Free Republic

The recent announcement by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that he would not seek re-election in 2020 sparked new worries among the GOP that retaking the House in 2020 might be nearly impossible. Although Sensenbrenner's district should be "safe" (as should about half of the more than a dozen seats in districts where Republicans are retiring), it never helps to lose an incumbent. That said, in 2020, the control of the House may be well near irrelevant. Over time, the House has had one major constitutional duty: the budget. All spending and taxation bills must originate in the House. But in all...

Democrat Senator Ron Wydon (D-OR) ripped CNN contributor and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Wednesday for continuing to lie about his famous lie to the American public. In March 2013 Director of National Intelligence James Clapper went before the US Senate and lied about government spying. Senator Ron Wydon asked Clapper if the NSA collects any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans? Director Clapper replied, “No, sir … not wittingly.” This was a lie. Clapper was never condemned or punished for lying under oath to the US Senate. This more...

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Wednesday slammed former National Intelligence Director James Clapper for claiming he did not purposely lie to Congress when asked about an NSA mass surveillance program in March 2013, saying he sent the longtime intelligence official the question ahead of the hearing. “James Clapper needs to stop making excuses for lying to the American people about mass surveillance. To be clear: I sent him the question in advance. I asked him to correct the record afterward. He chose to let the lie stand,” the Oregon Democrat responded to Clapper’s excuse in a tweet.

Some lawmakers would like to see the Justice Department prosecute former spy chief James Clapper for inaccurate testimony to Congress about domestic surveillance before it's too late. Privacy-conscious critics say looming five-year statutes of limitation for perjury and making false statements — establishing a March 12 deadline for charges — make an urgent case for action, and that nonprosecution would set a dangerous precedent that impedes oversight and executive-branch accountability. Clapper, director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, testified during a March 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that the NSA was "not wittingly” collecting “any type of data at...

Some lawmakers would like to see the Justice Department prosecute former spy chief James Clapper for inaccurate testimony to Congress about domestic surveillance before it's too late. Privacy-conscious critics say looming five-year statutes of limitation for perjury and making false statements — establishing a March 12 deadline for charges — make an urgent case for action, and that nonprosecution would set a dangerous precedent that impedes oversight and executive-branch accountability. Clapper, director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, testified during a March 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that the NSA was "not wittingly” collecting “any type of data at...

SNIP To lead the Republican majority staff, Gowdy selected Philip Kiko, a key aide to Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., when the latter served as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and more recently a registered lobbyist for the Smith-Free Group, a K Street lobbying firm with a diverse roster of clients. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, swiftly welcomed Gowdy’s choice, calling Kiko “a man of unquestioned integrity with a record of distinguished service” in and out of Congress... SNIP However, emails obtained by Fox News show that some conservatives are unhappy with Kiko’s appointment, chiefly because of his recent lobbying...

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN--During a filibuster-style radio interview in Milwaukee Friday, senior Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner (Wisconsin) charged that the State of Texas as a whole had a tendency to discriminate against minority voters and should be placed back under Holder Justice Department supervision thanks to his proposed legislation. After the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act—a policy that held a number of southern states like Texas and other jurisdictions structurally discriminatory toward minorities until proven otherwise—Rep. Sensenbrenner vowed to revive the law. When pressed to justify his desire to again empower the...

Warming Scandal: Despite the incriminating e-mails, administration science adviser John Holdren still thinks man causes global warming. And Sen. Barbara Boxer thinks it's the whistle-blowers who should be arrested. Time was when Barbara Boxer thought it was just fine for the New York Times and Washington Post to spill national military secrets and war plans on their front pages. The people had a right to know where and how they were being led. But we are not dealing here with the Pentagon Papers, the location of terrorist prisons or the surveillance of al-Qaida and its operatives. Boxer, top Democrat on...

