Free Republic

Chuck Schumer is getting an earful from opponents of the Iran nuclear deal. More than 10,000 phone calls have flooded his office line the past two weeks, organized by a group looking to kill the deal. Another group has dropped seven figures on TV in New York City to pressure Schumer and other lawmakers to vote against the plan. The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee has put its muscle behind an effort to lobby the New Yorker against it. And Dov Hikind, a state assemblyman from Brooklyn, was arrested for disorderly conduct while protesting the deal outside Schumer’s office....

On Friday, we checked in on the Pentagon’s ongoing effort to recruit, vet, and train ambitious "freedom fighters" to join the battle against ISIS in Syria. It goes without saying that covert US efforts to aid the multifarious groups vying for control of the country have met with disastrous consequences so far, but if there’s anything Washington is particularly adept at, it’s making bad foreign policy outcomes worse, which is why we weren’t at all surprised to learn that the commander of the Pentagon's new Syrian "force" was captured, along with his deputy, by al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra last week near...

Mullah Mohammad Omar, the obscure, one-eyed zealot who led the Taliban from its beginnings as a band of student insurrectionists through a fateful alliance with Osama bin Laden, to military defeat following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the movement’s re-emergence as an insurgency that threatened the American occupation in Afghanistan, died more than two years ago in Pakistsan, according to Afghanistan’s intelligence agency and the office of Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani. The cause of death was unclear.

President Bush's son, Jeb, is looking for a maid who's a legal U.S. resident. A maid who had worked at Bush's Miami home for three years was deported back to her native Honduras last week. Bush was out jogging when immigration agents showed up so his wife, Columba, had to deal with them. "She indicated, `Yes, she works here,' brought the lady out, and the two agents showed her the deportation order,said Richard Smith, director of the INS's Miami office."

The latest controversy over Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email system while secretary of state is not only a possible drag on her presidential campaign, but it also creates a potential headache for Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The inspectors general for the State Department and intelligence community on Friday disclosed that an internal review of Clinton's system concluded some emails contained classified information and that the inspectors general had sent a non-criminal "referral" to the Justice Department over the matter. Lynch and her department must now determine what to do next -- including whether to open a criminal investigation...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, tweeted a graphic Saturday morning that appears to depict President Barack Obama committing suicide by holding a gun to his head. “We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but if any war happens, the one who will emerge loser will be the aggressive and criminal U.S.,” the quote attributed to Khamenei said.

A super-PAC that supports Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has received a $15 million donation from two Texas brothers, according to CNN. Billionaire brothers Farris and Dan Wilks donated $15 million of the total $38 million that the Keep the Promise super-PAC will disclose in election filings next week. The siblings sold the fracking company Frac Tech in 2011 for $3.5 billion. Farris Wilks explained their support for Cruz in a statement to CNN. "Our country was founded on the idea that our rights come from the Creator, not the government. I'm afraid we're losing that," Wilks said. "Unless we elect...

--- Senators generally refrain from impugning their colleagues on the floor, a practice codified in Senate Rule XIX: “No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.” The penalty for breaching that rule is to be ordered to take one’s seat — in effect, to sit down and shut up. But no senator rose to make a point of order before Cruz left the floor. “It’s unusual, certainly,” Betty K. Koed, the Senate’s official historian, said of Cruz’s remarks....

Senator Ted Cruz, the sometimes-incendiary Texan running for the Republican presidential nomination, took to the Senate floor on Friday to call his party’s majority leader a liar in an extraordinary public airing of grievance. --- Far from backing down, Mr. Cruz joined the conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh on Friday afternoon, basking in Mr. Limbaugh’s praise for a “direct hit” on leadership like none he could remember. “It’s not a good day when the majority leader is willing to lie to the Senate,” Mr. Cruz told Mr. Limbaugh. Tea Party groups, the Heritage Foundation’s political arm, and Charles G....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) On Saturday’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors spoke about the protests at Democratic primary candidates Martin O’Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), when Black Lives Matters protesters demanded O’Malley and Sanders mentioned Sandra Bland, who was recently found dead in her prison cell, by name. Cullors was asked by guest co-host Janet Mock what her plan was for Republican candidates, specifically Jeb Bush, for calling “black lives matter” a “slogan.”(continued)

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump on Saturday unleashed a personal attack at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, days after being the target of the governor’s latest campaign blast.>p> Trump’s speech in Iowa came on the heels of a fundraiser for Walker referring to the New York business mogul as “DumbDumb” in an event invitation email earlier this week. Blasting the “horrible” insult from Walker’s campaign, Trump went on the offensive with criticism against Walker’s economic record. “Wisconsin is in turmoil,” Trump told a boisterous crowd at a rally in Iowa. He pointed to the state’s roads, schools and hospitals, which he said...

