Free Republic

Young abided by letter of law; spirit of law takes a beating The House Ethics Committee has ruled that Alaska Rep. Don Young didn't violate the law in accepting 12 checks totaling $60,000 for his legal defense fund from 12 businesses owned by one family. As the committee pointed out, the companies are technically 12 separate entities in Louisiana, but they represent exactly one political interest.

Michaud Calls for Bipartisan Seating at State of the Union Address - Says it's a small, but important and symbolic step WASHINGTON, DC - Today Congressman Mike Michaud added his name to a letter led by Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) that will be sent to House and Senate leaders next week asking for a show of bipartisanship through a change in the seating at the upcoming State of the Union Address. "Partisan seating arrangements at the State of the Union addresses serve to symbolize division instead of the common challenges we face in securing a strong future for the United...

The U.S. Senate yesterday approved spending $4.6 billion to settle two lawsuits: one by black farmers who alleged racial discrimination by government lenders and the other by 300,000 American Indians who said they had been cheated out of land royalties dating to 1887. Passage of the measure, by voice vote, unblocks a legislative logjam that has thwarted payouts, negotiated by the Obama administration, of $1.15 billion to the black farmers and $3.4 billion to the American Indians.

The link has only a video posted. "I mean, the Supreme Court has done a tremendous disservice to the United States of America. They have done more to undermine our democracy with their Citizens United decision than all of the Republican operatives in the world in this campaign. They've opened the floodgates, and personally, I'm investigating articles of impeachment against Justice Roberts for perjuring during his Senate hearings, where he said he wouldn't be a judicial activist, and he wouldn't overturn precedents." ~ Rep. Peter DeFazio in an interview with The Huffington Post

Subject: So Dumb You Can Only Smile A DC airport ticket agency offers some examples of 'why' our country is in trouble! 1.I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman (Carol Shea-Porter) ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!) 2.I got a call from a Kansas Congressman's (Moore) staffer (Howard Bauleke), who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in...

Ohio Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy (D-umbass) claims to voted against TARP, but wasn't in Congress at the time (and supported it during her campaign) There is apparently a whole new level of human stupidity that can be achieved once someone gets elected to public office. Take for example this claim made by Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy earlier this week where she claims that she voted against TARP because it didn't have enough consumer protections. One problem, however. She wasn't even in Congress at the time. She was running for Congress in September 2008, and at that time she said she...

Yesterday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) endorsed the rumored Slaughter Rule to send the Senate passed Obamacare bill to the President without a direct up-or-down vote in the House. Don’t believe those on the left who are trying to argue that because Republicans used deeming resolutions when they were in power, it is ok for Democrats to use a similar tactic to pass legislation without a vote. Under this procedure, the House would vote on a rule setting up debate. The House would then skip a vote on the Senate passed version of Obamacare and move directly to...

There are signs that Barack Obama's fledgling administration has hit a dead end. A growing idea has taken hold of the political intelligentsia in Washington as Barack Obama's young presidency has sunken into paralysis, only a year after he entered the White House. On Obama's side, the frustration is palpable. His supporters argue that modern America is ungovernable because the political system has become so unwieldy it is broken. How else, they ask, can it be explained that a president who won 53 per cent of the popular vote and helped to win big majorities for his Democratic Party in...

From Nancy Pelosi's website: MYTH:"Health insurance reform could be unconstitutional…or violate the 10th amendment." FACT: As with Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government has the Constitutional power to reform our health care system. The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states … or to the people. But the Constitution gives Congress broad power to regulate activities that have an effect on interstate commerce. Congress has used this authority to regulate many aspects of American life, from...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

Here are the news stories, editorials, and videos that conservatives dugg Friday, September 4, 2009. Please take a moment to digg these articles at Digg.com, then get back over here! News Articles Bloomberg: Jobless Rate Hits 9.7%AP: Unemployment Rate Rises to a 26-Year HighNYT: Teenage unemployment rate highest in recorded historyOpen Market: Support for organized labor lowest in recorded historyAP: US recovery difficult as jobless rate hits 9.7%CNS News: 1.3 Million to Lose Jobless Benefits by Year's EndHot Air: CBO: ObamaCare will increase prescription plan premiums 20%WSJ: Job Losses Weigh on RecoveryRasmussen: 52% see no need for withdrawal or a...

Here are the news stories, editorials, and videos that conservatives dugg Thursday, September 3, 2009. Please take a moment to digg these articles at Digg.com, then get back over here! What is Digg? And why should I care?

Here are the news stories, editorials, and videos that conservatives dugg Wednesday, September 2, 2009. Please take a moment to digg these articles at Digg.com, then get back over here! What is Digg? And why should I care?

Here are the news stories, editorials, and videos that conservatives dugg Tuesday, September 1, 2009. Please take a moment to digg these articles at Digg.com, then get back over here! What is Digg? And why should I care?

