Free Republic

we are deeply concerned that the FCC’s new rules will include a provision that sounds like a recipe for overreach and confusion: the so-called “general conduct rule.” According to the FCC's own "Fact Sheet," the proposed rule will allow the FCC to review (and presumably punish) non-neutral practices that may “harm” consumers or edge providers.

Current government regulations imposed by the Bureau of Land Management are harming energy production and holding back the U.S. economy, a new study reveals. “While federally owned lands are also full of energy potential, a bureaucratic regulatory regime has mismanaged land use for decades,” write The Heritage Foundation’s Katie Tubb and Nicolas Loris. The report focuses on the Federal Lands Freedom Act, introduced by Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. It is designed to empower states to regain control of their lands from the federal government in order to pursue their own energy goals. That is a...

The House passed a bill that would keep the Homeland Security Department running, but defunds President Obama's executive order last year many Republicans said was an unconstitutional executive overreach, The Washington Post reported.

Almost half of uninsured adults are unaware that there is a financial penalty for lacking health insurance, according to a study released Thursday by the Urban Institute. The study, using data from December, found that roughly 25 percent of uninsured people above the poverty line had heard “nothing at all” about the penalty, and around 20 percent had heard “only a little.” Fifty-three percent had heard some or a lot. Under ObamaCare, people without health insurance who do not qualify for an exemption must pay a penalty. For those lacking coverage in 2014, the penalty is $95 or 1 percent...

(Reuters) - A U.S. ban on the interstate sales of handguns by federal firearms dealers to buyers from other states violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge in Texas ruled on Wednesday. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor stemmed from a challenge to the ban brought by a Texas firearms dealer and a couple from the District of Columbia in July 2014.

As millions of Americans brace for tax season, the Internal Revenue Service is requesting a $2 billion boost to its budget and 9,000 new employees as it prepares to enforce Obamacare’s tax provisions. President Obama released his $4 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2016 this week, which includes $13.9 billion for the Internal Revenue Service. The agency asked Congress for close to $2 billion more for operations than last year—a 16 percent increase. The billions of dollars will help the agency bolster its staff by adding more than 9,280 full-time employees. The proposed jump in employment at the IRS...

WHAT IS SLDS? The STATE LONGITUDINAL DATABASE SYSTEM, is a comprehensive database compiled ON EACH CHILD. This data is not aggregate data, it is linked specifically to the child. DATA that is collected will FOLLOW THE CHILD through to their adult years and BEYOND. In fact, that is the PURPOSE of the SLDS, to provide a database that “grows” along with the child into their CAREER YEARS. The Workforce Data Quality Initiative’s Mission Statement from the United States Department of Labor’s website reads: “The long-term Workforce Data Quality Initiative and SLDS goal for States is to use their longitudinal data...

Impending state legislation and civil discord on the national level has equated to an uptick in firearms sales for area shops, shop owners say. Among other factors, a new state law, effective Jan. 1, will require purchasers of both long guns and handguns to obtain a firearm safety card. As with the current requirements to purchase handguns, the new rule will require a shopper to take a test and pay a one-time fee before the sale of a rifle, shotgun or handgun could be made.

Via WaPo, it’s now officially a mixed-blessings news day for Jeb Bush fans. Two issues here. One: Does Obama enjoy more power to craft policy if Congress is deadlocked between the two parties? Ezra Klein says yes, I say no. Two: How far can Obama go in crafting policy in the name of “prosecutorial discretion”? No one disputes that he can prioritize one illegal immigrant’s deportation case over another’s. If he can do that for one person, why can’t he do it systematically for five million? At what point does “prosecutorial discretion” become unconstitutional legislation by presidential diktat?Judge Arthur Schwab’s...

Asserting a legal and constitutional authority he himself said he did not have, President Obama is going rogue, issuing an executive amnesty to 4 to 5 million illegal aliens. He will order the U.S. government not to enforce the law against these 5 million and declare that they are to be exempt from deportation and granted green cards. Where did Obama get his 4-5 million figure, not 2-4 million, or 5-7 million? Nowhere in law, but plucked out of his own mind, as to what he can get away with. Barack Obama just felt it was about right. Thus does...

