Free Republic

Not possible. Grayson lost 65-35 in his congressional district, one that probably leans slightly Dem (Obama won it both times). He then cherry picked a strongly left leaning Democrat district to run in last time. One where he could buy the primary and have no chance of losing the general. He got his place in Congress back, but he’s got zero ability to win state-wide.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why the concept of border security is such a foreign concept in DC. It is common sense everywhere else.

You don’t think Limbaugh goes after the establishment? Have you listened int the past three years?

The only thing he does that could be called out is watch his tongue when it is about a likely Presidetial nominee. He but his tongue all year in 2012 about Romney, but it was clear he had major problems. Same with Rubio now. He’s making it clear this bill is bullsh... but is careful to to goon the record with quotes about Rubio that can be used by opposition. It is obvious he is disgusted with this bill and the lies being told to push it.

No offense to Rubio, but that’s the least of the troubles with this bill.

I agree. I am just not sure propping up the GOP and House leadership is the way to do it. They are operating as if they assume we'll show up in 2014 no matter what. They need to know they can be yanked out of power with ease, and to champion conservative principles. If the House rolls over and passes anything resembling the Senate immigration bill, they'll lose me. Then, once the house of cards crumble, I'll be one of the first to help rebuild.

It is fascism. Why call it something else?.

I thought the GOP was dead?

I waiver back and forth whether we should just let the GOP crumble in 2014 to get rid of this rancid leadership, or whether it is vital to the country to keep some balance of power. I thought of Obama having Pelosi and Reid for 2 final years seems unpalatable....and I think that’s what the RNC is betting on. Still not sure we shouldn’t let the Dems take over and hit rock bottom in hopes of saving it a generation from now.

We have to organize and make it clear that the House needs to put together their own bill with the right objectives, and stand firm. Border security, modernizing the immigration laws, guest worker expansion. The executive branch has shown they will bastardize whatever rules are set for immigration, so we can give them any room to manipulate a legalization process. If someone wants to get aa legal worker status and then follow the same path as someone outside our borders, that's fine...no special path, no amnesty, no wiggle room for corrupt bureaucrats.

Wasn't Rubio mandating the exact opposite of that when this charade started. When he did his first media tour a few months ago, he hit all the right buttons, and now is pulling a classic DC bait & switch, with the priority on legalization with no assurances that border security will ever happen. What as sad disappointment. I can handle some moderation on this issue, but this is pure left wing ideology.

It is sad to watch so many of our 2010 heroes fall apart in office. With Rubio’s decree today, he is definitely a lost cause. Paul Ryan has evolved from a Heritage Foundation superstar to the DC bureaucracy’s best friend. Chris Christie went from staring down the unions to licking the behinds of those powered by the unions. Kasich is now gung-ho for Washington medicaid dollars. Ayotte is a squish. Etc, etc.

I think some of these guys saw what the RNC did to Allan West and other conservatives when they stepped out of line, and have decided the riches of DC are too good to risk away.

My congressman will be getting a firm message on this one. If he votes for a crappy bill, I am staying home in 2014. I’ve never skipped an even year election, but this is ballgame. If this passes, 2014 doesn’t matter.

Earlier, it looked like Jeb Bush was going to run to Rubio’s right on this issue, to prepare for 2016. Now, he’s signing on. I guess he isn’t running.

I think he’s more of a Paul-ite, with liberal tenancies. He went third party, but was hopeful Obama would right the wrongs of the past. That’s a total definition of the Ron Paul anti-Bush feelings of 2008.

I bet 95% of our nation has no idea what ‘right of return’ is. If we nit pick any conservative candidate because they don’t answer one question on the fly, we will never have a viable candidate.

Amen.

If he is going to try to make it a good bill to address the real needs for immigration reform, then he deserves credit. If he signs on to this crap sandwich, he deserves what he’s getting. I am willing to wait and see on all these guys. Rubio is the one most teetering with our good will. Paul Ryan looks to be, too. Rand is, so far, focused on fixing the bad parts.

Who infiltrated Townhall? The NSA’s job is not to track every phone call, email, and internet posting by private citizens. If it is, the NSA needs to be dismantled yesterday.

These SCOTUS updates are giving me a horrible reminder of a year ago this month when we were anxiously awaiting the Obamacare decision.

I believe you are correct. I wonder if our courts will see it the same way. If looking at the original purpose of the limits of government, there is no way a justice can say that it would be permissible to track every action, word, purchase, communication, etc.

