Free Republic

Last Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul rose on the Senate floor to declare a filibuster and pledge he would not sit down until either he could speak no longer or got an answer to his question about Barack Obama's war powers. Does the president, Paul demanded to know, in the absence of an imminent threat, have the right to order U.S. citizens killed by drone strike on U.S. soil? By the time he sat down, 13 hours later, Paul had advanced to the front rank of candidates for 2016, and established himself as a foreign policy leader whose views must be...

While the title says it all, I thought a goodbye was in order. While I've been a FReeper for well over a decade, I must declare that it is time to part ways. While I have the greatest respect for a great many of you, the days where I can in good conscience remain silent about the issues that set me apart from the rest of FReeperdom have past. For clarity, or perhaps catharsis, I'm not entirely certain which, I'll lay them out on the table an call the ZOT™ down upon myself. The racism: I just can't handle it...

“At least 20 House Republican members have gotten together, discussed this and want to unseat Speaker Boehner--and are willing to do what it takes to do it,” Meyer said. “That’s more than enough to get the job done, but the one problem these guys face is they need a leader to coalesce behind.” Meyer said the conservatives have considered House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) to take the helm after Boehner is knocked out. His opposition from the right to the Senate fiscal cliff deal that Vice President Joe Biden cut with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is a sign...

"Go f— yourself," Boehner repeated. Politico reports on the exchange: House Speaker John Boehner couldn’t hold back when he spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last Friday. It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal. “Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present. Reid, a bit startled,...

House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) said on Friday that he was not afraid of losing his speakership in the aftermath of the stunning defeat dealt to him on Thursday evening by House conservatives who refused to vote for his “Plan B” proposal to increase the income tax rate on income over $1 million. When a reporter asked Boehner at a Capitol press conference whether he should be concerned about losing his speakership, Boehner said, “No, I’m not.” “Listen, you’ve all heard me say this, and I’ve told my colleagues this, if you do the right things every day for the...

A cadet quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets. Blake Page announced his decision to quit the U.S. Military Academy this week, telling The Associated Press that he could not become an officer because of clinical depression played a role in his public protest against what he calls the unconstitutional prevalence of religion in the military. "I've been trying since I found that out: What can I do? What can I possibly do to initiate the change that...

On the radio this morning, I heard Boehner say to Obama in a public address: "We want you to succeed." You know who Boehner's trying to contrast himself with, dont you? I knew you did.

The Pravda-like corrupt national media, Zombie voters and dirty shenanigans are no excuse for losing this election because unfortunately these were a giving no matter who was the nominee - from Romney to Santorum to Newt or even if Sarah had ran and became the nominee - these things would have happen and for anyone to have beaten Obama but we would expect our nominee to have a strategy to negate or at least lessen these handicaps. If we can't even do that then we ought to just shut the whole thing down and cede the country if we can't...

On Wednesday night, former president Bill Clinton gave a long-winded address (as is his wont — few like the sound of their own voice more than him, with the possible exception of Fidel Castro) in an attempt to make an excuse for the current president’s pathetic job performance on the economy. Here is the essence of his argument: President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. No president — not me, not any of my predecessors — could have repaired all the damage in just four years. So is it true? Well, first of all, the statement...

On Friday, the musical act R.E.M. sent a letter to the Fox News Channel insisting that it stop using its song “Losing My Religion” in its news coverage — specifically this week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. “We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there,” lead singer Michael Stipe said in a statement. Late Friday afternoon, Fox News returned the volley by arguing they were within their legal requirements and suggested it was a publicity stunt by R.E.M.....

Barack Obama’s increasingly desperate struggle to win re-election is causing some of his worst traits to be put on display, including petulance and self-pity. The latest example occurred during a fundraiser in Baltimore, when the president said, “Because folks are still hurting right now, the other side feels that it’s enough for them to just sit back and say, ‘Things aren’t as good as they should be, and it’s Obama’s fault.’” This is rich. No president in human history has quite equaled Obama when it comes to blaming others for his problems....

"“This was it. If we didn’t win tonight, the end of the USA as we know it just happened. That’s it.”(Watch video)Pathetic

Skip to 7:15 for the key bit. In fairness, he emphasizes that he'll support it only if it's "necessary." There's already an "exit tax" on the books, which Saverin paid, and a separate law that says an expatriate can be barred from re-entering the U.S. if the DOJ determines that he renounced his citizenship for tax purposes. Saverin quit the U.S., evidently with his tax liability in mind, because leaving before the IPO meant the "exit tax" would apply only to the gains on his Facebook shares as of his departure. (It also spared him from a potentially enormous estate...

The residents of the Conservative Cave have taken it upon themselves to help out a DUmmie who is running for city council of the city of Bellevue, Nebraska. Omaha Steve, aka Steve Dawes, is the only "D" in a 4 man primary consisting of 2 "R's", a "L", and himself. After viewing his lame attempt of a campaign website http://stevedawes2012.com/, we took it upon ourselves to release a new and improved website for Steve: http://www.electstevedawes.com/. We feel the new website better explains Steve's true political leanings, expressed in his own words, referenced by his numerous postings at the DUmp. Please...

House Speaker John Boehner distanced himself on Friday from Rush Limbaugh, calling the conservative radio host's words toward a women's rights advocate "inappropriate." Amid a growing media firestorm over comments Wednesday by Limbaugh toward Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown Law student who testified before a Democratic panel on the use of contraception, Washington's top Republicans said through a spokesman that Limbaugh was wrong. "The speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement.

Newt Gingrich has ramped up his attacks on Mitt Romney as a heartless leveraged buyout executive for his years at Bain Capital, asking reporters in Manchester on Monday, “Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? Or is that, somehow, a little bit of a flawed system?” But Mr. Gingrich was himself on an advisory board for a major investment firm that had a similar business model, Forstmann Little, a pioneering private equity firm co-founded in 1978 by Theodore J. Forstmann...

Santorum's so-called surge is all but gone. Huntsman is catching up.

The “unlike some people” part isn’t stated, merely implied. But c’mon. He’s laying it on with a trowel here. ----------- Less than 12 hours after finishing in fourth place in the Iowa caucuses, Newt Gingrich opened a new, more aggressive chapter in his campaign, taking pointed shots at rivals Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, who both finished ahead of Gingrich. At one point, Gingrich hinted he would make Romney’s personal wealth an issue, telling a reporter “I’m not rich.”… When asked why he chose to congratulate Santorum and not Romney on his caucus success, the former House speaker said, “I...

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — No more Mr. Nice Guy. Newt Gingrich will “draw a very clear contrast” with Romney “every day” immediately after the Iowa caucuses Tuesday, the former House speaker told ABC News. “Everything we say will have Romney’s quote, Romney’s videotape, Romney’s record; it’ll all be based explicitly on Romney,” Gingrich said in an interview in Independence, Iowa. Gingrich has said repeatedly that Republicans should aim their attacks at President Obama, not fellow Republicans. But after getting hammered by millions of dollars in negative ads, Gingrich says he will now return fire, targeting Romney over and over again.