Calling a secretive government operation to strangle politically out-of-favor businesses “more dangerous” than the IRS targeting scandal, a congressman with a background in banking is preparing to introduce legislation to kill the Obama administration initiative. “I believe this activity is probably more dangerous and more disastrous than that of the IRS scandal because this is running people out of business for no reason and it’s harming livelihoods, incomes [and] families,” Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., said today in an interview with The Daily Signal. Luetkemeyer, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, was comparing the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke...

LYNDEN — The Lynden Pioneer Museum will remove World War II-era guns from a current exhibit and return them to their owners, to avoid violating the new background-check law, according to the museum’s director. The new law, passed by voters this month as Initiative 594, requires background checks on the recipients of guns in all sales or transfers, with exceptions for family members and antiques. The 11 rifles the museum borrowed from collectors for the exhibit are too new to qualify as antique under the law, and I-594 is silent on any exemption for museum displays. “I read through the...

Are you a Democrat who can provide legal justification for President Obama issuing work documents to illegal aliens in his proposed executive order? If so then you need to contact Lawrence O'Donnell, host of MSNBC's The Last Word. O'Donnell has claimed that he spent days trying to track down such a Democrat but was unable to find any who could provide such justification. Among those Democrats unable to provide a constitutional basis for that part of the executive order was Representative Peter Welch of Vermont who presented the face of befuddlement when asked that question by O'Donnell.

President Barack Obama plans to announce an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy through executive action that would shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Such a move will set up a showdown with Republicans, who have blocked Democrats' efforts in Congress to reform immigration laws and warned the president not to take unilateral action on immigration. The Times, citing unidentified administration officials with direct knowledge of the plan, said Obama's proposed overhaul may be announced as soon as next week. Officials said it would allow many parents of children who are...

The Federal Election Commission deadlocked in a crucial Internet campaign speech vote announced late last week, leaving online political blogging and videos free of many of the reporting requirements attached to broadcast ads — for now. All three Republican-backed members voted against restrictions, but they were opposed by the three Democrat-backed panel members, including Vice Chairwoman Ann M. Ravel, who said she will lead a push next year to come up with rules for government political speech on the Internet. It would mark a major reversal for the commission, which for nearly a decade has protected the

A senior Democratic tax writer said Friday that the Obama administration could take unilateral action targeting offshore tax deals before Congress leaves town for the midterm elections. Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a group of House Ways and Means Democrats on Wednesday that the White House would roll out administrative actions against the recent influx of so-called inversions “when they’re ready.” “That could be next week,” Levin said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. Lew has only said that the administration would decide in the “very near future” how to respond...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress. In preparation for this agreement, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in 2015 in Paris, the negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to broker a deal to commit some of the world’s largest economies to enact laws to reduce their carbon pollution. But under the Constitution, a president may enter into a legally binding treaty only if it is approved by a two-thirds majority of...

After meeting with a "bevy" of big-business groups, President Barack Obama is reportedly considering granting them up to 800,000 additional guest-worker visas via executive actions.

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is throwing down the gauntlet again. He is calling on every American citizen to call their U.S. senators and demand to know where they stand on President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty. Sessions, in a statement exclusively provided to Breitbart News, berated House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, calling on Reid to allow a vote on the House-passed measure that would block President Obama’s attempts to continue or expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive amnesty to millions more illegal aliens. “Recent developments suggest...

Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling that President Obama’s “recess” appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional could mean as many as 800 cases decided by the illegal appointees would have to be reconsidered. The Court ruled three appointments President Obama made on Jan. 4, 2012, to fill out the five-member National Labor Relations Board, were improper because the Senate was not, in fact, in recess. That means the NLRB did not have a quorum, as required by law, when it ruled on hundreds of cases from the time they were appointed until August 2013, when other nominees were properly...