Looking at it purely from a political perspective, how can a candidate ever participate in a fair campaign again. How can a campaign chairman communicate with their team on a campaign message over the phone or email? The government in real time will act in it’s own interest to use that information to protect itself from any individual or group who wants to limit government.

We have multiple departments demonstrating that they will use their capabilities for political action in just this calendar year.

We’ve got a stagnant economy, a simmering Middle East and serious domestic rights violations. This is the result of bad ideas.

Bubba spoke at a conference I was at a few years ago and my coworkers and I skipped. I don’t need to sit and be lied to for an hour and half. I knew I’d just leave pissed.

Most Americans couldn’t care less. Most see no threat by the government. Government is their buddy, their caretaker and is there to ‘help’ them get along and protect them. We have a lot of unlearning to do for the majority under 50.

I don’t know. He wasn’t good on it when he was in the statehouse, either. Part is his heritage. Part is his history as a Jeb protege. He can still get beyond this if he makes some good decisions and backs out. If he keeps trying to sell this garbage, he’s going to be done polically.

If I was in nj, I’d stay home next election. This wins him no votes from democrats. He looks like n unprincipled loser, like Scott brown did in 2012. No convictions.

Rubio has been horrible on this issue. Truly horrible. He’s damn good on nearly everything else. As a Florida constituent, I am not going to throw Rubio under the bus...at least not yet. He can come out of this okay if he exits the gang correctly or proposes a reasonable alternative that gets rid of the amnesty and strengthens the border enforcement.

If he continues to push this crap sandwich all the way through the senate, he deserves whatever is thrown at him.

I am sure my Google account knows quite a bit about me, such as mapping, etc. Both companies have the potential to grab much more data than I would like, but at this point, I am not doing anything so important that it matters. I doubt either company, nor the government cares.

Apple was doing some sort of massive tracking at one point, but supposedly they stopped. Who knows. My assumption is both are gathering data on location, calls made, websites visited, etc. Even if they aren’t actively doing anything with it, the data is there.

The phones I had were constantly one to two versions behind. When a phone finally upgraded, it was usually about the time the next software version was out. I am generally a proponent of the more open source options on the market, but twice I had my phone pretty much become inoperable about 18 months after purchase. I also grew more weary of google knowing my every move.

Now I let Apple track me instead :) at least my phone works now though.

There are a whole lot of voters in the other 53% voting for the democrats. Some very successful. Getting through the barriers to communicate to these people is worthwhile.

If you smoke...no healthcare.
If you are over-weight...no healthcare.
If you chose to have regular sex with multiple partners and risk AIDS and other diseases...you are celebrated.

Such is the America of the 21st century.

As Wilkow has stated on his radio show for several years, if the gay community wants government intervention in their private lives, then they should have no problems if the government uses it’s heavy hand to enforce certain behaviors. Just like the government can cut lung cancer treatment for smokers, they can look at one’s sexual behaviors to cut treatment for the other things.

It will never happen in this current society, but it is a fair warning to those who welcome endless government into our lives.

Yep, the ‘safe’ choices all lost, too. Akin did cost us an easy win. He should have gotten out of the race. MO was a clear Romney win, but we lost against a weak incumbent.

I will be the first to talk about our poor candidates in FL, VA, and WI. All party choices. All ran lackadaisical campaigns. That doesn’t excuse the errors by Akin and Murdoch. Still think Murdoch’s comments were overrated, but follow Akin’s blunder, he shouldn’t have been that stupid.

If Barack Obama got reelected because of Murdoch or Akin, then America is too stupid to survive.

I am tired of hearing about these two. I bet less than .5 percent had their vote swayed by those two people. The people outraged would have been easily outraged about something else.

It did cause us to lose two Senate seats, however. Akin should have gotten out the second he screwed up. Murdoch making that mistake was idiotic, especially after Akin, but it was far too late in the process to get out. His statement was magnified much worse because of Akin, and a more skilled candidate would have been able to recover in a heavy GOP state.

My tagline says it all. We let the left defne us in 2012. It worked. As one poster said, with young voters, we can’t expect a marketing campaign to counter 12 years of indoctrination. We have to be out there speaking to younger voters all the time. This means going on TV shows they watch, speaking on campuses and running ads throughout the year.

Paul Ryan wanted to go out on the tour of campuses and help convert some of these people. The campaign did not permit it.

Huh? He is arguing that that national party has failed and will continue to fail without new leadership. He’s 100% accurate. I think you are confusing candidate selection in different states with party organization. The party organization is a failure and is losing.

