Free Republic

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) laughed at State of the Union host Candy Crowley Sunday when she asked if he would consider becoming a Democrat. While discussing a poll released this week showing more Americans blaming Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, Crowley took the opportunity to see if Paul had any inklings of switching sides. Paul had been critical of both Democrats and Republicans in the interview and said both should receive blame for the shutdown, adding to the strangeness of the question. Paul said he was proud of the Republican Party’s history, particularly for its fight against Jim...

Journalism icon Bob Woodward wrote in a new Washington Post op-ed first that the sequester was the "brain child" of the White House...

Recently, Peter King, the court jester of the House of Representatives, had this to say to PMSNBC's Andrea Mitchell about Tea Party heroes Rand Paul and Ted Cruz: *** "I'm really more concerned about why more Republicans around the country didn't join me in denouncing Ted Cruz. We now have people on the sidelines coming forward who we have to take a stand here. We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. I mean, these are people, isolationists, I consider them RINOs, because they don't represent traditional Republican principles. Ted...

Via RCP. Wait, wait, wait — before you start shaking your first at him, isn’t his point here oddly simpatico with what tea partiers say every day about Beltway squishes like King himself? It all depends on what benchmark you use to define “Republican.” The Republican establishment of the past 10 years has been fiercely interventionist, willing to bend on civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism, and happy to back new entitlement programs like Medicare Part D so long as their guy’s in the White House. Rand Paul, by contrast, tilts towards isolationism, wants to sue the NSA...

Appearing on MSNBC on Friday, Congressman Peter King continued his epic verbal assault on Ted Cruz — and, to a lesser extent, Rand Paul — by describing the Texas Senator as a “RINO” (Republican in name only) and a “fraud.” Speaking with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, King called the ongoing government shutdown “the strategy of Ted Cruz” and wondered aloud “why more Republicans around the country didn’t join me in denouncing Ted Cruz” before the shutdown began. “We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul,” King continued, describing Cruz and Paul...

Rand Paul Values Voter Summit 2013 FULL SPEECH. Senators Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz and Rep. Paul Ryan are among the speakers scheduled for the opening day of this weekend's annual Values Voter Summit meeting of social conservative activists hosted by the Family Research Council.

<p>REP. PETER KING (R-NY): Andrea, this is the strategy of Ted Cruz and going back to mid-September, I said that Ted Cruz was a fraud, that there was a dead-end to this policy and it made no sense to follow it. John Boehner also told us in early September that it would be the wrong thing to do to shut down the government in an attempt to defund Obamacare. Unfortunately, we have three or four dozen Republicans in the House, Cruz Republicans, who basically threatened to bring the House down if John Boehner did not pursue this policy. John knew it was not doing to work, but he felt he had no choice. I understand his position.</p>

In its first report on press freedom in the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists warns Obama has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for both reporters and their government sources. Among the case it details: six government employees - plus two contractors, including Edward Snowden - have faced felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press, compared with three such prosecutions in ALL previous U.S. administrations. ...

<p>“The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue.”</p>

"We apologize for the inconvenience. The marketplace is currently undergoing regularly scheduled maintenance andf will be back up Monday, 10/7/3013." That's the message New Yorkers received this weekened when they attempted to sign up for health insurance via the new online health exchange or marketplace, a key componenet of ObamaCare. ...

Dems say NO to an exemption from ObamaCare (for one-year) for average, hard-working Americans... Dems say NO to ending taxpayer-funded health care subsidies for fat-cats in the U.S. Senate and House of Reps... Dems say NO to ending the ObamaCare exemption for Big Business. Dems say NO to opening up national historic sites that are open 365 days a year - with no federal supervision to boot.

It has been said that politics is the art of compromise. Try as they may, Washington leaders hardly ever get absolutely everything they want. Polls show Americans are worried about the implementation of Obamacare — worried about keeping their current health insurance plans, the new law itself, the exchanges, potential fines, personal privacy, keeping their jobs, their work hours and a host of other issues too numerous to list here. Both the country and the Congress have much to discuss. Right now, though, President Obama refuses to engage in any debate or discussion. The president is demanding that he get...

