Free Republic

Tomorrow the Senate will hold the first hearing on The Respect for Marriage Act, which repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, thus granting to all lawfully married couples—including same-sex couples—to receive federal marriage benefits and protections if they are joined by a valid marriage in a state where such marriages are legal. “The president has long called for a legislative repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which continues to have a real impact on the lives of real people --our families, friends and neighbors,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said at today’s press briefing. “He is proud...

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will support a congressional effort to repeal a federal law that defines marriage as a legal union between a man and woman. White House spokesman Jay Carney denounced the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), saying the administration will back a bill introduced this year by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to remove the law from the books. Feinstein’s bill, called the Respect for Marriage Act, would “uphold the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples” the same rights as others, according to Carney. The Senate is scheduled to...

The San Francisco Superior Court is laying off more than 40 percent of its staff and shuttering 25 courtrooms because of budget cuts. Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein said Monday that the cuts mean it will take many more hours to pay a traffic ticket in person, up to 18 months to finalize a divorce and five years for a lawsuit to go to trial. The cuts go into effect on Sept. 30 and are needed to close a $13.75 million deficit. Some 200 of the court's 480 workers will be let go, including 11 of 12 commissioners who preside over...

One person was reported dead and eight others were missing Monday after a fishing boat carrying 27 U.S. tourists and 17 Mexican crew members capsized in rough seas in the Gulf of California, officials said. The tourists, most of them from California, were aboard the charter vessel Erik when a storm suddenly struck about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, hurling people into the water off San Luis Island, about 60 miles south of the Baja California port of San Felipe, the Mexican navy said. "The weather was calm, and then a strong wind came," said Dora Winkler, a spokeswoman with the Port...

After President Barack Obama revealed the suspect status of his support for Israel — and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wowed crowds with a sternly-worded address to a special joint session of Congress — some speculated Jewish American support for Obama would wane. But a new Gallup poll out yesterday shows a large majority still approve of the president. Jewish Americans gave President Barack Obama a 60% job approval rating in June, down from 68% in May, but statistically unchanged from 64% in April. Thirty-two percent of U.S. Jews now disapprove of the job Obama is doing, similar to their...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- “Gun Control” advocates fall into only two categories: the Liars and the Ignorant. There is no third category. The Liars invent the lies. The Ignorant believe the lies and repeat them. Truly fervent “gun control” advocates are quite often mentally ill. Their most common clinical symptoms, projection and denial, are barely below the surface. Because they often entertain a warped contempt of other human beings, they don’t trust themselves with guns, so they would prohibit firearms to all. They also entertain a primitive superstition about an inanimate object: “Guns are bad! Guns kill people!” Read what a...

The 2012 election is underway and it will be a street fight, whose outcome will determine if the United States survives as a republic. It is futile writing to Congress for the redress of grievances. They are only interested in getting elected, not in representing their constituents. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is the Senate Majority Whip, the second highest position in the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate. To me Dangerous Dick is indicative of how far the Congress has degenerated. (snip) Durbin thinks that it is acceptable for an illegal immigrant to become President. If you recall, it was...

Washington -- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's popularity has plunged by double digits from her previous re-election ratings, according to a new Field Poll survey, demonstrating the toll that the anemic economy is taking on incumbent Democrats, including President Obama, heading into next year's elections. Campaigning for a fourth full term, Feinstein enjoys a four-point edge, 43 to 39 percent, among registered California voters asked if they would vote for her - even as a strong majority, 46 to 31 percent, approves of the job she is doing. Eighteen percent of voters have no opinion on whether they'd vote for her,...

On Tuesday, the Senate voted 40-59 against an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to end the annual $6 billion (45 cents-per-gallon) tax subsidy for ethanol, as well as the 54 cents-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was a co-author of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit Repeal Act. As she explained, the subsidy bestows $15 million a day "on large oil companies with no good reason" and drives up food prices. Yet Tuesday Feinstein voted against her own amendment. Feinstein explained to reporters that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised her a vote on a similar...

Republicans have taken great pains to continually refer to the number of days since Senate Democrats have produced a budget, now at Day 769 and counting. Democrats have begun to chafe at Harry Reid’s strategy of attempting to grab a world record for punting, especially since Democrats have to argue in next year’s elections for voters to trust them with leadership for the next two years. Politico reports on building dissatisfaction with leadership among the majority caucus: A growing number of Senate Democrats are anxious about the lack of a Democratic budget and the unusually slow legislative agenda, creating another...

