Free Republic

Just when we thought the absurdity that marks every single day of Obama's reign could not possibly be surpassed, we learned that 4 hours (3 hours and 47 minutes to be precise) after the US president vowed to sign a new law banning bulk data collection by the NSA (named, for purely grotesque reasons, the "USA Freedom Act"), the Obama administration asked the secret Fisa surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months....

The Obama administration has asked a secret surveillance court to ignore a federal court that found bulk surveillance illegal and to once again grant the National Security Agency the power to collect the phone records of millions of Americans for six months. The legal request, filed nearly four hours after Barack Obama vowed to sign a new law banning precisely the bulk collection he asks the secret court to approve, also suggests that the administration may not necessarily comply with any potential court order demanding that the collection stop.

At Powerline this week, Steve Hayward penned a post aptly entitled “The Insincerity of Rand Paul.” The senator’s legal arguments against the Patriot Act, he posits, mimic papa Ron Paul’s 2003 calls for a formal declaration of war against Iraq: mere “constitutional punctilio to cover his real feelings.” Steve is right. Congress statutorily authorized the use of military force in Iraq. Nothing more was constitutionally required. The real reason for Representative Ron Paul’s formalistic nattering about a declaration of war was his opposition to American intervention in Iraq. That, in turn, was driven by his theory that it was American...

China has begun dispatching surveillance vessels off the coast of Hawaii in response to theNavy's monitoring activities of disputed islands in the South China Sea, according to the Taiwan newspaper Want China Times. The purported surveillance comes on the heels of raised tensions between China and the United States late last month. A Navy P-8A Poseidon surveillance plane was flying over the Spratly Islands near the Philippines and Malaysia when a Chinese radio dispatcher warned it several times to depart the airspace. China has been enlarging some of the uninhabited atolls by dredging up sand from the sea bottom, claiming...

Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad — including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show. The Justice Department allowed the agency to monitor only addresses and “cybersignatures” — patterns associated with computer...

He’s turning out to be a lot like his father, unable or unwilling to adjust to changing political realities within his party.There are many reasons to be bullish about Rand Paul's unconventional campaign for president. He's relentlessly courting support from young voters and African Americans, making the explicit case that outreach can translate into wider support. He's embracing issues that Republicans usually don't dare touch, such as criminal-justice reform, drug decriminalization, and reining in government surveillance. And based on the early polls, he's finding himself in solid shape, running competitively against Hillary Clinton and in the top tier of Republican...

Good morning Baltimore. Crime is up and arrests are down. Residents are afraid to go outside following the recent surge in homicides, the worst in 15 years. But have no fear, Al Sharpton has come to the rescue to bring peace and harmony to the mean streets of a city near you. America’s law-and-order champion has been calling for the deployment of a federal police force to take over local law enforcement in riot-troubled cities such as Baltimore and Ferguson. “We need the Justice Department to step in and take over policing in this country,” he said. He also suggested...

The relationship between Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell has always been more a marriage of political convenience than heartfelt bromance, and it is being tested now like never before.. The two Republican senators represent divergent flanks of the Republican Party, often pulling in different directions, most recently over what to do with the nation’s domestic telephone surveillance program. Paul is the libertarian-leaning firebrand who temporarily shut down the government's bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is the establishment elder who believes surveillance is not infringing on privacy and should be preserved to catch terrorists. Paul...

Sen. Ted Cruz is polling better against Hillary Clinton, but not against the people he’d need to beat to face her. Cruz gained ground on the former secretary of state in a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday trailing her 52 percent to 43 percent in a hypothetical 2016 match-up. The nine-point gap is a major improvement from the 24-point Cruz lost by in a mid-April poll. But Cruz only gained one point on his primary competition in a poll of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, inching from seven to eight points. Clinton’s polling in favorability, trustworthiness and empathy also tanked, so this...

The Kentucky senator walks a tight line between pleasing libertarians and alienating moderates.Rand Paul is a man besieged. Eight weeks into his White House bid, the Kentucky Republican is hurting for deep-pocketed donors, watching supporters of his libertarian father, Ron Paul, gravitate toward opponents and getting flogged by a GOP establishment that abhors his calls for a less interventionist approach to foreign policy. But his latest confrontation with Republican power brokers — a move to block the renewal of the PATRIOT Act and federal spying programs — has also exposed Paul’s increasingly imperiled tightrope walk toward his party’s nomination. “His...

