Free Republic

Sal Russo, co-founder of the Tea Party Express, announced his support for amnesty on Wednesday, reversing his organization’s statement from a year ago that it would not take a position on immigration reform. If you take a look at Russo’s background, this isn’t exactly the revelation that some in the media are making it out to be. What’s interesting, though, is the dichotomy between Russo’s position and the principles of the organization he helped to create. The Tea Party Express bills itself as anti-establishment, but Russo’s immigration proposal is nearly identical to the principles pushed by GOP House Leaders --...

Madison, Wis. – In a ruling with stunning implications on political speech in Wisconsin and beyond, the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declared portions of state campaign finance laws restricting issue ads unconstitutional. The 88-page decision handed down late Wednesday afternoon sides with Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. and its state political action committee, which sued to block the enforcement of multiple state statutes and rules against groups that spend money for political speech independently of candidates and parties – so called issue advocacy groups. The 7th Circuit’s ruling, legal experts tell Wisconsin Reporter, could cut the legs out...

MINOCQUA (WAOW) -It is spring in Wisconsin but in some parts of the Northwoods, lakes are still covered with ice, delaying the fishing season. "We're excited that we can feel that spring is on the horizon," said Kim Baltus, the Minocqua Chamber of Commerce executive director. “But on Lake Minocqua there still is ice on the majority of the center parts of the lake." The ice kept some anglers from fishing last weekend - the opening of inland lakes season. "We need the ice to go away, so people can get out there and get the walleyes and all kinds...

Green Bay — The Green Bay Packers were one player away from disaster Thursday night in the first round of the National Football League draft. Prospect after prospect the Packers held in high regard and held out hopes might be available at their No. 21 position had to be removed from their draft board. Finally, it came down to the slot just ahead of Green Bay. What would have been the reaction among the Packers' decision-makers if the New Orleans Saints would have selected safety Ha'Sean "Ha Ha" Clinton-Dix of Alabama with pick No. 20. "I would have been crushed,"...

After surviving two long, cold Wisconsin winters on the streets, Betty Ybarra traded freezing park benches and tents for a tiny house made of recycled wood she helped build herself. Her 99-square-foot home, which boasts flower window boxes, was built by volunteers of the Occupy Madison group, as part of about a half dozen similar projects around the United States, including in New York and Texas, to shelter the homeless. -SNIP- "The village will bring dignity. We will have a fence and we will have community," organizer Trina Clemente said. For Ybarra a tiny house means much-needed normalcy after many...

Madison — In a pingpong match of court orders this week, a federal judge halted an investigation into conservative groups' political activities, an appeals court immediately blocked that ruling and the judge then reinstated his injunction blocking the probe. They were the latest twists and turns in the complex litigation surrounding the secret John Doe probe looking into fundraising and spending during the attempts to recall Gov. Scott Walker and state senators. Here's a look at how the situation got to this point and where it could go next. Q. Who launched the investigation? A. Milwaukee County District Attorney John...

THIS IS FOR THE MIDWEST (NORTHEAST and SOUTH is in a separate thread and West coming later, see links below) There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. West Virginia: ALEX MOONEY, WEST VIRGINIA-2, May 13th .... Open...

“It was a miracle I wasn’t paralyzed,” Tanya Weyker said about her February 2013 collision with a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputy. The deputy, caught on video, rolled through a stop sign and T-boned Weyker’s car. However Weyker, 25, was charged with drunk driving, according to a report from Fox6Now.com. After the crash, Weyker said she told deputies she’d taken a few sips of a friend’s drink that night. When a deputy asked why her eyes looked red and glassy, Weyker said she told him he had been crying. According to the report, she also told him she had taken Vicodin...

Early in the morning on October 3, 2013, armed officers showed up at the homes of Deborah Jordahl and R. J. Johnson. Their homes were illuminated by floodlights perched on sheriff deputies’ vehicles as officers seized business papers, computer equipment, phones, and other devices. While their residences were raided, Jordahl and Johnson were restrained under police supervision and denied the ability to contact their attorneys. Jordahl and Johnson were not part of any illicit drug ring. They hadn’t been trafficking in human organs or distributing child pornography. Their crime? Supporting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Jordahl and Johnson run the Wisconsin...