Here are the news stories, editorials, and videos that conservatives dugg Monday, August 31, 2009. Please take a moment to digg these articles at Digg.com, then get back over here! What is Digg? And why should I care?

Here are the news stories, editorials, and videos that conservatives dugg Friday, August 28, 2009. Please take a moment to digg these articles at Digg.com, then get back over here! What is Digg? And why should I care?

Here are the news stories, editorials, and videos that conservatives dugg yesterday, Tuesday, August 25, 2009. Please take a moment to digg these articles at Digg.com, then get back over here! What is Digg? And why should I care?

Krauthammer's take from last night's All-Stars Panel on Special Report with Bret Baier: On Eric Holder possibly appointing a prosecutor to investigate Bush-era interrogation techniques: If he does this, it is a terrible mistake. What we heard today, that [the special prosecutor] will only be for rogue interrogators who went outside the law—presumably, you know, [for] sadists who wanted to have a good time out of the rubric of interrogation. I'm not sure there are a lot of those. What will happen is once you appoint a prosecutor, as we know from past history, he's out of control. There are...

Greg Pollowitz points me to this report from the Anchorage Daily News, that the judge in the failed corruption prosecution of former Sen. Ted Stevens is still fuming at the Justice Department. The paper reports that Judge Emmet Sullivan, "on his own, without a request by either party" issued a pair of orders over the weekend, "indicating he may not be ready to give up jurisdiction of the case even as the government is asking for all charges to be dismissed." The report elaborates that the judge directed federal prosecutors to provide him copies of everything they had gathered in...

HR 875 - The Federal Take-Over of Food Regulation On February 4, 2009 Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (HR 875), a bill that would establish the Food Safety Administration (FSA) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). HR 875 represents a tremendous expansion of federal power, particularly the power to regulate intrastate commerce. While the proposed legislation tries to address the many problems of the industrial food system, the impact on small farms if the bill becomes law would be substantial and not for the better. HR 875 is a major...

Aiding The Enemy INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 3/17/2008 Media: Is there anything to the theory that an enemy gains strength when its opponent demonstrates a lack of will to fight? Yes, say two Harvard scholars, and it has happened in Iraq. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Radha Iyengar, a health policy economist, and Jonathan Monten, an international security program research fellow, found that "in periods after a spike in war-critical statements, insurgent attacks increases by 5% to 10%." The results might surprise some. But there's no reason they should. North Vietnamese generals knew they had a chance for a favorable outcome in their war...

The purpose of this list will be to inform FReepers about the nefarious or noteworthy activities undertaken by our "representatives" in Washington D.C.

OUR OPINION: CONGRESS SHOULD APPROVE LOBBYING-REFORM PACKAGE Congress is held in such low esteem by the American public that many an honest citizen will scoff upon hearing that lawmakers are debating a bill grandiosely titled ''The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007.'' Surely, some will think, this is some kind of hoax designed to appease critics without actually changing the way legislators and lobbyists swap favors on Capitol Hill. Surprise: It may sound like a joke, but it isn't. Congress' low numbers The latest Gallup poll shows an approval rating for Congress of only 29 percent -- as...

Sixteen-Year-Old Who Worked as Capitol Hill Page Concerned About E-mail Exchange with Congressman September 28, 2006 3:06 PM Rhonda Schwartz and Maddy Sauer Report: A 16-year-old male former congressional page concerned about the appropriateness of an e-mail exchange with a congressman alerted Capitol Hill staffers to the communication. Congressman Mark Foley's office says the e-mails were entirely appropriate and that their release is part of a smear campaign by his opponent. In the series of e-mails, obtained by ABC News, from Rep. Foley (R-FL) to the former page, Foley asks the young man how old he is, what he wants...

My son has had to learn a hard lesson: sometimes the guilty don’t get caught. You’ve seen it before – a bunch of kids get into some kind of mischief at school, but the teacher doesn’t catch them all. Some of them take the fall, while some (usually the more clever) simply walk away. As we have told our son, it may not always be fair, but there it is. Lately, however, it seems that the “more clever” amongst us are getting away with all kinds of mischief that would land the rest of us in jail – and while...

WASHINGTON -- The congressional fight over the status of 11 million undocumented immigrants flared into even greater uncertainty yesterday, with a leading Democrat saying there is a ''chasm" between the House and Senate, and Republicans clashing over whether to embrace President Bush's approach on the issue. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, striving to repair the split in the Republican Party, said he wants the Senate to vote by Friday on a revised version of the proposal that has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee's bill would enable undocumented immigrants to try to earn legal status after meeting...

