Free Republic

The House ethics committee announced Thursday it is investigating two California Democratic lawmakers, but its embarrassed leaders then had to explain that other members — named in a confidential memo that leaked out — may have committed no wrongdoing. The committee said it is investigating whether Rep. Maxine Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock, and whether the couple benefited as a result. Separately, the panel is investigating whether Rep. Laura Richardson failed to disclose required information on her financial disclosure forms and received special treatment from a lender.

National Republicans met with two potential challengers to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson on Wednesday as the GOP establishment continued to search for a candidate who can topple the outspoken freshman Democrat... State Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando, and businessman Bruce O'Donoghue sat down with GOP lawmakers and strategists from the National Republican Congressional Committee in meetings that participants described as productive -- although no verdict was reached. "It's great to see that these folks are very serious about the direction that this country is going," said O'Donoghue, who wouldn't commit to run. "This race is going to draw national attention, and...

Pelosi’s Bill: More Sludge in the D.C. Swamp Yesterday (Oct. 29), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) praised Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) for their help in determining the finances and taxes that will be levied in the new souped-up 1900-page health care bill. This “Affordable Health Care for America Act” (or H.R .3962) bill has been debated for months. It is a perfect example of liberal lunacy and promises reneged. Pelosi’s “gargantuan beast of a bill” contains 13 new tax hikes (“Comprehensive List of Taxes in the House Democrat Bill,” atr.org, October 30, 2009). Rep. Tom Price...

If members of Congress were up for a job review right now — instead of a year from now — the ranks of the unemployed would swell to an even higher level. Americans place a lot of the blame for conditions in the country on Congress and, because of that, about two-thirds want to “throw them out” of office, according to the latest FOX News poll. The national telephone poll was conducted for FOX News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from October 27 to October 28, 2009. The poll has a 3-point error margin. A sizable majority...

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer. The ethics committee is one of the most secretive panels in Congress, and its members and staff...

BREAKING: Comprehensive List of Taxes In House Democrat Health Bill From Ryan Ellis on Thursday, October 29, 2009 12:20 PM H.R. 3962, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" has been introduced--all 1990 pages of it. This gargantuan beast contains thirteen new tax hikes. Here they all are, with description and page number (PDF version): *** Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by...

What should the Republican Party do in a special election, in a conservative district, at a time when the liberal policies of the Democrat administration are increasingly unpopular? Well, if you're the New York state GOP, you nominate a pro-abortion, pro-union, pro-ACORN Republican who supports almost every plank of the destructive, unpopular left-wing agenda that's destroying our nation. Better yet, the GOP is actively attacking the CONSERVATIVE choice, Doug Hoffman. This is how you spell self-destruction.

House Minority Leader John Boehner appears with a copy of the Democrats’ version of the health care bill during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg) Washington - The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers. In most cases, the pain has been meted out with an eye toward raising the money needed to finance President Barack Obama's plan for reshaping the health system but...

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer.

Companies in hock to Washington now have the equivalent of 535 new board members -- 100 U.S. senators and 435 House members. Since the financial crisis broke, Congress has been acting like the board of USA Inc., invoking the infusion of taxpayer money to get banks to modify loans to constituents and to give more help to those in danger of foreclosure. Members have berated CEOs for their business practices and pushed for caps on executive pay. They have also pushed GM and Chrysler to reverse core decisions designed to cut costs, such as closing facilities and shuttering dealerships.

On Thursday, the United States House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution funding the Federal Government through December 18th. The continuing resolution was passed as part of the behemoth Interior-Environment Appropriations conference report. A continuing resolution is a stop-gap provision which allows the government to continue its operations until Congress can determine the next year’s appropriations. The actions taken today merely extended the expiration date of the resolution which went into effect on October 1st. By extending the existing continuing resolution Congress has continued to deprive ACORN and its affiliates of federal funds until December 18th. This is not a...

