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The president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on Sunday called the government's secret seizure of two months of reporters' phone records "unconstitutional" and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department. Gary Pruitt, in his first television interviews since it was revealed the Justice Department subpoenaed phone records of AP reporters and editors, said the move already has had a chilling effect on journalism. Pruitt said the seizure has made sources less willing to talk to AP journalists and, in the long term, could limit Americans' information from all news outlets.

CNSNews.com) - Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released a report documenting attempted abuses of federal power by the Obama administration on Tuesday, saying the administration “knows virtually no bounds.”

Is Spielberg, an ardent Democrat supporter, warning the American people by showing his outstanding film that bad things can happen to helpless populations? Or is he simply observing the 20-years since the making of a movie about the Nazi destruction of the Jewish people? There is certainly a theme in the film about an unarmed population being overtaken by a military force unafraid to shoot civilians. And so today we have military commanders who have assured Obama that they are prepared to follow illegal orders and also do this very thing. Or am I being paranoid?

One of the problems with horrible tragedies is that evil men get to do evil things while we are in shock and distracted. Thus, evil compounds evil.On December 21 Techdirt posted a story that very few people seem to have picked up on, but which deserves attention. The Office of Foreign Assets Control seized most of the advance money paid to a couple of Americans for producing a comic book. They did so on the grounds that money sent to write the comic book was supporting a terrorist organization!The script for the graphic novel was written by David Axe, an...

President Obama went over the constitutional cliff this week, demanding more power than the U.S. Constitution allows any president to have. All Americans — regardless of party affiliation — should shudder at the president's attempted power grab and say no. Compromising on taxes and spending is fine, but not on the nation's bedrock principles. To avert the so-called fiscal cliff on Jan. 1, 2013, Obama is insisting that House Republicans hand over to him Congress's authority to raise the debt ceiling. Obama is demanding a power no other president has ever had — to borrow without congressional prior approval. Under...

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has agreed to pull back decrees announced last Thursday granting himself sweeping new powers. The Islamist leader originally told a panel of Egypt's top judges that he would not change his stance on the edicts, insisting that he was acting within his rights. But according to a report by a television network allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, an agreement worked out with top judicial authorities was reached late Monday. The decrees had barred the judiciary from disbanding the Constitutional Assembly or the Upper House of the Parliament, placing the presidency and the committee writing the new...

Back in the spring of 2011, House Republicans had refused to raise the nation’s debt ceiling unless the president first conceded to massive spending cuts—a gratuitous game of chicken that put the global economy at risk and defied decades of bipartisan Washington tradition. At the time, many Democrats, including Bill Clinton, were urging Obama to go it alone. I’d raise the debt ceiling on my own, “without hesitation,” Clinton told a reporter. “[I’d] force the courts to stop me.” But the White House insisted that unilateral action was “not an option.” Instead, Obama spent 44 days trying to forge a...

In the Oct. 16 presidential debate between President Barack Obama and GOP challenger W. Mitt Romney, when the president dropped the pretense of being neutral on restricting gun rights with a key assist from moderator Candy Crowley, hostess of the CNN program “State of the Nation.”

*snip* "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that," Perdue said. "You want people who don't worry about the next election." The comment -- which came during a discussion of the economy -- perked more than a few ears. It's unclear whether Perdue, a Democrat, is serious -- but her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the...

Determined to neuter the grassroots and head off future insurgencies like those of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Ron Paul, Republican party bosses have pulled off an audacious coup, high-handedly turning the GOP into a much more top-down, centralized party. Boehner with gavel Yesterday, the Republican National Committee in Tampa adopted some rules changes that shift power from the state parties and the grassroots to the RNC and the GOP presidential nominee. Former Governor John Sununu of New Hampshire touted the new rules as providing “a strong governing framework” for the party over the next four years. But in fact...

