Free Republic

On immigration, the GOP primary will have little room for nuance. President Obama on Thursday announced his much-anticipated executive action on immigration, and in doing so he lobbed a grenade squarely into the 2016 Republican primary race. Obama's order will reshape how the feds prioritize deportations of undocumented workers, shielding an estimated five million of them from being kicked out of the country. "We shall not oppress a stranger for we know the heart of a stranger — we were strangers once, too," Obama said, quoting scripture. By moving ahead solo before the new Congress is sworn in, Obama ensured...

The roiling turbulence in Ferguson has boiled over and spread to other cities around the nation. That showed up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week, when community activists grew angry with their police force over an incident that happened last April. Officer Christopher Manney shot an African American man who took the policeman’s baton and attacked him with it. The man was mentally ill and died as a result of the encounter, and while Officer Manney was dismissed from the PD, he was never charged with a crime. Reporters were grilling the current police chief this week as he was in...

Sen. Ted Cruz is lobbying hard to prevent government regulation of the Internet, but one measure the Texas Republican supports is expected to create a sizeable budget hole for his state. Cruz, a likely presidential candidate in 2016, spent ample time last week promoting a permanent extension to an expiring ban on federal, state, and local taxation of Internet access that is currently being considered in Congress. The measure, which passed the House earlier this year, is popular in both parties and considered a lame-duck "must pass," as the ban is set to lift on Dec. 11. But a lesser-known...

When it came time for the US Senate to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) “clout” did not have much of an impact on fellow Democrat senators. In fact, 35 of the senators who voted against the project were given campaign cash by Landrieu since the 2008 election cycle. Take a look here at the list of senators who don’t seem to acknowledge Landrieu’s “clout.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) $10,000 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (R-CT) $5,000 Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) $10,000 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) $7,000 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) $10,000 Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) $3,500 Sen....

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday he is seriously considering whether to get into the race for president in 2016, but he hasn't decided yet whether he feels the call to run. "My personal process is I have to feel like it's a calling, particularly for the time and the effort and the impact it has on family and friends," Walker told AP in a telephone interview from Boca Raton, Florida, where he is attending the Republican Governors Association meeting this week. "It's not something you should yearn for..."Walker, who won re-election to a second term...

"Whether it’s two years, six years, 20 years from now, because at 47, I mean I think about Hillary Clinton, I could run 20 years from now for president and still be about the same age as the former secretary of State is right now," Walker said in an interview with the local Fox affiliate published Sunday night.

Madison Wisconsin: In a city with a homeless population that has risen by 7 percent over the last four years to about 3,370, Occupy Madison organizers decided to tell their local leaders to “put up or shut up” and developed a non profit organization Occupy Madison Inc. In June 2013 OM Build was born and Tiny Homes was decided on as a solution. To achieve their goals of a Tiny Village complete with 9 tiny homes, permanent comprehensive day resource center, safer places to sleep at night, as well as access to restrooms, showers, laundry, community gardening space, and other...

Milwaukee’s tough-talking Sheriff David Clarke — who once famously told city residents to arm themselves so they could take out any “clown” who entered their homes — now says that communities shouldn’t rely on “data-driven crap” to fight crime. Rather, policing ought to be all about getting law enforcement agents on the ground, so they can lock up criminals, he said during a lengthy interview with Fox News. Sheriff Clarke said academics and political elites do more harm than good by latching on to criminal justice theories and studies to promote their vision of fighting crime, Politico reported. ~snip~ His...

One of Pope Francis' most vocal critics, who was demoted last week from his leadership of the Vatican's Supreme Court, has said he would refuse Holy Communion to any Catholic legislator who voted for same-sex marriage. Speaking before a Limerick conference on the Catholic family, Cardinal Raymond Burke declined to comment on the Government's planned referendum over gay and lesbian marriage.However, he said he would refuse Communion to pro-gay marriage Catholic legislators in the same way he did in the case of pro-choice legislators in his native United States. He also reiterated his call to the Pontiff, made during last...

CLAM LAKE — The war on drugs has a new battleground and it’s deep in the heart of Wisconsin’s great northwoods. Drug traffickers with ties to Mexican cartels are setting up shop in our state and national forests. FOX6 Investigators got an exclusive invitation to see what’s left of one massive pot farm near Clam Lake. In just the past four years, state agents have wiped out more than $70 million worth of marijuana grown on the same public lands where people go to hunt, hike and camp – and that’s just what they’ve found. Drug traffickers are setting up...