Congress is going through the process of trying to fix the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Why do they think it needs fixing? Because, quite simply, the ESA is the worst law ever to be enacted by Congress. For thirty two years the ESA has taken control of private land out of the hands of the owners in the name of protecting endangered species. Yet, the ESA is actually responsible for the destruction of whole industries and the towns they supported, as lumber mills are shut down for lack of cut trees. Farmers and ranchers have lost vital grazing land. Urgently...

I don't make a million dollars a year but I think every member of Congress should be paid at least that much. It's not because those turkeys in Washington deserve it. It's because we deserve a lot better people than we have in Congress.The cost of paying every member of Congress a million dollars a year is absolutely trivial compared to the vast amounts of the taxpayers' money wasted by cheap politicians doing things to get themselves re-elected. You could pay every member of Congress a million dollars a year for a century for less money than it costs to...

It’s an interesting question, and one that I was asked today. I have pondered the question for years, and have come to the conclusion that those born after the mid to late 1960’s are not patriotic citizens by the same definition as those born prior to the 60’s. In fact, I’ve heard many 20, 30, and even 40-somethings claim that they held no particular allegiance to the United States, as they consider their country to be Imperialistic, dishonest, exploitative, and devious. But we older citizens must realize that the younger generations have not had the benefit of time, wisdom, and...

GOP Senator Takes A Stand By Chris Casteel Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - He's the same Tom Coburn -- alienating some folks, inspiring others, inviting praise and scorn, prompting questions about whether he's the taxpayers' best friend and his own worst enemy. Tom Coburn in word and deed "Why would you want to be up here when you're 68 years of age? If you have any type of life, (Congress) is the last place you'd want to be." "There are a lot of people who are in the Congress that would never achieve in the private sector anywhere close to the...

Republican congreesional members' constituents care more about immigration and border security than any othe issue, according to a new congressional insiders poll.Seventeeen of the 37 Republican House and Senate members who responded to the National Journal's survey identified immigration as the issue "most on the minds of your consituents these days." That easily topped the next closest issue, the economy, which gained 10 votes, followed by gasoline prices with four votes and terrorism with threee votes.One Republican called immigration the "highest-octane issue in America," while another said, "It is here that the mismatch between the federal government's inaction and the...

WASHINGTON - After a year of relatively light lifting, Congress returns to work Tuesday facing a busy domestic agenda that could signal major changes in the way Americans pay taxes and plan for their retirements. President Bush plans to focus on two big-ticket items in the 109th Congress: He wants workers to be able to invest part of their Social Security contributions in private accounts, and he wants to simplify the federal tax code. Both plans are ambitious, and their success or failure could go a long way toward shaping the president's legacy in his second term. Republicans, who are...

<p>Scores of lawmakers yesterday viewed unreleased photos and videos of Iraqi detainees being sexually humiliated and physically threatened. The images, which included Iraqi corpses, U.S. troops having sex with each other, and previously undisclosed videos of at least one inmate ramming his head into a wall, convinced some legislators that the number of Americans who violated military protocol is larger than previously thought.</p>

On the 4/8 Chris Matthews show, Matthews asked Richard Shelby, my Senator from Alabama "Don't you wish Condi Rice would have spoken in public about Al Quaida before 9/11" (paraphrase). Shelby paused and mumbled some useless response but failed to point out that Dr. Rice HAD mentioned Usama in Oct, 2000. I just blasted Senator Shelby for being so uninformed and urge others to contact his office. http://shelby.senate.gov/resources/contact.htm

Some members of Congress are refusing to drop their support of a Middle Eastern group, even though the State Department says its terrorist fighters are attacking U.S. and coalition troops in southern Iraq. The group, known as the National Council of Resistance (NCR), is the political arm of the Mujahedin-e Kalq (MEK), an organization of Iranian dissidents backed by Saddam Hussein. “They’re a combatant,” said Greg Sullivan, a spokesman for the State Department’s Near East Affairs bureau. “They’re being targeted. Targeting data is being provided to the Pentagon. We believe they are undertaking some of the action in the south...

Travel Agent of 30+ years: I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. I got a call from a Candidate's Staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information then she interrupted me with, "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts." Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response ... (click)....

Here's a test we can give to any of our Congress- Critters who say they support the Constitution and the Second Amendment. It's a simple little test that will only require they formally lend their name to that which they say they profess. A few days ago, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) introduced H.R. 648, a bill: "To protect the right to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of self, family, or home, and to provide for the enforcement of such right." The bill is rather straightforward. In short, it states that: "A person not prohibited from...

Time to freep a poll,How high do gas prices have to go before you demand drilling in Alaska?

<p>Go slow. That's the message from valley business leaders to politicians.</p> <p>At a Monday gathering of Silicon Valley tech executives and Democratic members of Congress, much of the buzz was about how to emerge from the wave of business scandals with as little new regulation as possible.</p>