Free Republic

Less than a year after being elected to lead the oldest state agency in Texas, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has dramatically remade the General Land Office by ousting most of its longtime leaders and replacing many with people with ties to his campaign and family. Eleven of the top 18 officials on the agency’s organizational chart a year ago have been fired or forced out or have quit, and more could leave soon in an overhaul that Bush has described as a “reboot.” In their place, Bush, a former Fort Worth resident, has given top jobs to two of...

Every day, Janet Rodriguez sits at her home in West Haven, Conn., and she waits. She waits for a knock at her front door, a knock she fears will bring news that Rodriguez and her family will be forced to leave the home they’ve lived in for nearly a decade. A knock that means the city has exhausted its efforts to negotiate with Rodriguez and her family and is moving to condemn their house to make way for a $200-million high-end mall.Rodriguez, along with her neighbors on First Avenue, is fighting the city of West Haven to keep her home....

Our economy is failing, and politics is in complete gridlock. Democrats can't articulate the difference between Democrats and Socialists. Republicans have no idea how to defend capitalism or even if they should. We have reached what Ayn Rand predicted 50 years ago in "The Obliteration of Capitalism": "It is true we are not a capitalist system any longer: we are a mixed economy, i.e., a mixture of capitalism and statism, of freedom and controls. A mixed economy is a country in the process of disintegration, a civil war of pressure-groups looting and devouring one another." We are reaching the end...

You may not know this, but Brazilian sugar is a threat to U.S. national security. At least, that is the view of Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.). Asked this month about his support for sugar subsidies, Rubio said he would eliminate them if “the countries that export sugar into the U.S. get rid of theirs as well, and here’s why: Otherwise, Brazil will wipe out our agriculture and it’s not just sugar.” If we eliminate our sugar subsidies first, Rubio warned, “other countries will capture the market share, our agricultural capacity will be developed into real estate, you know, housing...

General Electric is apparently not going to move to Texas because Congressman Jeb Hensarling doesn’t support the Export-Import Bank. Bloomberg cited the ever nebulous “people familiar with the matter” in their report on Friday. GE told Dallas business leaders in recent days it would look elsewhere for alternatives to its Connecticut home, said the people, who asked not to be identified because details aren’t public. They said GE cited some Texas lawmakers’ opposition to the U.S. Export-Import Bank, an important source of financing for some overseas sales. You can probably include Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn (allegedly), plus Congressmen...

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, At this point, it almost feels like kicking someone while he’s down. Jeb Bush can’t even stand up to Donald Trump, let alone his own growing series of scandals. In the latest revelation from David Sirota and team at International Business Daily, we learn that: For Florida taxpayers, the move by the administration of then-Gov. Jeb Bush to forge a relationship with Lehman Brothers would ultimately prove disastrous. Transactions in 2005 and 2006 put the Wall Street investment bank in charge of some $250 million worth of pension funds for Florida cops,...

Mayor de Blasio’s patronage mill is churning out junk jobs funded with taxpayer money for longtime pals, campaign grunts and acolytes. In addition to creating a $150,000 post for Stephanie Yazgi — the longtime girlfriend of his top strategist, Emma Wolfe — de Blasio has created positions to amp up his progressive agenda and national profile and spread propaganda touting his “transcendent” accomplishments. The city’s television station — led by de Blasio buddy Janet Choi — devotes much of its taxpayer-funded $5.7 million budget to broadcasting his ribbon-cuttings, announcements and features about his friends, including his wedding singer. His $105,000...

Two days ago, I praised Gov. Scott Walker’s quiet conservatism. Today, I’ll criticize his inconsistency. The Milwaukee Bucks decided they needed a new basketball arena and they told the government to pay for it. If politicos didn’t cough up $250 million, the NBA warned that the Bucks might leave Wisconsin. Nice team you have here, Milwaukee. It’d be a shame if something happened to it… Taxpayers would rightly be furious if a private business demanded they fund a supermarket, an office building, or a strip mall — why on earth should they send their hard-earned money to millionaire athletes and...

Unions received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood over the past five years, while shelling out more than $1 million to the nation’s largest abortionist.Since 2011 politically powerful labor unions and Planned Parenthood have exchanged lucrative gifts for “charitable” endeavors and political advocacy.Planned Parenthood, which is in the midst of a scandal after a pro-life group released videos detailing potentially illegal organ harvesting techniques and sales, has contributed more than $350,000 to three labor unions. The largest donation went to Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the nation’s top political spenders, with nearly all of its money...