The "John Doe" investigation into conservatives is dead. At least for now. In a monumental victory for targeted conservatives in the secret Wisconsin investigation, Judge Rudolph Randa on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction to stop the politically charged probe, ruling in favor of conservative activist Eric O'Keefe, his Wisconsin Club for Growth and "others." The probe had been looking into possible illegal coordination between conservative groups and Republican Gov. Scott Walker's recall election campaign, but came under fire for the opaque way it was conducted.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a halt to the "John Doe" investigation targeting groups including Americans for Prosperity, here seen holding a pro-Scott Walker rally in Madison in 2011. The challenge brought in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee was filed by Wisconsin Club for Growth. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa on Tuesday ordered a halt to the John Doe investigation that targeted the recall campaign of Gov. Scott Walker and “all or nearly all right-of-center groups and individuals in Wisconsin who have engaged in issue advocacy from 2010 to the present.” In issuing his preliminary injunction, Randa sided with...

Wisconsin’s governor Scott Walker passed three new laws, addressing domestic violence. The laws include a mandate that police track the incidents where no arrests are made when dealing with a domestic-disturbance call. The laws also make it very clear that there will be a process for seizing an “abuser’s” guns. This section of the law was proposed by Republican Rep. Andre Jacque of De Pere, and also requires district attorneys to report to the Wisconsin Department of Justice each time a cop responds to a domestic abuse call and doesn’t arrest anyone. Republican Rep. Garey Bies proposed in the third...

Just imagine, there are actually people out there who see this as amusing and not obscene. And yes, they watch lots of MSNBC. It can be stated with a fair degree of certainty that a liberal Democrat has gone beyond the pale when other Democrats ... in Wisconsin ... condemn his conduct. That's the case after the latest bizarre stunt involving Brett Hulsey, a state representative "running a long-shot campaign for governor" against Republican Mary Burke, according to the Associated Press. Hulsey is planning to hand out the hoods, which he made with curtain cloth on his daughter's sewing machine,...

If the state provides free IDs, is there really an “unjustified burden” on poor voters?To better understand the contrast between an activist, liberal judge who refuses to follow the law and a judge who understands that his job is to follow precedent and the Constitution, consider two recent federal cases on voter-ID laws. On Tuesday, federal-district-court judge Lynn Adelman — a Clinton appointee, former Democratic state senator, and former Legal Aid Society lawyer — held that Wisconsin’s voter-ID requirement violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, because it places “an unjustified burden on...

The federal government will not pay $250 million toward the Oneida Indian land claim, a move that essentially kills a highly publicized settlement agreement announced last year. In a one-page letter sent to the land claim mediator, federal negotiators said they have no plans to put up the money. The secret letter, written in August by a lawyer for the Department of the Interior, came to The Post-Standard attention's last week. That money was the foundation of the agreement announced in February 2002 by state and New York Oneida leaders. Gov. George Pataki said then the three Oneida tribes would...

GREEN BAY (AP) - Democratic U.S. House candidate Steve Kagen apologized Monday for commenting that he was late for a meeting on an Indian reservation because "we're on Injun time." "I did not mean any harm by my words, and I humbly apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intent," he said in a statement hours after the National Republican Congressional Committee released a tape recording of the comment. Kagen attended a meeting Friday on the nearby Oneida Reservation, and at his next stop in Green Bay he made the following remarks: "Appreciate getting here almost on time....

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Democratic U.S. House candidate Steve Kagen apologized Monday for commenting that he was late for a meeting on an Indian reservation because "we're on Injun time." "I did not mean any harm by my words and I humbly apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intent," he said in a statement hours after the National Republican Congressional Committee released a tape recording of the comment. Kagen attended a meeting Friday on the nearby Oneida Reservation and at his next stop in Green Bay he made the following remarks: "Appreciate getting here almost on time....

Rep. Paul Ryan is meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. Let's hope they give his ideas a fair hearing. Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) is scheduled to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday to discuss his plans to address poverty and his March 12 comments in a radio interview about a "tailspin of culture" in our inner cities where "generations of men [are] not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work." Mr. Ryan's statement sparked liberal accusations of racism. Rep. Barbara Lee (D., Calif.) called it "a thinly veiled racial attack" that...

A federal judge in Milwaukee has struck down Wisconsin's voter Identification law, saying it unfairly burdens poor and minority voters. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman issued his long-awaited decision Tuesday. It invalidates Wisconsin's law. Wisconsin's law would have required voters to show a state-issued photo ID at the polls. Supporters said it would cut down on voter fraud and boost public confidence in the integrity of the election process. But Adelman sided with opponents, who said it disproportionately excluded poor and minority voters because they're less likely to have photo IDs or the documents needed to get them. Wisconsin's law...