CNN anchor Erin Burnett invited Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on her program Wednesday to discuss the state of “negotiations” between Democrats, including the White House, and Republicans in Congress. Burnett argued that Obamacare has become a GOP “obsession” and asked the senator why the Democrats’ offer of a $988 billion spending cap wasn’t “enough” to end the partial government shutdown.

So Obama can delay at will - at whim even - the Big Business mandate and other parts of ObamaCare, and then either he or Sen. Harry Reid (D-DEM-e) can follow that up (when people cry foul) by saying "It's the law." So others, in due course, namely Republicans, can push for a delay in the individual mandate, as well as an end to subsidies for federal employee fat-cats, and then here comes Obama and Reid in all of their regal splendor saying basically "No, you can do this...you cannot delay this..." and "It's the law!" It now appears that...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) narrowly leads the pack of potential GOP contenders in 2016, according to a new poll. If the GOP presidential primary were held today, 17 percent of GOP voters would elect Paul, according to a new Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday. He leads among Tea Party Republicans as well, with 22 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rates second with 13 percent, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) with 12 percent and Jeb Bush with 11 percent. Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) garner 10 percent. Nineteen percent of Republicans are undecided. Rubio’s numbers have...

Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul have become the two most important voices in DC politics. They worked together during Rand’s filibuster earlier this year and during Ted’s filibuster this last week. But the most important thing we’ve seen is personal responsibility and good character from them both. Rand Paul gave $600,000 BACK to the federal government from his office. He’s in it to cut spending in any manner possible, even his own office’s budget. And now, Sen. Ted Cruz has made a similar announcement, saying that he will donate his salary to charity for every day the government...

Obama gives any delays that he wishes to and any time that he wants to by unilateral executive fiat. When Republicans offer up a delay that they wish to implement, they are told by Reid and other Dems that "It's (ObamaCare) the law." And right after saying "It's the law," Obama/Dems feel no obligation to not offer up another delay if and when they feel like it. Republicans are told that they aren't willing to compromise. Guess what? They offer up a compromise - they go from wanting to defunding ObamaCare to voting to delay its implementation for one year....

House Republican leaders said on Sunday that they still believed a government shutdown beginning on Tuesday could be averted if Democrats would accept at least some of their demands to scale back President Obama’s health care law. “I think the House will get back together, in enough time, send another provision not to shut the government down but to fund it, and it will have a few other options in there for the Senate to look at,” Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican whip, said on “Fox News Sunday.” A fellow conservative Republican, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, sounded a...

Schumer said "don't knock it until you've tried it." Good... Then ALL federal employees shouldn't knock it until they've tried it! All federal employees get to taste it, and no subsidies for Senators, Reps, staffers, etc. ALL federal employees... Yum yum... The GOP should add this on to whatever they have to. I mean, why shouldn't all fed. employees get that yum yum?

A defunding of the mandate for Big Business has taken place, per Obama, yet hasn't Obama done so in defiance of "the law of the land"? The same goes for the susbsidies/exemptions that Congress, congressional staffers and all federal employess will get. The law of the land is being defied! In the spirit of bipartisanship, and so that Republicans will do the same that Obama is doing - and that which Harry Reid and Pelousy so vehemently support - we need additional defunding: defund the individual mandate! If it's "the law" (ObamaCare, that is), yet Dems support the law being...

Sir David Omand, a former director of Government Communications Headquarters GCHQ (UK’s NSA), a former intelligence and security coordinator for the Prime Minister (UK’s Director of National Intelligence) authored an editorial to the UK Guardian commenting on the Edward Snowden revelations of the NSA and GHCQ. While insisting that the NSA was acting within the scope of the law, he did point out that “The real debate we should be having … is about what privacy in a cyber-connected world can realistically mean given the volume of personal data we hand over to the private sector in return for our...

So why then is Kentucky — more quickly than almost any other state — moving to implement the Affordable Care Act? Because there’s a huge disconnect between the rank partisanship of national politics and the outlook of governors whose job it is to help beleaguered families, strengthen work forces, attract companies and create a balanced budget. It’s no coincidence that numerous governors — not just Democrats like me but also Republicans like Jan Brewer of Arizona, John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Snyder of Michigan — see the Affordable Care Act not as a referendum on President Obama but as...

