Free Republic

**SNIP** Landrieu favors building the Keystone XL pipeline, protecting tax breaks or incentives for oil drilling, and placing limits on the power of federal agencies to set mercury or carbon dioxide guidelines for coal-fired power plants. Wyden takes the opposite position on all those issues. Landrieu supports giving oil companies the right to export crude oil as well as natural gas, while Wyden, who before becoming chairman introduced a bill to block natural gas exports, does not have a public position on crude oil exports. The Louisiana Democrat helps maintain the Democrats’ majority in the Senate, but she is closer...

**SNIP** “I am excited and honored to lead this committee that is so critical to Louisiana and the nation’s economic vitality, job creation and energy security. I’m humbled to be a part of the long list of pro-energy senators from both parties who have led this committee with strength, vision and distinction, including one of Louisiana’s finest, J. Bennett Johnston “During the coming weeks and months, I will remain focused on moving an agenda forward that is inclusive, bipartisan and focused on the job creation that America needs and wants. Everything we do will be part of helping to build...

This afternoon True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Elijah Cummings alleging the Congressmen intimidated her and and her group. Rep. Elijah Cummings on three separate occasions sent letters from the House Oversight and Government Reform, stating that he had concerns and felt it necessary to open an investigation on True the Vote. The Congressman also smeared True the Vote in several cable news interviews in 2012. In the hearing today, Cummings accused True the Vote of racism saying that they were trying to suppress the vote. Catherine Engelbrecht was on with Megyn Kelly tonight:...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday announced the hiring of Paul Teller, the veteran Hill staffer who conservative activists rallied around after his high-profile ouster as the lead staffer on a prominent Republican committee last month. Teller, the former executive director of the House Republican Study Committee, will serve as Cruz’s new deputy chief of staff, starting this week. “Paul’s many years of experience working in Congress and his tireless work to advance conservative principles make him a tremendous addition to our team,” Cruz said. “I look forward to working with him to keep making Texans’ voices heard in Washington...

Hearing will be live on CSPAN.

SAN JOSE -- A San Jose city committee Wednesday poured cold water on a proposal to eliminate soda pop, whole milk and other sugary or fattening beverages at city libraries, community centers and other public facilities. Councilman Ash Kalra's proposal hit a brick wall at the agenda-setting Rules and Open Government committee. Mayor Chuck Reed, who leads the committee, said "this definitely will not make my top 10 list" of potential ordinances to consider. Though he was willing at least to have the council as a whole decide whether to pursue it, none of the other committee members moved to...

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Obama Treasury Secretary Jack Lew for withholding documentation from Congress in the ongoing IRS Tea Party Scandal investigation. The Oversight Committee accuses the Obama Administration of impeding and obstructing the investigation. “During the past two weeks, President Obama and you have repeatedly labeled the IRS’s strategy of targeting Americans for their political beliefs as a ‘phony’ scandal. While the Obama Administration has so publicly deflected responsibility for the targeting, it simultaneously has attempted to thwart congressional oversight into the matter… the IRS has engaged in a systematic effort to delay, frustrate,...

Chairman of the Knesset House Committee removed MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud-Beyteinu) from the Education Committee following his announcement to suspend his parliamentary coalition activity in response to being banned from the Temple Mount. Feiglin remained unfazed, "My adamant demand to enforce Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount in more important to me..."

On top of everything else, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced on Monday that it will probe Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' efforts to shake insurance companies down for cash, to help "educate" the public about the ObamaCare disaster it hates. That would be the same ObamaCare that will employ the corrupt Internal Revenue Service as enforcers. What else does anyone need to know about it?

(CNSNews.com) - The House Ways and Means Committee wants to know when the White House first knew that the Internal Revenue Service was targeting groups for heightened scrutiny for their political views, including groups that used the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax exempt status, or that sought to educate people about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has provided a timeline to congressional staff that indicates that in the 2010 election year the Internal Revenue Service instructed officials in its "Determinations Unit" to "be on the lookout...

