Free Republic

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has named anti-Shariah activist Kevin Kookogey as his state chairman for Tennessee. Kookogey, a former chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, was unsuccessful in his bid to coalesce tea party support for a primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander last year....

Obama To Circumvent Congress With ‘Gag Order’ On Firearm Coverage by AWR Hawkins 7 Jun 2015 On June 1 Breitbart News reported on Obama’s Spring 2015 “Unified Agenda.” The gun control measures contained therein which were to be passed by executive fiat. Since that time Representatives like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-4th) have placed riders on a DOJ appropriations bill to stop portions of the executive gun control push in its tracks. Now the NRA-ILA is revealing that the Obama administration is working behind the scenes to stifle reporting on firearms. From the NRA-ILA: Even as news reports have been highlighting...

The IRS’s director of privacy, governmental liaison and disclosure division testified Wednesday that the tax agency set up a special team with hundreds of lawyers to handle the probe into whether Tea Party groups were targeted, but repeatedly said she had no idea how it operated. Mary Howard, who also works as the head Freedom of Information Act officer in the IRS, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that once the “special project team” was created and operational, she never saw requests for information. Asked who was on the team, she said: “My first hand knowledge of...

Politics today seems to be dominated by an “either you’re in or you’re out mentality.” If you’re a good Republican, a good Christian, and a good conservative, then you really can’t support gay marriage—at least, that’s what I’m constantly being told. “We can’t redefine an institution that’s been around for thousands of years,” opponents of marriage equality say. “To do so would be to radically transform the way society has always understood marriage. That’s just not what conservatism is all about.” But is that really true? It seems to me the heroes of the modern conservative movement— individuals such as...

In the past week, several more Republicans, with varying degrees of gravitas, have joined an already crowded field of contenders. Lindsey Graham became the fourth sitting senator to enter the race. Former New York Gov. George Pataki is in, too — despite not having been in office in nearly a decade. Rick Santorum recently announced as well, looking to springboard off of a 2012 runner-up finish. Mike Huckabee is going even farther back, hoping to springboard off of his 2008 runner-up status. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has made it clear he intends on entering. His counterpart in Michigan, Rick Snyder,...

The GOP prez field's newest entrant makes up for his domestic RINOism with an off-the-rails foreign policy.Senator Lindsey Graham entered the presidential race yesterday. Unless something dramatic happens, he will be sworn in as president in January 2017. Wait. No? The opposite of that. Unless something dramatic happens, Lindsey Graham will not be sworn in as president in January 2017. Yes. Graham’s candidacy does seem poised, though, for one of those waves of boosterism in the mainstream media that translates into precisely zero increased support among Republican primary voters. (Hi, Jon Huntsman!) Political reporters and writers like Lindsey Graham. He’s...

The FBI is operating a small air force to spy on Americans Associated Press Jack Gillum, Eileen Sullivan and Eric Tucker, Associated Press Jun. 2, 2015, WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned. The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency...

Republican presidential candidates gathered last month at the Oklahoma City Cox Conference Center, just a few blocks from the site of what was the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building. Two decades ago, anti-government militia sympathizer Timothy McVeigh blew it up in what he called an act of war against the U.S. government. It was the worst crime of domestically bred terrorism in American history. McVeigh was executed in 2001, but since then, some of his militia ideals have gone mainstream and even been introduced as laws in many states, including Oklahoma. Legislators in dozens of states have submitted proposals to...

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Assembly late Sunday approved Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $1.1 billion package of new and extended taxes, embracing the popular Republican governor’s ambitious education agenda and determination to position Nevada’s workforce for a high-tech economy. On a 30-10 vote, the Assembly amended Senate Bill 483, the so-called “sunset bill” that also adds a $1-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes, with provisions of Assembly Bill 464, Sandoval’s latest tax compromise that includes a business gross receipts “commerce tax” imposed on revenue of $4 million or more. Sandoval, who lobbied hard for his tax plan, praised the Assembly’s action. “I...

I met Andrew Breitbart almost a decade ago at a party. All I knew about him was that he worked for Matt Drudge, and Tucker Carlson told me I had to meet him. Tucker wasn’t at the party, but he knew Andrew would be and made me promise I’d introduce myself. I did, and I did. Even though I’d expected nothing, Andrew was nothing like I’d expected because you simply couldn’t anticipate the uniqueness of Andrew Breitbart. The party was in the big office of a publisher (I can’t remember what it was for; probably someone else’s book), and Andrew...