The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday a U.S. House health-care system re-write would extend health insurance to 96% of the nonelderly U.S. population by 2019, and spend $1.055 trillion to do so. Penalties imposed on individuals who did not purchase insurance, and employers who did not offer coverage to their workers, would raise $161 billion over that time-frame. That brings the net cost of the bill to $894 billion through 2019, CBO said.

Earlier this week, NewsRealblog reported that four Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina (the others being Trent Franks of Arizona, Paul Broun of Georgia and John Shadegg of Arizona), were asking Congressional Sergeant-at-Arms Wilson Livingood to investigate whether the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a U.S. non-profit Muslim activist group associated with Islamist terrorist organizations such as Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Qaeda, has placed their operatives as “interns” on the staffs of members of targeted national security-related Congressional committees, including the Intelligence, Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees.

Dozens in Congress under ethics inquiry AN ACCIDENTAL DISCLOSURE Document was found on file-sharing network By Ellen Nakashima and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 30, 2009 House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee...

Earlier I noted that we need your voice to keep the pressure on our representatives to keep government funds out of the hands of the criminal organization ACORN. Today Byron York posted another reminder of this salient fact in his headlined, "Will Congress' Defunding of ACORN Expire Saturday?" York concludes that it is unlikely that ACORN funding will be restored on Saturday, but the simple fact of the matter is that it could be. Either this Saturday or during the very next budgeting process, ACORN funding can be easily slipped right back into a budget any time Congress feels like...

Montana Rep. Denny Rehberg was no fan of the $58 billion federal rescue of General Motors Co., saying he worried taxpayer money would be wasted and the restructuring process would be vulnerable to "political pressure." Now the lawmaker says it's his "patriotic duty" to wade into GM's affairs. Along with Montana's two Democratic senators, the Republican congressman is battling to get GM to reinstate a contract with a Montana palladium mine nullified in bankruptcy court. "The simple fact is, when GM took federal dollars, they lost some of their autonomy," Mr. Rehberg says.

When is Congress going to acknowledge the real elephant in the room - how much it will cost to administer this health care program? Obviously, it is going to require an enormous new government agency, one possibly as large and powerful as the Social Security Administration or the IRS! Has anyone in Congress investigated how much it will cost taxpayers every year to administer this new bureaucracy? (Of course they have, but they are carefully not telling taxpayers about it.) Have they determined how many thousands of new government workers will have to be hired? What about buildings, office space,...

In October 2008, Congress directed Amtrak to study adding more routes to Amtrak’s system. Among those routes were two for the Northwest, the Denver-Boise-Portland Pioneer, and a second Seattle-Chicago line, the North Coast Hiawatha (NCH) through Bismarck, Helena and Missoula on the old Northern Pacific. Amtrak’s 53-page NCH report makes interesting reading. Amtrak’s current long-distance trains, not counting the unique Northeast Corridor and California’s special in-state network, cover about 51 percent of direct costs. Each dollar in fares requires the same in subsidy. Some trains, such as the Sunset Limited, cover only 24 percent, meaning every dollar in revenue is...

As critics continue to mull over whether President Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite says the U.S. Constitution does not allow him to accept the award without the consent of Congress. In a letter to Obama delivered on Monday, Brown-Waite, R-Fla., along with Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, claim the president is obligated under the Constitution to obtain Congress' approval before he formally accepts the prize. Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, the emolument clause, states: "And no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent...

Congress Repeals Ban on Perpetual Motion Machines Select messages from # through # FAQ [/[]\] The People's Cube -> The Daily Truth #1: Congress Repeals Ban on Perpetual Motion Machines Author: Opiate of the People, Location: People's Republic of NJ, USA, EarthPosted: 10/24/2009, 9:54 pm    — WASHINGTON - In a bold move to lessen our dependence on traditional fuels and decrease carbon emissions, Congress voted to repeal an old Republican ban on perpetual motion machines, clearing the way for the development of self-propelled water wheels, self-flowing flasks, float belts, zeromotors, and other environmentally-friendly industrial equipment. Director of the White House's Office of Science and...

One of Europe's solutions to the perceived global warming threat is trying to regulate carbon emissions through Carbon Credits The way it works is the government sets a or cap on the total amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of credits. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed....

