Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Asian Chamber of Commerce last week: "The Asian population is so productive. I don't think you're smarter than anybody else, but you've convinced a lot of us you are." In remarks videotaped by the GOP group America Rising, Reid also joked that he has trouble keeping his "Wongs straight." Then followed this apology: "My comments were in extremely poor taste, and I apologize. Sometimes I say the wrong thing." Sometimes? Reid is being far too humble. After the perfunctory apology, then comes the phase when Beltway solons offer explanations for why the Senate's...

Col. Rob Maness Qualifies for Ballot, Calls on LA Secretary of State to Investigate Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Residency Qualifications.... Baton Rouge, LA - This morning, while officially qualifying for the November ballot, Col. Rob Maness (R-Louisiana) today delivered in-person, a letter to Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, calling on him to open an investigation examining the validity of Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) residency status. "It appears that there are significant inconsistencies that warrant an investigation regarding the residency status of one of the candidates who has filed for United States Senate," Maness' letter says. "On Wednesday, August 20, 2014,...

If there’s one thing that will generate bipartisan consensus on the Hill, it’s that the United States needs to get serious about confronting the Islamic State (ISIS) militarily. The National Journal recently posted a piece by James Kitfield, a senior fellow at Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress, argued that it’s time the U.S. declares war on the Islamic State–and have a debate on the U.S. interests at stake: Washington is overdue for a serious debate about what U.S. national interests are threatened by the Iraq crisis. … Most importantly, ISIS today represents a direct and growing threat...

Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog, By the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin became the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union after having eliminated his opposition. He topped it off in 1929 by serving a decisive blow to anyone that would dare to oppose him by outlawing private gun ownership in the country. From that year on until 1953 when Stalin died, it’s estimated that more than 20 million Soviet citizens that were seen as a threat to the country’s leadership. People were rounded up and either murdered outright, or sent to infamous gulag labor camps. Stalin is an...

Congress should use the appropriations process to reassert its authority over the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a Heritage Foundation issue brief released Tuesday.The report, written by scholar Daren Bakst, identifies three issues on which the EPA has proposed rules and regulations that exceed its authority. In all three cases, Bakst recommends that Congress prohibit the agency from using its funding to implement the proposals. (RELATED: EPA Overrides Congress, Hands Over Town to Indian Tribes)According to the report, “the EPA is using the regulatory process to require greenhouse gas emission reductions even as Congress has been unwilling to take such...

Last week, we were told there were 40,000 Yazidis on Sinjar Mountain facing starvation if they remained there, and slaughter by ISIS if they came down. But a team of Marines and Special Forces that helicoptered in has reported back that, with a corridor off the mountain opened up by U.S. air strikes, the humanitarian crisis is over. The few thousand who remain can be airdropped food and water. The rest can be brought out. The emergency over, President Obama should think long and hard about launching a new air war in Iraq or Syria. For Iraq War III holds...

The past few years have shown us that our political system is operating like a well-oiled machine, assuming that machine's primary purpose is to function horribly while producing nothing of value.. Stubbornness and disagreement have been raised to art forms, and the American people have made it clear they rate Congress only slightly more favorably than "scorpions in pants." The president isn't viewed much better, with an approval rating hovering around a dismal 40 percent. There's ample blame to go around — leftward, rightward, centerward (which isn't a word, but should be) — but a new poll homes in on...

The United States Postal Service (USPS) management just ran into a possible game-changing obstacle to its shameful pursuit of a fully privatized post office: labor solidarity. Here’s the background. For a decade the USPS has been aggressively shrinking, consolidating, and outsourcing the nation’s postal system. In July 2011 management upped the ante by announcing the rapid closure of 3600 local post offices, a step toward the eventual closing of as many as 15,000, half of all post offices in the nation.

State Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-Campbellsport) outpolled three fellow Republicans in the primary to advance to the general election for the Congressional District. He will face Democrat Mark Harris, the Winnebago County executive, in the Nov. 4 election.

For those of you, who perhaps aren't dialed into the onset of Football season and all the terminology appurtenant to it, "the rock" is slang for the football. Polls confirm that voters are set to hand the Republican party "the rock" - i.e., take the ball away from Democrats. Each day it looks more like an avalanche for the Pachyderms, although, as I note in today's post, the GOP can always be counted on to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. If you're strongly of the sentiment that Republicans embody everything that is virtuous on...