"Complaint: Tea-Party-targeting DOJ attorneys now work for White House, no taxpayer safeguards in place" Tax Division attorneys from the Department of Justice, some of whom worked directly on the IRS' illegal targeting of Tea Party groups, are now giving legal advice to the White House with no safeguards to prevent the abuse of private taxpayer information, says a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of D.C. by a watchdog group. Cause of Action, a nonprofit government accountability group, filed the complaint against the DOJ and the IRS after both government agencies refused to respond to Freedom of Information Act...

Washington is paralyzed by extreme political rhetoric that creates powerful sound bites but poor policy. The big legislative updates that we need to compete in the 21st century and to raise living standards have been blocked by a reluctance to seek common ground. With Washington already broken, the last thing we need is a left-wing version of the tea party. But I am worried about where some of the loudest voices in the room could take the Democratic Party. Rejecting a trade agreement with Asia, expanding entitlement programs that crowd out other priorities and a desire to relitigate the financial...

Gov. Scott Walker has appointed the son of a president of a foundation that supports tea party causes to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. The board oversees the University of Wisconsin system, setting policies and approving budgets, among other vital regulatory duties. Walker appointed Mike M. Grebe, son of Michael W. Grebe, president and chief executive of the Bradley Foundation, to the board. The foundation is an essential part of Walker’s “brain trust.” It’s poured millions into promoting such right-wing policies as busting unions, expanding voucher schools and eliminating social welfare programs. In addition to his association with...

At a craft brewery in Hampton, New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton called out her Republican presidential opponents for sacrificing American jobs to appease the billionaire Koch Brothers and talk radio Tea Party extremists. In particular, Clinton criticized Republicans who want to dismantle the Export-Import Bank, which supplies loans and provides insurance to facilitate the sale of U.S. exports to international buyers. A number of Republican presidential contenders have gone on record in favor of killing the Export-Import Bank, a move that could potentially eliminate a significant number of American jobs in the process. Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted...

The Founders were a divided bunch. They believed in debate but also in solving problems. Someone tell the Tea Party.Excerpted from "The Jefferson Rule: How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible" There was an emerging disagreement among conservatives, one that grew out of differing dispositions, if not principle. The Tea Party movement possessed an almost centrifugal force in which ideas gravitated from the center to the margins. On the anti-intellectual fringe, the narrative about the Founders was taken up by absolutists and paranoids who supported citizen militias and the like. Yet even those not on the fringe...

The proposed adoption of $300,000 worth of reading materials for Cody, Wyoming students stalled this week amid criticisms about the curriculum’s “very liberal, very slanted view of the world.” School board and community members spoke out against a slate of proposed materials for K-12 students that cover topics like global warming, evolution and race. The materials are published by education giant Pearson and Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ... that aligns with the national Common Core standards. But many in the community are concerned about how the texts address issues like global warming, which is treated as settled science ......

Orozco, 29, a seven-year Omaha police veteran who was working as a detective with the department's fugitive task force, died Wednesday from a gunshot wound that struck her in the chest just above the her bulletproof vest, police said Thursday.

A few broad distinctions have defined the United States' two main parties for decades. Republicans advocate smaller government, less taxation, and less regulation. According to the Pew Research Center, their supporters tend to be whiter, older, and more likely to identify as Christian than the average American. Democrats see the potential to alleviate certain perceived social ills through regulation and legislation, funded by taxation. They rely more on young people and ethnic and religious minorities for support. This familiar conservative-liberal political axis has been augmented in recent years by a second axis, which contrasts establishment and anti-establishment agendas. Anti-establishment groups...

A year ago Sen. Mitch McConnell was basking in a convincing U.S. Senate primary victory, explaining he had "crushed the tea party" by beating political newcomer, Louisville entrepreneur, and army veteran Matt Bevin. But in a shocking 4-way gubernatorial primary, Bevin turned the tables in 2015 and is now the GOP nominee in a race against a very liberal and beatable Democrat Jack Conway; the guy Rand Paul rolled over in 2010. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Bevin hesitated to even enter the governor’s race, only filing on the last day. The big favorite going in was the young agriculture...

At a time when many pundits were concluding that the "tea party" movement had run out of steam, a favorite of the conservative, grass-roots movement demonstrated Tuesday in Kentucky that rumors of its demise may be greatly exaggerated. A year after he was soundly defeated in his nationally watched primary challenge to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, Louisville businessman and "tea party" favorite Matt Bevin was the apparent winner of the Republican nomination for governor in Kentucky’s closest-ever statewide primary. In topping a four-candidate race by 83 votes out of more than 214,000 cast, Bevin overcame two well-known contenders who...