The result of the RNC new rules will be to centralize power in the hands of the Republican Establishment in Washington at the expense of the grass roots. It will also have the effect of making a primary challenge to Romney from the right in 2016 (if he wins) more difficult, given that he will control the party apparatus to an unprecedented degree given his new rules. Mark Levin stated that John Boehner ignored the “nos” which were at least as loud, if not louder than the “ayes” so that he could give Romney surrogate John Sununu, standing right next to...

TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney’s campaign has stepped back from a major confrontation with fellow Republicans who were irate over what several ranking party officials had called a “power grab” by the presumptive nominee. The Romney campaign had won approval earlier of a change in the party’s presidential nominating rules that would allow Mr. Romney, if elected president, to veto already elected delegates from the 50 states and five territories to the next GOP nominating convention in 2016 and beyond. Even if Mr. Romney were not president come January, the rules change would have allowed future presidential nomination candidates the...

If Romney wins in November, another significant change passed here Friday give him dramatically more power to shape the primary calendar and apportionment of delegates going into 2016. Historically only the convention rules committee, which meets just once every four years, can officially change party rules. But going forward, the Republican National Committee — a group of 168 elected representatives from the states and territories — can change party rules with a three-fourths vote. But Ginsberg isn’t waiting to push rules through that national committee. He introduced and passed a measure Thursday that requires a candidate to control eight state...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Have you heard Obama? He said: "I want to nationalize other industries just like I did General Motors and Chrysler." Yeah. He didn't just come out and admit it, he came out and advocated it. He suggested it and talked about how he could do it and "save" other industries like he has "saved" the automobile industry. I kid you not. I have it here near the top of the Stack and an audio sound bite. I'll take you back. This is me April 28, 2009, shortly after the stimulus bill, and this is after Obama has...

From The Right Scoop, initially blogged by PJ Media: As of Thursday, August 2, 2012, the Transportation Security Administration has agreed to unionize. The agency, best known for groping and offending Americans as we attempt to fly from one part of the country to the other, has agreed to allow the American Federation of Government Employees to unionize its workers. From the Facebook page of the American Federation of Government Employees, the official announcement: “For 10 long years AFGE has fought hard so that Transportation Security Officers would have collective bargaining rights. We have often looked back and wondered why...

If one man is allowed to singlehandedly change the law for 800,000 people in a way that he never could have achieved through the constitutional legal process, and he remains unchallenged, we are no longer living in a constitutional republic. With President Obama’s granting of de facto amnesty to young illegal immigrants through executive order, he has completely thrown out the Constitution and for all intents and purposes made himself a king in all but name. Not only that, but he has made himself the worst kind of king — a tyrant. Tyrants are those rulers who place themselves above...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said on Friday he will seek a court order to stop the Obama administration from halting the deportation of illegal aliens who were brought to this country as children. But King is one of the few Republicans talking about a lawsuit. On Monday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was asked what Congress will do about the Executive Branch setting mandatory immigration policy without congressional authority. "Well, one thing -- we thing it ought to require legislative action," McConnell told Fox News anchor Martha McCallum. "The way you get these things done is to...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is taking a rare step of allowing public comments prior to issuing a decision on a study that could result in outlawing certain types of shotguns currently available to citizens. The ATF completed a study regarding the importability of certain shotguns. The basis for a possible ban is based on a loosely defined “Sporting Purpose” test. Using the vague definition almost all pump-action and semi-automatic shotguns could be banned as they are all capable of accepting a magazine, box or tube capable of holding more than 5 rounds. Other characteristics determined to be “military”...

The Obama administration has launched a new battle over water rights that threatens not only the the economies of arid Western states, which largely voted against him in the 2008 election, but their very existence. WND reported last month that the federal government was creating obstacles for Tombstone, Ariz., to restore its water supplies following last year’s forest fire and monsoon-triggered floods in the nearby mountains. The federal government said crews could not use machinery to rebuild pipelines and spring-water collection systems. Now, a letter contradicting longstanding federal practice asserts a claim to water in arid Western states, such as...

Marlene Stasinos believes the best food is local food. “It’s more healthy. It’s less processed,” she says as she walks from her farm stand toward her home in Haverhill, Mass. “It’s just better for you when you eat it.” Stasinos’ family has been farming in and around Haverhill for three generations, but she says backyard farming is under attack.

