Free Republic

President Obama will announce tonight that he is signing an Executive Order mandating a new $10.10 minimum wage for all future federal contract workers. But it is not at all clear that he has the legal authority to do so. "My understanding is that they are using the president's authority under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949," George Washington Law School's Associate Dean for Government Procurement Law Studies Dan Gordon told Townhall. "And that calls for measures which ensure 'economy and efficiency' of the procurement process. And I am not sure whether this blanket increase in the...

President Obama has "warmed up" to using executive authority, and when he believes "he has the authority" to "make progress" without action by Congress, he will do it, White House adviser John Podesta told NPR Tuesday morning. "But he doesn't like to do this, does he?" the NPR host asked Podesta. "Uh, I think he's warmed up to it," Podesta replied, laughing.

Now that we've got Boehner/McConnell at our feet -utterly neutered, subjugated, and blackmailed- Democrats don't need to take the Senate or make gains in the House this coming November: I'll be ruling by executive diktat and via my many czars' murky bureaucratic power channels anyway, while selectively enforcing the existing laws that do or do not fit my warped views and relentless agenda. In short, I will be doing as I damn well please over the next 2.5 years (minimum), as has been the trend since Day One -but rather than little shame or concern for the views of the...

WASHINGTON — President Obama will tell Congress in his State of the Union address Tuesday to either act or get out of the way, White House officials said Sunday.

Video at link. (CNSNews.com) – Because he did not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and now unilaterally adjusts the Obamacare law as it unfolds, President Barack Obama is sending a signal to liberal federal judges to mirror him and, as a result, the president’s long-term legacy will be “the establishment of lawlessness in the United States,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). Bachmann also compared Obama’s actions to those of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi – “whatever he said was law.” The congresswoman made her remarks during a Jan. 15 “Conversations with Conservatives” meeting at the Heritage Foundation in...

Where Congress isn’t acting, I’ll act on my own to put opportunity within reach for anyone who’s willing to work for it. That’s what I did in Raleigh by launching America’s second “manufacturing innovation institute.” It’s a partnership between companies, colleges, and the federal government focused on making sure American businesses and American workers win the race for high-tech manufacturing and the jobs that come with it – jobs that can help people and communities willing to work hard punch their ticket into the middle class.

President Barack Obama predicts Congress will be busy this year debating a renewal of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and an immigration overhaul. But he says he wants his Cabinet also to focus on executive actions that don’t require legislation. “We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we are providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” Obama said. Obama continued: ”And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move...

President Barack Obama sent a message to Congress Tuesday: He plans to use his power whenever he can to move his agenda forward. "We are not just going to be waiting for a legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need," Obama said before a Cabinet meeting. "I've got a pen and I’ve got a phone -- and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward." Obama said he told members of his Cabinet the need to use...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: So Congress is going to be busy, and I’m looking forward to working with Democrats and Republicans, House members and Senate members, to try to continue to advance the economic recovery and to provide additional ladders of opportunity for everybody. But one of the things that I’ll be emphasizing in this meeting is the fact that we are not just going to be waiting for a legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone -- and I can use that...

[SNIP] .....Cruz, who is considered a potential candidate for president in 2016, was introduced by former Sen. Phil Gramm. Gramm compared Cruz’s effort to derail Obamacare — against the wishes of some in his own party — to the siege of the Alamo. Gramm acknowledged Republicans were hurt politically by the government shutdown, according to polls. Gramm noted that when Col. Travis drew a line in the sand, some volunteers crossed it and some did not. “The ones who didn’t cross the line died too. But no one remembered their names,” he said.......

Breitbart News has learned that in 2013 the Obama administration launched an under-the-radar project, 'Operation Choke Point,' which is designed to destroy three sectors of the private lending industry: third party payment processors ("TPPPs"), payday lenders, and online lenders. The operation is headed by political operatives and career bureaucrats at the Department of Justice, the FDIC, and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB"). It appears to be the latest example of the Obama administration's successful efforts to weaponize the apparatus of the federal government against people and industries it opposes ideologically. According to the Wall Street Journal, the federal...

Immigration: The Border Patrol and other agencies report a "surge" of unaccompanied minors coming across our border. It coincides with the White House's de facto amnesty via the Dream Act to reward such lawbreaking. The Office of Refugee Resettlement noted a "surge" in unaccompanied alien children in its year-end report last week, pointing out that 24,668 foreign minors in the country illegally were placed in the care of a federal de facto baby-sitting service because no parents were around to care for them. Last year's number was a near doubling from 2012, and nearly quadruple what it was at the...