It is so appropriate the democrat symbol is a jackass. They are living up to their mascot. These idiots can't even see their own hypocrisy anymore. Remember Pelosi set a record not too long ago as being the Speaker of a democrat run Congress with the lowest approval rating of the public in HISTORY - 9% approval. When the media and they were ripping Bush for an albeit crappy 27% approval rating. Well Nancy you would have had to TRIPLE your rating at that point just to get back up to Bush's crappy rating. These people are tanking the country....

Washington, DC – virtually the entire Louisiana delegation is putting pressure on Louisiana US Senator Mary Landrieu in connection with the Census-Illegal Alien amendment that has brought Louisiana Senator David Vitter back into the national news. Today, Congressman John Fleming joined Senator David Vitter, Congressmen Rodney Alexander, Charles Boustany, Bill Cassidy, Charlie Melancon and Steve Scalise in sending a letter to Senators Mary Landrieu and Harry Reid asking them to allow the Vitter-Bennett Amendment to be voted on. The amendment, number 2644, is to the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill and would require next year’s census to ask a single question on...

John Garamendi hates insurance companies, insurance agents, Steve Poizner, policy holders and Northern California. Witness how his insurance regulations were aimed at making Northern Califonria subsidize Southern California - witness his idioc handling of executive life's collapse where thousands of policyholders lost their life's savings. Now Garamendi is carving out a new niche of stupidity and is stooping to new political depths. He sent out an attack ad against David Harmer - which also happens to be the name of his opponent in the CD-10 runoff. Problem: Which David Harmer was that anyway?

This morning, I received the following email, which is currently being circulated around the internet: Congressman John Fleming (Louisiana physician) has proposed an amendment that would require congressmen and senators to take the same healthcare plan they force on us (under proposed legislation they are curiously exempt). Congressman Fleming is encouraging people to go on his Website and sign his petition at: http://fleming.house.gov/index.html. Please urge as many people as you can to do the same! If Congress forces this on the American people, the Congressmen should have to accept the same level of health care for themselves and their families.

Former Senator Edward Brooke received the Congressional Gold Medal today from President Obama. I looked at the rules for recipients, and one of them is they shall not receive it if they have receive it if they have received another for essentially the same thing. He did. He was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. NOTES: "Gold Medalist: President Barack Obama will speak today at a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol awarding former Massachusetts Republican Sen. Edward Brooke the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation’s highest honors. Brooke, 90 years old, will be in attendance....

What a difference two weeks can make. Toward the end of an Oct. 14 conference call organized by David Keene of the American Conservative Union, congressional candidate Doug Hoffman plaintively asked, "Does anybody know how to get Glenn Beck interested in this?" Monday afternoon, Hoffman was interviewed on Beck's popular Fox News program, evidence of the surging momentum the Conservative Party candidate has experienced in the three-way special election campaign in update New York's 23rd District. In the past six days, Hoffman has been endorsed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim...

WASHINGTON -- Mr. Conyers intends to focus this hearing specifically on brain injuries -- and on their ramifications in college and high school football as well.

Just weeks after overwhelming votes in the House and Senate to protect tax payers by barring federal funding to ACORN, Democrats have found a way to throw a life-line to their de facto campaign organization. Democrats on the House Committee on Financial Services adopted an amendment by Maxine Waters that will allow ACORN and other activists groups to share a regulatory role over our financial institutions.

Chuckles, Regarding your reply to my post: We Know The Problems - Where Are The Solutions I’m in 100% agreement with you - the "powers that be", will never let you win. The operative word being “you”. No matter how good “you” are, the corrupt political machinery coupled with votes of ignorance will defeat you. The key for “you” and all the other “you” good people to win is a confluence of “you” people sponsored and backed by prominent people. Sprinkling Congress with a few good people will never yield the results the country needs. Take the current Congress -...

