Free Republic

Obama is on a roll with all the regulations he's created to take away my second amendment rights. David Rivkin explains what he can ACTUALLY do with gun control. Maybe Obama should refresh his memory on the Constitution.

It’s about time somebody spoke up. Occupy Wall Street and the satellite groups, such as Occupy Richmond, have made headlines for more than a month, while the rest of the world seems to wait around for word on what they will do next. Not everyone is impressed with the protesters’ methods or strategy, however. Richmond area businessman Floyd Mays decided to make his own commentary by creating a personal message via YouTube video. Mays, a well-known community leader, invokes the Founding Fathers in his commonsense call to action, which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS_jsAxkAzA. The concise video answers key questions...

Last week, Congressional Republicans and Vice President Joe Biden came to an impasse over the debt crisis. House Majority Leader Eric Canter (R-VA) announced that he was pulling out of the negotiations over deficit-reduction because he refused to countenance tax increases. Senator Jon Kyl walked out the door with him. “We’ve reached the point where the dynamic needs to change,” Cantor said. “It is up to the president to come in and talk to the speaker. We’ve reached the end of this phase.” Biden tried to play it as a victory, even though it was a clear defeat. “As all...

Former White House lawyer, David B. Rivkin, Jr. is having quite a run. On the heels of his national success planning and leading the lawsuit by 26 plaintiff states challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Rivkin is being honored as one of the best law firm writers in America. The prestigious 2011 Burton Award for Legal Achievement has been awarded to Rivkin for his Washington Post article, “Why the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy is Doomed,” which ran in the Feb. 13, 2010 edition. The article, written by Rivkin and his Baker Hostetler law colleague Lee A. Casey,...

Former White House lawyer, David B. Rivkin, Jr., who is often ahead of the curve in matters of conservative strategy, addressed the country’s runaway debt problem in a May 12 editorial written for The Wall Street Journal. The article, written by Rivkin and law colleague Lee Casey, specifically points to Section Four of the 14th Amendment, which forbids any default on the outstanding federal debt. “Section Four can become a powerful hammer for the budget hawks if Congress simply reclaims its constitutional pre-eminence in the borrowing process,” the piece argued. Rivkin then pointed out that the 14th Amendment forbids dishonoring...

Obama is primarily responsible for the Tea Party movement, despite the fact that it is the nemesis of the President and the political establishment. The movement is predominantly composed of a small number of Libertarians and a large number of Conservatives. The Tea Party Conservatives are formerly Conservative Republicans who have given up the notion of having a moral government and are tired of funding an immoral government. They are disconnecting from the Republican establishment, which today seems more comfortable managing big government than ultimately reducing it. Herein lies their commonality with Libertarians. The Tea Party is thus at the...

Obama is primarily responsible for the Tea Party movement, despite the fact that it is the nemesis of the President and the political establishment. The movement is predominantly composed of a small number of Libertarians and a large number of Conservatives. The Tea Party Conservatives are formerly Conservative Republicans who have given up the notion of having a moral government and are tired of funding an immoral government. They are disconnecting from the Republican establishment, which today seems more comfortable managing big government than ultimately reducing it. Herein lies their commonality with Libertarians. The Tea Party is thus at the...

The Federalist Society – panel (International and National Security Law Practice Group) link to more info: http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/the-presidents-authority-in-libya-podcast Listen to this episode here: http://thehardwickegroup.podbean.com/mf/play/gcqtmh/DRIVintroremarks.mp3

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2011 (AFP) - By reversing itself and deciding to prosecute the 9/11 mastermind before a military tribunal, the Obama administration risks alienating its left-wing base and irking conservatives. A stern Attorney General Eric Holder, who had spent a year and a half seeking to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators in federal civilian court, announced Monday that the administration was giving up on the controversial bid. Obama's team had to “face a simple truth” that the congressional restrictions against trials in the United States were “unlikely to be repealed in the immediate future,” he said....

U.S. airstrikes against Libya have reignited the perennial debate over whether the president can launch military operations without first securing congressional approval. The answer is found in the Constitution’s text and history, and it must be the same regardless of the president’s political party. Those Republicans accusing President Obama of exceeding his legitimate authority should consider whether they would make the same claims if a Republican were president, as many Democrats previously have done. The Constitution’s Framers deliberately divided war powers between the president and Congress. As commander in chief, the president has the authority to determine when and how...

We posted something brief yesterday about the ruling by Federal District Judge Gladys Kessler that ObamaCare is constitutional. However, with with some further analysis, courtesy of Avik Roy at Forbes, it becomes clear that Kessler’s decision may be weighted more in partisanship than in actual logic. This is an excerpt from Kessler’s ruling: “As previous Commerce Clause cases have all involved physical activity, as opposed to mental activity, i.e. decision-making, there is little judicial guidance on whether the latter falls within Congress’s power. See Thomas More Law Ctr., 720 F.Supp.2d at 893 (describing the “activity/inactivity distinction” as an issue of...

“Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) claimed that there was no financial penalty for not having health insurance under the new health care law, saying that it was in fact an “incentive” to get people to do the right thing. This from a woman who claimed Rush is a racist when he called MSNBC host Ed Schultz, “Sergeant Schultz.”’

This tussle in Florida over the “clarity” of Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling that ObamaCare is unconstitutional is further unfolding. From the tone of Vinson’s comments on the matter, the DOJ’s push for the ruling to be clarified is not sitting too well with him:

“So far, two Republican governors – Florida’s Rick Scott and Alaska’s Sean Parnell – have announced they will implement no part of ObamaCare. In the interest of both principle and practicality, the other 48 governors should follow their lead.”

Reason.com has just published a lengthy interview with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who is an outspoken critic of the health care law. Daniels is one of the many names getting thrown around as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012. Until then, Daniels is concerned with keeping Indiana afloat while the state figures out a way to cope with ever-increasing financial burdens. Projections show that by 2014, the expansion in Medicaid may hit Indiana’s budget to the tune of $3 billion.

In an effort to change the dialogue on the question of the individual mandate, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) claims that there is no financial penalty for not participating in the individual mandate, that instead it is a financial “incentive” to get people to do “the right thing.”