Free Republic

House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) joined NPR Wednesday with Steve Inskeep to stress why he says it’s important for Congress to pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which grants President Obama fast-track trade authority. With TPA, Congress cannot issue any amendments to trade agreements and merely gets an up or down vote on a final trade deal. Ryan’s go to remark when first questioned about TPA or the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – which is part of three trade deals currently being negotiated – is he needs to clarify “misperceptions.” “We’re not considering the TPP, the Trans-Pacific...

It’s not new. Blackmail, extortion, and dirty pool in politics have, like disease-ridden ticks, found easy hosts for decades. J. Edgar Hoover had dirt on everyone who stepped across the line. The Mafia had dirt on him – he was a closet homosexual. All came to mind recently when Ohio Republican Congressman John Andrew Boehner, the 61st and current Speaker of the House, allowed Obama to push through the far-reaching and disastrous “CRomnibus” budget bill. The Political Insider expressed its astonishment this way: “Why, after a massive Republican landslide victory on election day, would Boehner act in such a strange...

Did you listen to Jeb Bush make his announcement yesterday? Did you hear loud cheers from a crowd that seemed excited at the prospect that there could be another Bush as President? Was I the only one confused? I don’t know one person who doesn’t threaten to leave the Country if it’s Bush vs Clinton for President again. Can’t imagine folks actually excited and cheering for Jeb. It got me wondering, would someone like Jeb, or another candidate that’s been struggling like he has, hire a crowd? Pay people to attend their rallies to make them seem like their gaining...

We heard the news about Hillary's fake Twitter and Facebook followers and her operatives pretending to be her regular supporters. Is it possible that it also is happening right here on Free Republic Web site? Free Republic is a premier Conservative site. Most of us know who, among the presidential candidates, is the most Conservative. Our candidate happens to be effective in his campaigning also. Our enemies know that and fear him the most. Naturally, Free Republic is turning into a battleground. We don't know who they are: other Republican campaign operatives, GOPe, Hillary's camp, Democratic operatives, union thugs, Castro...

The movement that began in Zuccotti Park didn't disappear—it just splintered and regrouped around a variety of focused causes.On her first campaign stop in Iowa in April, Hillary Clinton struck a decisively populist tone, declaring that “the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.” Later, she sharpened her rhetoric on income inequality by comparing the salaries of America’s richest hedge fund managers with kindergarten teachers. Clinton isn’t alone. Democratic presidential challenger Bernie Sanders has spent the spring railing against the excesses of Wall Street greed while calling for a financial transactions tax and a breakup of...

Two weeks ago, courtesy of the investigative work of Nafeez Ahmed whose deep dig through a recently declassified and formertly Pentagon documents released earlier by Judicial Watch FOIA, we learned that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad. In his words: "According to the newly declassified US document, the Pentagon foresaw the likely rise of the ‘Islamic State’ as a direct consequence of the strategy, but described this outcome as a strategic opportunity to “isolate the Syrian regime.” Now, in a follow up piece to his stunning original investigative report...

Even before his term of office expired at noon on January 20, 2001, President William Jefferson Clinton was quietly querying friendly members of the U.S. Supreme Court to see if they would be inclined to rule that the 25th Amendment prevented a president from serving more than two terms in the White House, or if there might be five justices on the high court who could be legally persuaded that the 25th Amendment didn't exclude the president from serving more than two terms, only that it prevented him from serving more than two consecutive terms. If the Justices could be...

There has been a complete dismissal by some that the dubious management of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp, created by Gov. Scott Walker has led to a new investigation. Characterized a " partisan witch hunt" by his defenders, the reality is that GOP legislators have serious concerns about how unsecured loans were made and never repaid. In addition, GOP prosecutors, as well as the bypartisan audit team, soundly refute that dismissal. GOP legislators removed Walker as Chairman of the WEDC earlier this week. Here is a link to an article outlining GOP concerns on one of those loans, which is...

The Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) group reportedly promised to pay protesters $5,000 per month to stir up civil unrest in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer.Last year's protests in Ferguson, Missouri were attended by hired protesters who were promised thousands of dollars per month to participate in the Black Lives Matter movement, but the hiring organization never paid those protesters, and now they are speaking out. The Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) group, which succeeded the now-bankrupt St. Louis branch of the Association of Community Organizations...

Latin Post presents "Turnout," a series featuring leading Latino politicians, government leaders and advocacy groups discussing and debating the most important issues facing the Latino voting bloc. Listen to the Unedited "Turnout" Interview with People for the American Way's Coordinator for Political Campaigns Carlos Sanchez:(AUDIO-AND-VIDEO-AT-LINK)More than two-thirds of the U.S. Latino electorate live in six states -- Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas -- but one progressive advocacy organization has been working on having anti-Latino and anti-immigrant representatives accountable and heard for Latinos across the country, especially for the presidential election season. With people entering their names for...

