Free Republic

The Obama administration is set to roll out a series of climate and pollution measures that rivals any president’s environmental actions of the past quarter-century — a reality check for Republicans who think last week’s election gave them a mandate to end what they call the White House’s “War on Coal.” [Snip] The coming rollout includes a Dec. 1 proposal by EPA to tighten limits on smog-causing ozone, which business groups say could be the costliest federal regulation of all time; a final rule Dec. 19 for clamping down on disposal of power plants’ toxic coal ash; the Jan. 1...

Just what happened last week on election day? And what is going to happen in the years ahead? The most important thing that happened last week was that the country dodged a bullet. Had the Democrats retained control of the Senate, President Obama could have spent his last two years in office loading the federal judiciary with judges who share his contempt for the Constitution of the United States. Such judges — perhaps including Supreme Court justices — would have been confirmed by Senate Democrats, and could spend the rest of their lifetime appointments ruling in favor of expansions of...

He’s the Staller in Chief — President Obama has punted almost every hot-button issue past the key midterm elections on Nov. 4. Obama has postponed decisions on a raft of contentious issues related to ObamaCare, Gitmo, immigration and his Cabinet. This is partly to protect Democratic candidates and hold onto the Senate. But it’s more than that. Obama plans a number of radical moves later this year when the administration believes the media, and the public, are paying less attention. This includes a forced transformation of our neighborhoods, a huge influx of immigrants and billions of dollars in additional taxes....

One thing is certain, once the cards are issued, the already dire unemployment figures among America’s blue collar workers are going to balloon and the welfare rolls are going to swell The ISIS threat has already been forgotten and the Ebola crisis has been dumped in the lap of the Department of Defense. Climate change has been declared to be the number one threat to our national security. The next manufactured crisis to be resolved is amnesty by fiat. Soldiers, highly trained to fight wars only, will provide medical containment expertise, testing for Ebola, and hermetic and cremation mortuary services,...

Conservative radio host Mark Levin warned the American public during a Fox News television appearance that President Obama has nothing to lose in his last couple years in office and will press forward with aggression and fervor to realize his agenda. Mr. Obama will go “full Mussolini” after the November elections wrap, in comparison to the past few years, when he’s been mostly a “statist,” Mr. Levin said.

Congress will not stop Amnesty by any means. So there is not a luxury to sit back and let others do it for us. What you need to do now is research the legal basis for Obama's upcoming Executive Orders to create defacto amnesty and a movement to get those illegally granted amnesty to subsequentially illegally registered to vote. It WILL happen quickly. Your legal basis finding even if crude should then be immediately mailed to your state representative and your governor's office with URGENCY ascribed to the communication. You should petition your governor to file in federal court for...

Exclusive: Obama Administration Quietly Prepares 'Surge' Of Millions Of New Immigrant IDs Despite no official action from the president ahead of the election, the Obama administration has quietly begun preparing to issue millions of work authorization permits, suggesting the implementation of a large-scale executive amnesty may have already begun. Unnoticed until now, a draft solicitation for bids issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Oct. 6 says potential vendors must be capable of handling a “surge” scenario of 9 million id cards in one year “to support possible future immigration reform initiative requirements.” The request for proposals says the...

It’s time for Republicans to give serious thought to what happens if they win the Senate and House this November, as it looks increasingly that they will. While not exactly Pyrrhic, this victory will present a whole range of potential problems and traps that could negatively affect this country’s future and the world. And as we know, we are living in precarious times. Barack Obama is a man unaccustomed to losing. Life has been exceptionally kind to him, sailing, as he did, through balmy Oahu sunsets, college, law school and career on into the presidency with scarcely a bump. He...

IF Republicans retake the Senate and make gains in the House, is there any way to nullify Obama's reckless EO/EAs?

President Obama urged frustrated Latino lawmakers and activists to "keep believing" and "have his back" as he promised to keep fighting for immigration reform and take executive action this year. "We have to be realistic," Obama said Thursday evening at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's annual awards dinner. He explained that he delayed executive action on immigration until after the midterm elections because he needed the extra time to explain to the nation "why immigration reform is good for our economy and why it's good for everybody." "For any action to last, for it to be effective and extend beyond...

