Free Republic

The moves are a setback for the U.S. bid to strike Syria militarily for its alleged chemical weapons use. WASHINGTON — The Obama administration's move to punish Syria's government for allegedly using chemical weapons in a deadly attack last week appeared to suffer a setback Wednesday when the U.S. failed to get United Nations approval for use of force and British support was thrown into question. The collapse of diplomatic efforts aimed at securing a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria was expected. The British impediment was not.

Gov. Paul LePage told a group of Republicans last week that President Obama "hates white people," according to two state lawmakers who say they heard the remark directly. The governor made the comment during a Maine Republican Party fundraiser on Aug. 12 at the home of John and Linda Fortier in Belgrade. According to the invitation, the fundraiser was a "meet and greet" for LePage and first lady Ann LePage, and an opportunity to meet Rick Bennett, the new party chairman. The lawmakers, both Republicans, confirmed the comment when asked by a Portland Press Herald reporter but asked that their...

Gov. Pat Quinn, in full re-election mode, took the unusual step of showing up in court today for the first hearing in lawmakers' effort to get their paychecks restored after the governor suspended their pay citing a lack of action on pension reform. The hearing before Cook County Judge Neil H. Cohen was brief and laid out the schedule of paperwork to be filed before oral arguments take place on Sep. 18. That means lawmakers stand to miss at least one more paycheck (on Sept. 1) before a ruling comes down on their request to turn the paycheck spigot back...

While intelligence officials briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the country’s secret data-collecting programs, the nation’s top snoop met an even more critical audience Wednesday: Hackers. Gen. Keith Alexander, the embattled head of the U.S. National Security Agency, spoke to a tech-savvy and somewhat hostile crowd gathered at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Nev. — where he unapologetically defended wide-ranging intelligence gathering programs. “You’re the greatest gathering of technical talent in anywhere the world, if we can make this better, the whole reason I came here was to ask you to help us make it better,” Alexander appealed...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers voiced their confusion and concern over the sweeping secret surveillance programs revealed recently, after receiving an unusual briefing on the government's yearslong collection of phone records and Internet usage. "People aren't satisfied," Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., said as he left the briefing Tuesday. "More detail needs to come out." -- Some congressmen acknowledged they'd been caught unawares by the scope of the programs, having skipped previous briefings by the intelligence committees. "I think Congress has really found itself a little bit asleep at the wheel," Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said. Many leaving the forum declared themselves...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — State lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown a pair of consumer protection bills Monday that prevent health insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions and limit how much more insurers can charge older residents. The legislation updates California laws to match new rules under the federal Affordable Care Act and will give state agencies the power to enforce and regulate individual insurance rules. The Assembly passed ABx1-2 on a 49-20 vote, while the Senate passed SBx1-2 on a 27-9 vote. The Assembly bill makes changes to the insurance code, while the Senate bill makes changes...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama Legislature is telling the federal government and others to back off on gun control. The Senate passed legislation Tuesday declaring that “All federal acts, laws, orders, rules or regulations regarding firearms are a violation of the Second Amendment.” It also says federal laws in violation of the Second Amendment shall be considered null and void in Alabama. The vote was 24-6. The sponsor, Republican Sen. Paul Sanford of Huntsville, said the bill resulted from hundreds of emails and calls he received from his north Alabama constituents concerned that Congress might enact new gun regulations or...

Attorney General Eric Holder admitted to something that the congressional investigators probing Operation Fast and Furious must have already understood: he has no respect for the legislators who voted to hold him in contempt for refusing to hand over documents about the gun-walking scandal. I have to tell you that for me to really be affected by what happened, I’d have to have respect for the people who voted in that way,” Holder told ABC News when asked about the historic contempt vote. “And I didn’t, so it didn’t have that huge an impact on me.”

When Illinois' new General Assembly takes the oath of office Wednesday, the state that's still struggling to rebuild its image after two consecutive governors went to prison will set yet another precedent of sorts: Three sitting lawmakers facing criminal charges.

(Reuters) - The White House and congressional lawmakers have reached a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that would delay harsh spending cuts by two months, Obama administration officials said on Monday. President Barack Obama called Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who both signed off on the deal, one source said. The agreement includes a balance of spending cuts and revenue increases to pay for the delay in the automatic spending cuts that would go into effect without a deal by lawmakers.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Shots ring out as someone opens fire on a Dallas office building, and a window belonging to NewsRadio 1080 KRLD is hit. The bullets went through the outside panes of glass on two floors of the 12-story CBS Radio building off Central Expressway at Fitzhugh Avenue. One of the windows hit belongs to KRLD promotions director Matt Stacks, who was startled by the sound about 3:15 Friday afternoon. Stacks initially thought a bird hit the 5th floor window. “I just heard a loud boom. I turned around and looked at my window and noticed it started splintering...

