Free Republic

Despite a 2007 court record claiming she lived in the same Waukesha County home she currently lives in, voting records for the executive director of the union front group Wisconsin Jobs Now shows Jennifer Epps-Addison voted in the City of Milwaukee a dozen times between 2007 and 2012. Wisconsin election records show Epps-Addison is currently registered to vote at her $369,000 Waukesha County home. While changing her voting address from the City of Milwaukee to Waukesha County’s Village of Menomonee Falls in 2012 may not seem unusual, a signed Waukesha County court document indicates Epps-Addison lived in her Waukesha County...

He didn’t say whether he had a particular moderate in mind. Any theories? Cruz, a deeply conservative Texas Republican and likely 2016 candidate himself, called Bush a “good governor in Florida,” before warning against nominating a centrist Republican. He didn’t specifically place Bush in that category, but the implication was clear: Bush, the son of former President George H.W. Bush and the brother of former President George W. Bush, is far more moderate than the Republican base is on a host of issues including immigration and education.“If we nominate another candidate in the mold of a Bob Dole or a...

For a member of Congress to accuse his party leaders of lying to him, and for their aides to return the favor, is about as rare as the drama that surrounded last week’s procedural vote — a vote that led to the passage of the $1.1 trillion spending bill.

They haven’t even been sworn in yet, but these members start off the cycle as underdogs in their quests for re-election in 2016. Most of 2016′s initial targets are incoming Republicans, swept into office in a GOP midterm wave. They will represent districts Democrats carried with big margins in presidential election years — seats the newly minted Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray Luján will probably want back. Only one vulnerable Democrat made this list. What’s more, the window for either party to oust these freshman could close quickly. It’s easier to defeat an incumbent in their first re-election,...

The “cromnibus” bill is soon to become law. The majority of House and Senate Republicans conspired with President Obama to fund his executive amnesty. Where do conservatives go from here? Yes, we need to pick up the flag and force Republicans in February to actually fight as they are now promising when funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires, but there is an even more important intervening event that must draw our undivided attention. The vote on whether Rep. John Boehner will be Speaker will occur in January, and 30 conservative House members can deny him re-election. It will...

As an unapologetic Tea Partier, an unreformed right-winger, I resent being lumped into the same column with the moral and intellectual geldings of the establishment GOP. Many of my fellow Republicans are either too lazy – or intellectually dishonest – to differentiate a conservative from a Republican. Sometimes, depending on the individual, the two are one and the same. Most of the time, unfortunately, the two are mutually exclusive. Take GOP House Speaker John Boehner… please. The recent budget battle added clarity to the political war being fought in America. And that war is raging on the fringes of our...

The 20-odd people chanting “Honk if you want justice,” on a New Bedford, Massachusetts sidewalk Dec. 12 got a lot of attention. They were second graders, rallying against police for the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. While the rest of their class enjoyed 11:30 recess that morning, these 7 and 8-year-old protesters stood by the side of the road in front of the Alma Del Mar Charter School holding signs including one that read, “Please don’t shoot me, Ferguson.”...

Finally. James O'Keefe interviews the gentleman that exposed Gruber and happens upon the true reason for ObamaCare. I've been thinking this for over a year. ObamaCare is nothing more than turning back the the provision of healthcare coverage paid for by employers that was brought about by FDR's wage & price controls implemented in the 1940s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabilization_Act_of_1942 There you have it. It's just about the money coming out of your pocket.

Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion has put 450,941 Ohioans on Medicaid, outpacing his administration’s projections by 24 percent. Instead of tempering leftist support for the expansion, budget-busting enrollment is portrayed as good news for Ohio; Obamacare sticks federal taxpayers with 100 percent of Medicaid expansion benefit costs through 2016. Kasich — who expanded Medicaid over the General Assembly’s express disapproval — told attendees at a Dec. 4 infant mortality summit to march in favor of more Obamacare expansion spending, but critics are encouraging legislative opponents to stand their ground. “Kasich is threatening to organize protests to ensure the state continues...

