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My phone, email, and social media accounts instantly start blowing up Tuesday in response to the news Jeb Bush was going to “actively explore” a 2016 presidential run. Except the near-orgasmic response wasn’t from whom you might think. It didn’t come from conservatives, but from the mainstream (liberal) media. Twelve hours later, a Google search for “Jeb Bush actively explore” returned over 3.8 million results, and the first page of entries was almost entirely comprised of mainstream media hits. Herein lies one of the primary reasons why Jeb Bush is never going to be elected President of these United States....

Well that didn’t take long. The election is over and the House Republicans have deposed John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker. Meet Speaker Barack Obama. "The Republicans responded to Speaker Obama’s requests. Violating quickly, briskly and exactly every last word of their campaign promises to defund Obamacare and to fight amnesty. The fix was in.” Speaker Obama and his loyal number two, Joe Biden, spent last week rounding up the votes to get their Republican colleagues in the House to fund Obamacare and amnesty plus all manner of spending programs. The Republicans responded to Speaker Obama’s requests. Violating quickly, briskly and...

ALEXANDRIA, Va.— Seven hundred and sixty-three. No, that’s not how much the national debt is ticking upwards per second, or how much you’ll pay annually for premiums under Obamacare. It’s the total number of applications that 49 states — every state except Hawaii — have sent petitioning the U.S. Congress to call for a controversial Article V convention of states to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution and rein in the federal government. The concept of a convention to bring power back to the states may not be widely known, but it’s an idea that’s slowly gaining steam as Americans...

Retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness has launched Gator PAC, a political action committee which the group says “will work to inspire and recruit conservative activists and citizen leaders who are committed to accountability in government, constitutional principles, certainty and prosperity.” "Running for office was never about me, and it never will be - it's about us, our country and becoming an active voice for conservative solutions," Maness said in the release about the launch of the PAC, provided to Breitbart News ahead of its public release. "The reality is Washington D.C. is a swamp, career politicians are the Gators...

Torture is one of those topics that often overwhelm sober reason with lurid emotion. Even people who usually are clear-eyed and rational sink into sloppy thinking and incoherent argument when it comes to torture. Peggy Noonan’s recent Wall Street Journal column about the Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation techniques illustrates this phenomenon perfectly. Noonan is usually an astute analyst, but her column on the report is riddled with received wisdom and unexamined assumptions. For Noonan, the “important lesson” of the report is not that progressives, as usual, are shameful hypocrites and partisan hacks who will damage their country’s interests...

Earlier tonight, Curtis Houck at NewsBusters observed that the Tuesday evening network news shows failed to report on an opinion issued today by a federal judge in Western Pennsylvania in connection with President Obama's illegal immigration-related executive actions last month. Several blogs and center-right outlets noted Judge Arthur Schwab's 38-page "Memorandum Opinion" this afternoon. Not that this excuses the networks, but a search at the Associated Press's national site just before 8 p.m. on Schwab's last name (unfortunately not saved) returned nothing relevant. But shortly after 8 p.m. a story with a time stamp of 5:08 p.m. with Schwab's name...

With the federal government engaged in a de facto unconstitutional occupation of some two thirds of Utah’s territory, citizens of the state and their elected representatives have had just about enough. So, on December 31, the State of Utah is formally demanding that Washington, D.C., relinquish control over more than 30 million acres of valuable land currently controlled by various federal bureaucracies. While apparatchiks for an all-powerful U.S. government and far-left activists are fuming over the plan, Utah lawmakers, citizens, and experts say the time has come for the state to manage — and profit from — its own resources....

Just when President Obama thought it was safe to show his face in an American courtroom again, in walks John Wayne in a black robe to deliver one of the greatest legal beatdowns ever suffered by a sitting president. Except for all the other beatings President Obama has already endured in federal court and from Supreme Court justices, including the ones he himself picked. And this guy still sells himself as some kind of constitutional law expert? Already, the Supreme Court has ruled against Mr. Obama some thirteen times. And that’s just counting the instances where the Supreme Court ruled...

* Bush-appointed jurist rules the White House 'amnesty' plan is an example of legislation – something only Congress can do * Democratic U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Richard Blumenthal sniped to MailOnline that Schwab is 'wrong' and made 'an incorrect decision' * Judge dismissed administration's claim that it is using 'prosecutorial discretion' to decide which illegal immigrants it will stop deporting * 'President Obama's unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the U.S. Constitution,' judge Arthur Schwab ruled * GOP Senator John Thune said Obama hadn't yet 'got the message' about his party's stinging November election...

The “cromnibus” bill is soon to become law. The majority of House and Senate Republicans conspired with President Obama to fund his executive amnesty. Where do conservatives go from here? Yes, we need to pick up the flag and force Republicans in February to actually fight as they are now promising when funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires, but there is an even more important intervening event that must draw our undivided attention. The vote on whether Rep. John Boehner will be Speaker will occur in January, and 30 conservative House members can deny him re-election. It will...