To the Honorable Members of the Senate and House of Representatives: My name is Jay Dobyns. In January of this year, I retired from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after twenty-seven years of decorated service. Today is the six-year anniversary of the arson of my home. My wife and two children were inside when the fire was set. They were lucky to escape and survive, although my home and all of our belongings were destroyed by that criminal act. Leading up to that conclusive and somewhat predictable event, my family and I had already endured years and dozens...

"AWOL" It simply means not being where you are supposed to be at the time you are supposed to be there. Congressman Adam Kinzinger is just like Obama he runs around to fundraisers while Rome is burning! Since Congress represents the PEOPLE'S HOUSE, yes it is OUR HOUSE we will move forward for the best interest of the people in the 16th Congressional District. If Congressman Adam Kinzinger cannot lead we will take the lead ourselves and fight for the American People, the American Worker and the American Taxpayer. You are invited to a Illinois 16th Congressional District Townhall. It...

A big part of President Obama’s political message has been the travails he’s suffered because of a “do nothing” Congress. The fact that there are over 300 bills passed by the House that are currently being blocked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) would seem to rebut the President’s contention. Of these House passed bills, 50% passed unanimously, 70% passed with a 2/3rds majority, and 55 were introduced by Democrat members of the House. “The House has been active trying to craft legislation to address an array of problems,” Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan) pointed out. “The charge that we...

look at the timetables and procedures ahead to possibly decide the outcome of the race in Tennessee's 4th congressional district, where incumbent Rep. Scott DesJarlais and challenger state Sen. Jim Tracy finished Thursday's Republican primary in a near tie. DAYS AHEAD: Election officials will look for any outstanding "provisional ballots" that were uncounted. This can include ballots cast by voters without proper ID at the polls. They have until the end of business hours Monday to produce acceptable identification to validate the vote. WEEKS AHEAD: The next step is to certify the vote count from each of the 16 counties...

It’s an epidemic! Or so it seems in the most transparent administration ever, anyway. Congress has been probing the disastrous rollout of ObamaCare, to find out exactly how the Department of Health and Human Services could have botched the job with three and a half years and nearly a billion dollars to spend. Once again, key records that are required to be retained have been deleted before investigators could see them: A top U.S. healthcare official involved in the botched rollout of the website HealthCare.gov may have deleted some emails that were later sought by Republican congressional investigators, administration...

WASHINGTON - President Obama's last gasp strategy in this year's midterm elections is to paint the Republicans in Congress as obstructionists, accusing them of playing politics with America's economic welfare. In his news conference last week, he insisted he had offered a number of new proposals to boost low-to-middle incomes, create jobs and strengthen the economy. But, he said, they had been stubbornly blocked by Republicans in the House and Senate. In Obama's deeply partisan world, there aren't two sides to the legitimate policy issues that now divide Congress. There's only one side: his side. And anyone who opposes him...

A libertarian, tea-party congressman just rolled to reelection in a congressional district that is home to some of the wealthiest people in the business wing of the Republican party. Representative Justin Amash (R., Mich.) was outspent by his opponent, Brian Ellis, who had the support of the Chamber of Commerce and other House Republicans, but it was never even a tight race. “It’s been a pretty significant lead for the congressman throughout,” a Republican consultant and pollster in Michigan unaffiliated with either campaign told National Review Online Monday. As of this writing, Amash enjoys a comfortable double-digit lead, garnering 57...

In five and half years in office President Obama has presided over an increase in the national debt of $7 trillion. His predecessor presided over a $4.9 trillion increase in eight years. Obama called the increase in the debt under Bush “unamerican.” What do you want to bet Obama doesn’t think the same of his debt increase? No doubt he’ll blame others. Our nation has a national debt of $17.6 trillion, it’s increased $12 trillion since 2001. This sort of debt is unsustainable and yet no one is talking about it. It’s no surprise that Obama doesn’t want to talk...

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) misled Congress on the number of veteran deaths in its health care system, adding to a growing list of untruths that VA has told congressmen trying to investigate the scandal-plagued department. The House Committee on Veterans Affairs, chaired by Republican Rep. Jeff Miller, is the latest victim of VA’s dishonesty. VA provided the committee an April 7, 2014 fact sheet purporting to show all of the cases of delays and preventable veteran deaths it oversaw in its gastrointestinal care in the last fifteen years. “As a result of the consult delay issue VA discovered...

One House Republican decided his colleagues needed a little inspiration, so he sent every one of them a new Bible. Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS) sent a letter as well, telling each of his House and Senate colleagues that the “best advice comes through meditating on God’s Word” and that the Holy Bible could “help guide you in your decision-making.” …