Free Republic

Here is an idea for an effective way for Donald Trump to push back against the Republican establishment. Trump should simply announce that any member of Congress who voted against the omnibus bill has his support for re-election, and he should invite those individuals to appear with him at campaign appearances or otherwise provide similar access for them. Conversely, he should announce that any challenger to an incumbent member of Congress who voted for the omnibus bill has his support and access. This could effectively have a chilling impact on the donor class that controls the Republican Party and seems...

**SNIP** "A few months ago, I directed my team at the White House to look into any new actions I can take to help reduce gun violence," Obama said in the address. "And on Monday, I'll meet with our attorney general, Loretta Lynch, to discuss our options." The Washington Post, citing several individuals briefed on the matter, said Obama and Lynch would finalize executive actions, which do not require congressional approval, that he will unveil next week. Frustrated by Congress, Obama has vowed to use "whatever power this office holds" to put in place gun control measures.

The Obama administration's loathing of Benjamin Netanyahu knows no bounds; nor, apparently, does its contempt for Congress: Top Democrats in Congress are brushing off a report that U.S. intelligence intercepted communications between Israeli government officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Rep. Eliot Engel (N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it is no secret that the U.S. and Israel spy on each other, even though they are allies. "I'm not surprised," he told The Hill. "I kind of think the report is much to do about nothing."Engel, a staunch supporter of Israel, said he met twice...

**SNIP** "These refineries provide transportation fuels and home heating oil for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American families". Upton wrote, lifting the ban may spur investment to expand the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port to allow for imports and exports, which would create "a two-way trading hub" that could shift global focus to Louisiana's Gulf Coast, making it a "global hub" for the industry. There's consensus on at least one thing - most analysts agree we probably won't feel the effects of the end of the ban for a while, not even in the next year. The U.S. produced...

Can a President Cruz work with Congress? As an open and vocal supporter of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100%‘s presidential campaign, I find that those not yet committed to Cruz tend to more frequently ask me two specific questions than they do any others. The first question concerns general election electability: “How can Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100%, Tea Party conservative purist, possibly win a general election?” The electability debate has truthfully been analyzed to death elsewhere, and I do not intend to address it here. For now, suffice it to say that I would never support Cruz if I...

The administration issued a record amount of heft in the federal rule book in 2015 as President Obama's team, carrying out his orders to work around Congress, pushed his expansive government agenda on environmental, labor and Wall Street policy. With one day to go, the administration added 81,611 pages to the Federal Register, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's count of the official record-keeping digest of federal agencies' rule-making. It's the highest total on record and the third time Mr. Obama has crossed the 80,000-page level during his presidency, the institute's Clyde Wayne Crews calculated. "This is the pen and...

A House panel on Wednesday announced it is opening an investigation into U.S. intelligence collection that may have swept up members of Congress. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's announcement of the probe comes after a Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. collected information on private exchanges between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of Congress during ongoing negotiations for nuclear deal with Iran.

WSJ: White House Used NSA to Spy on Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, Members of Congress, American Jewish Groups Dec. 30, 2015 7:23am Sharona Schwartz Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the target of National Security Agency eavesdropping which also netted the private conversations of members of U.S. Congress and American Jewish groups, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The alleged spying took place despite a promise two years ago by President Barack Obama -- after it was revealed that the NSA had listened in on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone calls -- that the U.S. "will not monitor the communications of...

U.S. spying programs scooped up communications between members of Congress and Israeli leaders, giving the White House insight into Israel’s lobbying of U.S. lawmakers against the Iran nuclear deal, current and former U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal. The article, published Tuesday afternoon, reports that the U.S. continued to spy on select leaders of allied nations despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to curb such surveillance two years ago, and that it was a top priority to maintain spying on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. As part of that continued surveillance, the National Security Agency also swept...

All: I'm in discussions with some Twitter guys trying to crow about Rubio's voting record and overall "conservatism." He has a GREAT ACU record (over 95%), but I looked at the ACU site to see how it assigns this and I want to make sure I have this right, so please weigh in: ACU gives a legislator + or - based on votes for or against a position ACU holds, plus STATEMENTS about positions ACU holds. So am I right that someone could amass a very high ACU record, yet either be absent---or vote the wrong way---on the final or...