A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves. The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land. Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.” “Prohibited places of employment,” a Department press release read,...

In today’s NYT, Charlie Savage reports on how President Obama evolved from a fierce critic of unilateral exercise of executive power to a proponent. As a senator and presidential candidate, he had criticized George W. Bush for flouting the role of Congress. And during his first two years in the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, Mr. Obama largely worked through the legislative process to achieve his domestic policy goals. But increasingly in recent months, the administration has been seeking ways to act without Congress.

For many months, Republicans have fought the Obama-directed attempt by the FCC to expand it's control over the internet. Many pundits argue that the FCC has no compelling interest in the internet, and that the FCC has a long history of chilling debate in the various media venues it has asserted control over.In November of 2010, the FCC and their accomplices in Congress again tried to let 'the camel's nose in the tent', by allowing the FCC to regulate the internet in the guise of 'Net Neutrality'. This effort was defeated.Obviously, the Democrats will not be allowed to squelch the...

Obama seizes control over food, farms, livestock, fertilizer and farm equipment across America. http://www.naturalnews.com/035301_Obama_executive_orders_food_supply.html

Did you know that the federal government claims that it can take away your constitutional rights any time that it wants to? Over the past several decades, there have been an endless parade of laws and executive orders that have been slowly and methodically carving up our rights under the U.S. Constitution. Most Americans are not even aware of the "creeping totalitarianism" that is happening. Most Americans just trust the "authorities" when they tell us that certain things "must be done" in order to keep us all safe.  But even if we gave up all of our privacy, even if...

[...] These are just a few samples from the arsenal of degrading language Limbaugh deploys on women, people of color, lesbians and gays, immigrants, the disabled, the elderly, Muslims, Jews, veterans, environmentalists and so forth. Limbaugh doesn't just call people names. He promotes language that deliberately dehumanizes his targets. Like the sophisticated propagandist Josef Goebbels, he creates rhetorical frames -- and the bigger the lie the more effective -- inciting listeners to view people they disagree with as sub-humans. His longtime favorite term for women, "femi-nazi," doesn't even raise eyebrows anymore, an example of how rhetoric spreads when unchallenged by...

Mission Creep: DHS Agency Abandons Fighting Terrorism, Shifts to Hiring Police, Taking Over AmericaA new white paper presented to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence carves out an ‘evolving mission’ for Homeland Security that moves away from fighting terrorism and towards growing a vast domestic intelligence apparatus that would expand integration with local/state agencies and private-public partnerships already underway via regional fusion centers. Crafted by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group, co-chaired by former DHS chief Michael Chertoff and composed of a who’s who of national security figures, the report outlines a total mission creep, as the title “Homeland...

After reading Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay about President Obama, his critics, and his re-election bid, I implore him to ponder just one question. How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?

President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for greater power to shrink the federal government, and his first idea is merging six sprawling trade and commerce agencies whose overlapping programs can be baffling to businesses, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. Obama will call on Congress to give him a type of reorganizational power last held by a president when Ronald Reagan was in office. The Obama version would be a so-called consolidation authority allowing him to propose mergers that promise to save money and help consumers. The deal would entitle him to an up-or-down vote from...

President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for authority to close the Commerce Department and create a new export agency, an overhaul that could save $3 billion and help inoculate him against Republican election-year charges that he is a big-government liberal. White House budget official Jeffrey Zients told reporters the reorganization would fold together the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other trade bodies now spread across Washington, giving businesses a single point of contact and ensuring federal spending goes further to boost exports.

I am trying to work and listen at the same time, but is anybody else hearing this?? Obama is asking Congress to reinstate his Executive authority to streamline six agencies into one, so he could "help businesses grow, save businesses time, save businesses money." He's making it sound like the best thing since sliced bread. News media is eating it up. "Reform and remake our government so that it works. This should not be a partisan issue."