This should be read and understood by all Americans Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!! To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature and the Senate. It is now official you are ALL corrupt morons: The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke. Yet, two non-government businesses, UPS & FedEx, company's who did not get any government subsidies starting from scratch, have far superseded the USPS in their successes! Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is...

The Obama administration, from time to time, keeps saying that x number of jobs are being "saved or created" and yet we keep seeing more and more people losing their jobs. It seems as if the Obama administration is saying that despite there being a net number of jobs lost, that x number of jobs are still being "saved or created." If so, then where is the proof? Where is the quantifiable evidence of where these jobs are being "saved or created" and when they were "saved or created" to back up the veracity of the so-called x number of...

M. Speaker, The last time our unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent was in 1983. Ronald Reagan responded by cutting taxes and reducing regulatory burdens on the economy, producing the biggest peacetime economic expansion in the nation’s history. Today, President Obama is doing exactly the opposite. Obamacare and Cap and Trade and many other bills promise the biggest tax increases and heaviest regulations our country has ever seen. Over the last 100 years, three presidents responded to recessions by reducing taxes and regulations: Warren Harding, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan – and all produced rapid and dramatic economic recoveries. Two...

Either Maxine Waters is dumber than a loaf of bread or she thinks that the American voters are all idiots, that can be the only explanation for her amendment to H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions. Yes that ACORN. Mad-Maxine's amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced...

While some claim that Conservative Republicans want to purge the party of all moderates & liberals who are present in the party, which is 100% incorrect, as we want a party which is overwhelmingly Conservative, however, in some areas of the country we will accept our moderate Republican counterparts with open arms. Those same idiots forget to mention that we do like some "moderate" Republicans.

Remember the promise of transparency that helped win the Presidency? All bills passing Congress would be posted for 5 days before signed. Seems the rules have changed. Apparently the pledge only applied to non-emergency bills and everything is an emergency in the New Republic. The first bill signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was apparently an emergency. We had to pass the pork-laden stimulus bill before any of the Best-Congress-Money-Can-Buy could read it otherwise unemployment might reach the unacceptable 8% range though most of the provisions wouldn’t kick in for months or years. The Bums-Rush is also...

Please use the number 202-224-3121 to call the key Democratic senators and urge a no vote when Harry Reid attempts to bring Obamacare to the Senate floor next week or the week thereafter.  The idea that Reid, Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy are the architects of your health care for the rest of your life should be enough to move you to action.  It takes 60 votes to open debate.  Urge each office you call to tell their senator to vote "no" on the cloture motion to open debate. Start with Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, Senator Evan Bayh...

It's time to change the tune of this song. It's time to say NO! to politicians at all levels and those who support them. No more will we pay your taxes. No more will we buy the products or use the services of those who support you. No more will we obey your laws. No more will we convict people for doing this either. You do not listen to us when we say we don't want these laws and tax bills so we no longer listen to you. We will not assist you in anyway shape or form. We are...

As I stand here in a high school gymnasium watching freshmen girls' basketball games, I'm struck by the sight of America's future right in front of me - these tenacious young women full of energy and intensity - I want them to realize every opportunity this great, free nation can provide. There are big political races on the East Coast that are coming down to the wire - the results of which will impact policies and political actions that touch all of us in every state. Like other independent Americans, you know I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Republican political...

While a congressional races are drawing national attention, I wanted to let everyone know about another CONSERVATIVE candidate running for SC 4th Congressional district. His name is Jim Lee. His website jimleeforcongress2010.com Jim needs our help. Especially from the local SC constituency. He is not a Lawyer, not a career politician, and adheres to true Conservative values. He is running against the incumbent, Bob Inglis who has abandoned Conservative values by voting for TARP, sided with the Democrats on the Joe Wilson incident, amongst many other non conservative issues. Jim Lee has already committed to the New Contract with America...

The core of the Democratic Party has now been overrun and taken over by hate America hoodlums. The Republican Party trashed itself during the Bush era and has lost all credibility with honest clear thinking Americans. The intensity of the political divide in our country is now at a catastrophic level. It is no longer just a difference of political opinions that divide political parties, there is a growing hate dividing party leaders and constituents. The buffoonery coming from the white house exacerbates the divide. The United States Congress has become a legalized criminal institution, staffed by the criminally insane,...