As an unapologetic Tea Partier, an unreformed right-winger, I resent being lumped into the same column with the moral and intellectual geldings of the establishment GOP. Many of my fellow Republicans are either too lazy – or intellectually dishonest – to differentiate a conservative from a Republican. Sometimes, depending on the individual, the two are one and the same. Most of the time, unfortunately, the two are mutually exclusive. Take GOP House Speaker John Boehner… please. The recent budget battle added clarity to the political war being fought in America. And that war is raging on the fringes of our...

Via WaPo, it’s now officially a mixed-blessings news day for Jeb Bush fans. Two issues here. One: Does Obama enjoy more power to craft policy if Congress is deadlocked between the two parties? Ezra Klein says yes, I say no. Two: How far can Obama go in crafting policy in the name of “prosecutorial discretion”? No one disputes that he can prioritize one illegal immigrant’s deportation case over another’s. If he can do that for one person, why can’t he do it systematically for five million? At what point does “prosecutorial discretion” become unconstitutional legislation by presidential diktat?Judge Arthur Schwab’s...

Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion has put 450,941 Ohioans on Medicaid, outpacing his administration’s projections by 24 percent. Instead of tempering leftist support for the expansion, budget-busting enrollment is portrayed as good news for Ohio; Obamacare sticks federal taxpayers with 100 percent of Medicaid expansion benefit costs through 2016. Kasich — who expanded Medicaid over the General Assembly’s express disapproval — told attendees at a Dec. 4 infant mortality summit to march in favor of more Obamacare expansion spending, but critics are encouraging legislative opponents to stand their ground. “Kasich is threatening to organize protests to ensure the state continues...

Ted Cruz privately apologized to GOP senators Tuesday for interrupting their holiday schedules by his surprise tactics that effectively brought the Senate into session over the weekend. According to five senators who attended Tuesday’s caucus lunch, Cruz offered the apology in unsolicited remarks, saying that he regretted if any of his colleagues’ schedules were ruined by his maneuvering. He didn’t say whether he would do something similar again, senators said. And unlike a contentious lunch last year after GOP senators pointedly blamed Cruz for prompting the government shutdown, no sharp words were directed at the Texas freshman at Tuesday’s lunch,...

<p>Earlier Tuesday, a federal court in Pennsylvania declared aspects of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration policy unconstitutional.</p> <p>According to the opinion by Judge Arthur Schwab, the president’s policy goes “beyond prosecutorial discretion” in that it provides a relatively rigid framework for considering applications for deferred action, thus obviating any meaningful case-by-case determination as prosecutorial discretion requires, and provides substantive rights to applicable individuals. As a consequence, Schwab concluded, the action exceeds the scope of executive authority.</p>

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition… it’s America’s Clean-Up Hitter! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811.

Sweeping House losses have not only pushed Democrats into a historic minority, they’ve depleted the bench of potential Senate recruits for the 2016 elections. After losing the majority in the midterms, Senate Democrats are seeking strong recruits for 2016 in hopes of netting the five seats necessary to ensure they win control again. Party officials argue the majority is within reach because many Senate Republicans elected in 2010 are seeking re-election in a presidential cycle in competitive states such as Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But brutal losses in 2010 and 2014 have decimated the ranks of...

A vote December 2 by the Washington, D.C., City Council could compel private religious schools and universities in the nation’s capital to allow groups that oppose the schools’ moral values access to their campuses, programs, and funds. The council voted to eliminate faith-based schools’ 25-year-old legal protections from discrimination lawsuits as part of a “human rights amendment.” Barring an act of Congress, D.C.’s religious schools will likely have to go against their religious values when it comes to permitting use to their campuses or programs. The city’s rules hold that it’s “unlawful discriminatory practice” to limit any use of facilities,...

... The Compact for a Balanced Budget is a well-conceived idea that would give the nation a new amendment putting a limit on the amount the federal government can borrow, a maximum of 105 percent of the current debt. Nick Dranias, who is spearheading the compact, argues in this Freeman interview, “Using an interstate compact to coordinate the amending of the Constitution from the states, which represents perhaps the ultimate problem of collective action in politics, is just a natural solution.” I suspect that it’s the only solution. What makes the state compact approach both appealing and practical is that...

The Connecticut Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the acquittal of a former Army medic who was sentenced to 15 months in prison for transporting a knife and police baton in his vehicle during a move out of state. Justices issued a 7-0 decision in the appeal of former Clinton resident Jason DeCiccio. The court said part of the state law on illegal possession of weapons in a motor vehicle violates the Second Amendment because it bans people from transporting weapons between residences when they have the right to possess those weapons in their homes. Justice Richard Palmer wrote in the...