A senior Democratic tax writer said Friday that the Obama administration could take unilateral action targeting offshore tax deals before Congress leaves town for the midterm elections. Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a group of House Ways and Means Democrats on Wednesday that the White House would roll out administrative actions against the recent influx of so-called inversions “when they’re ready.” “That could be next week,” Levin said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Lew has only said that the administration would decide in the “very near future” how to respond...

With Congress on August recess after failing to agree on a plan to help fix the country’s pressing immigration problems, President Obama is poised to take matters in his own hands with executive actions. Whether the president will act without Congress on immigration and other pressing issues has as emerged as a thorny political question. Critics argue he is intent on violating the Constitution to achieve his political agenda, while supporters say he is being forced into action because of the Capitol Hill dysfunction. Speculation that Obama will act during August recess is not unfounded. He has issued at least...

As the administration talks about executive orders, even Democrats are saying: Halt! La Rochefoucauld said that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. To which we might add that hypocrisy is the perpetual bedfellow of partisan politics. However, at a certain point in politics, hypocrisy can degenerate into self-righteous sophistry, in which the hypocrite declaims multiple, contradictory slogans in the same tired register of moral dudgeon. Though hypocrisies and bouts of calculated amnesia permeate the current political moment, few theoretical contortions have been as twisted as the Obama administration’s assertions about presidential power. Despite all his rhetoric on...

The current controversy over President Barack Obama's use of executive orders has many Republicans steamed and Democrats on the defensive. But has the President really issued more orders that his predecessors? In terms of executive orders, quality counts as much as quantity, and several significant Obama executive orders have some conservatives rallying around a lawsuit against the president, as well as threatening impeachment... The American Presidency Project keeps tabs on executive orders and their historical counterparts dating back to the George Washington administration. The presidents who used orders and proclamations the most, per year, were [Franklin] Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and...

... The GOP maintains that Obama has failed to faithfully execute the law, as is his constitutional duty. The Democrats say either "things are not as clear as you think" or "we're not doing anything Bush didn't do." And both sides talk about how many executive orders Obama has or has not issued. But this dispute cannot be resolved by counting the numbers of executive orders. This has been an interesting fight for political specialists to watch. It involves a serious discussion about the appropriate range of executive discretion. This is not a new fight, and the issue ought to...

President Obama is expected to take executive action to help illegal immigrants stay in the country while Congress is away on a five-week recess, pro-immigrant advocates said Saturday. Obama and his allies believe his authority to act without legislative approval has been strengthened by congressional gridlock over comprehensive reform. “I’ve heard not to expect anything until toward the end of August. They’ve been listening to suggestions by advocates over what could be done. The president has yet to make a decision about what steps he plans to take,” said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin...

President Barack Obama insisted for years that he had absolutely no legal authority — none whatsoever, zero, zilch — to slow deportations on a broad scale. Forget everything he’s said. Obama’s pledge to use his executive powers by the end of the summer marked both a dramatic reversal in rhetoric and a major strategic shift on immigration. The president is no longer emphasizing his own powerlessness but rather his determination “to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress.” [SNIP] The shift could be used by critics as an example of Obama saying...

Leadership: All year long, President Obama has bragged that if Congress didn't act on his legislative agenda, he'd do so on his own. But when it comes to the border crisis, he says his hands are tied. Back in January, Obama labeled 2014 a "year of action." He said, "I've got a pen and I've got a phone" and promised to use them to "take executive actions and administrative actions" if Congress failed to get things done. The White House even issued a "year of action" report this week, which includes "40 actions" Obama has taken (not counting the dozens...

The heartstrings are tugged by an article where a mother in Utah is not being deported, it is being delayed, in the hopes she can stay in the country long enough, after savior Obama swoops in to save her “in the wake of his announcement that he’ll act on his own to address immigration problems.”

John Boehner’s plan, in which he proposes to sue President Barack Obama for violating the Constitutional role of the presidency, is important and brilliant. I am an attorney, with a keen interest in both politics and law. I have read and studied the U.S. Supreme Court precedents in question. Pundits with incorrect analyses make three wrong objections: (1) Congress does not have legal “standing” to be the plaintiff to bring a successful lawsuit. (2) The Courts are reluctant to get involved in disputes between Congress and the Executive Branch. (3) Congress has other tools and Boehner is off-base using a...