Free Republic

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee released new information on Thursday that he claims is evidence that the Bush administration misled the nation in the run-up to the war in Iraq. In a speech on the Senate floor, retiring Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat, outlined a 2003 CIA cable that warns George W. Bush administration officials against making references to claims that Mohammad Atta — the man who led the Sept. 11 hijackers — met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech Republic before the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks. Levin claims Bush officials used the unconfirmed meeting...

The Senate voted to pass its annual National Defense Authorization Act on Friday , sending Montana’s first wilderness additions in 33 years to President Barack Obama’s desk. The National Defense Authorization Act authorizes $585 billion in Pentagon discretionary spending and $63.7 billion in overseas contingency operations.It also includes a package of 70 public land management bills; the biggest collection since the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. They create about 250,000 acres of new wilderness designations and protection of other lands from energy development. Other measures open thousands of acres to logging in Alaska and swaps federal lands for...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will be the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee next year, Democrats announced Friday. The self-proclaimed socialist replaces Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who is moving over to become ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The promotion for Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, gives him a prominent perch to push his priorities as he moves toward a long-shot run for the White House in 2016. He is a vocal advocate for increased spending on social programs and says the budget of the Pentagon should be slashed dramatically. As ranking member...

Wondering how your Rep voted? Heritage Action has a nifty scorecard you can access. It has lots of sorting options. Check it out.

**SNIP** SCHOOL LUNCHES: Eases rules requiring more whole grains in school lunches and suspends the lower sodium standards due to take effect in 2017, while keeping other healthy-eating rules. Some school nutrition directors — and some students complaining of yucky lunches — lobbied for a break from the standards championed by first lady Michelle Obama. **SNIP** MARIJUANA: Offers a mixed bag for pot smokers. The bill blocks the Justice Department from raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in states that permit them. But it also blocks federal and local spending to legalize marijuana in Washington, D.C., where voters approved recreational use in...

When Thursday dawned, the conventional wisdom was that House Speaker John Boehner did not have the votes to pass the $1.1 trillion spending bill that would fund the rest of the government for FY2015. But, thanks to lobbying by the White House, the House scrapped up enough votes to pass the measure 219 to 206, according to a Thursday Washington Examiner story. The passage of the bill was a triumph of the establishment wings of both parties. However, Senate passage is by no means certain. Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Elizabeth Warren could still scupper the bill between them. The...

http://uneditedpolitics.com/utah-senator-mike-lee-floor-speech-on-the-cromnibus-121214/

Jonathan Gruber, the man at the center of Obamacare’s troubled public image, apologized to Congress for “glib” and “thoughtless” comments about the stupidity of the American voters and how the health overhaul passed, arguing he is no political expert and shouldn’t have posed as one in speeches around the country. “It’s never appropriate to try to make oneself seem more important or smarter by demeaning others. I knew better. I know better. I’m embarrassed, and I’m sorry,” Mr. Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the House oversight committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican.

The GOP’s draft 2015 “omnibus” spending bill reportedly includes $948 million to help poor and unskilled Central American migrants establish themselves in the United States, but includes no effective restrictions on President Barack Obama’s plan to provide work permits and tax payments to millions of resident illegal immigrants. That new spending works out to $16,928 for each of the 56,000 youths, young adults and children who crossed the border during the 12 months up to October 2014.

With the release of Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein’s report on the CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation program, a forty million dollar joke has been perpetrated on the American people, curtesy of the California senator. As U.S. military bases and diplomatic facilities around the world are placed on high alert for possible attacks by Muslims further inflamed by the declassified details of the report, the costs of Senator Feinstein’s ‘knock knock joke’ will continue to spiral upwards as we’re forced to ramp up additional security precautions to address the threat. Millions more will be spent, and unfortunately lives will probably be lost so...

Jim Moran came out of the RAT caucus and said they are saying they need 80 RATs to crossover. Doesn't think more than 50 - 60 will crossover. House coming back at 9 pm to vote

House Democrats blocked legislation on Thursday that would have permanently extended three tax credits for charitable giving, ending an effort to give nonprofits a last-minute victory. The bill got a strong majority in the House, with 275 members voting for it, including 47 Democrats. But the measure fell eight votes short of the two-thirds majority it needed to pass, with 149 Democrats voting against it after House Democratic leaders whipped against it and President Obama threatened a veto. The vote ends a last-ditch effort by the nonprofit sector to get three of its priorities into law for good, after a...

