Free Republic

Sen. John Cornyn, who is spearheading the Republicans' campaign to take back the Senate, is on a roll. . . . But the genial Texas lawyer is facing an unusual challenge—from one of his own colleagues. Firebrand conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, breaking with the Senate's tradition of deference, is endorsing and funding conservative candidates to challenge the party establishment's picks. Just last week, he backed a conservative insurgent in the Colorado Republican primary over a former lieutenant governor. The Republican Party is in play, and the passage of President Barack Obama's health plan has inflamed the intraparty...

Today's last-minute trip to the post office to mail in your return is a reminder of one of life's unpleasant realities: paying taxes. Always important in politics, the tax issue is likely to play a larger role this year than in any midterm election since 1994. A recent Rasmussen survey reported that 66% of Americans believe the nation is over-taxed. There's a reason. Under President Barack Obama taxes are going up—a lot. House Ways and Means Committee Republicans have issued a summary of the 25 tax increases signed into law by Mr. Obama so far. They total $670 billion over...

Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of U.S. voters who strongly favor repeal. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters nationwide finds 38% still oppose repeal, including 32% who strongly oppose it. For the previous two weeks following passage of the controversial plan, 54% of voters have favored repeal and 42% have opposed it. But only 38% of voters think it is even somewhat likely that the health care bill will be repealed. Fifty-one percent (51%) see repeal...

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference wrapped up on Saturday afternoon after three days of speeches dripping with red-meat criticisms of Democrats and President Obama. This is par for the course for any party gathering, especially one where the party holding the shindig is on the outs. But there was also something most unusual about the conference: an uncommon amount of talk and discussion of the United States Constitution. Ordinary people from all walks of life, not a constitutional scholar or lawyer among them, are actually trying to come to grips with the fundamental meaning and purpose of our founding document....

The irony of Justice John Paul Stevens' retirement is that it is likely to change the Senate more than the Supreme Court. Stevens' announcement Friday gives President Obama his second chance to reshape the court. But as with his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter, Obama's choice would be replacing one of the court's existing liberal stalwarts. That means even if he chooses another liberal like Sotomayor, the court's ideological balance would remain the same. The string of recent narrow 5-4 decisions would likely remain unbroken. But court watchers agree that is not likely to make this choice...

WASHINGTON DC (April 1, 2010) — Tea Party activists may be ardent supporters of economic conservatism but are similar to the overall electorate when it comes to economic priorities, according to the findings of a new report released by The Winston Group today on the political movement. In one of the most extensive looks to date at just who Tea Party activists are, how they think, and the ideas that matter to them, the report found that 17% of the people polled considered themselves “part of the Tea Party movement” and more than four in ten Tea Party members said...

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on nine out of 10 key issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports, but the gap between the two parties has grown narrower on several of them. Following the passage of the health care bill, 53% now say they trust Republicans on the issue of health care. Thirty-seven percent (37%) place their trust in Democrats. A month earlier, the two parties were essentially even on the health care issue. These results are consistent with the finding that 54% of voters want the health care bill repealed. Rasmussen Reports is tracking support for repeal on...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration has issued tough gas mileage standards for new cars and trucks hitting dealerships in the future. The Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency say the final rules will require 2016 model-year vehicles to meet fuel efficiency targets of 34.1 miles per gallon combined for cars and trucks, or the equivalent of 35.5 mpg with credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That's an increase of nearly 10 mpg over current standards.

(Author's note: This is a post from last November, but since I'm new here I couldn't have shared it back then...so I'm sharing it now.) After his meeting with Japan's Emperor I think its pretty clear what his position on American Sovereignity is...but I'm pretty sure we've never had a concise and illustrated appraisal of Obama's positions on the other hot issues of the day...sure we have words...but pictures are worth more than that! The rest contains interactivity that can't be duplicated here so you'll have to see it here