 WASHINGTON, D.C., July 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Luring children to websites containing sexual content by using child-friendly words may soon be a felony, under new legislation approved by the U.S. Senate Thursday, reported CNET News.com. The Child Protection and Safety Act would see fines and imprisonment for up to 20 years handed to anyone convicted of deliberately misleading children to view potentially harmful web pages. “Whoever knowingly embeds words or digital images into the source code of a website with the intent to deceive a minor into viewing material harmful to minors on the Internet shall be fined under this...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 5/27 - 5/28/06 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: The power of the MSM is unassailable!watch as they destroy the evil right wingers and crown the good progressives while blaming everything on the United States (It's what they do best) Topics: Reports of a massacre in Haditha, IraqThe immigration debate Guests Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. Duncan Hunter doesn't realize it yet, but he's...

Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page Meme: The Republicans are doomed if they do and doomed if they don't on immigration Topics: The Republican brawl over immigration: An interview with pollster Matthew Dowd on the politics of reform (Opinion Journal web site)Journal editors handicap the showdown between President Bush and GOP restrictionists. (Opinion Journal web site)Immigration reform and the Hispanic vote: Are hard-line Republicans jeopardizing the GOP's future as a majority party for short-term gains this November? (FNC web site) Guests Matthew Dowd I used to work for George Bush, now I work the Ahnuld on his...

Moderate RINOS Undermine the GOP November 11, 2005 Download Windows Media PlayerListen to Rush Conduct Broadcast Excellence BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Well, now the White House has fought back. Will the congressional Republicans get their acts in gear? It looks like they're falling part. This gang of moderates under the tutelage of George Soros that killed the ANWR drilling project-- (interruption) You are unaware that the Republican mainstream partnership is funded by George Soros? I kid you not. It's on Michelle Malkin's website. I pulled it down last night. Here we go. She writes, "Many of you were asking for...

A storm is brewing. It has the potential to utterly destroy the Republican Party. For years, under both Democrat and Republican administrations, American citizens -- cornerstones of their communities -- have been falsely charged and railroaded into prisons. Their lives have been ruined. Their families have been shattered. It has all been because of accusations and sham trials that belong in Communist China, not the United States of America. We're talking about the decades of abuses committed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). We're talking about the _continuing_ abuses that are ruining innocent gun owners and...

Jerrold Nadler's Two Faces on Terror By Jacob LaksinFrontPageMagazine.com | June 13, 2005Last Friday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Patriot Act had already been adjourned, but Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic blimpish congressman from New York and one of the leftmost members of the House Judiciary Committee, was too wound up to care: “We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it,” bellowed the hefty Nadler. By this, Nadler meant to defend his attacks on the alleged abuses of the (in fact) privileged  prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Thanks to the efforts of the...

Once again, the political right and the political left are united by one common objective: the suppression of unorthodox speech that threatens their two-party duopoly. Sneaking in quietly, on little bureaucrat feet, lawyers and other agents of the Incumbent-ocracy are enacting rules that will threaten the economic livelihoods, and possibly even the personal freedoms, of those who express heterodox opinions. On the right, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wants criminal penalties for "indecent" speech over the airwaves. Fines weren't good enough. Sensenbrenner & Co. think the likes of Howard Stern should go to jail. Some...

INTEL REFORMED OR NOT: The early indications say - not bad. Score a win for Congressman Hunter who because of his persistence got the very good language added:"The new national intelligence director shall respect and not abrogate the statutory responsibilities of the heads of the departments of the United States government." With these words of insurance Hunter is now free to support the measure and give President Bush a clear win on his first legislative agenda item since the election. Hunter's biggest concern dealt with red tape getting in the way of the chain of command that would prevent the...

<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to go after Internet users who download unauthorized songs and other copyrighted material, raising the possibility of jail time for digital-music fans.</p> <p>In a July 25 letter released late Thursday, some 19 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle asked Ashcroft to prosecute "peer-to-peer" networks like Kazaa and Morpheus and the users who swap digital songs, video clips and other files without permission from artists or their record labels.</p>