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber made $4 million pimping Obamacare. ** $400,000 from Health and Human Services ** $1.6 MM from other states, and that’s just four of them. ** Another $2 milion from HHS for other work. It was a nice gig. The dude made millions because of his central role in lying to get health care passed. Video surfaced this week of Jonathan Gruber admitting the Obama administration lied to “stupid” Americans in order to get Obamacare passed. Jonathan Gruber made $400,000 from HHS. He also made an additional $3.6 million for consulting with states. Glenn Kessler at The...

The police chief of a small town near La Crosse accused of harassing a local tea party activist is leaving his job. The Town of Campbell and Tim Kelemen have reached an agreement which pays the chief for about 330 hours. Kelemen admitted to using the activist's personal e-mail address to sign him up for online dating services, and even pornographic websites. Kelemen's lawyer says the chief will apply for disability benefits for a mental health condition he says stems from harassment by the local tea party activists.

MADISON, Wis. — The postal carrier who investigators say dumped hundreds of GOP political mailers in a Neenah apartment complex recycling bin days before the general election could face criminal charges, a federal agent tells Wisconsin Reporter. “What we have found is that the carrier’s actions, in our opinion at least, has merited some sort of (charging) decision on the part of” prosecutors, said Scott Pierce, spokesman for the Great Lakes Field Office of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service. “We feel like there is enough information here at least to present the case for prosecution.”...

In December of 2012, in the aftermath of Michigan’s Republican Legislature passing a right-to-work law, thousands of union members from around the state participated in a teleconference where their leaders promised “retribution” against the GOP. One union member wondered if Democrats took control of the Legislature, “Could we shove it right down their throats?” Al Garrett, president of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, shot back: “If we were to change the composition of both houses, where we were the majority and had the governor, no question we would be able to get rid of it right away. … In November of...

The incoming chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has been outspoken about his plans to cut federal employees’ pay and pensions. Besides his previous proposal, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin spoke with the Washington Post this week and discussed what he wants to do when he takes over the committee in January. On his chopping block are federal employees’ pay, health insurance, pensions, and the right to join a union.“I think it’s unrealistic for public-service employees to believe they are immune from modifications to their pay and benefit packages,” said Sen. Johnson, who was elected to...

TOWN OF CAMPBELL — The town of Campbell police chief who tarnished his department’s reputation in a case of cyber-warfare will resign from his position today and seek duty-related mental health disability benefits. The town will pay Tim Kelemen, 37, for 335 accrued hours under an agreement negotiated by the chief’s lawyer and the town’s attorney and approved unanimously Thursday by the Campbell Town Board. “It’s not a good day for the town. It’s not a good day for Tim Kelemen,” town attorney Brent Smith said. “It’s not the way you want to end an employment relationship.” An attorney who...

Students at a Wisconsin high school are boycotting the lunch program, upset over tiny portions and declining quality. Meghan Hellrood, a senior at D.C. Everest High School in Weston, talked to Ainsley Earhardt this morning to explain why she’s leading the protest against the federal program, which was championed by First Lady Michelle Obama. […] “It’s not actually giving us healthy foods. It’s giving us small portions of very processed foods. Kids aren’t happy about that,” said Hellrood, referring to the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, which was passed in 2010 as part of an effort to combat childhood obesity....

How many people alive today can say that their father was a Civil War soldier who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln in the White House? Fred Upham can. Despite sounding like a tall tale and a mathematical impossibility, it's documented truth. Fred's father, William, was a private in the Union Army's Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was severely wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run, in 1861, and later personally appointed by President Lincoln to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Fred's in exclusive company—the dwindling group of children of soldiers who fought, North against South, 150...

MADISON, Wis. – Frustrated by one federal court, conservative activists in the crosshairs of a partisan Wisconsin prosecutor say they’ll take their First Amendment case to the Supreme Court. Andrew Grossman, an attorney for veteran political activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, said he hopes the high court will settle questions tied to political speech and Wisconsin’s politically charged John Doe investigation. The petition of certiorari, as it’s called, is due by Jan. 21. It’s been a long and winding road to the high court. U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Randa had argued the conservatives showed that...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has said he wants recipients of food stamps and unemployment benefits to undergo drug tests, a move that could face possible legal trouble. The state is already one of five that require public assistance applicants who are convicted of drug felony charges to be tested for drugs, along with Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Should Walker propose a broader measure that involves testing benefits applicants either randomly or without suspicion that they have used drugs, it could be found unconstitutional because of a 2003 Michigan Court of Appeals...