DES MOINES — With the Iowa legislature moving toward adjournment, the year-long battle to overturn the Iowa Supreme Court decision establishing same-sex marriage is moving to a new venue — the campaign trail. Party leaders insist the 2010 election will be about the economy, jobs and protecting Iowans’ priorities: education, health-care, safe communities. The effort to overturn the April 3, 2009, decision legalizing same-sex marriage is unlikely to be “the” issue of the campaign, campaign operatives say, but it will be an issue that, in some races, may influence the outcome. “We don’t have to go out of our way...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's official: Californians will decide whether legal marijuana should be used to plug the state's $20 billion budget gap. California residents are expected to vote this year on whether legalization should be approved to raise nearly $1.4 billion in state revenue. ...."With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense," Ammiano said [the bill's sponsor]

Republicans engaged in early jockeying in their party's 2012 presidential nomination field have uniformly condemned a new health care law passed by a Democratic-controlled Congress and signed Tuesday by President Barack Obama.

Dear Fellow Conservative: After months of backroom deals, political payoffs, and strong-arm tactics, President Obama and the Democrats have forced the health care bill through Congress. The bill passed the House of Representatives tonight by a vote of 219 to 212. House Democrats also passed a separate "reconciliation" bill that includes minor changes, but its fate in the Senate will not stop the President from signing the health care takeover later this week. We've lost the battle over this bill, but the war for health care freedom has just begun. If you're willing to join me in the fight to...

Constitution: Republicans vow to repeal health care reform. But no social entitlement, once signed into law, has ever been overturned. The way to stop this federal overreach is through the courts. Fox pundit Bill Kristol predicts that Republicans will repeal the law in 2013. Rep. Jim DeMint and other GOP leaders have already pledged to do so. But that assumes a lot. Republicans must first regain control of both houses of Congress, which will require sustaining the current level of public outrage for six months after the fact. That won't be easy. While additional negative details about the 2,074-page bill...

By: Jane Hamsher Sunday March 21, 2010 6:57 pm On the House floor today, the Republicans focused on attacking the individual mandate. Just like they did yesterday in the amendments they offered to the Rules Committee. Just as John Boehner relentlessly did this week on Meet the Press. Their rhetoric feeds into an extensive and well-funded network of right wing groups that stand ready to push anti-mandate ballot initiatives for 2010 that will go into overdrive upon passage of the health care bill: GOP leaders hope at a minimum that they can energize conservative activists and turn the electorate against...

Expressing an increasing confidence that a massive health care overhaul will pass Congress -- despite dire warnings from Republicans about its impact on Democrats in November -- White House officials on Sunday dared the GOP to bring it on during this fall's 2010 midterm election. "We're happy to have the 2010 elections be about the achievement of health care reform. That's a debate I think we're obviously comfortable having," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on "Fox News Sunday." "Make my day," added senior White House adviser David Axelrod. "If the Republican Party wants to go out and say...

WASHINGTON – California is flat-out broke, and there are plenty of things for would-be senators to talk about: two wars, a battered economy and a massive effort to overhaul the nation's health care system. But the state's GOP Senate race has been heating up over an unlikely issue: Israel. With former Rep. Tom Campbell leading in the polls, his challengers for the Republican nomination – former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore – are taking persistent shots at the front-runner, saying his record has been consistently anti-Israel. As a result, Campbell will have to play defense today, when...

Mitch McConnell (R-KY) came out swinging Wednesday in response to the "post-partisan" candidate for "change" calling to misuse "reconciliation" for his Constitution-trampling health care takeover.

Virginia's new Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, has ambitious plans for his state. He wants to put young Virginians back to work, make Virginia the first East Coast state to drill offshore, and to compete with California to become the wine capital of the United States. McDonnell made these points in his keynote address to the inaugural conference of the American Action Forum, which its Web site calls a new voice for "center-right ideas and action." With jobs as the focus of the conference, the governor said that "the scariest unemployment statistic we face" is the hidden unemployment that is masked...

Memo to Republican Leaders: Republicans should exploit the HUGE advantage they have in education. Everybody knows, deep-down, that it's liberals who are screwing up the schools. Let's start shouting this from the rooftops! Every day! The linked article, published almost a year ago, gives all the basic points. Please pass this along to candidates, campaign managers, etc. (I have 100+ articles on the web explaining how the Education Establishment is dumbing down the country. I can usually explain what various policies actually achieve, versus what is promised.)