Republican votes, the bill falls well short of the bipartisan goal Obama worked hard to achieve. The final cost of the bill...

(sigh) Time to bend over and grab the Vaseline.

There has been much talk of the 8 year BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) from the left but I think it's time we admitted there are DS's on the right and we have to look no further than our own backyard here at FR to find the most glaring example, McCain Derangement Syndrome. McCain wasn't my preferred candidate. In fact, I'd have to go all the way back to Reagan to find my own preferred candidate victorious. But you never get everything you want in politics so many times you have to work with you got and make the best of...

This is a must see video. Colin Powell and Condi Rice were traded in the "racial draft" to Whites

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesman of Neturei Karta International, issued the following statement on the eve of the arrival of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It has been our honor and privilege to meet with President Ahmadinejad, as well as other Iranian leaders, several times in the past. In addition we have had the pleasure of visiting Iran on different occasions. At each encounter with the Iranian leadership, we have emphasized to them that, despite media hysteria and the statements of some misinformed Jews, we have found the Iranian people and their leaders to be friendly and respectful." "Likewise, although...

It occurs to this poster - for the election of 2008 each of the parties - has fallen under the control of the caricatures, each is accused of by the other: Democrats, really are becoming the far-left bug eyed Marxists, they're accused of being by Republicans. Republicans, really are beholden to a few big businesses, to which they pledge open borders and so-called "free trade".

The Bush administration forecasts a $410 billion federal budget deficit for this year, an indication that, as the US saving rate is approximately zero, the US is not only dependent on foreigners to finance its wars but also dependent on foreigners to finance part of the US government's domestic expenditures. Foreign borrowing is paying US government salaries--perhaps that of the president himself--or funding the expenditures of the various cabinet departments. Financially, the US is not an independent country. A troubled currency and financial system and large budget and trade deficits do not present an attractive face to creditors. Yet Washington...

For years, William Zammer Jr. has relied on 100 seasonal foreign employees to turn down beds, boil lobsters and serve cocktails at the restaurants, golf course and inn he owns on Cape Cod and in nearby Plymouth. This summer, however, the foreign workers will not be returning, and Mr. Zammer, like other seasonal employers across the nation, is scrambling to find replacements. “It’s a major crisis,� he said. “We’re very short on work force. We’ll be looking at opening a little later, closing a little earlier, looking at how we do our menus.� Mr. Zammer is caught up in a...

The movement to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham with a fiercer opponent of illegal immigration gained strength on Monday when Columbia native Buddy Witherspoon brought his campaign for the Republican nomination to Hilton Head Island. Witherspoon is a dentist and three-time elector in the electoral college and a representative at the Republican National Committee since 1996. He espouses traditionally conservative positions against abortion, gay marriage, gun control and higher taxes. But the key issue of the campaign -- and one that has many in South Carolina looking for a replacement for Graham -- is immigration. Opponents accuse Graham and other senators...

Most at NYU say their vote has a price By: Lily Quateman - Washington Square News November 14, 2007 07:29 PM EST Two-thirds say they'll do it for a year's tuition. And for a few, even an iPod touch will do. That's what NYU students said they'd take in exchange for their right to vote in the next presidential election, a recent survey by an NYU journalism class found. Only 20 percent said they'd exchange their vote for an iPod touch. But 66 percent said they'd forfeit their vote for a free ride to NYU. And half said they'd give...

Mike Huckabee says he is the “conservative who is not mad at anybody,” but that doesn’t mean some people aren’t mad at him. As Huckabee has done better in the polls, criticism of him has increased. “The far left and the far right curse the ground on which I walk,” Huckabee told me Monday. “That is a great place to be. I am where far more of the country is.” Some fiscal conservatives are beginning to worry that Huckabee might actually do well in the caucuses and primaries — if not well enough to win the nomination, then well enough...

Charleston Daily Mail Secessionists from South and New England to meet The Associated Press Wednesday October 03, 2007 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions -- New England and the South -- are sitting down to talk. Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully. That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence. "We believe that...

WASHINGTON -- With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country. The effort, urgently underway at the departments of Homeland Security, State and Labor, is meant to rescue farm owners caught in a vise between a complex process to hire legal guest workers and stepped-up enforcement that has reduced the number of illegal planters, pickers and middle managers crossing the border. "It is important for the farm sector to have...

