Free Republic

I am, if you haven’t noticed, an instinctual Jacksonian (in the sense of Walter Russell Mead’s quadripartite characterization of American foreign policy types). My first reaction is to hit hard at those who confront the US or threaten American interests. ISIS is therefore a natural candidate for a good drubbing. But more sober reflection (figuratively and literally!) leads me to conclude that a full-blooded response to ISIS is unwise, especially in Syria. For many reasons, the commitment that would be required to fully extirpate the organization is not worth the cost, and it’s better not to fight at all than...

The wife of U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) filed for divorce yesterday, one day after she called police to the couple's Alexandria home and told them that her husband had grabbed her and pushed her during an argument. But Mary Moran said in an interview that she agrees with the decision of Alexandria authorities not to file charges against her husband. She also said it was the first such altercation in their 11- year marriage. Alexandria police said they were called to the Morans' home at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday. After hearing their conflicting versions of what had happened,...

A month after declaring an Islamic state-like caliphate in Northeastern Nigeria, Boko Haram militants have reportedly surrounded the Borno state capital Maiduguri, where residents expect an attack on what could be the group's largest and most symbolic seizure yet. ...

Is Congress really going to allow the president to escalate military action against ISIS without voting on it? There almost certainly won't be any vote before the midterm elections. But there is still another way: members of Congress could try to force a vote on authorization of force after the elections - during the lame duck session. ...

A senior communications aide to Attorney General Eric Holder seemingly called House oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa's staff by accident and asked for their help spinning new revelations about the IRS scandal, Issa said in a September 8 letter to Holder. The aide, Brian Fallon, is a former senior aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a well-known personality on Capitol Hill. The letter describes Fallon as “audibly shaken” when he realizes his request to leak documents to help get ahead of news stories about them was mistakenly made to the very office he was seeking to undermine. Issa believes...

House GOP Setting the Stage for Massive Crony Capitalist Pay Backs in a Lame Duck House Republicans are preparing a continuing resolution to keep the government open. In doing so, they’ve decided to be total sluts for K Street and Wall Street. The Crony Capitalists, emboldened by the Chamber of Commerce’s help during primary season, are doing some very unusual things. Here’s what I hear is happening. First, they will reauthorize the Ex-Im bank, which is something K Street is desperate to see happen. Second, current reports are that they will spend more than the original Paul Ryan — Patti...

President Obama told congressional leaders at a White House meeting on Monday he wouldn’t need their authorization to expand his military campaign against Islamic terrorists. The president offered the assurance at a private White House meeting one day before a primetime address he’s scheduled to give to the nation. Wednesday’s address is a pivotal moment for the president just months before a midterm election in which the Senate’s majority hangs in the balance. Polls show that confidence in Obama’s foreign policy is eroding just as anxiety over the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has...

OPINION Harry Reid is mad that Republicans didn't obstruct his bill BY ASHE SCHOW | SEPTEMBER 9, 2014 | 10:57 AM After all his complaints about Republican obstruction this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed frustration last night after Republicans helped guarantee a floor vote on a measure he supports. The Nevada Democrat has accused Senate Republicans of chicanery for voting to advance to the Senate floor a Democratic constitutional amendment allowing Congress to regulate all campaign speech and spending. After Monday's bipartisan 79-18 vote, Reid vented to reporters that Republicans were trying to "stall" the Senate, indicating that...

Immigration rights advocates are pushing President Obama to brush aside calls from fellow Democrats to delay executive action on deportations until after the election. "I say to the Democrats: Stand aside," Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) said during a press call Wednesday. "Let the president make a decision; let him announce it; and stop this stopping the progress of our community towards justice." Other advocates piled on. "The president said that he was ready to take bold action, and a few Democrats should not stand in the way," said Clarissa Martínez-De-Castro, deputy vice president of policy at the National Council of...

Wednesday on Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show," former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson said the Obama administration is refusing to tell Congress where the ten of thousands of unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexican Border this summer were sent after they were processed though holding centers along the border. Attkisson said the Obama administration seems to be intentionally stonewalling by not answering letters from members of Congress or reporters questions.

You know it’s bad when the so-called “leaders” of a party harbor such pure contempt for their base that they are willing to drag the good name of their own party through the mud in an attempt to undermine that base. From Politico: A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups — including one backed by Karl Rove — paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past.” Women are “barely receptive” to Republicans’ policies, and the party does “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast...

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), one of the key conservative members in the House of Representatives, predicted on Fox News on Thursday that President Barack Obama's threats of unilateral amnesty are all smoke and no fire.

The comedian-turned-senator is running an unusually low-key reelection campaign, trying to avoid scrutiny. Will Republicans get the last laugh?In reality, polls from both parties show Franken with only a tenuous advantage over his challenger, Republican businessman Mike McFadden. President Obama's job-approval numbers are weak in Minnesota, with a Suffolk University poll conducted in April revealing a 43 percent rating. The same survey shows Franken polling at 44 percent against McFadden, with his net favorability at 46 percent/41 percent. (A robo-poll, conducted this week by SurveyUSA, showed Franken up 51 percent to 42 percent, with a 56 percent approval rating.) But...

If you want to know where a Democrat stands on the issue of immigration, all you need ask is if they have to face the voters in less than a deep blue state in November.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R.-Mich.), the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on NBC's “Meet the Press” today that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is “one plane ticket away from U.S. shores” and that terrorists carrying European passports could get into the United States without a visa. “Oh, it's a very real threat,” Rogers said of the threat to the United States from ISIS.“You saw the very barbaric behavior,” he said. “And one of the problems is it's gone unabated for nearly two years, and that draws people from Britain to across Europe, even...

Senator Harry Reid apologized yesterday for making "racist" jokes at a meeting of the Asian Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas. The Hill: "My comments were in extremely poor taste and I apologize. Sometimes I say the wrong thing,” Reid said in a statement to The Hill. The Democratic leader issued the apology after a video surfaced online of him joking with the crowd in Las Vegas about their ethnicity.

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog, The 30 statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a staggering pace. Yes, the stock market has soared to unprecedented heights this year and there are a few isolated areas of the country that are doing rather well for the moment. But overall, the long-term trends that...

If you haven’t heard, people are pouring buckets of ice water over their heads to raise money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Nancy Pelosi has accepted the challenge! Pictures on link!!!!!!

Late last year, vulnerable Democratic candidates worried that deep problems with the health care law could sink their chances of keeping a majority in the Senate. Now, suddenly, one red-state Democrat is praising the law in a new television ad — an indicator that public opinion of health care reform might have turned a corner. In the ad, Sen. Mark Pryor and his father, former Sen. David Pryor, recount Mark Pryor's own bout with cancer and his struggle finding health insurance that would cover it. "Mark's insurance company didn't want to pay for the treatment that ultimately saved his life," David Pryor says in the ad. "No one should be fighting...

**SNIP** But the impression the president left with Mr. Reid was clear: Capitol Hill is not my problem. To Democrats in Congress who have worked with Mr. Obama, the indifference conveyed to Mr. Reid, one of the president’s most indispensable supporters, was frustratingly familiar. In one sense, Mr. Obama’s response was a reminder of what made him such an appealing figure in the first place: his almost innate aversion to the partisan squabbles that have left Americans so jaded and disgruntled with their political system. But nearly six years into his term, with his popularity at the lowest of his...