..."until they try it." (The Green Eggs and Ham of ObamaCare). If Schumer (D) thinks that Cruz shouldn't knock "it" (ObamaCare) until he tried it then what Schumer thinks is good fot Sen. Ted Cruz, will be good for ALL federal employeese to try...ala what Rand Paul has proposed. Bad word choices...Thanks Chuckie....

The many hours Ted Cruz & friends spent in their overnight talkathon (not really a filibuster) in the Senate has thrilled conservatives who feel the GOP establishment consists of careerist sell-outs.Is Ted Cruz now the leader of US conservatives? That’s a fair question in the wake of his lengthy overnight talkathon against Obamacare on the Senate floor. As of mid-morning on Wednesday, Texas Senator Cruz, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R) of Utah and assorted allies, had spoken for some 20 hours. That constitutes one of the longest Senate speeches since record-keeping began in 1900, and it has thrilled those...

Rand Paul calls Ted Cruz's tactics "not necessarily fair".

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is stepping up her rhetoric against the “Republican establishment,” who she believes has turned its back on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), commenting that there may already be a third party in American politics. “I dare say we already have a third party. We have the liberal party, the GOP machine, and then we’ve got the good guys,” she told Neil Cavuto on Tuesday on Fox News, while Cruz was crossing the hour and a half mark of speaking on the Senate floor. “That is the third party. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul … Those...

The recent vote of House Republicans to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program reflects a deep-seated and insidious racial resentment toward Americans of color. This racial resentment rears its ugly head within the provisions for the bill that demand that non-employed participants in the program get a job, job training or do community service activities. Though the bill in its current form will most likely die in the Senate, the fact that Republicans would even pass it should concern us. Conservatives continue to lead under the aegis of a deliberate and willful ignorance about the long-term existence of...

In a week that will be dominated by the debt ceiling and Republican efforts to defund Obamacare, there will be an irresistible desire to view the outcome as having real political consequences for 2014 and the next presidential race. Let me offer a different view: nothing that happens this week will have much impact come Election Day next year or beyond. Why? Little of this week’s melodrama is likely to affect the quality of life of most Americans. As Sen. Rand Paul observed, Obamacare is overwhelmingly likely to continue. The debt ceiling will be raised. Some politicians will have a...

While Ted Cruz and Mike Lee consider their next steps procedurally in the Senate, here’s Rand Paul via Mediaite already preparing Plan B for if/when the “defund� strategy fizzles. Remember how, a few months ago, members of Congress were panicked that their staffers would start quitting en masse this fall thanks to an O-Care rule that Chuck Grassley inserted into the final bill in 2010? The rule required congressional workers to drop their federally subsidized health-care coverage and fend for themselves on ObamaCare’s exchanges just like the rest of the rabble out there. Many staffers wouldn’t be able to afford...

Sen. Rand Paul decisively won a straw poll held over the weekend in Michigan at a bi-annual gathering of Republicans, earning more than double the votes of rival New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Paul, the libertarian-leaning Republican from Kentucky, won 188 votes, or 36 percent, in the 2016 Mackinac Presidential Straw Poll. Christie came in at second with 82 votes, or 16 percent, in the poll. “It’s always exciting to place first in anything,” Paul told The Daily Caller in a phone interview Sunday morning from Mackinac Island after the results were announced. He noted that the Island is “overrun...

A slew of recent articles (Bloomberg, Washington Post, National Journal) explaining the effort to defund Obamacare have all pointed out an important fact: A government shutdown wouldn't defund Obamacare. But these articles have all glossed over another important fact: Defunding Obamacare would defund Obamacare. The bill to keep the government fully funded after Sept. 30 is called the "continuing resolution" or CR. If Congress fails to pass a CR by Sept. 30, then we get a "government shutdown." But, of course, many government functions will keep operating, just not most of those functions that require annual appropriations. Guess what doesn't...