I have been a whiner like many here and I'm putting down my rock inside my glass house in trust that we can have a rock & flame-free discussion of why it is so hard to do anything large scale/tangible against the tide of Marxism/fascism taking over our nation and populous minds. I hope all agree with that premise as it is hard to stop and it is fully intact as colonial west noted today. Fear of consequences is my #1 reason for being wimpy...my family well-being, my children and their future. IRS...NEA...EPA...DOE...HHS...DHS...all are armed with weaponry of copper and...

We all remember when Nancy Pelosi said that Congress needed to pass the Affordable Care Act in order to find out what's in it. Well, we just found another little socialist nugget. Benjamin Franklin famously said that only three things are guaranteed in life: Birth, Death, and Taxes. Well thanks to Obamacare, we can add a fourth… Estate Recovery. Deep within the thousands of pages of law and regulations for the Affordable Care Act is a hidden provision that allows the government to take control of YOUR estate after you pass away in order to pay for any medical bills...

Superstar MARIAH CAREY has come under fire from human rights campaigners after performing for Angola's president JOSE EDUARDO DOS SANTOS last weekend (14-15Dec13). The Hero hitmaker was reportedly paid over $1 million for a two-hour concert on Sunday (15Dec13) at a gala for the Angolan Red Cross, which was sponsored by bosses at mobile phone company Unitel and attended by the president. The politician's daughter, Isabel, owns Unitel and is the head of the Angolan Red Cross. Addressing the crowd at the event, Carey reportedly said, "I am happy to be here in this room and I am honored to...

Earlier Tuesday, NBC News reported that President Barack Obama had shaken hands with Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe. However, the UK Telegraph's Josie Ensor reported that Obama "was asked to take his seat just before reaching Mugabe." Complicating matters, another article in the UK Telegraph also claimed that Obama had shaken hands with Mugabe--in very similar terms to those used in the NBC article. Breitbart News caught the discrepancy--and suddenly the NBC News article was corrected, with no notice. Before: On his way to the rostrum, Obama also shook the hand of Robert Mugabe, the strongman ruler of Zimbabwe, and hugged...

The dark silhouetted trees appeared illusory, as if in a dream through the light fog, their irregular heights capping the rolling Alabama landscape on I-85 north of Montgomery. The cab's interior was awash in the soft green glow of the gauges, gadgets and screens adorning the instrument panel. Sunrise was three hours away yet, leaving a bit of quiet time to negotiate an endless supply of construction zones, and avoid haphazardly placed orange barrels while sorting through competing waves of thought and reflection. "Patience," as Ambrose Bierce flirtatiously advised us, is, "A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."...

Subtitle: The solution to a dysfunctional Congress is not for Obama to govern the country all by himself. In the face of congressional gridlock, President Obama has started taking more and more matters into his own hands. In recent months, he has announced new gun control measures, put in place limited immigration reform and made fixes to the Affordable Care Act — all without Congress. Many liberals who once worried about presidential overreach have applauded his robust use of presidential power. Yet the president's increasing unilateralism shouldn't be cause for celebration. Bypassing Congress means bypassing democratic checks. It also means...

In 1947, Sen. Harley Kilgore(D-W.Va.) condemned a proposed constitutional amendment that would restrict presidents to two terms. “The executive’s effectiveness will be seriously impaired,” Kilgore argued on the Senate floor, “ as no one will obey and respect him if he knows that the executive cannot run again.”I’ve been thinking about Kilgore’s comments as I watch President Obama, whose approval rating has dipped to 37 percent in CBSNews polling—the lowest ever for him—during the troubled rollout of his health-care reform. Many of Obama’s fellow Democrats have distanced themselves from the reform and from the president. Even former president Bill Clinton...

Now that U.S. and Afghan negotiators have agreed on terms of a seemingly open-ended -- if reduced -- U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, Afghan president Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration alike breathlessly await the verdict of the world's greatest deliberative body. No, not the U.S. Senate -- the "loya jirga." It is alarming to realize that this treaty renewing America's military commitment to Afghanistan under wholly disastrous terms for the United States seems to hinge on the say-so of some 3,000 "village elders" now gathered in Kabul -- and not, apparently, that of our own elected representatives. News reports...