Free Republic

Step on the rake, Dianne Earlier today, Senator Dianne Feinstein thought she’d play a little game of “gotcha” with Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. This is a terrible idea. Gorsuch’s performance has, so far, been absolutely stellar. Anyone who thinks they’re going to score a cheap political point during his confirmation hearing is in for a rude awakening. Feinstein decided that a weak cheap-shot could make the idea that Gorsuch isn’t “for the little guy” stick. She was badly mistaken. Gorsuch began to rattle off cases that destroyed her premise, before summing things up thusly:

TO: The Press, Congressional Member, President Obama, Other Little Guys in America FROM: Narrative of the quintessential little guy they are all talking about with the debt limit increase RE: Stop saying the little guy will get hurt if the debt limit is not raised How can I be hurt by Congress’s failure (or success) at raising the debt limit? Listen up…. Mortgage interest rates – I lost my house in the fall of 2010 and so did four other people on my block. We had to leave the keys on the counter and walk away because we owed more...

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The cornerstone of the multibillion-dollar system of federal farm subsidies is an iconic image of the struggling family farmer: small, powerless against Mother Nature, tied to the land by blood. Without generous government help, farm-state politicians say, thousands of these hardworking families would fail, threatening the nation's abundant food supply. "In today's fast-paced, interconnected world, there are few industries where sons and daughters can work side-by-side with moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas," Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said last year. "But we still find that today in agriculture. . . . It is a celebration of what too many in...

Jurors awarded $7.7 million yesterday to the former owner of a Gaslamp Quarter cigar store who was forced to move by the city to make way for a new hotel. The verdict in San Diego Superior Court was the latest chapter in the battle of Ahmed Mesdaq and his Gran Havana Cigar and Coffee Lounge. The city used its powers of eminent domain and forced Mesdaq out of the property at Fifth Avenue and J Street so a developer could build a Marriott Renaissance Hotel. The case attracted national attention in the growing debate over the government's power to take...

WASHINGTON - On the front page of Friday's New York Observer was an intriguing story about the New Democratic Network, a group of party activists who want to shape policy and to raise enough "soft money" to give the Democrats a shot at retaking the White House and Congress. American politics has been in ferment since the 2002 mid-term elections. It was then that the law changed and banned parties from raising anything but "hard money" -- direct donations from individual Americans, up to a maximum of US$2,000. All manner of other organizations are now rushing into the vacuum left...