(CNSNews.com) – Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dodged a question about the controversial writings of Goodwin Liu, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year. Feinstein instead said that Liu indicated that he understands the difference between being an advocate and a judge. To serve on the court, Liu must be confirmed by the Senate. At the Capitol on Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked Sen. Feinstein, “In a 2008 law review article Professor Liu argued that there was a constitutional right to welfare – what he...

"I don't need to see those pictures, and no one needs to see them," Sen. Dianne Feinstein said after viewing the kill photos of Osama bin Laden on Friday. The morning trip to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., capped a five-month nail-biter that began in December when Feinstein, as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was briefed by the CIA that bin Laden had been tracked to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. On April 30, a day before the Navy SEALs raid on the compound, the California Democrat got a classified call from CIA headquarters alerting her that the...

WASHINGTON – Nayely Arreola was a high school junior when a U.S. senator first protected her from deportation. The year: 2003. Nayely is now 25, newly married and a graduate of Fresno Pacific University. She and her family still remain protected, thanks to special bills that need not pass to exert influence. "Perhaps the greatest hardship to this family, if forced to return to Mexico, will be (Nayely's) lost opportunity to realize her dreams and further contribute to her community and this country," Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein declared. As she has regularly since 2003, Feinstein in March re-introduced a so-called...

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein took the stage at the at the state Democratic Party convention today to rally the base with a stinging rebuke of Republicans in the U.S. House. "In the five months since Republicans have taken control of the House they have tried to systematically disassemble the American dream," she said. Feinstein praised fellow Democrats and President Barack Obama for standing up to GOP demands to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, but called the budget proposal for next year introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the "next act in the assault on women, seniors and working people" She...

Longtime Democratic strategist Kam Kuwata, a mainstay of the California political scene for decades, was found dead today in his Venice condominium. He was 57. “I am greatly saddened by the passing of Kam Kuwata,” said Eric Bauman, Los Angeles County Democratic Party chairman. “Today, we lost a dear friend and a top Democratic political mind whose influential behind-the-scenes work had touched California and American politics alike. Kuwata’s work extends nearly 30 years in campaign strategic planning, communications and messaging. He served in many key roles for major and local Democratic campaigns including: U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein, Daniel Akaka and...

"Investigative journalists doing their jobs should dig deep, into Pelosi's role in the controversial, $280-million, federal-funded Hunters Point Shipyard affair - in relation to her alleged role as an investor in a real estate investment called PRESIDIO PARTNERS. Look past the fact that the 936-acre site, of which about 443 acres are not polluted - Hunter Point is the largest tract of undeveloped land in San Francisco. Roll Call stated that in early 2004, Murtha “reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the City of San Francisco” and that “Laurence...

I wish I were kidding with this headline, but I am not. The Senator from California knows air raids won’t cut it. So far so good. So she believes it’s time we … arrest him? My guess is if we could we would. And to be fair she does offer two more options. But it is interesting this is the first option that comes to her mind. Lefties stil think war is a police action but you can’t bring down a tyrant like Gadaffi by wishing and hoping, or by arresting.

A new poll from California shows Dianne Feinstein falling below 50% in re-elect support, a rating than in any other state might mean something. McClatchy sends up the red flag from the latest Harris Poll, which gives the four-term Senator only a +4 on support for a fifth term, hitting below 50%: Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein remains more popular among California voters than her colleague Barbara Boxer, a new Field Poll shows.But Feinstein can’t rest easy as she prepares for another re-election bid next year. For the first time since her initial 1992 election, less than half of the Californians...

SNIP The other lawmakers in attendance (beside Sen. Richard Lugar R-IN) were Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-TX), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Rep. Buck McKeon (R-NY), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough held a conference call with...

Commentators and politicians from the left and the right say Congress could take the next move now that President Obama's Justice Department has announced it will no longer defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)-- and it looks like a member of Congress from the left side of the aisle is the first to act. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California released a statement today saying that she intends to introduce legislation to repeal DOMA, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages. "My own belief is that when two people love each other and enter the contract of...