Free Republic

Sen. Mitch McConnell made a clear statement Thursday: There will be no government shutdown. The Kentucky Republican, who will take over as majority leader in January, renewed his vow not to shut down the federal government as conservatives in his party called for fighting the president’s immigration proposals through spending legislation. Some Republicans in Congress are arguing that if President Barack Obama moves forward with his promise to sign executive orders addressing immigration, the GOP should attach language to spending bills that would undo the actions. Congress must pass a spending bill by Dec. 11 to prevent another government shutdown....

No matter how HORRIFYINGLY PAINFULLY TRAGICALLY AWFUL it really is, it is a MILLION times worse. Then things get *really* tough. After that, HORRIBLE things happen, and then we REALLY get screwed. Immediately following that, the BOTTOM drops out and we are all DEAD, and THEN things get HARD! Once that happens, it signifies the TOTAL collapse of EVERYTHING, and that’s when the CATASTROPHE starts! It’s the sign of the end of EVERYTHING, but after that, comes the TRAGEDY. Then times get DIFFICULT, and things get WORSE, until it’s EXCRUCIATING, but that’s just the beginning, because after that it’s all...

Obama: GOP wants to 'extort' me with shutdown threat By Justin Sink - 09/18/13 11:29 AM ET President Obama on Tuesday accused congressional Republicans of mounting an unprecedented attempt to "extort" him, vowing he won't allow a pattern "by which the full faith and credit of the United States becomes a bargaining chip." Speaking to a group of some of the nation's most powerful corporate executives at the Business Roundtable, Obama said Republicans were pursuing an "ideological fight … that says we're not going to pass a budget and threaten a government shutdown unless we repeal the Affordable Care Act."...

Sen. Ted Cruz is joining Tea Party activists in calling on Congress to abolish the Internal Revenue Service as the freshman lawmaker made the case from tax reform. The Texas Republican on Monday said news that the IRS targeted the nonprofit applications of conservative-leaning political groups was an "inspiration" because of how it has sparked "normal American citizens that are standing up for liberty." In the wake of the IRS scandal, Tea Party groups have repeatedly called for the agency to close its doors, and Cruz, a hero of the conservative movement, echoed their sentiments. "It is a challenge that...

The Association of Teacher Educators has recruited Chicago professor – and former domestic terrorist – William Ayers to speak at their the 2013 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia which will be held next month. William Ayers, a co-founder of the radical Weather Underground domestic terror group, was a key figure during the 2008 presidential campaign due to his Chicago ties to then-Senator Obama. ... no specific mention of Ayers’ controversial background, describing him as the “formerly Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago.” The online biography also lists several of Ayers’ books,...

(CNSNews.com) – In 2005, Michael and Chantell Sackett were working toward what many American families work toward, their own home on their own land, until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halted their plans by declaring it a “wetland.” On Monday, Jan. 9, the Sacketts and their attorneys will ask the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to not only restore the right to use their own land – but to break the absolute power the EPA has over protected wetlands. The Sacketts, small business owners in Idaho, located a lot in the northern part of the state in a...

A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday that if he and congressional leaders couldn’t reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.” “I will invite the same folks that we invited today,” he added. “And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that. And I will have my entire team available to work through the details of getting a deal done.” Obama’s team may not include the president himself. Despite the impasse in Washington over federal spending, the president as of early Wednesday was scheduled to...

Bunning Q&A summary: more Mutual Assured Destruction, more of the same Racketeering that we have all grown to love and respect from the Federal Reserve, more obfuscations, more Colonel Jessup bullshit (aka "You can't handle the truth"). With Bernanke's reconfirmation vote coming on Thursday, all Senators should read the latest garbled and encrypted pamphlet from the Fed as to why nobody in America is smart or relevant enough to have an understanding of the key items that determine US monetary policy (except for Goldman Sachs and its alumni, of course). Also, we are happy to announce that the questions proposed...

Multilaterals: If there's one lesson to be learned from the exit of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, it's that the World Bank needs reform even more than do its Third World customers. Wolfowitz focused much attention on the World Bank's clients, talking up poverty eradication, corruption-control and forging ties with more reform-minded leaders on the African and Asian continents. These things all sound nice in the press but they have little to do with banking. In that, Wolfowitz was remarkably short on reforming how the Bank itself works. As he leaves, it remains a bloated, entrenched bureaucracy defending its privileges...

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Bernama) -- With his good looks Dr Sashi Tharoor could have been a star in the Indian film industry. Instead, he choose to be a career diplomat and spent the last 28 years serving the United Nations (UN). Now he cherishes another ambition -- to lead the UN, the world's largest and vital organisation. The 50 year-old diplomat is India's official candidate for the UN secretary-general's post which falls vacant when Kofi Annan completes his second and final five-year term in December this year. The London-born United States-educated Indian, who will join three other Asian candidates...

The United Nations is out of touch with most Americans, who think the beleaguered organization has abandoned its mission to keep peace and protect human rights around the world, says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief of staff. "In a very real way, we seem to have lost touch with the great middle in America, a middle which very much believes in the aspirational ideas of the U.N. ... and who feel that we've drifted away from a commitment to human rights, a commitment to help the poor of the world," Mark Malloch Brown said yesterday. The United Nations is under...