Free Republic

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