'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America

Tom Wheeler, President Obama's nominee to be the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has lots of experience in the communications policy arena.

Hollywood's Michael Moore couldn't gush enough about New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's nationwide push for gun control.

No other figure in American history has been subjected to such intense yet incomplete scrutiny as Franklin Delano Roosevelt; certainly none of the Founding Fathers, not even Abraham Lincoln. The closest anyone has come to an all-encompassing complete portrait was Kenneth S. Davis, who won prizes 50 years go for his five-volume biography that covered FDR's life only up until 1943.
The land of the free and the home of the brave those are more than mere words, they embody the true spirit of America. We know a liberty that many can only dream about and the opportunity to pursue our own American dream. People decry our political system and the animosity it can foster among our leaders and even our citizens. Yet I ask you, how can a nation truly be great when its government does not allow for dissent? It is in voicing our differences that we affirm our belief in the government extolled by Abraham Lincoln: "Of the people, by the people and for the people."

If the Republicans don't stop concentrating their energies and salvos on a lame-duck president, as well as feudin', fussin' and fightin' among themselves, they may wish, at a minimum, to review the history of the Whigs, their predecessor party.

The Department of Education pulled a "Quote of the Day" by Chinese dictator Mao Zedong from its children's website Friday after a screenshot of the quote went viral.

There’s no missing the patriotic imagery in “Olympus Has Fallen,” a high-octane action thriller about a splinter group of North Korean terrorists who invade the White House and hold the president hostage.

In 1798, when John Adams was president of the United States, the feds enacted four pieces of legislation called the Alien and Sedition Acts. One of these laws made it a federal crime to publish any false, scandalous or malicious writing -- even if true -- about the president or the federal government, notwithstanding the guarantee of free speech in the First Amendment.

On the second day of President Obama's historic trip to Israel, the tension that had marked his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to thaw, even as Mr. Obama called on Israel's people and leaders to compromise in order to attain peace and security.

In separate talks before West Bank Palestinians and Israeli college students that carried echoes of Abraham Lincoln's call to "think anew and act anew," President Obama urged both groups Thursday to abandon old ways of thinking and search for new means to reach peace while it was still possible.

Republicans apparently have not forgotten the earnest face and serious economic insights of Rep. Paul Ryan. The former vice presidential hopeful bests potential 2016 presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in theoretical matchups with Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton, says a new Quinnipiac University poll of registered votes. The numbers:

Most Americans agree that we should put a stop to runaway spending in our country. How we accomplish this is the big question. Will the arbitrary, nonprioritized cuts of sequestration solve the problem? Probably not. Members of Congress are collectively stuck on partisan issues.
He may just be a footnote to history, but Dr. Isachar Zacharie is having a posthumous mini-moment, thanks to the Hollywood-sparked surge of interest in the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

President Obama and leaders of Congress dedicated a statue of civil-rights hero Rosa Parks on Wednesday in a moving ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, marking the first time a black woman has been honored with a place in National Statuary Hall.
“Four score and seven years ago” is perhaps one of the most well-known phrases uttered in American history, and this November will mark 150 years since President Abraham Lincoln said them at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg.
In a message to Congress in 1862 a month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln wrote: "The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
Obama urges Palestinians, Israeli students to 'think anew' →