Arguing federal workers should not get special treatment, Rand Paul says he does not want taxpayers subsidizing the personal health-care plans of any federal employee — including Chief Justice John Roberts — anymore. With some in Congress arguing lawmakers and their staff should not get subsidies to cover their health insurance as President Obama’s health-care law goes into effect, the Republican senator from Kentucky told The Daily Caller on Sunday that he’s going to start pushing a constitutional amendment that goes even further. Paul’s proposal — outlawing any special exemptions for government employees — would mean all federal workers would...

Whether you realize it or not, that is what is taking place. One set of rules for the elite, but a different set for average Joe Americans - they get no one-year exemption, or a Congressional exemption. With all of this in mind, is it no wonder that Obama, Reid, Pelosi and cowardly Republicans are causing Americans to say to h e double l with it all, and leading some like Cruz, Paul, Lee, Palin and others to take a stand and fight for us?

Sen. Rand Paul decisively won a straw poll held over the weekend in Michigan at a bi-annual gathering of Republicans, earning more than double the votes of rival New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Paul, the libertarian-leaning Republican from Kentucky, won 188 votes, or 36 percent, in the 2016 Mackinac Presidential Straw Poll. Christie came in at second with 82 votes, or 16 percent, in the poll. “It’s always exciting to place first in anything,” Paul told The Daily Caller in a phone interview Sunday morning from Mackinac Island after the results were announced.

Washington (CNN) - Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday he's not ready to vote on the immigration reform package as it now stands in the Senate, adding the measure needs tougher provisions on border security in order to have a chance in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. On a personal note, the senator also said he's come to realize there's an important distinction between the terms "illegal" and "undocumented" when referring to immigrants. The Republican senator from Kentucky, who's considering a potential 2016 presidential bid, argued the House and Senate are "still pretty far apart" on the issue but that he...

A young Christian girl beheaded in Syria. The sign of extremism and fanatics, the long beards, is present in each and everyone of these subhuman Muslims who killed this small child, in their jihad to Allah – inspired by the Quran. This is Obama, Britain, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey funded and supported handiwork. Don’t put your support behind any of these people, whether for military action in Syria, asylum, immigration, another hate preaching mosque. This is what is moving into your town, your country, your society, your neighborhood: video... This video is written with false propaganda claiming...

Sen. Rand Paul conceded Saturday that congressional Republicans have little chance of stopping Obamacare. “We probably can’t defeat or get rid of Obamacare,” the Kentucky senator told reporters at a gathering of Michigan Republicans, according to the Associated Press. Paul acknowledged that time is running out for Congress to pass a government funding bill, however he said House Republicans’ efforts to defund Obamacare in its government funding bill could lead to a compromise. ~~snip~~ Reid has said any bill defunding Obamacare would be dead on arrival, and Sen. John McCain said Thursday that it was “not rational” to think the...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul says President Barack Obama’s health care law probably can't be defeated or gotten rid of. And he’s suggesting there is little he and other congressional Republicans can do to stop the law from taking effect. …

Take a good hard look at the photo. Looking away from it will not change the fact that it happened. This girl’s family had different religious views from the Syrian Rebel Army. When the “Free Syrian Army” marched into her town, they chained her to a fence and forced her to watch as her parents were tortured and killed for their religion. These are the same “Free Syrian Army” soldiers that Obama just violated international law to provide weapons to. I will not gross people out with the graphic video or the violence that happens over there daily under the...

Despite it being overwhelmingly clear that the American people want nothing to do with the civil war in Syria, the Pentagon has proposed entering the war. Under the proposal U.S. involvement will escalate from providing weapons to rebels via the CIA to direct support and training of rebel forces by the U.S. military. ...

The libertarian philosophy is taking the Republican Party by storm, according to a poll conducted by FreedomWorks, a DC-based grassroots service center with over 6 million members. With Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) and many other liberty-minded politicians gaining influence, libertarianism has generated new interest inside the Republican Party, much to the chagrin of the GOP's political establishment.... "FreedomWorks' poll shows that 42 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of the word ‘libertarian,' and only 10 percent don't know the word, compared to 27 percent who don't know nationally," they added. And the term "libertarian" may...