President Obama wants the power to shrink the size of the federal government. His first idea is to merge six trade and commerce agencies. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/13/should-congress-give-president-obama-more-power/#ixzz1jMWrtsV3

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for greater power to shrink the federal government, and his first idea is merging six sprawling trade and commerce agencies whose overlapping programs can be baffling to businesses, a senior administration official told The Associated Press. Obama will call on Congress to give him a type of reorganizational power last held by a president when Ronald Reagan was in office. The Obama version would be a so-called consolidation authority allowing him to propose mergers that promise to save money and help consumers. The deal would entitle him to an...

Leadership: A spokesman says the president "can't wait for Congress to act" and promised that he's "going to take action." This is the president who was "ready to rule" in 2008. Is he an elected chief executive or an emperor? In November 2008, shortly after Barack Obama was elected president, Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of his transition team, appeared on "Meet the Press." She told host Tom Brokaw that "Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one." Shouldn't someone who had reached the political heights that Jarrett had reached know that kings rule but presidents are...

President Obama today made an unprecedented “recess” appointment even though the Senate is not in recess – “a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the President to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer,” according to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). It turns out that the action not only contradicts long-standing practice, but also the view of the administration itself. In 2010, Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained to the Supreme Court the Obama administration’s view that recess appointments are only permissible when Congress is in recess for...

President Obama, introducing his controversial recess appointment to a crowd of Pennsylvania supporters, explained that he would not "take no for an answer" from the U.S. Senate -- especially the Republicans, that refused to confirm his nominee to the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau. "I refuse to take no for an answer," Obama said at a campaign-style event. "I'm not going to stand by while a minority in the senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opposes the nomination because the CFPB "is subject to none of the...

President Obama will challenge Senate Republican foes of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by naming Richard Cordray as its director while Congress is out of town, according to a senior administration official. Testifying before Congress in September, Mr. Cordray said he would make judicious use of lawsuits to enforce financial regulations. That would allow the agency to establish new regulations over financial institutions, putting into effect elements of the financial regulatory overhaul that was one of the administration’s main achievements in Congress. Mr. Obama’s exercise of constitutional powers to name top officials without Senate confirmation while Congress is...

Congressional officials said President Obama has used his recess appointment powers Wednesday to name a head for the controversial new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a move Republican lawmakers said amounted to an unconstitutional power grab. Mr. Obama made the appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray even though the Senate, which has the power to confirm nominees, considers itself still in session. But the White House argues Republican senators stonewalled the nominee for so long that Mr. Obama had no choice but to circumvent them. In making the appointment, Mr. Obama rejected the precedent set by former President...

If historians and political scientists could describe one moment as the portent of the 2011 Wisconsin political environment, it had to be what happened one year ago this week. The then-outgoing majority of Assembly Democrats — as lame a duck as the term could ever possibly apply — sprung Chippewa Falls Assemblyman Jeff Wood from his jail cell, so he could be the decisive vote in a mad rush by state public employee unions to have new contracts approved by outgoing Gov. Jim Doyle before incoming Gov. Scott Walker could be sworn in. At the time he was freed temporarily...

Bill Clinton: Let presidents serve three terms By: Tim Mak November 8, 2011 08:48 AM EST Three times could be a charm - but not for him. Former president Bill Clinton said Tuesday that presidents should be able to run for a third term so long as they take off some time after their second term. “I’ve always though that should be the rule,” he said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “I think as a practical matter, you couldn’t apply this to anyone who has already served, but going forward I personally believe that should be the rule.” Clinton made the...

With his latest pseudo-compassionate expansion of the student loan program, President Obama reminds us why we ask whether he is simply unable to learn from history or he is indifferent to government waste incurred in pursuit of "good intentions." Back when Obama was trolling for illusory savings to manipulate Congressional Budget Office scorekeepers into decreeing that Obamacare would be revenue-neutral, he proposed the ingenious scheme whereby the federal government would subsume 100 percent of the student loan industry and eliminate evil private-sector profits going to "middlemen." The plan was a smorgasbord for big-government enthusiasts because it envisioned whacking private business,...