Remember when President Obama made that Health Care reform speech before a joint session of Congress, the one where Congressman Joe Wilson shouted out that the President was lying (he was)? Apparently that wasn't the only item where the POTUS was fudging on the truth. During the speech President Obama said “under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” What the President didn't say is that he wasn't talking about the House version of the plan. No, he wasn't talking about the Senate version of the plan either. CNS News interviewed Rep. Bart Stupak who explained...

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the...

For years, Tom Coburn’s lectures on spending have been met with aggressive resistance by fellow Republicans who defend their right to send money back to their home states. But at a closed-door meeting of GOP senators this month, a tirade by the Oklahoman about the hypocrisy of using deficits to decry Democratic health care plans while voting for pumped-up appropriations bills was seconded by several senators. If there was dissent in the room, no one voiced it. “I don’t know that there’s another side,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who argues that Republican rhetoric on deficits is right but the...

Listen to the Veterans In Politics Interview Joe Heck Republican Candidate for US Congress CD3 and Frank Ricotta Clark County Republican Party Coalition Director Listen to what they have to say and do your homework be an educated voter. Turn up your speakers and GO TO: http://www.alltalkradio.net/alt/show.php?folder=veteransinpolitics and to your right of the screen click onto: 10-24-09 - Veterans in Politics "Veterans In Politics" is a weekly radio show produced by the Veterans In Politics International and hosted by Steve Sanson and co-hosted by Jim Jonas on www.alltalkradio.net. The "Veterans In Politics" show is live every Saturday 2:05 PM Pacific...

Who are the the DIABLOs (Democrats In All But Labels Only)? Who are the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only)? Unfortunately, the American Conservative Union's rankings are pretty useless. In search of being non-partisan and having an even spread of votes, they include many votes which are very lopsided, and so therefore Republicans can fake conservatism without upsetting their media masters and liberal donors. At the same time, a conservative who thinks that a bill is too liberal can get lumped in with all the liberals who thought the bill was too conservative. Combining these two factors, it's impossible to tell...

The Silence of the Lambs - - Obama Style Farewell, Free Speech - - Part 991 bythelastcrusade.org So much for free speech and 1st Amendment rights. A hate crimes bill, which was passed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday and sent to President Obama for his signature, will serve to muzzle Christian writers, preachers, and teachers who still possess the temerity to advocate Biblical values. Mr. Obama has made a pledge to the gay and lesbian community that the bill will become law before the end of October. Matt Barber, an attorney for Liberty Counsel, says that the President...

Congress is moving closer to enacting a law requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that this is “like paying taxes.” He’s right about that. But Hoyer made this statement as part of an effort to justify the health-care mandate on constitutional grounds. Here he indicates that he doesn’t understand the Constitution that he took an oath to support. When asked what power the Constitution gives to Congress to enact this legislation, Hoyer claimed that it came from the Constitution’s “general welfare” clause. Article One, section eight says that Congress can “lay and collect...

It's hard to put into a box just who is supporting Dede Scozzafava in New York's 23rd special election and who is supporting Doug Hoffman in the same. At first, I thought it was the so called establishment supporting Scozzafava and those on the outside looking in supporting Hoffman. Yet, how do you explain the likes of Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann supporting Hoffman? I thought it was the conservatives in support of Hoffman and party loyalists in support of Scozzafava? How do you explain Newt Gingrich supporting Scozzafava?

America's economy faces a miserable future, according to an important government report. The media collectively have yawned, and official Washington has barely blinked. The Government Accountability Office recently issued its report to the Congress on the long-term fiscal outlook for the United States. It is a bleak picture. The report opens: "Weakness in the economy and financial markets -- and the government's response to them -- have contributed to near-term increases in federal deficits, which reached record level in fiscal year 2009. While a lot of attention has been given to the recent fiscal deterioration, the federal government faces even...