The Central Bank's midnight decision to hike Russia's key interest rate to 17 percent set off clashing waves of support and opprobrium Tuesday as Russia struggled to come to terms with its new economic reality. The regulator's decision to raise rates by 6.5 percent followed the ruble's 10 percent nosedive against the U.S. dollar on Monday, its steepest single-day decline since the financial crisis of 1998. Despite the measure, the Russian currency fell sharply on Tuesday, at one point weakening 20 percent to touch a new low of 80 rubles to the dollar. Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, oil...

It was just a matter of time. After living in the spotlight for 22 years and inching toward another presidential bid, Hillary Clinton is finally the subject of a full-length novel.

I asked this on Twitter and naturally 50 people instantly responded “SMOD.” Sorry, we’re not that lucky. With Jeb in the race, Christie very likely to get in, and Romney and Rubio now likely to pass, the field of loud-and-proud centrists appears to be set at two. And since the donor class loves centrists and the donor class tends to get its way in presidential primaries, that means one of these two guys is likely to be nominee. If it comes to that, whom do you prefer? And before you say “I’ll stay home,” let me note: (1) conservatives say...

Sweeping House losses have not only pushed Democrats into a historic minority, they’ve depleted the bench of potential Senate recruits for the 2016 elections. After losing the majority in the midterms, Senate Democrats are seeking strong recruits for 2016 in hopes of netting the five seats necessary to ensure they win control again. Party officials argue the majority is within reach because many Senate Republicans elected in 2010 are seeking re-election in a presidential cycle in competitive states such as Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But brutal losses in 2010 and 2014 have decimated the ranks of...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced Tuesday he will “actively explore” a campaign for president, an early move that could pre-empt some other Republicans with White House aspirations in the bidding for big donations and public support. In a holiday message posted on his Facebook page, the son and brother of Republican presidents said he had discussed the “future of our nation” and his own prospective bid for the White House with members of his family over the Thanksgiving holiday. …

The Connecticut Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the acquittal of a former Army medic who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for transporting a knife and police baton in his vehicle during a move out of state. Justices issued a 7-0 decision in the appeal of former Clinton resident Jason DeCiccio. The court said part of the state law on illegal possession of weapons in a motor vehicle violates the Second Amendment because it bans people from transporting weapons between residences when they have the right to possess those weapons in their homes. Justice Richard Palmer wrote in the...

A protest put on by a group of second-graders in Massachusetts has sparked controversy, but the school says it was just teaching the kids a lesson in civics. The peaceful demonstration happened on Friday, a spokesperson for the Alma del Mar Charter School in New Bedford told ABC News today. Second-graders gathered in front of the school with signs, some that said "Honk For Justice." "A group of scholars played on the playground while other scholars held their demonstration without incident," Will Gardner, the school's executive director, said today in a statement.

Sen. Al Franken has told MSNBC that he’s enthused about the prospect of Hillary Clinton becoming president, a comment which the network reported as being an endorsement of her potential candidacy. “I think that Hillary would make a great president,” the Minnesota senator said in an interview on the MSNBC cable network with Ari Melber, scheduled for telecast Tuesday at 2 p.m. CST on “The Cycle.”

In November 2014 an Iranian jet was filmed carrying out a bombing mission in Iraq’s Diyala province. Iran was already known to have mobilized its militia allies, sent in advisers and military equipment, and brought in Lebanon’s Hezbollah to help Baghdad. General Qasim Suleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, is all over social media with pictures showing him providing leadership to Iraqi forces.

Jeb Bush became the first big-name potential GOP presidential candidate to make a major 2016-related announcement Tuesday, announcing that he will "actively explore" a run. Generally, this kind of announcement will be accompanied by an "exploratory committee" — which is both legally and practically the same thing as launching a campaign, and is usually just an excuse to have two separate campaign announcements. The former Florida governor isn't quite going that far; he says he will launch a new leadership PAC in January instead. But make no mistake: Bush just sent a clear signal that he's very serious about running...

<p>WASHINGTON — Jeb Bush, who’s seriously considering a 2016 presidential bid, has sprinted to the front of the Republican field in a new McClatchy-Marist Poll.</p> <p>Former GOP nominee Mitt Romney remains on top, with Bush, a former Florida governor, a close second. Take away Romney, and Bush leads the field.</p>