The other day our sister newspaper, the Gloucester County Times, reported on a raid at a fraternity house at Rowan University where — get ready for a shock — some college kids were drinking. About 100 of the kids were underage and will face charges. Believe it or not, that incident has its roots in the same problem that led to the controversy over the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. That problem lies in the way the federal government distributes highway funding: poorly. It’s obvious in the case of the bridge that would have connected the city of Ketchikan,...

On Monday, the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules were finally published in the Federal Register, starting a 60-day shot clock to kill the rules before they become law on November 20. Net Neutrality, which regulates how service providers manage network data, represents the government’s first major foray into micromanaging the Internet. And, as we’ve pointed out before, the FCC approved the rules without showing of consumer harm or legal justification. Already, the U.S. House has passed a joint resolution (H.J. Res. 37) that would nullify the regulations. The Senate now has 60 days to send the measure to President Obama’s desk....

The Federal Register’s publication of The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)’s illegal Net Neutrality regulations happened this week. That is the final step towards their illegal implementation on November 20th. The Federal Communications Commission on December 21st illegally voted themselves – in 3-2 Democrat Party-line fashion – Internet Overlords with their unauthorized imposition of the job-killing regulatory nightmare that is Network Neutrality. The opposition to this unauthorized power grab was nearly universal. The D.C. Circuit Court had already unanimously ruled that the FCC had no authority to do it. The House of Representatives almost immediately passed to overturn the order a...

On June 2, 2011, Judicial Watch released documents that show the Obama FCC’s collusion with a radical leftist organization to seize control over the Internet. This investigation caught the eye of congressional leaders, and now it appears a congressional probe of the matter is in the offing. ... The documents we uncovered show that the Obama FCC was deeply involved in discussions with the radical leftist organization Free Press in the run up to the December 2010 FCC vote. How deep? Free Press reached out to the FCC to invite FCC Commissioner Michael Copps to write an op-ed for the...

Which brings us to the FCC’s next opportunity to illegally create law under the guise of “conditions” – the spectrum bandwidth auctions. Quick definition: Spectrum is the allocated airwaves. Used by broadcast radio and television (not cable TV), satellite radio and TV, cell phones – and even Bluetooth headsets, garage door openers and car key fobs ... And we’re running out of free-for-use spectrum. ... So we need Congressional legislation to create the next round of spectrum bandwidth auctions. (Which is further fomenting a great and growing prospective battle between the radio and TV broadcasters – who have spectrum aplenty,...

AMENDMENT DESCRIPTION: Amendment requires that the rules of engagement allow any military service personnel assigned to duty in a designated hostile fire area to have rules of engagement that fully protect their right to proactively defend themselves from hostile actions. AMENDMENT PURPOSE: An amendment numbered 38 printed in House Report 112-88 to require that the rules of engagement allow any military service personnel assigned to duty in a designated hostile fire area to have rules of engagement that fully protects their right to proactively defend themselves from hostile actions. On agreeing to the Mica amendment (A018) Agreed to by recorded...

The Federal Communications Commission has stopped its 180-day review “shot clock” for AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile, saying it needs more time to evaluate new information AT&T promises to deliver to the commission later this month.

Executive Order--Regulation and Independent Regulatory Agencies By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve regulation and regulatory review, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. (a) Wise regulatory decisions depend on public participation and on careful analysis of the likely consequences of regulation. Such decisions are informed and improved by allowing interested members of the public to have a meaningful opportunity to participate in rulemaking. To the extent permitted by law, such decisions should be made only after consideration of their...

Steven Crowder finally delivers his long-awaited video on Net Neutrality — and it’s worth the wait. Steven traveled to Austin for the annual SxSW convention to hear the arguments for government intervention in Internet bandwidth allocations, and comes away less than impressed. It’s a debate drenched in technobabble, but the basic principles are clear and unmistakable. Who gets to control the operation of private networks — those who own them, or the government? This is a debate drenched not only in technobabble, but analogies as well. That’s because it’s difficult for most people to grasp the technical details, and so...