Free Republic

‘Parole’ program tests limits of executive immigration powers President Obama plans to use parole authority to go around normal rules and try to admit thousands of entrepreneurs to the U.S., the administration announced Friday, once again testing the limits of executive power on immigration. Parole is usually used in specific humanitarian cases, such as temporarily admitting someone in dire need of medical treatment, but Mr. Obama argues it can also be used more broadly to try to boost the U.S. economy by letting wealthy entrepreneurs buy their way in.

President Barack Obama is announcing the creation of two Pentagon-led institutes, using public and private resources, to boost advanced manufacturing, help create jobs and perhaps build the next “Iron Man.” One center will be in Obama’s hometown of Chicago, concentrating on high-tech digital manufacturing and design. The other will be located in Canton, Mich., near Detroit, and specialize in light metal manufacturing. …

“I will not accept proposals that are just another brazen attempt to undermine or repeal the overall law and drag us back into a broken system,” Obama said Thursday. The White House issued a formal veto threat Thursday night of a bill offered by House Republicans that would allow insurance companies to continue offering health plans that existed before the beginning of the new year. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is coming up for a vote on Friday. In a statement from the Office of Management and Budget, the administration argues the law is intended to “sabotage”...

Despite a bipartisan federal law prohibiting financial contracts with the Russian government-owned arms giant Rosoboronexport, the Obama administration announced that it would be purchasing another $680 million worth of military helicopters from the state company for the Afghan regime of Hamid Karzai. The contract comes after the Pentagon already spent $411 million with the supplier since May of 2011, bringing the estimated amount of U.S. taxpayer funds funneled to the state-owned behemoth to about $1 billion in recent years. The latest deal, however, drew furious outrage from across the political spectrum. Critics and lawmakers complained that the controversial scheme would...

Provoked by renewed daylight NATO bombing of his capital, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy raged against the alliance yesterday, screaming his message and daring Western forces to keep it up. Khadafy spoke in a telephone call that was piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli’s Green Square at the end of a day when NATO intensified bombing runs across the capital. State television carried the Khadafy message live, then repeated it a few minutes later. “NATO will be defeated,’’ he yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice. “They will pull out in defeat.’’ The sound of automatic weapons...

President Barack Obama decided he could continue the air war in Libya without congressional approval despite rulings to the contrary from Justice Department and Pentagon lawyers, according to published reports.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House said Tuesday that a Florida church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops abroad, while the State Department denounced the plan as "un-American" and said it would put American diplomats and travelers at risk. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs noted the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, has warned that images of a burning Quran would be used by extremists to incite violence.

If Congress passes the Senate health-care plan, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, American families will be required by federal law to buy a federally approved health insurance plan that will cost a minimum of $12,000 per year--and, on average, will cost $15,000 per year -- whether their employer or the government helps them with the premium or not. Beginning in 2014, the Senate plan would require all individuals to buy health insurance. Anyone who does not obtain insurance through an employer would be forced to buy it out of their own pocket. Families of four that...

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama has no constitutional concerns about signing a bill passed by controversial House rules that are being proposed by Democrats to pass healthcare. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, would sign a bill if it is passed by the controversial "Slaughter Solution," Gibbs said. The proposal would deem the Senate version of the bill passed after House approval without an actual vote in the House. House Republicans have cried foul, and many have questioned whether that process would be constitutional. But Obama has downplayed any controversy surrounding the procedure, telling Fox...