While the recent videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practice of selling and negotiating the price of aborted babies’ body parts—and the organs of those born alive—has convinced some Democrats that enough is enough when it comes to taxpayer funding for the abortion giant, others are remaining steadfast in their support for the group. Unfortunately, the White House is among the loyal, it seems. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House Press Secretary maintained that the undercover videos were highly edited and distorted. And when asked by a reporter where he is receiving his information, Earnest’s replied Planned Parenthood. “Based on the...

A federal judge late Friday granted a temporary restraining order against the release of recordings made at an annual meeting of abortion providers. The injunction is against the Center for Medical Progress, the group that has unveiled Planned Parenthood’s participation in the sale of organs harvested from aborted children.Judge William H. Orrick, III, granted the injunction just hours after the order was requested by the National Abortion Federation.Orrick was nominated to his position by hardline abortion supporter President Barack Obama. He was also a major donor to and bundler for President Obama’s presidential campaign. He raised at least $200,000 for...

With Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf launching a review of Planned Parenthood, his own past and a recent cabinet appointment has put doubt on the integrity of the investigation.Wolf had begun taking steps to review the clinics as a result of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal organ harvesting and distribution, The Associated Press reported Friday. Just the day prior to Wolf’s announcement, he appointed a former Planned Parenthood executive as his chief of staff. To Michael Greer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, the timing is troubling.“It raises questions of the integrity of the investigation,” Greer told...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced late Friday that he will "use every Senate rule" to force his Senate colleagues on the record after fellow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blocked his amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. If Paul gets enough senators to sign his petition, he can go around McConnell and force a vote. "I'm prepared to use every Senate rule at my disposal to force my colleagues on record whether they like it or not," Paul wrote Friday night. "Under Senate rules, if enough Senators are willing to stand with me and sign a petition demanding a vote,...

Tesla Motors has earned more than $295 million in green subsidy emission credits during the past three years for a battery-swapping technology customers weren’t getting, a Watchdog investigation reveals. In fact, the electric car company, owned in part by billionaire Elon Musk, may have earned credits up to nearly half a billion dollars in value from the 11 states that use the Zero Emission Vehicle barter as part of a green auto industry mandate. California created the program and leads the pack, doling out $173 million in credits to the Silicon Valley-based Tesla. Tesla claimed the credits between 2012 and...

ouse Republican leaders succeeded last month in their quest to shut down a federal agency that helps U.S. companies sell their goods overseas, but a majority in Congress may soon have the last word.. A path to reviving the Export-Import Bank has emerged in Congress, and the agency, which has the strong backing of business groups, could be providing assistance again within weeks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would allow bank advocates to include a five-year reauthorization of the agency on a highway funding bill that must pass by the end of the month. And there's enough...

McConnell is trying to bring back the crony bank, Ex-Im Bank. It sunset at end of June 2015. Now he plans to tie it to a highway bill. At Wednesday’s press conference, Cruz will be joined by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas), chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

In Hollywood, there's no better magnet for stargazing than a movie premiere. So on a Sunday afternoon in late June, the summer sun couldn't keep thousands of fans from lining Hollywood Boulevard, hoping to spot a star. This was the "Terminator Genisys" premiere, and only one star mattered: Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former governor of California shook hands, signed autographs and posed for selfies. It's the kind of personal attention Fred and Kathy Santos wish they could get from Schwarzenegger, who they say stole justice from their dead son.

In a Wednesday talk at the Heritage Foundation, the Texas senator sharpened anti-corporatist critique. Ted Cruz just raised the bar for Republican presidential hopefuls angling for the fiery populist mantle. In a 40-minute stemwinder delivered to a friendly crowd at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, the junior senator from Texas inveighed against a corrupt alignment of corporate and political power that he shorthanded as the “Washington Cartel.” That’s apparently new coinage, and you can expect to hear a lot more of it as Cruz tries to elbow his way out of the GOP presidential primary’s second tier and into serious...

Despite gaining massive majorities on a conservative anti-Washington wave in 2014, the new Congress has quickly returned to Washington's business-as-usual. The Washington Cartel of powerful politicians, well-connected lobbyists, and media elite continue to benefit from big government at the expense of Main Street and ordinary Americans. Now is the time to break the Cartel.

TPA, or similar a law, has existed for decades. The recent vote in the U.S. Senate was a renewal of the TPA, and Senator Ted Cruz, perhaps the foremost constitutional conservative in the Senate, supported it because it created a process in which the president could be held accountable. TPP was never voted on in the Senate or the House, and its language has not even been finalized. My objection, at this point, to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is that it is secret, and only members of congress are permitted to read it. Ted Cruz has read it, and...