Amidst reports of chemical weapons and atrocities committed by the warring factions, one Sierra Leonean, Sheikh Mohammed Canah Bah (photo) [at URL] has been captured and tortured to death by the Free Syrian Army... Even though no reason has been proffered by the rebel faction for the capture and execution of the Sierra Leonean, reports generally indicate that such dispositions have been usually manifested against foreigners in the country, a situation akin to what happened to blacks in Libya during the rebellion against Muhamar Al Gaddafi. A representative of the Sierra Leone Students Union in Syria, now residing in the...

If I told you that one out of three African-American males is forbidden by law from voting, you might think I was talking about Jim Crow 50 years ago. Yet today, a third of African-American males are still prevented from voting because of the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs has disproportionately affected young black males. The ACLU reports that blacks are four to five times more likely to be convicted for drug possession although surveys indicate that blacks and whites use drugs at similar rates. The majority of illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are white, but three-fourths...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- It was a simple tweet from one of Louisville's most influential ministers, but it spoke volumes. Saint Steven's pastor, Kevin Cosby, is speaking out about Rand Paul. "What I appreciate about what Rand Paul said was at least he was trying to provide some answers and solutions," Cosby said. At a community meeting in Louisville, Paul said he's for parental choice of education, job creation and the expungement of records for non-violent felons. "I am in favor of people allowed to get their rights back," Paul said, "the right to vote, the second and fourth amendment...

Half of Syrian rebels are hardline Islamists: British study AFP - Jihadists and members of hardline Islamist groups make up almost half of forces fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to extracts from a British defence study published in Monday's Daily Telegraph. The analysis by defence consultancy IHS Jane's, due to be published in full later this week, puts the number of rebel forces at around 100,000, the Telegraph reported. But these fighters have split into as many as 1,000 bands since violence flared two years ago, the study concluded. Of the rebel forces, IHS Jane's estimates that around...

Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul told community leaders in West Louisville on Monday that he will be stepping his call for federal reforms to criminal sentencing and pledging to support a state effort to restore felon voting rights. Paul has been talking about the concept of reforms to mandatory minimums for several months, saying someone should not have to lose their rights for life for a youthful mistake. But while appearing at a town-hall-like event at the Plymouth Community Renewal Center in West Louisville, Paul added a new layer to his argument saying that felon voting rights should be restored....

Allahpundit asked an interesting exit question at the end of his post on John McCain’s possible retirement: Exit question for righties who think a McCain endorsement of Hillary over Paul would mean nothing to anyone: You sure? Actually, yeah, I’m pretty sure it won’t mean anything, but not because of McCain’s relative draw within the GOP or with independents. I just don’t think endorsements at this level have any impact on the fortunes of candidates with near-total saturation with voters already. Endorsements matter for obscure candidates, perhaps especially in local elections, but also in House and Senate races for newcomers....

...Warning; Graphic content A Syrian boy is held by the hand as he walks past the body of a beheaded Islamic militant loyal to Assad. An unnamed photojournalist was given rare access to the public execution in the town of Keferghen in the north of the country. @LeJournal/SIPA/Rex Features ... A group of young children sit on a wall as they stare at the dead body. The severed head of a militant is held aloft. The photographer witnessed four executions on August 31. @LeJournal/SIPA/Rex Features

In the Syrian rubble of Barack Obama’s foreign policy lies a moment of opportunity for conservatives. It is a moment for building a muscular foreign policy based on a recognition of good and evil; on an unapologetic conviction that the United States stands firmly on the right side of that ledger because it stands for the liberty and equal dignity of every human being; and, therefore, on an unwavering commitment to have our interventions guided solely by American national interests. It is a Ronald Reagan moment. Now, all we need is a Ronald Reagan. For now, we have only pretenders,...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul was in the middle of one of his trademark takedowns of the “right-wing hawks” in his party who “have never met a war they didn’t want to get involved in,” when he suddenly paused and began grinning. “There was a funny article the other day in Mother Jones — did you see it? About one of my colleagues?” he asked. He was trying to do the polite, senatorial thing by not mentioning his “colleague” by name. But when his vague prompt was met with a blank look during an interview with BuzzFeed, he scrapped the...