Remember the protests (and riots) in Ferguson last summer? It looks like at least some of the protestors were told they would be paid to show up and now they're upset the checks haven't arrived yet. Weaselzippers has the full story and the screen shots showing "protestors" using the Twitter hashtag #cutthecheck in response to non-payment. Based on tweets, Organize Missouri is responsible for issuing payments. On May 14, protesters, upset with not being paid their promised checks for protesting, protested outside MORE, Missourians Organizing For Reform and Empowerment, an ACORN organization which had received funding through George Soros to...

The ceaseless torrent of anti-gun commentary from the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, and other “mainstream” media outlets, apparently isn’t enough for billionaire firearm prohibitionist Michael Bloomberg. On May 8, Capital reported that the ex-mayor of New York is developing a “news operation” to work alongside his Everytown for Gun Safety organization in furtherance of his megalomaniacal gun control agenda.

<p>Earlier this week black protesters staged a protest at at the office of MORE (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment) on Thursday to press their claim that groups led by whites have collected tens of thousands of dollars in donations off of the Black Lives Matter movement without paying the Black participants their fair share.</p>

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's comments last month opposing legal immigration came as a shock. How could a man who until a little over month ago was even willing to consider a path to citizenship for undocumented workers pull such an "Olympic-quality flip-flop"? But the real story is not Walker's switcheroo, but the conservative punditocracy's switcheroo that paved the way for his. Walker, who is fast sprinting into the first place for the Republican presidential nomination, told Glenn Beck recently that "The next president and the next Congress need to make decisions about a legal immigration system that's based, first and...

SEE: Critical of Obama’s past actions, GOP now wants to give him more power on trade ”Republicans have consistently railed at President Obama’s exercise of his executive authority, disparaging him as “an emperor” who has ignored Congress on immigration, climate and Cuba. Now that they fully control the Congress, those same Republicans critics are on the verge of handing the president expansive new powers to circumvent those who want to stand in his way on trade. GOP leaders in both chambers are close to introducing legislation that would grant the administration broad authority to finalize one of the largest free-trade...

The media’s conventional wisdom is that Mike Huckabee, a onetime winner of the Iowa caucuses, doesn’t have much of a shot in 2016. So why are some pundits and news outlets suddenly attacking him if he’s just an asterisk? The answer is that the former Arkansas governor and ex-Fox News contributor will matter, at least in the early states. And beyond that, some conservatives have a visceral dislike for the guy—and especially for his passionate defense of entitlement programs.

The media’s conventional wisdom is that Mike Huckabee, a onetime winner of the Iowa caucuses, doesn’t have much of a shot in 2016. So why are some pundits and news outlets suddenly attacking him if he’s just an asterisk? The answer is that the former Arkansas governor and ex-Fox News contributor will matter, at least in the early states. And beyond that, some conservatives have a visceral dislike for the guy—and especially for his passionate defense of entitlement programs.

Ideas include oath to single candidate, pledge to stay in race until end.SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — As the Republican National Committee convenes its spring meeting in this resort city, conservative activists fearful of getting stuck with another moderate candidate in 2016 are gathering 2,300 miles away to plot strategies to engineer the presidential nomination to their liking. Representatives of some 40 conservative groups plan to meet Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the Washington suburb of McLean, Virginia, where they will air their fears of having the nomination process hijacked by establishment Republicans and wrestle over different strategies to turn the...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — As the Republican National Committee convenes its spring meeting in this resort city, conservative activists fearful of getting stuck with another moderate candidate in 2016 are gathering 2,300 miles away to plot strategies to engineer the presidential nomination to their liking. Representatives of some 40 conservative groups plan to meet Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the Washington suburb of McLean, Virginia, where they will air their fears of having the nomination process hijacked by establishment Republicans and wrestle over different strategies to turn the primaries and caucuses to their advantage. Their goal is to avoid ending...

The purpose of recent articles about RINO Speaker John Boehner and his supporters was to make clear that the biggest problem conservative voters face is betrayal by candidates who lie about what they will do if elected. Because the United States leans conservative, RINO conservative poseurs have the greatest need to lie in order to win elections. Apparently, this is still not clear. On April 14, Rush Limbaugh effusively praised an egregious phony, Marco Rubio. The next day, Limbaugh astonishingly defended that praise with toxic acquiescence in preemptive surrender to contempt for the Constitution and rule of law.