2004 was decisive. Peibus is clearly not up to this job. I thought he was going to be a fairly good choice, but he’s weak kneed. We have such a black hole when it comes to leadership....it is depressing. I will follow Ted Cruz as long as he stays course.

They ran and uninspiring, defensive campaign and did not properly lay out obama’s failures. That’s why they lost. With the exception of the well staged Salyndra photo op in early summer and a spectacular 1st debate, it was a lifeless, message-less campaign.

Unions are like.a cockroach infestation. Just when you think you have it u dee control, they make a grotesque resurgence.

Haha. Enjoyed your description. Very true, too. I guess having a world class athlete as half of the gene pool helps in this regard.

Untitled.

Sounds intriguing.

Yep. Ryan has morphed into an arm of the leadership. He was a man of big ideas, who could articulate conservative ideas. I don’t see much of that any more. I understand he serves at the pleasure of the leadership as Budget Chair, but he lost his independence completely as of late.

Time and time again, our VP candidates are chosen to placate conservatives, but shortly after each one, they are either demeaned, compromised, or ridiculed until they become ineffective.

Serving four terms and retiring is not quitting, Fenn. It is called serving and then stepping aside gracefully. It is what more lifelong DC vermin need to do.

Washington DC was supposed to be a place where citizens served and then went back home...not a destination.

Fenn...didn’t Hillary and Obama abandon their positions in the Senate to run for President. They are quitters.

Shrinking margins? It’s called redistricting. This attack is patently absurd.

She CAN and DOES sell conservatism. She actually did quite well in the presidential primaries until Perry entered and took the lead. Then, she fell apart.

The left targeted her as the #1 target nationally because she is a major threat. Why else would they target her? Once they took down Palin, they turned their guns on Bachmann. They figured they could use the same template of lies, deception and 24/7 media assault. Somehow you think those efforts have no effect. Look how effective the ‘heartless rich guy’ had on Romney last year. To any honest observer, Romney was miles better prepared to be an effective president, but the weight of the left’s media/entertainment/political machine did their thing. They do it because it works. In my job, I observe media outlets, and watch the local ‘alternative’ media throughout the country bring up Bachmann day in and day out with ridiculous and false attacks. With her out of the way, they’ll turn those same guns on others.

It’s the same as we are starting to see with Cruz. It’s what we saw with Allen West, Palin, etc. The list goes on and on. Bachmann isn’t the problem here, and I have no clue where you are getting it. She’s highly effective, she’s right on the issues, and she’s a leader among conservatives.

Red state > Blue state. Period.

She had tough races because the national leftists poured tens of millions to defeat her. She prevailed through it all. She’s a great spokesperson for our views, which is why she’s under track. Liberals can’t allow successful women, blacks or Hispanics that can sell conservatism.

Bachmann is one of the good ones. Watching her under attack here makes me want to stop coming here to avoid all the sniping from suppose allies.

The problem with Obamacare implementation isn’t Sebulbus, or any other individual. The law itself is massively flawed. Allowing this to be scapegoated on a person’s inability to implement allows the left to perpetrate the idea that is can be implemented to achieve Obama’s stated goals is a defeat. It has to be destroyed...after 2014, one bit at a time. First, we use it as a whole to club the Democrats for one more election cycle, then start attacking one bit at a time. First the IRS’s role, then the insurance requirements that are causing increased costs to people, then the board of decision makers. Then, block grant Medicaid after 2016 and start doing small intricate changes to Medicare...follow Ryan’s plan, one bit at a time.

There’s no way to reverse it entirely based on the results of the 2012 elections. It is going to take good politics and execution to fix this disaster of a medical system.

There still needs to be a tax collection entity, but the flat tax would massively change it’s scope and purpose. It would need to verify revenue and income sources, and that’s it.

Snookie spoke out against Obama. Didn’t like the tanning tax.

When a low-grade intellect like that figured out Obama, I am still shocked 51% still along for 4 more years.

Cruz is the REAL DEAL. Where guys like Ryan, Rubio, and others have fallen short. Cruz takes stands on principle first and knows how to explain it. These other guys are right much of the time, but kowtow to leadership way too often and buy into the left’s propaganda in defining the issues.

McCain was THE worst in the current era. Romney was better than McCain, and by a long shot. Dole and McCain are both as bad as it got. I like Dole, at least, despite his weaknesses. Not sure I would bother getting a bucket of water if McCain was on fire.

Really? F&F beat Hangover AND Star Trek?