The number of FBI investigations into threats against members of Congress spiked in the wake of former Rep. Gabby Giffords’ shooting, according to documents obtained by The Daily. In the nine months following Jared Lee Loughner’s murderous rampage, the FBI opened up at least 38 cases based on threats against specific members of Congress, as well as a handful of generic threats against unnamed members. This was a notable increase from the previous year, when the bureau opened 26 cases over a 12-month span, according to FBI documents. A 2010 analysis by Politico found that investigations into threats against members...

Georgia lawmakers sat in a seminar involving the UN’s controversial Cold War era mind control techniques used to move Agenda 21 forward. The seminar, as could be expected, was roundly mocked by the media even though the UN makes no secret of their abominable plans for the world’s future.

(CBS News) New York state lawmakers have proposed a ban on anonymous online comments. Called the Internet Protection Act (A.8688/S.6779), the legislation would require a web site administrator to pull down anonymous comments from sites, including "social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages."The bill states: A web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or...

WASHINGTON – Two top Republican lawmakers investigating the Fast and Furious controversy are demanding the White House make a former aide available for testimony to see whether the scandal reached the upper echelons of the administration, according to a letter obtained by Fox News. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, fired off the letter Wednesday urging the White House to make available Kevin O'Reilly, a former National Security Council staffer who is currently stationed in Iraq for the State Department. The lawmakers are giving White House staffers the deadline of April 4 to respond, with Republican aides...

RALEIGH — State lawmakers questioned a N.C. Department of Health and Human Services official at a hearing Tuesday to determine why a Hoke County preschooler’s homemade turkey sandwich was replaced with chicken nuggets. Members of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services wanted to know if a teacher at West Hoke Elementary School was following state law when she offered a 4-year-old girl a cafeteria tray containing chicken nuggets, a sweet potato, bread, and milk as an alternative to her homemade turkey and cheese sandwich, potato chips, banana, and apple juice. Deborah Cassidy, director of the DHHS...

Larry Flynt offers $1M for dirt on lawmakers, government officialsBy Vicki Needham - 03/04/12 01:28 PM ET Larry Flynt is on the trail for any dirt on congressional lawmakers and government officials. The Hustler magazine publisher placed a full-page ad in Sunday's Washington Post, offering upward of $1 million for any information about "infidelity, sexual impropriety or corruption concerning a U.S. senator, congressperson or prominent government official." The ad says sources with documented evidence would be paid if Flynt publishes the "verified story." He is asking for submissions by phone or email. In September, Flynt went after former Republican presidential...

MADISON — Joel Kleefisch said the nastiness can be relentless. But the verbal assaults on his wife, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and his family are the most hurtful, he said. “One of the protesters yelled at me, ‘Your wife’s an effing whore,” said Kleefisch, a Republican state representative from Oconomowoc. “It’s abhorrent and in no way a form of expression that we should protect.” These are politically charged days in Wisconsin, where angry, profane, abusive speech has become more common than any time in recent memory, state political watchers say. Political expression, it seems, has become all the more pitched...

CONCORD, N.H. | President Obama is on the Democratic ballot for New Hampshire’s primary on Tuesday, despite the efforts of some Republican state legislators who argue the president doesn’t qualify as a “natural-born citizen.” “I don’t know where he was born, and I really don’t care,” said state Rep. Larry Rappaport of Colebrook, N.H., “but I think fraud is being perpetrated on the citizens of New Hampshire.” Mr. Rappaport and several GOP colleagues have been trying to get the New Hampshire secretary of state to remove Mr. Obama from the ballot. Their argument isn’t focused

Lawmakers who've endorsed Rick Perry for president reacted warily to his plan for a part-time Congress and expressed concern about his proposal to cut their salaries in half. In response to inquiries from The Hill, the lawmakers disagreed with some aspects of the plan but said they liked other parts, such as the idea of spending more time in their districts. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) vowed to continue to stand by Perry, although he wasn’t necessarily on board with all of the Texas governor's plans. “I don’t anticipate that I’m going to agree with everything he says,” Inhofe said. At...