Free Republic

pulled quote: "... Since Roosevelt’s Presidency, the Executive Office of the President has gained about 2,000 people, and the number of political appointees has increased to more than 7,000. Setting aside White House staffers and about 3,000 part time Presidential appointments, each new President fills about 3,000 positions with his or her partisans. To lead departments and agencies, contemporary Presidents make appointments to about 800 full time PAS positions, which require Senate confirmation (not including US attorneys, US marshals, or ambassadors, which are also PAS). In addition, each new administration can appoint partisans amounting to 10% of the Senior Executive...

On Friday, President Barack Obama announced he would sign an Executive Order directing every relevant agency of the Federal government to take steps in identifying bottlenecks to competition and to create new ways to increase competition in the economy. The Executive Order puts agencies on a fast-track path to, within 60 days, identify the steps they’ll take. “Competition is good for consumers,” Obama told Yahoo Finance in an interview at the White House on Thursday. “And ultimately it's good for business. That's the way the free market works. The more competition we have, the more products, services, innovation takes place.”...

MIAMI — Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday in a surprise appearance in Miami. "I checked the box for Ted Cruz,” Fiorina said.

Obama establishes Federal Privacy Council as part of massive cyber effort https://iapp.org/news/a/obama-establishes-federal-privacy-council-as-part-of-massive-cyber-effort/ Obama establishes Federal Privacy Council as part of massive cyber effort Sam Pfeifle The Privacy Advisor | Feb 9, 2016 Obama establishes Federal Privacy Council as part of massive cyber effort As part of his 2017 budget proposal for the United States, President Barack Obama is including $19 billion for cybersecurity efforts, a 35-percent increase over fiscal year 2016. The funds will go toward a Cybersecurity National Action Plan, which includes the hiring of a chief information security officer, a $3.1 billion fund for IT modernization at the...

ABC News announced the lineup for Saturday's GOP presidential debate in Manchester late Thursday evening. Seven candidates will take the stage just three days before the New Hampshire primary. For Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina will not be one of them despite beating rivals John Kasich and Chris Christie in the Iowa caucus. She's also beating Dr. Ben Carson in New Hampshire polling.  .@ABC reveals Republican candidates participating in Saturday's #GOPDebate https://t.co/phaAPdGLAh pic.twitter.com/VHuGgmlBd4— ABCNews PR (@ABCNewsPR) February 5, 2016 Fiorina is responding with accusations the "game is rigged." "I've been telling you the game is rigged. And here's even more...

Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee and now Rand Paul.  All were considered to be serious candidates for the Republican nomination for president and all have dropped out.Carly Fiorina began the campaign with far less name recognition, far less money, and yet her national profile has grown and when she speaks people hang on every word.  She has far outlasted the so-called heavyweights, do not count her out.While I have yet to endorse  in the GOP presidential race, what has so impressed me about Carly is the drive, persistence and consistency she has shown throughout the entire process.  She...

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina feels ill-treated after being left off the debate stage this weekend in New Hampshire - and some in the media agree with her. "Our debate process is broken," Fiorina said Wednesday in a letter to the Republican National Committee (RNC), which is partnering with ABC News to host the debate. "Networks are making up these debate rules as they go along -- not to be able to fit candidates on the stage -- but arbitrarily to decide which candidates make for the best TV in their opinion.” Her campaign released an email Thursday morning asking...

In Article I Section I of the Constitution it is clear that all legislative powers reside in Congress. The Executive Branch has the responsibility to execute the laws passed by Congess. An Executive Order is not legislation it is a order issued by the President to enforce laws passed by the Congress. While Executive Orders are not mentioned in the Constitution it has been a precedent for a President to issue Executive Orders that he deems to be necessary and proper. The "Necessary and Proper" clause in the Constitution found in Article I Section 8 was not intended to give...

Since President Obama has taken office, the length of the executive orders he has issued now exceeds the length of the executive orders issued by former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, according to a count from the Federal Register. Additionally, the executive orders that President Obama has issued includes more restrictive language than previous administrations. In January 2014, President Obama emphasized in a Cabinet meeting that he would not just sit idle and wait for Congress to introduce legislation. "I've got a pen and I’ve got a phone—and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and...