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump opened up a line of attack Saturday on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, accusing the leader in recent polls in Iowa of running his neighboring state into financial trouble. It's the latest broadside against a rival of the outspoken New York billionaire. Last week, Trump went after South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham for calling him a "jackass." The New York businessman has characterized other candidates as unfit for the office and said the party's 2008 nominee, Sen. John McCain, was not a war hero in spite of his years as a prisoner...

Unlike Des Moines, Iowa and Manchester, New Hampshire, Laredo, Texas isn’t a typical stop on the presidential campaign trail. Unless you are Donald Trump. The town on the U.S.-Mexico border will become the center of attention Thursday when the Republican presidential candidate stops by for a visit. Trump’s visit to the town, where the population is over 90 percent Hispanic, will begin with a town hall meeting in which law enforcement officers will give The Donald their own views on the situation at the border. Trump also plans to hold a news conference. Garza said his invitation to Trump should...

Lou Lenart, a U.S. Marine Corps pilot during World War II who later helped thwart an Egyptian advance on Tel Aviv in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, died Monday at age 94. Lenart was born Layos Lenovitz to Jewish farmers in Hungary. His family moved to America when he was 10 years old and settled in Pennsylvania. He later enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 and became a pilot, seeing action during the Battle of Okinawa and elsewhere in the Pacific. Following World War II, Lenart joined Israel’s nascent air force, which consisted of just four Czech-built German Messerschmitt...

The president who pledged to transform America has picked his next target in the country’s makeover: the suburbs. Obama the Utopian hopes to use both the federal Treasury and the federal club to coax Americans into neighborhoods planned by bureaucrats to perfectly reflect the nation’s diversity. The Obama administration’s long-awaited new housing regulations came out Wednesday giving the federal government more tools to make sure neighborhoods around the nation aren’t developed and populated in racially segregated manners. The rules, issued under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, are supposed to put a stop to “segregated living patterns” and “racially...

A town hall for liberal activists featuring two Democratic presidential candidates was interrupted by dozens of demonstrators on Saturday who shouted down the contenders and demanded they address criminal justice issues and police brutality... ..."Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" they shouted toward O'Malley, and began a call-and-repeat rallying cry that activists have been using in the wake of the death of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, who died in police custody last week. "If I die in police in custody!" one of the chants went, "Burn everything down! That's the only way mother******* like you listen!"

Reuters Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, left, and Sen. Richard Shelby Congress kept Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen busy during the month of May, as Republicans demanded more details on a criminal leak investigation and introduced measures to revamp the central bank. Yellen met with lawmakers or spoke with them over the phone 11 times that month, according to her calendar, which was obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. That’s nearly twice as many meetings with lawmakers as she held in March, her second-busiest month for Hill outreach since taking the Fed’s helm in February 2014. Of the...

Amazon backed Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in his fight against The New York Times Monday, saying there is “no evidence” his book sales are driven by “strategic bulk purchases.” The Cruz campaign accused The NYT Friday of lying when it said his new book, “A Time For Truth,” did not make the bestseller list because a bulk of its sales came from “strategic bulk purchases.” Cruz and his publisher, HarperCollins, said Friday the books were not sold in bulk. “A Time For Truth ranked high on the other publishing industry bestseller lists including Nielsen Bookscan (#4), a subscription service that...

Keith Olbermann is exiting ESPN once again. The television personality, who rejoined the sports network in August 2013, won't be renewing his deal to anchor his ESPN2 program. The news follows a THR report on July 1, noting that ESPN management floated an ultimately unworkable caveat: that Olbermann cease engaging in commentary. "Keith is a tremendous talent who has consistently done timely, entertaining and thought-provoking work since returning to ESPN," the network said in a statement. "While the show’s content was distinctive and extremely high quality, we ultimately made a business decision to move in another direction. We wish Keith...

Amanda Peterson, best known for her role in the 1987 romantic comedy “Can’t Buy Me Love,” has died. She was 43. Sgt. Mike Moran with the Greeley, Colorado, police department says Peterson was found dead at an apartment complex Sunday. She was alone, and an investigation into her death is ongoing. No other information was released.