The FBI is operating a small air force to spy on Americans Associated Press Jack Gillum, Eileen Sullivan and Eric Tucker, Associated Press Jun. 2, 2015, WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned. The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency...

---snip--- Sen. Rand Paul is in step with his party on most issues. He’s pro-life, a big backer of gun rights, a small-government conservative and he’s an unabashed critic of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. And yet, Paul is again in the spotlight talking about his disagreements with his own party. For months, Paul has been focused on reducing criminal penalties for drugs. Last week, he blamed GOP hawks for the creation of ISIS. Now, he has succeeded in pulling off a one-man blockade of the Patriot Act. Like his other views, Paul’s stand is no doubt sincere and he...

The Department of Justice is concentrating on “far-right” groups in a new study of social media usage aimed at combatting violent extremism. The Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded Michigan State University $585,719 for the study, which was praised by Eric Holder, the former attorney general, earlier this year. “There is currently limited knowledge of the role of technology and computer mediated communications (CMCs), such as Facebook and Twitter, in the dissemination of messages that promote extremist agendas and radicalize individuals to violence,” according to the NIJ grant. “The proposed study will address this gap through a series...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Security Agency will lose its authority at midnight to collect Americans' phone records in bulk, after an extraordinary Sunday Senate session failed to produce an 11th-hour deal to extend the fiercely contested program.

Key provisions of the PATRIOT Act -- the controversial law that allows the NSA to collect Americans' phone records and secretly track suspected terrorists – will likely expire tonight, a former White House counterterrorism official told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week.""What I think will likely happen tonight is the law will expire," Richard Clarke said Sunday morning. "And then later in the week, the USA Freedom Act, which is essentially the same as the PATRIOT Act with the exception of the telephony metadata program, that act will pass and most of the authorities will be restored." Though the White...

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Rand Paul would notch a big victory in Washington just after midnight Monday if he follows through on his promise to block the renewal of the anti-terrorism law used to justify domestic spying programs. But back in Iowa, where Paul has tried to use the issue in recent days to revive his struggling presidential campaign, many Republican voters have responded with unease. Even some who stood in line to see Paul as he traveled the state last week said that they simply could not agree with his argument that the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection was...

RINDGE - Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas laughed off Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's "capitulating Canadian" tag after a gathering at Franklin Pierce University Friday night.The new ad by the America Liberty PAC spins the U.S. Senate's upcoming session tonight for a vote on the USA Freedom Act as "the biggest brawl for liberty, of the century."The Kentucky senator is plugged as "The Defender of Freedom, Senator Rand Paul." The Texas senator is pegged as one of many "so-called-conservative accomplices" to President Barack Obama's assault on privacy rights as the "capitulating Canadian." "Well, I have say, I chuckled,...

Americans have watched for years as Washington has steadily drained the states and the people of their autonomy, but the NSA surveillance scandal, such as it is, has proven to be one power grab too many for some. As such, according to Watchdog.org, some state governments are implementing an example that Congress can (and should) follow with regards to limiting electronic surveillance.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) RINDGE, N.H. — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz laughed off his starring role as a “Capitulating Canadian,” dressed up in fighting clothes, in the first attack ad of the 2016 presidential campaign launched by a U.S. Sen. Rand Paul super PAC — and vowed not to retaliate against his Kentucky rival. “Well, I have to say I chuckled. I’ve never seen myself portrayed as a World Wrestling Federation person, even though I guess it was one that I was not supposed to win,” Cruz told the Herald after a town hall event at Franklin Pierce University last night. “It’s politics....

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’s America’s Liberty Super PAC is out with a new ad attacking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as a “Canadian” who supports President Obama on domestic surveillance extensions in the Patriot Act. The extreme-style smackdown ad features Paul as the shirtless hero of a Sunday brawl in the Senate over the NSA and the right to privacy. Featuring a picture of Cruz with Obama and the backdrop of a Canadian flag, the ad calls the Texas Senator a “capitulating Canadian” who is “backing Barack’s bill.” Technically, the ad is not endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)'s campaign, but...