The Obama administration announced during a conference call with reporters Monday evening that the president’s upcoming executive order may require somebody selling even a single firearm to obtain a Federal Firearms License. During the call White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch explained the details of the order, which will be announced publicly by President Obama Tuesday at 11:40 a.m. The action, officials explained, would include guidance on how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will now determine who is “engaged in the business” of selling firearms under...

For your Friday evening viewing pleasure, the third major speech he’s delivered in the last few months demanding more leadership from his colleagues. The first, in early November, was a general indictment of Senate dysfunction. The second, which came just last week, was a plea for clarity in the war on radical Islam, especially from Obama. This one is a hard knock on both parties for cowering as the executive branch gobbles up more and more of Congress’s prerogatives. And the hook, as any media-savvy pol nowadays would insist on, is Trump. That comes right at the beginning (transcript here);...

Obama Issues Executive Order for the government to use individual's behavioral data.

The surprising thing about King v. Burwell, is not that subsidies were upheld. That was always a possibility (although not one I favored). The surprise, as with NFIB before it, was how Chief Justice Roberts did it. His decisions on Obamacare give one the impression that he’s not really paying attention to the arguments in front of him. In NFIB, the fight was overwhelmingly focused on whether the individual mandate was authorized by the commerce clause of the Constitution. Then Roberts came out of nowhere to hold that the individual mandate was authorized under the tax clause. It was a...

Sandy Rios, the American Family Association’s director of governmental affairs, attacked President Obama today for his response to the Charleston shooting, which she said is proof that he “enjoys” such incidents because it will give him another chance to “remove guns from the hands of the American people.”

Suppose you are in a general partnership with Smith. Smith handles day-to-day management, subject to your approval. But recently, he’s been acting somewhat high-handedly. Without consulting you, Smith is busy negotiating a contract with Macropus International Corp., a company notorious for unscrupulous practices. Smith has made it clear he plans to bind your firm whether you like it or not. You know that under the law of general partnerships, unless you speak up Smith will be able to lock you and your firm into a very bad deal. This is because, as a rule, any partner in a general partnership...

A heavy majority, but maybe not heavy enough. If McConnell can’t muster more than 62 votes in the Senate to override an Obama veto of whatever Congress chooses passes. we’ll be stuck with this Iran sh*tburger until January 2017 at the earliest. And probably much longer than that, if we’re being honest. Nice to see President Overreach get a rebuke in the polls, though. Which is different from expecting any sort of meaningful public backlash if he makes a deal over Congress’s objections.At first glance that looks like a neatly consistent result. Americans favor giving their representatives the final say...

On Sunday, President Obama announced that he will recommend to Congress that it should designate 12 million acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as wilderness.[i] When briefing the press about the plan, Presidential Advisor John Podesta said that regardless of the law and Congressional action, the administration was going to manage these 12 million acres as if it had been designated as wilderness by Congress. That means that ANWR will be unavailable to resource development. In 1980, Congress set aside some of the acreage in ANWR (the “1002 area,” comprising the Coastal Plain) for future consideration of oil...

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a historic Oval Office ceremony on Thursday morning, President Barack Obama signed an executive order closing Congress, effective immediately. The President said that the move would dramatically increase the efficiency of the federal government, noting how much he had accomplished since he stopped working with Congress in November. Additionally, he said, the elimination of Congress would result in annual savings of more than five billion dollars, which Obama said would be refunded to American taxpayers. Acknowledging that “some sticklers” would argue that the Constitution calls for three branches of government, the President said, “All this order...

resident Obama announced plans to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba today, including opening an embassy in Cuba."We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests," Obama claimed, "And instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries."Specifically, the White House took three major steps today as part of their "New Course on Cuba": Initiating discussions to reestablish diplomatic relations, including a U.S. embassy in Havana, and a Cuban embassy in the United States.A review, by the State Department, of Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.Relaxing of regulations to facilitate the...

Via WaPo, it’s now officially a mixed-blessings news day for Jeb Bush fans. Two issues here. One: Does Obama enjoy more power to craft policy if Congress is deadlocked between the two parties? Ezra Klein says yes, I say no. Two: How far can Obama go in crafting policy in the name of “prosecutorial discretion”? No one disputes that he can prioritize one illegal immigrant’s deportation case over another’s. If he can do that for one person, why can’t he do it systematically for five million? At what point does “prosecutorial discretion” become unconstitutional legislation by presidential diktat?Judge Arthur Schwab’s...