In a press release issued, former Governor Mike Huckabee took issue with the Tancredo campaign's characterization of him as a pro-amnesty politician. Unfortunately for the Governor, the facts support the label. Fact #1. As Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee denounced an immigration bill (Arkansas Senate Bill 206) that "would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote and would have required state agencies to report suspected cases of people living in the country illegally." (Doug Thompson, "Immigration Bill un-christian..governor says"Arkansas News Bureau 1/28/05) Fact #2. As Governor, Mike Huckabee offered a proposal to give state funded scholarships and state...

With only a small fraction of the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico complete, California congressman and Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter is warning President Bush the construction mandated by the Secure Fence Act is falling drastically behind schedule. "Unless construction is promptly accelerated," Hunter wrote in a letter to Bush, "deadlines for the completion of fencing will not be met." Hunter's letter was written Monday to be delivered to the White House during the Security and Prosperity Partnership third annual summit that concluded Tuesday in Montebello, Quebec. His criticism that the Bush administration is making no significant progress...

Being Mike Huckabee By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, August 19, 2007 Whose yardstick do you use to measure the impact of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s second-place showing in the Iowa Straw Poll? The Democrats’. “If he had money, he would be our worst nightmare,” says Democrat strategist John Lapp. Lapp, who helped bring down Republicans in 2006 as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said “the real threat of Mike Huckabee is that he is a happy warrior, a down-home guy comfortable in his own skin. Right-wing conservatism with a smile.”

In a sign of serious Republican disarray, Sen. Mel Martinez, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, has just lambasted his party's two top presidential candidates over immigration positions which most Americans regard as reasonable. The junior senator from Florida is wrong on more than the substance. This is a case of Mr. Martinez putting his own personal views and his loyalty to President Bush above the serious responsibilities of his chairmanship... And he may have just undercut the man for whom Mr. Martinez's job requires a vigorous defense next year. The irony here is that Mr. Martinez did this...

ST. PETERSBURG - Sen. Mel Martinez, the head of the Republican National Committee, took a swipe Tuesday at the leading Republican presidential candidates for not offering solid solutions to America's immigration crisis. In his remarks, Martinez did not directly refer to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but he later suggested both candidates, who were critics of the controversial Senate immigration proposal, had mischaracterized the plan. He also urged audience members to pin down the Republican candidates on immigration when they come to St. Petersburg for the YouTube/CNN Republican presidential debate Nov. 28... Martinez's...

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (CNS) -- In late July, carloads of curious Catholics caravanned north from their church to a mosque in the next county. Three dozen Catholics who regularly attend Mass at the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement's Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison accepted a Muslim visitor's invitation to attend services at Masjid Al-Noor, his mosque in Wappingers Falls. Entering the two-story white frame building, the visitors placed their shoes alongside their host's on wire racks lining one wall of the foyer. The women, already modestly covered from chin to ankle, pulled on scarves to cover their hair. The...

Breda - The Dutch Roman Catholic bishop Tiny Muskens is urging the faithful of all religions to call God Allah in order to foster mutual understanding. The bishop of the city of Breda says God does not mind what he is called and points out that Allah is the Arabic word for God. The bishop, who is retiring in a few weeks, added he did not expect his ideas to find immediate acceptance. He expects it could take 100 or 200 years. Bishop Muskens has previously defied the Vatican by calling for the acceptance of married priests and the use...

...Day's story is a revealing way for McCain to open his book, for the success of the decision is far from obvious. In the very long run, it proved right—Day lived through the war, was an inspiring figure for McCain and others in captivity and ultimately came home to his family—but it was a very long run indeed. The lesson McCain takes from Day's experience is that you make the best call you can given the facts of the moment, and then you take your chances, come what may. Sometimes things work out sooner, sometimes later, sometimes never—and in the...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn't include a path to citizenship. The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year. "We can still show the American people that we are serious about securing our nation's border," McCain said in a statement,...

Somebody may be pouting at the White House over the collapse of the comprehensive amnesty legislation. For seven years, the Bush administration has been unable or unwilling to enforce the immigration laws, leading to an out-of-control deluge of illegal aliens across the nation's Southern border. Suddenly, the feds are about to do what they said couldn't be done. They've been winking at employers who shrug at the widespread custom of taking prospective employees at their word that the Social Security card they offer is genuine, even when the employers suspect it is not and sometimes even when they know it...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to provide an additional $3 billion in emergency spending to beef up border security after lawmakers failed earlier this month to enact broader immigration reforms. The Senate voted 89-1 to add the money to a homeland security spending bill for next year currently being debated. Republican sponsors said the money could help lay the groundwork for a broader immigration overhaul that could address the status of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. "It will make it easier to go to the next step," said Sen....