Their own plan doesn´t even come close to balancing, of course, and they´re not interested in other ideas to get there. The first Republican amendment they torpedoed yesterday called for increasing federal spending at a clip of "only" 3.4 percent per year over the next decade, rather than the major acceleration that Democrats have advanced. The second proposed making it more procedurally difficult to pass a budget that does not balance with ten years. Watch as each Democrat-aligned committee member votes in lockstep against these provisions. Make no mistake,

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul is demanding answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton regarding the release of illegal immigrants from detention centers. In a letter addressed to Morton and carbon copied to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Wednesday, McCaul expresses concern about news that ICE has started releasing detained illegal immigrants, and in doing so is failing to enforce the law. “This decision reflects the lack of resource prioritization within the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is indicative of the Department’s weak stance on National Security,” McCaul wrote.

United States Senator John Kerry easily overcame the first hurdle of his confirmation as the next secretary of state Tuesday with a unanimous vote of approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry, President Barack Obama's pick to replace Hillary Clinton as the nation's top diplomat, must still be confirmed by a vote of the full Senate later in the day, which he is expected to receive without contention. The five-term Massachusetts Democrat, who has been a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 28 years and led it for the past four, said he was "humbled" and gratified...

St. Louis lawyer Ed Martin, who lost his GOP bid this fall for Missouri attorney general, came roaring back Saturday by getting elected as the new chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. Martin narrowly defeated current chairman David Cole, 34-32, on the second round of balloting by the 68-member state GOP committee, sources say. Two members apparently were absent during the voting, which took place at a hotel in Columbia, Mo. The third contender for the post, outgoing state Sen. Jane Cunningham of Chesterfield, was out of the running after garnering only seven votes on the first ballot, which saw...

Politico reported on Thursday that Eva Longoria will co-chair the 2013 inauguration committee along with former Ambassador to Sweden Matthew Barzun, Democratic National Committee National Finance Chair Jane Stetson, and technology entrepreneur and Obama bundler Frank White. “Vice President Biden and I are grateful to these distinguished women and men for agreeing to serve as co-chairs and honorary co-chairs, including presidents from both sides of the aisle who have dedicated their lives to serving the American people,” Obama said in a statement. The actress served as a national campaign co-chair for Obama and bundled $271, 300 for his reelection effort. Additionally,...

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terror group vowed to retaliate against Israel on Sunday after announcing that two men killed earlier in an IAF air strike were members of the group, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported. The group confirmed that Izz Addin Abu Nuseira, 23, and Ahmad Abu Fatayir, 22, were affiliated with its Nasser Saladin Brigades. Both were killed when the IAF struck targets in the terrorist haven of Gaza for the fourth time in 24 hours Sunday afternoon. The IAF said the targets were part of a terror squad that had fired a rocket at Israel a...

The head of the Palestinian Olympic delegation has thanked the International Olympic Committee for denying, again, requests to hold a moment of silence to honor the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In a letter sent Tuesday to IOC President Jacques Rogge, Jibril Rajoub said any show of solidarity with the victims would constitute “racism.” The Palestinian terror group Black September was responsible for the slayings. “Sports are a bridge for love, communication and the spreading of peace between nations and should not be used for divisiveness and the spread of racism,” Rajoub wrote, according to the...

Congressional Republicans have been targeted by a crime wave this spring, with burglars curiously able to repeatedly break into offices without security noticing. Despite security in the Hill office buildings, the offices of Reps. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) were burglarized last month, with Runyan’s office hit twice. Also hit was the Oversight and Government Reform Committee office and the staff office for the Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, both under control of the Republican majority.

The House passed the administration’s offshore wind power bill Friday amid accusations Gov. Martin O’Malley secured votes on the House Economic Matters Committee with disparity grants to committee members’ districts. “Those of you who have been here longer than two weeks know there’s a lot of complicated pressures that go into making a bill pass or fail,” said House Minority Leader Anthony O’Donnell. “Sometimes it takes a little nudge, sometimes it takes a carrot, and sometimes it takes a stick.” The disparity grant program in Maryland provides subsidies to jurisdictions with income tax receipts that fall below 75% of the...

Modern corporate culture is in L-O-V-E, love with meetings (and any opportunity to engage in groupthink). But if you look back, history's real intellectual heavyweights weren't "team players." Intellectual giants like DaVinci, Einstein, and even Steve Wozniak, all developed their best works in near solitude. Quiet, by Susan Cain, examines why the world's best thinkers have usually been lone wolves. March 5, 1975. A cold and drizzly evening in Menlo Park, California. Thirty unprepossessing-looking engineers gather in the garage of an unemployed colleague named Gordon French. They call themselves the Homebrew Computer Club, and this is their first meeting. Their...