President Barack Obama’s Nov. 21 amnesty puts millions of illegals on a fast-track to citizenship, Utah Sen. Mike Lee announced Thursday. Obama and his administration “have cleared the pathway to citizenship for millions of people who have crossed out borders illegally,” Lee said in a Thursday speech on the Senate floor. “They know what they have done, and it is illegal,” he added. Obama’s amnesty allows illegals with U.S.-born children to briefly leave the country, perhaps for a business meeting in Canada, and then be given “advanced parole” by border officials that lets them legally return to the United States....

The Capitol Hill switchboard has been overwhelmed by calls to Congress. The 202 224-3121 number is jammed, likely by people protesting House Speaker John Boehner’s 2015 government funding bill, which allows funding for President Barack Obama’s unpopular decision to stop enforcing immigration law, and to award work-permits to at least 5 million illegal immigrants. Boehner’s effort to fund the $1.1 trillion bill and amnesty is being backed by President Barack Obama, whose deputies are pushing Democrats to support Boehner’s bill. The Daily Caller called the switchboard number at 3:28, and it was not answered for seven minutes. It is usually...

After passing the Senate by unanimous consent on Monday, it seemed as if the FOIA Improvement Act would become law—a nearly identical version passed the House earlier this year. Today, however, it was up to Speaker of the House John Boehner to allow a vote on the bill’s final passage before the House adjourned this week. Instead, it was “held at the desk,” meaning Boehner may have just killed FOIA reform. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law, signed in 1966, that gives U.S. citizens the right to access information from the federal government. Through FOIA, journalists and...

Are Boehner, McDonnell, Chief Justice Roberts and other assorted RINOs being systematically blackmailed by WhiteHouse/FBI/CIA/IRS? It would explain a lot. In all seriousness. We know how this President operates. We know how he uses the government agencies. We know he targets enemies. We know the Republican leadership doesn't represent the people who keep voting for it. We've all seen crazy decisions made by them that seem illogical and self-destructive to their party's interests (to say nothing of the country's). We know we're all being spied on. We all know the US is no longer a free country. Has any independent...

If some (i.e. Harry Reid) in the Senate seek unanimous consent to go straight to a vote on Cronybus, but Cruz (and others who may wish to join him) delay this move by forcing Reid to hold a cloture vote - and thus stall the vote in the Senate on Cronybus by 30 hours - would you support this if it led to a short-term funding measure? While this move may upset Boehner, who has now bent his will to Obama's desire, would you support Cruz (or whomever may wish to do this - Warren?) doing this?

The cromnibus had an unlikely savior Thursday afternoon in the form of a lame-duck lawmaker who used to raise reindeer. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.), who lost his primary earlier this year, was originally among the conservative Republicans who voted against the rule. Without the help of Democrats, Republicans could only lose 17 of their own to pass the rule, which sets up floor debate for the underlying "cromnibus" spending bill. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) intervened once there were 18 Republican defectors — and not a single Democrat voting "yes." Many Democrats will vote against the government spending measure because they...

Updated 2:30 p.m. | Unsure whether they have the votes to pass a trillion-dollar federal spending package, House GOP leaders on Thursday afternoon delayed a final vote on the “cromnibus.” They did so with mere hours to go until the government is set to run out of funding, and just before the House was scheduled to vote. GOP leaders called a recess to floor proceedings, with a GOP leadership aide confirming “no conference meeting [is] planned at this time.” The aide said “leadership teams are still talking to their respective members,” and noted, “We still plan to vote this afternoon.”...

A Republican has joined Democrats in criticizing the inclusion of a partial repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in legislation funding the government. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) signed on to a letter with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) that calls on congressional leaders to scrap portions of the $1.1 trillion "cromnibus" that relax restrictions on banks trading financial derivatives. The pair argued in the letter that there is "broad bipartisan support" for removing that particular language. Brown and Vitter, who have worked together in the past on bills to limit big banks, argued that the language was unfairly jammed into...