Establishment Republicans gave Democrats a generous Christmas gift this year while at the same time stuffing conservatives' stockings with coal in the passage of the omnibus spending bill. These Republicans obviously forgot that it was the hard work of grassroots conservatives that gave them the majority, winning the largest number of Congressional seats since the Civil War during the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections. Conservatives expected a little something in return. Nothing big, they just wanted them to keep their promises to stop (or at least stall) some of President Obama's highly unpopular policies, not continue or increase them. No...

Note: This Christmas message was so popular last year that I've decided to share it with you again, with a minor revision to bring it up to date. TF On Christmas Day, 1776, the American Revolution appeared to be dead. George Washington's Continental Army had been driven out of New Jersey. The British and Hessian troops, who assumed the serious fighting was over, had entered winter quarters. King George III and the British Parliament appeared set to continue an abusive set of policies that American colonists said deprived them of their rights as Englishmen. The battle cry of "No...

Paul Ryan brags about the appropriations bill being a big win because of the lifting of the crude oil export ban. But the win is for Paul Ryan's family. This is corruption. Ryan sold us out to line his own pockets. And it isn't the first time. See Ryan's Shrewd Budget Payday. In short, Ryan's wife and in-laws have made millions with Oklahoma oil and gas leases. This lifting of the crude export ban is a financial windfall for this family. Paul Ryan Justifies Oil Exports: 'Like Having 100 Keystone Pipelines'

A pro-Islamist resolution, HR 569, was introduced in Congress and referred to the Judiciary Committee on December 17th. Although it is quite unlikely that a binding law implementing the resolution will be enacted anytime soon, the resolution shows that troublesome views are held by many members of Congress. The fight for the rights of women is among the most difficult aspects of the fight against Islam and Islamisation. The views expressed in HR 569, if implemented, would make that fight even more difficult.Here is a list of the seventy-four members who supported H.R. 569: Mr. Beyer (for himself, Mr. Honda, Mr....

... Obama is well aware that he misjudged the public's level of anxiety about terrorism and must scramble to counter what he sees as overheated rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates that filled the void he created by his tepid initial response...

The Justice Department said this week it is putting off payments "for the time being" to local law enforcement agencies that participate in the federal asset forfeiture program. The move comes after Congress recently took $1.2 billion from the department's asset forfeiture fund as part of budget maneuvering. Under the program, the Justice Department permits local law enforcement to share proceeds of seized assets from investigations in which they participated. But significant cuts to the fund by Congress mean those "equitable sharing" payments are being put on hold. ...

Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a lawsuit on December 2, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking records of communications from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials regarding methodology for collecting and interpreting data used in climate models (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Commerce (No 1:15-cv-02088)). The lawsuit sought the same documents unsuccessfully subpoenaed by a House committee. Less than week after Judicial Watch served its lawsuit on NOAA, the agency finally turned over the targeted documents to Congress. ... Judicial Watch is investigating how NOAA collects and disseminates climate data...

Republicans on Monday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting in a letter to his Iranian counterpart that the administration could help the country get around new visa restrictions passed by Congress. Instead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime, the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif ... Kerry responded to these concerns in a Dec. 19 letter to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif -- and suggested the...

See: Trump: Republicans ‘threw in the towel’ on spending bill December 18, 2015 "Trump on Friday blasted the spending bill, saying it would result in "higher deficits, greater debt, less economic liberty and more corporate welfare." "Congress cannot seem to help itself in bending to every whim of special interests," Trump said. "How can they face their constituents when they continue to burden our children and grandchildren with debts they will never be able to repay? Our government is failing us, so we must do something about it. Who knows how bad things will be when the next administration comes...

[This was co-authored by NCPA Legislative Director Brian Williams] When digging yourself deeper into a hole, the best course of action is to stop digging. That's good advice for one and all. Back in January, the Congressional leadership promised to stop digging, so to speak. They promised to bring "regular order" to an out-of-control spending spree, to fight against the Obama Administration's spending addiction, and to restore fiscal sanity to the federal government. We had high hopes. But here we are, twelve months later, and Congress is still digging. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the Congressional leadership introduced...